The saints everlasting rest

But methinks I perceive the obstinate sinner desperately resolving, if I must be damned, there is no remedy; rather than I will live so precisely, I will put it to the venture; I shall escape as well as the rest of my neighbours, and we will even bear it as well as ⟨p. 120⟩we can.—Alas, poor creature! would thou didst but know what it is that how dost so boldly venture on: I dare say thou wouldst sleep this night but very unquietly. Wilt thou leave thyself no room for hope? Art thou such an implacable enemy to Christ and thy own soul? And dost thou think indeed, that thou canst bear the wrath of GOD, and go away so easily with these eternal torments? Yet let me beg this of thee, that before thou dost so flatly resolve, thou wouldst lend thine attention to these few questions.

But methinks I perceive the obstinate sinner desperately resolving, if I must be damned, there is no remedy; rather than I will live so precisely, I will put it to the venture; I shall escape as well as the rest of my neighbours, and we will even bear it as well as ⟨p. 120⟩we can.—Alas, poor creature! would thou didst but know what it is that hou dost so boldly venture on: I dare say thou wouldst sleep this night but very unquietly. Wilt thou leave thyself no room for hope? Art thou such an implacable enemy to Christ and thy own soul? And dost thou think indeed, that thou canst bear the wrath of GOD, and go away so easily with these eternal torments? Yet let me beg this of thee, that before thou dost so flatly resolve, thou wouldst lend thine attention to these few questions.

First, Who art thou that thou shouldst bear the wrath of GOD? Art thou a God; or art thou a man? What is thy strength to undergo so much? is it not as the strength of wax or stubble to resist the fire? or as chaff to the wind; or as dust before the whirlwind? Was he not as stout a man as thyself, who cried to GOD, Wilt thou break a leaf driven to and fro? And wilt thou pursue the dry stubble? If thy strength were as iron, and thy bones as brass, thou couldst not bear. If thy foundation were as the earth, and thy power as the heavens, yet shouldst thou perish at the breath of his indignation. How much more when thou art but a little, creeping, breathing clay, kept a few days from stinking, and from being eaten with worms, by the mere support and favour of him whom then thus resistest?