Man ashiv le-Yahoweh, or, A serious enquiry for a suitable return for continued life,…

And hath not this been thy case, Christian Reader, did not the sorrows of death compass thee about? Didst thou not find trouble and sorrow? Wast thou not brought very low, and received the sentence of death within thy self? Didst thou not then call upon the name of the Lord, and resolve thou wouldst walk before the Lord, if he would restore thee? and hath not God delivered thy soul from death, and thy feet from falling? Then pay thy vows to God, and perform to him thy promise, and live up unto thy resolutions.

And hath not this been thy case, Christian Reader, did not the sorrows of death compass thee about? Didst thou not finde trouble and sorrow? Wast thou not brought very low, and received the sentence of death within thy self? Didst thou not then call upon the name of the Lord, and resolve thou wouldst walk before the Lord, if he would restore thee? and hath not God delivered thy soul from death, and thy feet from falling? Then pay thy vows to God, and perform to him thy promise, and live up unto thy resolutions.

Tell me, what were thy purposes when thou heardest the Plague had entered into thy Neighbours house, when it came unto the family nearest unto thine? What were thy resolutions when the Plague did enter into thy house, and took one away, and then another? What were thy holy, deliberate, lawful vows, when it seized upon thy body? When thou betookest thy self unto thy bed, to sweat out thy distemper? When thou foundest Risings on thy Body, Swellings and Carbuncles in several parts, when the apprehensions of death did fill thy mind, and the terrors of the Lord did fill thy heart, when thou ⟨p. 105⟩thoughtest thou hadst not many days to live, and that thou wert near to death and another world, and shouldest certainly dye, if God did not preserve thee? What didst thou think then? And what didst thou purpose then, and resolve upon then? Didst thou not determine with thy self if God would spare thy life, if God would give thee health again, and try thee a little longer in the world, that thou wouldest walk more holily, and act for God more zealously? That thou wouldest pray more frequently and more fervently? That thou would mind the world less, and heaven more? That thou wouldest make Religion thy business, as long as thou shouldest live? Didst thou not resolve that God and Christ, and things above should have more of thy heart and hearty love? That thou wouldest then forsake loose and carnal company, and associate thy self with those in whom thou couldst discern most of God, and walked most conscientiously before him? That thou wouldest no more take a cup too much, nor club in the Ale-house and Tavern, to the neglect of duties of thy family at home. Did it not then trouble thee that thou being a Professor, hadst been at nights drinking in the Tavern, when thou shouldst have been praying in thy family; that thy Wife and Children, though they have not gone Supperless to bed, yet have almost every night gone prayerless to bed, except they went apart to pray in secret. But did not then thy conscience tell thee, that their performance of their duty would be no excuse to thee, when thou shouldst stand