638 THE ETERNAL ISL7RATION or rDISC. XIII. remains still as heavy as ever, and seems as far off from its end. This dreadful price, which the justice of God demands for the réparation of our offences against his law and his authority, is a price which creatures can never pay, for it is infinite ; and therefore when a finite creature begins to make payment thereof with his own sufferings, these sufferings must be everlasting. It is evident, that one wilful sin is sufficient to sink creatures under the indignation of God for six thousand years : I call the angels who sinned for witnesses to this truth. They were formed in holiness and glory before the creation of this lower world, and probably they sin- ned and fell before this creation too ; and they are yet imprisoned and confined under perpetual chains of darkness, as the word of God tells us, and reserved to everlasting punishment at the judgment of the great day. And if thou, O sinner among the sons of men, if thou diest in an unregenerate, unholy, and unpardoned state, the sins of thy whole life are charged upon thee, and thou art daily " treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath," Rom. ii. 5. and " thou shalt not escape from this prison till thou hast paid the utmost farthing," Mat. v. If any one sin deserves all this misery which has been described, what a dreadful reckoning will the sins of thy whole life come to, when every command of Godwhich thou hast broken shall appear and demand reparation for its injured honour ? Remember, O sinner, obstinate and rebellious, remember thou hast to do with a great and dreadful God, who has all thy "iniquities ever be- fore his eyes ;" Isaiah lxv. 6. " Behold they are written before me, and I will recompense, saith the Lord, their iniquity into their bosom. He is a God that will never forget any of thy crimes. Amos. viii. 7. " The Lord bath sworn by the excellency of Jacob, surely I will never forget any of their works." Though thou hast lost and forgot them, he will bring them again into thy conscience with a terrible remembrance ; and when God comes forth in a way of vengeance, " every transgres- sion and disobedience shall receive a just recompence of reward," Heb. ii. . " Vengeance belongeth unto me, saith the Lord," chapter. x. so He that spared not his own Son, when he laid pn him the iniquity of us all,
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