It is the drift of the apostle in the three first chapters of this epistle, to show that both Jews and Gentiles are under sin, and therefore cannot be justified by works of law, but only by faith in Christ. In the first chapter he had shown that the Gentiles were under sin. In this he shows that the Jews also are under sin, and that however severe they were in their censures upon the Gentiles, yet they themselves did the same things, for which the apostle very much blames them. “Therefore, thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest, for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest, doest the same things.” And he warns them not to go on in such a way, by forewarning them of the misery to which they will expose themselves by it, and by giving them to understand, that instead of their misery being less than that of the Gentiles, it would be the greater, for God’s distinguishing goodness to them above the Gentiles. The Jews thought that they should be exempted from future wrath because God had chosen them to be his peculiar people. But the apostle informs them that there should be indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, to every soul of man, not only to the Gentiles, but to every soul and to the Jews first and chiefly, when they did evil, because their sins were more aggravated. In the text we find,
I. A description of wicked men, in which may be observed those qualifications of wicked men which have the nature of a cause, and those which have the nature of an effect. Those qualifications of wicked men here mentioned that have the nature of a cause, are their being contentious, and not obeying the truth, but obeying unrighteousness. By their being contentious, is meant their being contentious against the truth, their quarreling with the gospel, their finding fault with its declarations and offers. Unbelievers find many things in the ways of God at which they stumble, and by which they are offended. They are always quarreling and finding fault with one thing or another, whereby they are kept from believing the truth and yielding to it. Christ is to them a stone of stumbling, and rock of offense. They do not obey the truth, that is, they do not yield to it, they do not receive it with faith. That yielding to the truth and embracing it, which there is in saving faith, is called obeying, in Scripture. Rom. 6:17, “But God be thanked that ye were the servants of sin; but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.” Heb. 5:9, “And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him.” Rom. 1:5, “By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations for his name.” But they obey unrighteousness instead of yielding to the gospel, they are under the power and dominion of sin, and are slaves to their lusts and corruptions. It is in those qualifications of wicked men that their wickedness radically consists. Their unbelief and opposition to the truth, and their slavish subjection to lust, are the foundation of all wickedness. Those qualifications of wicked men, which have the nature of an effect, are their doing evil. This is the least of their opposition against the gospel, and of their slavish subjection to their lusts, that they do evil. Those wicked principles are the foundation, and their wicked practice is the superstructure. Those were the root, and this is the fruit. II. The punishment of wicked men, in which may be also noticed the cause and the effect. Those things mentioned in their punishment that have the nature of a cause, are indignation and wrath; i.e. the indignation and wrath of God. It is the anger of God that will render wicked men miserable. They will be the subjects of divine wrath, and hence will arise their whole punishment.
II. Hence we derive an argument for the awakening of ungodly men. This indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, is the portion allotted to you if you continue in your present condition. Thou art the man spoken of; it is to thee that all this misery is assigned by the threatening of God’s holy word. It is on thee that this wrath of God abides. Thou art now in a state of condemnation to this misery. John 3:18, “He that believeth not is condemned already; because he hath not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God.” It is not already executed upon you, but you are already condemned to it; you are not merely exposed to condemnation, but you are under the actual sentence of condemnation. This is the portion that is already allotted to you by the law and not under grace. This misery is the misery into which you are everyday in danger of dropping, you are not safe from it one hour. How soon it may come upon you, you know not; you hang over it by a thread, that is continually growing more and more feeble. This dreadful misery in all its successive parts belongs to you, and is your due. Your friends and your neighbors, and all around you, if they knew what your condition was, might well lift up a loud and bitter cry over you, whenever they behold you, and say, Here is an unhappy being condemned to be given up eternally into the hands of devils to be tormented by them. Here is a miserable man who is in danger every day of being swallowed up in the bottomless gulf of woe and misery. Here is a wretched undone creature condemned to lie down forever in unquenchable fire, and to dwell in everlasting burnings; and he has no interest in a Savior, he has nothing to defend him, he has nothing wherewith to appease the wrath of an offended God. Here consider two things.
First, you have
no reason to question whether those future miseries and torments which
are threatened in God’s Word are realities. Do not flatter yourself with
thinking that it may not be so. Say not, How do I know that there is any
such misery to be inflicted in another world; how do I know but all is
a fable, and that when I come to die there will be an end of me, and that
it will be with me as it is with the beasts. Do not say, How do I know
but that all those things are only bugbears of man’s inventing. How do
I know that the Scriptures, that threaten those things, are the Word of
God; or if he has threatened those things, it may be it is only to frighten
men to keep them to their duty, it may be he never intends to do as he
threatens.
I say that there is
no ground for any such suspicion, neither is there any reason for it; for
that there should be no future punishment is not only contrary to Scripture,
but reason. It is a most unreasonable thing to suppose that there should
be no future punishment, to suppose that God, who had made man a rational
creature, able to know his duty, and sensible that he is deserving punishment
when he does it not; should let man alone, and let him live as he will,
and never punish him for his sins, and never make any difference between
the good and the bad; that he should make the world of mankind and then
let it alone, and let men live all their days in wickedness, in adultery,
murder, robbery, and persecution, and the like, and suffer them to live
in prosperity, and never punish them; that he should suffer them to prosper
in the world far beyond many good men, and never punish them hereafter.
How unreasonable is it to suppose, that he who made the world, should leave
things in such confusion, and never take any care of the government of
his creatures, and that he should never judge his reasonable creatures!
Reason teaches that there is a God, and reason teaches that if there be,
he must be a wise and just God, and that he must take care to order things
wisely and justly among his creatures. And therefore it is unreasonable
to suppose that man dies like a beast, and that there is no future punishment.
And if there be a future punishment, it is unreasonable to suppose that
God has not somewhere or other given men warning of it, and revealed to
them what kind of punishment they must expect. Will a wise lawgiver keep
his subjects in ignorance as to what punishment they must expect for breaking
his laws? And if God has revealed it, where is it to be found but in the
Scripture; what revelation have we of a future state if it is not there
revealed? Where does God tell mankind what kind of rewards and punishments
they must expect, if not here? And it is abundantly manifest by innumerable
evidences, that these threatenings are the threatenings of God, that this
awful book is his revelation. And since God has threatened, there is no
room to question whether he will fulfill; for he hath said it, yea, he
hath sworn it, that he will repay the wicked to his face according to threatenings,
and that he will glorify himself in their destruction, and that this heaven
and earth shall pass away. How foolish then is the thought that God may
only threaten such punishment to frighten men, and that he never intends
to execute it! For as surely as God is God, he will do as he has said.
He will destroy the mountains of iniquity as he has threatened, and there
shall be no escaping. How vain are the thoughts of those who flatter themselves
that God will not fulfill his threatenings, and that he only frightens
and deceives men in them; as though God could in no other way govern the
world than by making use of fallacious tricks and deceits to delude his
subjects! Those that entertain such thoughts, however they may harden themselves
by them for the present, will cherish them but a little while. Their experience
will soon convince them that God is a God of truth, and that his threatenings
are no delusions. They will be convinced that he is a God who will by no
means clear the guilty, and that his threatenings are substantial, and
not mere shadows, when it will be too late to escape them. Deu. 29:18-21,
“Lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose
heart turneth away this day from the Lord our God, to go and serve the
gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a root that beareth
gall and wormwood; and it come to pass, when he heareth the words of this
curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying , I shall have peace,
though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst:
the Lord will not spare him; but then the anger of the Lord and his jealousy
shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this
book shall lie upon him, and the Lord shall blot out his name from under
heaven. And the Lord shall separate him unto evil out of all the tribes
of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant that are written
in this book of the law.” Psa. 50:21, “These things hast thou done, and
I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself:
but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes.”
Second, there
is no reason to suspect that possibly ministers set forth this matter beyond
what it really is, that possibly it is not so dreadful and terrible as
is pretended, and that ministers strain the description of it beyond just
bounds. Some may be ready to think so, because it seems to them incredible
that there should be so dreadful a misery to any creature. But there is
no reason for any such thoughts as these, if we consider,
1. How great a punishment
the sins of wicked men deserve. The Scripture teaches us that anyone sin
deserves eternal death. Rom. 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death: but
the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” And that
it deserves the eternal curse of God. Deu. 27:26, “Cursed be he that confirmeth
not all the words of this law to do them: and all the people shall say,
Amen.” Gal 3:10, “For as many as are of the works of the law are under
the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in
all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.” Which
things imply that the least sin deserves total and eternal destruction.
Eternal death, in the least degree of it, amounts to such a degree of misery
as is the perfect destruction of the creature, the loss of all good, and
perfect misery; and so does being accursed of God imply it. To be cursed
of God, is to be devoted to perfect and ultimate destruction. The Scripture
teaches that wicked men shall be punished to their full desert, that they
shall pay all the debt.
2. There is no reason
to think that ministers describe the misery of the wicked beyond what it
is, because the Scripture teaches us that this is one end of ungodly men,
to show the dreadfulness and power of God’s wrath. Rom. 9:22, “What if
God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with
much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction.” It is
often spoken of as part of the glory of God, that he is a terrible and
dreadful God. Psa. 68:35, “O God, thou art terrible out of thy holy places:”
that he is a consuming fire. Psa. 66:3, “How terrible art thou in thy works!
through the greatness of thy power shall thine enemies submit themselves
unto thee:” and that herein one part of the glory of God is represented
as consisting, that it is so dreadful a thing to injure and offend God.
The wrath of a king is as the roaring of a lion, the wrath of a man is
sometimes dreadful, but the future punishment of ungodly men is to show
what the wrath of God is. It is to show to the whole universe the glory
of God’s power. 2 Thes. 1:9, “Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction
from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power.” And therefore
the punishment which we have described is not at all incredible, and there
is no reason to think that it has been in the least described beyond what
it really is.
3. The Scripture teaches
that the wrath of God on wicked men is dreadful beyond all that we can
conceive. Psa. 90:11, “Who knoweth the power of thine anger? Even according
to thy fear, so is thy wrath.” As it is but little that we know of God,
as we know and can conceive of but little of his power and his greatness,
so it is but a little that we know or can conceive of the dreadfulness
of his wrath. And therefore there is no reason to suppose that we set it
forth beyond what it is. We have rather reason to suppose that after we
have said our utmost and thought our utmost, all that we have said or thought
is but a faint shadow of the reality.
We are taught that
the reward of the saints is beyond all that can be spoken or conceived
of. Eph. 3:20, “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above
all that we can ask or think.” 1 Cor. 2:9, “Eye hath not seen, nor ear
heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God
hath prepared for them that love him.” And so we may rationally suppose
that the punishment of the wicked will also be inconceivably dreadful.
4. There is no reason
to think that we set forth the misery of hell beyond the reality, because
the Scripture teaches us that the wrath of God is according to his fear.
Psa. 90:11. This passage asserts that the wrath of God is according to
his awful attributes; his greatness and his might, his holiness and power.
The majesty of God is exceedingly great and awful, but according to his
awfulness, so is his wrath. This is the meaning of the words; and therefore
we must conclude that the wrath of God is indeed beyond all expressions
and signification terrible. How great and awful indeed is his majesty,
who has made heaven and earth, and in what majesty will he come to judge
the world at the last day! He will come to take vengeance on ungodly men.
The sight of this majesty will strike wicked men with apprehensions and
fears of destruction.
5. The description
which I have given of the tribulation and wrath of ungodly men, is not
beyond the truth, for it is the very description which the Scriptures give
of it. The Scriptures represent that the wicked shall be cast into a furnace
of fire; not only a fire, but a furnace. Mat. 13:42, “And shall cast them
into a furnace of fire; there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.”
Rev. 20:15, “And whosoever was not found written in the book of life, was
cast into the lake of fire.” Psa. 21:8, 9, “Thine hand shall find out all
thine enemies; thy right hand shall find out those that hate thee. Thou
shalt make them as a fiery oven in the time of thine anger; the Lord shall
swallow them up in his wrath, and the fire shall devour them.”
If, therefore, I have
described this misery beyond the truth, then the Scriptures have done the
same. It is evident then, that there is no reason to flatter yourselves
with such imaginations. If God be true, you shall find the wrath of God,
and your future misery, full as great; and not only so, but much greater.
You will find that we know but little, and have said but little about it,
and that all our expressions are faint in comparison of the reality.
III. Hence may be derived an argument to convince wicked men of the justice of God in allotting such a portion to them. Wicked men, when they hear it declared how awful the misery is of which they are in danger, often have their hearts lifted up against God for it. It seems to them very hard for God to deal so with any of his creatures. They cannot see why God should be so very severe with wicked men, for their sin and folly for a little while in this world. And when they consider that he has threatened such punishments, they are ready to entertain blasphemous thoughts against him. I would therefore endeavor to show you how justly you lie exposed to that indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, of which you have heard. Particularly I would show,
First, how just
it would be in God forever to leave you to yourself. It would be most just
in God to refuse to be with you, or help you.
You have embraced
and refused to let go those things which God hates; you have refused to
forsake your lusts, and to abandon those ways of sin that are abominable
to him. When God has commanded you to forsake them, how have you refused,
and still have retained them, and been obstinate in it! Neither is your
heart yet to this very day diverted from sin. But it is dear to you, you
allow it the best place in your heart, you place it on the throne there.
Would it be any wonder therefore if God should utterly leave you, seeing
you will not leave sin? God has often declared his hatred of iniquity;
and is it any wonder, that he is not willing to dwell with that which is
so odious to him? Is it not reasonable that God should insist that you
should part with your lusts in order to your enjoying his presence; and
seeing you have so long refused, how just would it be if God should utterly
forsake you? You have retained and harbored God’s mortal enemies, sin and
Satan. How justly therefore might God stand at a distance! Is God obliged
to be present with any who harbor his enemies, and refuse to forsake them?
Would God be unjust, if he should leave you utterly to yourself, so long
as you will not forsake your idols?
Consider how just
it would be in God to let you alone, since you have let God alone. You
have not sought God for his presence and help as you ought to have done;
you have neglected him; and would it not therefore be just if he should
neglect you? How long have many of you lived in neglecting to seek him?
How long have you restrained prayer before him? Since therefore you refused
so much as to seek the presence and help of God, and did not think them
worth praying to him for, how justly might he forever withhold them, and
so leave you wholly to yourself?
You have done what
in you lies to drive God away from you, and to cause him wholly to leave
you. When God in times past has not let you alone, but has been unwearied
in awakening you, have you not resisted the motions and influences of his
Spirit; have you not refused to be conducted by him, or to yield to him?
Zec. 7:11, “But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder,
and stopped their ears, that they should not hear.” How justly therefore
might God refuse to move or strive any more! When God has been knocking
at your door, you have refused to open to him. How just is it therefore
that he should go away, and knock at your door no more! When the Spirit
of God has been striving with you, have you not been guilty of grieving
the Holy Spirit by giving way to a quarreling temper, and by yielding yourself
a prey to lust? And have not some of you quenched the Spirit, and been
guilty of backsliding? And is God obliged, notwithstanding all this, to
continue the striving of his Spirit with you, to be resisted and grieved
still, as long as you please? On the contrary, would it not be just if
his Spirit should everlastingly leave you, and let you alone?
Second, how
just it would be if you should be cursed in all your concerns in this world.
It would be just if God should curse you in everything, and cause everything
you enjoy, or are concerned in, to turn to your destruction.
You live here in all
the concerns of life as an enemy to God; you have used all your enjoyments
and possessions against God, and to his dishonor. Would it not therefore
be just if God should curse you in them, and turn them all against you,
and to your destruction? What temporal blessing has God given you, which
you have not used in the service of your lusts, in the service of sin and
Satan? If you have been in prosperity, you have made use of it to God’s
dishonor. When you have waxed fat, you have forgotten the God that made
you. How just therefore would it be if God’s curse should attend all your
enjoyments! Whatsoever employments you have followed, you have not served
God in them, but God’s enemies. How just therefore would it be if you should
be cursed in all your employments! The means of grace that you have enjoyed,
you have not made use of as you ought to have done. You have made light
of them, and have treated them in a careless disregardful manner; you have
been the worse and not the better for them. You have so attended and used
sabbaths, and spiritual opportunities, that you have only made them occasions
of manifesting your contempt of God and Christ, and divine things, by your
careless and profane manner of attending them. Would it not therefore be
most just that God’s curse should attend your means of grace, and the opportunities
which you enjoy for the salvation of your soul?
You have improved
your time only to heap up provocations and add to your transgressions,
in opposition to all the calls and warnings that could be given you. How
just therefore would it be if God should turn life itself into a curse
to you, and suffer you to live only to fill up the measure of your sins!
You have, contrary
to God’s counsel, made use of your own enjoyments to the hurt of your soul,
and therefore if God should turn to them to the hurt and ruin of your soul,
he would but deal with you as you have dealt with yourself. God has earnestly
counseled you times without number to use your temporal enjoyments for
your spiritual good, but you have refused to hearken to him, you have foolishly
perverted them to treasure up wrath against the day of wrath, you have
voluntarily used what God has given you for your spiritual hurt, to increase
your guilt and wound your own soul. And therefore if Gods curse should
attend them, so that they should all turn to the ruin of your soul, you
would but be dealt with as you have dealt with yourself.
Third, how just
would it be in God to cut you off, and put an end to your life!
You have greatly abused
the patience and long-suffering of God which have already been exercised
towards you. God with wonderful long-suffering has borne with you, when
you have gone on in rebellion against him, and refused to turn from your
evil ways. He has beheld you going on obstinately in the ways of provocation
against him, and yet he has not let loose his wrath against you to destroy
you, but has still waited to be gracious. He has suffered you yet to live
on his earth, and breathe his air. He has upheld and preserved you, and
continued still to feed you, and clothe you, and maintain you, and still
to give you a space to repent; but instead of being the better for his
patience, you have been the worse, instead of being melted by it, you have
been hardened, and it has made you the more presumptuous in sin. Ecc. 8:11,
“Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore
the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.” You have
been guilty of despising the riches of his goodness, and forbearance, and
long-suffering, instead of being led to repent by it. You cannot live one
day but as God maintains and provides for you; you cannot draw a breath,
or live a moment, unless God upholds you. For in his hand your breath is,
and he holds your soul in life, and his visitation preserves your spirit.
But what thanks has God had of it. How have you, instead of being turned
to God, been only rendered the more fully set and dreadfully hardened in
the ways of sin! How just therefore would it be if God’s patience should
soon be at an end, and he should cease to bear with you any longer!
You have not only
abused his past patience, but have also abused his thoughts of future patience.
You have flattered yourself that death was not near, and that you should
live long in the world, and this has made you abundantly the more bold
in sin. Since therefore such has been the use you have made of your expectation
of having your life preserved, how just would it be in God to disappoint
that expectation, and cut you short of that long life with which you have
flattered yourself, and in the thoughts of which you have encouraged yourself
in sin against him! How just would it be if your breath should soon be
stopped, and that suddenly, when you think not of it, and you should be
driven away in your wickedness!
As long as you live
in sin you do but cumber the ground, you are wholly unprofitable, and live
in vain. He that refuses to live to the glory of God, does not answer the
end of his creation, and for what should he live? God made men to serve
him; to this end he gave them life. And if they will not devote their lives
to this end, how just would it be in God if he should refuse to continue
their lives any longer! He has planted you in his vineyard, to bear fruit;
and if you bring forth no fruit, why should he continue you any longer?
How just would it be in him to cut you down!
As long as you live,
many of the blessings of God are spent upon you from day to day; you devour
the fruits of the earth and consume much of its fatness and sweetness;
and all to no purpose, but to keep you alive to sin against God, and spend
all in wickedness. The whole creation does as it were groan with you. The
sun rises and sets to give you light, the clouds pour down rain upon you,
and the earth brings forth her fruits, and labors from year to year to
supply you. And you in the mean time do not answer the end of Him who has
created all things. How just therefore would it be if God should soon cut
you off, and take you away, and deliver the earth from this burden, that
the creation may no longer groan with you, and cast you out as an abominable
branch! Luke 13:7, “Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, Behold,
these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig-tree, and find none:
cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground?” John 15:2, 6, “Every branch
in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away; and every branch that beareth
fruit he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. — If a man abide
not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather
them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.”
Fourth, how
just would it be if you should die in the greatest horror and amazement!
How often have you
been exhorted to improve your time, to lay a foundation of peace and comfort
on a death-bed; and yet you have refused to hearken! You have been many
and many a time reminded that you must die, that it was very uncertain
when, and that you did not know how soon, and have been told how mean and
insignificant all your earthly enjoyments would then appear, and how unable
to afford you any comfort on a deathbed.. You have been often told how
dreadful it would be to lie on a death-bed in a Christless state, having
nothing to comfort you but your worldly enjoyments. You have been often
put in mind of the torment and amazement which sinners, who have misspent
their precious time, are subject to when arrested by death. You have been
told how infinitely you would then need to have God your friend, and to
have the testimony of a good conscience, and a well-grounded hope of future
blessedness. And how often have you been exhorted to take care to provide
against such a day as this, and to lay up treasure in heaven, that you
might have something to depend on when you parted from this world, something
to hope for when all things here below fail! But remember how regardless
you have been, how dull and negligent from time to time, when you have
sat under the hearing of such things, and still you obstinately refuse
to prepare for death, and take no care to lay a good foundation against
that time. And you have not only been counseled, but you have seen others
on their deathbeds in fear and distress, or have heard of them, and have
not taken warning. Yea, some of you have been sick yourselves, and have
been afraid that you were on your death-beds, yet God was merciful to you,
and restored you, but you did not take warning to prepare for death. How
justly therefore might you be the subject of that horror and amazement,
of which you have heard, when you come to die!
And not only so, but
how industriously have you spent your time in treasuring up matter for
tribulation and anguish at that time! You have not only been negligent
of laying a foundation for peace and comfort then, but have spent your
time continually and unweariedly in laying a foundation for distress and
horror. How have you gone on from day to day, heaping up more and more
guilt; more and more wounding your own conscience, still increasing the
amount of folly and wickedness for you to reflect upon! How just therefore
would it be that tribulation and anguish should then come upon you!
Fifth, how just
it is that you should suffer the wrath of God in another world!
Because you have willfully
provoked and stirred up that wrath. If you are not willing to suffer the
anger of God, then why did you provoke him to anger? Why did you act as
though you would contrive to make him angry with you? Why did you willfully
disobey God? You know that willful disobedience tends to provoke him who
is disobeyed; it is so in an earthly king, or master, or father. If you
have a servant who is willfully disobedient, it provokes your anger. And
again, if you would not suffer God’s wrath, why have you so often cast
a slight on God? If anyone casts a slight on men, it tends to provoke them.
How much more may the Infinite Majesty of heaven be provoked, when he is
contemned! You have also robbed God of his property, you have refused to
give him that which is his own. It provokes men when they are deprived
of their due and they are dealt injuriously by; how much more may God be
provoked when you rob him!
You have also slighted
the kindness of God to you, and that the greatest love and kindness of
which you can conceive. You have been supremely ungrateful, and have only
abused that kindness. Nothing provokes men more than to have their kindness
slighted and abused. How much more may God be provoked when men requite
his infinite mercy only with disobedience and ingratitude! If therefore
you go on to provoke God, and to stir up his wrath, how can you expect
any other than to suffer his wrath? If then you should indeed suffer the
wrath of an offended God, remember it is what you have procured for yourself,
it is a fire of your own kindling.
You would not accept
of deliverance from God’s wrath, when it has been offered to you. When
God had in mercy sent his only-begotten Son into the world, you refused
to admit him. You loved your sins too well to forsake them to come to Christ,
and for the sake of your sins you have rejected all the offers of a Savior,
so that you have chosen death rather than life. After you have procured
wrath to yourself, you clove fast to it, and would not part with it for
mercy. “All they that hate me, love death.”
Sixth, how just would it be that you be delivered up into the had of the devil and his angels, to be tormented by them hereafter, seeing you have voluntarily given yourself up to serve them here! You have hearkened to them rather than to God. How just therefore would it be if God leave you to them! You have followed Satan and adhered to his interest in opposition to God, and have subjected yourself to his will in this world, rather than to the will of God. How just therefore would it be if God should give you up to his will hereafter!
Seventh, how justly may your bodies be made organs of torment to you hereafter, which you have made organs and instruments of sin in this world! You have given up your bodies a sacrifice to sin and Satan. How justly therefore may God give them up a sacrifice to wrath! You have employed your bodies as servants to your vile and hateful lusts. How just therefore would it be for God hereafter to raise your bodies to be organs and instruments of misery; and to fill them as full of torment as they have been filled full of sin!
Eighth, but
the greatest objection of wicked men against the justice of the future
punishment which God has threatened, is from the greatness of that punishment:
that God should inflict upon the finally impenitent, torments so extreme,
so amazingly dreadful, to have their bodies cast into a furnace of fire
of such immense heat and fierceness, there to lie unconsumed, and yet full
of sense and feeling, glowing within and without; and the soul full of
yet more dreadful horror and torment; and so to remain without any remedy
or rest forever, and ever, and ever. And, therefore, I would mention several
things to you, to show how justly you lie exposed to so dreadful a punishment.
1. This punishment,
as dreadful as it is, is not more so than the Being is great and glorious
against whom you have sinned. It is true this punishment is dreadful beyond
all expression or conception, and so is the greatness and gloriousness
of God as much beyond all expression or conception; and yet you have continued
to sin against him, yea, you have been bold and presumptuous in your sins,
and have multiplied transgressions against him without end. The wrath of
God that you have heard of, dreadful as it is, is not more dreadful than
that Majesty which you have despised and trampled on is awful. This punishment
is indeed enough to fill one with horror barely to think of it. And so
it would fill you with at least equal horror to think of sinning so exceedingly
against so great and glorious a God, if you conceived of it aright. Jer.
2:12, 13, “Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid;
be ye very desolate, saith the Lord: for my people have committed two evils;
they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters; and hewed them out
cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water!” God’s being so infinitely
great and excellent, has not influenced you not to sin against him, but
you have done it boldly, and made nothing of it, thousands of times; and
why should this misery, being so infinitely great and dreadful, hinder
God from inflicting it on you? 1 Sam. 2:25, “If one man sin against another,
the judge shall judge him: but if a man sin against the Lord, who shall
entreat for him?”
2. Your nature is
not more averse from such misery as you have heard of, than God’s nature
is averse from such sin as you have been guilty of. The nature of man is
very averse from pain and torment, and especially it is exceedingly averse
from such dreadful and eternal torment. But yet that does not hinder but
that it is just that it should be inflicted, for men do not hate misery
more than God hates sin. God is so holy, and is of so pure a nature, that
he has an infinite aversion to sin. But yet you have made light of sin,
and your sins have been exceedingly multiplied and enhanced. The consideration
of God’s hating of it has not at all hindered you from committing it. Why,
therefore, should the consideration of your hating misery hinder God from
bringing it upon you? God represents himself in his word as burdened an
wearied with the sins of wicked men. Isa. 1:14. “Your new moons and your
appointed feasts, my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary
to bear them.” Mal. 2:17, “Ye have wearied the Lord with your words: yet
ye say, Wherein have we wearied him? When ye say, Every one that doeth
evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delighteth in them; or, Where
is the God of judgment?”
3. You have not cared
how much God’s honor suffered. And why should God be careful lest your
misery be great? You have been told how much these and those things which
you have practiced were to the dishonor of God; yet you did not care for
that, but went on still multiplying transgressions. The consideration that
the more you sinned, the more God was dishonored, did not in the least
restrain you. If it had not been for fear of God’s displeasure, you would
not have cared though you had dishonored him ten thousand times as much
as you did. As for any respect you had to God, you did not care what became
of God’s honor, nor of his happiness neither, no, nor of his being. Why
then is God obliged to be careful how much you suffer? Why should he be
careful of your welfare, or use any caution lest he should lay more on
you than you can bear.
4. As great as this
wrath is, it is not greater than that love of God which you have slighted
and rejected. God, in infinite mercy to lost sinners, has provided a way
for them to escape future misery, and to obtain eternal life. For that
end he has given his only-begotten Son, a person infinitely glorious and
honorable in himself — being equal with God, and infinitely near and dear
to God. It was ten thousand times more than if God had given all the angels
in heaven, or the whole world, for sinners. Him he gave to be incarnate,
to suffer death, to be made a curse for us, and to undergo the dreadful
wrath of God in our room, and thus to purchase for us eternal glory. This
glorious person has been offered to you times without number, and he has
stood and knocked at your door, till his hairs were with the dews of the
night. But all that he has done has not won upon you. You see no form nor
comeliness in him, no beauty that you should desire him. When he has thus
offered himself to you as your Savior, you never freely and heartily accept
of him. This love which you have thus abused, is as great as that wrath
of which you are in danger. If you would have accepted of it, you might
have had the enjoyment of this love instead of enduring this terrible wrath.
So that the misery you have heard of is not greater than the love you have
despised, and the happiness and glory which you have rejected. How just
than would it be in God to execute upon you this dreadful wrath, which
is not greater than that love which you have despised! Heb. 2:3, “How shall
we escape if we neglect so great salvation?”
5. If you complain
of this punishment as being too great, then why has it not been great enough
to deter you from sin? As great as it is, you have made nothing of it.
When God threatened to inflict it on you, you did not mind his threatenings,
but were bold to disobey him, and to do those very things for which he
threatened this punishment. Great as this punishment is, it has not been
great enough to keep you from living a willfully wicked life, and going
on in ways that you knew were evil. When you have been told that such and
such things certainly exposed you to this punishment, you did not abstain
on that account, but went on from day to day in a most presumptuous manner,
and God’s threatening such a punishment was no effectual check upon you.
Why therefore do you now complain of this punishment as too great, and
quarrel against it, and say that God is unreasonable and cruel to inflict
it? In so saying you are condemned out of your own mouth; for if it be
so dreadful a punishment, and more than is just, then why was it not great
enough at least to retrain you from willful sinning? Luke 19:21, 22, “I
feared thee, because thou art an austere man, thou takest up that thou
laidest not down, and reapest that thou didst not sow. And he said unto
him, Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant,” You
complain of this punishment as too great, but yet you have acted as if
it was not great enough, and you have made light of it. If the punishment
is too great, why have you gone on to make it still greater? You have gone
on from day to day, to treasure up wrath against the day of wrath, to add
to your punishment, and increase it exceedingly. And yet now you complain
of it as too great, as though God could not justly inflict so great a punishment.
How absurd and self-contradictory is the conduct of such an one, who complains
of God for making his punishment too great, and yet from day to day industriously
gathers, and heaps up fuel, to make the fire the greater!
6. You have no cause
to complain of the punishment being greater than is just; for you have
many and many a time provoked God to do his worst. If you should forbid
a servant to do a given thing, and threaten that if he did it you would
inflict some very dreadful punishment upon him, and he should do it notwithstanding,
and you should renew your command, and warn him in the most strict manner
possible not to do it, and tell him you would surely punish him if he persisted,
and should declare that his punishment should be exceedingly dreadful,
and he should wholly disregard you, and should disobey you again, and you
should continue to repeat your commands and warnings ,still setting out
the dreadfulness of the punishment, and he should still, without any regard
to you, go on again and again to disobey you to your face, and this immediately
on your thus forbidding and threatening him: could you take it any otherwise
than as daring you to do your worst? But thus have you done towards God.
You have had his commands repeated, and his threatenings set before you
hundreds of times, and have been most solemnly warned. Yet have you notwithstanding
gone on in ways which you knew were sinful, and have done the very things
which he has forbidden, directly before his face. Job 15:25, 26, “For he
stretcheth out his hand against God, and strengtheneth himself against
the Almighty. He runneth upon him, even on his neck, upon the thick bosses
of his buckler.” You have thus bid defiance to the Almighty, even when
you saw the sword of his vindictive wrath uplifted, that it might fall
upon your head. Will it, therefore, be any wonder if he shall make you
know how terrible that wrath is, in your utter destruction?
Added to Bible Bulletin Board's Jonathan Edwards Collection by:
Tony Capoccia
Bible Bulletin Board
Box 119
Columbus, New Jersey, USA, 08022
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Email: tony@biblebb.com
Online since 1986