as much against you, as against many of the damned in hell. You
hang by a slender thread, with the flames of divine wrath flashing about
it, and ready every moment to singe it, and burn it asunder; and you
have no interest in any Mediator, and nothing to lay hold of to save
yourself, nothing to keep off the flames of wrath, nothing of your own,
nothing that you ever have done, nothing that you can do, to induce God
to spare you one moment. -- And consider here more particularly,
Whose wrath it is: it is the wrath of the infinite God. If it were only
the wrath of man, though it were of the most potent prince, it would be
comparatively little to be regarded. The wrath of kings is very much
dreaded, especially of absolute monarchs, who have the possessions and
lives of their subjects wholly in their power, to be disposed of at
their mere will. Prov. 20:2. "The fear of a king is as the roaring of a
lion: Whoso provoketh him to anger, sinneth against his own soul." The
subject that very much enrages an arbitrary prince, is liable to suffer
the most extreme torments that human art can invent, or human power can
inflict. But the greatest earthly potentates in their greatest majesty
and strength, and when clothed in their greatest terrors, are but
feeble, despicable worms of the dust, in comparison of the great and
almighty Creator and King of heaven and earth. It is but little that
they can do, when most enraged, and when they have exerted the utmost of
their fury. All the kings of the earth, before God, are as grasshoppers;
they are nothing, and less than nothing: both their love and their
hatred is to be despised. The wrath of the great King of kings, is as
much more terrible than theirs, as his majesty is greater. Luke 12:4,5.
"And I say unto you, my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the
body, and after that, have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn
you whom you shall fear: fear him, which after he hat
.
|
