T HE K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
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His sovereign pleasure, His arbitrary will, restrained by no obligation, hin dered by no manner of difficulty, any more than if nothing else but God’s mere will had, in the least degree, or in any respect whatsoever, any hand in the preservation of wicked men one moment. The truth of this observation may appear by the following considerations: 1. God to cast wicked men into hell at any moment. Men’s hands cannot be strong, when God rises up. The strong est have no power to resist him, nor can any deliver out of His hands. He is not only able 'to cast wicked men into hell, but he can most easily do it. Sometimes an earthly prince meets with a great deal of difficulty in subduing a rebel, who has found means to fortify himself, and has made him self strong by the numbers of his fol lowers. But this is not so with God. There is is no fortress that is any de fense from the power of God. Though hand join in hand, and vast multitudes of God’s enemies combine and associate themselves, they are easily broken in pieces. They are as great heaps of light chaff before the whirlwind, or large quantities of dry stubble before devour ing flames. We find it easy to tread on and crush a worm that we see crawling on the earth: so it is easy for us to cut or singe a slender thread that anything hangs by; thus easy is it for God, when He pleases, to cast His enemies down to hell. What are we that we should think to stand before Him, at whose rebuke the earth trembles, and before whom the rocks are thrown down? 2. They deserve to be cast into hell; so that divine justice never stands in the way; it makes no objection against God’s using His power at any moment to destroy them. Yea, on the contrary, justice calls aloud for an infinite pun ishment of their sins. Divine justice says of the tree that brings forth such grapes of Sodom, “Cut it down, why
cumbereth it the ground?” Luke 13:7. The sword of divine justice is every moment brandished over their heads; and it is nothing but the hand of arbi trary mercy, and God’s mere will, that holds it back. 3. They are already under a sent ence of condemnation to hell. They do not only justly deserve to be cast down thither, but the sentence of the law of God, that eternal and immutable rule of righteousness that God has fixed between him and mankind, is gone out against them, and stands against them; so that they are bound over already to hell. John 3:18. “He that believeth not is condemned already.” So that every unconverted man properly be longs to hell: that is his place: from thence he is. John 8:23. “Ye are from beneath:” and thither he is bound; it is the place that justice, and God’s word, the sentence of the un changeable law, assign to him. 4. They are now the objects of that very same anger and wrath of God that is expressed in the torments of hell: and the reason why they do not go down to hell at each moment is not because God, in whose power they are, is not at present very angry with them; Yea, God is a great deal more angry with great numbers that are now on earth, who, it may be, are at ease, than He is with many of those that are now in hell. So that it is not because God is un mindful of their wickedness, and does not resent it, that He does not loose His hand, and cut them off. God is not altogether such a one as themselves, though they may imagine Him to be so. The wrath of God burns against them, the pit is prepared, the furnace is now hot, ready to receive them. The glittering sword is whetted, and held over them, and the pit hath opened its mouth under them. 5. The devil stands ready to fall upon them, and seize them as his own, at what moment God shall permit him.
There is no want of power in
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