settle into a state of security, and continue in it, till they have
time no longer.

Was man grateful, divine goodness would lead him to repentance; but
under the influence of depravity, it hath a different effect--is made
the occasion of more ungodliness! What baseness! "Sin because grace
abounds! Whose damnation is just! How can such escape? The wrath of
God is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness and
ungodliness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness."

For sins of ignorance, and those into which men were surprized by
unexpected temptations, sacrifices were ordered in the law, and
pardon, on certain conditions, promised: But it was not promised
presumptuous sinners. To them the law spake nothing but terror. "The
soul that doth ought presumptuously--the same reproacheth the Lord;
and that soul shall be cut off from his people. Because he hath
despised the word of the Lord, and hath broken his commandment, that
soul shall be utterly cutoff; his iniquity shall be upon him." *

* Numbers xv. 30, 31.

The person who lives in all good conscience, may hope in the divine
mercy for the pardon of involuntary errors: But with what face can the
willful offender ask mercy of God? No plea which is not affrontive can
he make before him--"Shall I not visit for these things, saith the
Lord: And shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?"

That awful threatening, or prophetic denunciation, "The Lord will not
spare him; but the anger of the Lord and his jealousy shall smoke
against that man, and all the curses written in this book [the law]