The following is taken from Jonathan Edwards’ sermon entitled, “Sinners
in the hands of an angry God.” The sinners are given a dreadful warning.
The wrath of God burns against them; their damnation don’t
slumber; the pit is prepared; the fire is made ready; the
furnace is now hot, ready to receive them; the flames do now
rage and glow. The devils watch them; they are ever by them,
at their right hand; they stand waiting for them, like greedy,
hungry lions that see their prey, and expect to have it, but
are for the present kept back. If God should withdraw His hand,
by which they are restrained, they would in one moment fly upon
their poor souls. The old serpent is gaping for them; hell opens
its mouth wide to receive them; and if God should permit it,
they would be hastily swallowed up and lost. The God that holds
you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider or some
loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully
provoked; His wrath toward you burns like fire; He looks upon
you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire;
He is of purer eyes than to bear to have you in His sight; you
are ten times so abominable in His eyes as the most hateful and
venomous serpent is in ours.
Jonathan Edwards was born October 5, 1703. What a difference time makes
in religious thinking.
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