SERM. long ftruggling with manifold oppofitions and difficulties; XLVIII. whence the holy Scripture termeth our practice a warfare, wherein we are to fight many a bloody battle with moft redoubtable foes; a combat, which must be managed with our best skill and utmoft might; a race, which we must pass through with inceffant activity and swiftness. If therefore we mean to be good or to be happy, it behoveth us to lofe no time; to be presently up at our great task; to fnatch all occafions, to embrace all means incident of reforming our hearts and lives. As thofe, who have a long journey to go, do take care to fet out early, and in their way make good speed, left the night overtake them before they reach their homeb; fo it being a great way from hence to heaven, feeing we muft pafs over so many obftacles, through fo many paths of duty, before we arrive thither, it is expedient to fet forward as soon as can be, and to proceed with all expedition; the longer we stay, the more time we fall need, and the less we shall have. 3. We may confider, that no future time which we can fix upon will be more convenient than the present is for our reforination. Let us pitch on what time we please, we fhall be as unwilling and unfit to begin as we are now; we fhall find in ourselves the fame indifpofitions, the fame averseness, or the fame liftlefsnefs toward it, as now: there will occur the like hardships to deter us, and the like pleasures to allure us from our duty; objects will then be as prefent, and will strike as smartly upon our senses; the cafe will appear juft the fame, and the fame pretences for delay will obtrude themselves; fo that we shall be as apt then as now to prorogue the business. We fhall fay then, to-morrow I will mend; and when that morrow cometh, it will be still to-morrow, and fo the morrow will prove endless. If, like the simple ruftic, (who ftaid by the ὁ ̓Αλλ' ἄγε νῦν ἴσμεν, δὴ γὰρ μέμβλωκε μάλισα • Cras hoc fiet; idem cras fiet, &c. Qui non eft hodie, cras minus aptus erit. Hom. Οd. P. Perf. Sat. v. Ovid, de Rom. i. Epiæ. iv. 12. river-fide waiting till it had done running, fo that he might SERM. pass dry-foot over the channel,) we do conceit, that the XLVIII. fources of fin (bad inclinations within, and ftrong temptations abroad) will of themfelves be fpent, or fail, we shall find ourselves deluded". If ever we come to take up, we must have a beginning with fome difficulty and trouble; we must courageously break through the prefent with all its enchantments; we muft undauntedly plunge into the cold ftream; we must rouse ourselves from our bed of floth; we must shake off that brutifh improvidence, which detaineth us; and why should we not assay it now? There is the fame reafon now that ever we can have; yea, far more reason now; fr if that we now begin, hereafter at any determinate time, fome of the work will be done, what remaineth will be fhorter and easier to use. Nay, farther, 4. We may confider, that the more we defer, the more difficult and painful our work muft needs prove; every day will both enlarge our task and diminish our ability to perform it f. Sin is never at a stay; if we do not retreat from it, we shall advance in it; and the farther on we go, the more we have to come back; every step we take forward (even before we can return hither, into the state wherein we are at prefent) must be repeated; all the web we spin must be unravelled; we muft vomit up all we take in: which to do we shall find very tedious and grievous. Vice, as it groweth in age, so it improveth in stature and strength; from a puny child it foon waxeth a lufty ftripling, then rifeth to be a sturdy man, and after a while becometh a maffy giant, whom we shall scarce dare to encounter, whom we shall be very hardly able to vanquish; d qui reête vivendi prorogat horam, Rufticus expectat dum defluat amnis, at ille Labitur, et labetur in omne volubilis ævum. Hor. Ep. i. 2. • Εἰ μὲν λυσιτελὴς ἡ ὑπέρθεσίς ἐσιν, ἡ παντελὴς ἀπόφασις αὐτῆς ἐσι λυσιτελέσερα. Epia. iv. 12. 1 For the fame reason we put it off, we should put it away. If it be good at all, it is good at prefent. f Παρὰ τὸ σήμερον ἁμαρτηθὲν εἰς τἄλλα χεῖρον ἀνάγκη σοι τὰ πράγματα ἔχειν. Epia. iv. 12. SER M. efpecially feeing that as it groweth taller and ftouter, fo XLVIII. we shall dwindle and prove more impotent; for it feedeth upon our vitals, and thriveth by our decay; it waxeth mighty by stripping us of our best forces, by enfeebling our reafon, by perverting our will, by corrupting our temper, by debafing our courage, by feducing all our appetites and paffions to a treacherous compliance with itself: every day our mind groweth more blind, our will more refty, our spirit more faint, our appetites more fierce, our pasfions more headstrong and untameables; the power and empire of fin do strangely by degrees encroach, and continually get ground upon us, till it hath quite fubdued and enthralled us. First we learn to bear it; then we come to like it; by and by we contract a friendship with it; then we dote upon it; at last we become enslaved to it in a bondage, which we fhall hardly be able, or willing, to shake off; when not only our necks are fitted to the yoke, our hands are manacled, and our feet shackled thereby; but our heads and hearts do conspire in a base fubmiffion thereto : when vice hath made fuch impreffion on us, when this pernicious weed hath taken fo deep root in our mind, will, and affections, it will demand an extremely toilfome labour to extirpate it. Indeed, by continuance in fin, the chief means (afforded by nature, or by grace) of restraining or reducing us from it, are either cut off, or enervated and rendered ineffectual. Natural modefty, while it lafteth, is a curb from doing ill; men in their firft deflexions from virtue are bashful and fhyh; out of regard to other men's opinion, and tenderness of their own honour, they are afraid or ashamed to transgress plain rules of duty: but in process, this difpofition weareth out; by little and little they arrive to Falfis opinionibus tanto quifque inferitur, quanto magis in eis familiariufque volutatur. Aug. Ep. 117. * Μέγισον πρὸς ἀρετὴν βοήθημα ἡ αἰδώς. Greg. Νaz. Οr. 26. —nam quis Peccandi finem pofuit fibi, quando recepit Juv. Sat. 18. Ifa. xlviii. 4. that character of the degenerate Jews, whom the Pro- SERM. phets call impudent children, having a brow of brafs, and XLVIII. faces harder than a rock; so that they commit fin with Ezek. ii. 4. open face, and in broad day, without any mask, without ii. 7; a blush; they despise their own reputation, and defy all Jer. v. 3. cenfure of others; they outface and outbrave the world, Prov, xxi. till at length, with prodigious infolence, they come to boast of wickedness, and glory in their fhame, as an in- Phil. iii. 19. stance of high courage and special gallantry. Conscience is a check to beginners in fin, reclaiming them from it, and rating them for it: but this in long ftanders becometh useless, either failing to discharge its office, or affaying it to no purpose; having often been flighted, it will be weary of chiding; or, if it be not wholly dumb, we shall be deaf to its reproofi: as thofe, who live by cataracts or downfalls of water, are, by continual noise, so deafened, as not to hear or mind it; so shall we in time grow senseless, not regarding the loudest peals and rattlings of our confcience. 29. iii. 7. xxxvi. 13. The heart of a raw novice in impiety is fomewhat ten- (Ezek. ii. 4. der and soft, so that remorse can pierce and fting it; his Neh.ix. 29. neck is yielding and fenfible, so that the yoke of fin doth 2 Chron. gall it but in ftout proficients the heart becometh hard Dan.v. 20.) and ftony, the neck ftiff and brawny; (an iron finew, as Ifa. xlviii. the Prophet termeth it;) fo that they do not feel or resent + any thing; but are like those, of whom St. Paul speaketh, οἵτινες ἀπηλγηκότες, who being paft feeling all forrow or Quo quis smart, have given themselves over unto lafciviousness, to pejus fe hawork all uncleannefs with greediness. When firft we nibble at the bait, or enter into bad courses, our reafon doth conteft and remonftrate against it, faithfully representing to us the folly, the uglinefs, the baseness, the manifold ill confequences of finning; but that, by continuance, is muffled, fo as not to discern, or muzzled, so as not to declare; yea, often is fo debauched as to excufe, to avow, and maintain, yea, to applaud and extol our miscarriages. i Ψυχὴ ἅπαξ ἁμαρτίας γευσαμένη καὶ ἀναλγήτως διατεθεῖσα πολλὴν παρέχει cê vochμarı ràv xgordany, &c. Chryf. Tom. Orat. 64, bet, minus fentit. Sen. Ep. 53. SERM. For a time a man retaineth fome courage, and a hope XLVIII. that he may repent; but progrefs in fin difpiriteth and cafteth into defpair, whether God be placable, whether himfelt be corrigible: an apprehenfion concerning the length of the way, or the difficulty of the work, discourageth; and defpondency rendereth him heartless and careless to attempt it. There is no man that hath heard of God, who hath not at first fome dread of offending him, and fome diffatisfaction in tranfgreffing his will; it appearing to his mind, not yet utterly blinded and depraved, a defperate thing to brave his irrefiftible power, an abfurd thing to thwart his infallible wisdom, a deteftable thing to abuse his immenfe goodness: but obstinacy in fin doth quash this confcientious awe; so that at length Pfal. x. 4. God is not in all his thoughts, the fear of God is not before his eyes; the wrath of the Almighty feemeth a bugbear, the fierceft menaces of religion found but as rattles to him. xxxvi. 1. As for the gentle whispers and touches of divine grace, the monitory difpenfations of Providence, the good advices and wholesome reproofs of friends, with the like means of reclaiming finners; these to perfons fettled Jer. xlviii. on their lees, or fixed in bad cuftom, are but as gufts Zeph. i. 19, of wind brushing an old oak, or as waves dashing on a rock, without at all fhaking or stirring it. 11. 12. Now when any person is come to this pass, it must be hugely difficult to reduce him; to retrieve a deflowered modefty, to quicken a jaded conscience, to supple a callous heart, to refettle a baffled reason, to rear a dejected courage, to recover a foul miferably benumbed and broken, to its former vigour and integrity, can be no easy matter. The diseases of our foul, no less than those of our body, when once they are inveterate, they are become near incurable; the longer we forbear to apply due remedy, the more hard their cure will prove: if we let them proceed far, we muft, ere we can be rid of them, undergo a course of phyfic very tedious and offenfive to us; many a rough purge, many a fore phlebotomy, |