They that will have heaven must run for it, because the devil, the law, sin, death, and hell, follow them.  There is never a poor soul that is going to heaven, but the devil, the law, sin, death, and hell make after that soul.  “Your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour.”  And I will assure you the devil is nimble; he can run apace, he is light of foot, he hath overtaken many, he hath turned up their heels, and hath given them an everlasting fall.  Also the law, that can shoot a great way; have a care thou keep out of the reach of those great guns the ten commandments.  Hell also hath a wide mouth; it can stretch itself further than you are aware of.  And as the angel said to Lot, “Take heed; look not behind thee, neither tarry thou in all the plain”—­that is, anywhere between this and the mountain—­“lest thou be consumed;” so say I to thee, Take heed; tarry not, lest either the devil, hell, death, or the fearful curses of the law of God, do overtake thee and throw thee down in the midst of thy sins; then thou, as well as I, wouldst say, They that will have heaven must run for it.

They that go to heaven must run for it, because, perchance, the gates of heaven may be shut shortly.  Sometimes sinners have not heaven’s gates open to them so long as they suppose, and if they be once shut against a man, they are so heavy that all the men in the world and all the angels in heaven are not able to open them.  “I shut, and no man can open,” saith Christ.  And how if thou shouldst come but one quarter of an hour too late?  I tell thee it will cost thee an eternity to bewail thy misery in.  Francis Spira [Footnote:  Francis Spira, an eminent lawyer of Padua, Italy, flurished in the first half of the sixteenth century.  He embraced the reformed religion, and advocated evangelical sentiments with very great zeal.  But at legnth, terrified by the threats of the papal church, he made a public recantation of his religious opinions.  His apostasy from the faith threw him into despair, and amid intolerable mental agonies, refusing all sustenance and comfort, and affirming his certain condemnation for having abjured the known truth, he miserably expired.  See Sleidan’s History of the Reformation, page 475.] can tell thee what it is to stay till the gate of mercy be quite shut; or to run so lazily that they be shut before thou get within them.  What, to be shut out—­what, out of heaven!  Sinner, rather than lose it, run for it; yea, and “so run that thou mayest obtain.”

Be not daunted though thou meetest with never so many discouragements in thy journey thither.  That man that is resolved for heaven, if Satan cannot win him by flatteries, he will endeavor to weaken him by discouragements, saying, Thou art a sinner, thou hast broke God’s law, thou art not elected, thou comest too late, the day of grace & past, God doth not care for thee, thy heart is naught, thou art lazy—­with a hundred other discouraging suggestions.  Then thou must