218 Twenty Beacons for denying Ltfe. fore perfeftly perform it. What other fervice God will have for us, we cannot yet tell ; but Love and Praife we are fure will be the chief, and the refit will be good and holy and honourable, what ever it be. If you are Chriffians,rne thinks the fenfe Of your unprofitablenefs and of your unpleafing frame of heart and life,fhould be your daily grief! and there- foreyou should defire the mate where youmay be more fer- viceable, and not be fo unwilling of it. 20. Lailly, T would ask you, Are you contented to attain no otherend of all your life and labours and fufferings then here you do attain ? What is it that you pray for and feek and ftrive for ? is it for no more then is to be had on earth ? If you have no higher defign, intentions or de-- fires, I cannot much blame you to be loth to die. But if youhave me thinks noman fhould be unwilling to attain his e What have you done and fuffered fo much for heaven, mitt now wouldyou not go to it ? Had you rather all your la- bour were loft ? Do you defire to be happy, or doyou not ? If you do, ( as certainly you do ) would you not gowhere happinefs is to be had, when you are fure that it is not to be had on earth ? What fay you! is there not plain reafon in all, this that I propound toyou ? It is a fad cafe, when men feek. not God and Heaven as their felicity but only as a leffer evil then hell, which they would endure, rather then enjoy, when they can keep no longer this earthly life which they account their felicity ; where this is the cafe, its a fad cafe. Andwere not this a common cafe, therewould not be fo muchunwilling- nefs to depart. And now ChrifiianReader, I befeech thee weigh thefe fore- going Confiderations, and judge whether it be not a contra diction to thyprofeffion, and unfeemly for a believer to be unwilling to die when God (hall call him : Muthmore to caft away everlafting life, for the faxing of his temporal life but a little longer I 0 learn the needful! teflon of felf-denial, efpe-- cially in this point of denying your lives ! He that cando this, can do all ; and may be fure that he is mortified indeed : And he that can do all the refit, and flicks but at this, and could_part withany thing for Chrift faye his life, doth indeed donothing, nor
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