punishment. This is the eternal day of wrath; the endless day of vengeance is in my heart: "The year of my redeemed is come," Isa. lxiii. 4. All the woes that ever I pronounced fall upon you; let them be written upon your foreheads, and on your hands, and fill all the powers and faculties of soul and body. Woe, woe, woe! world of woes and curses fall down incessantly and eternally upon you all, according to your wickedness: as every one of you hath sown, so shall you reap, Gal. vi. 7. Woe unto you, who have joined house to house, and field to field, excluding Adam's fellow-heirs. Woe unto : Woe you, that have mingled strong drink. Woe unto you, that have drawn iniquity with cords of vanity; who have called good evil, and evil good. Woe unto you, who were wise in your own eyes, and prudent in your own sight. Cursed be you, that placed your confidence in creatures, and not in the Lord JEHOVAH. unto you, that shut heaven both upon yourselves and others woe unto you, who devoured the needy, “and for a pretence made long prayers :" Matt. xxiii. 13, 14. Woe unto you, who compassed sea and land, to draw others unto your faction, under the pretence of the salvation of souls: woe unto you, who, by your foolish subtleties, cast a mist upon all the duties of religion: woe unto you, who were strict in the circumstantials and externals of religion, and careless of the power and life thereof: woe unto you, who pretended love and reverence to the dead saints, because they could not testify against you; but maligned, persecuted, and contemned the living ones, because of their standing out against the sins of the generation wherein they lived. You gave me the lie, and said, "It is not the Lord, neither shall evil befal us," Jer. v. 12. When my hand was stretched out, you would not see; but now you see, and feel, and are everlastingly ashamed. Your atheism is quite done away: know ye not now, that I am a God of truth and equity? have I not performed all upon you, that ever I spoke ? are you not filled with wrath? is not soul and body tormented with dreadful flames? Devils and wicked men tear, and torment, and curse one another: you concurred in sinning, concur in your punishment; you loved the fellowship of one another, be eternally together, companions in time, and companions in eternity. The fellowship of my holy ones you little esteemed; I have made betwixt them and you a vast gulf of eternal separation had you known their dignity, you would have wondered that I suffered you to abide in the same world with them. What think you now of provoking me? are you the creatures that thought highly of sinning? are you able to despise and mock at the just punishment thereof? No more vain laughing and jollity; the fuel of your base sinful delights have I taken for ever from you: not one smile of joy from henceforth. All the mercies I vouchsafed upon you, did ye use against me; the more I continued my bounty, the more you rebelled and vexed my holy Spirit; though in me you lived, moved, and had your being, yet you forgot me, and minded your own worldly things more than my glory and interest through the world. All your actions were subordinate to base self; even your most excellent actings and sufferings for my cause, were ever out of one selfish design or other: I will fill you with your own ways. You shall not be troubled with offers of mercy any more, or with the exercises of godliness any more: nothing but blasphemy fills your mouths. You shall not be vexed with the company of my saints any more: you shall have your fill of one another's fellowship throughout eternity: your choice and delight shall not be taken from you. Know you not who I am? Am I not He whom you despised and forgot? Am I not He whose yoke you brake asunder from your necks? Am I not He whom you defied, and proclaimed war against? It was plainly manifested unto you, all would come to this; but your minds were filled with vanity: I am free from the ruin and unspeakable misery of you all; only yourselves have destroyed yourselves: madly and desperately have you run to your own destruction; and who was obliged to stand in your way? Who hath struck you with such a monstrous hatred to all good, and inclination to all evil? Are you not naturally wicked and abominable? are you not haters of my holiness and excellence? had you not from the beginning a strange averseness from my spotless holiness? Blasphemous wretches! 66 you see my ways are equal," to your eternal torment and confusion; your mouths are for ever stopped, and you are found guilty : nothing have you to say for yourselves. Should not I alone be exalted? should I not crush to pieces all the despisers of my glory? shall I not for ever cause you to drink the pure and unmixed wrath of the Almighty, which is poured forth without mixture? 59. All the creatures are sharers of men and fallen an Clap your hands, and be exceeding joyful, O thou creation of God, this cternal day of who art for ever loosed from vanity joy, except reprobate and bondage. This is the day gels. which the Lord made, rejoice and be glad in it, Psa. cxviii. 24: this is the eternal day of the restitution of all things: shout and cry aloud, ye lower heavens, and dance, thou earth; sing melodiously, O ye heavenly hosts, sun, moon, and stars: O ye mountains, are ye not eternally skipping, like lambs? Ye vallies, ye pleasant fields, are you not ever smiling, and shouting for joy? you have been wearied, and worn out, in serving sinful creatures, you have been defiled, and written over with vanity; but now are you renewed, and made pure and clear. How earnest was your expectation of "the manifestation of the sons of God!" for you were "made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who had subjected you in hope;" because you were also to be "delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God," Rom. viii. 19-21. Oh fair, beautiful, and delightsome creation! all things now are thousands of stages more excellent than at the beginning! nothing dwells here but righteousness! thou art not now, O earth, the stage of all wickedness and rebellion against thy Creator; thou groanest not under the weight of sinful abominable wretches. Ye fields, you are not divided, and possessed by the vilest of men, (who, by the benefit of the revenues you produced, were, in their own eyes, and in the eyes of silly fools like themselves, excellent and considerable persons,) you furnish not fuel for their stinking pride, tyrannizing, and villanous pleasures. It was by you, under the appointment of your Creator, the vile worms of the earth appeared somewhat; being clothed over with the garbs of riches, and titular honours, else they had been vile in one another's eyes, as now they are to all eternity; having no internal, real, or personal excellence worthy to be accounted of. Out of thee, O earth, do not come the precious fruits, for filling the bellies of wretched miscreants, who did eat and drink largely, and wallowed in all earthly delights; when the only excellent of the earth, through oppression, were sometimes pinched in the necessaries of a mortal life: out of thee do not come instruments of cruelty, the weapons of war, Iwith which the seed of the serpent did kill, and torment, and persecute the blood royal of heaven: out of thee do not come the beasts, wearied with serving and holding up the filth and off-scourings of all things: the horses are not groaning under lumps of death and hell, riding in a brave and gallant manner, with a fine train; joining battle with the camp of the saints, that they might destroy the righteous from the earth, and have none to stand in the way of their hellish endeavours, their monstrous triumphing and tyrannizing, as absolute sovereigns of all: the sheep are not wearied in furnishing coverings and ranting apparel for the vilest of creatures; now they have not a rag to cover their nakedness; no silk and brave embroideries for the vile carcasses |