2. Tlie unpardoned sinner li.itli notlnng to do with any promise ; the promises are mulclralia evanf/elii, the breasts that liold the sincere milk of tlie word, which fills the soul with precious sweetness ; they are the royal charter: but wliat liath ;i str,inger to do to meddle with the cliartcr ? It was the dove ])lucked tlic olive-branch ; it is only the believer plucks the tree of tlie pro- mise. Till the condition of the promise be performed, no man can have right to the comfort of the promise ; and how sad is tliat, not to have one promise to show for licaven ?
3. An unpardoned sinner is continually in danger of the outcry of an accusing con- science. An accusing conscience is a little hell. Sia/la non invenere tyranni tormentuin majus. We tremble to hear a lion roar; }>ow terrible are the roarings of conscience ! Judas lianged himself to quiet his con- science : a sinner's conscience at present is either asleep, or seared ; but when God shall awaken conscience, either by affliction or at death, how will the unpardoned sinner be affrighted ! When a man shall liave all his sins set before his eyes, and drawn out in their bloody colours, and the worm of conscience begins to gnaw, — sinner, here are thy debts, and the book is not cancelled, thou must to hell, — O what a trembling at heart will the sinner have !
4. All the curses of God st-and in full force against an unpardoned sinner. His very blessings are cursed, Mai. ii. 2., " I will curse your blessings." His table is a snare ; he cats and drinks a curse. What comfort could Dionysius have at his feast, when he imagined he saw a naked sword hanging by a twine-thread over his liead? This is enough to spoil a sinner's banquet,
—a curse, like a naked sword, hangs over his head. Csesar wondered to see one of his soldiers so merry that was in rtcbt. One would wonder that man would be merry who is heir to all God's curses ; lie doth not see these curses, but is blinder than Ba- hiam's ass, who saw the angel's sword drawn.
5. The unpardoned sinner is in an ill CISC at death. Luther professed there were three things which he durst not think of without Christ : of his sins, of death, of the
day of judgment. Death to a Christless soul is the " king of terrors." As the prophet Ahijah said to Jeroboam's wife, I Kings xiv. 6., " I am sent to thee with heavy tidings ; so (ftath is sent to the un- jiardoncd soul with heavy tidings ;" it is God's jailor to arrest him. Death is a pro- logue to damnation ; in particular,
(I.) Death is a voider, to take away all his earthly couiforts, — it takes away his su- gared morsels, — no more drinking wine in bowls, — no more mirth or music. Rev. xviii. 22., " The vctice of harpers and musicians shall be heard no more at all in thee." The sinner shall never taste of luscious de- lights more to all eternity ; his honey shall be turned into " the gall of asps," Job. xx. 14. (2.) At death there shall be an end put to all reprieves. Now God reprieves a sin- ner, he spares him such a fit of sickness ; he respites him many years ; the sinner should have died such a drinking-bout, hut God granted him a reprieve ; he lengthen- ed out the silver thread of patience to a mi- racle ; but the sinner dying without repen tance, unpardoned, now the lease of God's patience is run out, and the sinner must appear in person before the righteous (iod to receive his sentence ; after which there shall be none to bail him, nor shall he hear of a re])rieve any more.
6. The unpardoned sinner, dvinir so, must go into damnation ; this is the second death, mora sine morte. The unpardoned soul must for ever bear the anger of a sin- revenging God ; as long as God is God, so long the vial of his wrath shall be dro]»ping upon the damned soul; this is an heij)less condition. There is a time when a sinner will not be lielped ; Christ and salvation are offered to him, but he slights them, he will not be helped; and there is a time shortly coming, when he cannot be helped; he calls out for mercy, " O a pardon, a par- don !" but then it is too late, the date of mercy is expired, O how sad then is it to live and die unpardoned! You niav lav a grave-stone upon that man, and write this epitaph upon it, *' it had been good for that man that he had never been born." Now if the misery of an unjiardoned state be so inexpressible, liow should we labour for forgiveness, that we mav not be ingulphed
3'Y
538
OF THE FIFTH PETITION IN THE LORD'S PRAYER.
in so dreadful a labyrinth of fire and brim- stone to all eternity ?