Baxter - BV4831 84 F3 1830

44 78 MISERY OF THOSE WHO [Chap. 5, everlasting life.' O gracious offer! 0 easy terms ! 0 cursed wretch, that would not be persuaded to accept them !" This also will be a most tormenting consideration, to remember for what they sold their eternal welfare. When they compare the value of the pleasures of sin with the value of " the recompense of reward," how will the vast disproportion astonish them ! To think of the low delights of the flesh, or the applauding breath of mortals, or the possessing heaps of gold, and then to think of everlasting glory. " This is all I had for my soul, my God, my hopes of blessedness!" It cannot possibly be expressed how these thoughts will tear his very heart. Then will he ex- claim against his folly : " O miserable wretch ! Did I set my soul to sale for so base a price ? Did I part with my God fór a little dirt and dross; and sell my Savior, as Judas, for a little silver ? I had but a dream of delight, for my hopes of heaven; and, now I am awakened, it is all va- nished. My morsels are now turned to gall, and my cups to wormwood. When they were past my taste, the plea- sure perished. And is this all that I have had for the in- estimable treasure ? What a mad exchange did I make ! What if I had gained all the world, and lost my soul ! But, alas ! how small a part of the world was it, for which I gave up heaven !" O that sinners would thinkof this, when they are swimming in the delights of the flesh, and study- s.ng how to be rich and honorable in the world! when they are desperately venturing upon known transgression, and sinning against the checks of conscience ! It will add yet more to their torment, when they consi- der that they most wilfully procured their own destruction. Had they been forced to sin, it would much abate the rage of their consciences; or if they were punished for another man's transgressions; or any other had been the chief au- thor of their ruin. But to think it was the choice of their own will, and that none in the world could have forced them to sin against their wills ; this will be a cutting thought. "Had I not enemies enough in the world," thinks this miserable creature, " but I must be an enemy to my- self? God would never give the devil, nor the world, so much power over me, as to force me to commit the least transgression. They count but entice : it was myself that yielded, and did the evil. And must I lay hands upon my

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