that I ought to do for you that I have not done? So, then, since you choose to be condemned, it is your own fault.
But you will say, " Where then is the mercy of God? " Ah, unhappy one! does not the mercy of God appear in having borne for so many years with so many sins? You ought ever to remain with averted face, thanking Him, and saying, " It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed." (Lam. iii. 22.) In committing a mortal sin, you have been guilty of a greater fault than if you trod under foot the loftiest monarch of a world. You have committed so many sins, that if the injuries which you have done to God, you had done to your fleshly brother, he would not have endured the sight of you; whilst God not only has waited for you, but He has also so often called you, and invited you to pardon. " What could have been done more?" if God stood in need of you, or if you had done him some great favour, could He use greater compassion towards you? This being so, if you turn again to offend Hun, His pity will be turned to anger and punishment.
If that fig-tree, which the Master found without fruit after the year which was granted for its cultivation, should still have produced no fruit, who could have expected that the Lord should have given to it a longer time, and spared the cutting of it down? Attend, therefore, to that which S. Augustine warns you of: " Oh, fruitless tree, the axe was only deferred; be not secure, thou shalt be cut down." The Saint says that the punishment has been delayed, but not done away with; if you further abuse the Divine compassion, " you shall be cut down; " finally, vengeance will overtake you. Do you wish to wait, that God Himself may send you to hell? But if He should send you there, truly you know, that there is no further help for you; the Lord is silent, but not for ever: when the time of vengeance is come, He is silent no longer. " These things hast thou done, and I held My tongue, and thou thoughtest wickedly that I am even such ah one as thyself; but I will reprove thee, and set before thee the things that thou hast done." (Ps. 1. 21.) The mercies which He has shown to you God will set before you, and He will cause these very mercies both to judge and to condemn you.
