all this we lose our Hope and Confidence and Assurance and all that might stand us in any stead in the Hour of Death and Day of Judgment O that we were wise that we understood this that we would consider our latter end Deut. 32.29 SECT III. The Causes of INCONSIDERATION HAving seen some of the Evils of Inconsideration we will if we be wise labour to be cured in time of so dangerous a distemper but this will not be done unless the Causes of it be removed Let us therefore next inquire into these and endeavour to put them away Amongst others we are especially to take notice of these which here I shall point out 1. The first is Ignorance For I doubt not but many would consider more than they do if they knew either What to consider or How to consider or what it lieth them upon to consider But alas we may to as good purpose bid a blind man see or a deaf man hear as exhort an ignorant man to consider any thing at present but his Ignorance Consideration is the exercise of Knowledge and the improving of it to practice but no man can exercise what he hath not A brutish man knoweth not neither doth a fool understand this Psal. 92.6 Therefore the way of a fool is right in his own eyes Prov. 12.15 because he knoweth no better Ignorance therefore must be removed in the first place that a man may be able to consider And yet tho this in many may be the cause of Inconsideration these many are but few in comparison of those who have eyes and see not who know and yet consider as little as if they knew nothing We must therefore seek out other Causes of this Evil. 2. And the next I shall name is Presumption which I take to be as common a Cause of Inconsideration as any other whatsoever Men generally presume too much upon their Skill and Knowledge and are too confident to see their need of Consideration And there is a manifold Presumption which causeth a neglect of due Consideration A man as but now was said may presume too much of his own Knowledg and Wisdom and Dexterity as one that is so ready and expert in the right management of his Affairs that he can do all things off-hand without any puzzling thoughts about it Now there is more hope of a fool than of one that is thus wise in his own conceit Prov. XXVI 12. The greatest Miscarriages in the world are owing to a conceited and confident Ignorance and a Presumption of a man 's own Wit and Vnderstanding thinking himself too wise and knowing to take Advice of others and scorning to seem so dull as to need much consulting with his own Reason A man may presume too much upon the Easiness of the Work he hath to do and take the way to Heaven to be so open and plain and safe that he needs not be at the trouble of much enquiry and circumspection in his walking He may imagine God requires no such accuracy and strictness in framing our whole Conversation by his Laws as the more scrupulous sort of men do think There needs not saith he so much ado about the business of Salvation that a man must be always busying his mind about it We have a round of Duties to run and when we have done that all 's done As tho God did consider as little as we are apt to do He hath said to God in his heart Thou wilt not require it Psal. X. 13. One may presume That all is well with him already and that he hath already made his Calling and Election sure He hath already got as he thinks into the right and sure way and hath no more to trouble his head about but only to go on the same way still without any further thinking of it There is a way that seemeth right unto a man but the end thereof are the ways of death Prov. XIV 12. Some may possibly presume That they do consider things well enough even when they never have any such thought of them as can deserve to be call'd Consideration Now and then it may be they think a little of the things that ought to be considered and it would be strange if they did not when they are so often put in mind of them but alas that thorough weighing and pondering of things in their minds which before was shewn to be Consideration they are mere strangers to and never once went about it And in this vain confidence of having done what they never in earnest endeavour'd to do they pass their time without considering till considering can do them no good Others presume That they have day enough before them and they will consider of it sometime before night They will and they will but they will not yet because they presume it will be time enough to do it anon and it is always too soon till it be quite too late And thus through a foolish presumption of one thing or other many of us are kept from considering till there be nothing left us to consider but this one sad thing That we have lost our opportunity 't is now too late and Consideration is become a great part of that Torment which it should have prevented 3. Another Cause of Inconsideration is our long neglect of considering and an unthinking Habit of Mind Hence Consideration when we are call'd to it is an uncouth thing to us and we have been so long strangers to it that we know not how to come acquainted with it nor how to entertain it We have used our selves to another course a great deal more easie and have got a custom of doing things inconsiderately We do as we have been bidden to do by others or as we see others do or as our own Inclinations and Affections lead us to do but we have not been used to think for our selves what is rational or our duty what is lawful or what is fit and becomes or behoves us to do We go down with the stream of custom or inclination and we slide smoothly and pleasantly away but we have not been wont to consider to what purpose we do so or into what Gulfs we may be carried or how we shall get out again When we have been it may be the greatest part of our age accustomed to act all things like children to suffer our thoughts to run loosely wildly and rovingly without check we know not which way to get them together again or to fix them in seriousness upon any thing nor how to get into any method of Thinking hence it is very uneasie to us to consider and we are soon weary of it 4. Another Cause therefore of our continuing inconsiderate is our Sloth and Laziness We cannot endure the pains of confining our Thoughts to the things which should be considered and the less can we away with it because this would as we conceive abridge us of much not ease only but liberty and pleasure too
which we have been wonted to in thinking on every thing that we have most mind to or on any thing that falls in our way To tye up our thoughts to rules to restrain them within a certain compass to direct them to a certain mark is a task of too much trouble to most of us Especially Spiritual and Eternal things afford the Sensual man no delight at all they are very melancholly subjects and he is soon weary of them It requires much pains and attention of mind to drive away those wanton and frolick thoughts which our Lusts and Vanities commend unto us and are always sending in to disturb us And who of a thousand especially if young and lively hath patience to endure this 5. There is also another Cause and that not uncommon of Inconsideration which is An Vnwillingness to see our own sins in their own colours Every considering person must needs quickly discover his own Filthiness Shame and Guilt and not these only but the great danger he is in because of his sins And we had most of us rather be blind than see such a melancholly and frightful sight Alas Such a sight would mightily disturb us and break off our sweet slumbers spoil our pleasant dreams and make us a terror to our selves Our Consciences would be thus awakened and fly angrily in our faces and be continually reproaching us with our folly and wickedness This most of us are apt to look upon as a very uncomfortable and even an intolerable condition and therefore madly chuse to venture all and to go on quietly with sleeping Consciences that cannot check us tho we drop unawares into Hell by doing so than by Consideration to awaken them and endure their rebukes tho we can no otherwise be safe and arrive at Eternal Blessedness 6. The last Cause of Inconsideration I shall mention is our busying our selves too much other ways so that we grudge our selves time and leisure to consider Our thoughts are almost constantly otherwise engaged and cannot break loose from such things as have got the mastery and command of our affections With Martha they are troubled about many things and hardly ever at leisure for the one thing necessary What one of a hundred of us makes Religion his business We account the matters of the world our business that calls for Seriousness and Religion a thing only now and then to be thought on a little by the by and when we have nothing else to do or rather are forced to it Or 't is if a business at all only like that of dressing our selves on some certain days a little finer than ordinary a Festival or Holidays work little better than a Play Now what we make our main business is always the thing that we most consider be it never so trivial and needless To dress our meat daintily to fit fashionable Cloaths on our Bodies to beautifie our Houses at home and visit our idle Neighbours abroad this we can make our business consider and contrive and often break our sleep to think how all may be done most modishly and with the best grace for our credit But the business of Religion as tho it were a matter to be done as they say with a wet finger it 's enough to think of it when the Bell rings or it may be when we are indisposed for company and have a mind to be alone and can think of nothing else to divert our selves with And this thoughfulness about all things else even tho of least concernment is one main cause why so few consider the things that belong to their Everlasting Peace If then we will root out the Causes of this Evil Disease we must take care in time to furnish our selves with a competent stock of Divine Knowledg we must pass the time of our sojourning here in fear and beware of Presumption and an ill-grounded Confidence we must apply our selves to learn the Art of considering and accustom our selves to Seriousness and serious Company we must shake off Sloth and Laziness and watch against all Sin which makes us afraid to know our selves and lastly We must not plunge our selves too deep into worldly business and we must lay aside all needless curiosity and affectation of modish vanity In short We must labour to understand that the business of serving God and saving our Souls is a thing of nearer concernment to us than all other businesses whatever and resolve to make it so and then be sure it will be consider'd accordingly and our most serious thoughts will be employ'd about it SECT IV. What things we are to Consider WHEN we are sensible of the Evils of Inconsideration and understand the Causes of it no more can be needful to teach us either why or how we are to avoid it And certainly we can need no motive to practice any thing which we know it is so necessary for us to practice that if we do it not we must be eternally miserable Supposing therefore that enough hath been said to convince us that Consideration is altogether necessary Lest any one should be at a loss how to find out fit matter for it I shall now point out to him some few of those things which ought principally to be considered and for want of considering whereof our lives are generally so unanswerable to our Profession and so displeasing to Almighty God Now whatsoever things it hath pleased God in much goodness and mercy to reveal and make known unto us in relation either to his own Honour or to our Salvation we must needs acknowledge to deserve our very serious consideration For to this end hath God revealed them to us that they may be considered by us and by consideration have that influence upon us which they ought to have That knowing God we may glorify him as God and knowing our selves we may behave our selves like men that is like the rational Creatures of God to whom he hath given Reason and Understanding to know our dependance on him and our duty to him Wherefore hath God been pleas'd to reveal unto us the History of the Creation of the World and of his admirable Providence over it in all the Ages of it but that we might know and consider the work of his Hand and the method of his Government that we might see his Infinite Power and Wisdom and Goodness his Truth and Purity his Iustice and his Mercy whom we are to praise for our being and subsistence to whom we are to pray for needful supplies of all our wants whom we are to serve and obey and in whom we are to trust and put our confidence and to whose will and ordering we ought to submit and resign our selves Wherefore hath God been pleas'd to reveal unto us so many Divine Truths in his Word concerning his own Nature and his gracious Designs for us the Eternal State of Happiness provided for us and the Methods he is pleas'd to use to bring men into it through the
know befal us as well as any others If we are surprized by any of these after we are become sincere Penitents they do us but little hurt they are God's Visitations indeed and for what He it may be only knows but the worst that comes to us by them is only this That we are long a dying and in such a manner as it pleaseth God But if we have not sincerely Repented before these evils seize us it is greatly to be feared we shall never be able to Repent and God only knows what will become of us Let us then be so wise as to make good use of our strength and health our senses and understanding whilst we have them Why make we not all sure now whilst we can seeing we know not how soon it will be that we cannot Now we are young we are too jovial and airy and we put all off to those years which we suppose will of course bring with them more Seriousness and when we think it will better become us to look gravely and Religiously When those years which we are wont to call the years of Discretion are come we find that a great deal of other business comes with them and now we are men and women we are engaged in the World and if we have got loose from the Vanities of Youth which do not seldome hold us fast even till we die we are become intangled in things that are but a little better and we put off all yet till old age come and make us more leisure Old age is all this while stealing insensibly upon us and we perceive it not for the throng we are in till we find our selves on a sudden grown too heavy and dull and our faculties too much decay'd and too feeble for much business And then instead of serious reflections on the state of our Souls we are rather apt to reflect with too much concern on our present bodily weakness as we are become unable to do any longer as we have done and yet have as great a mind to do as ever And hence also instead of being Penitent for our Sins we are apt to grow Passionate Peevish and Impatient and our Repentance is still put off to our last Sickness After all these delays it may be we have no Sickness at all Death gives us no warning at all of its approach but knocks us down with a sudden blow or else it sends such a Messenger for us as will not allow us to know or consider whither we are going by reason of either the stupefaction or Torment which it lays us under What remains then but that we take the Preacher's advice Ecc. XII 1. Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth while the evil days come not nor the years draw nigh when thou shalt say I have no pleasure in them But besides the uncertainty of the term of our life as to us and many disappointments which not unusually befal us in it we ought farther to consider that it is very Iust in God to cut our lives the shorter for our delaying to keep his Commandments Neither can we take a more likely course to provoke God to take us away in the midst of our days or to render them by his Iudgments intollerable to us than this bad use which we make of them When by delaying our Duty to God we make it appear that we grudge him any considerable part of our time and that we are resolved to dishonour him with as much of it and to bestow upon his Service as little of it as we can what readier way can we take to provoke him either to cut our thread of life very short or to make it very knotty to us Can we our selves when we think well of it judge it fit that he to whose goodness we owe our life and being and in whose hands our times are Psal. XXXI 15. In whose hand is the soul of every living thing and the breath of all mankind Job XII 10. should allow us just as much time as we desire to dishonour and affront him in I confess I know not what greater Presumption we can be guilty of than to resolve to rebel against God as long as we can think it safe to do so and to expect he should give us from day to day more time to do so in O let us take heed lest he take away our breath and we return to our dust ere we have begun to serve him for then be sure all these vain thoughts shall perish Psal. CVI. 4. The youngest of us is not sure to live one day longer and we who grow old are very sure that we cannot have many days more if any to live in this World nor what kind of days be they many or few they will prove to us Let us then no longer delay our Repentance because we are so little sure that we shall have any hereafter to repent in SECT V. The Second Danger of DELAY AS it is a dangerous thing to drive off our Repentance in hopes that we may have time enough hereafter to repent in So is it altogether as dangerous upon another account Because we know not if we have an hereafter whether we shall repent in it or no. I have already mention'd some things which may disable us to repent hereafter but besides this it may well be fear'd that we may be also as unwilling and every way as much indisposed to repent hereafter as we are now Is there not as much reason now to move us to keep the Commandments of God as ever there will be hereafter Is he not the same God now that he will be then one and the same unchangeable for ever Are not our Obligations and our Dependances on him the same And is not the danger of dying impenitent the same now that it will be then What reason then can we have to hope that if the consideration of these things will not move us now to Repentance it should prevail more with us hereafter How difficult or how easie soever the Duty may now seem to us or whatever it is that now affrights us from it or encourageth us to delay it we have little cause to think that it will become more easie by delay that we shall meet with fewer difficulties the longer we drive it off or fewer temptations to defer it still longer Nay 't is very certain that the longer we delay the difficulty daily more and more increaseth and very probably so will our unwillingness too for 't is not very likely that we shall be more willing to set our selves about a harder work hereafter seeing we dare not venture on it now that it is much more easie Would to God all impenitent Sinners could be brought to consider this That all the good they do themselves by delaying their Repentance is to make it every day harder for them to do a thing which they must do or else they perish That we may be
convinced of this folly let us observe but these few things 1. That the Causes of Delay will hereafter be the same and as forcible upon us as now 2. That the Work will hereafter be greater 3. Our Strength for it is like to be less 4. Our Time to do it in will be shorter 5. Our Assistances are like to be fewer And 6. Our Impediments and Discouragements are like to be more And when all this hath been well thought on we cannot but see that though all that time which we very groundlesly presume upon should be granted us yet cannot we be sure that we shall nay we are more sure of the two that we shall not make so good use of it as we may do of the time which is present 1. Look what Causes we think we have at present to delay our Repentance till another time the same or more and more powerful to work upon us are we like to have hereafter and it is like to be as hard or harder then not to be tempted to delay than now it is Is it now a careless negligent and unconsidering temper of mind that is the cause of our delay And is it not likely the longer we delay that this same supine and regardless temper will be the more fixed and confirm'd What is it that we think will alter it The Temper we are of is such as admits of none or very slight thoughts of any such future alteration of it these thoughts consist not with such a careless and inconsiderate temper as we suppose to be the cause of our delay However such a change of it hereafter is not to be depended on What makes men more careless and secure in their sinful Courses than long impunity and forbearance He that was a little afraid to venture on sin at first lest he should be punish'd for it and lest the Wrath of God should light suddenly upon him in some severe judgment and he that was at first somewhat ashamed to sin and unable to conquer his natural Modesty or to endure the reproaches of his natural Conscience after he has with some strugling broke through these bars of fear and shame the further he ventures forward the farther he leaves them both behind him When the sin is become customary and yet he finds that he suffereth nothing by it he is the more emboldened to continue in it The longer he escapeth what at first he was afraid of the less apt is he to fear it and the more hope he hath to escape it still The prosperity of fools destroyeth them Prov. I. 32. How but by making them the more careless and resolute to go on in the ways wherein they thrive as we find it by daily experience in all sorts of Sinners Because sentence against an evil work is not speedily executed therefore the hearts of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil Eccl. VIII 11. Is the cause of our delay a secret root of Atheism or Infidelity a disbelief of God and of his Word The longer we go on in any sin the more likely are we to be harden'd in our unbelief For whilst we hold on offending God and disobeying his Word and yet find that notwithstanding all his terrible threatnings he doth not seem to take any notice of us but letteth us alone and stretcheth not out his hand to execute vengeance upon us we are apt to take as little notice of God as we foolishly imagine he taketh of us and because we continue to do these evil things and God keeps silence we conclude the more confidently either with the Fool Psal. XIV 1. That there is no God or with another as foolish as he Psal. L. 21. That he is altogether such an one as our selves The prosperous Sinner is apt to say in his heart God hath forgotten he hideth his face he will never see it He contemneth God he saith in his heart thou wilt not require it Psal. X. 11 13. The Lord shall not see neither shall the God of Iacob regard it Psal. XCIV 7. To such a brutishness doth our continuance in sin ordinarily bring us Is it an unwarrantable presumption of the greatness of God's Mercy or of his unwearied Forbearance that is the cause of our delay And is it not then too natural to men of this presumption to presume still the more confidently the longer God forbeareth them Certainly he that delayeth at first presuming on that patience whereof he hath yet had comparatively but little experience will be the more apt to delay still longer after he hath long experienced the patience and long-suffering of God Is it the love of our sins wherewith we are bewitched so that we are not able to part with them and therefore delay our Repentance And what reason have we if we now love them so well to think that we shall not love them as well hereafter as now we do What can we imagine should bring us out of love with sin more then than now We may not be able to commit some sins hereafter which now we commit but I see not why we may not have the same love for them hereafter which we have now Nay I see that usually it is so and that few sins are less loved for becoming habitual The more we practise them the more we love them and the longer we have tasted the sensual sweetness of them the less can we endure to be without them And if our Inclinations and Tempers so alter with our Age that some juvenile sins do not relish with us as they were wont yet we do but change them for others and we are as averse from goodness and as much inclin'd to evil as ever The Sins which suit with all ages of man we commit with as much greediness as ever and as things which by custom are become natural and we sin even as we eat and drink being as unable as it seems to us to live without the one as without the other And though it may be some sorts of Sins grow stale and we find hereafter no temptation to them yet is there one thing which the longer we delay our Repentance grows still the more strong and that is an inordinate self-love and the less we have been used to deny our selves in the things we love the harder still shall we find it to do so We have been used to humour our selves and to feed corrupt Nature in all things which it craves and then it 's all a case how the Appetite changes as to this or that sin seeing what it desires it must have and we have lost all power to resist it But these things 't is needless to prove being too notorious to be denied Only they ought to be more consider'd that when we think well how there will be hereafter as many temptations to delay and as powerful too as there are now we may discern our folly in delaying our Repentance now in hopes to repent hereafter 2.
cost him some pains to search into his own heart and to make himself in any good and comfortable measure sure of it And to find this is the only thing that must be the comfort of his old age and the sweetness of his Dying thoughts But he that defers his Repentance to the later part of his Life if then he may Repent unto Salvation yet may he find the time much too short for him very comfortably to assure himself that he hath done so indeed and therefore though he may Repent possibly he may not be able so well to know it as not to go out of this World with many fears and doubts and much uncomfortable distraction of thoughts about it And though this may possibly be the case of some who have lived a life of Repentance yet is it not a thing a man would choose or that he should not do what he can to prevent as I am sure he that delayeth his Repentance doth not He that lives well may through the tenderness of his Conscience and jealousy of himself die somewhat uncomfortably but he that lives ill almost as long as he lives I think must needs do so if he be not so dozed or stupified with his disease that he cannot be sensible that he is a dying or else have the favour of some extraordinary Revelation which such an one of all men hath least reason to hope for 5. For he that long delayeth his Repentance hath reason enough to fear that he shall have less Assistance hereafter for this great work than now he may have All the helps we can hope for come from the Holy Spirit of God without whose special Grace we shall never do any thing that is acceptable to him or available to our own Salvation We are too weak of our selves to cleanse our selves from all filthiness of Flesh and Spirit and to perfect Holiness It is God that worketh in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure Now that man must have a strange measure of unreasonable confidence that thinks he hath the Grace of God at his Command and can make himself sure to have it just when he shall call for it or that the longer he hath rejected it the greater measures of it should be bestow'd upon him Is this the way to oblige God to be more liberal of his Grace unto us hereafter to turn his Grace already given us into wantonness Is to Dishonour him as long as we can the best way to assure us of his help in time of need What is it then whereby any one can possibly provoke God to withdraw or withhold his Grace from him What needs any one care how he lives if he can be sure of Grace enough to save him at any time before he die And if he cannot be sure to have Grace enough at any time when he pleaseth before he die how dare he delay his Repentance any one day of his life lest he should die before the next day Certainly that person that delayeth his Repentance in expectation of Grace when he sees his own time to call for it hath a confidence grounded on something else than the Holy Scripture Far be it from us to limit the infinite Goodness of God His Mercies as well as his Iudgments are unsearchable and his ways past finding out Extraordinary favours may be granted to some but are not to be relied on by any I hope God doth give Grace at last to many who have long refused it but I know not where he hath promised that he will offer it again to them that refuse it when 't is offered If therefore he that delays his Repentance in hope of Grace to Repent hereafter meet with the Grace he hoped for he hath cause to be extraordinary thankful for an unpromised Mercy but if any one expect to have such an extraordinary Mercy he hath great reason to be humbled for so groundless a presumption For this is not the ordinary method of saving Sinners which God hath made us acquainted with and certainly he makes too bold with God Almighty that expects he should bring him to Heaven by any other way than by that which he hath pointed out unto him to walk in or who hopes for that assistance which he never promis'd refusing to make use of that which he hath assured him of if he will now accept it God hath said that whosoever hath or makes good use and improvement of the Grace already given to him shall be given and he shall have more abundance But whosoever hath not or makes not a wise improvement of what God hath given to the Donor's Glory and his own Salvation from him shall be taken away even that he hath Matth. XIII 12. God ordinarily as well as justly leaves such men to grow worse hereafter who are not willing to grow better now He withdraws his Holy Spirit from them who have long resisted and grieved him They who are not now willing to recover themselves out of the snare of the Devil having been taken captive by him at his will are deservedly left in the slavery they delight in God saith unto them Hearing ye shall hear and not understand and seeing ye shall see and shall not perceive Matth. XIII 14. He leaves them to Satan to blind their eyes and harden their hearts lest they should be converted and Christ should heal them Joh. XII 40. What a madness then must it be to delay our acceptance of the Grace which is now freely tender'd unto us in hope of having it tender'd to us again when we think it a fitter time for it when God hath declared that we do thereby provoke him to withdraw his Grace from us for ever and never to make us another offer of it so long as we live 6. Lastly Our Impediments and Discouragements are like to be more and greater the longer we delay As a stone that 's tumbling down the hill the longer it continues rouling downwards goes with the greater force and is more hardly stopped so our own corrupt inclinations the longer we give way to them carry us on with the more earnestness in the old beaten paths of Sin towards Hell beneath and the more difficult is it for us to recover our selves Our old acquaintance and brethren in iniquity the longer we continue in their Society and Friendship cling so much the closer unto us and use all their art and power to hold us fast so that 't is always harder to break from them The Devil who before emboldened us to rush headlong upon any wickedness without any check or restraint of Conscience now fills our heads with fears and jealousies that our case is already become desperate and he that before persuaded us it was too soon now persuades us 't is too late to think of providing for our safety The longer we continue in our folly the more foolish we grow and the less capable of being taught how to grow Wise unto Salvation