תמונות בעמוד
PDF
ePub

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," &c. Deut. xxxii. 41, 42.

Divine Justice is very strict, 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 every thing that is written in the law, to do it. The justice of God to the unpardoned sinner, that hath a sense of his misery, is more terrible than the sight 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, O what dreadful work doth it make with the wretched sinner! "Bind him hand and foot, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and wailing, and gnashing of teeth," Matt. xxii. 13. Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, Matt. xxv. 41. This is the terrible sentence that justice pronounceth. Why sinuer, by this severe justice must thou be tried! And, as God liveth, this killing sentence shalt thou hear, unless thou repent and be converted.

Secondly, The power of God is against thee. The glory of God's power is to be displayed in the wonderful destruction of them that obey not the gospel, 2 Thess. i. 8, 9. He will make his power known in them, Rom. ix. 22. O man! art thou able to make thy party good with thy Maker? No more than a reed against the cedars of God, or a cock-boat against the tumbling ocean.

Sinner, the power of God's anger is against thee, and power and anger together make fearful work: 'twere better thou hadst all the world in arms against thee, than to have the power of God against thee. There's no escaping his hands, no breaking his prison? "The thunder of his power who can understand? Job xxvi. 14. 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? who removeth the mountains, and they know it not; who over-turneth them in his anger; who shaketh the earth out of her place, and the pillars thereof tremble; who 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 ix. 3, 4, 5, 6, &c. And art thou a fit match for such an antagonist? O consider this, you that forget God, lest he tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver you, Psal. 1. 22.

Thirdly, The truth of God is 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 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 except thou be converted, thou shalt in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven; and he abideth faithful, he cannot deny himself. Beloved, as the immutable faithfulness of God in his promise affords believers strong consolation, so it is to unbelievers for strong consternation and confusion. O sinner, tell me, what shift dost thou make to think of all the threatenings of God's word, that stand upon record against thee? Dost thou believe they are true or not? If not, thou art a wretched infidel; and therefore give over the name and hopes of a Christian. But if thou dost believe them, O heart of steel that thou hast, that canst walk up and down in quiet, when the truth and faithfulness of God is engaged to destroy thee! that if the Almighty can do it, thou shalt surely perish and be damned. Why, man! 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, lamentation, and mourning, and woe.

Now put 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 in an oath, and in a curse, to kill Paul, so thou must know, O sinner, to thy terror, that all the attributes of the infinite God are bound in an oath to destroy thee, Heb. iii. 18. O man! what wilt thou do? whither wilt thou flee? If God's omnisciency can find thee, thou shalt not escape: if the true and faithful God will save his oath, perish thou must, except thou believe and repent: if the Almighty hath power to torment thee, thou shalt be perfectly miserable in soul and body to all eternity, unless it be prevented by speedy conversion.

II. The whole creation of God is against thee.The whole creation (saith Paul) groaneth and travaileth in pain, Rom. viii. 22. But what is it that the creation groaneth under? Why, the fearful abuse that it is subject to, in serving unsanctified men. And what is it that the creation groaneth for? Why, liberty from this abuse; for the creature is unwillingly subject to this bondage. If the unreasonable and inanimate creatures had speech and reason, they would cry out under it as a bondage unsufferable, to be abused by the ungodly, contrary to their natures and the ends which the great Creator made them for. It is a passage of an eminent divine, "There is never a creature, but, if it had reason to know how it is abused till a man be converted, 'twould groan against him: the land would groan to bear him, the air would groan to give him breathing, 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."

Methinks this should be a terror to an unconverted soul, to think he is a burden to the creation. Luke xiii. 7. Cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground? If the poor inanimate creatures could but speak, they would say to the ungodly, as Moses to Israel, "Must we fetch you water out of the rock, ye rebels?" Thy food would say, "Lord, must I nourish such a wretch

as this, and yield forth my strength for him to dishonour thee withal? No, I will choke him rather, if thou wilt give me permission." The very air would say, "Lord, must I give this man breath to set his tongue against heaven, and scorn thy people, and vent his pride, and wrath, and filthy communication, and oaths and blasphemy against thee? No, if thou but say the word, he shall be breathless for me." A wicked man, the earth groans under him, and hell groans for him, till death satisfies both, and unburdens the earth, and stops the mouth of hell with him. While the Lord of hosts is against thee, be sure the host of the Lord is against thee; and all the creatures are, as it were, up in arms, till upon a man's conversion, the controversy being taken up between God and him, he makes a covenant of peace with the creature for him.

III. The roaring lion hath his full power upon thee. Thou art fast in the paw of that lion that is greedy to devour; "In the snare of the devil led captive by him at his will." You pity the poor Indians that worship the devil for their god; but little think it is your own case. Why, 'tis 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 come and go at his beck, and live under his government; his servants you are to whom ye yield yourselves to obey. O how many then will be found the real servants of the devil, that take themselves for children of God! Doubtless the liar intends not a service to Satan, but his own advantage; yet 'tis he that stands in the corner unobserved, and putteth the thing into his heart.

Dost thou live in the 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 diverse pleasures, yet it is but to roll them into endless perdition. The serpent comes with the apple in his mouth, but thou seest not the deadly sting in his

tail. He that is now thy tempter, will one day be thy tormentor. O that I could but give thee to see, how merciless a tyrant thou gratifiest; all whose pleasure is, to set thee on work to make thy damnation sure, and to heat the furnace hotter and hotter, in which thou must burn for millions and millions of ages.

IV. The guilt of all thy sins lies like a mountain upon thee. Poor soul! thou feelest it not, but this is that which seals thy misery upon thee. While unconverted, none of thy sins are blotted out.

How light soever you may make of it now, you will one day find the guilt of unpardoned sin to be a heavy burden. This is a millstone, which whosoever falleth upon, shall be broken; but upon whomsoever it shall fall, it shall grind him to power, Matt. xxi. 44. What work did it make with our blessed Saviour! It pressed the very blood out of his veins, and broke all his bones. 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? John viii. 24. O better were it for thee to die in a gaol, in a dungeon, than die in thy sins. If death, as it will take away all thy other 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. Better to have so many

fiends about thee, than thy sins to fall upon thee and fasten on thee. O the work that these will make! O look over thy debts in time, how much thou art in the books of every one of God's laws! how is every one of God's commandments ready to arrest thee, and take thee by the throat, for the innumerable bonds it hath upon thee! What wilt thou do then, when they shall together lay in against thee? Hold open the eyes of conscience to consider this, that thou mayest despair

« הקודםהמשך »