(5.) The estimation of an Offence is taken from the disposition of him that does it. When 'tis done with pleasure and obstinacy, there is no place for Favour. Now final Impenitence alone makes Sin actually and eternally damning to the Sinner. Those that, notwithstanding all gracious Means, live continually in Rebellion against God; those that impenitently die in their Sins; those that desire to live here for ever, that they might enjoy their sweet Sins; those that are so hardened and naturalized in their Vices, that if they were revived and brought again into this World of Temptations, would certainly return to the Pleasures of Sin; is it ⟨p. 179⟩not righteous that their incorrigible Obstinacy should be punished for ever?1 Is it not just that those who would continue under the dominion of Sin, should forfeit all their claim to the Divine Mercy? For if we consider them as unrepentant and irreclaimable from their Wickedness, there are in them the just provocations and true causes of God's final rejection and hatred: and if we consider God as revealed in his Word and Works, his essential Properties, Wisdom, Purity, Justice, necessarily work upon such Objects in such a manner. How zealous an Indignation did the Son of God express against the obdurate Pharisees? You Serpents, 2you Generation of Vipers, how should you escape the Damnation of Hell? They in despite of all his Miracles, the equal Expressions of his Goodness and Power, resisted his Authority, blasphemed his Person, and slighted his Salvation. Now though other Sins are of an inferior Nature, and weaker Evidence, yet Obstinacy added to them, makes a Person unworthy and uncapable of Mercy. From hence the Misery of the Damned is without Redemption, without Hope, without Allay for ever.
(5.) The estimation of an Offence is taken from the disposition of him that does it. When 'tis done with pleasure and obstinacy, there is no place for Favour. Now final Impenitence alone makes Sin actually and eternally damning to the Sinner. Those that, notwithstanding all gracious Means, live continually in Rebellion against God; those that impenitently die in their Sins; those that desire to live here for ever, that they might enjoy their sweet Sins; those that are so hardned and naturalized in their Vices, that if they were revived and brought again into this World of Temptations, would certainly return to the Pleasures of Sin; is it ⟨p. 179⟩not righteous that their incorrigible Obstinacy should be punish'd for ever?1 Is it not just that those who would continue under the dominion of Sin, should forfeit all their claim to the Divine Mercy? For if we consider them as unrepentant and irreclaimable from their Wickedness, there are in them the just provocations and true causes of God's final rejection and hatred: and if we consider God as revealed in his Word and Works, his essential Properties, Wisdom, Purity, Justice, necessarily work upon such Objects in such a manner. How zealous an Indignation did the Son of God express against the obdurate Pharisees? You Serpents, 2you Generation of Vipers, how should you escape the Damnation of Hell? They in despite of all his Miracles, the equal Expressions of his Goodness and Power, resisted his Authority, blasphemed his Person, and slighted his Salvation. Now though other Sins are of an inferiour Nature, and weaker Evidence, yet Obstinacy added to them, makes a Person unworthy and uncapable of Mercy. From hence the Misery of the Damned is without Redemption, without Hope, without Allay for ever.
- 1Poenae aequalitas non nude spectanda ut in ponderibus & mensuris, sed expenso proposito, & voto ejus qui deliquit. Grot.
- 2Mat. 23.33.
