Prophets, did they not take hold of your fathers ? And they returned, and said, Like as the Lord of Hosts thought to do unto us, according to our ways, and according to our doings, so hath he dealt with us^." Of the six hundred thousand men who came out of Egypt, how many entered into Canaan ? Not one, except Joshua and Caleb, who " had followed the Lord fully." Against all the rest a sentence of death was denounced in the very first year of their sojourning in the wilderness : and at the close of the forty years a minute inquiry was instituted ; and not one was found alive ^ So it will be found in the last day, that of all the threatenings in the book of God not one has fallen to the ground ; and that, of all who mourned not over their transgressions of the law, not one escaped the vengeance of his God. God has said, " Their foot shall slide in due time"*:" he has declared that " they shall all be turned into hell, even all the nations that forget him'':" that " he will rain upon them snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest ; and that this shall be the portion of their cup '^i " he has declared it, I say ; and, whether we will believe it or not, his law shall be thus honoured, and his justice shall be thus magnified, on every im- penitent transgressor: for already is he " whetting his sword for the execution of his vengeance upon them; and soon will he make his arrows drunk with their blood'^." " The soul that sinneth, it shall die^."
There is yet another adversary, who is lying in wait for our souls, and, like a roaring lion, going about, seeking to devour us ; and that is Satan : nor can we have any conception of the wiles and devices to which he has recourse, in order to ac- complish his malignant purpose. Even in Paradise he prevailed to ensnare and ruin our first parents : and the same temptations he puts in our way, assuring us, that, in following his counsel, we shall have unqualified pleasure, and happiness without alloy. He is in Scripture compared to "a fowler*^; and, like a fowler, he spreads his nets, and allures us by temptations suited to our appetites, and by the example of sinners whom he has already ensnared, and whom he makes use of to decoy us. We see no- thing but the promised gratification ; and whilst one or another invites us to participate his supposed jovs, we flock to him, " without considering that it is for our life^." Thus it is the drunkard, the whoremonger, the adulterer is ensnared : he thinks of nothing but his pleasure : but the fowler who lays the snare, foresees and prognosticates the end. Having succeeded in *' taking us alive''," he "keeps us in peace'," and does all he can to hide from us our bondage : but he knows, that they who
now
y Zech. i. 6. ^ Numb. xiv. 28, 2Q, 35—38.
*Deut. xxxii. 35. '' Ps. ix. 17. "= Ps. xi. 6.
■^Deut. xxxii. 41,42. * Ezek. xviii. 4. ^ Ps. xci. 3.
s Prov. vii. 23. '' i^tuy^nfihoi. 2 Tim. ii. 26. •Lukexi.21.
355.] THE sinner's hope. i09
now yield to his solicitations as a tempter, will soon experience his power as a tormentor.
Another enemy also that is confederate against us, is death. He is waiting every moment to execute his commission against us ; well knowing, that the instant he can inflict the stroke he meditates, all hope of our deliverance is at an end for ever. He has his eye steadily fixed on persons of every age and station : and the instruments he has at his command are as numerous as the sands upon the sea shore. When he comes in his more visible and gradual assaults, he contrives to hide his ultimate designs, and to divert the minds of the sufferers from the thoughts of an hereafter. As the avenger of sin he entered into the world '' : and in the same character he is daily sweeping millions from the earth, and bearing in malignant triumph his unhappy victims to the tribunal of their God.