X. To be worse after such a Judgement, will be high Ingratitude. Thy life was the dearest thing thou hast in the world (except the sin in thy heart) for, skin for skin and all that he hath ⟨p. 58⟩he will give for his life, (except his sin, and he will venture his life, and lose it too, before he will part with his sin,) and hath God kept thee, and is this thy thanks to God, to dishonour him more, and to provoke him more? As if he had spared thee for no other end, but to sin against him? Oh what is Ingratitude if this be not? Oh now for Gods sake, and for thy precious souls sake, that as thy body hath hitherto escaped the grave, so thy soul may (if possible) escape the damnation of hell, Be entreated, Sinner, to consider the evil of thy present practice, after such a narrow escape of death and the grave: Oh wilt thou that art but briars and thorns, set thy self against God that is a consuming fire? Dost thou sleight the wrath of the Almighty, or despise his power, or contemn his Judgements? Dost thou think that thou canst grapple with Omnipotency, and make thy party good against Almighty strength? Didst thou ever read of any one that hardened himself against God and prospered? and dost thou think that thou shalt be the first? who art thou? or what is thy strength, or what were thy Ancestors, that thou dost thus in pride and stubbornness of thy heart dare the great, eternal God, who can look thee into hell, and frown thee in a moment into another world? Sure, if thou hadst the knowledge of God, of thy self, of sin, of the guilt of sin, of Hell and the torments thereof, thou wouldest not thus proceed to add these new sins to thy former old sins, but wouldest fall down upon thy knees, and cover thy face in the very dust ⟨p. 59⟩before the Lord, in deep humiliation for thy sins, and wouldest own it as a Mercy so great, that cannot be expressed, that the Plague hath been so vehemently raging round about thy habitation, and it may be hath been upon thy body, and thou yet alive, and thy body not rotting in a cold grave, nor thy soul roaring in a hot Hell? think on this, this is Mercy; and wilt thou so abuse it?
X. To be worse after such a Judgement, will be high Ingratitude. Thy life was the dearest thing thou hast in the world (except the sin in thy heart) for, skin for skin and all that he hath ⟨p. 58⟩he will give for his life, (except his sin, and he will venture his life, and lose it too, before he will part with his sin,) and hath God kept thee, and is this thy thanks to God, to dishonour him more, and to provoke him more? As if he had spared thee for no other end, but to sin against him? Oh what is Ingratitude if this be not? Oh now for Gods sake, and for thy precious souls sake, that as thy body hath hitherto escaped the grave, so thy soul may (if possible) escape the damnation of hell, Be entreated, Sinner, to consider the evil of thy present practice, after such a narrow escape of death and the grave: Oh wilt thou that art but briars and thorns, set thy self against God that is a consuming fire? Dost thou sleight the wrath of the Almighty, or despise his power, or contemn his Judgements? Dost thou think that thou canst grapple with Omnipotency, and make thy party good against Almighty strength? Didst thou ever read of any one that hardened himself against God and prospered? and dost thou think that thou shalt be the first? who art thou? or what is thy strength, or what were thy Ancestours, that thou dost thus in pride and stubbornness of thy heart dare the great, eternal God, who can look thee into hell, and frown thee in a moment into another world? Sure, if thou hadst the knowledge of God, of thy self, of sin, of the guilt of sin, of Hell and the torments thereof, thou wouldest not thus proceed to adde these new sins to thy former old sins, but wouldest fall down upon thy knees, and cover thy face in the very dust ⟨p. 59⟩before the Lord, in deep humiliation for thy sins, and wouldest own it as a Mercy so great, that cannot be express'd, that the Plague hath been so vehemently raging round about thy habitation, and it may be hath been upon thy body, and thou yet alive, and thy body not rotting in a cold grave, nor thy soul roaring in a hot Hell? think on this, this is Mercy; and wilt thou so abuse it?
