2. In point of obedience ; God presseth to now. God doth not only command us to please him, but to do it presently : Heb. iii. 7, 8, ' Now, while it is called to-day, harden not your hearts.' Pompilius the Pioman ambassador, when he made delays and excuses, the emperor drew a circle on the ground, saying, Intra hunc — answer me before thou stirrest from this place. God standeth upon his authority, and will have a present answer : if he say, To-day, it is flat disobedience for you to say, To-morrow. Now is the time of salvation, at this instant, 2 Cor. vi. 2. You are charged in his name, as you will answer the contrary. You say, No ; I will please the flesh a little longer. It may be just with God, if you refuse him, never to call you more.
3. In point of ingenuity : we receive a plenteous recompense for a small service. When a man thinketh what God hath provided for them that love him and serve him, he should be ashamed that he
408 SERMONS UPON MATTHEW XXV. [SeR. IX.
receives so ranch and does so little ; and therefore he should redeem all the time that he can, that he may answer his expectations from God. Shall we adjourn and put off God to our decrepid time, when he hath provided for us eternal happiness? Can a man that hath any ingenuity in his breast be content to dishonour God longer, grieve his Spirit longer, provided that at length he may be saved ? Those that have any due sense of God's kindness, or their own duty, will think God hath too long been kept out of his right, and that all the time that remaineth is too little to express our love and thankfulness to him, 1 Peter iv. 3. Men that do delay, do in effect say, Let me despise thy commands, and abuse thy mercy a little longer ; but then when my lusts are satisfied, and youthful heats are spent, I will see what I can do to be saved. What baseness of spirit is this !
4. It is our advantage to begin betimes, both here and hereafter.
[1.] Here. The sooner you begin to please God, the sooner you have an evidence of your interest in his favour, more experience of his love, more hopes of living with him in heaven. Oh ! these things are not slight things ! When once you come to taste the comfort of them you will be sorry that you had begun no sooner ; as Paul complaineth that he was ' born out of due time,' 1 Cor. xv. 8, because he lost the advantage of seeing Christ in the flesh, and so of many sweet confer- ences, and many sweet visits of love and experiences of grace, that otherwise might fall to his share : Kom. xvi. 7, f They were in Christ before me.' An early acquaintance with Christ bringeth many benefits with it, as peace, and comfort, and joy, and hope, which others that set forth later want. The consolations of God should not be vile and cheap with us : if you were acquainted with them you would leave your husks for bread in your Father's house:
[2.] The sooner you begin with God the greater will your glory be hereafter, for the more we improve our talents here, the greater will our reward be in heaven : Luke xix. 16-19, 'And he said unto him, Well done, thou good servant ; because thou hast been faithful in a little, have thou authority over ten cities. And the second came, and said, Lord, thy pound hath gained five pounds : and he said likewise to him, Be thou also over five cities/ And when the mother of Zebedee's children came to Christ, and desired that her two sons might sit, one at his right hand, and the other at his left, Mat. xx. 23, Christ doth not deny the thing, that there are degrees of glory, set forth by sitting on the right hand, and on the left; but telleth her that it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of his Father ; as in hell there is a hotter and cooler judgment. Certainly then they that have long pleased God, and made it the whole business of their lives, shall have larger measures of happiness.
Use. Is to reprove those that adjourn and put off the work of religion from time to time, till they have lost all time. It is Satan's artifice to cheat men of the present opportunity, by promises of a future obedience. Oh ! consider the work is much, and life is short. If we did live as many years as days, all would be little enough ; therefore let us begin betimes. There are three arguments to press this. If this work must be once done, why not now? your hearts will not be better, nor the terms less.
VEKS. 11, 12.] SERMONS UPON MATTHEW XXV. 409
1. Your hearts are not like to be better ; for the longer we continue in sin, the heart is the more hardened. As the highway by continual treading groweth the harder, and the anvil by continual smiting is hardened the more, so long use in sin obdureth the heart, and long resistance grieveth the Spirit, and carnal affections grow upon us : Jer. xiii. 23, ' Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots ? then may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil.' It is hard to transplant an old tree. The affections are now more settled in a course of sin.