Captives bound in chains made free

9. Another Chain wherewith these Captives are kept in their bondage-state, is their purposing hereafter to repent and forsake their sins. In thy Childhood thou didst purpose to repent when thou shouldst come to mans estate; then, when thou shouldest be old, and now, when thou comest to be sick and die, and thus from thy Birth to thy Death, thou continuest a Captive to Satan and to sin; thou wast born a Captive, and by these delaying purposes diest so. To break this Bond, Consider.

1. Who was it that did assure thee that thou shalt certainly live to that time in which thou purposest to repent? Did God or Man? Man cannot; God doth not wont to tell sinners how long they shall live. How comest thou to have this knowledge above other? no, I have not. No? what? and yet purpose to repent, and shake off the Devils Bonds hereafter, when thy body might be in thy grave, and thy soul in hell before that time may come? where will be thy repentance then? are not as young as thou art, gone down into the pit of grave and hell too? go and view the burial places of the dead, measure and see if there be no grave as short as thou art, and many graves of Infants there. Thou art here today and mightest be in eternity tomorrow. Now alive, tomorrow mayest be dead. All flesh is compared to grass, Isa. 40. 6, 7, 8. Mat. 6. 30. to a vapour, Jam. 4. 13, 14, 15. Was not he a fool that reckoned he had many years to live, Luke 12. 19, 20? When thou goest to bed, how knowest thou, that thou shalt rise any more? when thou fallest asleep that thou shalt awake, till the Trumpet sound, and the call be, Arise ye dead, and come to judgment?

1. Who was it that did assure thee that thou shalt certainly live to that time in which thou purposest to repent? Did God or Man? Man cannot; God doth not wont to tell sinners how long they shall live. How comest thou to have this knowledg above other? no, I have not. No? what? and yet purpose to repent, and shake off the Devils Bonds hereafter, when thy body might be in thy grave, and thy soul in hell before that time may come? where will be thy repentance then? are not as young as thou art, gone down into the pit of grave and hell too? go and view the burial places of the dead, measure and see if there be no grave as short as thou art, and many graves of Infants there. Thou art here today and mightest be in eternity tomorrow. Now alive, tomorrow mayest be dead. All flesh is compared to grass,