'The work of a holy life is not to be deferred till our days are almost done': Jeremy Taylor and the collect of the Fourth Sunday in Advent

O Lord, raise up (we pray thee) thy power, and come among us, and with great might succour us; that whereas, through our sins and wickedness, we are sore let and hindered in running the race that is set before us, thy bountiful grace and mercy may speedily help and deliver us; through the satisfaction of thy Son our Lord, to whom with thee and the Holy Ghost be honour and glory, world without end. Amen.

Jeremy Taylor in his sermon 'The Invalidity of a Late or Death-bed Repentance', from his Golden Grove sermons:

This is the sum total of repentance: we must not only have overcome sin, but we must after great diligence have acquired the habits of all those Christian graces which are necessary in the transaction of our affairs, in all relations to God and our neighbour, and our own person. It is not enough to say, "Lord, I thank Thee, I am no extortioner, no adulterer, not as this publican;" all the reward of such a penitent is that when he hath escaped the corruption of the world, he hath also escaped those heavy judgments which threatened his ruin ... Then our sins are crucified; but we shall never 'enter into the joy of the Lord,' unless after we have 'put off the old man with his affections and lusts,' we also 'put on the new man in righteousness and holiness of life'.  And this we are taught in most plain doctrine by St. Paul; "Let us lay aside the weight that doth so easily beset us," that is the one half; and then it follows, "let us run with patience the race that is set before us." These are the 'fruits meet for repentance,' spoken of by St. John Baptist; that is, when we renew our first undertaking in baptism, and return to our courses of innocence ...

The sense of which words is well given us by St. John; "Remember whence thou art fallen; repent, and do thy first works." For all our hopes of heaven rely upon that covenant which God made with us in baptism; which is, that being 'redeemed from our vain conversation,' we should ' serve Him in holiness and righteousness all our days.' Now when any of us hath prevaricated our part of the covenant, we must return to that state, and redeem the intermediate time spent in sin, by our doubled industry in the ways of grace; we must be reduced to our first estate, and make some proportionable returns of duty for our sad omissions, and great violations of our baptismal vow. For God having made no covenant with us but that which is consigned in baptism; in the same proportion in which we retain or return to that, in the same we are to expect the pardon of our sins, and all the other promises evangelical ...

And if we do but consider that he that lives well from his younger years, or takes up at the end of his youthful heats, and enters into the courses of a sober life early, diligently, and vigorously, shall find himself, after the studies and labours of twenty or thirty years' piety, but a very imperfect person, many degrees of pride left unrooted up, many inroads of intemperance or beginnings of excess, much in devotion and backwardness in religion, many temptations to contest against, and some infirmities which he shall never say he hath mastered; we shall find the work of a holy life is not to be deferred till our days are almost done.