What if you had seen haven open as Stephen did, and all the saints there triumphing in glory, and enjoying the end of their labors and sufferings, what a life would you lead after such a sight as this! Why, you will see this with your eyes before it be long. Thou hast the more cause to doubt a great deal, because thou never didst doubt and yet more because thou hast been so careless in thy confidence. What do these expressions discover, but a willful neglect of thy own salvation? As a shipmaster that should let his vessel alone, and mind other matters, and say, I will venture it among the rocks, and sands, and gulfs, and waves, and winds; I will never double myself to know whether it shall come safe to the harbor; I will trust God with it; it will speed as well as other men's vessels do. Indeed, as well as other men's that are as careless and idle, but not so well as other men's that are diligent and watchful. What horrible abuse of God is this, for men to pretend that they trust God with their souls only to cloak their own willful negligence! (290-291)

The Saints' Everlasting Rest