thou haft yet done little or nothing towards the fecuring of thy future happiness: it is not certain how much or how little is remaining; therefore be fure to make the beft ufe of that little which may be left, and wifely to manage the last stake.

4. Seeing the delay of repentance doth mainly rely upon the hopes and encouragement of a future repentance, let us confider a little how unreasonable these hopes are, and how abfurd the encouragement is which men take from them. To fin, in hopes that hereafter we thall repent, is to do a thing in hopes that we fhall one day be mightily afhamed of it, that we shall one time or other be heartily grieved and troubled that we have done it : it is to do a thing in hopes that we fhall afterward condemn ourselves for it, and with a thousand times we had never done it; in hopes that we fhall be full of horror at the thoughts of what we have done, and fhall treasure up fo much guilt in our confciences as will make us a ter ror to ourselves, and be ready to drive us even to despair and diftraction. And is this a reasonable hope? Is this a fitting encouragement for a wife man to give up himself, to any action? And yet this is plainly the true meaning of mens going on in their fins, in hopes that hereafter they fhall repent of them

5. If you be ftill refolved to delay this business, and put it off at prefent, confider well with yourselves how Jong you intend to delay it. I hope not to the laft, nor till fickness come, and death makes his approaches to you. This is next to madnefs, to venture all upon fuch an after game: It is jaft as if a man fhould be content: to be ftipwrecked, in hopes that he fhall afterwards es fcape by a plank, and get fafe to fhore. But I hopenone are fo unreafonable; yet I fear that many have a. mind to put it off to old age, though they do not care to fay fo. Seneca expoftulates excellently with this fort of men: "Who fhall infure thy life till that time? Who fhall pafs his word for thee, that the providence of "God will fuffer all things to happen and fall out just as thou haft defigned and forecaft them? Art thou not afhamed to referve the relicks of thy life for thy"felf, and to fet apart only that time to be wife and "virtuous in, which is good for nothing? How late * is it then to begin to live well, when thy life is almoft

"at an end? What a ftupid forgetfulness is it of our "mortality, to put off good refolutions to the fiftieth or "fixtieth year of our age, and refolve to begin to do "better at that time of life to which very few perfons "have reached."

But perhaps thou art not altogether fo unreasonable, but defireft only to refpite this work till the firft heat of youth and luft be over, till the cooler and more confiderate part of thy life come on; that perhaps thou thinkest may be the fittest and most convenient feafon. But ftill we reckon upon uncertainties; for perhaps that feason may never be. However, to be fure it is much more in our power, by the affiftance of God's grace, which is never wanting to the fincere endeavours of men, to conquer our lufts now, and to refift the most heady and violent temptations of vice, than either to fecure the future time, or to recover that which is once past and gone.

Some feem yet more reasonable, and are content to come lower, and defire only to put it off for a very little while. But why for a little while? why till to morrow? To-morrow will be as this day; only with this difference, that thou wilt in all probability be more unwilling and indifpofed then.

So that there is no future time which any man can reasonably pitch upon. All delay in these cafes is dan gerous, and as fenfelefs as the expectation of the idiot defcribed by the poet; who, being come to the river-fide, and intending to pafs over, ftays till all the water in the river be gone by, and hath left the channel a dry paffage for him:

At ille

Labitur, et labetur in omne volubilis avum. "But the river runs, and runs, and will run; and if he "-fhould stay a thousand years, will never be the nearer "being dry.' So that, if the man must go over, and there be a neceffity for it, as there is for repentance, the only wife refolution to be taken in this cafe is, to wade or fwim over as well as he can; because the matter will never be amended by tarrying.

6. Laftly, Confider what an unfpeakable happiness it is, to have our minds fettled in that condition, that we

may

may without fear and amazement, nay with comfort and confidence, expect death and judgement. Death is never far from any of us; and the general judgement of the world may be nearer than we are aware of: for of that day and hour knoweth no man. And these are two terrible things; and nothing can free us from the terror of them, but a good confcience; and a good confcience is only to be had, either by innocence, or by repentance, and amendment of life. Happy man! who by this means is at peace with God, and with himself; and can think of death and judgement without dread and aftonifhment. For the fting of death is fin; and the terror of the great day only concerns thofe who have lived wic kedly and impenitently, and would not be perfuaded, neither by the mercies of God, nor by the fear of his judgements, to repent, and turn to him. But if we have truly forfaken our fins, and do fincerely endeavour to live in obedience to the laws and commands of God, the more we think of death and judgement, the greater matter of joy and comfort will thefe things be to us for blessed is the fervant whom his Lord when he comes fhall find fo doing. Let us therefore, as foon as poffibly we can, put ourselves into this posture and preparation; according to that advice of our bleffed Saviour, Luke xii. 35. 36. Let your loins be girded about, and your lamps burning, and ye yourfelves like unto men that wait for their Lord.

And now I hope that enough hath been faid to convince men of the great unreafonablenefs and folly of thefe delays: nay, I believe, that most men are convinced of it by their own thoughts, and that their confciences call them fools a thousand times for it. But O that I knew what to fay that I might prevail with men, and effectually perfuade them to do that which they are so abun dantly convinced is fo neceffary.

And here I might addrefs myself to the feveral ages of perfons. You that are young, and have hitherto been in a great measure innocent, may prevent the devil, and by an early piety give God the firft poffeffions of your -fouls; and by this means never be put to the trouble of fo great and folemn a repentance, having never been deeply engaged in a wicked life. You may do a glorious, I had almoft faid a meritorious thing, in cleaving fted

faftly

faftly to God, and refolving to ferve him, when you are fo importunately courted, and fo hotly affaulted, by the devil and the world. However, you may not live to be old; therefore, upon that confideration, begin the work prefently, and make use of the opportunity that is now in your hands.

You that are grown up to ripeness of years, and are in the full vigour of your age, you are to be put in mind, that the heat and inconfideratenefs of youth is now past and gone; that reafon and confideration are now in their perfection and strength; that this is the very age of prudence and difcretion, of wifdom and wariness: fo that now is the proper time for you to be ferious, and wifely to fecure your future happiness.

As for thofe that are old, they, methinks, fhould need no body to admonish them, that it is now high time for them to begin a new life, and that the time paft of their lives is too much to have been spent in fin and folly. There is no trifling where men have a great work to do, and but little time to do it in. Your fun is certainly going down, and near its fetting; therefore you should quicken your pace, confidering that your journey is never the fhorter, because you have but little time to perform it in. Alas! man, thou art just ready to die, and haft thou not yet begun to live? Are thy paffions and lufts yet unfubdued, and have they had no other mortification than what age hath given them? It is strange to fee how, in the very extremities of old age, many men are as if they had still a thousand years to live; and make no preparation for death, though it dogs them at the heels, and is juft come up to them, and ready to give them the fatal ftroke.

Therefore let us not put off this neceffary work of reforming ourselves in what part and age of our lives foever we be: To-day, whilft it is called to-day; left any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of fin. Nay, to-day is with us the latest to begin this work; had we been wife, we would have begun it sooner. It is God's infinite mercy to us that it is not quite too late, that the day of God's patience is not quite expired, and the door fhut against us. Therefore do not defer your repentance to the next folemn time, to the next occafion of receiving

the

the blessed facrament: do not fay, I will then reform, and become a new man; after that I will take leave of my lufts, and fin no more. For let us make what haste

we can, we cannot poffibly make too much :

Properat vivere nemo fatis :

*No man makes hafte enough to be good," to cease to do evil, and to learn to do well. Be as quick as we will, life will be too nimble for us, and go on faster than our work does; and death will go nigh to prevent us, and furprise us unawares.

Do, do, finner; abuse and neglect thyfelf yet a little while longer, till the time of regarding thy foul, and working out thy own falvation, be at an end, and all the opportunities of minding that great concernment be slipped out of thy hands, never to be recovered, never to be called back again; no not by thy most earnest wishes and defires, by thy moft fervent prayers and tears; and thou be brought into the condition of profane Efau, who, for once defpifing the bleffing, loft it for ever, and found no place for repentance, though he fought it carefully with

tears.

To conclude: Art thou convinced that thy eternal happiness depends upon following the advice which hath now been given thee? Why then, do but behave thyself in this cafe, as thou and all prudent men are wont to do in matters which thou canst not but acknowledge to be of far lefs concernment. If a man be travelling to fuch a place, fo foon as he finds himfelf out of the way, he prefently stops, and makes towards the right way, and hath no inclination to go wrong any farther. If a man be fick, he will be well prefently, if he can, and not put it off to the future. Moft men will gladly take the first opportunity that prefents itself of being rich or great; every man almoft catches at the very first offers of a great place, or a good purchase, and fecures them presently, if he can, left the opportunity be gone, and another fnatch thefe things from him. Do thou thus fo much more in matters fo much greater. Return from the error of thy ways; be wife, fave thyfelf, as foon as poffibly thou canft. When happiness prefents itself to thee, do not turn it off, and bid it come again to-morrow. Perhaps

thou