The truly blessed man

3. All these tricks are a provocation to him, and he counts them foolishness. You may think your selves wise and politic, when you thus wind and double, but he Laughs at your egregious folly in it, Psal. 2. begin. And needs must he be angry at these courses; for what are they but an essay to put a cheat upon him, than which what higher affront can be offered? And if they be sinful, they must needs displease him; but there is something peculiar in this: there is a root of Atheism at the bottom of it, for, what difference between saying there is no God, and thinking he may be imposed upon, and we can hide our selves from his knowledge and judgment? Hence that challenge, Jer. 23.24 Can any hide, &c.

3. All these tricks are a provocation to him, and he counts them foolishness. You may think your selves wise and politick, when you thus wind and double, but he Laughs at your egregious folly in it, Psal. 2. begin. And needs must he be angry at these courses; for what are they but an essay to put a cheat upon him, than which what higher affront can be offered? And if they be sinful, they must needs displease him; but there is something peculiar in this: there is a root of Atheism at the bottom of it, for, what difference between saying there is no God, and thinking he may be imposed upon, and we can hide our selves from his knowledge and judgment? Hence that challenge, Jer. 23.24 Can any hide, &c.

4. Hence as long as you thus lie, your Sin is not forgiven. Not only doth not this remove the Guilt, but is an evidence that it is not taken away. If you were Unregenerate before, this proves that you are so still; till such Sins are repented of, the•• is no evidence of a through Conversion; for when God pardons a sinner, he forgiveth all his past sins, and that is in the way of Repentance. And if you are Regenerate, yet the sin is not forgiven before committed, nor then neither but in the Gospel way, viz. in Confessing and Forsaking, and seeking Mercy through Christ, which you