_Direct._ I. Remember that it is the great difference between the happy saint and the unhappy world, that one is wise in time, and the other is wise too late. The godly know while knowledge will do good: the wicked know when knowledge will but torment them. All those that you see now so exceedingly contrary in their judgment to the godly, will be of the very same opinion shortly, when it will do them no good. Bear with their difference and contradiction, for it will be but a very little while. There is not one man that now is the furious enemy of holiness, but will confess ere long that holiness was best. Do they now despise it as tedious, fantastical hypocrisy? They will shortly know that it was but the cure of a distracted mind, and the necessary duty to God, which religion and right reason do command. Do they now say of sin, What harm is in it? They will shortly know that it is the poison of the soul, and worse than any misery or death. They will think more highly of the worth of Christ, of the necessity of all possible diligence for our souls, of the preciousness of time, of the wisdom of the godly, of the excellencies of heaven, and of the word of God and all holy means, than any of those do that are now reproached by them, for being of this mind. But what the better will they be for this? No more than Adam for knowing good and evil. No more than it will profit a man when he is dead, to know of what disease he died. No more than it will profit a man to know what is poison, when he hath taken it, and is past remedy. The thief will be wise at the gallows; and the spendthrift prodigal when all is gone. But they that will be safe and happy, must be wise in time. The godly know the worth of heaven, before it is lost; and the misery of damnation, before they feel it; and the necessity of a Saviour, while he is willing to be a Saviour to them; and the evil of sin, before it hath undone them; and the preciousness of time, before it is gone; and the worth of mercy, while mercy may be had; and the need of praying, while praying may prevail. They sleep not till the door is shut, and then knock and cry, Lord, open to us, as the foolish ones, Matt. xxv. They are not like the miserable world, that will not believe, till they come where devils believe and tremble; nor repent, till torment force them to repent. As ever you would escape the dear-bought experience of fools, be wise in time; and leave not conscience to answer all your cries, and moans, and fruitless wishes, with this doleful peal, Too late! too late! Do but know now by an effectual faith, what wicked men will know by feeling and experience, when it is too late, and you shall not perish. Do but live now as those enemies of holiness will wish that they had lived when it is too late, and you will be happy. Now God may be found: "Seek the Lord while he may be found, and call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon," Isa. lv. 6, 7. Read but the doleful lamentation of Christ over Jerusalem, Luke xix. 41, 42; and then bethink you, what it is to neglect the season of mercy and salvation: "He beheld the city and wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! But now they are hidden from thine eyes!"
_Direct._ II. Remember that the neglecting of the season is the frustrating and destroying of the work. When the season is past, the work cannot be done. If you sow not in the time of sowing, it will be in vain at another time. If you reap not, and gather not in harvest, it will be too late in winter to hope for fruit. If you stay till the tide is gone, or take not the wind that fits your turn, it may be in vain to attempt your voyage. All works cannot be done at all times: Christ himself saith, "I must work while it is day: the night cometh when no man can work," John ix. 4. Say not then, The next day may serve the turn: the next day is for another work; and you must do both.
_Direct._ III. Consider that if the work should not be impossible, yet it will be difficult out of season; when in its season it might be done with ease. How easily may you swim with the tide; and sail with the wind; and form the iron if you hammer it while it is hot! How easily may many a disease be cured, if it be taken in time, which afterwards is uncurable! How easily may you bend a tender twig, and pluck up a plant, which will neither be plucked up nor bended when it is grown up to be a tree! When you complain of difficulties in religion, bethink you whether your loss of the fittest season, and acquainting yourselves no sooner with God, be not the cause?