"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 foor 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 bums against them, their damnation does
not slumber; the pit is prepared, the fire is made ready, the fumace 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 me 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 discem 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 contrivande 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 anything 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 of 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 meantime 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 fumace 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 fastly
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 bom 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 generaity 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."