'anger ; neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin. I am troubled ; I am bowed down greatly ; I go mourning all the day. I am feeble and sore broken ; I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my hearth" The unhappy end of Judas shews how insupportable is a sense of God's wrath, when the consolations of hope are altogether withdrawn.
But, after all, there is nothing that will give us such an idea of God's anger, as a view of the Lord Jesus Christ when " Jehovah's sword awoke against him" to inflict the penalty that was due to sin. Behold that immaculate Lamb of God sweating great drops of blood from every pore of his body, through the inconceivable agonies of his soul ! Hear him, in the depths of dereliction, crying, " My God, my God ! why hast thou forsaken me ?" and see him, finally, giving up the ghost, and dying under the load of his people's sins ! Could we at all appreciate this mystery, we should indeed say, " Who knoweth the power of thine anger ?"
But let us contemplate it,]
2. As it appears in the world to come —
[Of this however we can form but little conception. The terms which are used to depict the misery of the fallen angels, and of those who from amongst the human race have died in their sins, though exceeding terrible to the imagination, fall in- finitely short of the reality. But the very circumstance of mil- lions of once happy angels, as happy as any that are now before the throne of God, being cast out of heaven for their pride ; >and hell itself being prepared by Almighty God for their recep- tion, that they may there endure his wrath and indignation to the uttermost — this very circumstance, I sav, may serve to shew, how deeply God abhors iniquity, and how fearfully he will punish it. Of the place where they are confined " in chains of dark- ness to the judgment of the great day," Tophet, as described by the prophet Isaiah, may be considered as a type or emblem : ** It is a place both deep and large : the pile thereof is fire and much wood : and the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brim- stone, doth kindle it^." And the state of the unhappy sufferers there is thus described in the Revelation of St. John : " They drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation : and they are tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy
angels,
* Job vi. 4. ' Ps. xxxviii. 2 — 8. ^ Isai. xxx. 33.
598.] god's anger a reason for seeking him. 309
angels, and in the presence of the Lamb : and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever : and they have no rest day nor night ''." Yet, terrible as this description is, it con- veys no adequate idea either of the torment itself, or even of those foretastes of it, which are sometimes given to those for whom it is prepared. Well therefore may it be asked, " Who knoweth the power of thine anger ? " and well is it added, *' According to ihy fear," that is, according to the terror which the very apprehension of it excites, " so is thy wrath : " for, in truth, it not only etjuals, but infinitely exceeds, all the concep- tions that can be formed of it.]
The whole scope both of the preceding and fol- lowing context leads us to consider,
II. The wisdom of seeking reconciliation with him without delay — Notwithstanding his anger against sin, God is willing to be reconciled to his offending people —
[" He will not always chide ; neither will he keep his anger for ever." " Many times did he turn away his wrath from his people in the wilderness ; and did not suffer his whole displeasure to arise." He has even sent his own 8on into the world to effect reconciliation by the blood of his cross. He could not consistently with his own honour pardon sin without an atone- ment made for it : and, that a sufficient atonement might be made, he gave his Son to " bear our iniquities in his own body on the tree," and to " be made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." For the fallen angels he made no such provision : but for us he did : and he sends forth his servants into all the world, to proclaim his offers of mercy, and to *' beseech sinners in his name to be reconciled to him" ]