Application —
[If now you are not convinced that the time past is suffi- cient for such a course, I beg leave to ask. What time you' will think sufficient? I presume you will not say, that the whole life is to be spent in such a way : I conceive that no one is so blind, but that he will acknowledge that God ought to be served at some time or other ; and that, at some time or other, the concerns of the soul ought to occupy the mind. Even those who die by the hands of the public executioner confess, that some preparation is .desirable for them, before they enter into the presence of their God. What time then will you agree to be sufficient to work the will of the Gentiles; and when v.ill you account it reasonable to begin to fulfil the will of God ? Will you say. Twenty years hence ; or. Forty years hence ? Such a period as that may surely be acknow- ledged latitude enough, even for the youngest amongst us. But, if you will go to those who have served the world and their own lusts for twenty or forty years, you will not find them at all more ready to turn to God, than they were the first moment that they entered on that course. On the con- trary, the longer they have lived in sin, the more rooted are their lusts, and the more inveterate their liabits : their con- sciences, ' Rom, ii. 14.