A64836:65
A warning to back-sliders, or, A discovery for the recovery of fallen ones delivered…
A warning to back-sliders, or, A discovery for the recovery of fallen ones delivered in a sermon at Pauls, before the Right Honourable, the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of the city of London / Ralph Venning.
London: printed by T.R. & E.M. for John Rothwel, 1654
A WARNING TO BACKSLIDERS, OR A Discovery for the Recovery of Fallen… › The first is this,
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.
Now the shame ariseth upon this account, that a man should fall from that duty, that love and service from which he hath no reason, nor shadow, nor pretence of reason to fall. 'Tis the most unreasonable thing in the world to sin against God; and if man be asked why he sins? he must for ever speechless, that is, silent, not having any reason to give, any thing to say, why he should depart from God.
Now the shame ariseth upon this account, that a man should fall from that duty, that love and service from which he hath no reason, nor shadow, nor pretence of reason to fall. 'Tis the most unreasonable thing in the world to sin against God; and if man be ask'd why he sins? he must for ever speechlesse, that is, silent, not having any reason to give, any thing to say, why he should depart from God.
Thus God disputes it with backsliding Israel, Jer. 2. Thus saith the Lord, What iniquity have your fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity? As if God had said, What evil have I done? as Christ said, For which of my good works do you stone me? what have you to lay to my charge? ⟨p. 19⟩what occasion have I given you that you should not love me now as at the first? what reason can you produce for your Apostasy, and for your falling from your first love? am not I as lovely as ever, and as loving as ever? for so God reasons with them in the latter end of that Chapter: O generation, O vile, foolish, reasonless generation, see the Word of the Lord, gain-say it if you can; have I been a wilderness unto Israel, or a land of darkness? If so, you have some occasion to revolt and turn away backward; but if not, wherefore then say my people, what reason have my people to say, We will come no more to thee? Oh! what a shameful thing (saith God) is this, that a people should go from a God that never did them hurt, but good all their days? A God, who when they wanted bread, fed them; when they wanted water, smote the rock, and gave them ⟨p. 20⟩