The blessedness of the death of these that die in the Lord and more…The blessednesse of the death of these that die in the Lord and more…

A 3d challenge, the ground ⟨p. 28⟩whereof is alas very common, will be, careless slothful and idle trifling away and misspending of precious time, and neglecting the great work of salvation, easy letting pass without improvement opportunities of getting good and doing good, when ye shall look back and ask yourselves what have we been doing in this our day? And the conscience will answer and say, ye were vainly discoursing or tippling or vaiging and wandering thorrow the fields busied in doing nothing or worse then nothing, then ye will cry but in vain, O! To have some of these precious opportunities back again, that we thought little of when we had them; we have past 30. or 40. years time in the world, and yet are no surer of our salvation now then when we came into it, but we have much more sin and guilt then we had; Ah! Will some say we have lived 50. or 60. years and yet none of all that time hath been well spent. A 4th challenge will be, folks formality & hypocrisy in the worship of God, that they came to the Church to hear, but slept or wandered and were nothing careful to profit, that they sat down and prayed, but were not in earnest in it, never sought after the Spirit of grace and of supplications, it may be they prayed in their families, and in secret, but when the conscience looks back and sees that all hath been but formal and hypocritical work, that they knew not what communion with God was, they knew not neither cared to know whither their persons were accepted and their prayers heard, they studied not experimentally to be acquainted with the life & power of godliness, O! How sad will this be? And how will it all be got answered? A 5th challenge will be abusing of many means of grace, of many mercies and favours, such as Sabbaths, Sermons, Conferences &c. that ye lived not under heathnish or Antichristian darkness, but where the pure light of the Gospel shined clearly, that ye might have known ⟨p. 29⟩the right way and would not, that ye might have made use of such an Instrument, of such a Sermon, of such fellowship, of such a book &c. And it would have been better with you, but ye did not, ye would not; the conscience will say, here ye were negligent, there ye dallied, here ye wearied, and there ye sat up and gave over, and what can ye now answer for all?

A 3d challenge, the ground ⟨p. 28⟩