Go fel l,era f S,on: 2S7 you in the Name of God , and fay to you , the fins you have committed already are fogrievous, that it muff needs be a won- derful work of God to forgive them; and whar,muft you needs addmore and more, and tempt God to extend his mercy fur- ther ? Take heed of tempting God to extend his mercy further, for though God may be pleafed to extend his mercy thus far ; Who fhall prefcribeGod how far he (hall go ? Who can tell but that the thoughts ofGod towards thee are thus, that he will go thus far to pardon thee , but if thou go on in fin, who can tell whether he will go on to pardon further ? 'Tis true, when God comes to pardon, he will do them all away ; but know thou that, goeft on to increafe the guilt of thy fin, thou maift find it, as many thoufands have found it a mighty hard thing, which hath coif them much anguifh and diftrefs of fpirit, to get the pardonof their fin fealed in the Court of Confcience, though it was fealed before in Heaven ; O the anguifh of fpirit it bath colt them I and dolt thou Rill go on to heap up more and more fin, as if the pardon of thy fin was noshing ? there is a great deal of reafon in this, to cry to (inners toflop in the courfeof fin; for thou haft gone onenough already, go no further, that's afecond abufe of the mercy of God inpardoning fin. Thirdly,They abufe the mercy ofGod that have extreamflight thoughts ofpardon offin,that think to have it at any time, when theywill,'tis but repenting; as it was faid ofLewis the r z. King of France,Tbat he wore a Crucifix inhis Hat, andwhen he.had committedafin, it was but taking it down and long of it, and all was well againt,fo many IdolatrousPapiftsythey have as flight thoughts of pardon of fin as can be, if they commit a fin, they make no more ofit, but go to a Prieft to fhrieve them, or kneel before a Crucifix and knock their breaft, which is a thing foon done, and all's well again. Certainly 'tis a great difhonour to God, for any man to have flight thoughts of the pardon of fin : It is fuch a work as if ever any thing put God to it (as I may fay) topardon fin, and yet to falve his Juftice, it was this work ; and certainly, if ever God have love to thee, thou wilt change thy thoughts about this ; and certainly, the flight thoughts men have about this, is the caufe many times why they are held fo tong under the fpirit of bondage ; when God begins to work upon.
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