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That certainly is true which the Lord has spoken concerning man, such as we are, and what the best of the children of men are, that he is but a vain thing; and his life, wherein he prides himself and delights so much, as the Apostle James says, it is but a vapour. How soon and suddenly, ay certainly very soon and suddenly, may it be taken away from him! A thread is no sooner cutted than it may be taken away. And how many ways, except it please the Lord by his preserving and overruling providence for to watch over us, we would soon be quite undone! A fire is no sooner blown up than we might be cut off this life, and cast into hell’s fire; and a stone might no sooner fall down upon us and fell us, and be a weight upon us to press us down, than our sins might press us into hell. For no sooner is the soul out of the body than the soul goes to the place thereof, that is, either to heaven or to hell; and as there is no end of the joys of heaven, so there is no redemption from the torments of hell, when we are once cast into it. And so, except that we will flatter ourselves, and deny that to be a truth, which is daily borne in upon us as a undoubted truth, it were our greatest wisdom in time to cleave unto the Lord, and not to let him get any rest, nor to suffer ourselves to have any rest or quietness in ourselves, whill (till) we have the certainty of the Lord’s favour; and we be assured that we shall be partakers of that life everlasting, and that crown of glory, after that this life is gone and ended. And because this is only to be attained unto by repentance and faith, let us beseech the Lord to increase these graces where they are in any measure, and beseech him also, where they are not begun as yet, that he would begin them and bring them on till he perfect both us and them, through Jesus Christ.