The Soul's Preparation for Christ

The third ground: Thirdly, as we must consider Gods mercy that hath been abused, and the Justice of God that hath been provoked: So consider the nature of your sins, and the heinousness of them: sin is not a trick of youth or a matter of merriment; but a breach of the Law of God, and therefore it is good for a man in this case to examine every commandment of God, and the breach thereof: Thus I would have the soul well acquainted with the Law: You know not your sins, therefore get you home to the Law, and look into the glass thereof, and then bundle up all your sins thus. So many sins against God himself, in the first commandment, against his worship, in the second, against his name, in the third, against his Sabbath in the fourth commandment; nay, all our thoughts, words, and actions, all of them have been sins able to sink our souls to the bottom of hell: bundle up your sins, & lay one upon the heart and another upon the conscience, and then it will break your backs; those small infirmities you make nothing of, & those sins you make slight of, and make a trick of youth, if you will bestow ⟨p. 106⟩your minds a little seriously, you will see them to be far otherwise: every sin deserves death, The wages of sin is death, not he only that murders his neighbour, and takes away his life, but the malicious man, and the proud man deserves death. Nay, to come nearer the text, what if I prove you had a hand in the shedding of the blood of Christ; dwell here a little and consider it, and you shall see the point clear. If there be any soul here present that hopes to have any part in Christ, as if I should go from man to man and ask, have you a part in Christ? you will say, aye surely I hope so; mark what I say then, if thou hopest for any mercy from Christ, then Christ was thy surety and bare thy sins, and those sins of thine were the witnesses against our Saviour, they were the soldiers that took him, the thorns that pierced him, the spear that gored him, the Cross that took away his life: The truth is, the soldiers, and Pilate, & the Scribes and Pharisees, could have done nothing to our Saviour but for thy sins:

The third ground: Thirdly, as we must consider Gods mercy that hath beene abused, and the Iustice of God that hath beene provoked: So consider the nature of your sinnes, and the haynousnesse of them: sinne is not a tricke of youth or a matter of merryment; but a breach of the Law of God, and therefore it is good for a man in this case to examine every commandement of God, and the breach thereof: Thus I would have the soule well acquainted with the Law: You know not your sinnes, therefore get you home to the Law, and looke into the glasse thereof, and then bundle up all your sinnes thus. So many sins against God himself, in the first commandement, against his worship, in the second, against his name, in the third, against his Sabbath in the fourth commandement; nay, all our thoughts, words, and actions, all of them have beene sinnes able to sinke our soules to the bottome of hell: bundle up your sinnes, & lay one upon the heart and another upon the conscience, and then it will breake your backes; those small infirmities you make nothing of, & those sinnes you make slight of, and make a tricke of youth, if you will bestow