thee that the end of those things is death? Oh sinner, what wilt thou say when he shall punish thee! 4. Wilt thou desire a further time of trial, that judgment may be deferred, and a longer season of probation be afforded thee? Wilt thou say, Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all? It is true, patience, after thy multiplied provocations, would be a singular favour; but to imagine that if God should bear with thee still longer, thou canst pay thy past debt, or cease to run further in arrears; that thou canst make an atonement for former transgressions, or not commit fresh ones, is an awful mistake. Evil men and seducers war worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. Lost souls do not wish they had lived longer; but that, if it had been the pleasure of heaven, they might have been cut off sooner; that their sins might not have been so numerous, nor their torments so dreadful. Instead of wishing for a greater extension of divine forbearance, God might say to the dying and desponding sinner, The measure of thine iniquities is already full, and further forbearance would only make it run over. Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. 5. Wilt thou say that thou hast sinned by an inevitable necessity, and that thy ruin was pre-determined? There were some in the days of the prophets, who when they had sinned, boldly said, We are delivered to do all these abominations. We do sin indeed, but we cannot help it and if we are ruined, all our efforts to prevent it would have been in vain. We sin by God's decree, and we perish by his decree. Oh Lord, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? But if this be the language of sinners in this world, it will not be so in the world to come. They will then know that if they were the slaves of sin and Satan, they were so voluntarily, and by choice; that if they were sold to commit iniquity, like Ahab, they sold themselves; and that if any spiritual blessing were withheld, it was that to which they had no claim, and for which they had no desire. Vain words. will then have an end, and the cavils of wicked men will be silenced. The difference between a natural and moral impotency will most evidently appear, and God will be fully justified in the sinner's condemnation. His blood will be upon his own head, and conscience will testify that his eternal ruin is chargeable only to his own account. How often, says Christ, would I have gathered you, as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, but ye would not-Ye will not come unto me that ye might have life. Jer. vii. 10. Isai. Ixiii. 17. Matt. xxiii. 37. John v. 40. There cannot be a stronger proof of a reprobate mind than for a person to lay the blame of his sins, and consequently of his ruin, upon the purpose and providence of God. The death of our Lord was by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God; and yet Peter tells the jews that with wicked hands they crucified and slew him. The divine decrees have no necessitating influence upon the conduct of men: they sin willingly, and therefore are punished justly. Of some it is said, They could not believe, because he hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart. But did this extenuate their guilt, or would it afford them. any excuse at the bar of God? No: they have no cloak for their sin. Men first harden their own hearts, and then God suffers that hardness to remain; and, according to its natural tendency, to increase. They first choose their own delusions, and then God in righteous displeasure gives them up to them. They grow secure, and God leaves them in that security; so that God acts righteously when men act most wickedly. Oh Israel, oh sinner, thou hast destroyed thyself! If any should presume to say, as an objector did to the doctrine of the apostle, Why doth he yet find fault, for who hath resisted his will? The answer is, Nay but, oh man, who art thou that repliest against God? Hath God forsaken thee? Then thou hast first forsaken him. Hath he abandoned thee to vice and wretchedness? It is because thou lovest it, and hast abandoned thyself to it. Acts ii. 23. John xii. 39. xv. 22. Rom. ix. 19, 20. 6. The question proposed in the text implies, that the sinner will have nothing to say when he falls into the hands of God. Like the man without the wedding garment, he will be speechless, having nothing to plead in his own defence. He will see that God's ways were equal, and his own unequal; that having done wrong, he only receives according to his works; and that as he has sown to the flesh, he now of the flesh reaps corruption. Men may resist conscience for a time, but it will resist them hereafter now they may stop its mouth, but it will one day tell the truth, and they shall be obliged to hear it. Its language will be, "Thou hast destroyed thy, self!" Nor can the charge be denied. The rich man, being in torments, had much to say in a way of petition, for an alleviation of his misery; but we do not find that he had any thing to say in his own defence. And as it was with him, so it will be with all that perish their crimes will admit of no extenuation, nor their punishment of any abatement. They may live and die deceived; but in hell they will be undeceived. Their eyes will be opened indeed; but their mouths will be shut. The Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and God that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness. Isai. v. 16. To conclude: How unspeakable are the advantages of true religion! Vessels of wrath made vessels of mercy, and heirs of glory! And though even such would have nothing to say, if God were to condemn them; yet they will have much to say when he acquits them. Their hearts will be enlarged, and their mouths will be opened, to celebrate that dis tinguishing grace which brought them from under. the curse to inherit a blessing, and raised them from the lowest hell to the highest heaven. They shall be comforted, but the sinner tormented. Allur'd by sin's deceitful arts, Still they encrease their loads of guilt, They bid defiance to the skies, But the decisive day shall come, God will pronounce their final doom, Bound fast in adamantine chains, FINIS.= |