for his folly to the doors of the shadow of death.  But here he could not enter without great distress of mind; wherefore he cries out for respite, and time to do the will of God and the work allotted him.  So again:  “The pains of hell caught hold upon me, the sorrows of death compassed me about, and I found trouble and sorrow; then I cried unto the Lord.”  Aye, this will make thee cry, though thou he as good as David.  Wherefore learn by his sorrow, as he himself also learned at last to serve his own generation by the will of God, before he fell asleep.  God can tell how to pardon thy sins, and yet make them such a bitter thing and so heavy a burden to thee that thou wouldst not, if thou wast but once distressed with it, come there again for all this world.  Ah, it is easy with him to have this pardon in his bosom, even when he is breaking all thy bones and pouring out thy gall upon the ground—­yea, to show himself then unto thee in so dreadful a majesty, that heaven and earth shall seem to thee to tremble at his presence.  Let then the thoughts of this prevail with thee as a reason of great weight, to provoke thee to study to manage thy time and work in wisdom while thou art well.

Obedience rewarded.

Keep those grounds and evidences that God hath given you of your call to be partakers of this love of Christ, with all clearness upon your hearts and in your minds.  For he that lacks that sight of them, or a proof that they are true and good, can take but little comfort in this love.  There is a great mystery in the way of God with his people.  He will justify them without their works, he will pardon them for his Son’s sake.  But they that are careless, carnal, and not holy in their lives, shall have but little comfort of what he hath done, doth, and will do for them.

Nor shall they have their evidences for heaven at hand, nor out of doubt with them; yea, they shall walk without the sun, and have their comforts by bits and knocks; while others sit at their Father’s table, have liberty to go into the wine-cellar, rejoice at the sweet and pleasant face of their heavenly Father towards them, and know it shall go well with them at the end.

Those that make conscience of walking in the commandments of God, they shall be blessed with the bread of life, when others shall be hunger-bit.

The greatest part of professors nowadays take up their time in contracting guilt and asking for pardon, and yet are not much the better.  Whereas, if they had but the grace to add to their faith, virtue, etc., they might have more peace, live better lives, and not have their heads so often in a bag, as they have.  “To him that ordereth his conversation aright, will I show the salvation of God.”

“And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years.  And Enoch walked with God, and was not, for God took him.”  Enoch therefore lived here but a while:  he was too good to live long in this world; the world was not worthy of him; neither could he be spared so long out of heaven, for God took him.