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that shineth more and more unto the perfect day;" Prov. iv. 18. And the perfect day is a perpetual day, that knows no interruption by the darkness of the night. For there shall be no night there, nor need of candle or sun; for the Lord God giveth them light, and they shall reign for ever and ever;" Rev. xxii. 5. This is the life that fears no death, and this is the feast that fears no want or future famine; the pleasure that knows nor fears pain; the health that knows nor fears sickness; this is the treasure that fears no moth, or rust, or thief; the building that fears no storm nor decay; the kingdom that fears no changes by rebellion; the friendship that fears no falling out; the love that fears no hatred or frustration; the glory that fears no envious eye; the possessed inheritance that fears no ejection by fraud, or force, or any failings; the joy that feels or fears no sorrow; while God who is life itself is our life; and while God who is love, is the fountain and object of our love, we can never want either life or love. And whilst he feeds our love, our joyful praises will never be run dry, nor ever go out for want of fuel. This is the true perpetual motion, the circulation of the holy blood and spirit from God to man, and from man to God. Being prepared and brought near him, we have the blessed vision of his face, by seeing him; and by the blessed emanation of his love, we are drawn out perpetually and unweariedly to love him and rejoice in him; and from hence incessantly to praise and honour him. In all which, as his blessed image and the shining reflections of his revealed glory, he taketh complacency, which is the highest end of God and man, and the very term of all his works and ways.

I thought here to have ended this first part of my discourse; but yet compassion calls me back. I fear lest with the most I have not prevailed; and lest I shall leave them behind me in the bonds of their iniquity. I daily hear the voice of men possessed by a spirit of uncleanness, speaking against this necessity of a holy life, which Christ himself so peremptorily asserteth. I hear that voice which foretelleth a more dreadful voice, if in time they be not prevailed with to prevent it. One saith, What need all this ado? This strictness is more ado than needs.' Another saith,' You would make men mad, by poring so much on matters that are above them.' Another saith, Cannot you keep your religion to yourself; and be godly with moderation, as

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your neighbours be?' Another saith, I hope God is more merciful than to damn all that be not so precise.' Another saith, I shall never endure so strict a life, and therefore I will venture as well as others.' The sum of all is, they are so far in love with the world and sin, and so much against a holy life, that they will not be persuaded to it; and therefore to quiet their consciences in their misery, they make themselves believe that they may be saved with out it, and that it is a thing of no necessity, but their coming to church and living like good neighbours may serve the turn without it, for their salvation. And thus doth the malicious serpent, in the hearts of those that he possesseth, rise up against the words of Christ. Christ saith that this is the one thing needful. And the serpent saith, It is more ado than needs; and What needs all this ado? Though I have fully answered this ungodly objection already in "Treatise of Conversion;" and more fully in my "Treatise of Rest," part 3. chap. 6; yet I shall once more fall upon it. For death is coming, while poor deluded souls are loitering; and if satan, by such senseless reasonings as these, can keep them unready in their sin, till the fatal stroke hath cut them down, and cast them into endless, easeless fire, alas, how great will be their fall! and how unspeakably dreadful will be their misery! Whoever thou be, whether high or low, learned or unlearned, that hast disliked, opposed, or reproached serious, godly Christians, as Puritans, and too precise; and that thinkest the most diligent labour for salvation to be but more ado than needs, and hast not thyself yet resolvedly set upon a holy life, I require at thy hands so much impartiality and faithfulness to thy own immortal soul, as seriously to peruse these following Questions, and to go no further in thy careless, negligent, ungodly course, till thou art able to give such a rational answer to them, as thou darest stand to now at the bar of thine own conscience, and hereafter at the bar of Christ.

Quest. 1. Canst thou possibly give God more than is his due? or love him more than he deserveth? or serve him more faithfully than thou art bound, and he is worthy of?" Art thou not his creature, made of nothing? and hast thou not all that thou art and hast from him? and if thou give him all, dost thou give him any more than what is his own? If thou give him all the affections of thy soul, and all the

most serious thoughts of thy heart, and every hour of thy time, and every word of thy mouth, and every penny of thy wealth (in the way that he requireth it), is it any more than is his due? Should not he have all, that is Lord of all?

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Quest. 2. Is it not the first and great commandment, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and soul, and might?” And do not heathens confess this by the light of nature? And hath not thy tongue confessed it many a time? And doth not thy conscience yet bear witness that it is thy duty? And is it possible thou shouldst thus love him, with all thy heart, and soul, and might, and yet not seek and serve him with all thy heart, and soul, and might? or can the most sanctified person do any more, if he were perfect?

Quest. 3. Dost thou not confess that we are all sinners? And that the best is still too bad? And that he that loveth and serveth God most, doth yet come exceeding short of his duty?' And yet wouldst thou have such men come shorter? and darest thou persuade them to do less? Must not the best confess their daily failings, and beg pardon for them from the Lord, and be beholden to the blood of Christ, and lament their imperfections? And yet wouldst thou have them be such odious hypocrites, as to think they serve God too much already, while they confess that they come so short? Shall they confess their failings, and reproach those that endeavour to avoid the like? Shall the same tongue say, 'Lord be merciful to me a sinner,' and 'Lord, I am good enough already. What need there so much ado to please and serve thee any better? What would you think of such a man?

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Quest. 4. Is it not an unquestionable duty to grow in grace? and to press towards perfection as men that have not yet attained it?' 2 Pet. iii. 18. Phil. iii. 12-14. And must Paul, and Peter, and the holiest on earth, still seek to grow and labour to be more holy? and shall such a one say, 'What need I be more holy?' that are utterly unsanctified. Quest. 5. Is it not one of the two grand principles of faith and all religion, without which no one can please God?' Heb. xi. 6. Whoever cometh to God must believe first that God is; (that there is a God, most powerful, wise and good). Secondly, that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek

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him. This is one of nature's principles. It is the diligent seekers of God that he will reward. And yet dare a fleshly, negligent sinner reproach the diligent seeking of God, and take it for a needless thing, and say, 'What needs all this ado?' Are not these the atheist's seconds; even next to them that deny that there is any God, or that blaspheme him? And indeed, if he be not worthy of all the love and service that thou canst give him, he is not the true God! Consider therefore the tendency of thy words, and tremble.

Quest. 6. Doth not that wretch set up the flesh and the world above the Lord, that thinks not most of his thoughts, and cares, and words, and time, and labour for the world to be too much ado, and yet thinks less for God and heaven to be too much?' And dost thou think in thy conscience that the flesh is better worthy of thy love, and care, and labour, than the Lord? Or that earth will prove a better reward to thee than heaven? Who, thinkest thou, will have the better bargain in the end? The fool that laid up riches for himself, and was not rich to God, and shall lose all at once that he so much valued, and so carefully sought (Luke xii. 20, 21.), or he that laid up his treasure in heaven, and there set his heart, and sought for the never-fading crown? (Matt. vi. 20, 21. 33.) and counted all as loss and dung for the excellent knowledge of Jesus Christ? Phil. iii. 8. Do you think that there is any thing more worth your care, and time, and labour, or can you more profitably lay it out?

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Quest. 7. Have you not immortal souls to save or lose?' And are not your bodies for their service, and to be used and ruled by them? And should not your souls then have more of your care and diligence, than corruptible flesh that must turn to dirt?

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that you are wiser wisdom less to his, And hath not God

Quest. 8. Dare any one of you say than the all-knowing God?' Is not thy than a glowworm's light is to the sun? most plainly and frequently in his word commanded thee a holy life? Yea every part and parcel of it is nothing else but the obeying of that word; for if it be not prescribed by the Lord, it is not holiness, nor that which I am pleading for. And when the living God hath told the world his mind and will, shall a sinful man stand up and say, 'I am wiser than my Maker; I know a better way than this; what need there all this stir for heaven?' What dost thou less than

thus blaspheme, and set up thy folly above the Lord, when thou condemnest or reproachest holiness which he commandeth?

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Quest. 9. Dare you say that God is not only so unwise, but so unrighteous and tyrannical, as to give the world unnecessary laws, and set them upon a needless work?' What king so tyrannical as would require his subjects on pain of death to go pick straws against the wind? What master or parent so foolishly cruel as to command their servants or children, to weary themselves with hunting butterflies, and following their own shadows? And darest thou impute such foolish, tyranny to the God of heaven, as if he had made a world, and set them upon a needless work, and commanded them to tire themselves in vain?

Quest. 10. Can a man be too diligent about that work which he was made for, and is daily preserved and maintained for, and for which he hath all the mercies of his life?" Thou hadst never come into the world but on this business, even to serve and please God, and prepare for everlasting happiness. And are you afraid of doing this too diligently? Why is it, thinkest thou, that God sustaineth thee? Why diedest thou not many years ago, but only that thou mightest have time to seek and serve him? Was it only that thou mightest eat, and drink, and sleep, and go up and down, and fill up a room among the living? Why, beasts, and fools, and madmen do all this, as well as thou. Why hast thou thy reason and understanding, but to know and serve the Lord? Is it only to know how to shift a little for the commodities of the world? or is it not to know the way to life eternal? Look round about thee on all the creatures, and on all the mercies which thou dost possess; every deliverance, and privilege, and accommodation; every bit of bread thou eatest, and every hour of thy precious time, are all given thee for this one thing needful. And yet wilt thou say that this one thing is needless, for which thou hast all things? Thou mayest then say, that God made the world in vain ; and preserveth and governeth it in vain. For all this is but for his service, which thou callest vain.

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Quest. 11. Doth not reason tell thee, that the place in which thou must live for ever, should be more diligently minded and prepared for, than this in which thou must continue but for a while?' Alas, it is so short a time that we

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