DISCOURSE XII. 251 sore displeasure. He could face a host of armed men without fear, but he could not face an angry God, whose loving-kindness is life, and the loss of whose love is wore than death ; Ps. lxxvii. 3. I remembered God, said he, and was troubled, that is, lest he should be favourable no more, and shut up his tender mercies in everlasting anger. This was the terror of that good man, under a deep sense of his crimes, and of God hiding his face from him, and this even while he was in the land of the living, and was not cast out beyond all hope. But when the grave shuts its mouth on the sinner, and he is thrust out into utter darkness, where the light of God's countenance never shines, nor will shine, how unsupportable must such anguish be? Here in this life perhaps a profane wretch has imagined he could live well enough without God in the world, and was content to have nothing to do with him in a way of worship or dependence here : He determined with himself, that the less he could think -of God the better, and so forgot his Maker days without num- ber : But in those regions of hell whither the sinner shall be dri- ven, he can never forget an angry God, nor fly out of the reach of his terrors. " I am now convinced saith he, but too late, that happi- ness dwells in his presence, and " rivers of pleasures flow at his right -hand ;" but this happiness I shall never see, these streams of pleasure I shall never taste ; he is gone for ever with all his love and with all his blessings, God is gone with all his graces and pardons beyond my reach : He stands afar off from my groaning-s. He told me of it heretofore in the ministry of his word ; but, wretch that 1 was ! I would not hearken, I would not believe :.I was invited by the Son of his love to receive his gospel, and to partake of forgiving mercy; he stretched out his hands with divinecompassion, and offered to receive my soul to his grace, and to wash away my defilements with his own blood ; he beseeched me to repent and return to God, and assured me he would secure his Father's favour to me, and a place among the mansions of his glory But cursed rebel that I was to de- spise this salvation, and resist the offers of such love, and to renounce such divine compassion ! These offers of mercy are for ever finished, I shall never see him more as surrounded with the blessings of his grace, but as the minister of his Father's justice, and the avenger of his abused mercy. There is no other Saviour, no other intercessor. to procure divine favour for me, and my hopes are overwhelmed and buried in the eternal despair of his love." III. There will be found also 'among the damned " a con- stant enmity, and malice, and hatred against the blessed. God, which can never satisfy nor ease itself by revenge." It seems very strange indeed that a creature should design revenge against
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=