fore they are got half way thither? Why,
man, it is he that holdeth out to the end that must be saved; it is he
that overcometh that shall inherit all things; it is not every one
that begins. Agrippa gave a fair step for a sudden: he steps almost
into the body of Christ in less than half an hour. "Thou," saith he to
Paul, "hast almost persuaded me to be a Christian." Ah! but it was but
_almost_; and so he had as good have been never a whit; he stept fair
indeed, but yet he stopt short; he was hot while he was at it, but he
was quickly out of wind. O this but "almost!" I tell you this but
"almost," lost him his soul.

Methinks I have seen sometimes how these poor wretches that get but
almost to heaven, how fearfully their "almost," and their "but
almost," will torment them in hell; when they shall cry out in
bitterness of their souls, saying, 'Almost a Christian! I was almost
got into the kingdom, almost out of the hands of the devil, almost out
of my sins, almost from under the curse of God; almost, and that was
all; almost, but not altogether. Oh! that I should be almost to
heaven, and should not go quite through!' Friend, it is a sad thing to
sit down before we are in heaven, and to grow weary before we come to
the place of rest; and if it should be thy case, I am sure thou dost
not so run as to obtain. But again,

THE THIRD USE.--In the next place, What then will become of them that
some time since were running post-haste to heaven, (insomuch that they
seemed to outstrip many,) but now are running as fast back again? Do
you think those ever come thither? What! to run back again, back
again to sin, to the world, to the devil, back again to the lusts of
the flesh? Oh! "It had been better for them not to have known the way
of righteousness, than after they have known it, to turn" (to turn
back again) "from the holy commandment." Those men shall not only be
damned for sin, but for professing to all the world that sin is better
than Christ. For the man that runs back again, doth as good as say, 'I
have tried Christ, and I have tried sin, and I do not find so much
profit in Christ as in sin.' I say, this man declareth this, even by
his running back again. Oh, sad! What a doom they will have, who were
almost at heaven-gates, and then run back again! "If any draw back,"
saith Christ, "my soul shall have no pleasure in him." Again, "No man
having put his hand to the plough," (that is, set forward in ways of
God,) "and looki