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power, and I hope in your wills and defigns, to be the fovereign restorers of piety and virtue to a degenerate age. It is our part indeed to exhort men to their duty, but it is you that would be the powerful and effectual preachers of righteoufnefs. We may endeavour to make men profelytes to virtue, but you would infallibly draw difciples after you; we may try to perfuade, but you could certainly prevail, either to make men good, or to reftrain them from being fo bad.

Therefore confider your ways, for the fake of others as well as yourselves. Confider what you have done, and then confider what is fit for you to do, and if you do it not, what will be the end of these things. And to help you forward in this work, it is not neceffary that I fhould rip up the vices of the age, and fet mens fins in order before them: it is much better that you yourselves fhould call your own ways to remembrance. We have every one a faithful monitor and witnefs in our own breafts, who, if we will but hearken to him, will deal impartially with us, and privately tells us the errors of our lives. To this monitor I refer you, and to the grace of God, to make these admonitions effectual.

Let us then, every one of us, in the fear God, fearch and try our ways, and turn unto the Lord. Let us take. to ourselves words, and fay to God, with thofe true penitents in fcripture, I have finned, what shall be done unto thee, thou preferver of men? Behold, I am vilė, what fhall I answer thee? I will lay my hand upon my mouth, I will abhor myself, and repent in duft and afbes, For furely it is meet to be faid unto God, I will not of fend any more that which I know not, teach thou me; and if I have done iniquity, I will do fo no more. O that there were fuch an heart in us! O that we were wife, and that we understood this, that we would confider our latter end! And God of his infinite mercy infpire into every one of our hearts this holy and happy refolution, for the fake of our bleffed Saviour and Redeemer. To whom, with the Father, and the Holy Ghoft, be all honour and glory now and for ever. Amen.

SER

239

SER MON

XIV.

The folly and danger of irrefolution and delaying.

PSA L. cxix. 60.

I made hafte, and delayed not to keep thy commandments.

N the words immediately going before, you have the courfe which David took for the reforming of his life, and the fuccefs of that courfe: I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto thy teftimonies. A serious reflexion upon the paft errors and mifearriages of his life, produced the reformation of it. And you have a confiderable circumstance added in thefe words that I have now read to you, that this reformation was speedy, and without delay: I made hafte, and delayed not to keep thy commandments. Upon due confideration of his former life, and a full conviction of the neceffity of a change, he came to a refolution of a better life, and immediately put this refolution in execution and to declare how prefently and quickly he did it, he expreffes it both affirmatively and negatively, after the manner of the Hebrews, who, when they would fay a thing with great certainty and emphafis, are wont to exprefs it both ways: I made hafte, and delayed not; that is, I did with all imaginable speed betake myself to a better course.

And this is the natural effect of confideration. And the true caufe why men delay fo neceffary a work, is, because they stifle their reason, and fuffer themselves to be hurried into the embraces of prefent objects, and do not confider their latter end, and what will be the fad iffue and event of a wicked life. For if men would take an impartial view of their lives, and but now and then reflect upon themselves, and lay to heart the miferable and fatal confequences of a finful courfe, and think whither it will bring them at laft, and that the end of these

in

things will be death and misery: if the carnal and fenfual perfon would but look about him, and confider how many have been ruined in the way that he is in, how many lie flain and wounded in it; that it is the way to hell, and leads down to the chambers of death; this would certainly give a check to him, and ftop him in his course.

For it is not to be imagined, but that that man who hath duly confidered what fin is, the shortnefs of its pleafures, and the eternity of its punishment, thould refolve. immediately to break off his fins, and to live another kind of life. Would any man be intemperate, and walk after the flesh h; would. any man be unjust, and defraud or opprefs his neighbour; be profane, and live in the contempt of God and religion, or allow himfelf in any wicked course whatsoever, that confiders and believes a judgement to come, and that because of these things the terrible vengeance of God will one day fall upon the children of difobedience? It is not credible that men, who apply themselves ferioufly to the meditation of these matters, fhould venture to continue in fo imprudent and dangerous a courfe, or could, by any temptation whatfoever, be trained on one step farther in a way that does fo certainly and vifibly lead to ruin and deftruction.

So that my work at this time fhall be, to endeavour to convince men of the monftrous folly and unreasonableness of delaying the reformation and amendment of their lives; and to perfuade us to refolve upon it, and, having refolved, to fet about it immediately, and without delay; in imitation of the good man here in the text: I made hafte, and delayed not to keep thy commandments. And, to this end, I fhall,

1. Confider the reasons and excufes which men pretend for delaying this neceffary work, and fhew the unreasonableness of them.

2. I fhall add fome farther confiderations to engage us effectually to fet about this work fpeedily, and without delay.

I. We will confider a little the reafons and excufes which men pretend for delaying this neceffary work; and not only fhew the unreasonableness of them, but that they are each of them a ftrong reafon and powerful argument to the contrary.

I. Many pretend that they are abundantly convinced

of

of the great neceffity of leaving their fins, and betaking themselves to a better courfe, and they fully intend to do fo; only they cannot at prefent bring themselves to it, but they hope hereafter to be in a better temper and difpofition; and then they refolve, by God's grace, to fet about this work in good earnest, and to go through with it.

I know not whether it be fit to call this a reason; I am fure it is the greateft cheat and delufion that any man can put upon himfelf: for this plainly fhews, that thou doft not intend to do this, which thou art convinced is fo neceffary, but to put it off from day to day. For there is no greater evidence that a man doth not really intend to do a thing, than when notwithstanding he ought upon all accounts, and may in all respects, better do it at prefent than hereafter, yet he ftill puts it off. Whatever thou pretendeft, this is a mere fhift to get rid of a prefent trouble. It is like giving good words and making fair promises to a clamorous and importunate creditor, and appointing him to come another day, when the man knows in his conscience that he intends not to pay him, and that he shall be less able to discharge the debt then, than he is at prefent. Whatever reasons thou haft against reforming thy life now, will ftill remain, and be in as full force hereafter, nay probably stronger, than they are at prefent. Thou art unwilling now; and fo thou wilt be hereafter, and in all likelihood much more unwilling. So that this reafon will every day improve upon thy hands, and have fo much the more ftrength, by how much the longer thou continueft in thy fins. Thou haft no reason in the world against the prefent time, but only that it is prefent; why, when hereafter comes to be prefent, the reason will be just the fame. So that thy prefent unwillingness is fo far from being a juft reafon against it, that it is a good reason the other way: Be cause thou art unwilling now, and like to be fo, nay more fo, hereafter; if thou intendeft to do it at all, thou fhouldft fet about it immediately, and without delay.

2. Another reafon which men pretend for the delaying of this work, is the great difficulty and unpleafantnefs of it. And it cannot be denied, but that there will be fome bitterness and uneafinefs in it, proportionably VOL. I,

X

to

to the growth of evil habits, and the ftrength of our lufts, and our greater or lefs progrefs and continuance in a finful course. So that we must make account of a fharp conflict, of fome pain and trouble, in the making of this change; that it will coft us fome pangs and throws before we be born again: for when nature hath been long bent another way, it is not to be expected, that it fhould be reduced and brought back to its first ftraightness without pain and violence.

But then it is to be confidered, that how difficult and painful foever this work be, it is neceffary; and that fhould over-rule all other confiderations whatsoever : that if we will not be at this pains and trouble, we must one time or other endure far greater than those which we now feek to avoid that it is not fo difficult as we imagine; but our fears of it are greater than the trouble will prove. If we were but once refolved upon the work, and feriously engaged in it, the greateft part of the trouble were over. It is like the fear of children to go into the cold water; a faint trial increaseth their fear and apprehenfion of it; but fo foon as they have plunged into it, the trouble is over; and then they wonder why they were fo much afraid. The main difficulty and unpleafantnefs is in our firft entrance into religion it prefently grows tolerable, and foon after eafy; and after that, by degrees, fo pleafant and delightful, that the man would not for all the world return to his former evil ftate and condition of life.

:

We fhould confider likewife what is the true cause of all this trouble and difficulty. It is our long continuance in a finful courfe that hath made us fo loath to leave it: it is the cuftom of finning that renders it fo troublesome and uneafy to men to do otherwife it is the greatness of our guilt, heightened and inflamed by many and repeated provocations, that doth fo gall our confciences, and fill our fouls with fo much terror: it is because we have gone fo far in an evil way, that our retreat is become fo difficult, and becaufe we have delayed this work fo .long, that we are now fo unwilling to go about it; and, confequently, the longer we delay it, the trouble and difficulty of a change will increafe daily upon us. all thefe confiderations are fo far from being a good

And

reafon

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