"It is a fearful
thing to fall into the hands of the living God,"
The Judge is the almighty and eternal God: the law broken is the
holy and perfect rule of God, in itself a consuming fire: sin is so
odious, and a thing so abominable, that it is enough to make all the
angels blush to hear it but so much as once mentioned in so holy a
place as that is, where the great God doth sit to judge. This sin
now hangs about the neck of him that has committed it, yea, it
covers him as doth a mantle.
Doubtless before the flood had carried off the ark, others besides
would with gladness have had there a lodgingroom though no better
than a dog-kennel; but now it was too late, "The Lord had shut the
door."
As the just shall rise in power, so the wicked and unjust in
weakness and astonishment. Sin and guilt bring weakness and
faintness in this life; how much more when both, with all their
force and power, like a giant fasten on them? As God saith, "Can thy
hands be strong, and can thy heart endure in the day that I shall
deal with thee?" Now will the ghastly jaws of despair gape upon
thee, and now will condemnings of conscience, like thunderclaps,
continually batter against thy weary spirit. It is the godly that
have boldness in the day of judgment; but the wicked will be like
the chaff which the wind driveth away.
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