SERMON

LVIII.

SINNERS IN THE HANDS OF AN ANGRY GOD.

Deut. xxxii. 35.

Their foot shall slide in due time.

GOD here threatens the unbelieving Israelites, who enjoyed abundantly the means of grace, and saw the wonderful works of God, yet remained void of counsel, and brought forth bitter and poisonous fruit.

The threatening implies, in the first place, that they were always exposed to destruction. One who stands on a slippery place, may fall at any moment. He whose foot may slide, has placed it where his standing is perpetually insecure. The Psalmist uses a like figure, "Surely thou didst set them in slippery places; thou castedst them down into destruction."

The threatening implies, again, that they were always exposed to sudden and unexpected destruction. He who walks in slippery places has no warning when he must fall, but feels as perfectly secure the instant before he falls as at any previous moment. So the Psalmist, after exhibiting the sinner as standing in slippery places, adds, "How are they brought into desolation as in a moment."

It is also implied that they fall of themselves. Their own weight will cast them down, if no power extraneous be applied to aid their fall.

It is further implied, that the reason why they have

not fallen, is that God's appointed time is not come. In due time their foot shall slide. God will then employ his power no longer to sustain them, and their own weight will bring them down. At that very juncture when God shall resolve no longer to hold them up, they go down into destruction.

Let these remarks be applied to sinners in every age, and they will thus apply, and we have this doctrine, It is the mere pleasure of God that keeps wicked men out of hell a moment. The sovereign will of God, restrained by no obligation, hindered by no difficulty, The prevents them from going to their own place. truth of this observation will appear from the following considerations.

I. There is no want of power in God to destroy No arm has any power wicked men at any moment.

of resistance when God rises up. None can deliver out of his hands. He can not only destroy, but he can do it most easily. An earthly prince may find it difficult to subdue a rebel. He may fortify himself, and gather round his standard a multitude of daring adherents. But no fortress can make resistance to the any of power God. The enemies of God may combine and associate, but they are easily broken to pieces. "Though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not go unpunished.” They are but as the chaff before the whirlwind, or the stubble before devouring flames.

It is easy to tread upon and crush a worm, or sunder a thread, and just so easily can God cast down into a hopeless perdition a multitude of his enemies. At his rebuke the earth trembles, and rocks are rent; what then can man do when he would resist God?

II. Sinners every moment deserve destruction. Divine justice will make no resistance whenever God shall

please to show his wrath. Indeed justice perpetually demands their blood. Of the vine that brings forth the grapes of Sodom, justice says, "Cut it down, why cumbereth it the ground." The sword of justice is per petually brandished over the heads of the ungodly, and only arbitrary mercy prevents it from being bathed in their blood.

III. Sinners are under sentence of condemnation to everlasting misery. They not only justly deserve to be cast down to hell, but the sentence of the divine law, the immutable rule of righteousness, has gone out against them, and stands against them. ermore bound over to perdition.

They are ev "He that believeth

"Ye are from

not is condemned already." Hence every unconverted man belongs to hell, it is his own place. beneath." Thither the broken law has sentenced sinners and the law is unchangeable.

IV. Sinners are even now the objects of that very same wrath of God, that is expressed in the torments of hell. The reason why they do not perish at each moment, is not because God, in whose power they are, is not even as angry with them, as he is with those who are now feeling the fierceness of his wrath. Yes, God is more angry with many who are yet spared, yea, doubtless, with many in this assembly, who are quite at ease, than with some who are lost.

It is not then that God is unmindful of their wickedness, and does not resent it, that he does not let loose his hand upon them and cut them off. He is not as they imagine altogether such a one as themselves. The wrath of God burns against them; their damnation slumbers not; the pit is prepared; the fire is made ready; the flames even now rage, ready to receive them. The glit

tering sword is whetted and held over them. Mercy cries spare them; justice is ready to destroy them.

V. The grand adversary stands ready to torment them, soon as God shall permit. They belong to him, he has them in his possession, and under his dominion. "Ye are of your father the devil." He ever watches wicked men, has them at his right hand, is waiting to devour them, as a lion hungry for his prey. Let God only withdraw restraint from the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, and he would become the executioner of divine wrath in a moment. Hell opens its mouth wide to receive sinners, and if God only permit, they are all swallowed up and lost in a moment.

VI. There are reigning in wicked men those infernal principles, that would immediately create a hell in their bosoms, but for the restraints that God imposes. In the very nature of the carnal mind, there is laid a foundation for the torments of hell. Its miseries are indeed begun already in the hearts of the unsanctified. The principles of depravity are active and powerful, and would from their violence, were it not for God's restraints, break out into an immediate and open perdition, as the same corruptions do in the hearts of the damned. The souls of the wicked are like the troubled sea, but God restrains them as he does the foaming billows, " Hitherto shalt thou come, and no farther. And whenever that strong barrier is removed, there will ensue a fearful and a wide-spread destruction. Sin produces the misery, and is the destroyer of the soul. To effect the ruin of its possessor is its very nature, and needs no helper in order to produce complete destruction. The corruption of the heart is immoderate and boundless in its fury. It is a fire pent up by divine restraint, and will kindle into conflagration the whole course of nature, when God shall