Part 353

Be it known unto you therefore, that it is the God of heaven and earth, the great, the jealous, and the terrible God, whose laws you have broken, and whose authority you despise. You refuse his government, who is coming with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly of their ungodly deeds and speeches; who hath told us that "evil shall not dwell with him." "The foolish shall not stand in his sight." "He hateth all workers of iniquity." "The ungodly shall not stand in judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous." God hath not his laws in vain. "Though the wicked contemn God, and say in their hearts he will not require it;" "yet their damnation slumbereth not, they are reserved to the day of judgment, to be punished." "And he seeth that their day is coming." If men cut off the lives of those that break their laws, will God be outfaced by the pride and stubbornness of sinners? He will not; you shall know he will not; he threateneth not in jest. "Who hath hardened himself against him, and hath prospered?" "Are you not as chaff and stubble? and is not our God a consuming fire?" "If briers and thorns be set against him in battle, will he not go through them, and burn them up together?" "Can your heart endure, or your hands be strong, in the day when God shall deal with you? It is the Lord that hath spoken it, and he will do it." What will you do, when you must bear with the pains of hell from God, that now can scarce endure to be thus openly and plainly warned of it? If we to please you should be silent and betray you, do you think the God of heaven will fear or flatter you to please a worm? "Do you provoke the Lord to jealousy? are you stronger than he?" O man! for your soul's sake, let not Satan abuse your understanding, and sin befool you. Must you not die? And doth not judgment follow, when all secrets shall be opened, and God will no more entreat you to confess. "Behold, the Judge standeth at the door." Will sin go then with you for as light a matter as it doth now? Will you then deny it, or will you stand to all the reasonings, or excuses, by which you would now extenuate or cover it? Will you defend it as your friend; and be angry with ministers and reprovers as your enemies? Or will you not mourn at last, (with weeping and gnashing of teeth,) and say, "How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof; and have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me!" "Oh that you were wise, that you understood this, and that you would consider your latter end!" Believe God's wrath before you feel it: be convinced by the word and servants of the Lord, before you are confounded by the dreadfulness of his majesty. Yet there is hope; but shortly there will be none, if you neglect it. Yet "if you confess and forsake your sins, you shall have mercy; but if you cover them, you shall not prosper. And if, being oft reproved, you harden your neck, you shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy." "Be not deceived, God is not mocked. Whatsoever you sow, that shall you also reap." O man! you know not what it is to deal with an offended and revenging God. Nor what it is to hear Christ say, "Depart from me, ye workers of iniquity; I never knew you: depart from me, ye wicked, into everlasting fire." You know not what it is to be shut out of heaven, and concluded under utter desperation; and in hell to look back upon this obstinate impenitence, and rejecting of the mercy that would have saved you; and there to have conscience telling you for ever, what it is that you have done. Did you know what this is, could you, think a penitent confessing and forsaking your sin to be a condition too hard for the preventing of such a doleful state? O no! You know not what a case you are casting your immortal soul into. The Lord give you repentance, that you may never know it by experience. To prevent this, is our business with you: we delight not to displease or shame you. But God hath told us, "That if any do err from the truth, and one convert him, let him know, that he which converteth a sinner from the error of his way, shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins." I do therefore by the command, and in the name of Jesus Christ, require and beseech you, that you do, without any more delay, confess your sins and heartily bewail them; and beg pardon of them, and resolve and promise by the help of God to do so no more. And bless God that you have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, whose blood will cleanse you from your sins, if you penitently confess them; and that mercy may be yet had on so easy terms. If you had any sense of your sin and misery, or any sense of the dishonour done to God, or of the wrong that you have done to others, and of the usefulness of your penitent confession, and amendment, to the reparation of all these, you would cast yourself in the dust, in shame and grief before the Lord, and before the church. "To-day, therefore, if you will hear his voice, harden not your heart, lest God forsake you, and give you over unto your own heart's lust, to walk in your own counsels, and resolve in his wrath, you shall never enter into his rest." And then God and this congregation will be witnesses that you were warned; and your blood will be upon your own head. But if, in penitent confession, you fly to Christ, and loathe yourself for your iniquities, and heartily forsake them, I have authority to promise you free forgiveness, and that your iniquity shall not be your ruin.[276]