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edge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord; they would none of my coun sel; they despised all my reproof; there fore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way and he filled with their own devices. For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the pros perity of fools shall destroy them.” Prov. 1:23, 24. How awful are those words of the great God, “I will tread them in mine anger, and will trample them in my fury, and their blood shall he sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment.” Isa. 63:3. It is, per haps, impossible to conceive of words that carry in them greater manifesta tions of these three things, namely, contempt, hatred and fierceness of in dignation. 3. The misery you are exposed to is that which God will inflict, to the end that He might show what that wrath of Jehovah is. God hath had it on His heart to show to angels and men, both how excellent His love is, and also how terrible His wrath is. Sometimes earthly kings have a mind to show how terrible their wrath is, by the extreme punishments they would execute on those that provoke them. Nebuchad nezzar, that great and haughty mon arch of the Chaldean empire, was will ing to show his wrath, when enraged with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed- nego; and accordingly gave order that the burning, fiery furnace should he heated seven times hdtter than it was before; doubtless, it was raised to the utmost degree of fierceness that human art could raise it. But the great God is also willing to show His wrath, and magnify His awful majesty and mighty power in the extreme sufferings of His enemies. “What if God, willing to show his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much long-suf fering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction?”--—Rom. 9:22. And see ing this is His design, and what He has determined, even to show how terrible
the unmixed, unrestrained wrath, the fury and fierceness of Jehovah is, He will do it to effect. There will be some thing accomplished and brought to pass that will be dreadful with a witness.- When thfe great and angry God hath ris en up and executed His awful vengeance on the sinner, and the wretch is actually suffering the infinite weight and power of His indignation, then will God call upon the whole universe to behold the awful majesty and mighty power that is to be seen in it. “And the people shall be as the burnings of iime, as thorns cut up shall they be burnt in the fire. Hear ye that are afar off, what I have done; and ye that are near, acknowledge my might. The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire, who among us shall dwell with ever lasting burnings?”—Isa. 33:12-14. 4. It is everlasting wrath. It would be dreadful to suffer this fierceness and wrath of Almighty God one moment; but you must suffer it to all eternity. There will be no end. When you look forward you shall see a long forever, a boundless duration before you, which will swallow up your thoughts, and amaze your souls; and you will abso lutely despair of ever having any deliv erance, any end, any mitigation, any rest at all; you will know certainly that you must wear out long ages, millions of millions of ages, in wrestling with this almighty vengeance; and then when you have so1done, when so many ages have actually been spent by you in this manner, you will know that all is but a point to what remains. So that your punishment will indeed be infinite. O, who can express what the state of a soul in such circumstances is! All that we can possibly say about it gives but a very feeble, faint repre sentation of it; it is inexpressible and inconceivable: for, “Who knoweth the power of God’s anger?” This is the dismal case of every soul
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