So unspeakably dreadful is the case of every unconverted soul, that I have sometimes thought if I could but convince men that they are yet unregenerate, the work were more than half done. But I find by sad experience that such a spirit of sloth and slumber possesses the unsanctified, that, though they be convinced that they are yet unconverted, they ofttimes carelessly sit still; and through. the love of sensual pleasure, or the hurry of worldly business, or the noise and clamor of earthly cares “and lusts and affections, the voice of conscience is drowned, and men go no farther than some cold wishes and general purposes of repenting and amending. ”
It is therefore of high necessity that I not only convince men that they are unconverted, but that I also endeavor to bring them to a sense of the fearful misery of this state.
But here I find myself aground at first setting off. What tongue can tell the heirs of hell sufficiently of their misery, unless it were Dives in that flame? Luke 16: 24. Where is the ready writer whose pen can depict their misery who are without God in ~ the world? This cannot fully be done, unless we know the infinite ocean of bliss which is in perfection in God, and from which a state of sin doth exclude men. “Who knoweth,” saith Moses, “the power of thine anger?” And how shall I tell men that which I donot know? Yet so much we know, as one would think would shake the heart of that man that had the least degree of spiritual life and “sense.
But this is yet the more perplexing difficulty, that I am to speak to them that are without spiritual sense. Alas, this is not the least part of man’s misery, that he is dead, dead in trespasses and sins. Could I bring paradise into view, or represent the kingdom of heaven to as much advantage as the. tempter did the kingdoms of the world, and all the glory thereof, to our Saviour; or could I uncover the face of the deep and devouring gulf of Tophet in all its terrors, and open the gates of the infernal furnace; alas, he hath no eyes to see it. Could I paint the beauties of holiness or the glory of the Gospel; or could I expose to view the more than diabolical deformity and ugliness of sin: he can no more judge of the loveliness and beauty of the one, and the filthiness and hatefulness of the other, than a blind man of colors. He is alienated from the life of God, through the ignorance that is in him be-. cause of the blindness of his heart. He neither doth nor can know the things of God, because they are spiritually discerned. His eyes cannot be savingly opened but by converting grace. He is a child of darkness, and walks in darkness. Yea, the light in him is darkness.. Shall I ring his knell, or read his sentence, or sound in his ear the terrible trump of God’s judgments, that one would think should make both his ears to tingle, and strike him into Belshazzar’s fit, even to change his countenance, and to loose his joints, and make his knees smite one against another? Alas, he perceives me not; he hath no ears to hear. Or shall I call up the daughters of music, and sing the song of Moses and the Lamb? Yet he will not be stirred. Shall I allure him with the joyful sound, and lovely song, and glad tidings of the Gospel; with the most sweet and inviting calls, comforts, and cordials of the divine promises so exceedingly great and precious? It will not affect him savingly, unless I could find him ears as well as tell him the news. ‘
What then shall I do? Shall I uncover to him the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone; or shall I open the box of spikenard, very precious, that filleth the whole house of the universe with its perfume, and hope that the savor of Christ’s ointments and the smell of his garments will attract him? Alas, dead sinners are like the dumb idols: they have mouths, but they speak not; eyes have -. they, but they see not; they have ears, but they hear not; noses have they, but they smell not; they have hands, but they handle not; feet have they, but they walk not; neither speak they through their throat. They are destitute of spiritual sense and motion, ) But let me try the sense that doth last leave us, and draw the sword of the word; yet, though I choose mine arrows out of God’s quiver, and direct them to the heart, nevertheless he feeleth it not; for how should he, being past feeling? So that, though the wrath of God abideth on him,” and the mountainous weight, of so many thousand sins, yet he goes up and down as light as if nothing ailed him. In a word, he carries a dead sou] in a living - body, and his flesh is but the walking coffin of a corrupt mind that is twice dead. Jude 12.
Which way then shall.I come at the miserable objects that I have to deal with? Who shall make the heart of stone relent, or the lifeless carcass to feel and move? That God who is able of “stones to raise up children unto Abraham;” that raiseth the dead,” “and melteth the mountains,” and “striketh water out of the flint; that loves to work like himself, beyond the hopes and belief of man; that peopleth his church with dry bones; he is able to do this. Therefore “I bow my knee to the most high God;”’ and as our Saviour prayed at the sepulchre of Lazarus, and the Shunamite ran to the man of God for her dead child, so doth your mourning minister carry you in the arms of prayer to that God in whom your help is found.
“0 thou all-powerful Jehovah, who workest, and none can hinder thee! who hast the keys of death and hell! pity thou the dead souls that lie here entombed, and roll away the grave-stone, and say as to the dead body of Lazarus, Come forth. Lighten thou this darkness, O inaccessible Light, and let the day-spring from on high visit the dark regions’ of the dead, to whom I speak; for thou canst open the eye that death itself hath closed; thou that formedst the ear, canst restore the hearing: say thou to these ears, Ephphatha, and they shall be opened. Give thou eyes to see thine excellencies, a taste that may relish thy sweetness, a scent that may savor thy ointment, a feeling that may discern the privilege of thy favor, the burden of thy wrath, the intolerable weight of unpardoned sin; and give thy servant order to prophesy to dry bones, and let the effects of this prophecy be as of thy prophet when he prophesied the valley of dry bones into a living army exceeding great.” Ezek. 37:1-10..
But I must proceed, as I am able, to unfold that misery which, I confess, no tongue can unfold, no heart can sufficiently comprehend. -
Know therefore, that, while thou art unconverted, 1. The infinite God is engaged against thee. It is no small part of thy misery that thou art without God.” How doth Micah run crying after the Danites, “Ye have taken away my gods, and what have I more?” O what a mourning then must thou lift up, that art without God, that canst lay no claim to him without daring usurpation! How piercing a moan is that of Saul in his last extremity, The Philistines are upon me, and God is departed from me!” Sinners, but what will you do in the day of your visitation? Whither will you flee for help? Where will you leave your glory? What will you do when the Philistines are upon you; when the world shall take its eternal leave of you; when you must bid your friends, houses, and lands, farewell for evermore? What then, I say, will you do, that have not God to go to? Will.you call on him? Will you cry to him for help? Alas, he will not own you. He will not take any notice of you; but will send you away with, “I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” = They that know what it is to have a God to go to, a God to live upon—they know a little what a fearful misery it is to be without God. This made a holy man cry out, “Let me have God or nothing: let me know him and his will, and what will please him, and how I may come to enjoy him, or would I never had an understanding to know any thing!”
But thou art not only without God, but God is against thee. O if God would but stand neuter, though he did not own nor help the poor sinner, his. case were not so deeply miserable; though God should give up the poor creature to the will of his enemies, to do their worst with him; though he should deliver him over to the tormentors, that devils should tear and torture him to their utmost power and skill, yet this were not half so fearful. - But God will set himself against the sinner; and, believe it, ““it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” There is no friend like him, no enemy like him. As much as heaven is above the earth, omnipotence above impotence, so much more terrible is it to fall into the hands of the living God, than into the paws of bears and lions, yea, furies or devils. God himself will be- thy tormentor; thy destruction shall come from the presence of the Lord. “If God be against thee, who shall be for thee? If one man sin against another, the judge shall judge him: but if a man sin against the Lord, who shall entreat for him?”” Thou, even thou, art to be feared; and who shall stand in thy sight when thou art angry?” Who or what shall deliver you out of his hands? Can mammon.? Riches profit not in the day of wrath.” Can kings or warriors? No; they shall cry to the mountains and rocks to fall on them, and hide them from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of his wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand?”’ ”
Sinner, I think this should go like a dagger to thy heart, to know that God is thine enemy. O whither wilt thou go; where wilt thou shelter thee?
There is no hope for thee, unless thou lay down thy weapons and sue out thy pardon, and get Christ to stand thy friend and make thy peace. If it were not for this, thou mightest go into some howling wilderness, and there pine in sorrow, and run mad for anguish of heart and horrible despair. But in Christ there is a possibility of mercy for thee, yea, a proffer of mercy to thee, that thou mayest have God more for thee than he is now against thee. But if thou wilt not forsake thy sins, nor turn thoroughly and to some purpose to God, by a sound conversion, the wrath of God abideth on thee, and he proclaimeth himself to be against thee, as in the prophet: Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, Behold I, even I, am against thee!”
(1.) His face is against thee. The face of the Lord is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them.” Woe unto them whom God shall set his face against. When he did but look on the host of the Egyptians, how terrible was the consequence! ‘I will set my face against that man, and will make him a sign and a proverb, and will cut him off from the midst of my people; and ye shall know that I am tlie Lord.”
(2.) His heart is against thee. He hateth all the workers of iniquity. Man, doth not thy heart tremble to think of thy being an object of God’s hatred? “Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be towards this people: cast them out of my sight.” My soul loathed them, and their souls also abhorred me.”;
‘(3.) His kand is against thee. All his attributes are against thee.
His justice is like a flaming sword unsheathed against thee: “If I whet my glittering sword, and my hand take hold on judgment, I will render vengeance to mine adversaries, and will reward them that hate me: I will make mine arrows drunk with blood.” So exact is justice, that it will by no means clear the guilty. God will not discharge thee, he will not hold thee guiltless, but will require the whole debt in person of thee, unless thou canst make a Scripture claim to Christ and his satisfac tion. When the enlightened sinner looks on justice, and sees the balance in which he must be weighed and the sword by which he must be executed, he feels an earthquake in his breast; but Satan keeps this out of sight, and persuades the soul, while he can, that the Lord is all made up of mercy, and so lulls it asleep in sin. Divine justice is exact; it must have satisfaction to the utmost farthing: it denounceth indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish to every soul that doeth evil.” It “curseth “every one that continueth not in all things written in the law to do them.” The justice of God to the unpardoned sinner that hath a sense of his guilt, is more terrible than the sight of the creditor to the bankrupt debtor, of the judge and bench to the robber, or of the irons and gibbet to the guilty murderer. When justice sits upon life and death, what dreadful work doth it make with the wretched sinner! Bind him hand and foot; cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire.” This is the terrible sentence that justice pronounceth. Sinner, by this severe justice must thou be tried; and as God liveth, this killing sentence must thou hear, unless thou repent and be converted. ‘
The holiness of God is against thee. He is not only angry with thee—so he may be with his children—but he hath a fixed, habitual displeasure against thee. God’s nature is infinitely contrary to “sin, and so he cannot delight in a sinner out of Christ.
O what misery is this, to be out of the favor, yea, under the hatred of God; that God, who can as easily lay aside his nature and cease to be God, as not be contrary to thee and detest thee, except thou be changed and renewed. O sinner, how” darest thou think of the bright and radiant sun of purity, or the beauties, the glory of holiness in God? “The stars are not pure in his sight.” He humbles himself to behold things that are done in heaven.” O those all-searching eyes of his! what do they spy in thee; and hast thou no interest in Christ neither, that he should plead for thee? I think he should hear thee crying out, astonished, with the Bethshemites, “Who is able to stand before this holy Lord God?” The power of God is against thee. The glory of God’s power is displayed in the wonderful confusion and destruction of them that obey not the Gospel. - He will make his power known in them, how mightily he can torment them. For this end he raiseth them up, “that he might make his power known.” O man, art thou able to contend with thy Maker?
Sinner, the power of God’s anger is against thee, and power and anger together make fearful work; it were better thou. hadst all the world in arms against thee than to have the power of God against thee. There is no escaping his hands, no breaking his prison. The thunder of his power, who can understand?” Unhappy man that shall understand it by feeling it! “If he will contend with him, he cannot answer him one of a thousand. He is wise in heart and mighty in strength: who hath hardened - himself against him, and prospered? which removeth the mountains, and they know it not; which overturneth them in his anger; which shaketh the earth out of her place, and the pillars thereof tremble; which commandeth the sun, and it riseth not; and sealeth up the stars! Behold, he taketh away, who can hinder him? Who will say unto him, What doest thou? If God will not withdraw his anger, the proud helpers do stoop under him.” Job 9:
3-6, 12, 13. And art thou a fit match for such an antagonist? “O consider this, ye that forget God, lest he tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver.” Submit to mercy; let not dust and stubble stand out against the Almighty; set not briers and thorns against him in battle, lest hego through them, and consume them together; but lay hold on his strength that you may “make peace with him.” “Woe to him that striveth with his Maker I” ~~
The wisdom of God is set to ruin thee. - He hath ordained his arrows, and prepared instruments of death, and made all things ready. His counsels are against thee, to contrive thy destruction. He sees how thou wilt come down mightily in a moment; how thou wilt gnash thy teeth for anguish of heart, when thou seest thou art. fallen irremediably into the pit of destruction.
The truth of God is sworn against thee. If he be true and faithful, thou must perish if thou goest on. Unless he be false to his word, thou must die, except thou repent. If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful; he cannot deny himself; that is, he is faithful to his threatenings as well as to his promises, and will show his faithfulness in our confusion, if we believe not. God hath told thee as plain as it can be spoken, that “if he wash thee not, thou hast no part in him;”’ that “if thou livest after the flesh, thou shalt die;” that except thou be converted, thou shalt in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven.” Beloved, as the immutable faithfulness of God in his promise and oath affords believers strong consolation, so they are to unbelievers for strong consternation and confusion.
+O sinner, tell me what dost thou think of all the threatenings of God’s word that stand upon record against thee? Dost thou believe they are truth or not? If not, thou art a wretched infidel. But, if thou dost believe them, O heart of adamant that thou hast, that thou canst walk up and down in quiet, when the truth and faithfulness of God are engaged to destroy thee! The whole book of God doth testify against thee while thou remainest unsanctified: it condemns thee in every leaf, and is to thee like Ezekiel’s roll, written within and without with lamentation, and mourning, and woe. And all this shall surely come upon thee, except thou repent. “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but one jot or tittle of this word shall never pass away.”.
Now, put all this together, and tell me if the case of the unconverted be not deplorably miserable. As we read of some persons that had bound themselves by an oath and a curse to kill Paul; so thou must know, O sinner, to thy terror, that all the attributes of the infinite God are bound by an oath to punish thee. O man, what wilt thou do; whither wilt thou flee? If God’s omniscience can find thee, thou shalt not escape. If the true and faithful God will regard his oath, perish thou must, except thou believe and repent. If the Almighty hath power to torment thee, thou must be perfectly miserable in soul and body te all eternity, unless it be prevented by speedy ccnversion. 4
2. The whole creation of God is against thee. “The whole creation,” saith Paul, “groaneth and travaileth in pain.” But what is it that the creation groaneth under? The fearful abuse it is subject to ~~ in serving the lusts of unsanctified men. And what is it that the creation groaneth for? For freedom and liberty from this abuse; for the “creature is not willingly made subject to this bondage.” Rom. 8:20,21. If the irrational and inanimate creatures had speech.and reason, they would cry out under it, as a bondage insufferable, to be abused by the ungodly, contrary to their natures and the ends that the great Creator made them for. It is a saying of an eminent divine, The liquor that the drunkard drinketh, if it had reason, like a man, to know how shamefully it is abused, would groan in the barrel, against him, it would groan in the cup against him, groan in his throat, in his stomach against him; it would fly in his face, if it could speak. And if God should open the mouths of his creatures, as he did the mouth of Balaam’s ass, the proud man’s garment on his back would groan against him. There is never a creature, if it had reason to know how it is abused till a man be converted, but would groan against him: the land would groan to bear him; the air would groan to give him breath; their houses would groan to lodge them; their beds would groan to ease them, their food to nourish them,- their clothes to cover them, and the creature would groan to give them any help and comfort, so long as they live in sin against God.”
I think this should be a terror to an unconverted soul, to think he is a- burden to the creation: Cut it down; why cummbereth it the ground?”’ If inanimate creatures could but speak, thy food would say, Lord, must I nourish such a wretch as this, and yield forth my strength for him to dishonor thee? The very air would say, Lord, must I give this man breath to speak against Heaven, and scorn thy people, and vent his pride and wrath, and filthy communication, and utter oaths and blasphemy against thee? His poor beast would say, Lord, must I carry him upon his wicked design? A wicked man! the earth groans under him, and hell groans for him, till death satisfies both. While the Lord of hosts is against thee, be sure the host of the Lord is, against thee, and all the creatures, as it were, up in arms, till, upon a man’s conversion, the controversy being settled between God and him, he makes a covenant of peace with the creature for him.
3. The roaring lion, Satan, hath- kis full power upon thee. Thou art led captive by him at his will. This is the spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience. He is the ruler of the darkness of this world, that is, of ignorant sinners who live in darkness. You pity the poor Indians that worship the devil for their god, but little think it is your own case. It is the common misery of all the unsanctified, that the devil is their god. Not that they intend to do him homage: they will be ready to defy him, and him that should say.so of them; but all this while they serve him, and live under his government. His servants ye are to whom ye obey. Rom. 6:16. O how many, then, will be found the real servants of the devil, that take themselves for no other than the children of God! He can no sooner offer a sinful delight or opportunity for your unlawful advantage than you embrace it. If he suggest a lie, or prompt you to revenge, you readily obey. If he forbid you to read or pray, you hearken to him, and therefore his servants you are. Indeed, he stands behind the curtain, he acts in the dark, and sinners see not who setteth them at work, but all the while he leads them. Doubtless the liar intends not a service to Satan, but his own advantage; yet it is he that stands unobserved and putteth the thing into his heart. Undoubtedly Judas, when he sold his Master for money, and the Chaldeans and Sabeans, when they plundered Job, intended not to do the devil a pleasure, but to satisfy their own covetous thirst; yet it was he that actuated them in their wickedness. Men may be very slaves and common drudges for the Alleine’s Alarm. 8
devil, and not know it: nay, they may please themselves in thoughts of liberty.
Art thou yet in ignorance, and not turned from darkness unto light? I fear thou art under the power of Satan. Dost thou live in the wilful practice of any known sin? Know that thou art of the devil. Dost thou live in strife, or envy, or malice? Verily he is thy father. O dreadful case! However Satan may provide his slaves with divers pleasures, yet it is but to draw them into endless perdition. The serpent comes with the fruit in his mouth, but, with Eve, thou seest not the deadly sting. He that is now thy tempter, will one day be thy tormentor. O that I could but give thee to see how bad a master thou servest, how merciless a tyrant thou gratifiest; all whose pleasure is to set thee on to make thy perdition and damnation sure, and to heat the furnace hotter and hotter in which thou must burn for millions and millions of ages!
A. The guilt. of all thy sins lies like a mountain upon thee. Poor soul, thou feclest it not; but this is that which seals thy misery. While unconverted, none of thy sins are blotted out, they are all upon record against thee. Regeneration and remission are never separated; the unsanctified are unjustified and unpardoned. It is a fearful thing to be in debt, but above all, in God’s debt; for there is no arrest so formidable as his, no prison so dreary as his. Look upon an enlightened sinner who feels the weight of his own guilt: O how frightful are his looks, how fearful are his complaints! his comforts are turned into wormwood, and his moisture into drought, and his sleep is departed from his eyes. He is a terror to himself and all that are about him, and is ready to envy the very stones that lie in the street, because they are senseless and feel not his misery, and wisheth he had been a dog, rather than a man, because then death had put an end to his misery; whereas now it will be but the beginning of that which will know no ending.
However you may make light of it now, you will one day find the guilt of unpardoned sin to be a heavy burden. This is a mill-stone, that “whosoever falleth upon it shall be broken; but upon whomsoever it shall fall, it shall grind him to powder.” The guilt of our sins caused the agony and death of the blessed Saviour. And if it did this in the green tree, what will it do in the dry?
O think of thy case in time. Canst thou think of that threat without trembling, “Ye shall die in your sins 2”? O, better were it for thee to dieina jail, in a ditch, in a dungeon, than die in thy sins. If death, as it will take away all thy comforts, would take away thy sins too, it were some mitigation; but thy sins will follow thee when thy friends leave thee, and all worldly enjoyments shake hands with thee. Thy sins will not die with thee as a prisoner’s other debts will; but they will go to judgment with thee, there to be thy accusers; and they will go to hell with thee, there to be thy tormentors. O the work that these will make thee. O look over thy debts in time; how every one of God’s commandments is ready to arrest thee, and take thee by the throat for the innumerable bonds it hath upon thee. What wilt thon do, then, when they shall all together come in against thee? Hold open the eyes of thy conscience to consider this, that thou mayest despair of thyself and be driven to Christ, and fly for refuge to “lay hold on the hope that is set before thee.”
5. Thy raging lusts do miserably enslave thee, While unconverted, thou art a very servant to sin; it reigns over thee, and holds thee under its dominion, till thou art brought within the bonds of God’s covenant. There is not such another tyrant as sin. O the vile and fearful work that it doth engage its servants in!
Would it not pierce thy heart to see a company of poor creatures drudging and toiling to carry together fagots and fuel for their own burning? This is the employment of sin’s drudges. Even while they bless themselves in their unrighteous gains, while they sing in pleasure, they are but treasuring up vengeance for their eternal burning; they are but adding to the pile of Tophet, and flinging in oil to make the flame rage the fiercer. Who would serve such a master, whose work is drudgery, whose wages are death?
What a woful spectacle was the poor wretch possessed with the legion! Would it not have grieved thy heart to see him among the tombs cutting and wounding himself? This is thy case; such is thy work; every stroke is a thrust at thy heart. Conscience indeed is now asleep; but, when death and judgment shall bring thee to thy senses, then wilt thou feel the anguish in every wound. The convinced sinner is a sensible instance of the miserable bondage of sin: conscience flies upon him, and tells him the end of these things; and yet such a slave he is to his lusts, that on he goes, though he sees it will be his perdition: when the temptation comes, lust breaks the cords of all his wows and promises, and carries him headlong to his own destruction.
6. The furnace of eternal vengeance is heated ready Jor thee. Hell and destruction open their mouths upon thee; they gape for thee; they groan for thee, Isa. 5:14; waiting as it were with a greedy eye, as thou standest on the brink. If the wrath of men be as the roaring of a lion,” “more heavy than the sand,” what is the wrath of the infinite God? If. the burning furnace heated in Nebuchadnezzar’s fiery rage, when he commanded it to be made yet seven times hotter, was so fierce as to burn up even those that drew near to throw the three children in, how hot is that burning of the Almighty’s fury! Surely this is seventy times seven more fierce. What thinkest thou, O man, of being a fagot in hell to all eternity? “Can thine heart endure, or can thine hands be strong in the day that I shall deal with thee? saith the Lord of hosts.” Canst thou abide the everlasting burnings? Canst thou dwell with consuming fire; when thou shalt be as glowing iron in hell, and thy whole body and soul shall be as perfectly possessed by God’s burning vengeance as the sparkling iron with fire, when heated in the fiercest furnace? Some of the choicest servants of God, when under the hidings of his face, and dreading the effects of his displeasure, have bewailed their condition with bitter lamentations. How then wilt thou endure when God shall pour out all his vials, and set himself against thee, to torment thee; when he shall make thy conscience the tunnel by which he will be pouring his burning wrath into thy soul for ever, and when he shall fill all thy pores as full of torment as they are now full of sin; when immortality shall be thy misery, and to die the death of a brute, and be swallowed in the gulf of annihilation, shall be such a felicity as the whole eternity of wishes and an ocean of tears shall never purchase? Now thou canst put off the evil day, and laugh and be merry, and forget “the terror of the Lord.” But how wilt thou hold out, or hold up, when God will cast thee into a “bed of torments,” and make thee to “lie down in sorrow;” when roarings and blasphemies shall be thy only music, and the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation, shall be thy only drink; and when thou shalt draw in flames for thy breath: in a word, when the smoke of thy torment shall ascend for ever and ever, and thou shalt have no rest day nor night, no rest in thy conscience, no ease in thy bones; but thou shalt be an execration and astonishment, and a curse and a reproach, for evermore? Jer. 42:18.
O sinner, stop here, and consider. If thou art a man, and nét a senseless block, consider. Bethink thyself where, thou standest—upon the very brink of destruction. As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, there is but a step between thee and this. Thou knowest not, when thou liest down, but thou mayest be in hell before morning: thou knowest not, when thou risest, but thou mayest drop in before night. Darest thou make light of this? Wilt thou go on in such a dreadful condition, as if nothing ailed thee? If thou puttest it off, and sayest, this doth not belong to thee,” look again over the fore-’ going chapter, and tell me the truth. Are none of those black marks found upon thee? Do not blind thine eyes; do not deceive thyself; see thy misery while thou mayest prevent it. Think what it is to be a vile outcast, a lost reprobate,.a vessel of wrath, into which the Lord will be pouring out his tormenting fury while he hath a being.
Divine wrath is a fierce, devouring, everlasting, unquenchable fire, and this must be thy portion, unless thou consider thy ways, and speedily turn to the Lord by a sound conversion. They that have had but a foretaste of this woe, O what amazing spectacles they have been! Whose heart would not melt to have heard Spira’s outeries; to have seen Chaloner, that monument of justice, worn to skin and bone, blaspheming the God of heaven, cursing himself, and continually crying out, O torture, torture, torture! O torture, torture!” as if the flames of wrath had already taken hold on him; to have heard Rogers crying out, “I have had a little pleasure, but now I must have hell for evermore;”’ wishing but for this mitigation, that God would let him lie burning for ever behind the back of that fire, on the hearth, and bringing in his sad conclusion still, at the end of whatever was spoken to him to afford him some hope, “I must to hell, I must to hell, I must to the furnace of hell, for millions and millions of ages?” O, if the fears and forethoughts of the wrath to come be so terrible, so intolerable, what must be the feeling of it?
Sinner, it is in vain to flatter you: this would be but to draw you into the unquenchable fire. Know ye from the living God, that here you must lie; with these burnings you must dwell till immortality die and immutability change, till eternity run out and omnipotence is no longer able to punish, except you be in good earnest renewed throughout by sanctifying grace.
1. The law discharges all its threats and curses at thee.
O how dreadfully doth it thunder. It flashes devouring fire in thy face. Its words are as drawn swords, and as the sharp arrows of the mighty. It demands satisfaction to the utmost, and cries, Justice, justice! It speaks blood, and war, and wounds, and death, against thee. O man, away to thy strong hold; away from thy sins; haste to the sanctuary, the city of refuge—even the Lord Jesus Christ; hide thee in him, or else thou art lost, without any hope of recovery. 8. The Gospel itself bindeth the sentence of eternal damnation upon thee. If thou continuest in thine impenitent and unconverted state, know that the Gospel denounceth a much sorer condemnation than ever would have been for the transgression only of the first covenant. Isit not a dreadful case to have the Gospel itself fill its mouth with threats; to have “the Lord roar from mount Zion against thee?”” Hear the terror of the Lord: “He that believeth not, shall be damned.” “Except ye repent, ye shall all perish.” Thisis the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light.” that believeth not, the wrath of God abideth on him.” If the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation 2’ “He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy: of how much sorer punishment shall he be thought worthy that hath trodden under foot the Son of God?”
And is this true indeed? Is this thy misery? Yea, it is as true as God is. Better open thine eyes and see it now, while thou mayest remedy it, than blind and harden thyself till, to thy eternal sorrow, thou shalt feel what thou wouldst not believe; and if it be true, what dost thou mean, to loiter and linger in such a case as this -, Alas for thee, poor man! how effectually hath sin undone thee, and deprived and despoiled thee even of thy reason to look after thine own everlasting good. O miserable wretch! what stupidity and senselessness have surprised thee. O let me knock up and awake this sleeper. Who dwells within the walls of this flesh? Is there ever a soul here, a rational, understanding soul; or art thou only a senseless lump?
Art thou a reasonable soul, and yet so far brutified as to forget that thou art immortal, and to think thyself to be as the beasts that perish? Having reason to understand the eternity of the future state, dost thou yet make light of being everlastingly miserable, which is to be so much below the brute, as it is worse to act against reason than to act without it? O unhappy soul, that wast the glory of man, the companion of angels, and the image of God; that wast God’s representative in the world, and hadst the supremacy amongst the creatures, and the dominion over thy Maker’s works; art thounow become a slave to sense? Art thou heaping together a little refined earth, so unsuitable to thy spiritual immortal nature? O why dost thou not bethink thee where thou shalt be for ever? Death is at hand; the Judge is even at the door.” Yeta little while, and “time shall be no longer.” And wilt thou run the hazard of continuing in-such a state, in which, if thou be overtaken, thou art irrecoverably miserable? GR
Come then, arise, and attend to thy nearest concerns. Tell me whither art thou going? What, wilt thou live in such a course, wherein every act is a step to perdition; and thou dost not know but the next night thou mayest make thy bed in hell? O, if thou hast a spark of reason, consider, and turn and hearken to thy true friend, who would show thee thy present misery, that thou mightest in time make thine escape, and be eternally happy.
Hear what the Lord saith: “Fear ye not me? saith the Lord: will ye not tremble at my presence 2” O sinners, do you make light of “the wrath to come?” I am sure there is a time coming when you will not make light of it. Why, the very devils “believe and tremble.” What, are you more hardened than they 2? Will you run upon the edge of the rock? Will you play at the hole of the asp? Will you put your hand upon the cockatrice’s den? Will you dally with devouring wrath as if you were indifferent whether you escape or endure it? O madness of folly! like that of a madman that casteth firebrands, arrows, and death, and saith, ‘” Am not I in sport?”
There is no one so beside himself as the wilful sinner, that goeth on in his unconverted state without sense, as if nothing ailed him. The man that runs into the cannon’s mouth, and sports with his blood, or lets out his life in a frolic, is sensible, sober, and serious, compared with him that goeth on still in his trespasses; for he stretcheth out his hand against God, and strengtheneth himself against the Almighty: he runneth upon him, even upon his neck, upon the thick bosses of his buckler.” Is it wisdom to sport with the second death, or to venture into the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone? What shall I say? 1 can find out no expression, no comparison, whereby to set forth the dreadful madness of the soul that will go on in sin. A
Awake, awake! O sinner, arise and take thy flight. There is but one door that thou mayest flee by, and that is the strait door of conversion and the new birth. Unless thou turn unfeignedly from all thy sins, and come to Jesus Christ, and take him for the Lord thy righteousness, and walk in him in holiness and newness of life; as the Lord liveth, it is not more certain that thou art now out of hell, than that thou shalt without fail be in it but a few days or nights hence. O set thy heart to think of thy case. Doth not thy everlasting misery or welfare deserve a little consideration? Look again over the miseries of the unconverted. If the Lord hath not spoken by me, regard me not; but if it be the very word of God that all this misery lies upon thee, what a case art thou in! Is it for one that hath his senses to live in such a condition, and not to make all possible haste to prevent his utter ruin? O man, who hath bewitched thee, Gal. 3:1, that in the matters of this present life thou shalt be wise enough to forecast thy business, foresee thy danger, and prevent thy ruin; but in matters of everlasting consequence shalt be slight and careless, as if they little concerned thee? Is it nothing to thee to have all the attributes of God engaged against thee? Canst thou live without his favor? Canst thou escape his hands, or endure his vengeance? Dost thou hear the creation groaning under thee, and hell groaning for thee, and yet think thy case good enough? Art thou under the power of corruption, in the dark, noisome prison, fettered with lusts, working out thy own damnation—and is not this worth a thought?
Wilt thou make light of all the terrors of the law, of all its curses and thunders, as if they were but the threatenings of a child? Dost thou laugh at hell and destruction, or canst thou drink the envenomed cup of the Almighty’s fury, as if it were but a common potion? ”
Gird up now thy loins like a man, for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me. Art thou such a leviathan as that the scales of thy pride should resist thy Maker? Wilt thou esteem his arrows as straw, and the instruments of death as rotten wood?
Art thou chief of all the children of pride, even that thou shouldst count his darts as stubble, and laugh at the shaking of his spear? Art thou made without fear, and contemnest thou his barbed arrows? Art thou like the horse that paweth in the valley and rejoiceth in his strength, who goeth out to meet the armed men? Dost thou mock at fear, and art thou not affrighted, neither turnest back from God’s sword when his quiver rattleth against thee, the glittering spear and the shield? Well, if the threats and calls of the word will not awaken thee, I am sure death and judgment will. O what wilt thou do when the Lord cometh forth against thee, and in his fury falleth upon thee, and thou shalt feel what thou readest? If when Daniel’s enemies were cast into the den of lions, both they and their wives and their children, the lions-had the mastery of them, and brake all their bones in pieces ere they came at the bottom of the den, Dan. 6: 24, what shall become of thee when thou fallest into the hands of the living God?.
O do not then contend with God. “Repent and be converted,” so none of this shall come upon thee. Seek ye the Lord while he may be found; call ye upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.”