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 workP: and in the same character he is daily sweep- ing millions from the earth, and bearing in malignant triumph his unhappy victims to the tribunal of their God.
Hell too combines with all the rest, and is opening wide its jaws to receive its destined prey. What the prophet said respecting the king of Babylon, may be said to every impeni- tent sinner under heaven : " Hell from beneath is moved for thee, to meet thee at thy coming^" As in that instance " it stirred up the chief ones of the earth, and raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations" to exult over the fallen monarch, so those persons who were once our partners in sin, or whom by our example we hardened in their iniquities, will all come forth to meet us, that they may in the midst of all their own torments have the malignant pleasure of beholding and of aggravating ours. It is said, that in the last day " the angels will bind up sinners in bundles to burn them ;" and for this end, no doubt, that they who have been associates in wickedness may, by their mutual execrations, augment each other's misery to all eternity. For this all hell is waiting. We are told indeed respecting the Rich Man, who lifting up his eyes in torments, desired that a messenger might be sent to his five surviving brethren, to " warn them, lest they also should come into the same place of torment:" but this was not from any love to them, but from self-love ; knowing as he did by bitter experience, how greatly his own sufferings would be increased by the reproaches of those whom by his influence and example he had so contributed to destroy.
Know ye then. Beloved, that if David was in danger from the thousands who sought his life, so are ye ten thousand times more in danger from sin, which deceives you ; from the law, which denounces its curse against you; from Satan, who arms against you all the hosts of hell ; from death, that is ever waiting to cut you down : and from hell, that is already yawn- ing to swallow you up.]
Say then whether David's petition be not alto- gether suited to 07ir state ?
^ Rom. v. 12. ' Isai. xiv. 9.
555.'] THE sinner's hope. 259
, \^To whom tvill you go for salvation, if not to the Lord Jesus Christ ? Will you look to any efforts of your own ? Can you ever cancel the guilt of sin? Can you ever satisfy the demands of God's law ? Can you ever vanquish Satan and all the powers of darkness? Can you ever overcome death and hell, so that they shall lose all their terrors, and have no power over you ? The hope of any such tiling were vain : it is impossible : and if the whole world were combined to aid you, they could effect nothing. " Though hand joined in hand" throughout the globe, " no sinner in the universe could go un- punished •"." None can ever blot out one single sin, but He who made atonement for sin by the blood of his cross. None can silence the demands of God's law, but He who endured its penalties, and obeyed its precepts, in order that he might " bring in an everlasting righteousness," and " make us the righteousness of God in him." None can " bruise Satan under our feet," but He who " triumphed over him upon the cross," and in his ascension " led capti'vdty itself captive." None can divest death and hell of their terrors, but " He who has the keys of both, and openeth so that none can shut, and shutteth so that none can open."