The way to true happiness in a serious treatise /

Reader, I take it for a great mercy of God, that before my head lieth down in the duct, and I go to give up my account unto my Judge, I have this opportunity once more, earnestly to bespeak thee for thy own Salvation. I beg it of thee, as one that must shortly be called away, and speak to thee no more, till we come unto our endless state, that thou wouldst but sometimes retire into thy self, and use the reason of a man, and look before thee whither thou art going; and look behind thee how thou hast lived, and what thou hast been doing in the ⟨image 8⟩World till now; and look within thee, what a case thy soul is in, and whether it be ready to enter upon Eternity, and look above thee what a Heaven of Glory thou dost neglect, and what a God thou hast to be thine everlasting Friend or Enemy, as thou choosest and as thou livest, and that thou art always in his sight: Yea and look below thee, and think where they are, that died unconverted. And when thou hast soberly thought of all these things, then do as God and true Reason shall direct thee. And is this an unreasonable request? I appeal to God, and to all Wise Men, and to thy own Conscience when it shall be awakened. If I speak against thee, or if all this be not for thy good, or if it be not true and sure, then regard not what I say: If I speak not that message which God hath commanded his Ministers to speak, then let it be refused as contemptuously as thou wilt. But if I do but in Christs name and stead, beseech thee to be reconciled to God, 2 Cor. 5. 19, 20. refuse it at thy peril: And if Gods beseeching thee shall not prevail against thy sloth, thy lust, thy appetite, against the desires of thy flesh, against the dust and shadows of the World, remember it when with fruitless cries and horror, thou art beseeching him too late.

Reader, I take it for a great mercy of God, that before my head lyeth down in the duct, and I go to give up my account unto my Iudge, I have this opportunity once more, earnestly to bespeak thee for thy own Salvation. I beg it of thee, as one that must shortly be called away, and speak to thee no more, till we come unto our endless state, that thou wouldst but sometimes retire into thy self, and use the reason of a man, and look before thee whither thou art going; and look behind thee how thou hast lived, and what thou hast been doing in the ⟨image 8⟩