and without delay And because they are many I shall insist upon those which are most weighty and considerable without being very curious and solicitous about the method and order of them For provided they be but effectual to the end of perswasion it matters not how inartificially they are rang'd and disposed 1. Consider that in matters of great and necessary concernment and which must be done there is no greater argument of a weak and impotent mind then irresolution to be undermined where the case is so plain and the necessity so urgent to be always about doing that which we are convinced must be done Victuros agimus semper nec vivimus unquam We are always intending to live a new life but can never find a time to set about it This is as if a man should put off eating and drinking and sleeping from one day and night to another till he have starved and destroyed himself It seldom falls under any mans deliberation whether he should live or not if he can chuse and if he cannot chuse 't is in vain to deliberate about it It is much more absurd to deliberate whether we should live virtuously and religiously soberly and righteously in the world for that upon the matter is to consult whether a man should be happy or not Nature hath determined this for us and we need not reason about it and consequently we ought not to delay that which we are convinced is so necessary in order to it 2. Consider that Religion is a great and a long work and asks so much time that there is none left for the delaying of it To begin with Repentance which is commonly our first entrance into Religion This alone is a great work and is not only the business of a sudden thought and resolution but of execution and action 'T is the abandoning of a sinful course which we cannot leave till we have in some degree mastered our lusts for so long as they are our masters like Pharaoh they will keep us in bondage and not let us go to serve the Lord. The habits of sin and vice are not to be plucked up and cast off at once as they have been long in contracting so without a miracle it will require a competent time to subdue them and get the victory over them for they are conquered just by the same degrees that the habits of grace and virtue grow up and get strength in us So that there are several duties to be done in Religion and often to be repeated many graces and virtues are to be long practised and exercised before the contrary vices will be subdued and before we arrive to a confirmed and setled state of goodness such a state as can only give us a clear and comfortable evidence of the sincerity of our resolution and repentance and of our good condion towards God We have many lusts to mortifie many passions to govern and bring into order much good to do to make what amends and reparation we can for the much evil we have done We have many things to learn and many to unlearn to which we shall be strongly prompted by the corrupt inclinations of our nature and the remaining power of ill habits and customs and perhaps we have satisfaction and restitution to make for the many injuries we have done to others in their persons or estates or reputations In a word we have a body of sin to put off which clings close to us and is hard to part with we have to cleanse our selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit and to perfect holiness in the fear of God to encrease and improve our graces and virtues to add to our faith knowledg and temperance and patience and brotherly kindness and charity and to abound in all the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ to the praise and glory of God We have to be useful to the world and exemplary to others in a holy and virtuous conversation our light is so to shine before men that others may see our good works and glorifie our father which is in heaven And do we think all this is to be done in an instant and requires no time That we may delay and put off to the last and yet do all this work well enough Do we think we can do all this in time of sickness and old age when we are not fit to do any thing when the spirit of a man can hardly bear the infirmities of nature much less a guilty conscience and a wounded spirit Do we think that when the day hath been idlely spent and squandered away by us that we shall be fit to work when the night and darkness comes When our understanding is weak and our memory frail and our will crooked and by a long custom of sinning obstinately bent the wrong way what can we then do in Religion what reasonable or acceptable service can we then perform to God when our candle is just sinking into the socket how shall our light so shine before men that others may see our good works Alas the longest life is no more than sufficient for a man to reform himself in to repent of the errors of his life and to amend what is amiss to put our souls into a good posture and preparation for another world to train up our selves for eternity and to make our selves meet to be made partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light 3. Consider what a desperate hazard we run by these delays Every delay of repentance is a venturing the main chance It is uncertain whether hereafter we shall have time for it and if we have time whether we shall have a heart to it and the assistance of Gods grace to go thorough with it God indeed hath been graciously pleased to promise pardon to repentance but he hath no-where promised life and leisure the aids of his grace and holy Spirit to those who put off their repentance He hath no-where promised acceptance to meer sorrow and trouble for sin without fruits meet for repentance and amendment of life He hath no-where promised to receive them to mercy and favour who only give him good words and are at last contented to condescend so far to him as to promise to leave their sins when they can keep them no longer Many have gone thus far in times of affliction and sickness as to be awakened to a great sense of their sins and to be mightily troubled for their wicked lives and to make solemn promises and professions of becoming better and yet upon their deliverance and recovery all hath vanished and come to nothing and their righteousness hath been as the morning cloud and as the early dew which passeth away And why should any man meerly upon account of a death-bed repentance reckon himself in a better condition than those persons who have done as much and gone as far as he and there is no other difference between them but this that the
the World for his sport and pastime nor set on one part of his Creation to bait another for his own diversion He does not like some of the cruel Roman Emperours take pleasure to exercise men with dangers and to see them play bloody prizes before him Nay he does nothing that is severe out of humour and passion as our earthly Parents many times do Indeed he is angry with us for our sins but yet so as still to pity our persons And when his Providence makes use of any sharp and cutting instruments it is with this merciful design to let out our corruption If he cast us into the Furnace of affliction it is that he may refine and purifie us from our dross So that though the Judgments of God be Evils in themselves yet considering the intention of God in them they are no real objections against his goodness but rather arguments for it as will appear if we consider these three things 1. That the Judgments of God are proper for the cure of a far greater Evil of another kind 2. They are proper for the prevention of far greater Evils of the same kind 3. They are not only proper to these Ends but in many cases very necessary First The Judgments of God are very proper for the cure of a far greater Evil of another kind I mean the Evil of sin We take wrong measures of things when we judg those to be the greatest Evils which afflict our bodies wound our reputation and impoverish our Estates For those certainly are far the greatest which affect our noblest Part which vitiate our understandings and deprave our wills and wound and defile our souls What corrupt humours are to the body that sin is to the souls of men their disease and their death Now it is very agreeable with the goodness and mercy of the Divine providence to administer to us whatever is proper for the cure of so great an evil If we make our selves sick that is our own folly and no fault of the Physitian but we are beholden to him if he recover us though it be by very bitter and unpleasing means All temporal Judgments which are short of Death are properly Medicinal and if we will but suffer them to have their kindly operation upon us they will work a cure and how grievous and distastful soever they may be for the present they will prove mercies and blessings in the issue Upon this account David reckons afflictions among the happy blessings of his life Psal 119.72 It is good for me saies he that I have been afflicted And he gives the reason of it in the same Psalm ver 67 Before I was afflicted I went astray but now have I learn'd thy precepts So that though all afflictions are Evils in themselves yet they are good for us because they discover to us our disease and tend to our cure They are a sensible argument and conviction to us of the evil and danger of sin We are commonly such fools as Solomon speaks of who make a mock of sin and like Children will be playing with the edge of it till it cut and wound us We are not sufficiently sensible how great an evil it is till we come to feel the dismal effects and consequences of it And therefore to rectify our apprehensions concerning it God makes us to suffer by it Thus Elihu describes to us the happy effect of afflictions upon sinners Job 36.8 9 10 If they be bound in fetters and held in cords of affliction then God sheweth them their work and their transgression that they have exceeded He openeth also their ear to discipline and commandeth that they return from their iniquity God doth but invite and entreat us by his mercies but his Judgments have a more powerful and commandng voice When he holds men in cords of affliction then he openeth their ear to discipline In our prosperity we are many times incapable of counsel and instruction but when we are under Gods correcting hand then are we fit to be spoken withall Secondly The Judgments of God are likewise proper for the preventing of far greater evils of the same kind I mean farther punishments In sending of temporal Judgments upon sinners God usually proceeds with them by degrees First he le ts flye several single shots at them and if upon these they will take warning and come in they may prevent the broad-sides and volleys of his wrath But the great advantage of all is that temporal Judgments may prove to us the opportunities of preventing the miserable and unspeakable torments of a long Eternity For all Judgments which are not final leaving men a space of Repentance have in them the mercy of Reprieve which by a serious and timely return to God may be improv'd into a Pardon Besides that adversity and afflictions do usually dispose men and put them into a fit temper for Repentance They fix our minds and make us serious and are apt to awaken us to consideration and suggest to us such thoughts and meditations as these If temporal evils be so grievous how insupportable then will be the extreme and endless torments of the next life If in this day of Gods grace and patience we sometimes meet with such severity what may we not look for in the day of vengeance If these drops of Gods wrath which now and then fall upon sinners in this world fill them with so much anguish and affliction how deplorably miserable will those wretches be upon whom the storms of his fury shall fall Who would venture to continue in sin when the greatest miseries and calamities which we feel in this life are but a small and inconsiderable earnest of those woful wages which sinners shall receive in the Day of Recompences Thirdly The Judgments of God are not only proper to these Ends but in many cases very necessary Our condition many times is such as to require this severe way of proceeding because no other course that God hath taken or can take with us will probably do us good God does not delight in the miseries and calamities of his Creatures but we put him upon these extremities or rather his own goodness and wisdom together do prompt and direct him to these harsh and rigorous ways May be we have brought our selves into that dangerous state and the malignity of our distemper is such that it is not to be remov'd without violent Physick and that cannot be administred to us without making us deadly sick So that the Judgments of God which are many times abroad in the earth are nothing else but the wise Methods which the great Physitian of the World uses for the cure of Mankind They are the Rods of his School and the Discipline of his Providence that the inhabitants of the world may learn righteousness They are a merciful invention of Heaven to do men that good which many times nothing else will and to work that blessed effect upon us which neither the wise
and grant that we may hereafter live godly righteous and sober lives Do not we seek the Lord of Hosts when we continually beg of him to save and deliver us from the hand of our enemies Indeed we do thus seek him but we should first turn to him otherwise if we hope our prayers will prevail with God to do us good we do but trust in lying words If we go on in our sins our very prayers will become sin and encrease our guilt For the prayer of the wicked that is of one that is resolv'd to continue so is an abomination to the Lord. Can we think it reasonable for men to address themselves to God after this manner Lord though we have no mind to turn to thee yet we pray thee turn away thine anger from us though we are resolv'd not to forsake our sins yet we make no doubt but that thy mercy will forgive them Give peace in our time O Lord that we may pursue our lusts securely and without disturbance Deliver us we pray thee from the hands of our Enemies that we may sin against thee without fear all the days of our lives Would it not be horrible impudence and impiety to put up any such petitions to God And yet this I fear is the most genuine interpretation of our prayers and lives compar'd together And if this be our case what can we expect God may give us peace with our Enemies but then he will find out some other way to punish us For if we still persist in our Atheism and Prophaneness in our contempt of God and of his holy Worship in our scorn and derision of Religion in our abominable lusts and horrid impieties what can we look for but that God should be angry with us until he have consum'd us and there be no escaping Nothing can be a sadder presage of our ruin than not to be reform'd by those dreadful judgments of God which have been upon us This was that which brought final destruction upon the Egyptians in the Red Sea that they had held out so obstinately against so many Judgments and had been hardned under ten Plagues To be impenitent after such severe corrections is to poyson our selves with that which is intended for our Physick and by a miraculous kind of obstinacy to turn the Rods of God into Serpents And now perhaps some will be apt to say That these are things fit for men of our Profession because it is our Trade and we live by it Indeed they are so things very fit to be said and withall very fit for every one to consider who professeth himself a Christian and who owns the belief of a God and a Providence and another World And if they be so where is the fault Is it that there is a peculiar Profession of men whose proper work it is to tell men of their faults and to perswade them to reform No there is no harm in that neither Is it then that they live by their Profession and yet would be believed Yes there lies the force of the objection To which I shall only at present return this answer That men do not argue thus in other cases where yet the reason seems to be the very same In matters that concern their Bodies and Estates the Physitian and the Lawyer are believ'd though it is verily thought that they live by their Professions as well as we why then should men deal so partially and unequally only with their Souls Were we not mov'd by better principles and sway'd by the arguments and considerations of another World we might for ought we know with every whit as much advantage to our selves suffer men to be quiet and to sleep on securely in their sins If we did not believe our selves in these matters what should hinder but that we might with as much gravity and confidence cry Peace Peace when there is no Peace and flatter men with as much art and with as good a grace as any of those can do who live delicately and wear soft clothing But we believe the threatnings of God and therefore do we speak We know the terrour of the Lord and therefore we endeavour to perswade men And O! that we could perswade them to break off their sins by righteousness and to turn every one from the evil of his way and from the violence that is in his hands And then who can tell but God may turn and repent and turn away from his fierce anger that we perish not The good God make us all wise to know in this our day the things that belong to our peace before they be hid from our eyes and grant that we may all turn to him that hath smitten us by Repentance and real Reformation of our lives that God may be pleas'd to turn away his Anger from us and to stretch out his hand for our Deliverance which we humbly beg of him for the sake of Christ To whom with the Father c. A SERMON Preached before the KING IN LENT 1671. Heb. III. 13 Exhort one another daily while it is called to day lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin AMong the many considerations which the Word of God and our own Reason offer to us to discourage us from sin this is none of the least considerable that he that once engages in a vicious course is in danger to proceed in it being insensibly trained on from one degree of wickedness to another so that the farther he advanceth his retreat grows more difficult because he is still pushed on with a greater violence All errour as well of practise as of judgment is endless and when a man is once out of the way the farther he shall go on the harder he will find it to return into the right way Therefore there is great reason why men should be often cautioned against the beginnings of sin or if they have been so unhappy as to be engaged in a bad course why they should be warned to break it off presently and without delay lest by degrees they be hardened in their wickedness till their case grow desperate and past remedy And to this purpose is the Apostles advice here in the Text Exhort one another daily while it is called to day lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin From which words I shall 1. Endeavour to represent to you the growing danger of sin and by what steps and degrees bad habits do insensibly gain upon men and harden them in an evil course 2. I shall from this consideration take occasion to shew what great reason and need there is to warn men of this danger and to endeavour to rescue them out of it And then 3. I shall apply my self to the duty here in the Text of exhorting men with all earnestness and importunity to resist the beginnings of sin or if they be already entred upon a wicked course to make haste out of this dangerous state lest
are tendered to such persons serve only to provoke their scorn or their passion And surely that man is in a sad case that is so disposed that in all probability he will turn the most effectual means of his amendment into the occasion of new and greater sins But that which renders the condition of such persons much more sad and deplorable is that all this while God is withdrawing his grace from them For every degree of sin causeth the Holy Spirit of God with all his blessed motions and assistances to retire farther from them And not only so but the Devil that evil Spirit which the Scripture tells us works effectually in the children of disobedience does according as men improve in wickedness get a greater and a more establish'd dominion over them For as they who are reclaimed from an evil course are said in Scripture to be rescued out of the snare of the Devil and to be turned from the power of Satan unto God So on the other hand the farther men advance in the ways of sin so much the farther they depart from God from under the influences of his grace and the care of his protection and providence and they give the Devil who is not apt to neglect his advantages upon them greater opportunities every day to gain the firmer possession of them And thus by passing from one degree of sin to another the sinner becomes hardened in his wickedness and does insensibly slide into that state in which without a miraculous grace of God he is like for ever to continue For the mind of man after it hath been long accustomed to evil and is once grown old in vice is almost as hard to be rectified as it is to recover a body bowed down with age to its first streightness The Scripture speaks of some that commit sin with greediness and that drink up iniquity as the Oxe drinketh up water with a mighty appetite and thirst as if they were not able to refrain from it And to express to us the miserable condition of such persons it representeth them as perfect slaves to their vices that have sold themselves to do wickedness and are led captive by Satan at his pleasure And when men have brought themselves to this pass they are almost under a fatal necessity of sinning on I do not believe that God hath absolutely predestinated any man to ruin but by a long course of wilful sins men may in a sort predestinate themselves to it and choose wickedness so long till it almost become necessary and till they have brought themselves under all imaginable disadvantages of contributing any thing towards their own recovery being bound in the chains of their own wickedness and held in the cords of their sins Nay like Sampson not only bound by those lusts which they have embraced but likewise robbed of all their strength whereby they should break loose from those bonds God grant that none of us may ever have the woful experience of it But I am horribly afraid it is too true that a sinner may arrive to that confirmed state of impiety as almost totally to lose his liberty to do better He may attain to that perfection in vice as to continue to be a bad man upon the same account that the Historian extravagantly says Cato was virtuous quia aliter esse non potuit because he could not be otherwise Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots It is the Scripture comparison to set forth to us how hard a thing it is for a man to be brought to goodness that hath been long accustomed to do evil He that is thus deeply engaged and entangled in a bad course will scarce ever have the heart and resolution to break loose from it unless he be forced violently out of it by some severe affliction by a sharp sickness or by a terrible calamity or by the present apprehensions of death and the terrours of a future Judgment Nor will these be effectual neither to change such a person without an extraordinary degree of Gods grace which considering the greatness and the continuance of his provocations he hath very little reason to expect or hope God should ever bestow upon him Wretched man that hast brought thy self into this miserable state out of which there is but just a possibility left of thy being rescued that hast neglected thy disease so long till it is almost too late to apply remedies that hast provoked God so far and sinned to such a prodigious height that thou hast reason almost to despair both of his grace and assistance for thy repentance and of his mercy for thy pardon I speak not this to discourage even the greatest of sinners from repentance Though their case be extremely difficult yet it is not quite desperate For those things which seem impossible with men are possible with God But I speak it on purpose to stop sinners in their course and to discourage men from going on in sin till they be hardened through the deceitfulness of it and have brought themselves by insensible degrees into that dangerous and difficult state which I have all this while been representing to you I come now to the II. Second thing I propounded which was from this consideration to shew what great reason and need there is to warn men of this danger and to endeavour to rescue them out of it The Apostle directs this precept to all Christians Exhort one another daily lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin That is lest you be hardened by degrees and be finally ruined And surely every man is concerned to do what in him lies to rescue his brother from so imminent a danger It is every ones place and duty to endeavour to save those whom he sees ready to perish Much more does it concern those who are peculiarly set apart for this work I mean the Ministers of Gods holy Word whose proper office and business it is to exhort and warn every man day and night who are set as watchmen to the house of Israel and whose blood in case any of them miscarry through our neglect shall be required at our hands So that if we believe the threatnings of God which we declare to others if we have any apprehension of the dreadful misery of another world if we have any sense of our own duty and safety if we have any pity for perishing souls we cannot but be very importunate with sinners to look about them and to consider their danger and to bethink themselves seriously of the miserable event and issue of a wicked life We cannot but be earnest with them to break off their sins and to give glory to God by repentance before darkness come and their feet stumble upon the dark mountains When we are convinced more fully than we can desire that misery and destruction are in their ways when we plainly see the evil day hasting toward them a-pace and destruction
tarrying 6. Lastly consider what an unspeakable happiness it is to have our minds settled in that condition that we may without fear and amazement nay with comfort and confidence expect death and judgment Death is never far from any of us and the general Judgment 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 conscience and a good conscience 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 judgment without dread and astonishment For the sting of death is sin and the terror of the great day only concerns those who have lived wickedly and impenitently and would not be perswaded neither by the mercies of God nor by the fear of his judgments to repent and turn to him But if we have truely forsaken our sins and do sincerely endeavour to live in obedience to the Laws and Commands of God the more we think of death and judgment the greater matter of joy and comfort will these things be to us For blessed is that servant whom his Lord when he comes shall find so doing Let us therefore as soon as possibly we can put our selves into this posture and preparation according to that advice of our blessed Saviour Luke 12.35 36 Let your loins be girded about and your lamps burning and ye your selves like unto men that wait for their Lord. And now I hope that enough hath been said to convince men of the great unreasonableness and folly of these delays nay I believe most men are convinced of it by their own thoughts and that their consciences call them fools a thousand times for it But O that I knew what to say that might prevail with men and effectually perswade them to do that which they are so abundantly convinced is so necessary And here I might address my self to the several ages of persons You that are young and have hitherto been in a good measure innocent may prevent the Devil and by an early piety give God the first possession of your souls and by this means never be put to the trouble of so great and solemn a repentance having never been deeply engaged in a wicked life You may do a glorious I had almost said a meritorious thing in cleaving stedfastly to God and resolving to serve him when you are so importunately courted and so hotly assaulted by the Devil and the World However you may not live to be old therefore upon that consideration begin the work presently 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 vigor of your age you are to be put in mind that the heat and inconsiderateness of youth is now past and gone that reason and consideration are now in their perfection and strength that this is the very age of prudence and discretion of wisdom and wariness So that now is the proper time for you to be serious and wisely to secure your future happiness As for those that are old they methinks should need no body to admonish them that it is now high time for them to begin a new life and that the time past of their lives is too much to have spent in sin and folly There is no trifling where men have a great work to do and but little time to do it in Your Sun is certainly going down and neer its setting therefore you should quicken your pace considering that your journey is never the shorter because you have but little time to perform it in Alas man thou art just ready to dye and hast thou not yet begun to live Are thy passions and lusts yet unsubdued and have they had no other mortification than what age hath given them 'T is strange to see 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 just come up to them and ready to give them the fatal stroke Therefore let us not put off this necessary work of reforming our selves in what part and age of our lives soever we be To day whilst it is called to day least any of you be hardened thorough the decitfulness of sin Nay to day is with the latest to begin this work had we been wise we would have begun it sooner 'T is Gods infinite mercy to us that it is not quite too late that the day of Gods patience is not quite expired and the door shut against us Therefore do not defer your repentance to the next solemn time to the next occasion of receiving the blessed Sacrament Do not say I will then reform and become a new man after that I will take leave of my lusts and sin no more For let us make what haste we can we cannot possibly make too much properat vivere nemo satis No man makes haste 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 surprize us unawares Do do sinner abuse and neglect thy self yet a little while longer till the time of regarding thy soul and working out thy own salvation 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 desires by thy most fervent prayers and tears and thou be brought into the condition of prophane Esau who for once despising the Blessing lost it for ever and found no place of repentance though he sought 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 thy self in this case as thou and all prudent men are wont to do in matters which thou canst not but acknowledg to be of far less concernment If a man be travelling to such a place so soon as he finds himself out of the way he presently stops and makes towards the right way and hath no inclination to go wrong any farther If a man be sick he will be well presently if he can and not put it off to the future Most men will gladly take the first opportunity that presents it self of being rich or great every man almost catches at the very first offers of a great place or a good purchase and secures them presently if he can least the opportunity be gone and another snatch these things from him Do thou thus so much more in matters so much greater Return
charitably and lays the supposition quite on the other side If there were but one sinner in the world or but one of an hundred yet we should very zealously intend and with all our might the reduction of this one lost sheep and should never be at rest till this single wandring soul were found and saved But God knows this is not our case but quite otherwise which should quicken our endeavours so much the more and make us bestir our selves to the utmost having always in our minds that admirable saying of St. James he that converteth a sinner from the errour of his way shall save a soul from death He that knows the value of an immortal soul and how fearful a thing it is to perish everlastingly can think no pains too much to take to save a soul from death 4. Lastly What an argument and encouragement is here to repentance even to the greatest of sinners They I am sure stand most in need of it And though they of all others have the least reason to look for mercy yet they shall not be refused though they be like the Publicans and Heathens among the Jews who were not only reputed but many times really were the worst of men though like the prodigal son here in the Parable they have run away from their father and wasted their estate in lewd and riotous courses yet whenever they come to themselves and are willing to return to their father to acknowledg their folly and repent of it he is ready to receive them nay much more ready to receive them than they can be to come to him For when the Prodigal was but coming towards his father and was yet afar off the father runs to meet him and embraceth him with as much kindness as if he had never offended him and entertains him with more joy than if he had always continued with him How does the great God condescend to encourage our repentance representing himself and all the blessed company of heaven as transported with joy at the conversion of a sinner and almost setting a greater value upon repentance than even upon innocence it self And if our heavenly Father who hath been so infinitely offended and so highly provoked by us beyond all patience be so ready so forward so glad to receive us and there be no hindrance no difficulty no discouragement on his part is it possible after all this that we can be such fools and such enemies to our selves as to be backward to our own happiness All of us the best of us have too much cause for repentance and I fear too many of us stand in need of that repentance intended by our Saviour in the Text which consists in the change of our whole lives But I will not upbraid you with your faults having no design to provoke but only to perswade men I leave it to every ones conscience to tell him how great a sinner how grievous an offender he hath been God knows we take no pleasure in mentioning the sins of men but only in their amendment and we would if it were possible even without minding them how bad they have been perswade and encourage them to be better It is but a small consideration to tell you how much it would chear and comfort our hearts and quicken our zeal and industry for the salvation of souls to see some fruit of our labours that all our pains are not lost and that all the good counsel that is from hence tendered to you is not like rain falling upon the rocks and showers upon the sands But I have much greater considerations to offer to you that your Repentance will at once rejoyce the heart of God and Angels and men that it is a returning to a right mind and the restoring of you to your selves to the ease and peace of your own consciences and to a capacity of being everlastingly happy that it is to take pity upon your selves and your poor immortal souls and to take due care to prevent that which is to be dreaded above all things the being miserable for ever and last of all That if you will not repent now the time will certainly come and that perhaps in this life when you shall see the greatest need of repentance and yet perhaps with miserable Esau find no place for it though you seek it carefully with tears when you shall cry Lord Lord and the door shall be shut against you and shall seek to enter but shall not be able To be sure in the other World you shall eternally repent to no purpose and be continually lamenting your wretched condition without hopes of remedy For there shall be weeping and wailing without effect without intermission and without end And what cause have we to thank God that this is not yet our case that we are yet on this side the pit of destruction and the gulf of despair O the infinite patience and boundless goodness of God to sinners With what clemency hath he spared us and suffered our manners thus long and with what kindness and concernment does he still call upon us to leave our sins and to return to him as if in so doing we should make him happy and not our selves With what earnest longings and desires does he wait and wish for our repentance saying O that there were such a heart in them O that they would hearken unto my voice When shall it once be Thus God is represented in Scripture as patiently attending and listening what effect his admonitions and counsels his reproofs and threatnings will have upon sinners Jer. 8.6 I hearkened and I heard but they spake not aright no man repented him of his wickedness saying what have I done every one turned to his course as the horse rusheth into the battel And is not this our case God hath long waited for our repentance and once a year we solemnly pretend to set about it But many of us hitherto I fear instead of returning to God have but more blindly and furiously run on in our course like the horse that hath no understanding yea in this more brutish than the Beast that he rusheth into the battel without any consideration of death or danger and destroys himself without a syllogism But we sinners have Reason and yet are mad the greatest part of evil-doers are sufficiently sensible of the danger of their course and convinced that eternal misery and ruin will be the end of it and yet I know not how they make a shift upon one pretence or other to discourse and reason themselves into it But because the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than a two-edged-sword and comes with a greater weight and force upon the minds of men than any humane perswasion whatsoever I will conclude all with those short and serious counsels and exhortations of God to sinners by his holy Prophets Consider and shew your selves men O ye transgressors Be instructed O Jerusalem lest my soul depart from thee