Ye pharisees, who are going about to establish your own righteousness; you, who are too polite to follow the LORD JESUS CHRIST in sincerity and truth; you, who are all for a little shew, a little outside work; who lead moral, civil, decent lives, CHRIST will not know you at the great day, but will say unto you, O ye Pharisees, was there any place for me in your love? Alas! you are full of anger and malice, and self-will; yet you pretended to love and serve me, and to be my people: but, however, I despise you; I, who am GOD, and knoweth the secret of all hearts; I, who am truth itself, the faithful and true witness, say unto you, “Depart from me, ye workers of iniquity, into that place of torment, prepared for the devil and his angels.” Good GOD! and must these discreet polite creatures, who never did any one harm, but led such civil, decent lives, must they suffer the vengeance of eternal fire? Cannot their righteous souls be saved? Where then must the sinner and the ungodly appear? Where wilt thou, O sabbath-breaker, appear, thou, who canst take thy pleasure, thy recreation, on the LORD’s-day, who refusest to hear the word of GOD, who wilt not come to church to be instructed in the ways of the LORD? Where will you, O ye adulterers, fornicators, and such-like of this generation appear? Whoremongers and adulterers GOD will judge, and them he will condemn. Then you will not call these tricks of youth: no, but you will call on the rocks and the mountains to fall on you, to hide you from the fury and anger of the LORD. Where wilt thou, O man, appear, that takes pleasure in making a mock of sin, who despisest all reproof, who throws about thy jests as a madman does fire, and asks whether thou art not in sport? Where wilt thou, O man, appear, that makes it thy business to preach against the children of the Most High; thou, who art inventing methods in order to stop the progress of the gospel, and using thy utmost power to quash the preaching thereof; who art raising of evil reports against the disciples of CHRIST, and esteemest them madmen, fools, schismatics, and a parcel of rabble? Thou, O man, with all thy letter-learning, wilt surely see the judgment-seat of CHRIST, though, perhaps, sorely against your will; to be cast by him into eternal fire, a place prepared for the devil and his angels. There is a burning tophet kindled by the fury of an avenging GOD, which will never, never be quenched. The devil longs to embrace you in his hellish arms, whenever the sentence is past, where you must for ever bear the weight of your sin: there is no redemption then; the day of grace is past; the door of hope is shut; mercy will be no more offered, but you must be shut out from GOD for ever. O who can dwell with everlasting burnings!
However you may think of hell, indeed it is not a painted fire; it is not an imagination to keep people in awe: then, then you will feel the power of the almighty arm. If you will not lay hold on his golden sceptre, he will break you with his iron rod. O ye Pharisees, who are now so good, so much better than others, how will ye stand before CHRIST, when drest in his glory as judge? You Arians, may now despise his divinity; then you shall have a proof of it; he will shew, that he has all power, and that he was no subordinate GOD; he will shew you that he has all power in heaven and earth that he was King of kings, and Lord of lords; that he was the mighty GOD, the everlasting Father; and this power that he has, he will exercise in preserving you to no other end, but to punish you for ever. Thus you, who please yourselves with being good enough now, who are not weary and heavy laden with a sense of your sins here, will be weary and heavy laden with a sense of your punishment hereafter.
2. Those, my brethren, are not weary and heavy laden with a sense of their sins, who can delight themselves in the polite entertainments of the age, and follow the sinful diversions of life.
Now they can go to balls and assemblies, play-houses and horse-racing; they have no thought of their sins; they know not what it is to weep for sin, or humble themselves under the mighty hand of GOD; they can laugh away their sorrows, and sing away their cares, and drive away these melancholy thoughts; they are too polite to entertain any sad thoughts; the talk of death and judgment is irksome to them, because it damps their mirth; they could not endure to think of their sin and danger; they could not go to a play, and think of hell; they could not go quietly to a masquerade, and think of their danger; they could not go to a ball or an assembly in peace, if they thought of their sins.
And so it is proved, even to a demonstration, that these are not weary and heavy laden: for if they are not thoughtful about their sins, they will never be weary and heavy laden of them. But at the day of judgment all will be over: they shall lose all their carnal mirth, all their pleasure, all their delight will be gone for ever.