OJ Repentance. 97 facraments, without amendment of life ; S E R M. this is nothing but hypocrify, it is mocking IV. God and deceiving our own fouls. `'ßr1 Secondly, It mull be extreme folly and in- finitely dangerous, to delay the neceffary work of repentance till the approach of death. This general perfuafion is fix'd in the minds of men, that repent they mull fome time or other, fnce without it their deftruElion is inevitable. But through the deceitfulnefs of fin their hearts are fo har- den'd, and their affections fo obflinately cleave to their vitious courfes and worldly interells, they incline to put off that work, which however confeffedly neceffary, yet is difagreeable, to a more convenient feafon; and the moll convenient they can pitch upon is, when they mull leave this world, and the pleafures of fin can be no longer held. A great many arguments might be infifled on, to Phew the abfurdity of fuch a conduc`l. Any one that confiders the mutability of hu- man affairs, the uncertainties to which they are liable, particularly the life of man ; our own obfervation furnifhing a multitude of inflances of men dying without any oppor- tunity, or even pofi'ibility, of preparing for VOL. I. H death ;
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=