Man ashiv le-Yahoweh, or, A serious enquiry for a suitable return for continued life,…

III. The further thou proceedest in making progress in thy sin, the more it is to be feared thou wilt never return, but if thou shouldest, the more thou hast to sorrow for. It is but very rare that God bringeth those back that are come up to an height of sin; sometimes he doth, that none might despair; but very rarely, that none might presume. It is to be feared thou art forsaken of God, and he hath left thee to thy self, when ⟨p. 54⟩word, nor rod, can reclaim thee from thy sin, nor put a restraint upon thee from waxing worse.

IV. The worse thou art after such a judgement, The sooner God will be provoked to hast on thy destruction by some other. God hath not spent all his arrows in the late judgement, he hath his Quiver full still; and if thou go on when God giveth thee yet a space to repent, after so great a warning by the Plague, he will ere long cast thee into a bed of trouble, Rev. 2.21, 22. Thy increased wickedness is to Gods wrath, as the blast to the fire, will quickly blow it up into a flame; though thy conscience is asleep, yet thy damnation slumbereth not, 2 Pet. 2.1.3. while thou lingerest in thy sin, Gods judgements do not linger, but are upon the wing; and the worse thou art, the sooner will they befall thee, and be more heavy when they come. Jer. 48.16. The calamity of Moab is near to come, and his affliction hasteth fast.

V. The worse thou growest, the more thou heapest up treasures of wrath, and every sin is adding to the pile of that fire by which thou must eternally be burned; temporal judgements might quickly befall thee, but if they do not, eternal damnation shall overtake thee; and the higher thou goest in wickedness, the lower thou shalt sink and lye in hell; God will proportion thy degrees of torments to thy growth and progress in sin. Now thou hast a treasure of sin,