The saints everlasting rest

And because thou shalt see I urge thee not without cause, I will here adjoin a multitude of considerations to move thee: their intent and use is, to drive thee from delaying, and from loitering in seeking rest. Whoever thou art therefore, I entreat thee to rouse up thy spirit, and give me awhile thy attention, and (as Moses said to the people) Set thy heart to all the words that I testify to thee this day; for it is not a vain thing, but it is for thy life. Weigh what I here write with the judgment of a man; and the LORD open thy heart, and fasten his counsel effectually upon thee.

1. Consider, our affections and actions should be answerable to the greatness of the ends to which they are intended. Now the ends of a christian's desires and endeavours are so great, that no human understanding on earth can comprehend them; whether you respect their proper excellency, their exceeding importance, or their absolute necessity.

These ends are, the glorifying of GOD, the salvation of our own and other men's souls, in escaping the ⟨p. 140⟩torments of hell, and possessing the glory of heaven. And can a man be too much affected with things of such moment? Can he desire them too earnestly, or love them too violently, or labour for them too diligently? When we know that if our prayers prevail not, and our labour succeeds not, we are undone for ever, I think it concerns us to seek and labour to the purpose. When it is put to the question, whether we shall live for ever in heaven or in hell? and the question must be resolved upon our obeying the gospel, or disobeying it, upon the painfulness or the slothfulness of our present endeavours; I think it is time for us to bestir ourselves, and to leave our trifling and complimenting with GOD.