II. How it shall be accomplished sooner or later in the history of us all —
As our subject leads us almost exclusively to speak of those who are obnoxious to the Divine threatenings, we shall comprehend them under two classes ;
1. Those who make no profession of religion —
[These may differ widely from each other with respect to their external conduct ; but in the habit of their minds as alienated from God, and averse to heavenly pursuits, they are all alike ; unregenerate, unsanctified, unhumbled. They fear not God : " he is not in all their thoughts :" " they proceed
from evil to evil, because they know not God" We
again say, that they do not all commit the same iniquities ; but
they all live as without God in the world And is not
this agreeable to what St. Paul has spoken of the natural
man ^ ? Yes verily, his word is fulfilled in everj^ child
of Adam. Thus it is with them in this world.
Next, let us see how it is with them in the eternal loorlcl.
c ver. 26. ^ ver. 36, 37. ^ Rom. iii. 10—18. and viii. 7.
rAG 2 KINGS, IX. 36. [371.
They go, each at his appointed time, into the presence of theii- God : but in him tliey find an angry and an avenging Judge : and from his presence are they driven to reap the just reward of their deeds. They would not, whilst living, regard his threatenings ; and therefore they are left to experience the accomplishment of them to all eternity. And is not this pre- cisely according to what the Psalmist has forewarned tliem of ^? Has not St. Paul also agam and again guarded them against deluding themselves with vain expectations of a different
ends? Yes; in all of them will there be scope for
precisely the same observation as Jehu made respecting Joram, and Jezebel ; " This is the word of the Lord, which he spake by his servants the prophets."]
2. Those who walk unworthy of their profession — [Mark the different persons who decline from the ways of God : there is the same variety found amongst them as amongst the carnal and ungodly world : each has his separate pursuit, and each his separate infirmity : but in this all agree ; that, whatever be their besetting sin, they are led captive by it more and more ; the earthly, the sensual, the deviHsh, become more and more enslaved by their respective lusts and passions,
from the time that they depart from God And what is
this but an accomphshment of that word of Solomon, " The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways ^ ?"
Follow them also into the eternal world ; and there also you will find that verified, " It had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them'." They " have been heaping up treasures indeed for the last days ;" but they are found to be treasures of wrath, agreeably to that declaration of Elihu, " The hypocrites in heart heap up wrath '^." The separation predicted by our Lord takes place ; nor do the privileges they enjoyed in this world, or the wonders they performed, avail any thing for the altering of the sentence passed against them^]
Observe now from hence,
1. The folly of neglecting the Holy Scriptures —
[These contain the whole revealed will of God ; and ac- cording to these we shall be judged in the last day. What folly is it then not to study them, and to find out beforehand what shall then assuredly come to pass ! O let us search them ; let us bear in mind whose word is there contained ; and let us not rest one single hour in a state that is there condemned.]
f Ps. ix. 17. « 1 Cor. vi. 9. Gal. vi. 7, 8.
^ Prov. xiv. 14. i 2 Pet. ii. 21.