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SERM. lot to all eternity. With such a conviction it would be almost impossible for them to continue in their sins, if they did not impose on themselves with the intention, and really make themselves believe, that they purpose one day to repent of all that is past, and live, or at least die, good Christians.

To shew the folly and danger of continuing in our sins, on this presumption, that we shall one day repent of them, and, for that reason, of delaying and putting off our repentance and reformation, shall be my endeavour in the following dis

course.

In the first place, so uncertain is human life, that we cannot promise to ourselves another day; there is no one of us, who has arrived at any age, who cannot recollect instances of some friend or acquaintance unexpectedly snatched away by death, who was as likely to have been alive at this time as himself. What has hap

pened

pened to others, we all know may happen SERM.

to ourselves.

Without repentance, our

Bible tells us, we cannot attain salvation; how absurd is it then to venture so great a stake on so desperate a chance as the continuance of human life!

We will grant, for a moment, that a man is in earnest in his design of repenting of his past sins, and living virtuously at some future time; we will suppose that he even fixes the very time; (for an intention of doing a thing one time or other without fixing when, can scarcely be called any intention at all) we will suppose then that he fixes the very time, let it be two years distant, or one year, or a month, nay, let it be only one day; let him seriously have determined and vowed, -' I ⚫ will repent and be virtuous to-morrow;' "Thou fool, this night shall thy soul be required of thee;" the sword of death is constantly hanging over thy head, how soon it will fall, God alone knows:-To

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SERM. day alone is thine; but to-day thou hast
XXIV. resolved to continue in thy sins; if then

thou livest not till to-morrow, what must
be thy fate to all eternity? We cannot
deny but this is possible, and if it be pos-
sible, how great is our folly to neglect the
opportunity which is in our power, for one
at which we may never arrive?

Even in this view, considering the uncer-
tainty of human life, and the possibility, nay
the probability, that we may never reach the
time which we have fixed for repentance,
to postpone it is highly absurd and ha-
zardous but there is yet another danger,
even if we do arrive at the time fixed on,
and that is, that we may not be then dis-
posed to put our design in execution. If
we find it so hard to part with our sins
now, we may be assured that the difficulty
will be greatly increased by delay; what
we have been long accustomed to do, we
never quit without much reluctance and
great efforts, and in proportion to the

XXIV.

length of time that we have practised any SERM. thing, reluctance to lay it aside will be greater, and our efforts must by consequence be increased: To repent and reform, may be easy now; sin, perhaps, is new to us; we are not yet confirmed in the habits of it: but if we go on and inure ourselves to it, to cast it off may not, and probably will not, be in our power.

The prophet Jeremiah represents the reformation of a sinner, accustomed to a long course of sinning, as so unlikely as to be impossible: Can the Ethiopian

"change his skin, or the leopard his spots,

1

then may ye also do good that are ac"customed to do evil:" not that there is any real impossibility in the case, but it is so very difficult, and happens, I fear, so very seldom, that it may almost be said never to happen at all.

Let us not then persuade ourselves that our sins will be less pleasing to us at some future

A a 3

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SERM. future time, than they are at present: habit will certainly have increased our attachment to them, and it will require an infinitely greater portion of self-denial to forsake them. It is much to be feared, that when the time arrives, at which we fixed to begin our repentance, we shall again find some excuse to postpone it to a distant day; and so we may go on con. tinually resolving, and continually lingering in our sins, till the hour of death arrives, puts a final period both to resolu tions and exertions, and irrevocably determines our condemnation.In the grave there is no repentance.-How shall we then condemn our folly, and execrate our weakness, for so absurdly neglecting the opportunities, which were our own, and trusting to one, which a little common reflection might have told us, we should never think arrived. In that banishment from the presence of God, which the wicked will suffer after death, the recollection of

their