SERM. How many have been cropt in the flower of their age, XLVIII. and vigour of their ftrength? Doth not every day prefent 12. experiments of fudden death? Do we not continually see Ecclef. ix. that obfervation of the Preacher verified, Man knoweth not his time: as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds are caught in the fnare, fo are the fons of men fnared in an evil time, when it cometh fuddenly upon them? Old men are ready to drop of themselves, and young men are easily brushed or fhaken down"; the former vifibly ftand upon the brink of eternity, the latter walk upon a bottomlefs quag, into which unawares they may flump; who then can anywife be fecure? We are all therefore highly concerned to use our life, while we have it; to catch the first opportunity, left all opportunity forfake us; to cut off our finning, left ourselves be cut off before it; and that the rather, because by lavishing, or misemploying our present time, we may lose the future, provoking God to bereave us of it: for as prolongation of time is a reward of piety; as to obfervance of the commandments Prov. iii. 2. it is promised, Length of days, and long life, and peace, fhall be added unto thee; fo being immaturely fnatched hence is the punishment awarded to impious practice: so Pi. xxxvii. it is threatened, that evil men fhall be cut off; that bloody and deceitful men fhall not live out half their days; that Pral. Ixviii. God will wound the head of his enemies, and the hairy Scalp of fuch an one as goeth on ftill in his wickedness: the very being unmindful of their duty is the cause why men Rev. iii. 3. are thus furprised; for, If, faith God, thou doft not watch, I shall come upon thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know Luke xii. when I come upon thee. And, If, faith our Lord, that fervant doth fay in his heart, My Lord delayeth his coming, &c. the Lord of that fervant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, &c. 9. 21. xvi. 15. 45, 46. If then it be certain, that we must render a strict account of all our doings here; if, by reason of our frail - Τί γὰρ οἶδας, ἄνθρωπε ἁμαρτήσας, εἰ ἡμέρας ζήσεις ἐν τῷδε τῷ βίῳ, ἵνα καὶ μετανοήσης, &c. Ὅτι ἄδηλος ἡ ἔξοδός σε ἐκ τῶ βία ὑπάρχει, καὶ ἐν ἁμαρτίᾳ τελευτήσαντι μετάνοια x sui, &c. Conf. Ap. ii. 12. nature and slippery state, it be uncertain when we fhall be SERM. fummoned thereto; if our negligence may abridge and XLVIII. accelerate the term; is it not very reasonable to observe 13. xxiv. 42. 33. thofe advices of our Lord; Watch, for ye do not know the Matt. xxv. day, nor the hour, when the Son of man cometh. Take heed to yourselves, left at any time your heart be overcharged Mark xiii. with furfeiting and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and Luke xii. fo that day come upon you unawares. Let your loins be 15, 35, 36. girded about, and your lamps burning, and ye yourselves like men that wait for your Lord: and to take the counfel of the Wife Man, Make no tarrying to turn unto the Lord, Ecclus. v.7. and put not off from day to day; for fuddenly shall the wrath of the Lord come forth, and in thy fecurity thou shalt be destroyed, and perish in the day of vengeance. These confiderations plainly do fhew how very foolish, how extremely dangerous and deftructive the procraftinating our reformation of life is: there are fome others of good moment, which we fhall referve, SERMON XLIX. THE DANGER AND MISCHIEF OF DELAYING REPENTANCE. PSALM CXIX. 60. I made hafte, and delayed not to keep thy commandments, SERM. I PROCEED to the confiderations which yet remain to XLIX. be spoken to. 1. We may confider the caufes of delay in this cafe (as in all cafes of moment) to be bad and unworthy of a man: what can they be but either stupidity, that we do not apprehend the importance of the affair; or improvidence, that we do not attend to the danger of perfifting in fin; or negligence, that we do not mind our concernAgylas re- ments; or floth, that keepeth us from roufing and beftirGen. Simpl. ring ourselves in pursuance of what appeareth expedient; or faintheartednefs and cowardice, that we dare not at φασις ἡ ἀνα i. Cic. de tempt to cross our appetite, or our fancy? All which dif pofitions are very base and shameful. It is the prerogaAnimal hoc tive of human nature to be fagacious in estimating the providum, worth, and provident in defcrying the confequences of fagax, &c. Cic. de Leg. things; whereas other creatures, by impulfe of fenfe, do only fix their regard on present appearances; which peculiar excellency by ftupidity and improvidence we forfeit, degenerating into brutes; and negligence of that, which we difcern mainly to concern us, is a quality fomewhat beneath thofe, depreffing us below beafts, which cannot be charged with such a fault; floth is no less despicable, Offic. i. rendering a man fit for nothing; nor is there any thing SERM. commonly more reproachful than want of courage: fo XLIX, bad are the causes of delay. βαλλόμενος. 2. And the effects are no lefs unhappy, being disappointment, damage, trouble, and forrow. As expedition (catching advantages and opportunities, keeping the spirit up in its heat and vigour, making forcible impreffions wherever it lighteth, driving on the current of fuccefs) doth fubdue business, and achieve great exploits, (as by practising his motto, to defer nothing, Alexander did ac- Mudi dvacomplish those mighty feats, which make fuch a clatter Succeffus in ftory; and Cæfar more by the rapid quickness and for- urgere fuos, wardness of undertaking, than by the greatness of cou- Luc. i. rage, and skilfulness of conduct, did work out those enterprises, which purchased to his name fo much glory and renown ;) fo delay and flownefs do fpoil all business, do keep off fuccefs at distance from us; thereby opportunity is loft, and advantages flip away; our courage doth flag, and our spirit languisheth; our endeavours strike faintly, and are easily repelled; whence disappointment neceffarily doth spring, attended with vexationa. 3. Again, we may confider, that to fet upon our duty is a great step toward the performance of it: if we can refolve well, and a little push forward, we are in a fair way to dispatch; to begin, they say, is to have half done; to fet out is a good part of the journey; to rise betimes is often harder than to do all the day's work: entering the town is almost the same with taking it; it is fo in all business, it is chiefly fo in moral practice: for if we can find in our hearts to take our leave of fin, if we can difengage ourselves from the witcheries of present allurement, Plerifque in rebus tarditas et procrastinatio odiofa eft. Cic. Philip. 6. Dum deliberamus quando incipiendum eft, incipere jam ferum eft. Quint. xii. 7. b Dimidium facti qui cœpit habet. Hor. Ep. i. 2. Móvov ¿gxèv ix.dis cã xgáyμari, &c. Chryf. tom. vi. Orat. p. 68. · Τὸ δυσχερὲς καὶ δυσκατόρθωτον τᾶτο ἔτι, τὸ δυνηθῆναι ἐπιβῆναι τῆς εἰσόδε καὶ τῶν προθύρων ἅψασθαι τῆς μετανοίας. 16. p. 79. inftare, &c, SERM. if we can but get over the threshold of virtuous conversaXLIX. tion, we shall find the reft beyond expectation smooth and expedite; we shall discover fuch beauty in virtue, we shall taste so much sweetness in obedience, as greatly will encourage us to proceed therein c. 4. Again: we may confider, that our time itself is a gift, or a talent committed to us, for the improvement whereof we are refponfible no less than for our wealth, our power, our credit, our parts, and other fuch advantages, wherewith for the ferving of God, and furthering Eph. v. 16 our own falvation, we are entrusted: To redeem the time Col. iv. 5. is a precept, and of all precepts the most necessary to be obferved; for that without redeeming (that is, embracing and well employing) time we can do nothing well; no good action can be performed, no good reward can be procured by us: well may we be advised to take our best care in husbanding it, feeing juftly of all things it may be Пour reckoned moft precious; its price being inestimable, and its lofs irreparable; for all the world cannot purchase one moment of it more than is allowed us; neither can it, when once gone, by any means be recovered: so much indeed as we fave thereof, fo much we preserve of ourfelves; and fo far as we lose it, so far in effect we slay ourfelves, or deprive ourselves of life; yea by mif-spending it we do worse than fo, for a dead fleep, or a ceffation from being, is not fo bad as doing ill; all that while we live backward, or decline toward a ftate much worse than annihilation itself. Farther, κατον ἀνάλωμα. ventura funt in incerto ja 5. Confider, that of all time the present is ever the best Omnia quæ for the purpose of amending our life. It is the only fure time, that which we have in our hands, and may call our own; whereas the past time is irrevocably gone from us; cent, proti- and the future may never come to us: it is abfolutely Sen. de Vit. (reckoning from our becoming sensible of things, and accountable for our actions,) the best, as to our capacity of improving it; nus vive. brev. 9. < Honeftas, quæ principio anxia habetur, ubi contigerit, voluptati luxuriæque habetur. Viæ, in Sept. Sev. |