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

VIII. The lesser force divine Arguments have upon thy heart to keep thee from sin, than before, thou art so much worser than thou wast before. Time was, that Arguments taken from the Wrath of God, from the Torments of Hell, from Judgement to come, from the Curses written in the Law of God, did awe thy heart, and restrain thy hand from the open actings of thy grosser sins; these were once the banks that dammed up thy wickedness, but now thou sleightest all these, that Hell doth not affright thee, and the wrath of God doth not awe thy heart; but the Spring and Fountain of sin within, is risen higher, and overflows these banks, and like water spreads it self, and diffuseth it self in the general course of thy life.

VIII. The lesser force divine Arguments have upon thy heart to keep thee from sin, than before, thou art so much worser than thou wast before. Time was, that Arguments taken from the Wrath of God, from the Torments of Hell, from Judgement to come, from the Curses written in the Law of God, did awe thy heart, and restrain thy hand from the open actings of thy grosser sins; these were once the banks that dammed up thy wickednesse, but now thou sleightest all these, that Hell doth not affright thee, and the wrath of God doth not awe thy heart; but the Spring and Fountain of sin within, is risen higher, and overflowes these banks, and like water spreads it self, and diffuseth it self in the general course of thy life.

IX. The lesser force humane Arguments have upon thy heart, to keep thee from sin than before, thou art so much worser than thou wast before. Though abstaining from sin upon such accounts, doth not prove the truth of grace, yet the committing of sin notwithstanding these, doth argue growth of sin. Now these humane Arguments that did formerly restrain thee, were such as these.