§ 5. (3.) They will lose all that false peace of conscience which makes their present life so easy. Who would think, that sees how quietly the multitude of the ungodly live, that they must very shortly lie down in everlasting flames? They are as free from the fears of hell as an obedient believer; and for the most part have less disquiet of mind than those who shall be saved. Happy men, if this peace would prove lasting! _When they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape._[252] O cruel peace, which ends in such a war! The soul of every man by nature is Satan's garrison; all is at peace in such a man till Christ comes, and gives it terrible alarms of judgment and hell, batters it with the ordnance of his threats and terrors, forces it to yield to his mere mercy, and take him for the Governor; then doth he cast out Satan, _overcome him, take from him all his armor wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoil_,[253] and then doth he establish a firm and lasting peace. If therefore thou art yet in that first peace, never think it will endure. Can thy soul have lasting peace, in enmity with Christ? Can he have peace against whom God proclaims war? I wish thee no greater good, than that God break in upon thy careless heart, and shake thee out of thy false peace, and make thee lie down at the feet of Christ, and say, _Lord what wouldst thou have me to do?_ and so receive from him a better and surer peace, which will never be quite broken, but be the beginning of thy everlasting peace, and not perish in thy perishing, as the groundless peace of the world will do.
[Footnote 252] 1 Thessalonians v, 3.
[Footnote 253] Luke xi, 22.
§ 6. (4.) They shall lose all their carnal mirth. They will themselves say of their _laughter, it is mad, and of their mirth, what doth it?_[254] It was but _as the crackling of thorns under a pot_.[255] It made a blaze for a while, but it was presently gone, and returned no more. The talk of death and judgment was irksome to them, because it damped their mirth. They could not endure to think of their sin and danger, because these thoughts sunk their spirits. They knew not what it was to weep for sin, or to humble themselves under the mighty hand of God. They could laugh away sorrow, and sing away cares, and drive away those melancholy thoughts. To meditate, and pray, they fancied would be enough to make them miserable or run mad. Poor souls! what a misery will that life be, where you shall have nothing but sorrow; intense, heart-piercing, multiplied sorrow; when you shall neither have the joys of saints, nor your own former joys? Do you think there is one merry heart in hell; or one joyful countenance, or jesting tongue? You now cry, _a little mirth is worth a great deal of sorrow_. But, surely, a little godly sorrow, which would have ended in eternal joy had been worth much more than all your foolish mirth; for the end of such mirth is sorrow.
[Footnote 254] Ecclesiastes ii, 2.
[Footnote 255] Ecclesiastes vii, 6.
§ 7. (5.) They shall also lose all their sensual delights. That which they esteemed their chief good, their heaven, their God, must they lose, as well as God himself. What a fall will the proud ambitious man have from the top of his honors? As his dust and bones will not be known from the dust and bones of the poorest beggar; so neither will his soul be honored or favored more than theirs. What a number of the great, noble, and learned, will be shut out of the presence of Christ? They shall not find their magnificent buildings, soft beds, and easy couches. They shall not view their curious gardens, their pleasant meadows, and plenteous harvests. Their tables will not be so furnished, nor attended. The _rich man_ is there no more _clothed in purple and fine linen_, nor _fareth sumptuously every day_. _There_ is no expecting the admiration of beholders. They shall spend their time in sadness, and not in sports and pastimes. What an alteration will they _then_ find? The heat of their lust will be then abated. How will it even cut them to the heart to look each other in the face! What an interview will there then be, cursing the day that ever they saw one another? O that sinners would now remember and say! "Will these delights accompany us into the other world? Will not the remembrance of them be then our torment? shall we then take this partnership in vice for true friendship? Why should we sell such lasting, incomprehensible joys for a taste of seeming pleasure? Come, as we have sinned together, let us pray together, that God would pardon us; and let us help one another toward heaven, instead of helping to deceive and destroy each other." O that men knew but what they desire, when they would so fain have all things suited to the desires of the flesh! It is but to desire their temptations to be increased, and their snares strengthened.