Their foot shall slide in due time. - Deuteronomy 32:35
In this verse is threatened the vengeance of God on the wicked
unbelieving Israelites, who were God's visible people, and who lived
under the means of grace; but who, notwithstanding all God's wonderful
works towards them, remained (as vers 28.) void of counsel, having no
understanding in them. Under all the cultivations of heaven, they
brought forth bitter and poisonous fruit; as in the two verses next
preceding the text. -- The expression I have chosen for my text,
their foot shall slide in due time, seems to imply the following
things, relating to the punishment and destruction to which these wicked
Israelites were exposed.
- That they were always exposed to destruction; as one that
stands or walks in slippery places is always exposed to fall. This is
implied in the manner of their destruction coming upon them, being
represented by their foot sliding. The same is expressed, Psalm 72:18.
"Surely thou didst set them in slippery places; thou castedst them
down into destruction."
- It implies, that they were always exposed to sudden unexpected
destruction. As he that walks in slippery places is every moment
liable to fall, he cannot foresee one moment whether he shall stand or
fall the next; and when he does fall, he falls at once without
warning: Which is also expressed in Psalm 73:18,19. "Surely thou
didst set them in slippery places; thou castedst them down into
destruction: How are they brought into desolation as in a moment!"
- Another thing implied is, that they are liable to fall of
themselves, without being thrown down by the hand of another; as
he that stands or walks on slippery ground needs nothing but his own
weight to throw him down.
- That the reason why they are not fallen already and do not fall
now is only that God's appointed time is not come. For it is said,
that when that due time, or appointed time comes, their foot shall
slide. Then they shall be left to fall, as they are inclined by
their own weight. God will not hold them up in these slippery places
any longer, but will let them go; and then, at that very instant, they
shall fall into destruction; as he that stands on such slippery
declining ground, on the edge of a pit, he cannot stand alone, when he
is let go he immediately falls and is lost.
The observation from the words that I would now insist upon is this.
-- "There is nothing that keeps wicked men at any one moment out of
hell, but the mere pleasure of God." -- By the mere pleasure of
God, I mean his sovereign pleasure, his arbitrary will,
restrained by no obligation, hindered by no manner of difficulty, any
more than if nothing else but God's mere will had in the least degree,
or in any respect whatsoever, any hand in the preservation of wicked men
one moment. -- The truth of this observation may appear by the following
considerations.
- There is no want of power in God to cast wicked men into
hell at any moment. Men's hands cannot be strong when God rises up.
The strongest have no power to resist him, nor can any deliver out of
his hands. -- He is not only able to cast wicked men into hell, but he
can most easily do it. Sometimes an earthly prince meets with a great
deal of difficulty to subdue a rebel, who has found means to fortify
himself, and has made himself strong by the numbers of his followers.
But it is not so with God. There is no fortress that is any defence
from the power of God. Though hand join in hand, and vast multitudes
of God's enemies combine and associate themselves, they are easily
broken in pieces. They are as great heaps of light chaff before the
whirlwind; or large quantities of dry stubble before devouring flames.
We find it easy to tread on and crush a worm that we see crawling on
the earth; so it is easy for us to cut or singe a slender thread that
any thing hangs by: thus easy is it for God, when he pleases, to cast
his enemies down to hell. What are we, that we should think to stand
before him, at whose rebuke the earth trembles, and before whom the
rocks are thrown down?
- They deserve to be cast into hell; so that divine justice
never stands in the way, it makes no objection against God's using his
power at any moment to destroy them. Yea, on the contrary, justice
calls aloud for an infinite punishment of their sins. Divine justice
says of the tree that brings forth such grapes of Sodom, "Cut it
down, why cumbereth it the ground?" Luke 13:7. The sword of divine
justice is every moment brandished over their heads, and it is nothing
but the hand of arbitrary mercy, and God's mere will, that holds it
back.
- They are already under a sentence of condemnation to hell.
They do not only justly deserve to be cast down thither, but the
sentence of the law of God, that eternal and immutable rule of
righteousness that God has fixed between him and mankind, is gone out
against them, and stands against them; so that they are bound over
already to hell. John 3:18. "He that believeth not is condemned
already." So that every unconverted man properly belongs to hell;
that is his place; from thence he is, John 8:23. "Ye are from
beneath:" And thither he is bound; it is the place that justice,
and God's word, and the sentence of his unchangeable law assign to
him.
- They are now the objects of that very same anger and wrath
of God, that is expressed in the torments of hell. And the reason why
they do not go down to hell at each moment, is not because God, in
whose power they are, is not then very angry with them; as he is with
many miserable creatures now tormented in hell, who there feel and
bear the fierceness of his wrath. Yea, God is a great deal more angry
with great numbers that are now on earth: yea, doubtless, with many
that are now in this congregation, who it may be are at ease, than he
is with many of those who are now in the flames of hell.
So that it is not because God is unmindful of their wickedness, and
does not resent it, that he does not let loose his hand and cut them
off. God is not altogether such an one as themselves, though they may
imagine him to be so. The wrath of God burns against them, their
damnation does not slumber; the pit is prepared, the fire is made
ready, the furnace is now hot, ready to receive them; the flames do
now rage and glow. The glittering sword is whet, and held over them,
and the pit hath opened its mouth under them.
- The devil stands ready to fall upon them, and seize them as
his own, at what moment God shall permit him. They belong to him; he
has their souls in his possession, and under his dominion. The
scripture represents them as his goods, Luke 11:12. The devils watch
them; they are ever by them at their right hand; they stand waiting
for them, like greedy hungry lions that see their prey, and expect to
have it, but are for the present kept back. If God should withdraw his
hand, by which they are restrained, they would in one moment fly upon
their poor souls. The old serpent is gaping for them; hell opens its
mouth wide to receive them; and if God should permit it, they would be
hastily swallowed up and lost.
- There are in the souls of wicked men those hellish principles
reigning, that would presently kindle and flame out into hell fire, if
it were not for God's restraints. There is laid in the very nature of
carnal men, a foundation for the torments of hell. There are those
corrupt principles, in reigning power in them, and in full possession
of them, that are seeds of hell fire. These principles are active and
powerful, exceeding violent in their nature, and if it were not for
the restraining hand of God upon them, they would soon break out, they
would flame out after the same manner as the same corruptions, the
same enmity does in the hearts of damned souls, and would beget the
same torments as they do in them. The souls of the wicked are in
scripture compared to the troubled sea, Isa. 57:20. For the present,
God restrains their wickedness by his mighty power, as he does the
raging waves of the troubled sea, saying, "Hitherto shalt thou
come, but no further;" but if God should withdraw that restraining
power, it would soon carry all before it. Sin is the ruin and misery
of the soul; it is destructive in its nature; and if God should leave
it without restraint, there would need nothing else to make the soul
perfectly miserable. The corruption of the heart of man is immoderate
and boundless in its fury; and while wicked men live here, it is like
fire pent up by God's restraints, whereas if it were let loose, it
would set on fire the course of nature; and as the heart is now a sink
of sin, so if sin was not restrained, it would immediately turn the
soul into fiery oven, or a furnace of fire and brimstone.
- It is no security to wicked men for one moment, that there are no
visible means of death at hand. It is no security to a natural man,
that he is now in health, and that he does not see which way he should
now immediately go out of the world by any accident, and that there is
no visible danger in any respect in his circumstances. The manifold
and continual experience of the world in all ages, shows this is no
evidence, that a man is not on the very brink of eternity, and that
the next step will not be into another world. The unseen, unthought-of
ways and means of persons going suddenly out of the world are
innumerable and inconceivable. Unconverted men walk over the pit of
hell on a rotten covering, and there are innumerable places in this
covering so weak that they will not bear their weight, and these
places are not seen. The arrows of death fly unseen at noon-day; the
sharpest sight cannot discern them. God has so many different
unsearchable ways of taking wicked men out of the world and sending
them to hell, that there is nothing to make it appear, that God had
need to be at the expense of a miracle, or go out of the ordinary
course of his providence, to destroy any wicked man, at any moment.
All the means that there are of sinners going out of the world, are so
in God's hands, and so universally and absolutely subject to his power
and determination, that it does not depend at all the less on the mere
will of God, whether sinners shall at any moment go to hell, than if
means were never made use of, or at all concerned in the case.
- Natural men's prudence and care to preserve their own lives, or
the care of others to preserve them, do not secure them a moment. To
this, divine providence and universal experience do also bear
testimony. There is this clear evidence that men's own wisdom is no
security to them from death; that if it were otherwise we should see
some difference between the wise and politic men of the world, and
others, with regard to their liableness to early and unexpected death:
but how is it in fact? Eccles. 2:16. "How dieth the wise man? even
as the fool."
- All wicked men's pains and contrivance which they use to
escape hell, while they continue to reject Christ, and so remain
wicked men, do not secure them from hell one moment. Almost every
natural man that hears of hell, flatters himself that he shall escape
it; he depends upon himself for his own security; he flatters himself
in what he has done, in what he is now doing, or what he intends to
do. Every one lays out matters in his own mind how he shall avoid
damnation, and flatters himself that he contrives well for himself,
and that his schemes will not fail. They hear indeed that there are
but few saved, and that the greater part of men that have died
heretofore are gone to hell; but each one imagines that he lays out
matters better for his own escape than others have done. He does not
intend to come to that place of torment; he says within himself, that
he intends to take effectual care, and to order matters so for himself
as not to fail.
But the foolish children of men miserably delude themselves in
their own schemes, and in confidence in their own strength and wisdom;
they trust to nothing but a shadow. The greater part of those who
heretofore have lived under the same means of grace, and are now dead,
are undoubtedly gone to hell; and it was not because they were not as
wise as those who are now alive: it was not because they did not lay
out matters as well for themselves to secure their own escape. If we
could speak with them, and inquire of them, one by one, whether they
expected, when alive, and when they used to hear about hell, ever to
be the subjects of misery: we doubtless, should hear one and another
reply, "No, I never intended to come here: I had laid out matters
otherwise in my mind; I thought I should contrive well for myself -- I
thought my scheme good. I intended to take effectual care; but it came
upon me unexpected; I did not look for it at that time, and in that
manner; it came as a thief -- Death outwitted me: God's wrath was too
quick for me. Oh, my cursed foolishness! I was flattering myself, and
pleasing myself with vain dreams of what I would do hereafter; and
when I was saying, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction came upon
me."
- God has laid himself under no obligation, by any promise to
keep any natural man out of hell one moment. God certainly has made no
promises either of eternal life, or of any deliverance or preservation
from eternal death, but what are contained in the covenant of grace,
the promises that are given in Christ, in whom all the promises are
yea and amen. But surely they have no interest in the promises of the
covenant of grace who are not the children of the covenant, who do not
believe in any of the promises, and have no interest in the Mediator
of the covenant.
So that, whatever some have imagined and pretended about promises
made to natural men's earnest seeking and knocking, it is plain and
manifest, that whatever pains a natural man takes in religion, whatever
prayers he makes, till he believes in Christ, God is under no manner of
obligation to keep him a moment from eternal destruction.
So that, thus it is that natural men are held in the hand of God,
over the pit of hell; they have deserved the fiery pit, and are already
sentenced to it; and God is dreadfully provoked, his anger is as great
towards them as to those that are actually suffering the executions of
the fierceness of his wrath in hell, and they have done nothing in the
least to appease or abate that anger, neither is God in the least bound
by any promise to hold them up one moment; the devil is waiting for
them, hell is gaping for them, the flames gather and flash about them,
and would fain lay hold on them, and swallow them up; the fire pent up
in their own hearts is struggling to break out: and they have no
interest in any Mediator, there are no means within reach that can be
any security to them. In short, they have no refuge, nothing to take
hold of; all that preserves them every moment is the mere arbitrary
will, and uncovenanted, unobliged forbearance of an incensed God.
Application
The use of this awful subject may be for awakening unconverted
persons in this congregation. This that you have heard is the case of
every one of you that are out of Christ. -- That world of misery, that
take of burning brimstone, is extended abroad under you. There is the
dreadful pit of the glowing flames of the wrath of God; there is hell's
wide gaping mouth open; and you have nothing to stand upon, nor any
thing to take hold of; there is nothing between you and hell but the
air; it is only the power and mere pleasure of God that holds you up.
You probably are not sensible of this; you find you are kept out of
hell, but do not see the hand of God in it; but look at other things, as
the good state of your bodily constitution, your care of your own life,
and the means you use for your own preservation. But indeed these things
are nothing; if God should withdraw his hand, they would avail no more
to keep you from falling, than the thin air to hold up a person that is
suspended in it.
Your wickedness makes you as it were heavy as lead, and to tend
downwards with great weight and pressure towards hell; and if God should
let you go, you would immediately sink and swiftly descend and plunge
into the bottomless gulf, and your healthy constitution, and your own
care and prudence, and best contrivance, and all your righteousness,
would have no more influence to uphold you and keep you out of hell,
than a spider's web would have to stop a falling rock. Were it not for
the sovereign pleasure of God, the earth would not bear you one moment;
for you are a burden to it; the creation groans with you; the creature
is made subject to the bondage of your corruption, not willingly; the
sun does not willingly shine upon you to give you light to serve sin and
Satan; the earth does not willingly yield her increase to satisfy your
lusts; nor is it willingly a stage for your wickedness to be acted upon;
the air does not willingly serve you for breath to maintain the flame of
life in your vitals, while you spend your life in the service of God's
enemies. God's creatures are good, and were made for men to serve God
with, and do not willingly subserve to any other purpose, and groan when
they are abused to purposes so directly contrary to their nature and
end. And the world would spew you out, were it not for the sovereign
hand of him who hath subjected it in hope. There are the black clouds of
God's wrath now hanging directly over your heads, full of the dreadful
storm, and big with thunder; and were it not for the restraining hand of
God, it would immediately burst forth upon you. The sovereign pleasure
of God, for the present, stays his rough wind; otherwise it would come
with fury, and your destruction would come like a whirlwind, and you
would be like the chaff on the summer threshing floor.
The wrath of God is like great waters that are dammed for the
present; they increase more and more, and rise higher and higher, till
an outlet is given; and the longer the stream is stopped, the more rapid
and mighty is its course, when once it is let loose. It is true, that
judgment against your evil works has not been executed hitherto; the
floods of God's vengeance have been withheld; but your guilt in the mean
time is constantly increasing, and you are every day treasuring up more
wrath; the waters are constantly rising, and waxing more and more
mighty; and there is nothing but the mere pleasure of God, that holds
the waters back, that are unwilling to be stopped, and press hard to go
forward. If God should only withdraw his hand from the flood-gate, it
would immediately fly open, and the fiery floods of the fierceness and
wrath of God, would rush forth with inconceivable fury, and would come
upon you with omnipotent power; and if your strength were ten thousand
times greater than it is, yea, ten thousand times greater than the
strength of the stoutest, sturdiest devil in hell, it would be nothing
to withstand or endure it.
The bow of God's wrath is bent, and the arrow made ready on the
string, and justice bends the arrow at your heart, and strains the bow,
and it is nothing but the mere pleasure of God, and that of an angry
God, without any promise or obligation at all, that keeps the arrow one
moment from being made drunk with your blood. Thus all you that never
passed under a great change of heart, by the mighty power of the Spirit
of God upon your souls; all you that were never born again, and made new
creatures, and raised from being dead in sin, to a state of new, and
before altogether unexperienced light and life, are in the hands of an
angry God. However you may have reformed your life in many things, and
may have had religious affections, and may keep up a form of religion in
your families and closets, and in the house of God, it is nothing but
his mere pleasure that keeps you from being this moment swallowed up in
everlasting destruction. However unconvinced you may now be of the truth
of what you hear, by and by you will be fully convinced of it. Those
that are gone from being in the like circumstances with you, see that it
was so with them; for destruction came suddenly upon most of them; when
they expected nothing of it, and while they were saying, Peace and
safety: now they see, that those things on which they depended for peace
and safety, were nothing but thin air and empty shadows.
The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a
spider, or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is
dreadfully provoked: his wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks
upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire; he is
of purer eyes than to bear to have you in his sight; you are ten
thousand times more abominable in his eyes, than the most hateful
venomous serpent is in ours. You have offended him infinitely more than
ever a stubborn rebel did his prince; and yet it is nothing but his hand
that holds you from falling into the fire every moment. It is to be
ascribed to nothing else, that you did not go to hell the last night;
that you was suffered to awake again in this world, after you closed
your eyes to sleep. And there is no other reason to be given, why you
have not dropped into hell since you arose in the morning, but that
God's hand has held you up. There is no other reason to be given why you
have not gone to hell, since you have sat here in the house of God,
provoking his pure eyes by your sinful wicked manner of attending his
solemn worship. Yea, there is nothing else that is to be given as a
reason why you do not this very moment drop down into hell.
O sinner! Consider the fearful danger you are in: it is a great
furnace of wrath, a wide and bottomless pit, full of the fire of wrath,
that you are held over in the hand of that God, whose wrath is provoked
and incensed as much against you, as against many of the damned in hell.
You hang by a slender thread, with the flames of divine wrath flashing
about it, and ready every moment to singe it, and burn it asunder; and
you have no interest in any Mediator, and nothing to lay hold of to save
yourself, nothing to keep off the flames of wrath, nothing of your own,
nothing that you ever have done, nothing that you can do, to induce God
to spare you one moment. -- And consider here more particularly,
- Whose wrath it is: it is the wrath of the infinite God. If
it were only the wrath of man, though it were of the most potent
prince, it would be comparatively little to be regarded. The wrath of
kings is very much dreaded, especially of absolute monarchs, who have
the possessions and lives of their subjects wholly in their power, to
be disposed of at their mere will. Prov. 20:2. "The fear of a king
is as the roaring of a lion: Whoso provoketh him to anger, sinneth
against his own soul." The subject that very much enrages an
arbitrary prince, is liable to suffer the most extreme torments that
human art can invent, or human power can inflict. But the greatest
earthly potentates in their greatest majesty and strength, and when
clothed in their greatest terrors, are but feeble, despicable worms of
the dust, in comparison of the great and almighty Creator and King of
heaven and earth. It is but little that they can do, when most
enraged, and when they have exerted the utmost of their fury. All the
kings of the earth, before God, are as grasshoppers; they are nothing,
and less than nothing: both their love and their hatred is to be
despised. The wrath of the great King of kings, is as much more
terrible than theirs, as his majesty is greater. Luke 12:4,5. "And
I say unto you, my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body,
and after that, have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you
whom you shall fear: fear him, which after he hath killed, hath power
to cast into hell: yea, I say unto you, Fear him."
- It is the fierceness of his wrath that you are exposed to.
We often read of the fury of God; as in Isa. 59:18. "According to
their deeds, accordingly he will repay fury to his adversaries."
So Isa. 66:15. "For behold, the Lord will come with fire, and with
his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his
rebuke with flames of fire." And in many other places. So, Rev.
19:15, we read of "the wine press of the fierceness and wrath of
Almighty God." The words are exceeding terrible. If it had only
been said, "the wrath of God," the words would have implied
that which is infinitely dreadful: but it is "the fierceness and
wrath of God." The fury of God! the fierceness of Jehovah! Oh, how
dreadful that must be! Who can utter or conceive what such expressions
carry in them! But it is also "the fierceness and wrath of
almighty God." As though there would be a very great
manifestation of his almighty power in what the fierceness of his
wrath should inflict, as though omnipotence should be as it were
enraged, and exerted, as men are wont to exert their strength in the
fierceness of their wrath. Oh! then, what will be the consequence!
What will become of the poor worms that shall suffer it! Whose hands
can be strong? And whose heart can endure? To what a dreadful,
inexpressible, inconceivable depth of misery must the poor creature be
sunk who shall be the subject of this!
Consider this, you that are here present, that yet remain in an
unregenerate state. That God will execute the fierceness of his anger,
implies, that he will inflict wrath without any pity. When God beholds
the ineffable extremity of your case, and sees your torment to be so
vastly disproportioned to your strength, and sees how your poor soul
is crushed, and sinks down, as it were, into an infinite gloom; he
will have no compassion upon you, he will not forbear the executions
of his wrath, or in the least lighten his hand; there shall be no
moderation or mercy, nor will God then at all stay his rough wind; he
will have no regard to your welfare, nor be at all careful lest you
should suffer too much in any other sense, than only that you shall
not suffer beyond what strict justice requires. Nothing shall be
withheld, because it is so hard for you to bear. Ezek. 8:18. "Therefore
will I also deal in fury: mine eye shall not spare, neither will I
have pity; and though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, yet I
will not hear them." Now God stands ready to pity you; this is a
day of mercy; you may cry now with some encouragement of obtaining
mercy. But when once the day of mercy is past, your most lamentable
and dolorous cries and shrieks will be in vain; you will be wholly
lost and thrown away of God, as to any regard to your welfare. God
will have no other use to put you to, but to suffer misery; you shall
be continued in being to no other end; for you will be a vessel of
wrath fitted to destruction; and there will be no other use of this
vessel, but to be filled full of wrath. God will be so far from
pitying you when you cry to him, that it is said he will only "laugh
and mock," Prov. 1:25,26,&c.
How awful are those words, Isa. 63:3, which are the words of the
great God. "I will tread them in mine anger, and will trample them
in my fury, and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I
will stain all my raiment." It is perhaps impossible to conceive
of words that carry in them greater manifestations of these three
things, viz. contempt, and hatred, and fierceness of indignation. If
you cry to God to pity you, he will be so far from pitying you in your
doleful case, or showing you the least regard or favour, that instead
of that, he will only tread you under foot. And though he will know
that you cannot bear the weight of omnipotence treading upon you, yet
he will not regard that, but he will crush you under his feet without
mercy; he will crush out your blood, and make it fly, and it shall be
sprinkled on his garments, so as to stain all his raiment. He will not
only hate you, but he will have you in the utmost contempt: no place
shall be thought fit for you, but under his feet to be trodden down as
the mire of the streets.
- The misery you are exposed to is that which God will
inflict to that end, that he might show what that wrath of Jehovah is.
God hath had it on his heart to show to angels and men, both how
excellent his love is, and also how terrible his wrath is. Sometimes
earthly kings have a mind to show how terrible their wrath is, by the
extreme punishments they would execute on those that would provoke
them. Nebuchadnezzar, that mighty and haughty monarch of the Chaldean
empire, was willing to show his wrath when enraged with Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego; and accordingly gave orders that the burning
fiery furnace should be heated seven times hotter than it was before;
doubtless, it was raised to the utmost degree of fierceness that human
art could raise it. But the great God is also willing to show his
wrath, and magnify his awful majesty and mighty power in the extreme
sufferings of his enemies. Rom. 9:22. "What if God, willing to show
his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much
long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction?" And
seeing this is his design, and what he has determined, even to show
how terrible the unrestrained wrath, the fury and fierceness of
Jehovah is, he will do it to effect. There will be something
accomplished and brought to pass that will be dreadful with a witness.
When the great and angry God hath risen up and executed his awful
vengeance on the poor sinner, and the wretch is actually suffering the
infinite weight and power of his indignation, then will God call upon
the whole universe to behold that awful majesty and mighty power that
is to be seen in it. Isa. 33:12-14. "And the people shall be as the
burnings of lime, as thorns cut up shall they be burnt in the fire.
Hear ye that are far off, what I have done; and ye that are near,
acknowledge my might. The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath
surprised the hypocrites," &c.
Thus it will be with you that are in an unconverted state, if you
continue in it; the infinite might, and majesty, and terribleness of
the omnipotent God shall be magnified upon you, in the ineffable
strength of your torments. You shall be tormented in the presence of
the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb; and when you shall
be in this state of suffering, the glorious inhabitants of heaven
shall go forth and look on the awful spectacle, that they may see what
the wrath and fierceness of the Almighty is; and when they have seen
it, they will fall down and adore that great power and majesty. Isa.
66:23,24. "And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to
another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to
worship before me, saith the Lord. And they shall go forth and look
upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against me; for
their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched, and
they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh."
- It is everlasting wrath. It would be dreadful to suffer
this fierceness and wrath of Almighty God one moment; but you must
suffer it to all eternity. There will be no end to this exquisite
horrible misery. When you look forward, you shall see a long for ever,
a boundless duration before you, which will swallow up your thoughts,
and amaze your soul; and you will absolutely despair of ever having
any deliverance, any end, any mitigation, any rest at all. You will
know certainly that you must wear out long ages, millions of millions
of ages, in wrestling and conflicting with this almighty merciless
vengeance; and then when you have so done, when so many ages have
actually been spent by you in this manner, you will know that all is
but a point to what remains. So that your punishment will indeed be
infinite. Oh, who can express what the state of a soul in such
circumstances is! All that we can possibly say about it, gives but a
very feeble, faint representation of it; it is inexpressible and
inconceivable: For "who knows the power of God's anger?"
How dreadful is the state of those that are daily and hourly in the
danger of this great wrath and infinite misery! But this is the dismal
case of every soul in this congregation that has not been born again,
however moral and strict, sober and religious, they may otherwise be. Oh
that you would consider it, whether you be young or old! There is reason
to think, that there are many in this congregation now hearing this
discourse, that will actually be the subjects of this very misery to all
eternity. We know not who they are, or in what seats they sit, or what
thoughts they now have. It may be they are now at ease, and hear all
these things without much disturbance, and are now flattering themselves
that they are not the persons, promising themselves that they shall
escape. If we knew that there was one person, and but one, in the whole
congregation, that was to be the subject of this misery, what an awful
thing would it be to think of! If we knew who it was, what an awful
sight would it be to see such a person! How might all the rest of the
congregation lift up a lamentable and bitter cry over him! But, alas!
instead of one, how many is it likely will remember this discourse in
hell? And it would be a wonder, if some that are now present should not
be in hell in a very short time, even before this year is out. And it
would be no wonder if some persons, that now sit here, in some seats of
this meeting-house, in health, quiet and secure, should be there before
tomorrow morning. Those of you that finally continue in a natural
condition, that shall keep out of hell longest will be there in a little
time! your damnation does not slumber; it will come swiftly, and, in all
probability, very suddenly upon many of you. You have reason to wonder
that you are not already in hell. It is doubtless the case of some whom
you have seen and known, that never deserved hell more than you, and
that heretofore appeared as likely to have been now alive as you. Their
case is past all hope; they are crying in extreme misery and perfect
despair; but here you are in the land of the living and in the house of
God, and have an opportunity to obtain salvation. What would not those
poor damned hopeless souls give for one day's opportunity such as you
now enjoy!
And now you have an extraordinary opportunity, a day wherein Christ
has thrown the door of mercy wide open, and stands in calling and crying
with a loud voice to poor sinners; a day wherein many are flocking to
him, and pressing into the kingdom of God. Many are daily coming from
the east, west, north and south; many that were very lately in the same
miserable condition that you are in, are now in a happy state, with
their hearts filled with love to him who has loved them, and washed them
from their sins in his own blood, and rejoicing in hope of the glory of
God. How awful is it to be left behind at such a day! To see so many
others feasting, while you are pining and perishing! To see so many
rejoicing and singing for joy of heart, while you have cause to mourn
for sorrow of heart, and howl for vexation of spirit! How can you rest
one moment in such a condition? Are not your souls as precious as the
souls of the people at Suffield, where they are flocking from day to day
to Christ?
Are there not many here who have lived long in the world, and are not
to this day born again? and so are aliens from the commonwealth of
Israel, and have done nothing ever since they have lived, but treasure
up wrath against the day of wrath? Oh, sirs, your case, in an especial
manner, is extremely dangerous. Your guilt and hardness of heart is
extremely great. Do you not see how generality persons of your years are
passed over and left, in the present remarkable and wonderful
dispensation of God's mercy? You had need to consider yourselves, and
awake thoroughly out of sleep. You cannot bear the fierceness and wrath
of the infinite God. -- And you, young men, and young women, will you
neglect this precious season which you now enjoy, when so many others of
your age are renouncing all youthful vanities, and flocking to Christ?
You especially have now an extraordinary opportunity; but if you neglect
it, it will soon be with you as with those persons who spent all the
precious days of youth in sin, and are now come to such a dreadful pass
in blindness and hardness. -- And you, children, who are unconverted, do
not you know that you are going down to hell, to bear the dreadful wrath
of that God, who is now angry with you every day and every night? Will
you be content to be the children of the devil, when so many other
children in the land are converted, and are become the holy and happy
children of the King of kings?
And let every one that is yet out of Christ, and hanging over the pit
of hell, whether they be old men and women, or middle aged, or young
people, or little children, now hearken to the loud calls of God's word
and providence. This acceptable year of the Lord, a day of such great
favour to some, will doubtless be a day of as remarkable vengeance to
others. Men's hearts harden, and their guilt increases apace at such a
day as this, if they neglect their souls; and never was there so great
danger of such persons being given up to hardness of heart and blindness
of mind. God seems now to be hastily gathering in his elect in all parts
of the land; and probably the greater part of adult persons that ever
shall be saved, will be brought in now in a little time, and that it
will be as it was on the great out-pouring of the Spirit upon the Jews
in the apostles' days; the election will obtain, and the rest will be
blinded. If this should be the case with you, you will eternally curse
this day, and will curse the day that ever you was born, to see such a
season of the pouring out of God's Spirit, and will wish that you had
died and gone to hell before you had seen it. Now undoubtedly it is, as
it was in the days of John the Baptist, the axe is in an extraordinary
manner laid at the root of the trees, that every tree which brings not
forth good fruit, may be hewn down and cast into the fire.
Therefore, let every one that is out of Christ, now awake and fly
from the wrath to come. The wrath of Almighty God is now undoubtedly
hanging over a great part of this congregation. Let every one fly out of
Sodom: "Haste and escape for your lives, look not behind you, escape to
the mountain, lest you be consumed."
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