Then advantages in point of service. What honour might we have brought to God, what good done to others, if we had begun sooner ! Oh, saith one, had I but the time to spend again which I trifled away in the devil's service ! What use might I have made of the vigour and freshness of my youth, and quickness of my parts for God, and the large tract of time which I spent in sin and vanity ! Every day in a carnal state was a loss of opportunity of service, the glorifying of God, the great end for which you were made.
Reas. 3. There is danger and hazard in delay and putting ofi" a business of such concernment, as conversion to God and his ways is, upon such uncertainties. For the understanding of the force of this reason —
1. Let us determine that this is a business of the greatest concern- ment, and that will show us the folly of our delays, for certainly the greatest work should first l)e thought of. Now if you will believe the word of God, that will tell you the salvation of your souls should be your main care : Mat. vi. 33, ' Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,' &c. ; Ps. xxvii. 4, ' One thing have I desired of the
138 SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. [SeR. LXVII.
Lord, and that will I seek after,' &c. Whatever is neglected, this is a business that must be looked after. And Luke x. 42, ' One thing is needful.' Let us argue from these places. Certainly that which is necessary should be preferred before that which is superfluous. A man would take care to get meat rather than sauce, and would prefer his business before his recreation, that which is eternal before that which is temporal. It is not necessary we should be great and rich in the world. Within a little while it will not be a pin to choose what part we have acted here. But it is necessary we should be gracious, holy, and acquainted with God in Christ ; that is our business. Again, that which is eternal should be preferred before that which is temporal. You count him a fool that is very exact and careful to get his room in an inn furnished, when he neglects his house where his constant abode is. In the other world there is our long home ; and if all our care should be here for the present estate, where we tarry but for a night, but a little while, and neglect eternity, our everlasting happiness, that were a very great folly. That which is spiritual, which concerns our soul, should be preferred before that which is carnal and corporal, and only concerns the body, for the better part should have the most care. As for instance, a man that is wounded and cut through his clothes and skin and all, will sooner look to have the wound closed up in his body than the rent made up in his garment. So the distempers of the inward man should be first cured before we look after the oiitward man, which is as it were the garment and clothing, for these outward things shall be added. Here is your work, to please God, not satisfy the flesh. This is that which concerns us not only for a while but for ever, and concerns the inward man. This is the grand business of concernment ; therefore we should delay other things rather than delay the work of our salvation ; yet usually all other things have a quick despatch, and this only is neglected and lies by the wall.
2. That this business of concernment is left upon great hazard and uncertainty.
[1.] Life is uncertain. He that does seriously consider the uncer- tain shortness of the present life, how can he delay a moment, lest he be called home to God before his great errand for which he was sent into the world be done ? Many of you, when you seriously think of it, would not for a thousand worlds die the next day so unprovided, unfurnished with promises, evidences, experiences ; and yet it may be so that that may be the time when they shall be called home to God. This life is but ' a vapour,' James iv. 4, a little warm breath turned in and out by the nostrils, that is soon choked and stopped ; and ' thou knowest not what will be on the morrow,' Prov. xxvii. 1. As that devout person said when he was invited to a meal the next day, to come to-morrow to a feast, I have not had a morrow for these many years. We have no security for the next day but our own word, and he that hath nothing but his own word to secure him is very weakly secured. Life is short, and we make it shorter by continuing in sin. It is uncertain : if there were a fixed time and period wherein we knew our continuance should be in the world, then we should be tempted to wallow freely in our carnal lusts, and entertain sin a little longer, and put off repentance till hereafter. But God hath left life upon
VeR. 60.] SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. 139