But let not this gracious offer of mercy be abused; let it not act as an encouragement to a continuance in sin, under a notion that transgressions, however multiplied and aggravated, may be, at any future day, repented and forgiven. The grace of repentance, like every other good gift, cometh from God; and the proffered mercy, which is long and obstinately rejected, may be, and often is, withdrawn. If we will not hear, while the Almighty now speaks; if we will not answer, while He is now calling, “the ear may become heavy that it cannot hear,” and we may be left to perish in our sins. One word more; think of the many sudden departures; you are not without awakening and awful examples; your eye may be closed in death, while it is turned away from your God; or if you should be permitted to experience a few days’ alarm, God alone knows what effect it may produce upon the heart. Seek Him “in health and wealth;” the work is of amazing magnitude and everlasting importance; it demands all your vigour, all the unclouded faculties of your soul. And let those who have embraced the blessed gospel, in sincerity and truth, who are believing in the name of Jesus for salvation, and “are fruitful in every good word and work,” ever bear in mind the absolute necessity of persevering in the good and holy cause. For of what service can it be, to begin the race with animation, and to pursue it, for a season, with ever so great activity, if they loiter before the end, and relinquish their exertions “for the prize of their high calling?” “When the righteous turneth away from his righteousness and committeth iniquity, and doeth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doeth, shall he live? All his righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned; in his trespass that he hath trespassed, and in his sin that he hath sinned, in them shall he die.” Here also we must allow, that “the way of God is equal.” {204} For surely it argues the most depraved and abandoned state of mind and heart, to depart from our God and our Redeemer, after having been once convinced of the truth and the blessedness of His holy religion; having “tasted how gracious the Lord is,” having experienced the guidance and comfort and support of his all-powerful spirit, having had our “hopes full of immortality,” having enjoyed a foretaste of the happiness of heaven, after all to fall away, and prefer to these exalted objects, the miserable pleasures, the base indulgencies, the perishable possessions of earth! A change so disastrous must reduce the understanding and heart into the worst condition of which they are capable. It is the evil spirit, which had been once cast out, returning to his abode, with seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and dwelling there, as in a settled home, and the last state of that man is worse than the first. {205a} The Apostle represents the matter to us in this light: for so difficult is it for a