SINNERS IN THE HANDS OF AN ANGRY GOD
by Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758)
Enfield, Connecticut
July 8, 1741
Their foot shall slide in due
time Deut. 32:35
In this verse is threatened the vengeance of God on the wicked unbelieving
Israelites, who were God's visible people, and who lived under the means
of grace; but who, notwithstanding all God's wonderful works towards them,
remained (as in verse 28) void of counsel, having no understanding in them.
Under all the cultivations of heaven, they brought forth bitter and poisonous
fruit; as in the two verses next preceding the text. The expression I have
chosen for my text, Their foot shall slide in due time, seems to imply the
following things, relating to the punishment and destruction to which these
wicked Israelites were exposed.
- 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."
- 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!"
- 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.
- 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.
- 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?
- 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 13:7. The sword of divine justice
is every moment brandished over their heads, and it is nothing but the hand
of arbitrary mercy, and God's mere will, that holds it back.
- 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 3:18: "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 8:23: "Ye are from
beneath." And thither he is bound; it is the place that justice, and God's
word, and the sentence of his unchangeable law assign to him.
- 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.
- 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 11:21. 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 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.
- 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 (Isaiah 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.
- 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.
- 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? Ecclesiastes 2:16: "How dieth the wise
man? even as the fool."
- 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.
- 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 hand, they would avail no
more to keep you from falling, than the thin air to hold up a person that
is suspended in it. Your wickedness makes you as it were heavy as lead,
and to tend downwards with great weight and pressure towards hell; and if
God should let you go, you would immediately sink and swiftly descend and
plunge into the bottomless gulf, and your healthy constitution, and your
own care and prudence, and best contrivance, and all your righteousness,
would have no more influence to uphold you and keep you out of hell, than
a spider's web would have to stop a falling rock. Were it not for the sovereign
pleasure of God, the earth would not bear you one moment; for you are a burden
to it; the creation groans with you; the creature is made subject to the
bondage of your corruption, not willingly; the sun does not willingly shine
upon you to give you light to serve sin and Satan; the earth does not willingly
yield her increase to satisfy your lusts; nor is it willingly a stage for
your wickedness to be acted upon; the air does not willingly serve you for
breath to maintain the flame of life in your vitals, while you spend your
life in the service of God's enemies. God's creatures are good, and were
made for men to serve God with, and do not willingly subserve to any other
purpose, and groan when they are abused to purposes so directly contrary
to their nature and end. And the world would spew you out, were it not for
the sovereign hand of him who 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,
- 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. Proverbs 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."
- It is the
fierceness of his wrath that you are exposed to. We often read of
the fury of God; as in Isaiah 59:18: "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, Revelation 19:15, where 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. Ezekiel 8:18: "Therefore will I
also deal in fury: mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity; and
though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, yet will I 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" (Proverbs 1:25,
26 & etc.). How awful are those
words in Isaiah 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. Romans 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. Isaiah
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."
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. Isaiah
66:23, 24: "And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to
another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship
before me, 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."
- 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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Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God by Jonathan Edwards
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