SERM. the Almighty, who can at his pleasure crush us; we lie XLVIII. under a fatal plague, which, if we do not seasonably re pent, will certainly destroy us; we incur the most dreadful of all hazards, abiding in the confines of death and deftruction; God frowning at us, guilt holding us, hell gap-· ing for us: every finner is, according to the Wife Man's Prov. xxiii. expreffion, as he that lieth down in the midst of the fea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a maft. And he that is in fuch a cafe, is he not mad or fenfelefs, if he will not forthwith labour to swim out thence, or make all speed to get down into a fafer place? Can any man with comfort lodge in a condition fo difmally ticklish? 34. 2. We may confider, that, in order to our final welfare, we have much work to dispatch, the which requireth as earnest care and painful induftry, so a competent long time; which, if we do not presently fall on, may be wanting, and thence our work be left undone, or imperfect. To conquer and correct bad inclinations, to render our fenfual appetites obfequious to reafon, to compose our paffions into a right and steady order, to cleanse our souls from vanity, from perverfeness, from floth, from all vicious distempers, and in their room to implant firm habits of virtue; to get a clear knowledge of our duty, with a ready difpofition to perform it; in fine, to season our minds with holy affections, qualifying us for the presence of God, and conversation with the blessed spirits above; these are things that must be done, but cannot be done in a trice; it is not dictum factum, as foon done as faid; but Rom. ii. 7. úπoμový pyov ảyadov, a patient continuance in well doing, is needful to achieve it; for it no time can be redundant; the longest life can hardly be fufficient: Art is long, and life is short, may be an aphorism in divinity as well as in phyfic; the art of living well, of preserving our soul's health, and curing its diftempers, requireth no less time to compafs it, than any other art or science. Οὐ καθεύδει σιν ἡμῖν χου ρηγεῖ βοήθεια αν ὁ Θεὸς, ἀλλὰ πονου Virtue is not a mushroom, that springeth up of itself in one night, when we are asleep, or regard it not; but a delicate plant, that groweth flowly and tenderly, needing Chryf. ad much pains to cultivate it, much care to guard it, much μένοις. Eph. λογ. iftud pa tam facile 1. time to mature it, in our untoward foil, in this world's SERM. unkindly weather: happiness is a thing too precious to be XLVIII. purchased at an easy rate; heaven is too high to be come at without much climbing; the crown of blifs is a prize too noble to be won without a long and a tough conflict. Neither is vice a fpirit, that will be conjured down by a charm, or with a presto driven away; it is not an adversary, that can be knocked down at a blow, or dispatched with a ftab. Whoever fhall pretend that at any time, O quam eafily, with a celerity, by a kind of legerdemain, or by any rum pumysterious knack, a man may be fettled in virtue, or con tant quibus verted from vice, common experience abundantly will cou- videtur! fute him; which fheweth, that a habit otherwife (fetting miracles afide) cannot be produced or deftroyed, than by a conftant exercite of acts fuitable or oppofite thereto; and that such acts cannot be exercised without voiding all impediments, and framing all principles of action, (such as temper of body, judgment of mind, influence of custom,) to a compliance; that who by temper is peevish or choleric, cannot, without mastering that temper, become patient or meek; that who from vain opinions is proud, cannot, without confidering away thofe opinions, prove humble; that who by cuftom is grown intemperate, cannot, without weaning himself from that cuftom, come to be fober; that who, from the concurrence of a sorry nature, fond conceits, mean breeding, and scurvy usage, is covetous, cannot, without draining all thofe fources of his fault, be turned into liberal. The change of our mind is one of the greatest alterations in nature, which cannot be compassed in any way, or within any time we please; but it must proceed on leisurely and regularly, in such order, by such steps, as the nature of things doth permit; it must be wrought by a refolute and laborious perfeverance; by a watchful application of mind, in voiding prejudices, in waiting for advantages, in attending to all we do; by forcible wrefting our nature from its bent, and swimming against the current of impetuous defires; by a patient difentangling ourselves from practices most agreeable and familiar to us; by a wary fencing with temptations, by 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 most redoubtable foes; a combat, which must be managed with our best skill and utmost 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 snatch 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 set out early, and in their way make good speed, left the night overtake them before they reach their homeb; so it being a great way from hence to heaven, feeing we muft pafs over fo many obftacles, through fo many paths of duty, before we arrive thither, it is expedient to fet forward as foon as can be, and to proceed with all expedition; the longer we stay, the more time we fhall need, and the lefs we fhall 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 shall be as unwilling and unfit to begin as we are now; we shall find in ourselves the fame indifpofitions, the fame averfeness, 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 fenses; 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 endlefs c. If, like the simple ruftic, (who ftaid by the ῦ ̓Αλλ ̓ ἄγε νῦν ἴομεν, δὴ γὰρ μέμβλωκε μάλισα Hom. Od. P. Perf. Sat. v. Ovid, de Rom. i. Epia. iv. 12. river-fide waiting till it had done running, so 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 themselves be spent, 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 present 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 brutish improvidence, which detaineth us; and why should we not affay it now? There is the fame reafon now that ever we can have; yea, far more reason now; for 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 ftature and strength; from a puny child it foon waxeth a lusty 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 recte vivendi prorogat horam, Rufticus expectat dum defluat amnis, at ille Labitur, et labetur in omne volubilis ævum. Hor. Ep. i. 2. e Εἰ μὲν λυσιτελὴς ἡ ὑπέρθεσίς ἐσιν, ἡ παντελὴς ἀπόφασις αὐτῆς ἐσι λυσιτελέσερα. Epia. iv. 12. For the fame reason we put it off, we should put it away. If it be good at all, it is good at prefent. † Παρὰ τὸ σήμερον ἁμαρτηθὲν εἰς τἄλλα χεῖρον ἀνάγκη σοι τὰ πράγματα ἔχειν. Epia. iv. 12. SER M. especially seeing that as it groweth taller and stouter, so XLVIII. we shall dwindle and prove more impotent; for it feedeth upon our vitals, and thriveth by our decay; it waxeth mighty by ftripping us of our best forces, by enfeebling our reason, 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 resty, our spirit more faint, our appetites more fierce, our paffions 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 shall 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 afhamed to tranfgrefs plain rules of duty: but in procefs, this difpofition weareth out; by little and little they arrive to g Falfis opinionibus tanto quisque inseritur, quanto magis in eis familiariuíque volutatur. Aug. Ep. 117. * Μέγισον πρὸς ἀρετὴν βοήθημα ἡ αἰδώς. Greg. Naz. Οr. 26. |