Sermons preached on several occasionsSermons preach'd on several occasions

(2.) The slighting of lighter Strokes, provokes God sometimes to bring more dreadful Judgments in this Life upon Sinners. No Man can endure that his Love or Anger should be despised. Nebuchadnezzar commanded the Furnace to be heated seven times hotter for those who contemned his Threatenings. God tells the Israelites, If ye ¹will not be reformed by these things, but will walk contrary unto me; Then will I also walk contrary unto you, and will ⟨p. 159⟩punish you yet seven times for your Sins. He will change the Rods into Scorpions, and will scourge them for their continued Rebellions. 'Tis the intent of that Expostulation, Shall one take up a Snare from the ²Earth, and have taken nothing at all? Shall God remove his Judgments while Sinners are careless and unreformed, as if they might be final Conquerors over them? no, he will multiply and greaten them. It may be at first God blasts part of the Estate, and the Sinner is not apprehensive of his Hand; then he comes nearer and snatches away a dear Relation: if still the Sinner is unaffected, he strikes his Body with a lingering, or acute Disease: if still he be not concerned for God's Displeasure, he wounds his Spirit, makes him sick in Sense and Conscience at the same time, fills him with Terror by the Reflection upon his wicked Ways, and the fore-sight ⟨p. 160⟩of that dreadful Tribunal before which he must appear; so that although he cannot live, he dare not die; tho his Earthly Tabernacle be ready to fall upon him, he is afraid to go out and meet the supreme Judg: and if this doth not work a sincere through Change, God casts him into Hell to the Company of the Giants, those bold Rebels that ³fought against God. Briefly, as under the Law, an incorrigible Son that neglected his Father's Reproofs, was to die without Mercy; so an unreformed Sinner who kicks ⁴against the Pricks, and refuses to submit to God's Corrections, shall be cut off in his Obstinacy; Justice will proceed to Excision, and Acts of Vengeance against him.