of what has been offered.
I. Here is encouragement for sinners that are concerned and exercised for
the salvation of their souls, such as are afraid that they shall never go
to heaven or be admitted to any place of abode there, and are sensible
that they are hitherto in a doleful state and condition in that they are
out of Christ, and so have no right to any inheritance in heaven, but are
in danger of going to hell and having their place of eternal abode fixed
there. You may be encouraged by what has been said, earnestly to seek
heaven; for there are many mansions there. There is room enough there. Let
your case be what it will, there is suitable provision there for you; and
if you come to Christ, you need not fear but that he will prepare a place
for you; he'll see to it that you shall be well accommodated in heaven.
But II. I would improve this doctrine in a twofold exhortation.
1. Let all be hence exhorted earnestly to seek that they may be admitted
to a mansion in heaven. You have heard that this is God's house; it is his
temple. If David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah and in the land
of Geshur and of the Philistines, so longed that he might again return
into the land of Israel that he might have a place in the house of God
here on earth, and prized a place there so much, though it was but that of
a door-keeper, how great a happiness will it be to have a place in this
heavenly temple of God! If they are looked upon as enjoying a high
privilege that have a seat appointed them in kings' courts or in
apartments in kings' palaces, especially those that have an abode there in
the quality of the king's children, then how great a privilege will it be
to have an apartment or mansion assigned to us in God's heavenly palace,
and to have a place there as his children! How great is their glory and
honor that are admitted to be of the household of God!
And seeing there are many mansions there, mansions enough for us all, our
folly will be the greater if we neglect to seek a place in heaven, having
our minds foolishly taken up about the worthless, fading things of this
world. Here consider three things:
(1) How little a while you can have any mansion or place of abode in this
world. Now you have a dwelling amongst the living. You have a house or
mansion of your own, or at least one that is at present for your use, and
now you have a seat in the house of God; but how little a while will this
continue! In a very little while, and the place that now knows you in this
world will know you no more. The habitation you have here will be empty of
you; you will be carried dead out of it, or shall die at a distance from
it, and never enter into it any more, or into any other abode in this
world. Your mansion or place of abode in this world, however convenient or
commodious it may be, is but as a tent that shall soon be taken down, but
a lodge in a garden of cucumbers. Your stay is as it were but for a
night. Your body itself is but a house of clay which will quickly moulder
and tumble down, and you shall have no other habitation here in this world
but the grave.
Thus God in his providence is putting you in mind by the repeated
instances of death that have been in the town within the two weeks past,
both in one house: in which death he has shown his dominion over old and
young. The son was taken away first before the father, being in his full
strength and flower of his days; and the father, who was then well and
having no appearance of approaching death, followed in a few days: and
their habitation and their seat in the house of God in this world will
know them no more.
Take warning by these warnings of Providence to improve your time that you
may have a mansion in heaven. We have a house of worship newly created
amongst us which now you have a seat in, and probably are pleased with the
ornaments of it; and though you have a place in so comely a house, yet you
know not how little a while you shall have a place in this house of God.
Here are a couple snatched away by death that had met in it but a few
times, that have been snatched out of it before it was fully finished and
never will have any more a seat in it. You know not how soon you may
follow, and then of great importance will it be to you to have a seat in
God's house above. Both of the persons lately deceased were much on their
death-beds warning others to improve their precious time. The first of
them was much in expressing his sense of the vast importance of an
interest in Christ, as I was a witness, and was earnest in calling on
others to improve their time, to be thorough, to get an interest in
Christ, and seemed very desirous that young people might receive council
and warning from him, as the words of a dying man, to do their utmost to
make sure of conversion; and a little before he died left a request to me
that I would warn the young people in his room. God has been warning of
you in his death and the death of his father that so soon followed. The
words of dying persons should be of special weight with us, for then they
are in circumstances wherein they are most capable to look on things as
they are and judge aright of 'em,--between both worlds as it were. Still
that we must all be in.
Let our young people, therefore, take warning from hence, and don't be
such fools as to neglect seeking a place and mansion in heaven. Young
persons are especially apt to be taken with the pleasing things of this
world. You are now, it may be, much pleased with hopes of your future
circumstances in this world; [and you are now, it may be, much] pleased
with the ornaments of that house of worship that you with others have a
place in. But, alas, do you not too little consider how soon you may be
taken away from all these things, and no more forever have any part in any
mansion or house or enjoyment or happiness under the sun? Therefore let it
be your main care to secure an everlasting habitation for hereafter.
(2) Consider when you die, if you have no mansion in the house of God in
heaven, you must have your place of abode in the habitation of devils.
There is no middle place between them, and when you go hence, you must go
to one or the other of these. Some have a mansion prepared for them in
heaven from the foundation [of the world]; others are sent away as cursed
into everlasting burnings prepared for the [devil and his angels].
Consider how miserable those must be that shall have their habitation with
devils to all eternity. Devils are foul spirits; God's great enemies.
Their habitation is the blackness of darkness; a place of the utmost
filthiness, abomination, darkness, disgrace and torment. O, how would you
rather ten thousand times have no place of abode at all, have no being,
than to have a place [with devils]!
(3) If you die unconverted, you will have the worse place in hell for
having had a seat or place in God's house in this world. As there are
many mansions, places of different degrees of honor in heaven, so there
are various abodes and places or degrees of torment and misery in hell;
and those will have the worst place there that [dying unconverted, have
had the best place in God's house here]. Solomon speaks of a peculiarly
awful sight that he had seen, that of a wicked man buried that had gone
[from the place of the holy], Eccl. viii. 10. Such as have had a seat in
God's house, have been in a sense exalted up to heaven, set on the gate of
heaven, [if they die unconverted, shall be] cast down to hell.
2. The second exhortation that I would offer from what has been said is to
seek a high place in heaven. Seeing there are many mansions of different
degrees of honor and dignity in heaven, let us seek to obtain a mansion of
distinguished glory. 'Tis revealed to us that there are different degrees
of glory to that end that we might seek after the higher degrees. God
offered high degrees of glory to that end, that we might seek them by
eminent holiness and good works: 2 Cor. ix. 6, "He that sows sparingly
[shall reap also sparingly; and he that soweth bountifully shall reap also
bountifully]." It is not becoming persons to be over anxious about an high
seat in God's house in this world, for that is the honor that is of men;
but we can't too earnestly seek after an high seat in God's house above,
by seeking eminent holiness, for that is the honor that is of God.
'Tis very little worth the while for us to pursue after honor in this
world, where the greatest honor is but a bubble and will soon vanish away,
and death will level all. Some have more stately houses than others, and
some are in higher office than others, and some are richer than others and
have higher seats in the meeting-house than others; but all graves are
upon a level. One rotting, putrefying corpse is as ignoble as another; the
worms are as bold with one carcass as another.
But the mansions in God's house above are everlasting mansions. Those that
have seats allotted 'em there, whether of greater or lesser dignity,
whether nearer or further from the throne, will hold 'em to all eternity.
This is promised, Rev. iii. 12: "Him that overcometh I will make him a
pillar in the temple [of my God, and he shall go no more out]." If it be
worth the while to desire and seek high seats in the meeting-house, where
you are one day in a week, and where you shall never come but few days in
all; if it be worth the while much to prize one seat above another in the
house of worship only because it is the pew or seat that is ranked first
in number, and to be seen here for a few days, how will it be worth the
while to seek an high mansion in God's temple and in that glorious place
that is the everlasting habitation of God and all his children! You that
are pleased with your seats in this house because you are seated high or
in a place that is looked upon honorable by those that sit round about,
and because many can behold you, consider how short a time you will enjoy
this pleasure. And if there be any that are not suited in their seats
because they are too low for them, let them consider that it is but a very
little while before it will [be] all one to you whether you have sat high
or low here. But it will be of infinite and everlasting concern to you
where your seat is in another world. Let your great concern be while in
this world so to improve your opportunities in God's house in this world,
whether you sit high or low, as that you may have a distinguished and
glorious mansion in God's house in heaven, where you may be fixed in your
place in that glorious assembly in an everlasting rest.
Let the main thing that we prize in God's house be, not the outward
ornaments of it, or a high seat in it, but the word of God and his
ordinances in it. And spend your time here in seeking Christ, that he may
prepare a place for you in his Father's house, that when he comes again to
this world, he may take you to himself, that where he is, there you may be
also.
V
SINNERS IN THE HANDS OF AN ANGRY GOD deg.
DEUTERONOMY xxxii. 35.--Their foot shall slide in due time.
In this verse is threatened the vengeance of God on the wicked unbelieving
Israelites, that were God's visible people, and lived under means of
grace; and that notwithstanding all God's wonderful works that he had
wrought towards that people, yet remained, as is expressed verse 28, void
of counsel, having no understanding in them; and that, under all the
cultivations of heaven, brought forth bitter and poisonous fruit; as in
the two verses next preceding the text.
The expression that I have chosen for my text, _their foot shall slide in
due time_, seems to imply the following things relating to the punishment
and destruction that these wicked Israelites were exposed to.
1. That they were _always_ exposed to destruction; as one that stands or
walks in slippery places is always exposed to fall. This is implied in the
manner of their destruction's coming upon them, being represented by their
foot's sliding. The same is expressed, Psalm lxxiii. 18: "Surely thou
didst set them in slippery places; thou castedst them down into
destruction."
2. It implies that they were always exposed to _sudden_, unexpected
destruction; as he that walks in slippery places is every moment liable to
fall, he can't foresee one moment whether he shall stand or fall the next;
and when he does fall, he falls at once, without warning, which is also
expressed in that Psalm lxxiii. 18, 19: "Surely thou didst set them in
slippery places: thou castedst them down into destruction. How are they
brought into desolation, as _in a moment_!"
3. Another thing implied is, that they are liable to fall of _themselves_,
without being thrown down by the hand of another; as he that stands or
walks on slippery ground needs nothing but his own weight to throw him
down.
4. That the reason why they are not fallen already, and don't fall now, is
only that God's appointed time is not come. For it is said that when that
due time, or appointed time comes, _their foot shall slide_. Then they
shall be left to fall, as they are inclined by their own weight. God won't
hold them up in these slippery places any longer, but will let them go;
and then, at that very instant, they shall fall to destruction; as he that
stands in such slippery declining ground on the edge of a pit that he
can't stand alone, when he is let go he immediately falls and is lost.
The observation from the words that I would now insist upon is this,
_There is nothing that keeps wicked men at any one moment out of
hell, but the mere pleasure of God._
By the mere pleasure of God, I mean his sovereign pleasure, his arbitrary
will, restrained by no obligation, hindered by no manner of difficulty,
any more than if nothing else but God's mere will had in the least degree
or in any respect whatsoever any hand in the preservation of wicked men
one moment.
The truth of this observation may appear by the following considerations.
1. There is no want of _power_ in God to cast wicked men into hell at any
moment. Men's hands can't be strong when God rises up: the strongest have
no power to resist him, nor can any deliver out of his hands.
He is not only able to cast wicked men into hell, but he can most easily
do it. Sometimes an earthly prince meets with a great deal of difficulty
to subdue a rebel that has found means to fortify himself, and has made
himself strong by the number of his followers. But it is not so with God.
There is no fortress that is any defence against the power of God. Though
hand join in hand, and vast multitudes of God's enemies combine and
associate themselves, they are easily broken in pieces: they are as great
heaps of light chaff before the whirlwind; or large quantities of dry
stubble before devouring flames. We find it easy to tread on and crush a
worm that we see crawling on the earth; so 'tis easy for us to cut or
singe a slender thread that any thing hangs by; thus easy is it for God,
when he pleases, to cast his enemies down to hell. What are we, that we
should think to stand before him, at whose rebuke the earth trembles, and
before whom the rocks are thrown down!
2. They _deserve_ to be cast into hell; so that divine justice never
stands in the way, it makes no objection against God's using his power at
any moment to destroy them. Yea, on the contrary, justice calls aloud for
an infinite punishment of their sins. Divine justice says of the tree that
brings forth such grapes of Sodom, "Cut it down, why cumbereth it the
ground?" Luke xiii. 7. The sword of divine justice is every moment
brandished over their heads, and 'tis nothing but the hand of arbitrary
mercy, and God's mere will, that holds it back.
3. They are _already_ under a sentence of condemnation to hell. They don't
only justly deserve to be cast down thither, but the sentence of the law
of God, that eternal and immutable rule of righteousness that God has
fixed between him and mankind, is gone out against them, and stands
against them; so that they are bound over already to hell: John iii. 18,
"He that believeth not is condemned already." So that every unconverted
man properly belongs to hell; that is his place; from thence he is: John
viii. 23, "Ye are from beneath:" and thither he is bound; 'tis the place
that justice, and God's word, and the sentence of his unchangeable law,
assigns to him.
They are now the objects of that very _same_ anger and wrath of God, that
is expressed in the torments of hell: and the reason why they don't go
down to hell at each moment is not because God, in whose power they are,
is not then very angry with them; as angry as he is with many of those
miserable creatures that he is now tormenting in hell, and do there feel
and bear the fierceness of his wrath. Yea, God is a great deal more angry
with great numbers that are now on earth, yea, doubtless, with many that
are now in this congregation, that, it may be, are at ease and quiet, than
he is with many of those that are now in the flames of hell.
So that it is not because God is unmindful of their wickedness, and don't
resent it, that he don't let loose his hand and cut them off. God is not
altogether such a one as themselves, though they may imagine him to be so.
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 glittering sword is
whet, and held over them, and the pit hath opened her mouth under them.
5. The _devil_ stands ready to fall upon them, and seize them as his own,
at what moment God shall permit him. They belong to him; he has their
souls in his possession, and under his dominion. The Scripture represents
them as his _goods_, Luke xi. 21. 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.
6. There are in the souls of wicked men those hellish _principles_
reigning, that would presently kindle and flame out into hell-fire, if it
were not for God's restraints. There is laid in the very nature of carnal
men a foundation for the torments of hell: there are those corrupt
principles, in reigning power in them, and in full possession of them,
that are seeds of hell-fire. These principles are active and powerful,
exceeding violent in their nature, and if it were not for the restraining
hand of God upon them, they would soon break out, they would flame out
after the same manner as the same corruptions, the same enmity does in the
heart of damned souls, and would beget the same torments in 'em as they do
in them. The souls of the wicked are in Scripture compared to the troubled
sea, Isaiah lvii. 20. For the present God restrains their wickedness by
his mighty power, as he does the raging waves of the troubled sea, saying,
"Hitherto shalt thou come, and no further;" but if God should withdraw
that restraining power, it would soon carry all afore it. Sin is the ruin
and misery of the soul; it is destructive in its nature; and if God should
leave it without restraint, there would need nothing else to make the soul
perfectly miserable. The corruption of the heart of man is a thing that is
immoderate and boundless in its fury; and while wicked men live here, it
is like fire pent up by God's restraints, whenas if it were let loose, it
would set on fire the course of nature; and as the heart is now a sink of
sin, so, if sin was not restrained, it would immediately turn the soul
into a fiery oven, or a furnace of fire and brimstone.
7. It is no security to wicked men for one moment, that there are no
_visible means of death_ at hand. 'Tis no security to a natural man, that
he is now in health, and that he don't see which way he should now
immediately go out of the world by any accident, and that there is no
visible danger in any respect in his circumstances. The manifold and
continual experience of the world in all ages shows that this is no
evidence that a man is not on the very brink of eternity, and that the
next step won't be into another world. The unseen, unthought of ways and
means of persons' going suddenly out of the world are innumerable and
inconceivable. Unconverted men walk over the pit of hell on a rotten
covering, and there are innumerable places in this covering so weak that
they won't bear their weight, and these places are not seen. The arrows of
death fly unseen at noonday; the sharpest sight can't discern them. God
has so many different, unsearchable ways of taking wicked men out of the
world and sending 'em to hell, that there is nothing to make it appear
that God had need to be at the expense of a miracle, or go out of the
ordinary course of his providence, to destroy any wicked man, at any
moment. All the means that there are of sinners' going out of the world
are so in God's hands, and so absolutely subject to his power and
determination, that it don't depend at all less on the mere will of God,
whether sinners shall at any moment go to hell, than if means were never
made use of, or at all concerned in the case.
8. Natural men's _prudence_ and _care_ to preserve their own _lives_, or
the care of others to preserve them, don't secure 'em a moment. This,
divine providence and universal experience does also bear testimony to.
There is this clear evidence that men's own wisdom is no security to them
from death; that if it were otherwise we should see some difference
between the wise and politic men of the world and others, with regard to
their liableness to early and unexpected death; but how is it in fact?
Eccles. ii. 16, "How dieth the wise man? As the fool."
9. All wicked men's _pains_ and _contrivance_ they use to escape _hell_,
while they continue to reject Christ, and so remain wicked men, don't
secure 'em from hell one moment. Almost every natural man that hears of
hell flatters himself that he shall escape it; he depends upon himself for
his own security, he flatters himself in what he has done, in what he is
now doing, or what he intends to do; every one lays out matters in his own
mind how he shall avoid damnation, and flatters himself that he contrives
well for himself, and that his schemes won't fail. They hear indeed that
there are but few saved, and that the bigger part of men that have died
heretofore are gone to hell; but each one imagines that he lays out
matters better for his own escape than others have done: he don't intend
to come to that place of torment; he says within himself, that he intends
to take care that shall be effectual, and to order matters so for himself
as not to fail.
But the foolish children of men do miserably delude themselves in their
own schemes, and in their confidence in their own strength and wisdom;
they trust to nothing but a shadow. The bigger part of those that
heretofore have lived under the same means of grace, and are now dead, are
undoubtedly gone to hell; and it was not because they were not as wise as
those that are now alive; it was not because they did not lay out matters
as well for themselves to secure their own escape. If it were so that we
could come to speak with them, and could inquire of them, one by one,
whether they expected, when alive, and when they used to hear about hell,
ever to be subjects of that misery, we, doubtless, should hear one and
another reply, "No, I never intended to come here: I had laid out matters
otherwise in my mind; I thought I should contrive well for myself: I
thought my scheme good: I intended to take effectual care; but it came
upon me unexpected; I did not look for it at that time, and in that
manner; it came as a thief: death outwitted me: God's wrath was too quick
for me. O my cursed foolishness! I was flattering myself, and pleasing
myself with vain dreams of what I would do hereafter; and when I was
saying peace and safety, then sudden destruction came upon me."
10. God has laid himself under _no obligation_, by any promise, to keep
any natural man out of hell one moment. God certainly has made no promises
either of eternal life, or of any deliverance or preservation from eternal
death, but what are contained in the covenant of grace, the promises that
are given in Christ, in whom all the promises are yea and amen. But
surely they have no interest in the promises of the covenant of grace that
are not the children of the covenant, and that do not believe in any of
the promises of the covenant, and have no interest in the Mediator of the
covenant.
So that, whatever some have imagined and pretended about promises made to
natural men's earnest seeking and knocking, 'tis plain and manifest, that
whatever pains a natural man takes in religion, whatever prayers he makes,
till he believes in Christ, God is under no manner of obligation to keep
him a moment from eternal destruction.
So that thus it is, that natural men are held in the hand of God over the
pit of hell; they have deserved the fiery pit, and are already sentenced
to it; and God is dreadfully provoked, his anger is as great towards them
as to those that are actually suffering the executions of the fierceness
of his wrath in hell, and they have done nothing in the least to appease
or abate that anger, neither is God in the least bound by any promise to
hold 'em up one moment; the devil is waiting for them, hell is gaping for
them, the flames gather and flash about them, and would fain lay hold on
them and swallow them up; the fire pent up in their own hearts is
struggling to break out; and they have no interest in any Mediator, there
are no means within reach that can be any security to them. In short they
have no refuge, nothing to take hold of; all that preserves them every
moment is the mere arbitrary will, and uncovenanted, unobliged forbearance
of an incensed God.