The divine life in three treatises

3. You have a Death to dye, a change to make which must be made but once; which will be the entrance upon endless joy or pain: And do you think this needeth not your most timely and diligent preparation? You must struggle with pains, and faint with weakness, and feel death taking down your earthen tabernacle: you must then have a life that is ending to review, and all that you have done said open to your more impartial judgement; You must then see Time as at an end, and the last sand running, and your candle ready to go out, and leave the snuff; You must then look back upon all that you have had from the world, as ending; and upon all that you have done as that which cannot be undone again, that you may do it better; and you must have a more serious look into Eternity, when you are stepping thither, then you can now conceive of: And doth all this need no preparation? It is with God that all that business must be Now transacted, that must make your death to be comfortable, or safe. If Now you will only converse with men, and know no business that you have with God, you shall find at last to your exceeding terror, that you are in his hands, and passing to his bar, and that it is God that then you have to do with, when your business with all the world is at an end: He will then have something to do with you, if you will now find nothing to do with him.

3. You have a Death to dye, a change to make which must be made but once; which will be the entrance upon endless joy or pain: And do you think this needeth not your most timely and diligent preparation? You must struggle with pains, and faint with weakness, and feel death taking down your earthen tabernacle: you must then have a life that is ending to review, and all that you have done said open to your more impartial judgement; You must then see Time as at an end, and the last sand running, and your candle ready to go out, and leave the snuff; You must then look back upon all that you have had from the world, as ending; and upon all that you have done as that which cannot be undone again, that you may do it better; and you must have a more serious look into Eternity, when you are stepping thither, then you can now conceive of: And doth all this need no preparation? It is with God that all that business must be Now transacted, that must make your death to be comfortable, or safe. If Now you will only converse with men, and know no business that you have with God, you shall find at last to your exceeding terrour, that you are in his hands, and passing to his bar, and that it is God that then you have to do with, when your business with all the world is at an end: He will then have something to do with you, if you will now find nothing to do with him.