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HOW TO SCARE THY
NEIGHBOR SHITLESS - EDWARDS IN 1741
Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God
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Their foot shall
slide in due time. Deuteronomy 32:35. |
In this verse is
threatened the vengeance of God on the wicked
unbelieving Israelites, that were God's visible
people, and lived under means of grace; and
that, notwithstanding all God's wonderful works
that he had wrought towards that people, yet
remained, as is expressed, v. Deuteronomy 32:28,
"void of counsel," having no understanding in
them; and that, under all the cultivations of
heaven, brought forth bitter and poisonous
fruit; as in the two verses next preceding the
text.
The expression that 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 that these wicked
Israelites were exposed to.
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's coming
upon them, being represented by their foot's
sliding. The same is expressed, Psalms
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 can't 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 that,
Psalms 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 don't 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 won't 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 in such slippery declining
ground on the edge of a pit that he can't
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.
I. There is no
want of power in God to cast wicked men into
hell at any moment. Men's hands can't 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,
that 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 'tis easy for us to cut or
singe a slender thread that anything 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?
II. 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 cumbreth it the ground" (Luke 13:7). The
sword of divine justice is every moment
brandished over their heads, and 'tis
nothing but the hand of arbitrary mercy, and
God's mere will, that holds it back.
III. They are already under a sentence of
condemnation to hell. They don't 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; 'tis the place that justice, and
God's Word, and the sentence of his
unchangeable law assigns to him.
IV. 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 don't go down to hell at
each moment, is not because God, in whose
power they are, is not then very angry with
them; as angry as he is with many of those
miserable creatures that he is now
tormenting in hell, and do 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, that it may be are at ease and
quiet, than he is with many of those that
are now in the flames of hell.
So that it is not because God is unmindful
of their wickedness, and don't resent it,
that he don't 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 don't 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 her mouth
under them.
V. 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 11:21). 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.
VI. 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, and 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 in 'em as they do in them. The
souls of the wicked are in Scripture
compared to the troubled sea (Isaiah 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, and no
further" [Job 38:11]; but if God should
withdraw that restraining power, it would
soon carry all afore 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 a thing
that is immoderate and boundless in its
fury; and while wicked men live here, it is
like fire pent up by God's restraints,
whenas 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.
VII. It is no security to wicked men for one
moment, that there are no visible means of
death at hand. 'Tis no security to a natural
man, that he is now in health, and that he
don't 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 that this is no
evidence that a man is not on the very brink
of eternity, and that the next step won't 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 won't bear their weight, and
these places are not seen. The arrows of
death fly unseen at noonday; the sharpest
sight can't discern them. God has so many
different unsearchable ways of taking wicked
men out of the world and sending 'em 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 absolutely subject to his
power and determination, that it don't
depend at all 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.
VIII. Natural men's prudence and care to
preserve their own lives, or the care of
others to preserve them, don't secure 'em a
moment. This divine providence and universal
experience does also bear testimony to.
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? Ecclesiastes
2:16, "How dieth the wise man? as the fool."
IX. All wicked men's pains and contrivance
they use to escape hell, while they continue
to reject Christ, and so remain wicked men,
don't secure 'em 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; everyone 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 won't fail.
They hear indeed that there are but few
saved, and that the bigger 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 don't intend to come to that place
of torment; he says within himself, that he
intends to take care that shall be
effectual, and to order matters so for
himself as not to fail.
But the foolish children of men do miserably
delude themselves in their own schemes, and
in their confidence in their own strength
and wisdom; they trust to nothing but a
shadow. The bigger part of those that
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 that are now
alive; it was not because they did not lay
out matters as well for themselves to secure
their own escape. If it were so, that we
could come to speak with them, and could
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; O 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" [1 Thessalonians 5:3].
X. 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 that are not the children of the
covenant, and that don't believe in any of
the promises of the covenant, 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, 'tis 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 'em 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 may be of
Awakening to unconverted persons in this
congregation. This that you have heard is the
case of everyone 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
anything to take hold of: there is nothing
between you and hell but the air; 'tis 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 don't 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 that so is 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 don't willingly shine upon you to give you
light to serve sin and Satan; the earth don't
willingly yield her increase to satisfy your
lusts; nor is it willingly a stage for your
wickedness to be acted upon; the air don't
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 don't 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. 'Tis 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
continually 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 floodgate, 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 are all you that never passed under a great
change of heart, by the mighty power of the
Spirit of God upon your souls; all that were
never born again, and made new creatures, and
raised from being dead in sin, to a state of
new, and before altogether inexperienced light
and life (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, and may be strict in it), you are thus
in the hands of an angry God; 'tis 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 that
they depended on 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 so abominable
in his eyes as the most hateful venomous serpent
is in ours. You have offended him infinitely
more than ever a stubborn rebel did his prince:
and yet 'tis nothing but his hand that holds you
from falling into the fire every moment; 'tis 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 han't 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 don't this very moment drop down into hell.
O sinner! Consider the fearful danger you are
in: 'tis 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 several
things concerning that wrath that you are in
such danger of.
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, that have
the possessions and lives of their subjects
wholly in their power, to be disposed of at
their mere will. Proverbs 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 their's, as his majesty
is greater. Luke 12:4-05, "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 ye shall fear: Fear him which after he
hath killed hath power to cast into hell;
yea, I say unto you, fear him."
2. 'Tis the fierceness of his wrath that you
are exposed to. We often read of the fury of
God; as in Isaiah 59:18, "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
chariots like a whirlwind, to render his
anger with fury, and his rebukes with flames
of fire." And so in many other places. So we
read of God's fierceness. Revelation 19:15,
there we read of "the winepress 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 'tis not only said so, but
"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 not only said so, but "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
consequence! What will become of the poor
worm that shall suffer it! Whose hands can
be strong? and whose heart 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's so
hard for you to bear. Ezekiel 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 only 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 only to be filled full of
wrath: God will be so far from pitying you
when you cry to him, that 'tis said he will
only laugh and mock (Proverbs 1:25-32).
How awful are those words, Isaiah 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." 'Tis 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 favor, that instead of that
he'll only tread you under foot: and though
he will know that you can't bear the weight
of omnipotence treading upon you, yet he
won't regard that, but he will crush you
under his feet without mercy; he'll 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.
3. 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
provoke 'em. 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 order that the burning
fiery furnace should be het 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.
Romans 9:22, "What if God, willing to show
his wrath, and to make his power known,
endured with much longsuffering the vessels
of wrath fitted to destruction?" And seeing
this is his design, and what he has
determined, to show how terrible the
unmixed, 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. Isaiah 33:12-14, "And the
people shall be as the burning 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.
Who among us shall dwell with the devouring
fire? who among us shall dwell with
everlasting burnings?"
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. Isaiah
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."
4. 'Tis 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
forever, 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; 'tis inexpressible and inconceivable:
for "who knows the power of God's anger?"
[Psalms 90:11].
How dreadful is the state of those that are
daily and hourly in 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, before this
year is out. And it would be no wonder if some
person that now sits here in some seat of this
meeting house in health, and 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
don't 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. 'Tis doubtless the case of some that
heretofore 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 such
opportunity as you now enjoy!
And now you have an extraordinary opportunity, a
day wherein Christ has flung the door of mercy
wide open, and stands in the door 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 in now an happy state, with
their hearts filled with love to him that 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,7 where they are flocking
from day to day to Christ?
Are there not many here that have lived long in
the world, that 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. Don't you
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 wake
thoroughly out of sleep; you cannot bear the
fierceness and wrath of the infinite God.
And you that are young men, and young women,
will you neglect this precious season that 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 it is with those
persons that spent away all the precious days of
youth in sin, and are now come to such a
dreadful pass in blindness and hardness.
And you children that are unconverted, don't you
know that you are going down to hell, to bear
the dreadful wrath of that God that 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 everyone 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, that is a day of
such great favor 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 bigger 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 that great outpouring 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
ax is in an extraordinary manner laid at the
root of the trees, that every tree that brings
not forth good fruit, may be hewn down, and cast
into the fire.
Therefore let everyone that is out of Christ,
now awake and fly from the wrath to come. The
wrath of almighty God is now undoubtedly hanging
over great part of this congregation: let
everyone fly out of Sodom. Haste and escape for
your lives, look not behind you, escape to the
mountain, lest you be consumed [Genesis 19:17].
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