And how will God take this at the hour of death ? Thou that art a care- less, drowsy hearer of the word of God, and a liver contrary to the word of God, how will God take this at thee, at the hour of death, when thy con- science will tell thee that thy life hath been a practice of sin, a strengthening of corruption ? The ' old Adam ' that thou hast cherished, it will stare and look on thee with so hideous a look that it will drive you to despair ; for conscience will tell thee that thy life hath been a strengthening of pride, of vanity, of covetousness, and of other sins. Thy whole hfe hath been such ; and now when thou shouldst look for comfort, then thy corrup- tions, which thou shouldst have subdued, they are grown to that pitch that they will bring thee to despair, without the extraordinary mercy of God to awaken thy heart by repentance. Wh.j therefore should we strengthen that that is a curse and will make us cursed too ? and will make the time to come terrible to us, the hour of death and the day of judgment ? How shall men think to hold up their faces and heads at the day of judgment, whose lives have been nothing else but a yielding to their own corruption of nature, and the corruptions and vanities of the times and places they have lived in ? that have never had the courage to plead for God ; that have been fierce against God : ' Who ever was fierce against God, and pros- pered?,' Job ix. 4. When men make their whole life fierce against God, against the admonitions of his word and Spirit, and their whole life is nothing but a practice of sin, how can they think of death and judgment without terror !
Now, it were wisdom for us to carry ourselves so in our lives and con- versations, that the time to come may not be terrible, but comfortable to think of; that we may lift up our heads with joy when we think of death
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and judgment. But when we do nothing but build Jericho, when we raise up sin, that we should ruin mere and more, what will the end of this be, but despair here and destruction in the world to come ?
You may shake off the menaces and threatenings of the ministers, as Hiel shook off Joshua's. He was an austere, singular man, and it is a long time since Jericho was cast down, and God hath forgotten. Hath he so ? He found that God had not forgotten ; so there are many that thmk that words are but wind of men, opposite to such and such things. But, though our words may be shooken , off now, and the word of God now in the preaching may be shook off, yet it will not when it comes to execution. When we propound the curse of God against sinful courses, you may shake off that curse ; but when Christ from heaven shall come to judge the quick and the dead, and say, * Go, ye cursed,' that were born cursed, that have lived cursed, that have maintained a cursed opposition to blessed courses, that have not built up your own salvation, but your corruptions, you that loved cursing, ' Go, ye cursed, to hell-fire, with the devil and his angels for ever,' Mat. xxv. 41. Will you shake off that ? No, no ! Howsoever our ministerial entreaties may be shaken off, yet when God shall come to judge the quick and the dead, that eternal threatening shall not be shaken off. Therefore, I beseech you, consider not so much what we say now, but what God will make good then. ' What we bind on earth,' out of the warrant of God's book, ' shall be bound in heaven,' Mat. xvi. 19, and God will say Amen to that we say agreeable to his word.
Think not light of that we speak, for God will make good every word. He is Jehovah, he will give being to every word. He is not only mercy but justice. We make an idol of him else. And we must fear him in his justice. * He loves to dwell with such as are of a contrite spirit, that tremble at his word,' Isa. Ivii. 15.
It is said of David, that when Uzzah was stricken, he trembled,' 2 Sam. vi. 6. ;^Hiel, and such kind of persons, regard not the threatenings of God, but go on and treasure up wrath. It is a sign of a wicked man to hear the menaces and threatenings, and not to tremble. To end all with two places of scripture : Saith Moses, ' He that hears these things, and blesseth himself, my wrath shall smoke against him,' Deut. xxix. 20. God's wrath shall smoke and burn to hell against such a one as blesseth himself, that knows he is cursed under the seal of God, that doth ill, and yet he blesseth himself in doing ill. Therefore, take heed of that, add not that to the rest. God's wrath will smoke against such a one. And you know what St Paul saith : Kom. ii. 5, ' If thou go on and treasure up wrath,' thou buildest Jericho, that thou hast vowed the destruction of. Every time thou takest the communion, thou treasurest up wrath against the day of wrath. For there will be a day of the manifestation of the just wrath of God, and then these things will be laid to thy charge. !'