Pagina-afbeeldingen
PDF
ePub

race. For God must have foreknown what number and what persons would be destroyed.

3. It is certain that a part of the human race will be punished with endless destruction. It is written, "The Lord trieth the righteous; but the wicked, and him that loveth violence, his soul hateth. Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire, and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of his cup." Again," Wo unto the wicked, it shall be ill with him for the reward of his hands shall be given him." And again," Many of them that sleep in the dust shall awake some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt." The final Judge hath said, "Whosoever speaketh against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come." Again, "Wo unto that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed: It had been good for that man if he had never been born." Unto the church of the Thessalonians the apostle writes, "The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, taking ven geance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power." And it is said of the wicked, "They received not the love of the truth that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie; that they all

[ocr errors]

might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness." Peter says of Paul's writings, " In which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction." Jude says, Jude says, "Sodom and Gomorrah are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire." The Holy Spirit says by John, "The devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life, was cast into the lake of fire." It is evident from the declarations of the Holy Spirit, that a part of the human race, will be punished with endless destruction. And what reason can be given for believing that God did not decree that they should be destroyed? Has God formed no purpose respecting his rational creatures? Does he destroy immortal souls without designing their destruction?

4. Many of mankind have already been destroyed.

Before the flood, "The Lord said I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, and the creeping things, and the fowls of the air." But it is said, "Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord." Again it is written, " The sun was risen upon the earth, when Lot entered into

[ocr errors]

Zoar. Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah, brimstone and fire from the Lord > out of heaven. And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground. As God had foretold, he destroyed Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea. "The Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. And the waters returned and covered the chariots, and the horsemen, and all the host of Pharaoh, that came into the sea after them; there remained not so much as one of them." And it is said, "Thus the Lord saved Israel that day, out of the hand of the Egyptians." God promised to give the land of Canaan to the posterity of Abraham. But when he made this promise to Abraham, he said, "the iniquity of the Amorites, is not yet full." In the days of Joshua the Amorites were destroyed, and their land was given to Israel. But when the city of Jericho was destroyed, Rahab was saved. Christ said to the Jews, "Fill ye up the measure of your fathers." In writing to the church of the Thessalonians, the apostle says of the Jews, "They please not God, and are contrary to all men: forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up their sins alway: for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost." Now in the account of the destruction of the wicked by the flood, and of Sodom and Gomorrah by fire and brimstone from heaven, and of the Canaanites by the sword of Joshua, and of the Jews by the

L

then

Romans, it is said they were punished for their wickedness, and destroyed because they had completed the measure of their sins. It is also said, that God showed great favor to Noah and his family, to Lot, who was removed from Sodom, to the children of Israel at the Red Sea, to Rahab, who was saved when Jericho was spoiled, and to the saints who escaped from Jerusalem when that city was destroyed. Yet it is pretended that they who are not converted before they die, are converted at death, and then received into heaven. If it be so, then the wicked at the flood, in Sodom, at the Red Sea, in Canaan, and in Jerusalem, when slain by the sword of divine vengeance according to the scriptures; were converted and raised to heavenly joy and glory. And if they were then converted and made blessed and glorious in heaven, more favor was shewn to the wicked whom God says he destroyed, than to the righteous who found grace in his sight. If then, we believe God rather than man, we must believe that a great part of the human race have already been destroyed by the holy wrath of the Almighty. Did God destroy these souls without designing to do it? Or did he design that they should be destroyed? And when does God, "who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will," form his purposes?

5. Under the means of salvation many persons are fitted to destruction. The present life is designed for a state of trial. Human characters in this state are forming with amazing

rapidity. The means, which God uses for the: instruction of sinners while they are on probation, have a powerful effect upon their minds; and if they do not soften, they rapidly harden their hearts. What multitudes, to whom salvá-. tion was offered, and the kingdom of heaven brought near, have been fitted for damnation, and have fallen into hell, though they were taught, were warned, were intreated, and were commanded to turn to the strong hold, while prisoners of hope! Is it not evident also that many persons, at the present day, who are favored with the gospel of the blessed God, choose darkness rather than light, and death rather than life? God may renew such persons as have a long time rejected his counsel and despised his reproof. But from what has yet been done it is certain, that there are many, who despise the riches of his goodness, and forbearance, and long-suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth to repentance. But after their hardness and impenitent hearts, they are treasuring to themselves wrath against the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous judg ment of God. At this present time, also, there. is a remnant according to the election of grace, but the rest are blinded. "According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear unto this day." To the Christian Hebrews the apostle writes, "For the earth which drinketh in the rain which cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs

« VorigeDoorgaan »