Eighthly and lastly, I did persecute them to strange Cities; them I did not kill I did scatter, I forced them to leave both house and home; them whom God had joined together, I put asunder; I made the husband run one way, and the wife and children another way, and all of them glad to hide their heads in a corner. And thus you see, that true penitents in the confession of their sins, do clothe their sins with the highest aggravations imaginable. A penitent in his confession of sin cries out, O! the sparing mercies, the preventing mercies, the succouring mercies, the supporting mercies, the renewed mercies, the delivering mercies that I have with a high hand sinned against. O, that clear light! O, that free love! O, that Gospel grace! O, those bowels of mercy that I have sinned against! O, the fatherly corrections, the dreadful warnings, the high resolutions, the serious protestations, the frequent vows and promises that I have desperately sinned against! O, the checks of conscience, the rebukes of conscience, ⟨p. 247⟩the lashes of conscience, the wounds of conscience, and the frequent motions of the spirit, and strivings of the spirit, that I have sinned against! &c. But now wicked men confess their sins slightly, carelessly, triflingly; they are careful and skilful to hide their sins, to cloak their sins, and to extenuate and lessen their sins; and with the unjust Steward, for an hundred to set down fifty.1 All wicked men do commonly flatter themselves, that either their sins are not sins when indeed they are, or that they are not great and grievous sins when indeed they are, or that they are not so great and grievous as other mens sins are when indeed they are more grievous and heinous than other mens sins are, so far are they from aggravating of their sins; the truth is, wicked men are so far from aggravating of their sins, that they are still extenuating of them, and that by fathering of them, sometimes upon their constitutions, sometimes upon bad company, sometimes upon their callings, sometimes upon Satan, and sometimes upon chance, as they call it, &c. But no more of this, enough is as good as a feast.
Eighthly and lastly, I did persecute them to strange Cities; them I did not kill I did scatter, I forced them to leave both house and home; them whom God had joyned together, I put asunder; I made the husband run one way, and the wife and children another way, and all of them glad to hide their heads in a corner. And thus you see, that true penitents in the confession of their sins, do cloath their sins with the highest aggravations imaginable. A penitent in his confession of sin cryes out, O! the sparing mercies, the preventing mercies, the succouring mercies, the supporting mercies, the renewed mercies, the delivering mercies that I have with a high hand sinned against. O, that clear light! O, that free love! O, that Gospel grace! O, those bowels of mercy that I have sinned against! O, the fatherly corrections, the dreadful warnings, the high resolutions, the serious protestations, the frequent vows and promises that I have desperately sinned against! O, the checks of conscience, the rebukes of conscience, ⟨p. 247⟩the lashes of conscience, the wounds of conscience, and the frequent motions of the spirit, and strivings of the spirit, that I have sinned against! &c. But now wicked men confess their sins slightly, carelesly, triflingly; they are careful and skilful to hide their sins, to cloak their sins, and to extenuate and lessen their sins; and with the unjust Steward, for an hundred to set down fifty.1 All wicked men do commonly flatter themselves, that either their sins are not sins when indeed they are, or that they are not great and grievous sins when indeed they are, or that they are not so great and grievous as other mens sins are when indeed they are more grievous and hainous than other mens sins are, so far are they from aggravating of their sins; the truth is, wicked men are so far from aggravating of their sins, that they are still extenuating of them, and that by fathering of them, sometimes upon their constitutions, sometimes upon bad company, sometimes upon their callings, sometimes upon Satan, and sometimes upon chance, as they call it, &c. But no more of this, enough is as good as a feast.
- 1Luke 16.6.
