III. THREATS OF TEMPORAL PUNISHMENT.
9. “God judgeth the righteous,” saith the Psalmist, “and God is angry with the wicked every day. If he turn not, he will whet his sword: he hath bent his bow, and made it ready: he hath also prepared for him the instruments of death: he ordaineth his arrows against the persecutors.” Ps. 7:11-13.
10. This wrath and revenge, no man will ever be able to escape, as the prophet Amos affirms: “He that escapeth of them shall not be delivered. Though they climb up to heaven, thence I will bring them down: and though they be hid from my sight in the bottom of the sea, thence will I command the serpent, and he shall bite them. Behold, the eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from off the face of the earth.” Amos 9:1-3, 8. “Their blood shall be poured out as dust,” saith Zephaniah, 1:17, 18, “and their flesh as the dung. Neither their silver, nor their gold, shall be able to deliver them in the day of the Lord's wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy.” Such terrible threatenings as these should lead us to unfeigned repentance; this being the only means by which to prevent impending desolation, and the total destruction of nations and cities; as evidently appears from the example of Nineveh. Jonah 3:5, 10. “At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it; if that nation against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them.” Jer. 18:7, 8.
IV. DEATH.
11. God has concealed the time of our death from us, that thereby we may be kept in the daily and uninterrupted practice of true repentance, as not knowing which hour may be our last. “The whole life of a man is given him for repentance,” saith St. Bernard. And this repentance is a Christian's daily cross and tribulation. Thus it is said in the Psalms: “I am ready to halt, and my sorrow is continually before me.” Ps. 38:17; 73:14. God has promised grace to the penitent, but he has not promised to sinners another day in which to repent. “It is appointed unto men once to die; but after this the judgment.” Heb. 9:27. Such as God shall find thee, as such will he judge thee: wherefore, live in such a manner as thou wouldest wish to have done, when thou art dying. Consider seriously in thy mind, where they now are, who but a few years ago wasted [pg 192] their lives with lust and vanity, and freely enjoyed the “good things” of this world? Luke 16:25. They are all gone to their own place, where they wait for the day of judgment. Wherefore, “come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.” Rev. 18:4.
V. THE LAST JUDGMENT.
12. For after death, there is neither place nor time for repentance. It is in this world that eternal life is either lost or obtained. Those that repent betimes, shall not be condemned in judgment; but the impenitent will hear the awful sentence: “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire.” Matt. 25:41. “Behold, therefore, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation!” (2 Cor. 6:2), which will be followed by the day of judgment in the other world. “To-day, therefore, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation; lest I swear in my wrath, that ye shall not enter into my rest.” Ps. 95:7, 8, 11; Heb. 3:7, 8, 11. “For we must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in his body, whether it be good or bad.” 2 Cor. 5:10. Those, therefore, who here repent, “shall have their sins covered” (Ps. 32:1), and “they shall no more be mentioned unto them,” as the prophet declares. Ezek. 33:16. Lay hold, therefore, on the offer of mercy betimes, know and confess thy sins, O man, that they may be remitted and forgotten.
VI. ETERNAL PAINS OF HELL.
13. With this present life, the season of the mercy of God closes. It will then be said: “Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things.” Luke 16:25. Thy life is now over. Thou art now dead! Dead to God forever, to whom thou didst refuse to live in time! There is no redemption from hell. Ps. 49:14-20. How can the damned enjoy the goodness of God, to which they were dead whilst they were alive, and to which they will now continue dead to all eternity! Remember, therefore, that now is the only time for mercy, and the hour of visitation to repent; whereas, there the damned so die, as, notwithstanding, always to live; and so live, as yet to die eternally. All the senses will there suffer torment. The sight shall be punished with eternal darkness; the ears shall be filled with weeping and gnashing of teeth; the smell with stench of fire and brimstone; the taste with the bitterness of eternal death; and the feeling with a sense of endless tortures and miseries.
VII. THE JOY OF ETERNAL LIFE.