Page:Thinkwellonit.pdf/68

 God, to the dignity of a child of God and heir of heaven. He is guilty of a base perfidiousness, in breaking his solemn word given to God in his confession. He is guilty of a notorious contempt of the divine majesty, in banishing God from his soul, after having invited him in, and introducing satan in his place; and this, after a full knowledge and experience of both sides. Good God! to put the whole universe in balance with thee, would be a most heinous affront; since heaven, and all the powers thereof, the earth and seas, and all things therein, are less than a grain of sand, if compared to thee: what then must we think of the unparalleled injury done thee by the relapsing sinner, when putting thee and satan in the scales, he gives the preference to the devil!

3. Consider the dreadful danger to which the relapsing sinner is daily exposed, from the sword of the divine justice which hangs over his guilty head, and is daily provoked by his ingratitude and insolence. Alas! we are all mortal: we neither know the day nor the hour that will be our last; if we be surprised by death in the state of mortal sin, as millions have been, we are irrecoverably lost. If then it is madness at any time to risk eternity, by consenting to a mortal sin, how much more, to provoke the Almighty by frequent relapses, and by a practice of abusing his graces and mercy at every turn? Ah! what multitudes of souls have been thus betrayed into that dismal pit of never-ending woe, where the worm never dies, and the fire never is quenched! Unhappy wretches! they designed as little to damn themselves as any of us do; but God will not be laughed at.

4. Consider another evil which the sinner, who frequently falls back into the same sins, has too just reason to apprehend, is the insincerity of his past repentance. For in reality, what appearance