XXIV. their neglect of the time and opportunity SERM. which was granted them for the acquisition of eternal happiness, will not probably be one of their least punishments. If a man in this world miscarries in any scheme, or meets with any loss, which he might have prevented by a little common prudence and labour, how greatly does the thought of such negligence embitter the disappointment! how then must the remembrance of that man's imprudence torment him, which has deprived him of eternal happiness, and doomed him to everlasting misery! But to return: those, I believe, who continue to put off their repentance, and who yet are convinced of its necessity, and think that they shall one day certainly set about it, encourage themselves in this delay by the repeated declarations, which they meet with in scripture, of the mercy and longsuffering of God. To a truly penitent sinner God will no doubt grant forgiveness; XXIV. SERM. but besides the probability of a man's being cut off in his sins, before he arrives at the time of repentance, there is great reason to fear that God may be so far provoked by his repeated delays, as to deny him the assistance of his holy spirit; and without that, all his former good resolutions will be vain. God hath indeed solemnly promised to give his holy spirit to those who ask it, but then it must be to such as ask it properly; and how far a long continuance in sin may harden our hearts, and prevent the efficacy of our prayers, it is impossible to determine, and highly dangerous to hazard the experiment. If our consciences now remonstrate with us on the folly and danger of our past sinful life, if we now feel within ourselves any disposition towards repentance, let us consider such remonstrances and such dispositions as the immediate suggestion of heaven; let us attend to them, let us obey them; the gate of mercy is now open to us, let us XXIV. us haste and enter: let us not put off to SERM. a future time, what perhaps at a future time we shall not be able to perform! now it is in our power, and we may be assured God will assist us; the very inclination that we feel towards it, is an earnest that he will! Now, this present moment, if we are sincere, is the time to make our peace with him: if we put it off, it may never be in our power again; the day of grace may be past-the time of reconciliation gone for ever! The opinion, I fear, is but too common, that repentance and reformation are the works of a moment; and that if a man has but time to shed a few tears, and say a few prayers a little while before his death, he will atone for the sins of a whole life, and find acceptance with God. The mistake (for a mistake it certainly is) is a very dangerous one.-To sin, we all know, alas! is very easy; yet no one arrives at once, even at the height of wicked< XXIV. SERM. wickedness; by gradual and slow steps, even that fatal progress is made: but infinitely more gradual, and infinitely more slow, is the progress of a sinner towards righteousness; it requires much time and many efforts to lay aside his vices and to acquire the opposite virtues he hath many things to learn and many to forget; he hath to repair perhaps much injury which he hath done, and to atone certainly for much bad example which he hath set; he hath not only to leave off sin, and to practise virtue, but he hath also to learn to detest the former and to delight in the latter; he hath to acquire the habit of holiness, without which no man can the Lord. I would not be understood to say that never any sinner, who had only a short time allowed him for repentance, met with mercy. The great searcher of hearts, who can alone judge of the sincerity of his conversion, if he perceives that he is tho roughly XXIV. roughly and effectually touched, and that, SERM. if life were lent him, he would no more return to his wickedness, will probably condescend to accept his repentance, tho' he lived not to reform; - but with the dying person himself, and his surviving friends, great fears must ever remain.Instances, I fear, are too numerous, of apparent penitents, returning from the confines of the grave, who, immediately on their recovery, have forgot all their pious vows and resolutions, and whose last state has been worse than their first. No one can say that such might not have been the case with his deceased friend, if he had recovered, however penitent he may have seemed; and I am very sure that no one in his own case ought to trust to it. The time of health and strength is the only proper time for the business of religion; it demands, and will employ, our most powerful exertions; and then only, can |