DISCOURSE I. 57 and distraction is this What sottish inconsistency is found in the heart and practice of sinful men ; Eccles.. ix. 3. " The heart of the sons of men is full of evils madness is in their heart while they live, and after that, they go down to the dead." O that these loiterers would once consider, that time loiters. not ! days and hours, months and years loiter not ; each of them flies away with swiftest wing, as fast as succession admits of, and bears them onward to the goal or eternity. If they delay and linger, among toys and shadows, time knows no delay ; and they will one day learn by bitter experience, what substantial, impor- tant, and eternal blessings they have lost by their criminal and shameful waste of time. The apostle Peter assures them ; 2 Pet. ii. 3. Though they slumber and sleep in a. lethargy of sin, so that you cannot awaken them, yet " their judgment linger. title not, and their damnation slumbereth not." The awful mo- went is hastening upon them, which shall teach them terribly the true value of. time. Then they would give all the golden plea- sures, and the riches, and the grandeur of this world, to pur- chase one short day more, or one hour of time, wherein they might repent, and return to God, and get within the reach of hope and salvation : But time, and salvation, and hope are all vanished, and fled, and gone out of their reach, for ever. Reflection IV. Learn, from such meditations as these, "the rich mercy of God, and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ in giving us so long a warning, before he swears that time shall be no more." Every stroke of sickness is .a warning- piece, that life is coming to its period : Every death amongst our friends and acquaintance is another tender and painful admonition, that our death also is at hand : The end of every week and every dawning sabbath is another warning; every sermon we hear of the shortness of time and the uncertainty of life is a fresh intima- tion, that the great angel will shortly pronounce a period upon all our time. How inexcusable shall we be if we turn the deaf ear to all these warnings ? St. Peter advises us to " count the Zóng-suffering of the Lord for salvation." 2. Pet. iii. 15. and to secure our eternal safety, and our escape from hell during the season of his lengthened grace. Alas ! How long has Jesus, and his mercy, and his gospel waited on you, before you began to think of the things of your everlasting peace ? And if you are now solemnly awakened, yet how long has he waited on you, with fresh admonitions and with special providences, with mercies and judgments, with promises and invitations of grace, with threatenings and words of terror, and with the whispers and advises of his own Spirit, since you began to see your danger ? And, after all have you yet sincerely repented of sin ? Have you yet received the offered grace? Have you given up yourselves to the Lord, and laid hold of his
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