6.  Think much of them that are gone before; how safe they are in the arms of Jesus.  Would they be here again for a thousand worlds?  Or if they were, would they be afraid that God would not make them welcome?  What would they judge of thee if they knew thy heart began to fail thee in thy journey, or thy sins began to allure thee and to persuade thee to stop thy race?  Would they not call thee a thousand fools, and say, O that he did but see what we see, feel what we feel, and taste of the dainties that we taste of?  O if he were one quarter of an hour to behold, to feel, to taste, and enjoy but the thousandth part of what we enjoy, what would he do?  What would he suffer?  What would he leave undone?  Would he favor sin?  Would he love this world below?  Would he be afraid of friends, or shrink at the most fearful threatenings that the greatest tyrants could invent to give him?  Nay, those who have had but a sight of these things by faith, when they have been as far off from them as heaven from earth, yet they have been able to say with a comfortable and merry heart as the bird that sings in the spring, that this and more shall not stop them from running to heaven.  Sometimes when my base heart hath been inclining to this world, and to loiter in my journey towards heaven, the very consideration of the glorious saints and angels in heaven hath caused me to rush forward—­to disdain these poor, low, empty, beggarly things, and say to my soul, Come soul, let us not be weary; let us see what this heaven is; let us even venture all for it, and try if that will quit the cost.  Surely Abraham, David, Paul, and the rest of the saints of God, were as wise as any are now, and yet they lost all for this glorious kingdom.

7.  To encourage thee a little further, set to work, and when thou hast run thyself down weary, then the Lord Jesus will take thee up and carry thee.  Is not this enough to make any poor soul begin his race?  Thou perhaps criest, “O, but I am feeble, I am lame;” well, but Christ has a bosom; consider, therefore, when thou hast run thyself down weary, he will put thee in his bosom.  “He shall gather the lambs with his arms, and carry them in his bosom.”  This is the way that fathers take to encourage their children, saying, Run, sweet babe, until thou art weary, and then I will take thee up and carry thee.

8.  Or else he will convey new strength from heaven into thy soul.

9.  Again, methinks the very industry of the devil, and the industry of his servants, should make you that have a desire to heaven and happiness, run apace.  Why, the devil he will lose no time, spare no pains, also neither will his servants, both to seek the destruction of themselves and others; and shall not we be as industrious for our own salvation?  Shall the world venture the damnation of their souls for a poor corruptible crown, and shall not we venture the loss of a few trifles for an eternal crown?  Shall they venture the loss of eternal friends, as God to love, Christ