A44439:241
A second volume of discourses or sermons on several scriptures
A second volume of discourses or sermons on several scriptures by Ezekiel Hopkins ...
London: printed by E.H. for Nathanael Ranew, 1693
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Sermon 4: The Nature, Danger, Aggravations, and Cure of Presumptuous Sinning, &c. ON
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Consider therefore in the first place,1 that the commission of presumptuous Sins doth exceedingly harden and steel the heart, with resolutions to persevere in them without repentance, and what can be more dreadful than this is; resolvedness to sin is a disposition likest to that of the Devil, and it is a punishment next to that of Hell; a Man that is confirmed in wickedness, is not many removes off from a Devil in his nature, and from a damned Person in his State; there is a fatal consequence betwixt Man's resolving to continue in sin to the end, and God's resolving to punish him with those torments that shall have no end. God hath two Seals, the one of the Spirit of Adoption, whereby he seals up Believers to the day of Redemption, and the other of Obduration, whereby he seals up the Impenitent to the Day of Destruction, he seals them up under sin, and sets them aside for Wrath; hence the Apostle in Romans 2.5. speaks of a hard and impenitent heart, treasuring up wrath unto it self against the day of wrath: Now presumptuous Sins have a two fold malign influence, thus to harden and make Men resolute in wickedness; ⟨p. 192⟩for either they make them secure under sin, or else quite contrary desperate for sin, and both these strongly conduce to the hardening of the heart.
Consider therefore in the first place,1 that the commission of presumptuous Sins doth exceedingly harden and steel the heart, with resolutions to persevere in them without repentance, and what can be more dreadful than this is; resolvedness to sin is a disposition likest to that of the Devil, and it is a punishment next to that of Hell; a Man that is confirmed in wickedness, is not many removes off from a Devil in his nature, and from a damned Person in his State; there is a fatal consequence betwixt Man's resolving to continue in sin to the end, and God's resolving to punish him with those torments that shall have no end. God hath two Seals, the one of the Spirit of Adoption, whereby he seals up Believers to the day of Redemption, and the other of Obduration, whereby he seals up the Impenitent to the Day of Destruction, he seals them up under sin, and sets them aside for Wrath; hence the Apostle in