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SINNERS IN THE HANDS OF AN ANGRY GOD |
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BY Jonathan Edwards |
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Their foot shall slide in due time. Deut. 32:35 |
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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 ver. 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 doings, relating to the punishment and
destruction to which these wicked Israelites were exposed. 1.
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 73:18.
"Surely thou didst set them in slippery places; thou castedst them
down into destruction." 2.
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!" 3.
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. 4.
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. 1.
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
defense 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? 2.
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 xiii. 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. 3.
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 iii. 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 viii. 23. "Ye are from
beneath." And thither be is bound; it is the place that justice, and
God's word, and the sentence of his unchangeable law assign to him. 4.
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. 5.
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. 6.
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
a fiery oven, or a furnace of fire and brimstone. 7.
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. 8.
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. ii. 16.
"How dieth the wise man? even as the fool." 9.
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 that 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 suddenly
destruction came upon me. 10.
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 lake 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 band, 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 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 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 1.
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." 2.
It is the fierceness
of his wrath that you are exposed to. We often read of the fury of God; as
in Isaiah lix. 18. "According to their deeds, accordingly he will
repay fury to his adversaries." So Isaiah 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 must that 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. viii. 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, vis.
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, Meshech, 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, endure 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. lxvi. 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." 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 to-morrow 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 generally 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 harken to the loud calls of God's word and
providence. This acceptable year of the Lord, a day of such great favours
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." *A
town in the neighborhood. |