Three treatises of the vanity of the creature. The sinfulness of sin. The life…Three treatises of the vanity of the creature. The sinfulnesse of sinne. The life…

Now then from the great necessity and preciousness of this duty we may first infer the greatness of their sin, who neglect it, who live with no sense of the want, and little sorrow for the weakness of it, to lie, swear, revel, cozen, to live in the practice of any notorious outrage, and moral enormity, many men esteem heinous and unworthy; But to live in infidelity, without the ⟨p. 496⟩knowledge or fellowship of Christ, in an utter unacquaintance with their own unworthiness, and unexperience of their everlasting insufficiencies to compass or contrive their own salvation, are things seldom or never seriously thought on by them. And yet infidelity is indeed the edge, and sting of all other sins, that which binds them and their guilt everlastingly upon the soul, and locketh them like shackles to the conscience, which otherwise by the help of Christ might easily shake them of. He that believeth, saith Christ, is not condemned, he that believeth not is condemned already, and ¹the wrath of God abideth on him. There is a displeasure which is but for a moment, a wrath which doth only sing, and blow upon the soul, and then away; such the faithful themselves after some bold adventure into the ways of sin, may have experience of. And there is a wrath which is constant, permanent, intimately and everlastingly adherent unto the Soul, which will seize only upon unbelievers. The spirit shall convince the World of ²Sin because they believe not, saith Christ. Sin there stands in opposition to righteousness, and Judgement, or³ holiness; so that the meaning is, The spirit shall convince men that they are unrighteous and unholy men, held under by the guilt, condemnation, and power of sin; shut up in fast chains unto the wrath and judgement of the great Day; unavoidably cast and condemned in the Court of Law, because they fled not by faith unto that office of mercy and reconciliation which the Father hath erected in his beloved Sonne. All sins do of themselves deserve damnation, but none doe de facto inferre damnation without infidelity. This was that great provocation in the Wilderness which kept the people out of the Land of Promise, and for which God is said to have been grieved forty years together. How long will this people provoke me? How long will it be ere they believe in me?