That God has denounced the heaviest judgments against it, is certain —
\_Against sin in general he has denounced eternal misery : " The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the people that
forget God^ Against every individual that commits it,
he has also denounced his judgments : " The soul that sinneth,
it shall die^" Against every particular sin, whatever be
men's excuses for retaining it, the same awful sentence is pro- claimed ^ Death, everlasting death, is the wages due to
sin *", and the wages that shall be paid to every sinner at the last day<= ]
In executing these he will be completely justified —
[We are ready to account such denunciations of wrath severe,
and to question the equity of them But the penal evil of
damnation will not appear in the least to exceed the 7noral evil of sin, if we duly consider against whom sin is committed.
Consider his greatness. ''Great is the Lord," says the Psalm- ist, " yea, his greatness is unsearchable." If we could conceive the meanest reptile, or the smallest insect, endued with such a measure of intelligence as to be able in some degree to appre- ciate the dignity of a mighty monarch ; and then to exalt itself against him, and to pour all manner of contempt upon him ; the atrocity of such presumption would justly excite our keenest •indignation. But the whole universe together is not as the smallest insect in comparison of God ; and yet we, we atom insects of an atom world, dare to set ourselves against his divine majesty, yea, to defy him to his face. Will God then be unjust if he execute his judgments on such impious worms? Are we at
liberty
" Ps. X. 4, 5. y Ps. ix, 17. Rom. i. 18. ,
' Ezek. xviii. 20. 1 Pet. i. 17. *Markix. 42—48.
^ Rom. vi. 23. *= Matt. xxv. 46.
STO.I SIN AN OFFENCE AGAINST GOD. l83
. . . '
liberty to insult him j and is lie not at libcity to avenee himself
on us ?
But consider also //.•',■> goodness. O how unbounded has X\m b^en ! How has he borne with us in all our rebellion ! How has he sent his only-begotten Son, to expiate our sin, and to open i\ way for our reconciliation with him ! How has he sought to glorify ill our salvation those very perlectiisns, which we have so im- piously despised, and which he might well gloiify in our e\'er- lasting condemnation ! How has he sent his Holy Spirit, to in- struct, renew, and comfort us ! How has he sent his v.'ord and Ministers, to invite, intreat, expostulate, yea, and, as it were, to " conijiel us" to accept of mercy! This he has done from our youth up : this he is doing yet daily and hourly: and, as if all his own happiness were bound up in ours, he says, " How shall I give thee up?" " Wilt thou not be made clean ? Oh ! when shall it once be?" This is the God against wlioni we are sin- ning. This is the God whom we wish extinct ''; and respecting whom we say, " Make the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us." This is he, " whose blessed Son we trample under foot, and to whose eternal Spirit we do despite*:" yea, that very ^'goodness and-long-suft'ering and foibeavance which .sliould lead us to repentance," are made by us an occasion ot multiply- ing our offences against him. Say now whether he will " be unrighteous in taking vengeance ?" Were a fellow-creature to make such returns to us, and to render nothing but evil to us for all the good we did him, should we think that he had any claim on us ? Should we account ourselves unjust, if we did not acknowledge him as one of our dearest friends, and place him on a footing with our own beloved children, and make him an heir of all that we possessed ? Should we not feel ourselves amply justified in rejecting such an absurd and groundless claim as this? Know then, that ive have no claim on God ; and, when he shall exclude us from the inheritance of his saints, " he will be justi- fied " in the judgment that he shall denounce against us. Indeed, in assigning us this portion, he will only give effect to our own wishes, and answer us in the desire of our own hearts : we said to him, " Depart from us; we de.-ire not the knowledge of thee^;" and he will say to us, "Depart from we; depart accursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels s."]