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Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God
by Jonathan Edwards
Deuteronomy 32:35, "Their
foot shall slide in due time."
In this verse is
threatened the vengeance of God on the wicked unbelieving Israelites,
who were God's visible people, and who lived under the means of grace;
but who, notwithstanding all God's wonderful works towards them,
remained (as ver. 28.) void of counsel, having no understanding in them.
Under all the cultivations of heaven, they brought forth bitter and
poisonous fruit; as in the two verses next preceding the text. The
expression I have chosen for my text, Their foot shall slide in due
time, seems to imply the following doings, relating to the punishment
and destruction to which these wicked Israelites were exposed.
1. That they were always exposed to destruction; as one that stands or
walks in slippery places is always exposed to fall. This is implied in
the manner of their destruction coming upon them, being represented by
their foot sliding. The same is expressed, Psalm 73:18. "Surely thou
didst set them in slippery places; thou castedst them down into
destruction."
2. It implies, that they were always exposed to sudden unexpected
destruction. As he that walks in slippery places is every moment liable
to fall, he cannot foresee one moment whether he shall stand or fall the
next; and when he does fall, he falls at once without warning: Which is
also expressed in Psalm 73:18, 19. "Surely thou didst set them in
slippery places; thou castedst them down into destruction: How are they
brought into desolation as in a moment!"
3. Another thing implied is, that they are liable to fall of themselves,
without being thrown down by the hand of another; as he that stands or
walks on slippery ground needs nothing but his own weight to throw him
down.
4. That the reason why they are not fallen already, and do not fall now,
is only that God's appointed time is not come. For it is said, that when
that due time, or appointed time comes, their foot shall slide. Then
they shall be left to fall, as they are inclined by their own weight.
God will not hold them up in these slippery places any longer, but will
let them go; and then at that very instant, they shall fall into
destruction; as he that stands on such slippery declining ground, on the
edge of a pit, he cannot stand alone, when he is let go he immediately
falls and is lost.
The observation from the words that I would now insist upon is this.
"There is nothing that keeps wicked men at any one moment out of hell,
but the mere pleasure of God." By the mere pleasure of God, I mean his
sovereign pleasure, his arbitrary will, restrained by no obligation,
hindered by no manner of difficulty, any more than if nothing else but
God's mere will had in the least degree, or in any respect whatsoever,
any hand in the preservation of wicked men one moment.
The truth of this
observation may appear by the following considerations.
1. There is no want of power in God to cast wicked men into hell at any
moment. Men's hands cannot be strong when God rises up. The strongest
have no power to resist him, nor can any deliver out of his hands.-He is
not only able to cast wicked men into hell, but he can most easily do
it. Sometimes an earthly prince meets with a great deal of difficulty to
subdue a rebel, who has found means to fortify himself, and has made
himself strong by the numbers of his followers. But it is not so with
God. There is no fortress that is any defense from the power of God.
Though hand join in hand, and vast multitudes of God's enemies combine
and associate themselves, they are easily broken in pieces. They are as
great heaps of light chaff before the whirlwind; or large quantities of
dry stubble before devouring flames. We find it easy to tread on and
crush a worm that we see crawling on the earth; so it is easy for us to
cut or singe a slender thread that any thing hangs by: thus easy is it
for God, when he pleases, to cast his enemies down to hell. What are we,
that we should think to stand before him, at whose rebuke the earth
trembles, and before whom the rocks are thrown down?
2. They deserve to be cast into hell; so that divine justice never
stands in the way, it makes no objection against God's using his power
at any moment to destroy them. Yea, on the contrary, justice calls aloud
for an infinite punishment of their sins. Divine justice says of the
tree that brings forth such grapes of Sodom, "Cut it down, why cumbereth
it the ground?" Luke xiii. 7. The sword of divine justice is every
moment brandished over their heads, and it is nothing but the hand of
arbitrary mercy, and God's mere will, that holds it back.
3. They are already under a sentence of condemnation to hell. They do
not only justly deserve to be cast down thither, but the sentence of the
law of God, that eternal and immutable rule of righteousness that God
has fixed between him and mankind, is gone out against them, and stands
against them; so that they are bound over already to hell. John iii. 18.
"He that believeth not is condemned already." So that every unconverted
man properly belongs to hell; that is his place; from thence he is, John
viii. 23. "Ye are from beneath." And thither be is bound; it is the
place that justice, and God's word, and the sentence of his unchangeable
law assign to him.
4. They are now the objects of that very same anger and wrath of God,
that is expressed in the torments of hell. And the reason why they do
not go down to hell at each moment, is not because God, in whose power
they are, is not then very angry with them; as he is with many miserable
creatures now tormented in hell, who there feel and bear the fierceness
of his wrath. Yea, God is a great deal more angry with great numbers
that are now on earth: yea, doubtless, with many that are now in this
congregation, who it may be are at ease, than he is with many of those
who are now in the flames of hell.
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 burns 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 hath 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 shalt thou come, but no further;" but if
God should withdraw that restraining power, it would soon carry all
before it. Sin is the ruin and misery of the soul; it is destructive in
its nature; and if God should leave it without restraint, there would
need nothing else to make the soul perfectly miserable. The corruption
of the heart of man is immoderate and boundless in its fury; and while
wicked men live here, it is like fire pent up by God's restraints,
whereas if it were let loose, it would set on fire the course of nature;
and as the heart is now a sink of sin, so if sin was not restrained, it
would immediately turn the soul into a fiery oven, or a furnace of fire
and brimstone.
7. It is no security to wicked men for one moment, that there are no
visible means of death at hand. It is no security to a natural man, that
he is now in health, and that he does not see which way he should now
immediately go out of the world by any accident, and that there is no
visible danger in any respect in his circumstances. The manifold and
continual experience of the world in all ages, shows this is no
evidence, that a man is not on the very brink of eternity, and that the
next step will not be into another world. The unseen, unthought-of ways
and means of persons going suddenly out of the world are innumerable and
inconceivable. Unconverted men walk over the pit of hell on a rotten
covering, and there are innumerable places in this covering so weak that
they will not bear their weight, and these places are not seen. The
arrows of death fly unseen at noon-day; the sharpest sight cannot
discern them. God has so many different unsearchable ways of taking
wicked men out of the world and sending them to hell, that there is
nothing to make it appear, that God had need to be at the expense of a
miracle, or go out of the ordinary course of his providence, to destroy
any wicked man, at any moment. All the means that there are of sinners
going out of the world, are so in God's hands, and so universally and
absolutely subject to his power and determination, that it does not
depend at all the less on the mere will of God, whether sinners shall at
any moment go to hell, than if means were never made use of, or at all
concerned in the case.
8. Natural men's prudence and care to preserve their own lives, or the
care of others to preserve them, do not secure them a moment. To this,
divine providence and universal experience do also bear testimony. There
is this clear evidence that men's own wisdom is no security to them from
death; that if it were otherwise we should see some difference between
the wise and politic men of the world, and others, with regard to their
liableness to early and unexpected death: but how is it in fact? Eccles.
ii. 16. "How dieth the wise man? even as the fool."
9. All wicked men's pains and contrivance which they use to escape hell,
while they continue to reject Christ, and so remain wicked men, do not
secure them from hell one moment. Almost every natural man that hears of
hell, flatters himself that he shall escape it; he depends upon himself
for his own security; he flatters himself in what he has done, in what
he is now doing, or what he intends to do. Every one lays out matters in
his own mind how he shall avoid damnation, and flatters himself that he
contrives well for himself, and that his schemes will not fail. They
hear indeed that there are but few saved, and that the greater part of
men that have died heretofore are gone to hell; but each one imagines
that he lays out matters better for his own escape than others have
done. He does not intend to come to that place of torment; he says
within himself, that he intends to take effectual care, and to order
matters so for himself as not to fail.
But the foolish children of men miserably delude themselves in their own
schemes, and in confidence in their own strength and wisdom; they trust
to nothing but a shadow. The greater part of those who heretofore have
lived under the same means of grace, and are now dead, are undoubtedly
gone to hell; and it was not because they were not as wise as those who
are now alive: it was not because they did not lay out matters as well
for themselves to secure their own escape. If we could speak with them,
and inquire of them, one by one, whether they expected, when alive, and
when they used to hear about hell ever to be the subjects of that
misery: we doubtless, should hear one and another reply, "No, I never
intended to come here: I had laid out matters otherwise in my mind; I
thought I should contrive well for myself: I thought my scheme good. I
intended to take effectual care; but it came upon me unexpected; I did
not look for it at that time, and in that manner; it came as a thief:
Death outwitted me: God's wrath was too quick for me. Oh, my cursed
foolishness! I was flattering myself, and pleasing myself with vain
dreams of what I would do hereafter; and when I was saying, Peace and
safety, then suddenly destruction came upon me.
10. God has laid himself under no obligation, by any promise to keep any
natural man out of hell one moment. God certainly has made no promises
either of eternal life, or of any deliverance or preservation from
eternal death, but what are contained in the covenant of grace, the
promises that are given in Christ, in whom all the promises are yea and
amen. But surely they have no interest in the promises of the covenant
of grace who are not the children of the covenant, who do not believe in
any of the promises, and have no interest in the Mediator of the
covenant.
So that, whatever some have imagined and pretended about promises made
to natural men's earnest seeking and knocking, it is plain and manifest,
that whatever pains a natural man takes in religion, whatever prayers he
makes, till he believes in Christ, God is under no manner of obligation
to keep him a moment from eternal destruction.
So that, thus it is that natural men are held in the hand of God, over
the pit of hell; they have deserved the fiery pit, and are already
sentenced to it; and God is dreadfully provoked, his anger is as great
towards them as to those that are actually suffering the executions of
the fierceness of his wrath in hell, and they have done nothing in the
least to appease or abate that anger, neither is God in the least bound
by any promise to hold them up one moment; the devil is waiting for
them, hell is gaping for them, the flames gather and flash about them,
and would fain lay hold on them, and swallow them up; the fire pent up
in their own hearts is struggling to break out: and they have no
interest in any Mediator, there are no means within reach that can be
any security to them. In short, they have no refuge, nothing to take
hold of, all that preserves them every moment is the mere arbitrary
will, and uncovenanted, unobliged forbearance of an incensed God.
APPLICATION
The use of this awful subject may be for awakening unconverted persons
in this congregation. This that you have heard is the case of every one
of you that are out of Christ.-That world of misery, that lake of
burning brimstone, is extended abroad under you. There is the dreadful
pit of the glowing flames of the wrath of God; there is hell's wide
gaping mouth open; and you have nothing to stand upon, nor any thing to
take hold of, there is nothing between you and hell but the air; it is
only the power and mere pleasure of God that holds you up.
You probably are not sensible of this; you find you are kept out of
hell, but do not see the hand of God in it; but look at other things, as
the good state of your bodily constitution, your care of your own life,
and the means you use for your own preservation. But indeed these things
are nothing; if God should withdraw his band, they would avail no more
to keep you from falling, than the thin air to hold up a person that is
suspended in it.
Your wickedness makes you as it were heavy as lead, and to tend
downwards with great weight and pressure towards hell; and if God should
let you go, you would immediately sink and swiftly descend and plunge
into the bottomless gulf, and your healthy constitution, and your own
care and prudence, and best contrivance, and all your righteousness,
would have no more influence to uphold you and keep you out of hell,
than a spider's web would have to stop a falling rock. Were it not for
the sovereign pleasure of God, the earth would not bear you one moment;
for you are a burden to it; the creation groans with you; the creature
is made subject to the bondage of your corruption, not willingly; the
sun does not willingly shine upon you to give you light to serve sin and
Satan; the earth does not willingly yield her increase to satisfy your
lusts; nor is it willingly a stage for your wickedness to be acted upon;
the air does not willingly serve you for breath to maintain the flame of
life in your vitals, while you spend your life in the service of God's
enemies. God's creatures are good, and were made for men to serve God
with, and do not willingly subserve to any other purpose, and groan when
they are abused to purposes so directly contrary to their nature and
end. And the world would spew you out, were it not for the sovereign
hand of him who hath subjected it in hope. There are black clouds of
God's wrath now hanging directly over your heads, full of the dreadful
storm, and big with thunder; and were it not for the restraining hand of
God, it would immediately burst forth upon you. The sovereign pleasure
of God, for the present, stays his rough wind; otherwise it would come
with fury, and your destruction would come like a whirlwind, and you
would be like the chaff of the summer threshing floor.
The wrath of God is like great waters that are dammed for the present;
they increase more and more, and rise higher and higher, till an outlet
is given; and the longer the stream is stopped, the more rapid and
mighty is its course, when once it is let loose. It is true, that
judgment against your evil works has not been executed hitherto; the
floods of God's vengeance have been withheld; but your guilt in the mean
time is constantly increasing, and you are every day treasuring up more
wrath; the waters are constantly rising, and waxing more and more
mighty; and there is nothing but the mere pleasure of God, that holds
the waters back, that are unwilling to be stopped, and press hard to go
forward. If God should only withdraw his hand from the flood-gate, it
would immediately fly open, and the fiery floods of the fierceness and
wrath of God, would rush forth with inconceivable fury, and would come
upon you with omnipotent power; and if your strength were ten thousand
times greater than it is, yea, ten thousand times greater than the
strength of the stoutest, sturdiest devil in hell, it would be nothing
to withstand or endure it.
The bow of God's wrath is bent, and the arrow made ready on the string,
and justice bends the arrow at your heart, and strains the bow, and it
is nothing but the mere pleasure of God, and that of an angry God,
without any promise or obligation at all, that keeps the arrow one
moment from being made drunk with your blood. Thus all you that never
passed under a great change of heart, by the mighty power of the Spirit
of God upon your souls; all you that were never born again, and made new
creatures, and raised from being dead in sin, to a state of new, and
before altogether unexperienced light and life, are in the hands of an
angry God. However you may have reformed your life in many things, and
may have had religious affections, and may keep up a form of religion in
your families and closets, and in the house of God, it is nothing but
his mere pleasure that keeps you from being this moment swallowed up in
everlasting destruction. However unconvinced you may now be of the truth
of what you hear, by and by you will be fully convinced of it. Those
that are gone from being in the like circumstances with you, see that it
was so with them; for destruction came suddenly upon most of them; when
they expected nothing of it, and while they were saying, Peace and
safety: now they see, that those things on which they depended for peace
and safety, were nothing but thin air and empty shadows.
The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider,
or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully
provoked: his wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you as
worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire; he is of purer
eyes than to bear to have you in his sight; you are ten thousand times
more abominable in his eyes, than the most hateful venomous serpent is
in ours. You have offended him infinitely more than ever a stubborn
rebel did his prince; and yet it is nothing but his hand that holds you
from falling into the fire every moment. It is to be ascribed to nothing
else, that you did not go to hell the last night; that you was suffered
to awake again in this world, after you closed your eyes to sleep. And
there is no other reason to be given, why you have not dropped into hell
since you arose in the morning, but that God's hand has held you up.
There is no other reason to be given why you have not gone to hell,
since you have sat here in the house of God, provoking his pure eyes by
your sinful wicked manner of attending his solemn worship. Yea, there is
nothing else that is to be given as a reason why you do not this very
moment drop down into hell.
O sinner! Consider the fearful danger you are in: it is a great furnace
of wrath, a wide and bottomless pit, full of the fire of wrath, that you
are held over in the hand of that God, whose wrath is provoked and
incensed as much against you, as against many of the damned in hell. You
hang by a slender thread, with the flames of divine wrath flashing about
it, and ready every moment to singe it, and burn it asunder; and you
have no interest in any Mediator, and nothing to lay hold of to save
yourself, nothing to keep off the flames of wrath, nothing of your own,
nothing that you ever have done, nothing that you can do, to induce God
to spare you one moment. And consider here more particularly
1. Whose wrath it is: it is the wrath of the infinite God. If it were
only the wrath of man, though it were of the most potent prince, it
would be comparatively little to be regarded. The wrath of kings is very
much dreaded, especially of absolute monarchs, who have the possessions
and lives of their subjects wholly in their power, to be disposed of at
their mere will. Prov. 20:2. "The fear of a king is as the roaring of a
lion: Whoso provoketh him to anger, sinneth against his own soul." The
subject that very much enrages an arbitrary prince, is liable to suffer
the most extreme torments that human art can invent, or human power can
inflict. But the greatest earthly potentates in their greatest majesty
and strength, and when clothed in their greatest terrors, are but
feeble, despicable worms of the dust, in comparison of the great and
almighty Creator and King of heaven and earth. It is but little that
they can do, when most enraged, and when they have exerted the utmost of
their fury. All the kings of the earth, before God, are as grasshoppers;
they are nothing, and less than nothing: both their love and their
hatred is to be despised. The wrath of the great King of kings, is as
much more terrible than theirs, as his majesty is greater. Luke 12:4, 5.
"And I say unto you, my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the
body, and after that, have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn
you whom you shall fear: fear him, which after he hath killed, hath
power to cast into hell: yea, I say unto you, Fear him."
2. It is the fierceness of his wrath that you are exposed to. We often
read of the fury of God; as in Isaiah lix. 18. "According to their
deeds, accordingly he will repay fury to his adversaries." So Isaiah
66:15. "For behold, the Lord will come with fire, and with his chariots
like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with
flames of fire." And in many other places. So, Rev. 19:15, we read of
"the wine press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God." The words
are exceeding terrible. If it had only been said, "the wrath of God,"
the words would have implied that which is infinitely dreadful: but it
is "the fierceness and wrath of God." The fury of God! the fierceness of
Jehovah! Oh, how dreadful must that be! Who can utter or conceive what
such expressions carry in them! But it is also "the fierceness and wrath
of Almighty God." As though there would be a very great manifestation of
his almighty power in what the fierceness of his wrath should inflict,
as though omnipotence should be as it were enraged, and exerted, as men
are wont to exert their strength in the fierceness of their wrath. Oh!
then, what will be the consequence! What will become of the poor worms
that shall suffer it! Whose hands can be strong? And whose heart can
endure? To what a dreadful, inexpressible, inconceivable depth of misery
must the poor creature be sunk who shall be the subject of this!
Consider this, you that are here present, that yet remain in an
unregenerate state. That God will execute the fierceness of his anger,
implies, that he will inflict wrath without any pity. When God beholds
the ineffable extremity of your case, and sees your torment to be so
vastly disproportioned to your strength, and sees how your poor soul is
crushed, and sinks down, as it were, into an infinite gloom; he will
have no compassion upon you, he will not forbear the executions of his
wrath, or in the least lighten his hand; there shall be no moderation or
mercy, nor will God then at all stay his rough wind; he will have no
regard to your welfare, nor be at all careful lest you should suffer too
much in any other sense, than only that you shall not suffer beyond what
strict justice requires. Nothing shall be withheld, because it is so
hard for you to bear. Ezek. viii. 18. "Therefore will I also deal in
fury: mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity; and though
they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, yet I will not hear them." Now
God stands ready to pity you; this is a day of mercy; you may cry now
with some encouragement of obtaining mercy. But when once the day of
mercy is past, your most lamentable and dolorous cries and shrieks will
be in vain; you will be wholly lost and thrown away of God, as to any
regard to your welfare. God will have no other use to put you to, but to
suffer misery; you shall be continued in being to no other end; for you
will be a vessel of wrath fitted to destruction; and there will be no
other use of this vessel, but to be filled full of wrath. God will be so
far from pitying you when you cry to him, that it is said he will only
"laugh and mock," Prov. 1:25, 26, &c.
How awful are those words, Isa. 63:3, which are the words of the great
God. "I will tread them in mine anger, and will trample them in my fury,
and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain
all my raiment." It is perhaps impossible to conceive of words that
carry in them greater manifestations of these three things, vis.
contempt, and hatred, and fierceness of indignation. If you cry to God
to pity you, he will be so far from pitying you in your doleful case, or
showing you the least regard or favour, that instead of that, he will
only tread you under foot. And though he will know that you cannot bear
the weight of omnipotence treading upon you, yet he will not regard
that, but he will crush you under his feet without mercy; he will crush
out your blood, and make it fly, and it shall be sprinkled on his
garments, so as to stain all his raiment. He will not only hate you, but
he will have you, in the utmost contempt: no place shall be thought fit
for you, but under his feet to be trodden down as the mire of the
streets.
The misery you are exposed to is that which God will inflict to that
end, that he might show what that wrath of Jehovah is. God hath had it
on his heart to show to angels and men, both how excellent his love is,
and also how terrible his wrath is. Sometimes earthly kings have a mind
to show how terrible their wrath is, by the extreme punishments they
would execute on those that would provoke them. Nebuchadnezzar, that
mighty and haughty monarch of the Chaldean empire, was willing to show
his wrath when enraged with Shadrach, Meshech, and Abednego; and
accordingly gave orders that the burning fiery furnace should be heated
seven times hotter than it was before; doubtless, it was raised to the
utmost degree of fierceness that human art could raise it. But the great
God is also willing to show his wrath, and magnify his awful majesty and
mighty power in the extreme sufferings of his enemies. Rom. 9:22. "What
if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endure
with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction?"
And seeing this is his design, and what he has determined, even to show
how terrible the unrestrained wrath, the fury and fierceness of Jehovah
is, he will do it to effect. There will be something accomplished and
brought to pass that will be dreadful with a witness. When the great and
angry God hath risen up and executed his awful vengeance on the poor
sinner, and the wretch is actually suffering the infinite weight and
power of his indignation, then will God call upon the whole universe to
behold that awful majesty and mighty power that is to be seen in it.
Isa. 33:12-14. "And the people shall be as the burnings of lime, as
thorns cut up shall they be burnt in the fire. Hear ye that are far off,
what I have done; and ye that are near, acknowledge my might. The
sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites,"
&c.
Thus it will be with you that are in an unconverted state, if you
continue in it; the infinite might, and majesty, and terribleness of the
omnipotent God shall be magnified upon you, in the ineffable strength of
your torments. You shall be tormented in the presence of the holy
angels, and in the presence of the Lamb; and when you shall be in this
state of suffering, the glorious inhabitants of heaven shall go forth
and look on the awful spectacle, that they may see what the wrath and
fierceness of the Almighty is; and when they have seen it, they will
fall down and adore that great power and majesty. Isa. lxvi. 23, 24.
"And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from
one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith
the Lord. And they shall go forth and look upon the carcasses of the men
that have transgressed against me; for their worm shall not die, neither
shall their fire be quenched, and they shall be an abhorring unto all
flesh."
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 for ever, a boundless
duration before you, which will swallow up your thoughts, and amaze your
soul; and you will absolutely despair of ever having any deliverance,
any end, any mitigation, any rest at all. You will know certainly that
you must wear out long ages, millions of millions of ages, in wrestling
and conflicting with this almighty merciless vengeance; and then when
you have so done, when so many ages have actually been spent by you in
this manner, you will know that all is but a point to what remains. So
that your punishment will indeed be infinite. Oh, who can express what
the state of a soul in such circumstances is! All that we can possibly
say about it, gives but a very feeble, faint representation of it; it is
inexpressible and inconceivable: For "who knows the power of God's
anger?"
How dreadful is the state of those that are daily and hourly in the
danger of this great wrath and infinite misery! But this is the dismal
case of every soul in this congregation that has not been born again,
however moral and strict, sober and religious, they may otherwise be. Oh
that you would consider it, whether you be young or old! There is reason
to think, that there are many in this congregation now hearing this
discourse, that will actually be the subjects of this very misery to all
eternity. We know not who they are, or in what seats they sit, or what
thoughts they now have. It may be they are now at ease, and hear all
these things without much disturbance, and are now flattering themselves
that they are not the persons, promising themselves that they shall
escape. If we knew that there was one person, and but one, in the whole
congregation, that was to be the subject of this misery, what an awful
thing would it be to think of! If we knew who it was, what an awful
sight would it be to see such a person! How might all the rest of the
congregation lift up a lamentable and bitter cry over him! But, alas!
instead of one, how many is it likely will remember this discourse in
hell? And it would be a wonder, if some that are now present should not
be in hell in a very short time, even before this year is out. And it
would be no wonder if some persons, that now sit here, in some seats of
this meeting-house, in health, quiet and secure, should be there before
to-morrow morning. Those of you that finally continue in a natural
condition, that shall keep out of hell longest will be there in a little
time! your damnation does not slumber; it will come swiftly, and, in all
probability, very suddenly upon many of you. You have reason to wonder
that you are not already in hell. It is doubtless the case of some whom
you have seen and known, that never deserved hell more than you, and
that heretofore appeared as likely to have been now alive as you. Their
case is past all hope; they are crying in extreme misery and perfect
despair; but here you are in the land of the living and in the house of
God, and have an opportunity to obtain salvation. What would not those
poor damned hopeless souls give for one day's opportunity such as you
now enjoy!
And now you have an extraordinary opportunity, a day wherein Christ has
thrown the door of mercy wide open, and stands in calling and crying
with a loud voice to poor sinners; a day wherein many are flocking to
him, and pressing into the kingdom of God. Many are daily coming from
the east, west, north and south; many that were very lately in the same
miserable condition that you are in, are now in a happy state, with
their hearts filled with love to him who has loved them, and washed them
from their sins in his own blood, and rejoicing in hope of the glory of
God. How awful is it to be left behind at such a day! To see so many
others feasting, while you are pining and perishing! To see so many
rejoicing and singing for joy of heart, while you have cause to mourn
for sorrow of heart, and howl for vexation of spirit! How can you rest
one moment in such a condition? Are not your souls as precious as the
souls of the people at Suffield, where they are flocking from day to
day to Christ?
Are there not many here who have lived long in the world, and are not to
this day born again? and so are aliens from the commonwealth of Israel,
and have done nothing ever since they have lived, but treasure up wrath
against the day of wrath? Oh, sirs, your case, in an especial manner, is
extremely dangerous. Your guilt and hardness of heart is extremely
great. Do you not see how generally persons of your years are passed
over and left, in the present remarkable and wonderful dispensation of
God's mercy? You had need to consider yourselves, and awake thoroughly
out of sleep. You cannot bear the fierceness and wrath of the infinite
God.-And you, young men, and young women, will you neglect this precious
season which you now enjoy, when so many others of your age are
renouncing all youthful vanities, and flocking to Christ? You especially
have now an extraordinary opportunity; but if you neglect it, it will
soon be with you as with those persons who spent all the precious days
of youth in sin, and are now come to such a dreadful pass in blindness
and hardness. And you, children, who are unconverted, do not you know
that you are going down to hell, to bear the dreadful wrath of that God,
who is now angry with you every day and every night? Will you be content
to be the children of the devil, when so many other children in the land
are converted, and are become the holy and happy children of the King of
kings?
And let every one that is yet out of Christ, and hanging over the pit of
hell, whether they be old men and women, or middle aged, or young
people, or little children, now harken to the loud calls of God's word
and providence. This acceptable year of the Lord, a day of such great
favours to some, will doubtless be a day of as remarkable vengeance to
others. Men's hearts harden, and their guilt increases apace at such a
day as this, if they neglect their souls; and never was there so great
danger of such persons being given up to hardness of heart and blindness
of mind. God seems now to be hastily gathering in his elect in all parts
of the land; and probably the greater part of adult persons that ever
shall be saved, will be brought in now in a little time, and that it
will be as it was on the great out-pouring of the Spirit upon the Jews
in the apostles' days; the election will obtain, and the rest will be
blinded. If this should be the case with you, you will eternally curse
this day, and will curse the day that ever you was born, to see such a
season of the pouring out of God's Spirit, and will wish that you had
died and gone to hell before you had seen it. Now undoubtedly it is, as
it was in the days of John the Baptist, the axe is in an extraordinary
manner laid at the root of the trees, that every tree which brings not
forth good fruit, may be hewn down and cast into the fire.
Therefore, let every one that is out of Christ, now awake and fly from
the wrath to come. The wrath of Almighty God is now undoubtedly hanging
over a great part of this congregation: Let every one fly out of Sodom:
"Haste and escape for your lives, look not behind you, escape to the
mountain, lest you be consumed."
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