The application of redemption

We cannot but acknowledge all this and yet we be not touched with any saving remorse for them we have had all helps, and the Lord hath tried all conclusions upon us, and yet all in vain. Who knows but we ⟨p. 243⟩have been negligent this ordinance, and therefore God hath cursed all others, we have not used this means as well as others, and therefore we have got benefit by none, who knows but the want of this hath hindered the success of all other that we have had and used in our times and places, Oh then recover our former carelessness, send our thoughts a far off and survey our former conversations, let us search and consider our own ways who knows but the Lord may turn our hearts to him? Let us question our own souls and say to our selves what have we done? that it may be beyond question that God hath humbled, pardoned and accepted of us. What is the reason that one sinks under the sin that another never feels? It is with our sins as with our burdens he that sees a weight and it may be lifts at it, but if he never lay it upon his shoulder, or if it be laid, he never keeps it there but casts it off immediately, he will never be touched or troubled with it, which another dies under as not able to endure, so it is here our sins and iniquities are a burden too heavy for any man to bear and not to break under them and they who are forced to feel the Least of them are compelled to confess as much; as the Devils and damned in Hell, the wicked in horror of Conscience my punishment is greater than can be endured. Others whom God abates of the execution of his displeasure for the present, these men look at them, and may lift at them a little by some sudden flashy and flitting apprehension, as they hear or read &c. But by Meditation to bind this burden upon their Consciences, that the heart cannot get from under it, they are not able to abide the weight of them, therefore will not abide the thought of them; they […] off, and cast away the burden, and so they never feel it, before the infinite Justice of the Lord seizeth upon their souls by everlasting discouragement. Better we set them in order before our eye & trouble our hearts with them than that the Lord should set them in order before us at the day of Judgment, and ⟨p. 244⟩tear us in pieces when there shall be none to deliver us.

We cannot but acknowledg al this and yet we be not touched with any saving remorse for them we have had al helps, and the Lord hath tried al conclusions upon us, and yet al in vain. Who knows but we