314 THE ABSOLUTE fire, and this neglect of Christ is the way to kindle it. If thou art not a believer, thou art condemned' already ; but this will bring upon thee double condemnation. Believe it for a truth, all thy sins, as they are against the covenant of works, even the most heinous of them, are not so provoking and destroying as thy slighting of Christ. O, what will the Father say to such an un- worthy wretch ! ' Must I send my Son from my bosom to suffer for thee ? Must he groan when thou shouldest groan, and bleed when thou shouldest bleed, anddie when thou shouldest die ? And canst thou not now be persuaded to embracehim, and obey him ? Must the world be `courted whilst he stands by? Must he have the naked title of thy Lord.and Savior, while thy fleshly pleasures and profits have thy heart? What wrath can be too great, what hell too hot, for such an ungrateful, unworthywretch ! Must I pre- pare thee a portion of the blond of my Son, and wilt thou not be persuaded now to drink it? Must I be at so much cost to save thee, and wilt thou not 'obey that thou mayest be saved? Go seize upon him, justice ; let my wrath consume thee; let hell de-' your thee ; let thy own conscience :forever torment thee ; seeing thou hast chosen death, thou shalt have it ; and, as thou hast re- jected heaven, thón shalt never see it, "but my wrath shall abide upon thee forever ; ". John iii. 36, Woe to thee, sinner, if this be once thy sentence ! Thou wert'better have all the world angry with thee, and bound in an oath against thee, as the Jews against Paul, than that one drop of his anger should light upon thee ; thou wert better have heaven and earth to fall upon thee, than one de, gree of God's displeasure. 2. As this wrath is of,fire, so it is'a consuming fire, and icauseth the sinner utterly to perish. All this is plain in the text ; not that the being of the soul will cease; such ,a perishing the sinner would be 'glad of; a happy man would he think 'himself, if he might die as' the brutes, and be no more: but such wishes are vain. It is but a glimpse of his own condition, which he shall see in thegreat combustion of the world : when he seeth the heaven and earth on fire, he seeth but the picture of his approachingwoe ; but, alas! it is he that must feel the devouring fire. The world will be but refined or consumed by its fire ; but there must he bum, and burn forever, and yet be neither consumed nor refined. The earth will not feel the flames 'that burn it,but his soul and body must feel it with a witness : little know his friends, that are honorably interring his corpse, what his miserable soul is seeing and feeling: here endeth the storyof his prosperity and delights, and now begins the tragedy that, will never end': oh! how his merry days are vanished as a dream, and his jovial life as a tale that is told; his witty jests, his pleasant sports, his cards and
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=