Agreeable admonitions for old & young. Or, Aged piety honoured, and early piety quickened.…

There are especially Two very astonishing Mischiefs of a Delayed Repentance; and it is a most comfortable Thing, to be by Early Repentance rescued from those Mischiefs.

There are especially Two very astonishing Mischiefs of a Delay'd Repentance; and it is a most comfortable Thing, to be by Early Repentance rescued from those Mischiefs.

First; A Delayed Repentance will be a Difficult Repentance. We read, Jer. 13. 23. Can the Moor change his Skin, or the Leopard his Spots? Then may ye also do Good, that are accustomed to do Evil. A Delay to Repeat of Evil-doing, produces Customs to do Evil. How hard is it, for to be brought off an Evil Custom? ⟨p. 18⟩When our Corrupt Nature, is become a Second Nature, how uneasy is the Conquest over it. The most Early Piety, is the most Easy Piety. The less Inveterate the Maladies of our Souls are, the more easily performed is the Cure of them. Early Piety prevents the Inveteracy of our Maladies. Tis true, All things are alike Easy to that Omnipotent Arm which Heals all our Diseases; but the Patient must undergo the more Trouble, to be Healed, the longer he has been under his Diseases. The Old Man within us, will be subdued with the less of Trouble and Anguish unto us, if we set upon subduing of it, before we grow Old our selves. The Devil will be Dispossessed, with the less of Tearing Agony, where he has less Prescription to […] for his Possession. The Weeds of Hell in our Hearts, the sooner they are Plucked up, the less Rooted they are, and so the more easily plucked up. Soul, Thou art but Hardening, and Confirming thy self in Sin while thou dost not Repent of thy Sin. Happy the Soul that gets rid of an hard Heart, wile tis most Easy to get rid of it. The Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ, for the most part works more Easily upon the Hearts; that are by an Early ⟨p. 19⟩Repentance brought home unto Him; so Easily, that indeed often it is not Sensibly. He as it were steals His Grace into their Hearts; They don't know the Time, of their being first United to the Lord Jesus Christ; It is done by so Soft, so Sweet so Gradual Methods! They find, they are in the Lord Jesus Christ, but they don't know, how they First came to be so!