I, says one, regularly perform my religious
duties; and I, says another, build churches and chapels, and give large
sums in charity; and I, says another, am converted, and a member of a
church; and I, says another, am elect, and predestined to everlasting
life--and so forth, and so forth. Each man turning the grace of God into
a cloak for licentiousness, and deluding himself into the notion that he
may break the eternal laws of God, and yet go to heaven, as he calls it,
when he dies: not knowing, poor foolish man, that as the noble
commination service well says, the dreadful judgments of God are not
waiting for certain people at the last day, thousands of years hence, but
hanging over all our heads already, and always ready to fall on us. Not
knowing that it is as true now as it was two thousand years ago, that
"God is a righteous judge, strong and patient." "If a man will not turn,
He will whet His sword; He hath bent His bow, and made it ready," against
those who travail with mischief, who conceive sorrow, and bring forth
ungodliness. They dig up pits for their neighbours, and fall themselves
into the destruction which they have made for others; not knowing that it
is as true now as it was two thousand years ago, that God is for ever
saying to the ungodly, "Why dost thou preach my laws, and takest my
covenant in thy mouth; whereas thou hatest to be reformed, and hast cast
my words behind thee? Thou hast let thy mouth speak wickedness, and with
thy tongue thou hast set forth deceit.
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