THE FIRST MOTIVE.—­Consider there is no way but this:  thou must either win or lose. If thou winnest, then heaven, God, Christ, glory, ease, peace, life, yea, life eternal, is thine; thou shalt be made equal to the angels in heaven; thou shalt sorrow no more, sigh no more, feel no more pain; thou shalt be out of the reach of sin, hell, death, the devil, the grave, and whatever else may endeavor thy hurt.  But contrariwise, and if thou lose, then thy loss is heaven, glory, God, Christ, ease, peace, and whatever else tendeth to make eternity comfortable to the saints; besides, thou procurest eternal death, sorrow, pain, blackness and darkness, fellowship with devils, together with the everlasting damnation of thy own soul.

THE SECOND MOTIVE.—­Consider that this devil, this hell, death and damnation, follow after thee as hard as they can drive, and have their commission so to do by the law, against which thou hast sinned; and therefore, for the Lord’s sake, make haste!

THE THIRD MOTIVE.—­If they seize upon thee before thou get to the city of Refuge, they will put an everlasting stop to thy journey.  This also cries, Run for it!

THE FOURTH MOTIVE.—­Know also, that now heaven’s gates, the heart of Christ, with his arms, are wide open to receive thee.  O methinks that this consideration, that the devil followeth after to destroy, and that Christ standeth open-armed to receive, should make thee reach out and fly with all haste and speed!  And therefore,

THE FIFTH MOTIVE.—­Keep thine eye upon the prize.  Be sure that thy eyes be continually upon the profit thou art like to get.

The reason why men are so apt to faint in their race for heaven, lieth chiefly in either of these two things:  They do not seriously consider the worth of the prize; or else if they do, they are afraid it is too good for them.  But most lose heaven for want of considering the prize and the worth of it.  And therefore, that thou mayst not do the like,

1.  Keep thine eye much upon the excellency, the sweetness, the beauty, the comfort, the peace, that is to be had there by those that win the prize.  This was that which made the apostle run through any thing!—­good report, evil report, persecution, affliction, hunger, nakedness, peril by sea, and peril by land, bonds and imprisonments.  Also it made others endure to be stoned, sawn asunder, to have their eyes bored out with augers, their bodies broiled on gridirons, their tongues cut out of their mouths, to be boiled in cauldrons, thrown to the wild beasts, burned at the stake, whipped at posts, and a thousand other fearful torments; “while they looked not at the things which are seen,” (as the things of this world,) “but at the things which are not seen:  for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.”  O this word, ETERNAL! it was that made them so firm, that when they might have had deliverance, they would not accept it, for they knew that in the world to come they should have a better resurrection.