The sixth direction:  Take heed that you have not an ear open to every one that calleth after you as you are in your journey.  Men that run, you know, if any do call after them, saying, I would speak with you, or go not too fast and you shall have my company with you, if they run for some great matter, they use to say, Alas!  I can not stay, I am in haste, pray talk not to me now; neither can I stay for you, I am running for a wager:  if I win I am made; if I lose I am undone, and therefore hinder me not.  Thus wise are men when they run for corruptible things, and thus shouldst thou do, and thou hast more cause to do so than they, forasmuch as they run for things that last not, but thou for an incorruptible glory.  I give thee notice of this betimes, knowing that thou shalt have enough call after thee, even the devil, sin, this world, vain company, pleasures, profits, esteem among men, ease, pomp, pride, together with an innumerable company of such companions; one crying, Stay for me; the other saying, Do not leave me behind; a third saying, And take me along with you.  What, will you go, saith the devil, without your sins, pleasures, and profits?  Are you so hasty?  Can you not stay and take these along with you?  Will you leave your friends and companions behind you?  Can you not do as your neighbors do, carry the world, sin, lust, pleasure, profit, esteem among men, along with you?  Have a care thou do not let thine ear open to the tempting, enticing, alluring, and soul-entangling flatteries of such sink-souls as these are.  “My son,” saith Solomon, “if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.”

You know what it cost the young man whom Solomon speaks of in the vii. of the Proverbs, that was enticed by a harlot:  “With much fair speech she won him, and caused him to yield, with the flattering of her lips she forced him, till he went after her as an ox to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks”; even so far, “till the dart struck through his liver,” and he knew not “that it was for his life.”  “Hearken unto me now therefore,” saith he, “O ye children, and attend to the words of my mouth, let not thine heart incline to her ways, go not astray in her paths, for she hast cast down many wounded, yea, many strong men have been slain (that is, kept out of heaven); by her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death.”  Soul, take this counsel, and say, Satan, sin, lust, pleasure, profit, pride, friends, companions, and everything else, let me alone, stand off, come not nigh me, for I am running for heaven, for my soul, for God, for Christ, from hell and everlasting damnation; if I win, I win all; and if I lose, I lose all; let me alone, for I will not hear.  So run.