brimstone, which is the second death"." " Make haste then, and delay not, to keep God's commandments0," and to " lay hold on eternal life." Rest not in any purposes, professions, or attainments. Turn not back even in thought : but " for- getting what is behind, press forward toward that which is before." It will be time enough to " rest from your labours," when you are got safe to heaven.]
3. Those who are daily running in the way pre- scribed—
[Faint not, dearly Beloved, " neither be weary in well doing." For your encouragement you are told to regard Lot's deliverance as a proof, that " God knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, as well as to reserve the ungodly for punishment p." Whatever difficulties therefore you have to encounter, fear not. And do not unbelievingly wish that your way were shorter than God has appointed it. This was Lot's weakness and folly. God did indeed graciously condescend to his request ; and spared Zoar for his sake : but his unbelief was punished, not only in the fears which harassed him in Zoar, but in the awful dereliction that he afterwards expe- rienced. From this time we hear nothing of him except his drunkenness and incest : and, if St. Peter had not given us reason to believe that he became truly penitent, we should have had ground to apprehend that he was, after all, an outcast from heaven. Plead not then for any other refuge, or for the indulgence of any sin. Say not of any thing that God has proscribed, " Is it not a little one?" A little one it may be in comparison of others ; but, whether little or great, it must be renounced : we must abandon for ever our connexion with it, and let our regards terminate in God alone.
But let not those who are hastening towards heaven, be contented to go alone : let them seek to take all they can along with them. Let them exert their influence to the utter- most over all their friends and connexions, in order that they may be instrumental to their salvation also. Let them espe- cially manifest their conjugal and parental affection in this way. Yet if, after all, they be derided as visionaries by some, and be forsaken in their progress by others, let them not for one moment intermit their diligence in the preservation of their own souls. If their labours prove effectual only to one or two, it will be a rich consolation to them in the day of judg- ment, that, though many who were once dear to them have reaped the fruits of their supineness, there are others for whom they have "not laboured in vain, nor run in vain."]
11 Rev. xxi. 8. ° Ps. cxix. GO. p 2 Pet. ii. 6 — 9.