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poor, low, base, contemptible things? Shall it be said at the last day, that wicked men made more haste to hell, than you did make to heaven? That they spent more hours, days, and that early and late, for hell, than you spent for that which is ten thousand thousand of thousand times better? Oh! let it not be so; but run with all might and main!

CHAPTER IV.

APPLICATION OF THE POINT.

THUS you see I have here spoken something, though but little. Now I shall come to make some use and application of what hath been said, and so conclude.

THE FIRST USE.-You see here, that he that will go to heaven must run for it; yea, and not only run, but “so run;' that is, as I have said, run earnestly, run continually, strip off every thing that would hinder in his race with the rest. Well then do you so run.

1. And now let us examine a little. Art thou got into the right way? Art thou in Christ's righteousness? Do not say, 'Yes,' in thy heart, when, in truth, there is no such matter. It is a dangerous thing, you know, for a man to think he is in the right way, when he is in (76)

ARE YOU IN CHRIST, THE WAY? 77

the wrong. It is the next way for him to lose his way; and not only so, but if he run for heaven, as thou sayest thou dost, even to lose that too. Oh! this is the misery of most men, to persuade themselves that they run right, when they have never one foot in the way! The Lord give thee understanding here, or else thou art undone for ever.

Prithee, soul, search when was it thou turned out of thy sins and righteousness, into the righteousness of Jesus Christ. I say, dost thou see thyself in him? and is he more precious to thee than the whole world? Is thy mind always musing on him? and also to be walking with him? Dost thou count his company more precious than the whole world? Dost thou count all things but poor, lifelesss, empty, vain things, without communion with him? Doth his company sweeten all things; and his absence embitter all things? Soul, I beseech thee be serious, and lay it to

heart, and do not take things of such weighty concernment as the, salvation or damnation of thy soul, without good ground.

2. Art thou unladen of the things of this world, as pride, pleasures, profits, lusts, vanities? What! dost thou think to run fast enough, with the world, thy sins, and lusts, in thy heart? I tell thee, soul, they that have laid all aside, every weight, every sin, and are got into the nimblest posture, they find work enough to run; so to run as to hold out.

To run through all that opposition, all the jostles, all the rubs, over all the stumbling blocks, over all the snares, from all the entanglements that the devil, sin, the world, and their own hearts, lay before them; I tell thee, if thou art going heavenward, thou wilt find it no small or easy matter. Art thou therefore discharged and unladen of these things? Never talk of going to heaven if thou art not. It is to be

ALMOST SAVED, BUT LOST.

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feared thou wilt be found among the many that "will seek to enter in, and shall not be able."

THE SECOND USE.-If so, then in the next place, What will become of them that are grown weary before they are got half way thither? Why, man, it is he that holdeth out to the end that must be saved; it is he that overcometh that shall inherit all things; it is not every one that begins. Agrippa gave a fair step for a sudden he steps almost into the body of Christ in less than half an hour. Thou," saith he to Paul, "hast almost persuaded me to be a Christian." Ah! but it was but almost; and so he had as good have been never a whit; he stept fair indeed, but yet he stopt short; he was hot while he was at it, but he was quickly out of wind. O this but "almost!" I tell you this but "almost," lost him his soul.

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Methinks I have seen sometimes how these poor wretches that get but almost