Aggravation of sin and sinning against knowledge. Mercy. Delivered in several sermons upon divers…Aggravation of sinne and sinning against knowledge. Mercie. Delivered in severall sermons upon divers…

Fifthly, since thou camest into the world, what a long time hath God suffered thee to live in it? he hath not spared thee three years only, (as he did the figtree) but thirty, forty. And when thou first madest bold to thrust forth thy traitorous head into the world, Death (which thy sin brought into the world with it) might have arrested ⟨p. 24⟩[…] ⟨p. 25⟩[…] ⟨p. 26⟩but for one treason, and though all that time of his reprieval he carries and behaves himself never so obediently. But unto thee, this time hath been more than a longer day of life, and putting off the execution (which for the guilt of that first rebellion should have been acted on thee in the womb) it hath been time to repent in: And yet hath not this time of thy reprieval made thee so much the more rebellious? and hast not thou spent all this time in making up the measure of thine iniquity full? and hath it been will ingnesse only in God that thou shouldest not perish? yea more, joined with waiting also, when it should once be, thinking the time long, as longing and desiring that thou wouldst repent, that he might pardon thee. Thus Jerem. 13. last, God expresseth himself, when shall it once be? yea and consider how many days of payment have been set, and how many promises made, and broken all by thee, and yet still he waiteth unto wonderment. Thou receivedst press money at thy Baptism, when thou didst promise to forsake the devil and all his works, and to begin to serve him, when thou shouldst begin to discern between good and evil. But no sooner did the light of knowledge dawn in thy heart, but thou beganst to fight against him; and thy first thoughts to this day have been only and continually evil. And then (haply) in thy younger years, before thou hadst tasted of the pleasures of sin, he gave thee an inkling, by means of ⟨p. 27⟩thy education, of his goodness towards thee, and of that happiness to be liad in him, and thou hadst the first offer of him, ere thy tender years were poisoned by the world; and he hath dealt with thee again and again, both by his Word and Spirit; not waited only, but wooed thee, and hath been a suitor to thy heart long: and I appeal to your hearts, how many promises you have made him, of turning from all your rebellions to him, after such a Sermon, which was brought powerfully home: in such a sickness, and in such a strait, thy conscience knows full well: