5. It is great injustice and injury to God, who hath been too long kept out of his right already. Oh, look back ! How ungratefully have you spent all your former time ! Too much time hath been spent already, and you would delay longer : 1 Peter iv. 3, ' The time past may more than suffice to have wrought the will of the Gentiles,' &c. It is enough, and should be more than enough, and now you should not stay a moment. As those that have delayed their journey, when they begin and set out, mend their pace that they may redeem their time and accomplish their journey ; so should we, for the time past is more than enough to be spent in worldly vanity and carnal excess : Kom. xiii. 11-14, 'It is high time to awake out of sin.' God hath been encroached upon for a long time, and that should and will be a grief of heart to you, that you have not all this while acknowledged or paid your debt to your lord. The thought of this should prevail with us the more, because the payment of a debt to a man should not be delayed, to put off a poor man till to-morrow ' when thou hast it by thee,' Prov. iii. 28 ; and the wages of a servant should not abide with us, Lev. xix. 13. We are not to defraud a poor servant, nor to delay him, but to make him quick payment ; and shall we defraud our great Creator of the debt we owe to him, and put him off" from day to day ?
Use 2. To exhort us with speed to turn to the Lord, and to comply •with his motions. Let us not put off God from day to day. I shall
VeR. 60.] SERMONS UPON PSALM CXIX. 147
urge it — (1.) As to the general case ; (2.) As to particular duties which are pressed upon you.
First, As to the general case, Oli ! go and bethink yourselves, how- do matters stand between God and thy soul ? Debate it seriously, that if you have neglected God and his salvation already, you may now turn to him without delay. Let me press you further.
1. You can never part with sin soon enough ; it is a cursed inmate, that will surely bring mischief upon the soul that harbours it. It will set its own dwelling on fire. If there be a mote in the eye, a thorn in the foot, we take them out without delay ; and is not sin a greater mischief, and sooner to be looked into and parted with ? Certainly the evil of sin is greater than all evil, and hereafter the trouble will be greater ; therefore we can never soon enough part with it.
2. Let this move you : sin must have a quick despatch, and shall not God ? It would defeat temptations if we would but delay them, it Avould stop the furies of anger, and suppress the motions of lust. Augustus the emperor advised those who were angry to repeat the Greek alphabet, meaning that they might take time to consider. So for uncleanness and other sins ; if the practice and execution of many lusts were but delayed, we would not be so frequent in them as we are,, to the dishonour of God and scandal of religion. Pro v. vii. 22, it is said of the young man enticed by the harlot, that ' forthwith he went after her.' When our lusts are agog, all the checks of conscience and persuasions of the word will not prevail for a little respite. Now, shall sin have a more ready entertainment than God ? Will you rush upon the practice of sin like a horse into the battle, and come on in the service of God like a snail ? Will you be so eager and passionate upon the impulsion of every lust, and so hardly be entreated by the Spirit of God and by the word of God ?
3. If you be not ready, God is ready. How ready is he, on the one hand, to receive you, and, on the other hand, to punish you ! The one quickens us by hope, and the other* by fear. For the consideration which works upon hope, God is ready : Mat. xxii. 4, 5, ' Come to the wedding, all things are ready.' He hath a Christ ready to receive you, a Spirit ready to sanctify and cure all your soul distempers ; he hath pardoning mercy to forgive all your sins, he hath power of grace to remedy all your distempers ; and will not you be ready ? Luke xv. 20, the prodigal said, ' I will go to my father.' Mark his language, ' I will go ;' the father ran. When we do but relent, and with broken- ness of heart come and lie at the feet of God, love's pace is very swift, and runs to snatch us out of the fire ; therefore will you not be ready to cast yourselves into the arms of his compassion ? Cant. ii. 8, Christ is represented as ' leaping upon the mountains,* and skipping upon the hills.' Christ thinks he can never be soon and early enough with a returning sinner, to revive a poor broken-hearted sinner ; therefore, if God be so ready, so should you. On the other side, to work upon your fear, if you delay, God is ready to punish you. The wrath of God hangs over your heads like a sharp sword by a slender thread, and will you sit still and keep your place? 'The judge is at the door;' he is ready to judge, James v. 9. Are you ready to be judged ? God is ready to condemn, to execute, and are not you ready to implore mercy, to