Oh Sir, turn, turn your heart to the other side of things, & get it once free of these entanglements, to consider Eternity, Death, the clay-bed the Grave, awesome Judgement, everlasting burning quick in Hell, where Death would give as great a price [if there were a Market where Death might be bought & sold] as all the world. Consider heaven & glory: But alas, why speak I of considering these things which have not entered into the heart of man to consider? Look into these depths [without a bottom] of loveliness, sweetness, beauty, excellency, glory, goodness, grace & mercy that are in Christ, & ye shall then cry down the whole world & all the glory of it, even when it is come to the summer-bloom, & ye shall cry up with Christ, up with Christ's father, up with eternity of glory. Sir, there is a great deal of less sand in your glas• then when I saw you, & your afternoon is nearer even-tide now then it was. As a flood carried back to the sea, so doth the Lord's swift post, Time, carry you & your life with wings to the grave: Ye eat & drink, but Time standeth not still; ye laugh, but your day fleeth away, y• sleep, but your hours are reckoned & put by hand. O how soon will Time shut you out of the poor & cold & hungry Inns of this life! & then what will yesterday's short-born pleasures do to you, but be ⟨p. 294⟩as a snow-ball melted away many years since, or worse; for the memory of these pleasures useth to fill the soul wit• bitterness: Time & experience will prove thi• to be true, & dying men, if they could speak, would make this good: Lay no more on the creatures then they are able to carry: Lay your soul and your weights upon God: Make him your only, only best beloved: Your errand to this life is to make sure an eternity of glory to your soul, & to match your soul with Christ: your love, if it were more then all the love of Angels in one, is Christ's due: Other things worthy in themselves, in respect of Christ are not worth a windlestraw, or a drink of cold water. I doubt not but in death ye will see all things more distinctly, and that then the world shall bear no more bulk then it is worth, & that then it shall couch & be contracted into nothing, & ye shall see Christ longer, higher, broader & deeper then ever he was. O blessed conquest to lose all things & to gain Christ! I know not what ye have if ye want Christ:
Oh Sir, turn, turn your heart to the other side of things, & get it once free of these entanglements, to consider Eternity, Death, the clay-bed the Grave, awsom Judgement, everlasting burning quick in Hell, where Death would give as great a price [if there were a Market where Death might be bought & sold] as all the world. Consider heaven & glory: But alas, why speak I of considering these things which have not entered into the heart of man to consider? Look into these depths [without a bottom] of loveliness, sweetness, beauty, excellency, glory, goodness, grace & mercy that are in Christ, & ye shall then cry down the whole world & all the glory of it, even when it is come to the summer-bloom, & ye shall cry up with Christ, up with Christ's father, up with eternity of glory. Sir, there is a great deal of less sand in your glas• then when I saw you, & your afternoon is nearer even-tide now then it was. As a flood carried back to the sea, so doth the Lord's swi•t post, Time, carry you & your life with wings to the grave: Ye eat & drink, but Time standeth not still; ye laugh, but your day fleeth away, y• sleep, but your hours are reckoned & put by hand. O how soon will Time shut you out of the poor & cold & hungry Innes of this life! & then what will yesterday's short-born pleasures doe to you, but be ⟨p. 294⟩as a snow-ball melted away many years since, or worse; for the memorie of these pleasures useth to fill the soul wit• bitternesse: Time & experience will prove thi• to be true, & dying men, if they could speak, would make this good: Lay no more on the creatures then they are able to carry: Lay your soul and your weights upon God: Make him your onely, onely best beloved: Your errand to this life is to make sure an eternity of glory to your soul, & to match your soul with Christ: your love, if it were more then all the love of Angels in one, is Christ's due: Other things worthy in themselves, in respect of Christ are not worth a windlestraw, or a drink of cold water. I doubt not but in death ye will see all things more distinctly, and that then the world shall bear no more bulke then it is worth, & that then it shall couche & be contracted into nothing, & ye shall see Christ longer, higher, broader & deeper then ever he was. O blessed conquest to lose all things & to gain Christ! I know not what ye have if ye want Christ:
