The harmony of the divine attributes in the contrivance and accomplishment of man's redemption…

4. What an high Provocation is it to despise Redeeming Mercy, and to defeat that infinite Goodness which hath been at such expense for our Recovery? The Son of God hath emptied all the Treasures of his ⟨p. 218⟩Love, to purchase Deliverance for guilty and wretched Captives, He hath past through so many pains and thorns to come and offer it to them; He solicits them to receive Pardon and Liberty, upon the conditions of Acceptance and Amendment, which are absolutely necessary to qualify them for Felicity: Now if they slight the Benefit, and renounce their Redemption; if they sell themselves again under the Servitude of Sin, and gratify the Devil with a new conquest over them; what a bloody Cruelty is this to their own Souls, and a vile indignity to the Lord of Glory? And are there any servile spirits so charmed with their misery, and so in love with their chains, who will stoop under their cruel Captivity, to be reserved for eternal Punishment? Who can believe it? But alas Examples are numerous and ordinary: The most by a Folly as prodigious as their Ingratitude, prefer their Sins before their Saviour, and love that which is the only just object of Hatred, and hate Him who is the most worthy object of Love. 'Tis a most astonishing consideration, that Love should persuade Christ to die for Men, and that they should trample upon his Blood, and choose rather to die by themselves, than to live by Him. That God should be so easy to forgive, and Man so hard to be forgiven. This is a Sin of that transcendent height, that all the abominations of Sodom and Gomorrah, are not equal to it. This exasperates Mercy, that dear and tender Attribute; the only Advocate in God's Bosom for us: This makes the Judge irreconcilable. The rejecting of life upon the gracious terms of the Gospel, makes the condemnation of Men most just, certain, and heavy

4. What an high Provocation is it to despise Redeeming Mercy, and to defeat that infinite Goodness which hath been at such expence for our Recovery? The Son of God hath emptied all the Treasures of his ⟨p. 218⟩Love, to purchase Deliverance for guilty and wretched Captives, He hath past through so many pains and thorns to come and offer it to them; He sollicits them to receive Pardon and Liberty, upon the conditions of Acceptance and Amendment, which are absolutely necessary to qualifie them for Felicity: Now if they slight the Benefit, and renounce their Redemption; if they sell themselves again under the Servitude of Sin, and gratifie the Devil with a new conquest over them; what a bloody Cruelty is this to their own Souls, and a vile indignity to the Lord of Glory? And are there any servile spirits so charm'd with their misery, and so in love with their chains, who will stoop under their cruel Captivity, to be reserved for eternal Punishment? Who can believe it? But alas Examples are numerous and ordinary: The most by a Folly as prodigious as their Ingratitude, prefer their Sins before their Saviour, and love that which is the only just object of Hatred, and hate Him who is the most worthy object of Love. 'Tis a most astonishing consideration, that Love should persuade Christ to die for Men, and that they should trample upon his Blood, and choose rather to die by themselves, than to live by Him. That God should be so easie to forgive, and Man so hard to be forgiven. This is a Sin of that transcendent height, that all the abominations of Sodom and Gomorrah, are not equal to it. This exasperates Mercy, that dear and tender Attribute; the only Advocate in God's Bosom for us: This makes the Judge irreconcilable. The rejecting of life upon the gracious terms of the Gospel, makes the condemnation of Men most just, certain, and heavy