But for these there is appointed a defender. The Holy Spirit
that maketh intercession for us shall then also interpose, and against
all these things shall oppose the passion of our blest Lord, and upon
all their defects shall cast the robe of righteousness; and the sins
of their youth shall not prevail so much as the repentance of their
age, and their omissions be excused by probable intervening causes,
and their little escapes shall appear single and in disunion, because
they were always kept asunder by penitential prayers and sighings, and
their seldom returns of sin by their daily watchfulness, and their
often infirmities by the sincerity of their souls, and their scruples
by their zeal, and their passions by their love, and all by the
mercies of God and the sacrifice which their Judge offered and the
Holy Spirit made effective by daily graces and assistances. These,
therefore, infallibly go to the portion of the right hand, because the
Lord our God shall answer for them. But as for the wicked, it is not
so with them; for altho the plain story of their life be to them a
sad condemnation, yet what will be answered when it shall be told
concerning them, that they despised God's mercies, and feared not His
angry judgments; that they regarded not His Word, and loved not
His excellences; that they were not persuaded by the promises nor
affrighted by His threatenings; that they neither would accept His
government nor His blessings; that all the sad stories that ever
happened in both the worlds (in all which Himself did escape till the
day of His death, and was not concerned in them save only that He was
called upon by every one of them, which He ever heard or saw or was
told of, to repentance), that all these were sent to Him in vain? But
can not the accuser truly say to the Judge concerning such persons,
"They were Thine by creation, but mine by their own choice; Thou didst
redeem them indeed, but they sold themselves to me for a trifle, or
for an unsatisfying interest; Thou diedst for them, but they obeyed
my commandments; I gave them nothing, I promised them nothing but the
filthy pleasures of a night, or the joys of madness, or the delights
of a disease; I never hanged upon the cross three long hours for them,
nor endured the labors of a poor life thirty-three years together for
their interest; only when they were Thine by the merit of Thy death,
they quickly became mine by the demerit of their ingratitude; and when
Thou hadst clothed their soul with Thy robe, and adorned them by Thy
graces, we stript them naked as their shame, and only put on a robe of
darkness, and they thought themselves secure and went dancing to
their grave like a drunkard to a fight, or a fly unto a candle; and
therefore they that did partake with us in our faults must divide with
us in our portion and fearful interest.
Pages:
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66