29
Nov

William Whately (1583-1639) Referencing Ezekiel 18:23

   Posted by: CalvinandCalvinism   in Ezekiel 18:23, 32; 33:11

Whately:

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.]

See also:

Whately:

I call your own souls to witness, and that God, in whose name, and those angels, in whose presence I have spoken these things to you, that God desires not your death; he would have you saved; he offers salvation; he would have you renewed, and he offers the Spirit of renovation; and if you want it, it is only, merely, wholly, because you regard it not, and because you will not take his directions in seeking it.

O thou therefore that are unregenerate, see thine unregeneracie; desire to be regenerate; call upon God for his Spirit of Grace to regenerate thee; ponder upon his Law and his Gospel, the seed of regeneration. Hearken to his voice, speaking in his messengers; and meditate on what thou shalt hear from them, and thou shalt be regenerate.

William Whately, The New Birth: or, A Treatise of Regeneration (London: Printed by the Assignes of Ioane Man and Benjamin Fisher, 1635), 131–132. [Some spelling modernized and underlining mine.] 

[Credit to Tony for this find.]

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