Selected Sermons of Jonathan Edwards Part 6

DEUTERONOMY x.x.xii. 35.--Their foot shall slide in due time.

In this verse is threatened the vengeance of G.o.d on the wicked unbelieving Israelites, that were G.o.d's visible people, and lived under means of grace; and that notwithstanding all G.o.d's wonderful works that he had wrought towards that people, yet remained, as is expressed verse 28, void of counsel, having no understanding in them; and that, under all the cultivations of heaven, brought forth bitter and poisonous fruit; as in the two verses next preceding the text.

The expression that I have chosen for my text, _their foot shall slide in due time_, seems to imply the following things relating to the punishment and destruction that these wicked Israelites were exposed to.

1. That they were _always_ exposed to destruction; as one that stands or walks in slippery places is always exposed to fall. This is implied in the manner of their destruction's coming upon them, being represented by their foot's sliding. The same is expressed, Psalm lxxiii. 18: "Surely thou didst set them in slippery places; thou castedst them down into destruction."

2. It implies that they were always exposed to _sudden_, unexpected destruction; as he that walks in slippery places is every moment liable to fall, he can't foresee one moment whether he shall stand or fall the next; and when he does fall, he falls at once, without warning, which is also expressed in that Psalm lxxiii. 18, 19: "Surely thou didst set them in slippery places: thou castedst them down into destruction. How are they brought into desolation, as _in a moment_!"

3. Another thing implied is, that they are liable to fall of _themselves_, without being thrown down by the hand of another; as he that stands or walks on slippery ground needs nothing but his own weight to throw him down.

4. That the reason why they are not fallen already, and don't fall now, is only that G.o.d'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. G.o.d won't hold them up in these slippery places any longer, but will let them go; and then, at that very instant, they shall fall to destruction; as he that stands in such slippery declining ground on the edge of a pit that he can't stand alone, when he is let go he immediately falls and is lost.

The observation from the words that I would now insist upon is this,

_There is nothing that keeps wicked men at any one moment out of h.e.l.l, but the mere pleasure of G.o.d._

By the mere pleasure of G.o.d, 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 G.o.d'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 G.o.d to cast wicked men into h.e.l.l at any moment. Men's hands can't be strong when G.o.d 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 h.e.l.l, but he can most easily do it. Sometimes an earthly prince meets with a great deal of difficulty to subdue a rebel that has found means to fortify himself, and has made himself strong by the number of his followers. But it is not so with G.o.d.

There is no fortress that is any defence against the power of G.o.d. Though hand join in hand, and vast mult.i.tudes of G.o.d's enemies combine and a.s.sociate themselves, they are easily broken in pieces: they are as great heaps of light chaff before the whirlwind; or large quant.i.ties of dry stubble before devouring flames. We find it easy to tread on and crush a worm that we see crawling on the earth; so 'tis easy for us to cut or singe a slender thread that any thing hangs by; thus easy is it for G.o.d, when he pleases, to cast his enemies down to h.e.l.l. 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 h.e.l.l; so that divine justice never stands in the way, it makes no objection against G.o.d'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 c.u.mbereth it the ground?" Luke xiii. 7. The sword of divine justice is every moment brandished over their heads, and 'tis nothing but the hand of arbitrary mercy, and G.o.d's mere will, that holds it back.

3. They are _already_ under a sentence of condemnation to h.e.l.l. They don't only justly deserve to be cast down thither, but the sentence of the law of G.o.d, that eternal and immutable rule of righteousness that G.o.d has fixed between him and mankind, is gone out against them, and stands against them; so that they are bound over already to h.e.l.l: John iii. 18, "He that believeth not is condemned already." So that every unconverted man properly belongs to h.e.l.l; that is his place; from thence he is: John viii. 23, "Ye are from beneath:" and thither he is bound; 'tis the place that justice, and G.o.d's word, and the sentence of his unchangeable law, a.s.signs to him.

They are now the objects of that very _same_ anger and wrath of G.o.d, that is expressed in the torments of h.e.l.l: and the reason why they don't go down to h.e.l.l at each moment is not because G.o.d, in whose power they are, is not then very angry with them; as angry as he is with many of those miserable creatures that he is now tormenting in h.e.l.l, and do there feel and bear the fierceness of his wrath. Yea, G.o.d is a great deal more angry with great numbers that are now on earth, yea, doubtless, with many that are now in this congregation, that, it may be, are at ease and quiet, than he is with many of those that are now in the flames of h.e.l.l.

So that it is not because G.o.d is unmindful of their wickedness, and don't resent it, that he don't let loose his hand and cut them off. G.o.d is not altogether such a one as themselves, though they may imagine him to be so.

The wrath of G.o.d burns against them; their d.a.m.nation don't slumber; the pit is prepared; the fire is made ready; the furnace is now hot, ready to receive them; the flames do now rage and glow. The glittering sword is whet, and held over them, and the pit hath opened her mouth under them.

5. The _devil_ stands ready to fall upon them, and seize them as his own, at what moment G.o.d 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 xi. 21. The devils watch them; they are ever by them, at their right hand; they stand waiting for them, like greedy hungry lions that see their prey, and expect to have it, but are for the present kept back; if G.o.d 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; h.e.l.l opens its mouth wide to receive them; and if G.o.d should permit it, they would be hastily swallowed up and lost.

6. There are in the souls of wicked men those h.e.l.lish _principles_ reigning, that would presently kindle and flame out into h.e.l.l-fire, if it were not for G.o.d's restraints. There is laid in the very nature of carnal men a foundation for the torments of h.e.l.l: there are those corrupt principles, in reigning power in them, and in full possession of them, that are seeds of h.e.l.l-fire. These principles are active and powerful, exceeding violent in their nature, and if it were not for the restraining hand of G.o.d 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 heart of d.a.m.ned souls, and would beget the same torments in 'em as they do in them. The souls of the wicked are in Scripture compared to the troubled sea, Isaiah lvii. 20. For the present G.o.d restrains their wickedness by his mighty power, as he does the raging waves of the troubled sea, saying, "Hitherto shalt thou come, and no further;" but if G.o.d should withdraw that restraining power, it would soon carry all afore it. Sin is the ruin and misery of the soul; it is destructive in its nature; and if G.o.d should leave it without restraint, there would need nothing else to make the soul perfectly miserable. The corruption of the heart of man is a thing that is immoderate and boundless in its fury; and while wicked men live here, it is like fire pent up by G.o.d's restraints, whenas if it were let loose, it would set on fire the course of nature; and as the heart is now a sink of sin, so, if sin was not restrained, it would immediately turn the soul into a fiery oven, or a furnace of fire and brimstone.

7. It is no security to wicked men for one moment, that there are no _visible means of death_ at hand. 'Tis no security to a natural man, that he is now in health, and that he don't see which way he should now immediately go out of the world by any accident, and that there is no visible danger in any respect in his circ.u.mstances. The manifold and continual experience of the world in all ages shows that this is no evidence that a man is not on the very brink of eternity, and that the next step won't be into another world. The unseen, unthought of ways and means of persons' going suddenly out of the world are innumerable and inconceivable. Unconverted men walk over the pit of h.e.l.l on a rotten covering, and there are innumerable places in this covering so weak that they won't bear their weight, and these places are not seen. The arrows of death fly unseen at noonday; the sharpest sight can't discern them. G.o.d has so many different, unsearchable ways of taking wicked men out of the world and sending 'em to h.e.l.l, that there is nothing to make it appear that G.o.d 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 G.o.d's hands, and so absolutely subject to his power and determination, that it don't depend at all less on the mere will of G.o.d, whether sinners shall at any moment go to h.e.l.l, 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, don't secure 'em a moment. This, divine providence and universal experience does also bear testimony to.

There is this clear evidence that men's own wisdom is no security to them from death; that if it were otherwise we should see some difference between the wise and politic men of the world and others, with regard to their liableness to early and unexpected death; but how is it in fact?

Eccles. ii. 16, "How dieth the wise man? As the fool."

9. All wicked men's _pains_ and _contrivance_ they use to escape _h.e.l.l_, while they continue to reject Christ, and so remain wicked men, don't secure 'em from h.e.l.l one moment. Almost every natural man that hears of h.e.l.l 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 d.a.m.nation, and flatters himself that he contrives well for himself, and that his schemes won't fail. They hear indeed that there are but few saved, and that the bigger part of men that have died heretofore are gone to h.e.l.l; but each one imagines that he lays out matters better for his own escape than others have done: he don't intend to come to that place of torment; he says within himself, that he intends to take care that shall be effectual, and to order matters so for himself as not to fail.

But the foolish children of men do miserably delude themselves in their own schemes, and in their confidence in their own strength and wisdom; they trust to nothing but a shadow. The bigger part of those that heretofore have lived under the same means of grace, and are now dead, are undoubtedly gone to h.e.l.l; and it was not because they were not as wise as those that are now alive; it was not because they did not lay out matters as well for themselves to secure their own escape. If it were so that we could come to speak with them, and could inquire of them, one by one, whether they expected, when alive, and when they used to hear about h.e.l.l, ever to be 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: G.o.d's wrath was too quick for me. O my cursed foolishness! I was flattering myself, and pleasing myself with vain dreams of what I would do hereafter; and when I was saying peace and safety, then sudden destruction came upon me."

10. G.o.d has laid himself under _no obligation_, by any promise, to keep any natural man out of h.e.l.l one moment. G.o.d certainly has made no promises either of eternal life, or of any deliverance or preservation from eternal death, but what are contained in the covenant of grace, the promises that are given in Christ, in whom all the promises are yea and amen. But surely they have no interest in the promises of the covenant of grace that are not the children of the covenant, and that do not believe in any of the promises of the covenant, and have no interest in the Mediator of the covenant.

So that, whatever some have imagined and pretended about promises made to natural men's earnest seeking and knocking, 'tis plain and manifest, that whatever pains a natural man takes in religion, whatever prayers he makes, till he believes in Christ, G.o.d 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 G.o.d over the pit of h.e.l.l; they have deserved the fiery pit, and are already sentenced to it; and G.o.d 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 h.e.l.l, and they have done nothing in the least to appease or abate that anger, neither is G.o.d in the least bound by any promise to hold 'em up one moment; the devil is waiting for them, h.e.l.l 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, un.o.bliged forbearance of an incensed G.o.d.

APPLICATION

The use may be of _awakening_ to 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 G.o.d; there is h.e.l.l'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 h.e.l.l but the air; 'tis only the power and mere pleasure of G.o.d that holds you up.

You probably are not sensible of this; you find you are kept out of h.e.l.l, but don't see the hand of G.o.d in it, but look at other things, as the good state of your bodily const.i.tution, your care of your own life, and the means you use for your own preservation. But indeed these things are nothing; if G.o.d 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 h.e.l.l; and if G.o.d should let you go, you would immediately sink and swiftly descend and plunge into the bottomless gulf, and your healthy const.i.tution, 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 h.e.l.l than a spider's web would have to stop a falling rock. Were it not that so is the sovereign pleasure of G.o.d, the earth would not bear you one moment; for you are a burden to it; the creation groans with you; the creature is made subject to the bondage of your corruption, not willingly; the sun don't willingly shine upon you to give you light to serve sin and Satan; the earth don't willingly yield her increase to satisfy your l.u.s.ts; nor is it willingly a stage for your wickedness to be acted upon; the air don't willingly serve you for breath to maintain the flame of life in your vitals, while you spend your life in the service of G.o.d's enemies. G.o.d's creatures are good, and were made for men to serve G.o.d with, and don't willingly subserve to any other purpose, and groan when they are abused to purposes so directly contrary to their nature and end. And the world would spew you out, were it not for the sovereign hand of him who hath subjected it in hope. There are the black clouds of G.o.d'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 G.o.d, it would immediately burst forth upon you. The sovereign pleasure of G.o.d, 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 G.o.d is like great waters that are dammed for the present; they increase more and more, and rise higher and higher, till an outlet is given; and the longer the stream is stopped, the more rapid and mighty is its course, when once it is let loose. 'Tis true, that judgment against your evil work has not been executed hitherto; the floods of G.o.d'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 continually rising, and waxing more and more mighty; and there is nothing but the mere pleasure of G.o.d that holds the waters back, that are unwilling to be stopped, and press hard to go forward. If G.o.d should only withdraw his hand from the floodgate, it would immediately fly open, and the fiery floods of the fierceness and wrath of G.o.d 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, st.u.r.diest devil in h.e.l.l, it would be nothing to withstand or endure it.

The bow of G.o.d'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 G.o.d, and that of an angry G.o.d, without any promise or obligation at all, that keeps the arrow one moment from being made drunk with your blood.

Thus are all you that never pa.s.sed under a great change of heart by the mighty power of the Spirit of G.o.d upon your souls; all that were never born again, and made new creatures, and raised from being dead in sin to a state of new and before altogether unexperienced light and life, (however you may have reformed your life in many things, and may have had religious affections, and may keep up a form of religion in your families and closets, and in the house of G.o.d, and may be strict in it), you are thus in the hands of an angry G.o.d; 'tis nothing but his mere pleasure that keeps you from being this moment swallowed up in everlasting destruction.

However unconvinced you may now be of the truth of what you hear, by and by you will be fully convinced of it. Those that are gone from being in the like circ.u.mstances with you see that it was so with them; for destruction came suddenly upon most of them; when they expected nothing of it, and while they were saying, Peace and safety: now they see, that those things that they depended on for peace and safety were nothing but thin air and empty shadows.

The G.o.d that holds you over the pit of h.e.l.l, much as one holds a spider or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked; his wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire; he is of purer eyes than to bear to have you in his sight; you are ten thousand times so abominable in his eyes, as the most hateful and 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. 'Tis ascribed to nothing else, that you did not go to h.e.l.l 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 h.e.l.l since you arose in the morning, but that G.o.d's hand has held you up. There is no other reason to be given why you han't gone to h.e.l.l since you have sat here in the house of G.o.d, provoking his pure eyes by your sinful wicked manner of attending his solemn worship. Yea, there is nothing else that is to be given as a reason why you don't this very moment drop down into h.e.l.l.

O sinner! consider the fearful danger you are in. 'Tis a great furnace of wrath, a wide and bottomless pit, full of the fire of wrath, that you are held over in the hand of that G.o.d whose wrath is provoked and incensed as much against you as against many of the d.a.m.ned in h.e.l.l. 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 G.o.d to spare you one moment.

And consider here more particularly several things concerning that wrath that you are in such danger of.

1. _Whose_ wrath it is. It is the wrath of the infinite G.o.d. If it were only the wrath of man, though it were of the most potent prince, it would be comparatively little to be regarded. The wrath of kings is very much dreaded, especially of absolute monarchs, that have the possessions and lives of their subjects wholly in their power, to be disposed of at their mere will. Prov. xx. 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 G.o.d are as gra.s.shoppers; 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 xii. 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 h.e.l.l; yea, I say unto you, Fear him."

2. 'Tis the _fierceness_ of his wrath that you are exposed to. We often read of the _fury_ of G.o.d; as in Isaiah lix. 18: "According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay fury to his adversaries." So Isaiah lxvi.

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 so in many other places. So we read of G.o.d's _fierceness_, Rev.

xix. 15. There we read of "the wine-press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty G.o.d." The words are exceeding terrible: if it had only been said, "the wrath of G.o.d," the words would have implied that which is infinitely dreadful: but 'tis not only said so, but "the fierceness and wrath of G.o.d." The fury of G.o.d! The fierceness of Jehovah! Oh, how dreadful must that be! Who can utter or conceive what such expressions carry in them!

But it is not only said so, but "the fierceness and wrath of Almighty G.o.d." 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 worm that shall suffer it! Whose hands can be strong! And whose heart endure! To what a dreadful, inexpressible, inconceivable depth of misery must the poor creature be sunk who shall be the subject of this!

Consider this, you that are here present, that yet remain in an unregenerate state. That G.o.d will execute the fierceness of his anger implies that he will inflict wrath without any pity. When G.o.d beholds the ineffable extremity of your case, and sees your torment 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 compa.s.sion 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 G.o.d 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 should 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 will I not hear them." Now G.o.d 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 G.o.d, as to any regard to your welfare; G.o.d will have no other use to put you to, but only to suffer misery; you shall be continued in being to no other end; for you will be a vessel of wrath fitted to destruction; and there will be no other use of this vessel, but only to be filled full of wrath: G.o.d will be so far from pitying you when you cry to him, that 'tis said he will only "laugh and mock," Prov. i. 25, 26, &c.

How awful are those words, Isaiah lxiii. 3, which are the words of the great G.o.d: "I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment." 'Tis perhaps impossible to conceive of words that carry in them greater manifestations of these three things, viz., contempt and hatred and fierceness of indignation. If you cry to G.o.d to pity you, he will be so far from pitying you in your doleful case, or showing you the least regard or favor, that instead of that he'll only tread you under foot: and though he will know that you can't bear the weight of omnipotence treading upon you, yet he won't regard that, but he will crush you under his feet without mercy; he'll crush out your blood, and make it fly, and it shall be sprinkled on his garments, so as to stain all his raiment. He will not only hate you, but he will have you in the utmost contempt; no place shall be thought fit for you but under his feet, to be trodden down as the mire of the streets.

3. The misery you are exposed to is that which G.o.d will inflict to that end, that he might _show_ what that _wrath_ of _Jehovah_ is. G.o.d hath had it on his heart to show to angels and men, both how excellent his love is, and also how terrible his wrath is. Sometimes earthly kings have a mind to show how terrible their wrath is, by the extreme punishments they would execute on those that provoke 'em. Nebuchadnezzar, that mighty and haughty monarch of the Chaldean empire, was willing to show his wrath when enraged with Shadrach, Meshech, and Abednego; and accordingly gave order 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 G.o.d is also willing to show his wrath, and magnify his awful Majesty and mighty power in the extreme sufferings of his enemies. Rom. ix. 22, "What if G.o.d, 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, to show how terrible the unmixed, unrestrained wrath, the fury and fierceness of Jehovah is, he will do it to effect.

There will be something accomplished and brought to pa.s.s that will be dreadful with a witness. When the great and angry G.o.d 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 G.o.d call upon the whole universe to behold that awful majesty and mighty power that is to be seen in it. Isa. x.x.xiii. 12, 13, 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 G.o.d 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 pa.s.s, 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 carca.s.ses 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 G.o.d one moment; but you must suffer it to all eternity: there will be no end to this exquisite, horrible misery.