Archive for November 29th, 2011
Thou sees how great a thing this globe of earth and water seems to be to them that walk upon it, yet in comparison of the heavenly sphere that does encompass it, what is it else, but a point, a prick, a center, a thing of nothing, that holds no proportion to those higher regions, and now assuredly, that there is no more proportion betwixt the sins of all men, and God’s mercies, than betwixt the point of the earth, and the circumference of the skies. He is willing to pardon more than all of them can commit, and, therefore, only they be not pardoned, because they will not humble themselves to seek pardon. Thus then must thou raise up thy falling heart, I have do with a most infinitely merciful and tender hearted Father, that does not desire the death of him that dies, but is ten thousand thousand times more willing to give me pardon than I am to crave or accept it. It pleases him more to bestow forgiveness, than me to receive it. O do not so great an injury to God, as to set any bounds and limits to his goodness, to diminish or detract from the boundlessness of his compassion, to think that thou can possibly exceed his goodness with thy badness, but go unto him and acknowledge, saying, “O Lord, the multitude of thy mercies do far surmount multitudes of thy mercies,” and so thou shall be safe.
William Whately, The Oyle of Gladdnesse. Or, Comfort for Dejected Sinners (London: Printed by G M for George Edwards, and are to be sold at his house in Greene-Arbour, at the Signe of the Angell, 1637), 90-93. [Some spelling modernized and underlining mine.]