FIFTY REASONS. 229 the Holy Ghost, "Whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not." You may slumber, and that so carelessly, that we cannot awake you, but your damnation slumbereth not, nor hath done of a long time, while you thought it slumbered; and when it comes, it will awaken you. As a man that is in a coach on the road, or in a boat on the water, whatever he is speaking, or thinking, or doing, he is still going on, and hastening to his journey's end, or going down the stream; so whatever you think, or speak, or do, whether you believe it, or mock at it, whether you sleep or wake, whether you remember it or forget it, you are hastening to destruction, and you are every day a day nearer to it than before. " Behold the Judge standeth before the door." The Holy Ghost hath told you, " the Lord is at hand." " The day is at hand; the time is at hand; the end of all things is at hand." Rom. xiii. 12. Rev. xxii. 10. 1 Pet. iv. 7. "Behold, saith the Lord, I come quickly, and my reward is with me, to give to every man according as his work shall be." And do you, as it were, see the Judge approaching, and yet will you delay? And withal consider, that when it comes, it will be most sore to such as you; and then what thoughts do you think you shall have of these delays? You are unable to conceive how it will torment your consciences, when you see that all your hopes are gone, to think to what you have brought yourselves by your trifling. To feel yourselves in remediless misery, and remember how long the remedy was offered you, and you delayed to use it till it was too late. To see that you are for ever shut out of heaven, and remember that you might have had it as well as others, but you lost it by delay. 0 then it will come with horror into your mind, How often was I persuaded, and told of this?' How often had I inward motions to return? How often did I purpose to be holy, and to give up my heart and life to God? I was even ready to have yieldedl but I still delayed, and now it is too late.
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