IV. ened, their labours profpered in the Lord; SERM. and, after a distinguished course of piety and utility upon earth, may they experience the exultation which results from thefe delightful words, † Well done, thou good and faithful fervant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord! Amen! SERMON V. ON THE FOLLY OF PROCRASTINATION ECCLESIASTES xii. 1. Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them. SERM. THAT all mankind are finners; that, withV. out pardon and reconciliation with God, we must be eternally miserable; and that these cannot be procured, but by the fincere belief, and the confcientious practice of Christianity ;-all, who profess it, appear to acknowledge. The natural confequence of fuch fentiments is, that our duty and our interest concur in perfuading us to admit no no delay in applying the means of falva tion which our holy religion prefents to us. So far, however, is this from being the general procedure, that we commonly find. men most regardless of what they acknowledge to be their first concern, and disposed to procraftinate what, of all duties, is the moft urgent. This delay of repentance, of amendment, of all that relates to religion, is, I am convinced, one of the most frequent and powerful caufes of the ruin of men's fouls. It is, therefore, my prefent intention to caution you against it, by pointing out the weakness of the grounds on which it proceeds. These, though one of them only be specified, are, nevertheless, all comprehended in the text. In youth, religious concerns appear too morose and gloomy to occupy attention, and are, therefore, delayed to maturer years. In the years of maturity, the cares and the bufinefs of the prefent ftate, engross the mind, and exclude the thoughts of a future world. The close of life is, then, confidered as the proper period for fettling the in SERM V. SERM. terefts of the foul. V. Meanwhile, the evil days come, and the years arrive, when men say, they have no pleasure in them. Man goeth to his long home. The dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit to God who gave it*, unprepared to appear before him, and unable to give any account of the talents which it had received. Youth is, thus, the firft pretext for delaying the concerns of religion. The bufinefs or the enjoyments of the world, are the fecond. I proceed to fhew the vanity and folly of both, and, if I cannot make an impreffion on your hearts, and determine your conduct, I truft I shall be able to convince your understandings, and to remove every plausible excufe for the procraftination of your highest interests. I. "I am young, why should I remem"ber my Creator ?"-is a fentiment which, if not expreffed in language, is found in many a heart. Are you, in youth, less dependent on God, than in more advanced years, less obliged to improve in whatever * Ecclef. xii. 5, 7. V. is virtuous, amiable, and praise-worthy, to SERM. correct your vices and errors, and to aspire at the supreme felicity of your nature ?— Suppose an husbandman should say, "This "is only the spring of the year; I need not "think of my crop till harveft. I fhall give "myself no trouble to fow my fields: But, "when autumn comes, I fhall apply with diligence to the business of that feafon :" Would you not confider this person as deprived of his judgment? Is the conduct of thofe, who waste their youthful days in vicious or frivolous pursuits, in a total neglect of religious and moral improvement, lefs irrational and abfurd? Is not youth the feed-time of life; the feafon when every good and virtuous principle must be sown, when the character of the Christian on earth, and of the glorified saint in heaven, must begin to be formed? He, then, who allows that period to pafs without applying it to its ends, or employs it to purposes directly contrary to thefe, neglects the elements of whatever is excellent and valuable in human nature, or, deferring the care of them K 3 |