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your thousandth; he has often called you, now calls you again; tremble lest this should be the last
circuit taken by the ark, that is, the last call, after which, if you do not change your life, it
will be over with you. For the earth, says the Apostle, that drinketh in the rain which cometh
often upon it. and bringeth forth thorns and briars is reprobate, and very near unto a curse,
whose end is to be burned. Heb. 6:7. That soul, he says, which has often received the waters of
divine light and grace, and instead of bearing fruit produces nought but the thorns of sin, is
nigh unto a curse, and its end will be to burn eternally in hell fire. In a word, when the period
comes, God punishes.

And let us know, that when God wishes to punish, he is able and knows how to do it. The daughter of
Sion shall be left  as a city that is laid waste.  Is. 1:8. How many cities do we not know to
have been destroyed and leveled with the ground, by reason of the sins of the inhabitants, whom
God could no longer bear with! One day, Jesus Christ being within sight of the city of Jerusalem,
gazed upon it, and thinking of the ruin which her crimes were to draw down upon her, our Redeemer,
who is so full of compassion for our miseries, began to weep: Seeing the city, He wept over it,
saying: they shall not leave in thee a stone upon a stone, because thou hast not known the time
of thy visitation. Luke 19:41. Poor city, there shall not be left in thee a stone upon a stone,
because thou: hast not been willing to know the grace which I gave thee in visiting thee with
so many benefits, and bestowing upon thee so many tokens of my love; whilst thou hast
ungratefully despised me, and, driven me away. Jerusalem Jerusalem, how often
would I have gathered thy children  and thou wouldst not, behold your house shall
be left to you desolate.  Luke 13:34. Sinful brother, who knows whether God does not at this
moment

look upon your soul and weep? Perhaps he sees that you will not turn to account this visit which
he now pays you, this summons which he gives you to change your life. How often would I  and
thou wouldst not. How often, says the Lord, have I wished to draw you to me by. the lights which I
have given you? How often have I called you and you would not hear me? You have been deaf to me and
fled from me. Behold your house shall be left to you desolate. Behold I am already on the point of
abandoning you, and if I abandon you, your ruin will be inevitable, irreparable.

We would have cured Babylon, but she is not humbled; let us forsake her.  Jer. 51:9. The physician
when he sees that the patient will not adopt his remedies, which he himself carries to him with so
much kindness, and which the other flings out of the window  what does he do at length? He turns
his back upon him and abandons him. My brethren, by how many calls, has not God endeavored to avert
damnation from you? What more can he do? If you damn yourself, can you complain of God who has
called you in so many different ways? God calls you by the voice of his minister, he calls you by
the voice that is within you, he calls you by his favors, he calls you lastly by temporal
punishments; in order that. you may learn to dread those which are eternal. St. Bernadine of Sienna
says that for certain sins, more especially those which are scandalous, there is no more effectual
method of doing away with them than by temporal punishments. But when the Lord sees that his favors
serve only to make the sinner more insolent in his evil life, when he sees that his threats are
disregarded, when he perceives, in a word, that he speaks and is not heard; then he abandons the
sinner, and chastises him with eternal death. Therefore does he say, Because I called and you
refused  and have neglected my reprehensions, I will also laugh in your destruction and will
mock when that

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