And thus every one, as their state and condition is, they have several pre- tences and excuses. Those that are young, their excuse is, we have time enough for these things hereafter. Others, as those that were negligent to build the second temple, ' the time is not yet, say they,' Hag. i. 2 ; whenas the uncertainty of this life of ours, the weightiness of the business, the danger of the custom of sin, the engaging of our hearts deeper and deeper into the world, makes it a more difficult thing to be a Chi'istian. It more.
Cant. V. 3.] * i have put off my coat.' 89
and more darkens our understanding, the more we sin ; and the more it estrangeth oui" affections from good things, the more we have run out in an evil course. Time is a special mercy ; but then thou hast not time only, but the means, good company, and good motions. Thou mayest never have such a gale again ; thy heart may be hardened through the deceitful- ness of sin. Again, who would want the comforts of religion for the present ? As Austin saith, ' I have wanted thy sweetness too long.'='^ What foUy is it to want the sweetness and comfort of religion, so long as we may have it.
Some others pretend, the uncomfortableness of religion, I shall want my comforts ; whenas indeed there is no sound comfort without having our hearts in a perfect communion with Christ, walking with God, and breaking ofi'fi-om om' evil courses. What is the reason of discomforts, unresolved- ness, and unsettledness ? when we know not where we are, whither we go, or what our condition is. Unsettledness breeds discomfort ; and indeed there is no pleasure so much as the pleasm-e that the serving of God hath with it. As the fire hath light and heat always in it, so there is no holy action that we perform throughly, but as it hath an increase of strength, so there is an increase of comfort and joy annexed to it. There is a pre- sent reward annexed to all things that are spii'itually good. They carry with them present peace and joy. The conscience hath that present com- fort which consumes all discouragements whatsoever, as is always found in the experience of that soul that hath won so much of itself, as to break through discouragements to the practice of holy duties. Believers have a joy and comfort ' that others know not of,' Rev. ii. 7 ; an hidden kind of manna and contentment.
These and a thousand such Uke discom'agements men frame to them- selves : ' My health will not serve,' ' I shall endanger my life.' ' There is a hon in the way,' saith the sluggard, Prov. xxvi. 13, who, with his excuses, ' thinks himself wiser than the wisest in the city,' verse 16. There is none so wise as the sluggard, for beUy-policy teach- eth him a great many excuses, which he thinks will go for wisdom, because by them he thinks to sleep in a whole skin. He is but a slug- gard for all that ; and though he plead ' yet a little while,' poverty, not only outward, but spiritual poverty and barrenness of soul, ' will come upon him as an armed man,' Prov. vi. 11, and leave him destitute of grace and comfort, when he shall see at last what an evil com-se of life he hath led, that he hath yielded so much to his lazy flesh to be drawn away by dis- couragements from duties that he was convinced were agi'eeable to the word. Now, what may be the grounds and causes of these false pretences and ex- cuses which hinder us from holy duties ? There be many causes.
1. First of aU, one cause of this in us is this: Naturally, so far as we are not guided by a better spirit than our own, ice are inclined too much to the eaHhhj present things of tJiis life, because they are present and pleasant, and we are nuzled upf in them, and whatsoever pulls us from them is un- welcome to us. This is one ground.
2. Again, join with this, that naturally, since the fall, the soul of man having lost wisdom to guide it to that which is tnily good, hath wit enough left to devise untoward shifts, I to excuse that which is evil. In this fallen estate the former abihties to devise things throughly good is turned to a matter of untoward wit, joined with shifting. § ' God made man right, but
* ' Confessions,' Book X. [xxvii.], 38. ' Too late loved I thee. 0 thou beauty of ancient days, yet ever new ! too late I loved thee.' — G. t That is, ' nestled.' — G X That is, ' expedients.' — G. g That is, ' expediency.' — G..
90 BOWELS OPENED. [SeEMON VII.
he hath sought out many inventions,* Eccles. vii. 29. Carnal wit serves carnal will very well ; and carnal lusts never want an advocate to plead for them, namely, carnal reason. From the bent, therefore, of the soul to ill things, pleasure, ease, and honour, such a condition as pleaseth the out- ward man since the fall, the bent and weight of the soul goeth this way, to- gether with wit. Having lost the image of God in holy wisdom, there is shifting. This is a ground also why delays are joined with shifts.