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

Deal plainly, man, with thy self, and do not flatter thy soul, and daub with thy conscience, Was there not some such thoughts and purposes, and resolutions as these in thy heart at such a time? And didst thou promise and resolve in jest, and not in earnest; God did afflict thee by the plague in good earnest, and thou waste then afraid of death, and the grave, and judgement, in good earnest! And didst thou only purpose in jest, and resolve in jest, and play with holy things when thou wast near another world? and dally with God, when thou didst not know but within an hour thou mightest have appeared at his Bar? and been set before the terrible tribunal of the great heart-searching God? But if thou wast in earnest with God, when God was in earnest with thee; if thou wast in earnest in promising, be earnest in earnest to perform; if thou didst indeed resolve to reform when thou shouldst be well, then reform indeed according to thy resolution, since God hath made thee well, and saved thee from the Grave, to which thou wast so near, so very near.

Deal plainly, man, with thy self, and do not flatter thy soul, and daube with thy conscience, Was there not some such thoughts and purposes, and resolutions as these in thy heart at such a time? And didst thou promise and resolve in jest, and not in earnest; God did afflict thee by the plague in good earnest, and thou waste then affraid of death, and the grave, and judgement, in good earnest! And didst thou onely purpose in jest, and resolve in jest, and play with holy things when thou wast near another world? and dally with God, when thou didst not know but within an hour thou mightest have appeared at his Bar? and been set before the terrible tribunal of the great heart-searching God? But if thou wast in earnest with God, when God was in earnest with thee; if thou wast in earnest in promising, be earnest in earnest to perform; if thou didst indeed resolve to reform when thou shouldst be well, then reform indeed according to thy resolution, since God hath made thee well, and saved thee from the Grave, to which thou wast so near, so very near.

Or if God hath been so good to thee to preserve thee from the infection of the Plague, amongst the many thousands that have been visited, that thou hast not been heart-sick, yet thou hast often felt shootings, and pains, and prickings up and down in several parts of thy body; and sometimes hast had such things as thou hast thought to be symptoms of the distemper, and hast apprehended it to be approaching to thee, that hath made thee hasten to thy bed, and make use of thy preservatives, and thy cordials, that thou thoughtest thy self in real danger, and wast possest with real fears: What were thy purposes at such a time as this? And what didst thou resolve to do? And how to live, if God would prevent the thing thou fearedst? Or hadst thou no such purpose in thy heart? No such resolution in thy breast, that if thou livedst thou wouldst be better? Was thy heart indeed so backward unto good, that at such a time of fears and dangers, thou hadst not so much as a purpose to be better? but if thou hadst (and let thy conscience be thy witness, and the God of heaven that did fully know the purpose of thy heart) then now perform, what then thy heart did purpose to perform.