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SERMON XIV.

THE DELAYS OF REPENTANCE.

ACTS xxiv. 25.

Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee.

DELAY is the fatal rock on which thousands make shipwreck of their everlasting hopes. Infatuated man is active, diligent, anxious in every concern but the one which, from its infinite and everlasting importance, should engross his most vigorous and supreme attention. Mark his conduct in the management of his worldly concerns, and in the pursuit of the objects of wealth, of honour, or of pleasure. You would suppose that these objects were most important and dignified in their nature; that they were unalloyed and exalted in the enjoyment which they afforded; and that, placed above the changes of time, they survived its exterminating ravages. Little would you think that these objects are often worthless and degrading in their nature, and that the highest gratification which they afford is transitory and unsatisfying. Mark, on the contrary, the reluctance which men discover seriously to attend to their spiritual interests, the difficulty with which they are awakened to a sense of the importance and value of religion and virtue, and the readiness with which they permit the most trifling objects to displace from their thoughts and atten

tion the concerns of their souls. You would suppose that these concerns were designed to occupy only a small share of their thoughts, and that they are to be secured by some slight and superficial exertions. Little would you think that they involve every thing dear to our present and our future and eternal peace, and require the vigorous exertion of all our powers, the devoted attention of our lives.

Sometimes, indeed, conscience, touched by the secret energies of divine grace, or awakened' by some alarming or afflictive dispensation of divine Providence, will set before the careless and thoughtless sinner, in just and awful colours, his danger and his guilt, his obligations to the Almighty Author of his being and of all his mercies, and the infinite importance of securing the salvation of his soul. Alas! enchained to sensual objects, and devoted to the gratification of his passions, he dismisses the holy considerations which conscience awakens in his soul, with the same pretext with which Felix, the Roman governor, trembling under the powerful reasoning of St. Paul, dismissed the unpleasant monitor-"Go thy way for this time; when I have a more convenient season, I will send for thee." Yes -men delay to a future, and as they fondly hope, more convenient season, an attention to their interests, to the salvation of their souls.

But consider the guilt in which, by this delay, they involve themselves, and the dangerous folly of their conduct.

- Consider the guilt of this.delay.

Conscience admonishes us, and reason confirms the alarming conviction, that we are exposed, by the violations of the laws of our Maker and our Judge, by our numerous and aggravated transgres

sions, to his just and tremendous displeasure; and yet, sinners as we are, guilty and condemned, we are offered, by the very Maker and Judge against whom we have rebelled, a glorious and everlasting salvation. Ineffable and surpassing in his forbearance and mercy, he presses us to attend to our everlasting interests as a concern, of supreme importance, and invites us to accept, through the merits of that eternal Son whom he gave, and who offered himself for our redemption, the full remission of the guilt which, by our transgressions against him, we had incurred. And he urges and enforces his invitations by the most exalted promises, and the most fearful denunciations. And under these astonishing displays of mercy on the part of our Almighty Sovereign, what is frequently, may I not say generally, our conduct ? Urged by the solicitations of the world, yielding to the impulses of our sensual passions, we postpone our attention to the concerns of our souls, and neglect (strange and awful infatuation!) the overtures of mercy from our Redeemer and God. Oh! let us pause and reflect on the aggravated guilt which by this conduct we incur. Every day that we delay our return to God adds new sins to the former catalogue, and increases the guilt of our impenitence and rebellion. We delay our repentance, as if we could with impunity indulge in forgetfulness of God and neglect of the offers of salvation which he graciously extends to us. But the least consideration will convince us that, by thus despising his forbearance, we are increasing the load of our guilt, and treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of his righteous judgment. The mercy which, by thus postponing an attention

to the concerns of salvation, we contemn, is the mercy of that Saviour who willingly and cheerfully gave himself for us. Would not gratitude dictate an immediate, a cheerful, a complete devotion of ourselves to the benignant Redeemer who thus undertook the dismaying work of our redemption? What greater insensibility and ingratitude can be evinced, than when we delay our acceptance of the blessings which he urges upon us-the complete remission of our sins, the enlivening joys of his favour, and the everlasting bliss of his heavenly kingdom? Every noble, tender, and generous feeling dictates our immediate entrance on that course of holy obedience and devotion to our God, whereby only we can testify our sensibility to his exalted love, and secure our present and everlasting felicity.

We postpone our return to God until some more convenient season-that is, until we have accomplished every scheme of worldly emolument and ambition which we have formed, and until we have gratified to the full the sensual propensities which now solicit indulgence. Then, when we can no longer serve the world, we will serve our God: then, when our passions are cloyed, when our desires refuse any longer to be awakened at the call of ambition and pleasure, we will devote the languid and expiring emotions of our souls to him who most justly demands their most pure and noble fervours. What conduct more dishonourable as it regards ourselves-more insulting in respect to God! Will he not in just judgment execute upon us the fearful sentence of his wrath-" Because I have called and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; but ye have set

at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity: I will mock when your fear cometh; when your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you."*

Men delay to a future, and as they fondly hope, more convenient season; an attention to their eternal concerns.

Consider the folly of this conduct.

We delay to some future season a concern which, as it is of infinite importance, should be immediately secured; and we delay, under the alarming uncertainty whether any time more favourable for an attention to it than the present will occur. are the two considerations which establish the folly of our conduct.

These

We delay to some future season a concern which, as it is of infinite importance, ought to be immediately secured.

What will we put in comparison with that exalted salvation which God presses on our immediate acceptance? What will we put in the balance against those everlasting interests which we are called to secure? The salvation offered to us by an infinitely merciful and gracious God, contains blessings of transcendent value, calculated to purify and exalt our natures; commensurate with our most noble and lofty desires; pure and enduring as that infinite fountain of being from whom they proceed. A salvation which confers on men the enlivening favour of their reconciled God; which redeems the heart from all degrading and corrupting passions; which implants in the soul those divine and celes* Prov. i. 24-27.

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