so often and so easily offended against God's law! It would have been just had you been expelled, not as Adam was, from Paradise, but from this world. You have often offended Him, and still He waits for your repentance. " Delay not then to be converted to the Lord, and defer it not from day to day, for His wrath shall come on a sudden; and in the time of vengeance He will destroy thee." (Ecclus. v. 8.)
Mortal Sin.— I. The Punishment due to it.
I. God is infinitely just in the infliction of punishment, which nevertheless is always (in the language of divines) below our deserts, whilst His rewards are above our merits. Reflect deeply, then, on the grievousness of the offence, by considering the punishment due to every sin. Enter, in imagination, into hell, and view the torments which God has prepared for even one mortal offence. Contemplate those fiery regions — those torrents of sulphur — that gnawing of teeth, and hear those shrill accents of furious agony and settled despair which the reprobate souls continually utter. Remember they are to endure forever. And "which of you," exclaims the prophet, "shall dwell with everlasting burnings?" (Is. xxxiii. 14.)
II. What a folly it would be to offend a sovereign, by whom you knew you would be cruelly tormented on the rack in consequence of your offence! How much greater folly is it to displease God, "who can destroy both body and soul in hell"! (Matt. x. 28.) And if so great a punishment be due to one mortal sin, though that is below its deserts, what an excess of torments is due to your numerous transgressions! Look back on the days of your youth, and reflect what would have become of you if God had called you from life on such and such occa-
