by Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), at Enfield, Connecticut, on July
8, 1741.
"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 verse 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.
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 72:18. "Surely you did set them in
slippery places; you cast 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 you did set them in slippery places; you
cast 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. The truth of this observation may appear by the
following considerations.
1. There is no lack 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. Yes, 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 cumbers 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.
3. They are already under a sentence of condemnation to hell. They do not
only justly deserve to be cast down there, 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 believes not is
condemned already." So that every unconverted man properly belongs to hell;
that is his place; from thence he is, John 8:23. "You are from beneath:" And
there he 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. Yes,
God is a great deal more angry with great numbers that are now on earth: yes,
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 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 has opened its mouth under them.
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 shall you 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.
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 people 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. 2:16. "How dies 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 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."
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 yes 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, until 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 people in
this congregation. This that you have heard is the case of every one of you
that are out of Christ. That world of misery, that take of burning brimstone,
is extended abroad under you. There is the dreadful pit of the glowing flames
of the wrath of God; there is hell's wide gaping mouth open; and you have
nothing to stand upon, nor any thing to take hold of; there is nothing between
you and hell but the air; it is only the power and mere pleasure of God that
holds you up.
You probably are not sensible of this; you find you are kept out of hell,
but do not see the hand of God in it; but look at other things, as the good
state of your bodily constitution, your care of your own life, and the means
you use for your own preservation. But indeed these things are nothing; if God
should withdraw his hand, they would avail no more to keep you from falling,
than the thin air to hold up a person that is suspended in it.
Your wickedness makes you as it were heavy as lead, and to tend downwards
with great weight and pressure towards hell; and if God should let you go, you
would immediately sink and swiftly descend and plunge into the bottomless
gulf, and your healthy constitution, and your own care and prudence, and best
contrivance, and all your righteousness, would have no more influence to
uphold you and keep you out of hell, than a spider's web would have to stop a
falling rock. Were it not for the sovereign pleasure of God, the earth would
not bear you one moment; for you are a burden to it; the creation groans with
you; the creature is made subject to the bondage of your corruption, not
willingly; the sun does not willingly shine upon you to give you light to
serve sin and Satan; the earth does not willingly yield her increase to
satisfy your lusts; nor is it willingly a stage for your wickedness to be
acted upon; the air does not willingly serve you for breath to maintain the
flame of life in your vitals, while you spend your life in the service of
God's enemies. God's creatures are good, and were made for men to serve God
with, and do not willingly subserve to any other purpose, and groan when they
are abused to purposes so directly contrary to their nature and end. And the
world would spew you out, were it not for the sovereign hand of him who has
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, until 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, yes, 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. Yes, 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: Whosoever provokes him
to anger, sins against his own soul." The subject that very much enrages an
arbitrary prince, is liable to suffer the most extreme torments that human are
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 has killed, has power to cast into hell: yes, 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 Isa. 59:18. "According to their deeds,
accordingly he will repay fury to his adversaries." So Isa. 66:15. "For
behold, the Lord will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind,
to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire." And in
many other places. So, Rev. 19:15, we read of "the wine press of the
fierceness and wrath of Almighty God." The words are exceeding terrible. If it
had only been said, "the wrath of God," the words would have implied that
which is infinitely dreadful: but it is "the fierceness and wrath of God." The
fury of God! the fierceness of Jehovah! Oh, how dreadful that must be! Who can
utter or conceive what such expressions carry in them! But it is also "the
fierceness and wrath of almighty God." As though there would be a very great
manifestation of his almighty power in what the fierceness of his wrath should
inflict, as though omnipotence should be as it were enraged, and exerted, as
men are wont to exert their strength in the fierceness of their wrath. Oh!
then, what will be the consequence! What will become of the poor worms that
shall suffer it! Whose hands can be strong? And whose heart can endure? To
what a dreadful, inexpressible, inconceivable depth of misery must the poor
creature be sunk who shall be the subject of this!
Consider this, you that are here present, that yet remain in an
unregenerate state. That God will execute the fierceness of his anger,
implies, that he will inflict wrath without any pity. When God beholds the
ineffable extremity of your case, and sees your torment to be so vastly
disproportioned to your strength, and sees how your poor soul is crushed, and
sinks down, as it were, into an infinite gloom; he will have no compassion
upon you, he will not forbear the executions of his wrath, or in the least
lighten his hand; there shall be no moderation or mercy, nor will God then at
all stay his rough wind; he will have no regard to your welfare, nor be at all
careful lest you should suffer too much in any other sense, than only that you
shall not suffer beyond what strict justice requires. Nothing shall be
withheld, because it is so hard for you to bear. Ezek. 8:18. "Therefore will I
also deal in fury: mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity; and
though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, yet I will not hear them." Now
God stands ready to pity you; this is a day of mercy; you may cry now with
some encouragement of obtaining mercy. But when once the day of mercy is past,
your most lamentable and dolorous cries and shrieks will be in vain; you will
be wholly lost and thrown away of God, as to any regard to your welfare. God
will have no other use to put you to, but to suffer misery; you shall be
continued in being to no other end; for you will be a vessel of wrath fitted
to destruction; and there will be no other use of this vessel, but to be
filled full of wrath. God will be so far from pitying you when you cry to him,
that it is said he will only "laugh and mock," Prov. 1:25,26..
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, namely, 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 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.
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 has 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 are
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 has 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 burned in the fire. Hear you that are far off,
what I have done; and you that are near, acknowledge my might. The sinners in
Zion are afraid; fearfulness has surprised the hypocrites, " etc..
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, says
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. 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 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; it is inexpressible and
inconceivable: For "who knows the power of God's anger?"
How dreadful is the state of those that are daily and hourly in the danger
of this great wrath and infinite misery! But this is the dismal case of every
soul in this congregation that has not been born again, however moral and
strict, sober and religious, they may otherwise be. Oh that you would consider
it, whether you be young or old! There is reason to think, that there are many
in this congregation now hearing this discourse, that will actually be the
subjects of this very misery to all eternity. We know not who they are, or in
what seats they sit, or what thoughts they now have. It may be they are now at
ease, and hear all these things without much disturbance, and are now
flattering themselves that they are not the people, 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 people,
that now sit here, in some seats of this meeting-house, in health, quiet and
secure, should be there before tomorrow morning. Those of you that finally
continue in a natural condition, that shall keep out of hell longest will be
there in a little time! your damnation does not slumber; it will come swiftly,
and, in all probability, very suddenly upon many of you. You have reason to
wonder that you are not already in hell. It is doubtless the case of some whom
you have seen and known, that never deserved hell more than you, and that
heretofore appeared as likely to have been now alive as you. Their case is
past all hope; they are crying in extreme misery and perfect despair; but here
you are in the land of the living and in the house of God, and have an
opportunity to obtain salvation. What would not those poor damned hopeless
souls give for one day's opportunity such as you now enjoy!
And now you have an extraordinary opportunity, a day wherein Christ has
thrown the door of mercy wide open, and stands in calling and crying with a
loud voice to poor sinners; a day wherein many are flocking to him, and
pressing into the kingdom of God. Many are daily coming from the east, west,
north and south; many that were very lately in the same miserable condition
that you are in, are now in a happy state, with their hearts filled with love
to him who has loved them, and washed them from their sins in his own blood,
and rejoicing in hope of the glory of God. How awful is it to be left behind
at such a day! To see so many others feasting, while you are pining and
perishing! To see so many rejoicing and singing for joy of heart, while you
have cause to mourn for sorrow of heart, and howl for vexation of spirit! How
can you rest one moment in such a condition? Are not your souls as precious as
the souls of the people at Suffield, where they are flocking from day to day
to Christ?
Are there not many here who have lived long in the world, and are not to
this day born again? and so are aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and
have done nothing ever since they have lived, but treasure up wrath against
the day of wrath? Oh, sirs, your case, in an especial manner, is extremely
dangerous. Your guilt and hardness of heart is extremely great. Do you not see
how generality people 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 people 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 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 people 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
people 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."