Oh, had we but grace enough to reflect on how it would be with us did
God require us, as he has a perfect right to do, to pay our whole
indebtedness, none being forgiven! grace enough to think whether we
would not this very moment be in the abyss of hell! But so must it
finally be with those who disregard the question and continually heap
to themselves the wrath of God, being at the same time unwilling for
him to deal otherwise with them than he did with the servant he
forgave. But against that servant was finally passed the irrevocable
sentence which, without mercy, delivered him to the tormentor till he
should pay the debt, something he could never do.
14. Nor is there any wrong or injustice in this ruling. For, as St.
Bernhard says, ingratitude is an evil damnable and pernicious enough
to quench all the springs of grace and blessing known to God and men;
it is like a poison-laden, burning, destructive wind. Human nature
will not tolerate it. Nor can God permit you, upon whom he has
bestowed all grace and goodness, all spiritual and temporal blessing,
to go on continually in wickedness, defiantly abusing his benevolence
and dishonoring him; you thus recklessly bring upon yourself his
wrath. For God cannot bless you if you are ungrateful, if you reject
his goodness and give it no place in your heart.
In such case the fountain of grace and mercy that continually springs
for all who sincerely desire it, must be quenched for you. You cannot
enjoy it. It would afford you an abundant and unceasing supply of
water did you not yourself dry it up by the deadly wind of your
ingratitude; by shamefully forgetting the ineffable goodness God
bestows upon you; and by failing to honor the blood of Christ the
Lord, wherewith he purchased us and reconciled us to God--failing to
honor it enough to forgive your neighbor, for Christ's sake, a single
wrong word.
15. What heavy burden is there for the individual who, in submission
and gratitude to his God, and in honor to Christ, would conduct
himself something like a Christian? It will cost him no great effort
nor trouble. It will not break any bones nor injure him in property
or honor. Even were it to affect him to some trifling extent, to
incur for him some slight injustice, he should remember what God has
given him, and will still give, of his grace and goodness.
Yes, why complain even were you, in some measure, to endanger body
and life? What did not the Son of God incur for you? It was not
pleasure for him to take upon himself the wrath of God, to bear the
curse for you. It cost him bloody sweat and unspeakable anguish of
heart, as well as the sacrifice of his body, the shedding of his
blood, when he bore for you the wrath and curse of God, which would
have rested upon you forever. Yet he did it cheerfully and with
fervent love. Should you not, then, be ashamed in your own heart, and
humiliated before all creatures, to be so slow and dull, so
stock-and-stone-hardened, about enduring and forgiving an occasional
unkind word--something to be suffered in token of honor and gratitude
to him? What more noble than, for the sake of Christ, to incur
danger, to suffer injury, to aid the poor and needy? in particular to
further the Word of God and to support the ministry, the pulpit and
the schools?
16. It would be no marvel had Germany long ago sunk to ruin, or had
it been razed to its very foundations by Turks and Tartars, because
of its diabolical forgetfulness, its damnable rejection, of God's
unspeakable grace. Indeed, it is a wonder the earth continues to
support us and the sun still gives us light. Because of our
ingratitude, well might the heavens become dark and the earth be
perverted--as the Scriptures teach (Ps 106)--and suffer the fate of
Sodom and Gomorrah, no longer yielding a leaf nor a blade of grass,
but completely turned from its course--well might it be so did not
God, for the sake of the few godly Christians known and acknowledged
of him, forbear and still delay.