A supplement to The Morning-exercise at Cripple-Gate, or, Several more cases of conscience practically…

5. The longer thou delayest thy working in this day, the harder it will be for thee to begin. Sin is as deceitful to detain, as 'tis to draw. Every moment thou delayest to leave it, it tieth a knot on the cord wherewith it holdeth thee, making thereby thy freedom from it the more difficult. Lust and delay know no measure: and delay knows no measure, because lust knows none. The further you go on, the harder it is, and the more unwilling will you be to go back. The deeper the engagement, the more difficult is the retreat. By delay sin is the more strengthened, the Devil the more emboldened, and God the more provoked. That which in thee to day is Regardlessness, tomorrow may be Unwillingness, and the next day Obstinateness. Dum consuetudini non resistitur sit necessitas: Custom in sin will at length turn into necessity of sinning. Venenata non patiuntur inducias: Antidotes against poisons must not be delayed. The longer a bad Tenant forbears payment of his Rent, the harder it will be for him to get it up. A nail driven into wood is with more difficulty drawn out, when it is driven up to the head, than when with a few blows it is weakly fastened. The longer the wood lieth soaking in the water, with the greater difficulty doth it burn. The longer Satan's possession hath been, the more difficult will his ejection be. Every delay makes thy return to God look more like to an impossibility. Goliath must be smitten in the forehead, and Satan opposed betimes. Old age is aetas indisciplinabilis, an indisciplinable age. Childhood is the age of Learning. Old age is the time, wherein men desire more to teach than be taught.

5. The longer thou delayest thy working in this day, the harder it will be for thee to begin. Sin is as deceitful to detain, as 'tis to draw. Every moment thou delayest to leave it, it tyeth a knot on the cord wherewith it holdeth thee, making thereby thy freedom from it the more difficult. Lust and delay know no measure: and delay knows no measure, because lust knows none. The further you go on, the harder it is, and the more unwilling will you be to go back. The deeper the engagement, the more difficult is the retreat. By delay sin is the more strengthened, the Devil the more emboldened, and God the more provoked. That which in thee to day is Regardlesness, tomorrow may be Unwillingness, and the next day Obstinateness. Dum consuetudini non resistitur sit necessitas: Custom in sin will at length turn into necessity of sinning. Venenata non patiuntur inducias: Antidotes against poisons must not be delay'd. The longer a bad Tenant forbears payment of his Rent, the harder it will be for him te get it up. A nail driven into wood is with more difficulty drawn out, when it is driven up to the head, than when with a few blows it is weakly fastned. The longer the wood lieth soaking in the water, with the greater difficulty doth it burn. The longer Satan's possession hath been, the more difficult will his ejection be. Every delay makes thy return to God look more like to an impossibility. Goliah must be smitten in the forehead, and Satan opposed betimes. Old age is aetas indisciplinabilis, an indisciplinable age. Childhood is the age of Learning. Old age is the time, wherein men desire more to teach than be taught.