The young man's guide through the wilderness of this world to the heavenly Canaan…

2. Continuance in a course of sinning will so insensibly harden the heart, that thou wilt find the work more difficult. Though thou mayst flatter thy self with a conceit that thou wilt cast off thy sins, and become a new man hereafter; yet thou wilt find by sad experience, that the longer thou detainest them, the harder it will be to part with them; for every sin doth not only bring a guilt upon the Soul, but likewise a stronger inclination ⟨p. 9⟩to the practise thereof. How many be there, who in their Youth, and younger years, were wont often to say, it is too soon to part with our beloved sins, there is time enough for that hereafter? but when their hereafter hath been come, then have they said, it is too late; our hearts are so hardened, that now we cannot repent.

3. The longer thou deferrest thy Reformation and amendment, the greater indisposition and disability wilt thou find in thy self thereunto. Thine understanding will be more and more darkened with the mist of ignorance; they will, through custom in sinning, be more stubborn and refractory to the Will of God revealed in his Word: Thy Conscience will be more and more seared; yea, all the powers of thy Soul will be more and more distracted with Earthly cares and businesses: What folly then must it needs be, to put off thy serving of God from thy younger to thine elder years?

3. The longer thou deferrest thy Reformation and amendment, the greater indisposition and disability wilt thou find in thy self thereunto. Thine understanding will be more and more darkned with the mist of ignorance; they will, through custom in sinning, be more stubborn and refractory to the Will of God revealed in his Word: Thy Conscience will be more and more seared; yea, all the powers of thy Soul will be more and more distracted with Earthly cares and businesses: What folly then must it needs be, to put off thy serving of God from thy younger to thine elder years?