wit, that we ought with the greater patience and courage to endure persecution, since God has provided something better for us

than for them. If the ancient believers held out, who expected but a state of sleep, till the time of the general resurrection: much more should we patiently suffer affliction, and even death itfelf, for the sake of truth, and of the gospel, when we know, that God has promised us something better; to wit, that we shall be conducted to paradise immediately after death, and be there spirits of just men made perfect, and be with Christ, which is far better than either to sleep after death, or to live longer in this world.
Let us lay aside (then) every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. Let us put away every thing from us, that would hinder us from improving in virtue and goodness; looking to and imitating Jesus, the leader and captain of the faithful, and an example of spotless virtue and perfect obedience. The love of the world is enmity with God, and to place our affections here, is to vilify that better provision which he has made for us. We are but strangers and pilgrims here. The human state is but a passage, not a place of abode. It is a station of exercise and discipline, and was not designed for the place of enjoyment. That happy country is before us.


Avoid all indirect arts in the pursuit of a fortune.—All unlawful methods in self-preservation.—And every gratification that militates with reason and benevolence.
The Offices of a Christian.
These are heavenly-mindedness, and contempt of the world, and chusing rather to die than commit a moral evil. Such things, however, are not much esteemed by the generality of Christians: Most people laugh at them, and look upon them as indiscretions; therefore there is but little true christianity in the world. It has never been my luck to meet with many people that had these three necessary qualifications.—And as for the people, exclusive of their going to church to make a character—or to ogle one another—or out of superstition to perform so much opus operatum, a job of lip-service, which they idly fancy to be religion, they, I mean the great and the small, might as well be Heathens as Christians, for any real christian purpose they answer, in a strict adherence to the three offices aforementioned. The name of Christian sounds over Europe, and large parts of Asia,