SER:Sinners in the hands of an Angry God  by Jonathan Edwards

Preached July 8, 1741

   Text, "Their foot shall slide in due time" Deut. 32:35

   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 God's mere will had, in the last 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 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 in subduing a rebel, who has found a means to fortify
himself, and has made himself strong by the number 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 a vast multitude
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
anything 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?

   2. 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.

   3. 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 sentence of
his unchangeable law, assign to him.

   4. 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 they do
not go down to hell each moment, is not because God, in whose power
they are, is not at present very angry with them; as he is with many
miserable creatures now tormented in hell, who there fell 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 some who may read
this book, who, it may be are at ease, than he is with many of those
that are now in the flames of hell.

   So it is not that 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 a 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 whetted, and held over them, and the pit hath
opened its mouth under them.

   5. The devil stands ready to fall on 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 goals -- Luke 11:21. The devils watch over 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
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.

   6. There are in the souls of wicked men those hellish principles
reigning, that would presently kindle and flame out into heel 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, that are the seeds of
hell fire. The principles are active and powerful, exceedingly 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 he same corruption, 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 the Scriptures 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, and no further," but if God should
withdraw that restraining power, it would 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
the man is immoderate and boundless in its fury; and while wicked men
live here, it is like fire pent up by 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 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! It is no security to the 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 to go out of the ordinary course of His providence to
destroy any wicked man, at any moment. All the means 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 this case.

   8. 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 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 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? "How dieth the wise man? as the fool" -- Ecclesiastes 2:16.

   9. All wicked men's pains and contrivances 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 here 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 forms plans to effect his escape better than
others have done. He does not intend to go 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
come to 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
subject to that misery, we, doubtless, should hear one and another
reply, "No, I never intended to come hear: I had arranged 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 unexpectedly; 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. 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. 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 promise 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 ernest 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 those that are actually suffering the execution 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 for 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 to a conviction of their danger. This that you have heard is
the case of everyone 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 anything 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 are probably 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
who is suspended in it.

   Your wickedness makes you, as it were, heavy as lead, and to rend
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 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
any other purpose, and groan when they are abused to purposes so
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 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 they 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 would be like the chaff of
the summer threshing-floor.

   The wrath of God is like great waters that are restrained for the
present; but 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 judgement against your evil works has not been executed hitherto;
the floods of God's vengeance have been withheld, but your guilt in the
meantime 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 of
the 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 directs the bow to your heart, and strains at 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 he
arrow one moment from being made drunk with your blood.

   Thus all you who 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 many 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 in the same way 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 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 were 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,
while you have been reading this address, but His mercy; yea, no other
reason can be given 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 have done, nothing that you can do, to induce God
to spare you one moment.

   And consider here more particularly

   1. 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 who 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 with the great and almighty Creator and King of heaven and
earth. It is but little 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 are to be despised. The wrath
of the great King of kings, is as much more terrible than theirs, as
his majesty is greater. "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 ye shall fear; Fear him, which after
he hath killed, hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you. Fear
him" -- Luke 12:4,5.

   2. 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 so also many other places. Thus we read of
"the wine-press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God " --
Revelation 19:15. The words are exceedingly terrible. If it had only
been said, "the wrath of God," the words would have implied that which
is unspeakably dreadful; but it is said, "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 said, "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. O! 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 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 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 execution 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. "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" -- Ezekiel 8:18. Now,
God stands ready to pity you; this is the day of mercy; you may cry now
with some encouragement of obtaining mercy. But when once the day of
mercy is passed, 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 may 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.
God will be so far from pitying you when you cry to him, that it is
said he will only "laugh and mock." "Because I have called, and ye
refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regard; but ye have
set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof; I also will
laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your ear cometh; when your
fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind;
when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call upon
me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not
find me; for that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of
the Lord: they would none of my counsel; they despised all of my
reproof. Therefore they shall eat of the fruit of their own way, and be
filled with their own devices. For the turning away of the simple shall
slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them" -- Proverbs
1:24-32.

   How awful are those 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 strain all my raiment" -- Isaiah
63:3. It is, perhaps, impossible to conceive of words that carry in
them greater manifestations of these three things namely, contempt,
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 reward or favor, 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 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.

   3. The misery you are exposed to is that which God will inflict, to
the end that he might show what the 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 extreme punishments they
would execute on those that provoked them. Nebuchadnezzar, that mighty
and haughty monarch of the Chaldean empire, was willing to show his
wrath, when enraged with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego; and
accordingly gave order that the burning, fiery furnace should be heated
seven times hotter than it was before; doubtless, it was raise 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 suffering of his enemies. "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?"
-- Romans 9:22. And seeing this is his design, and 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 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
the awful majesty and mighty power that is to be seen in it. "And the
people shall be as the burnings of lime, as thorns cut up they shall be
burned in the fire. Hear, ye that are afar off, what I have done; and
ye that are near, acknowledge my might. The sinners in Zion are afraid;
fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell
with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting
burnings?" -- Isaiah 33:12-14.

   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. "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"
-- Isaiah 66:23,24.

   4. 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 forever, a
boundless duration, before you, which will swallow up your thoughts,
and amaze your souls; and you will absolutely despair of ever having
any deliverances, and 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 vengeance; and
then when you have done so, when 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. O, what 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
knoweth the power of God's anger?"

   How dreadful is the state of those who are daily and hourly in
danger of this great wrath and infinite misery! But this is the dismal
case of every soul 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 fear that
there are many who will read this book, or who have heard the gospel,
who will actually be the subjects of this very misery to all eternity.
We know not who they are, 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, of those that we know, 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 every Christian lift up a lamentable and bitter cry
over him! But alas! Instead of one, how many is it likely will remember
these solemn reflections in hell! And some may be in hell in a very
short time, before this year is out. And it would be no wonder if some
readers, who are now in health, and quite and secure, may be there
before tomorrow morning. Those of you who finally continue in a natural
condition who may 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 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, blessed with
Bibles and sabbaths, and ministers, 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 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 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 the 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 to howl foe vexation of spirit! How can
you rest one moment in such a condition? Are not your souls as precious
as the souls of those who are flocking from day to day to Christ?

   Are there not many who have lived long in the world, who 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
for the day of wrath? O sirs! Your case, in an especial manner, is
extremely dangerous. Your guilt and hardness of heart are extremely
great. Do not you see how generally persons of your years are passed
over and left, in the dispensations of God's mercy? You had need to
consider yourselves, and wake thoroughly out of sleep: you cannot bear
the fierceness and wrath of the infinite God.

   And you, young man, and young woman,will you neglect this precious
season which you now enjoy, when so many others of your age are
renouncing youthful vanities, and flocking to Christ? You especially
have now an opportunity, but if you neglect it, it will soon be with
you as it is with those persons who spent all their precious day 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 of the children of the land are
converted, and are becoming the holy and happy children of the King of
kings?

   And let everyone 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 children, now harken to the loud calls of God's word and
providence. This acceptable year of the Lord, a day of great mercy 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. Never was there a period when so
many means were employed for the salvation of souls, and if you
entirely neglect them, you will eternally curse the day of your birth.
Now, undoubtedly it is, as it was in the days of John the Baptist, the
axe is laid at the root of the trees, and every tree which brings not
forth good fruit, may be hewn down, and cast into the fire.

   Therefore, let everyone that is out of Christ, now awake and flee
from the wrath to come. The wrath of Almighty God is now undoubtedly
hanging over every unregenerate sinner. Let everyone flee out of Sodom:
"Escape for your lives, look not behind you, escape to the mountain,
lest you be consumed."
