it and begging God's Pardon for it nothing of all this could be done too soon because it is our Duty to do all this so soon as we have Sinned and we have always had Sins to be hated confess'd resolv'd against pardon'd and forsaken And yet were this all that is meant by Repentance though we could not but confess it very reasonable that all this should be done so soon as we are sensible that we are Sinners yet I fear we should not think it altogether necessary but would rather flatter our selves that it would be enough to do it in our last Sickness or some few days or hours before we die because all this if we have but so much time and so much sense and understanding left us as to think of it may then be done and I doubt not but it is done by a great many who yet do not Repent unto life as will be shewn anon But seeing Repentance is all this and a great deal more than all this even a through change of life not for death but for a more Holy life and that not in Heaven but on Earth seeing it is a leaving of Sin not to do nothing but to do our Duty a turning from our own wicked ways unto God's Testimonies and the keeping of his Commandments it is a Duty that we are always to be doing so long as we live and can only be done whilst we live and is in great danger not to be done at all if it be not soon begun and cannot be done too soon because the doing of it soon even so soon as we can is a part of the Duty To make this plainer let us First briefly consider what the Duty of Repentance is as in the Holy Scripture it is described unto us and Secondly what time the same Scripture directs us to for the doing of it and by both we shall easily perceive that we cannot repent too soon because no sooner than it is our Duty First Observe how the Duty of Repentance is described unto us in the Holy Scripture Ezek. XVIII 21. It is a turning from all our sins which we have committed and a keeping of all God's Statutes and doing that which is lawful and right And v. 31. A casting away from us all our transgressions whereby we have transgressed and making us a new heart and a new spirit It is an amending of our ways and our doings Jer. VII 3. A returning every man from his evil way and making our ways and our doings good Jer. XVIII 11. It implieth a godly sorrow for Sin yet that godly sorrow is not Repentance but worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of 2 Cor. VII 10. It implieth a hatred of every false way Psal. CXIX 104. A being ashamed and confounded for our own ways a loathing our selves in our own sight for our iniquities and for our abominations Ezek. XXXVI 31 32. A confessing and forsaking our sins Prov. XXVIII 13. And yet all this is not the whole Duty of Repentance But as we must cease to do evil so must we learn to do well also Isa. I. 16 17. We must both eschew evil and do good 1 Pet. III 11. Neither is this to be thought a work on which it may be enough to bestow some small part of our life when it grows near to an end for Repentance is thus express'd Tit. II. 12. A denying ungodliness and worldly lusts and living soberly righteously and godly in this present world Can we think the Apostle meant no more by these words but that we should do this for some few years or days of our old age before we die Certainly no man can be so foolish as to think so but rather that even so long as we live in this present World and whilst we are a looking for that blessed hope mention'd V. 13. that is so long as we live we should do this as Zacharias clearly expresseth it Luk. I. 75. That we should serve God in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life And by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality Rom. II. 7. I am confident that no body can now imagine that such a Repentance as in these places of Holy Scripture is commended to us can be the work of a dying man or that it is not work enough for one's whole life how long so ever However 't is plain that it is our Duty in all the several ages of life and at all times whilst we live and therefore no point of our time can be too soon to begin it in but every moment that we wilfully neglect it we add to our Sins by leading so long an unholy life contrary to the Command of God But this will more fully be proved afterwards Secondly Observe what time the same Scripture directs us to for the setting upon this Duty And we shall hardly find that it commends to us any other time but the present there is no to morrow that I know of allow'd us to depend upon not the least countenance or encouragement to procrastination or driving off to another time Therefore now saith the Lord turn ye even unto me Joel II. 12. Now it is high time to awake out of sleep Rom. XIII 11. Behold now is the accepted time behold now is the day of salvation 2 Cor. VI. 2. To day if ye will hear his voice harden not your hearts Heb. III. 7. Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth Eccl. XII 1. No part no day of our Age too soon We are always call'd upon to repent presently to day just now and not told we may stay till to morrow or bid to do it sometime hereafter Whenever therefore we are called to repent and that is as soon soever as we are made to understand that we are sinners and that Repentance is our duty then is it our duty to set about it and to put it off longer is a violation of our duty and a new sin and therefore 't is certain we can never begin to repent too soon 2. We cannot too soon do that without the doing whereof we can never be in a safe condition no man thinks he can make too much haste to be safe And nothing can be plainer than this That we are never in a safe condition till we be sincere Penitents therefore we cannot repent too soon unless we can be safe too soon Can any one think he hath too soon got out of the Lion's mouth out of the snares of the Devil and from the Borders of Hell Can any one think it too soon to be within view of Heaven and Eternal Joys Then indeed he may think it too soon to repent of his sins and walk in the ways of God's Commandments Did we but really believe and well consider That we are always in danger of Eternal Destruction and every moment ready to fall into the bottomless Pit of Fire and Brimstone out of which there is no
affairs of this Life there is hardly any one that seems not very sensible of it There are few Tradesmen or Husbandmen or Artificers how mean a Trade soever they drive in the World but they are aware of it And all seem satisfied that nothing can ordinarily succeed well under our hands and that there can be small hopes of thriving by what we undertake if we do not wisely consider of it If an unconsidering Man speed well 't is only by chance and it 's not above once or twice it may be in a hundred times and few Men are willing to venture any thing they prize upon the success of such blind and giddy doings Men therefore in all matters of moment set themselves seriously to think what they have to do and to what end they do it how it is to be done and what helps they stand in need of and how to have them what letts and rubs there are in their way and how they may be removed what they may hope for as the fruit of their care skill and industry and what they may fear as the consequent of their negligence ignorance idleness or any miscarriage If any one do not consider these things Men count him a Fool and every one is ready to read his Fortune for him and say He is not like to thrive Which of you saith Christ Luke XIV 28 31. intending to build a tower sitteth not down first and counteth the cost whether he have sufficient to finish it Or what king going to make war against another king sitteth not down first and considereth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand What Husbandman goeth to plow and sitteth not down first and considereth whether his Ground be in good heart and like to bear any burden whether the Season be proper for his work and all his Instruments in good order whether his Oxen be tractable and in good plight and his Servants well vers'd in the work they go about whether his Seed be sound and himself of sufficient Ability to manage all to good advantage So wise are the Men of this World in their Generation for their worldly ends that they think not fit to venture all at random without due consideration And shall we be so foolish as to imagine that the great business we are to do to secure unto our selves a blessed Eternity should either deserve or require less consideration than the things which relate to our short continuance in this World only Let the miscarriage we are guilty of in our worldly concerns be what it will the evils which we incur by it will shortly have an end and we shall no more remember them But if we miscarry in the business we are now to do for Eternity it is that which draws after it evils both endless and intollerable And this is enough of it self to rouze us up to the consideration of these things An affright will often bring a Man to serious Thoughts when nothing else will And can there be any thing more terrible than a prospect of Eternal Torments But this is not all the evil of Inconsideration tho' it be that which is most apt to awaken the Inconsiderate I do no more but mention it now in hope that the fear of being everlastingly miserable which will certainly be the end of unconsidering People bringing us to some degree of seriousness we may be capable of discerning other great evils in it such as are these following 1. Not to consider the things on which our Eternal State depends is not to behave our selves like Men but to act quite contrary to our Nature Reason is a thing Essential to Man and only Man of all inferior Creatures is able to make this use of it I mean to consider things To this end is it given us and if we make not this use of it we had as good have been without it Trees and Plants grow and bear Fruit but they cannot consider how they do so nor what they do Beasts and other Animals live and move eat and drink and do such things as are agreeable to their Nature But they consider not they do not deliberate within themselves about their Actions or their Ends but are carried on by their Senses and a natural Appetite without pondering of Circumstances and debating in their Breasts what is most fit or unfit to be done or what is like to follow upon the doing or omitting of any thing Only Man of all earthly Creatures hath Reason and Vnderstanding and thereby is fitted for deliberating consulting and discoursing things over within himself and for contriving forecasting and ordering all he doth to good ends and purposes And if he doth not make this use of his Understanding and Reason he acts contrary to the Nature which God hath given him Yea and in effect he seems to impute Vanity and Impertinency to the All-wise God as tho' he had given him so noble a Faculty as Reason is in vain and for no use at all For what else is the use of Reason but Consideration If a Man may act like a Beast without Consideration why should not God have made him like a Beast too without Reason If any say We have the important Affairs of this Life to consider and this is to use our Reason well I readily grant it but deny withal that this is either all the use or the chief use for which our Reason was given us Had God made us for this World only and if there were nothing for us to enjoy or to suffer but in this short Life the use of our Reason might well be confined to things of this present World and Life But seeing God has design'd us to be Immortal and hath made our Life on Earth to be but a time of Probation and Preparation for Eternity to use our Reason either only or chiefly about the Affairs of this World is as unnatural an abuse as we can make of it Can there be any thing more against Reason than to think it was given us to consider least the things that are most considerable And can there be a more unreasonable thing than to consider more how we may make a shift to spend a few Days here upon Earth than how we may be sure of living an Eternal Life of Happiness with God in Heaven Nay to what purpose shall we consider what to do in this World and how to make the best Advantage of it for the very short time that we are to continue in it if in the mean time we consider not what shall become of us when we go out of it nor how to improve our being in this World so as to save our selves from being Eternally miserable in the World to come when ever we depart hence which may be for ought we know the very next moment If self-preservation be that which all Men naturally desire and aim at it must be most of all things against
our selves in Do we know any of us that there is so much as one day or one hour betwixt this moment and Eternity And why then are we not now in as great haste to repent as we were in then How many that delay from time to time are when they least fear it knock'd down with a sudden blow How many are cut off in the very act of sin when secure in themselves and thinking on no such thing as dying they were in Hell before they thought that death was near them Is not our delaying our Repentance the likeliest way in the World to provoke Almighty God to send out one of these swift Arrows to destroy us O let us be ready for it may come in an hour that we think not Whilst we so confidently promise our selves to morrow and flatter our selves with purposes of repenting then a sudden destruction a Phrenzy a stupidity or we know not what may arrest us and not give us leave so much as to think that we are Sinners or to say Lord have mercy on us Doth not God seem for this very reason to conceal both the time and the manner of our death from us that we may be the more watchful and take the more care to be always ready for dying at whatever hour or in whatever way it shall please him to take us hence Did we certainly know before-hand just when and how we must die we would venture the more boldly to spend our time in sin and vanity till we knew the time was near and then it may be some few days before become a little more serious just as it is the custome of too many at this time to do before a Sacrament Therefore God will not have us to know the time of our death that we not knowing but it may be to morrow may be every day ready and so he may have the honour and we the comfort of a pious life Moreover as was before said To continue in sin in hopes that we may repent hereafter as it is to sin that grace may abound which is a thing if we believe the Apostle greatly to be abhorred Rom. VI. 1. So is it the most effectual course we can take to shorten our days and to prevent the benefit we hope for The fear of the Lord prolongeth days but the years of the wicked shall be shortened The hope of the righteous shall be gladness but the expectation of the wicked shall perish Prov. X. 27 28. Again We can hardly give any rational account why God should so strictly and under so severe Penalties enjoin us the practice of many excellent Vertues and forbid us many foul Sins if we may hope to please him and be saved by a very late or death-bed Repentance Can such Vertues as Sobriety Temperance and Chastity and many more be thought commanded us as the proper Exercises of a sick and dying man Can the Sins of Gluttony and Drunkenness Chambering and Wantonness Murther Theft Ambition Covetousness and more such like be forbidden upon pain of damnation left a man should be guilty of them on his Death-bed or in his last Sickness when 't is somewhat hard to conceive how a man should have any thoughts of them Or can we conceive that the meaning of such Commands is no more but this You must either do these Duties and avoid these Sins while you live or repent that you have not done so when you are about to die What were this but to say That all the Commands of holy living signify no more but this That a man may safely break them all whilst he liveth if he can but keep them when he can break them no more or be sorry that he hath broken them when he is afraid he is just going to be damn'd for it or resolve to keep them when he thinks he can live no longer What probability is there that any Resolution of repenting hereafter is sincere We cannot absolutely resolve to repent hereafter because we cannot certainly know that we shall live hereafter and if we resolve but conditionally to repent hereafter that is on supposition that we shall live to repent we must seem content to be damn'd if we dye before that time come because we know That without Repentance we must be damn'd I think one cannot in good earnest resolve to repent unless he immediately do repent when he resolves upon it How can any one imagine it too soon to do what he knows necessary to be done and yet may never be done if not just now No man can with any colour of reason be thought in earnest when he saith he resolveth to do that another day which he knows is to be done every day and must of necessity be done sometime and yet he knows not whether he shall have another day or no. It 's plain such a man doth not resolve at all to repent for he loves it not and that 's the reason he doth it not now and will still be as good a reason not to do it then but in truth all he resolves upon is not to repent now or to drive it off yet longer and that 's no resolution at all to repent What folly is it to drive off our Repentance till we be scourged and lash'd unto it If we make not haste of our selves and God have yet any kindness left in store for us he will whip us to it If we will not otherwise awake out of sleep God if he have not already determin'd we shall sleep on unto death will awake us with his Rod. And whether had the Prodigal better have staid in his Father's House and continued in his Love and under his constant Care and Providence by obeying him at first or have wandred abroad as he did till extreme want and ill usage drove him home If we will be saved we must repent and is it not a very foolish thing to stay till the whip drive us to it Especially when 't is doubtful whether or no the Repentance which begins in Fear will end in Love which yet if it do not it will never bring us to Salvation And now after all this I hope none will be so foolish as to flatter themselves with a vain conceit of their being Penitents when they are not or to encourage themselves with as vain hopes of repenting hereafter whereof they can have no certainty We find indeed one Example of a dying Penitent in the Scripture who was accepted of God and we find no more but one that of the Thief upon the Cross. But alas he hath afforded but very small Encouragement to any delaying Sinner by his own happiness in being crucified by the side of his Saviour Here is as I said but one single Example and yet had there been ten thousand such as this one was I do not see how they could any more encourage a considering man to delay his Repentance one hour because no one knows whether after that hour he shall have so much time as that Malefactor had to Repent in tho it was very short or whether in that short time he shall repent as he did Had never any Offender but one been pardon'd by any King could this be any reasonable encouragement to all the Rebels and Malefactors in the Countrey to hold on rebelling robbing stealing murthering and committing all sorts of capital Crimes in hopes of a Pardon only because once it fell out that some such Offender was pardon'd Indeed it will follow hence that such a Pardon may possibly be obtain'd because it was obtain'd but it follows not that it may ordinarily or probably be obtain'd because it never was any more than once obtain'd that we know of Besides This is indeed an Example of a late Repentance and many Examples of a late Repentance there are besides this though hardly another of one so late but we are not sure it is an Example of a delayed Repentance for we cannot find that this late Penitent ever one minute delayed his Repentance after he was called to it and convinced that it was his duty And indeed seeing this man's case was very extraordinary he that would encourage himself by it ought first to see that his own Case in all considerable circumstances be like unto it If any one ask What course is to be taken by those who have long delay'd their Repentance but are not yet in appearance near unto death I know not what better Advice to give him than this That he delay it no longer but make all the haste that possibly he can to repent now And by how much the more time he hath already lost let him use so much the more care and diligence to improve that little which is yet behind to his best advantage Such an one had need to give himself in a manner wholly henceforward to this great Work and should not suffer any business that he can well shun to disturb him in it He should not now grudge to pinch himself of time in relation to all bodily and worldly Concerns as much as he did God and his own Soul before or to bestow as much upon these if he can possibly as he used to do upon those No self-examination no humiliation no prayers no tears no striving to do good can be too much He had need to do almost nothing else but bewail his sinful life denying himself all the Pleasures and all the Comforts of this World save only the necessary supports of life This seems to me the least he can do to satisfy himself of the sincerity of so late a Repentance or to lay a foundation for a comfortable hope of God's acceptance I shall now conclude the whole Discourse with those words Isa. LV. 6 7. Seek ye the Lord while he may be found call ye upon him while he is near Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy and to our God for he will abundantly pardon FINIS