rounded with so many delights; where it had been your chief care to make Provision for the flesh*; and where you had, perhaps, spent your days in mirth, till in a moment you went down to the grave+! when, instead of the light of the sun, you see nothing but the flames of the divine indignation; when, instead of all that soothed and regaled your senses, you feel the neverdying worm, and exchange the gay and agreeable companions that now surround you, for the society of devils and damned spirits! I appeal to your consciences; Can your hearts endure, or your hands be strong, in such a circumstance as this? You, that are so impatient of every little anxiety of life; you, that cannot bear the fatigues of duty, nor the restraints of religion, how will you bear the agonies of damnation? How will you live in those doleful regions, where joy and cheerfulness are everlasting strangers, and nothing remains but Weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth§? Were this to be your case only for a thousand, or a hundred years, how miserable would you be! But Oh, how much more miserable, when you think, that it is an Everlasting destruction ! when your thoughts weary themselves in search of some distant point, where a glimmering of hope may break in upon you, and you go onward, and onward, and onward still, and find nothing, but Blackness of darkness for ever¶! when you feel yourselves plunged in a boundless ocean of distress, without a bottom, and without a shore? "Must The smoke of my torments ascend up for ever and ever**? Must I lie in this infernal Prison, till I have paid the uttermost farthing ++? Surely then I must bear Indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish‡‡, as long as an immortal soul can sustain it, as an eternal God can inflict it." It is almost insupportable, to think that this should be the case of any of our fellow-creatures. How much more insupportable must it then be, to feel that it is your own! Again, your pious parents will lament, "that all their kind endeavours for your salvation were in vain:" But with what aggravated sorrow and despair will you then reflect on those endeavours, and on all the other religious advantages you enjoyed! "Alas!" will you then be ready to say, "If there could be any thought of comfort in the midst of this dark gloom of Rom. xiii. 14. +Job xxi. 13. 2 Thess. i. 9. Ezek. xxii. 14. desolation and horror, it would be to transfer the blame of my ruin upon another. Oh that I could say, there was some powerful, arbitrary being, by whose irresistible hand I was forcibly borne away, as by a mighty torrent, and swept into this burning gulph! Oh that I could say, that I was wicked and miserable by a fatal necessity! But there is not a wretch, amidst all the rage and blasphemy of such a dwelling as this, who can dare to assert that to have been the case: How much less then can I assert it! "When I look up," may you justly say, "when I look up to yonder seats of unapproachable glory, from whence I am now Cast out, as an abominable branch*, Why was not my portion there? Wretch that I am, I was once numbered among the children of the kingdom; I was born in Emmanuel's land; I was educated in a religious family; and Oh, my parents and my ministers! how diligently did they instruct me! how awfully did they admonish me! how tenderly did they expostulate with me! I had indeed Line upon line, and precept upon precept+; and therefore I have now stroke upon stroke, and wound upon wound. The blood of a Redeemer was once offered me as a healing balm, and I despised it; and now it is poured out, as a burning corrosive on my bleeding soul. I was once lifted up even to the gates of heaven, and now I am cast down to the centre of hell: I am now looking with very the milder torments of Tyre and Sidon, of Sodom and Gomorrah‡. envy, and with rage, on There, sinner, thou wilt perhaps curse the compassionate heart, which now is almost sinking under this necessary representation of thy danger, and those unavailing tears which one or another of us may now be shedding, in the distant views of thy ruin. Yet I must add once more, that as your pious parents will tremble" at the view of meeting you at the tribunal of God, so the thoughts of such an interview must be insupportably dreadful to you." If Satan now draw you from your allegiance to God, and harden your heart to final impenitency, being Partakers of his sins, you will be partakers likewise of his plagues, and like him, be Reserved in chains of darkness to the judgment of the great day. And how will your haughty hearts brook it, when you are to be brought out to that judgment? Oh, how often will your anxious, foreboding thoughts anticipate the shame and horror of that dreadful day! Isa. xiv. 19. § Rev. xviii, 4. +Isa. cxviii. 10. Mat. xi. 21-24.. rounded with so many delights; where it had been your chief care to make Provision for the flesh*; and where you had, perhaps, spent your days in mirth, till in a moment you went down to the grave+! when, instead of the light of the sun, you see nothing but the flames of the divine indignation; when, instead of all that soothed and regaled your senses, you feel the neverdying worm, and exchange the gay and agreeable companions that now surround you, for the society of devils and damned spirits! I appeal to your consciences; Can your hearts endure, or your hands be strong, in such a circumstance as this? You, that are so impatient of every little anxiety of life; you, that cannot bear the fatigues of duty, nor the restraints of religion, how will you bear the agonies of damnation? How will you live in those doleful regions, where joy and cheerfulness are everlasting strangers, and nothing remains but Weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth §? Were this to be your case only for a thousand, or a hundred years, how miserable would you be! But Oh, how much more miserable, when you think, that it is an Everlasting destruction when your thoughts weary themselves in search of some distant point, where a glimmering of hope may break in upon you, and you go onward, and onward, and onward still, and find nothing, but Blackness of darkness for ever ¶! when you feel yourselves plunged in a boundless ocean of distress, without a bottom, and without a shore? "Must The smoke of my torments ascend up for ever and ever**? Must I lie in this infernal Prison, till I have paid the uttermost farthing††? Surely then I must bear Indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish‡‡, as long as an immortal soul can sustain it, as an eternal God can inflict it." It is almost insupportable, to think that this should be the case of any of our fellow-creatures. How much more insupportable must it then be, to feel that it is your own! Again, your pious parents will lament, "that all their kind endeavours for your salvation were in vain:" But with what aggravated sorrow and despair will you then reflect on those endeavours, and on all the other religious advantages you enjoyed! "Alas!" will you then be ready to say, "If there could be any thought of comfort in the midst of this dark gloom of Rom. xiii. 14. § Mat. xiii. 42. + Job xxi. 13. 2 Thess. i. 9. Ezek. xxii. 14. desolation and horror, it would be to transfer the blame of my ruin upon another. Oh that I could say, there was some powerful, arbitrary being, by whose irresistible hand I was forcibly borne away, as by a mighty torrent, and swept into this burning gulph! On that I could say, that I was wicked and miserable by a fatal necessity! But there is not a wretch, amidst all the rage and blasphemy of such a dwelling as this, who can dare to assert that to have been the case: How much less then can I assert it! "When I look up," may you justly say, "when I look up to yonder seats of unapproachable glory, from whence I am now Cast out, as an abominable branch, Why was not my portion there? Wretch that I am, I was once numbered among the children of the kingdom; I was born in Emmanuel's land; I was educated in a religious family; and Oh, my parents and my ministers! how diligently did they instruct me! how awfully did they admonish me! how tenderly did they expostulate with me! I had indeed Line upon line, and precept upon precept+; and therefore I have now stroke upon stroke, and wound upon wound. The blood of a Redeemer was once offered me as a healing balm, and I despised it; and now it is poured out, as a burning corrosive on my bleeding soul. I was once lifted up even to the gates of heaven, and now I am cast down to the very centre of hell: I am now looking with envy, and with rage, on the milder torments of Tyre and Sidon, of Sodom and Gomorrah‡. There, sinner, thou wilt perhaps curse the compassionate heart, which now is almost sinking under this necessary representation of thy danger, and those unavailing tears which one or another of us may now be shedding, in the distant views of thy ruin. Yet I must add once more, that as your pious parents will tremble" at the view of meeting you at the tribunal of God, so the thoughts of such an interview must be insupportably dreadful to you." If Satan now draw you from your allegiance to God, and harden your heart to final impenitency, being Partakers of his sins, you will be partakers likewise of his plagues, and like him, be Reserved in chains of darkness to the judgment of the great day. And how will your haughty hearts brook it, when you are to be brought out to that judgment? Oh, how often will your anxious, foreboding thoughts anticipate the shame and horror of that dreadful day! Isa. xiv. 19. § Rev. xviii. 4. Isa. cxviii. 10. Mat. xi. 21-24%. "I must stand forth," will you then say, "I must stand forth before my inexorable judge; my sin and my folly must be publicly proclaimed before the assembled world, and my parents too must be the witness of it. But oh, how shall I be able to lift up my face before them, blackened with the marks of guilt and despair! If I Call, will there be any to answer me; or to which of the saints shall I then turn*? Shall I turn to my parents and intreat them, by all their former tenderness for the children of their own bowels, to plead with the judge in my favour, if, perhaps they may mitigate the rigour of his wrath? Alas, I know him, and myself, and them too well, to expect any such attempt, or to ask any such favour. Will they not rather stand up as Swift witnesses against met and call for an increase of wrath on my guilty head? Will not all their former tenderness be turned into stern and awful severity? Will they not upbraid me with their instructions, their reproofs, their prayers, and their tears; and applaud the triumphs of the divine vengeance, in the condemnation of so wicked, of so incorrigible. a creature? With these awful remonstrances I dismiss you, and conclude with a reflection of a more comfortable nature. 3. From this survey of the reflections of a pious parent on the death of a wicked child, we may certainly infer,—That the parents of religious children have abundant reason for thankfulness. They have reason for thankfulness, both as they are free from such melancholy reflections and apprehensions; and as a foundation is laid of other views, as full of cheerfulness and joy, as these are of terror and distress. My brethren I congratulate the happiness of those of you, who can say through grace, that God has Established his covenant with you, and with your seed after you, for an everlasting covenant to be a God unto you, and unto them. It is the joy of my heart, to think how much it must be the joy of yours, to see your Children walking in the truth §; and to see them Flourishing in the courts of your God ||, as well as growing Like olive plants round your own tables ¶: to see, that they have not only Escaped the grosser corruptions, which are in the world through lust**, but subscribe with their hand unto the Lord, and surname themselves by the name of Israel, his people ++. With what sweet tranquillity may you look forward to all the uncertainties of life * Job. v. 1. + Mal. iii. 5. Gen. xvii. 7. § 2 John ver. 4. |