A saint or a brute the certain necessity and excellency of holiness, &c. ...…

But because that Judgement will be to desperation, and too late for hope or any help, let Conscience speak when thou lyest sick, and seest that thou art a dying man! Then judge thy self whether a Holy or a worldly life be better? and whether it had not been thy wiser course to have sowed to the spirit, that so thou mayest reap everlasting life, then to have sowed to the flesh, from which thou now lookst to reap no better then corruption. Be not deceived: God is not mocked: whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap, Gal. 6. 6, 7.

But because that Judgement will be to desperation, and too late for hope or any help, let Conscience speak when thou lyest sick, and seest that thou art a dying man! Then judge thy self whether a Holy or a worldly life be better? and whether it had not been thy wiser course to have sowed to the spirit, that so thou maist reap everlasting life, then to have sowed to the flesh, from which thou now lookst to reap no better then corruption. Be not deceived: God is not mocked: whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap, Gal. 6. 6, 7.

But because it will be very late to stay till thy own Death draw so near thee, go but to thy neighbours that lie in sickness, looking for the stroke of death; Yea to thy companions in sin and folly, and ask them then which way is better? Ask them then which is the better part? Whether now they had rather be the Holyest Saints, or such as they have been? Whether now they had not rather they had spent their time in the most careful seeking for Everlasting life, then in doing as they have done? Say to thy old ⟨p. 128⟩companion now, [Brother, I see you are near your end! the mortal stroke of death is coming! you are now leaving all the pleasures of this world: I pray you tell me now your Judgement, whether mirth, and sport, and feasting, and drinking, and wealth, and honour be more to be sought then life eternal? and whether Hearing and Reading the word of God, and Praying, and meditating, and flying from sin, be as bad or as needless a thing as we have formerly taken it to be? Had you rather appear before the Lord in the case of those that we derided as Puritans and too precise for making such a doe about salvation, or in the case that you and I have lived in?] Ask but this Question to thy old companions, and try whether the Consciences of almost all that approach their end, do not bear witness against ungodliness, and do not justify the holy diligence of the Saints. It is but two days since a poor drunkard of a neighbour Parish, being ready to pass out of this world, did send hither (and to other Parishes) in the terrors of his soul, to desire our Congregations to take warning by him, and to strive with God if possible, for some mercy for his soul, that was passing in terrors into another world, because of the guilt of his odious sin.]