Do not lose the gift

6. Whosoever then thou art, to whom God hath given to hunger and thirst after righteousness, cry unto him that thou mayest never lose that inestimable gift, that this divine appetite may never cease. If many rebuke thee, and bid thee hold thy peace, regard them not, yea, cry so much the more, Jesus, Master, have mercy on me! Let me not live, but to be holy as thou art holy! No more spend thy money for that which is not bread, nor thy labour for that which satisfieth not. Canst thou hope to dig happiness out of the earth? To find it in the things of the world. O trample under foot all its pleasures, despise its honours, count its riches as dung and dross: yea, and all the things which are beneath the sun, for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus; for the entire renewal of thy soul in that image of God, wherein it was originally created. Beware of quenching that blessed hunger and thirst, by what the world calls religion: a religion of form, of outside shew, which leaves the heart as earthly and sensual as ever. Let nothing satisfy thee but the power of godliness, but a religion that is spirit and life; thy dwelling in God and God in thee, the being an inhabitant of eternity; the entring in by the blood of sprinkling within the veil, and sitting in heavenly places with Christ Jesus.