^ It is reported that God should say to a man who desired to repent in his old age, Ubi conaumpsisti farinam, ibi consume/ur/urem : Where you have spent your flour, there go spend your bran, &c.
Heb. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 197
xii. 17; and remembering that there will be a time when thy glass will be out, and when the door will be shut, and when there will be no entrance at all, Luke xiii. 24, 27; and remembering that it is a safer course, with prudent Prometheus, to foresee a danger and shun it, than, with foolish Epimetheus, to go on unadvisedly and be punished ? i
Ah friends ! it is a dangerous thing to make repentance, which should be the practice of all your days, to be the task of old age. Doth not common experience tell us that the longer the ship leaketh, the harder it is to be emptied ; and that the longer the house goes to decay, the worse it is to repair ; and that the further the nail is driven, the harder it will be to get out ? and so certainly the longer any man defers his repentance, the more difficult it will be for him to repent ; his heart will every day grow more and more hard, and his will more and more perverse, and his judgment more and more corrupted, and his affec- tions more and more disordered, and his conscience more and more benumbed or enraged, and his whole life more and more defiled and debauched. Friends, do not deceive yourselves, old age is but a sad, a sandy, a tottering and sinking foundation for you to build your hopes and happiness upon — for you to build your everlasting condition, your eternal making or marring upon. Are the dog-days of old age, are the trembling hands, the wrinkled face, the dazzled eyes, the stinking lungs, the fainting heart, the feeble knees, and the failing legs — are these a sacrifice worthy of God ? is a body full of sores, aches, and dis- eases, and a soul full of sin, an offering becoming a God ? Surely no. Oh, what madness, what wickedness is this, to serve Satan, your lusts, and this world with full dishes, and to put off God with scraps ! to serve these in the flower, in the prime and primrose of your days, and to put off God with the dregs of old age ! Certainly repentance is rather a work for youth than old age, it is a work rather for strength than weakness, and for health than sickness.^ Oh, do not let Satan deceive you, do not let your own hearts delude you, but fall upon the work of repentance presently, knowing that as you have one day more to repent of, so you have one day less to repent in. What a piece of vanity is it, that while the ship is sound, the tackling sure, the pilot well, the sailors strong, provisions laid in, and the wind favourable, that the mariners and passengers should lie in the road,^ carding, drinking, dicing, dancing, and idling ; and when the ship is leak[y], the pilot sick, the mariners faint, provisions spent, and the winds boisterous, then to weigh anchors, and hoist up sail, to make a voyage into a far country 1 And yet such is the vanity of most men, who in the days of their youth, health, and strength, who when their memories are strong, and their fancies quick, and their reason ripe, &c., do sin away, and fool away, and trifle away the day of grace, the offers of mercy, the motions of the Spirit, and the entreaties of Christ ; and when old age comes, when their wits are cracked, their souls distracted,
^ What madness and folly is it for a man that hath many young, strong, stout horses, and a long journey to go, to let these pass by, and to lay up his carriage, and get him- self upon an old feeble jade that can hardly bear himself ! The application is easy, Mai. i. 13, 14.
* Spelled ' rode/ meaning ' a harbour for ships.' — G.
198 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RAKITY, [HeB. XII. 14.
their senses stupified, their hearts astonied, their minds darkened, and their bodies diseased and distempered, oh, then they think to leap into heaven, with a ' Lord have mercy upon me' in their mouths : and though they have Hved like devils, yet they hope they shall die like saints ; and though they never took no care of God's honour, yet they hope that God will take care of their souls ; but when the thread of their lives is cut, the next news that ever you shall hear of these is, that they are gone to hell.
I have read of a young man, who being admonished of the evil of his way and course, and being pressed to leave his wickedness, and to break off his sins by repentance, upon the consideration of judgment, eternity, and death a-coming : he answered, What do you tell me of these things ? I warrant you I will do well enough, for when death comes I wiU speak but three words, and that will help aU, and so he went on in his wickedness : but in the end coming to a bridge on horseback to go over a deep water, the horse stumbling, and he labour- ing to recover his horse, could not, but at last he let go the bridle, and gave up himself and his horse to the waters, and was heard to say these three words, ' Devil take all.' Here were three words with a witness ! And oh that aU that think to repent at last, with a ' Lord have mercy upon me,' would lay this instance to heart ! The light of thy Hfe may be put out before thou canst once say, Miserere mei Deus, Lord be merciful to me a sinner ! Though the chariot wheels run all the day long very near one another, yet they never overtake one another. Oh, take heed of delaying thy repentance, for the more thou delayest it, the more will thy account be increased, thy debt augmented, Satan strengthened, thy body enfeebled, thy lusts emboldened, thy soul endangered, and all the difficulties of conversion more and more multiplied. By delaying of thy repentance thou goest the way to gratify Satan, to cozen thyself, to lose the opportunities of grace, and to damn thy soul for ever and ever. Well, remember this, if thou wilt not repent to-day, God may swear in his wrath to-morrow, that thou shalt not enter into his rest ; and then woe to thee that ever thou wert born ! And thus much for the preventing of these sad mistakes about repentance, which mistakes keep oiff many a man from look- ing and labouring after that holiness without which there is no happiness.