Now or never the holy, serious, diligent believer justified, encouraged, excited and directed, and…

It is from an unquestionable and commonly-acknowledged truth, that Solomon here urgeth us to diligence in duty; and therefore to prove it would be but loss of time. As there are two worlds for man to live in and so two ⟨p. 5⟩lives for man to live; so each of these lives hath its peculiar employment. This is the life of preparation: the next is the life of our Reward or Punishment: We are now but in the womb of eternity, and must live hereafter in the open world. We are now but set to school to learn the work that we must do for ever: This is the time of our apprenticeship: we are learning the trade that we must live upon in Heaven. We run now, that we may then receive the Crown: we fight now, that we may then triumph in victory. The Grave hath no work: but Heaven hath work, and Hell hath suffering. There is no Repentance unto life hereafter: but there is Repentance unto torment, and to desperation. There is no Believing of a happiness unseen in order to the obtaining of it: or of a misery unseen in order to the escaping of it; nor believing in a Saviour in order to these ends: But there is the fruition of the happiness which was here believed; & feeling of the misery that men would ⟨p. 6⟩not believe; and suffering from him as a righteous Judge, whom they rejected as a merciful Saviour. So that it is not all work that ceaseth at our death: but only the work of this present life.

It is from an unquestionable and commonly-acknowledged truth, that Solomon here urgeth us to diligence in duty; and therefore to prove it would be but loss of time. As there are two worlds for man to live in and so two ⟨p. 5⟩lives for man to live; so each of these lives hath its peculiar employment. This is the life of preparation: the next is the life of our Reward or Punishment: We are now but in the womb of eternity, and must live hereafter in the open world. We are now but set to school to learn the work that we must do for ever: This is the time of our apprentiship: we are learning the trade that we must live upon in Heaven. We run now, that we may then receive the Crown: we fight now, that we may then triumph in victory. The Grave hath no work: but Heaven hath work, and Hell hath suffering. There is no Repentance unto life hereafter: but there is Repentance unto torment, and to desperation. There is no Believing of a happiness unseen in order to the obtaining of it: or of a misery unseen in order to the escaping of it; nor believing in a Saviour in order to these ends: But there is the fruition of the happiness which was here believed; & feeling of the misery that men would