Selected Sermons of Jonathan EdwardsEdwards, Jonathan
Religion
Selected Sermons of Jonathan Edwards
Edwards, Jonathan
Congregational churches -- Sermons; Edwards, Jonathan, 1703-1758; Sermons, American
2. 'Tis the _fierceness_ of his wrath that you are exposed to. We often
read of the _fury_ of God; as in Isaiah lix. 18: "According to their
deeds, accordingly he will repay fury to his adversaries." So Isaiah lxvi.
15, "For, behold, the Lord will come with fire, and with his chariots like
a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of
fire." And so in many other places. So we read of God's _fierceness_, Rev.
xix. 15. There we read of "the wine-press of the fierceness and wrath of
Almighty God." The words are exceeding terrible: if it had only been said,
"the wrath of God," the words would have implied that which is infinitely
dreadful: but 'tis not only said so, but "the fierceness and wrath of
God." The fury of God! The fierceness of Jehovah! Oh, how dreadful must
that be! Who can utter or conceive what such expressions carry in them!
But it is not only said so, but "the fierceness and wrath of Almighty
God." As though there would be a very great manifestation of his almighty
power in what the fierceness of his wrath should inflict, as though
omnipotence should be as it were enraged, and exerted, as men are wont to
exert their strength in the fierceness of their wrath. Oh! then, what will
be the consequence! What will become of the poor worm that shall suffer
it! Whose hands can be strong! And whose heart endure! To what a dreadful,
inexpressible, inconceivable depth of misery must the poor creature be
sunk who shall be the subject of this!
Consider this, you that are here present, that yet remain in an
unregenerate state. That God will execute the fierceness of his anger
implies that he will inflict wrath without any pity. When God beholds the
ineffable extremity of your case, and sees your torment so vastly
disproportioned to your strength, and sees how your poor soul is crushed,
and sinks down, as it were, into an infinite gloom; he will have no
compassion upon you, he will not forbear the executions of his wrath, or
in the least lighten his hand; there shall be no moderation or mercy, nor
will God then at all stay his rough wind; he will have no regard to your
welfare, nor be at all careful lest you should suffer too much in any
other sense, than only that you should not suffer beyond what strict
justice requires: nothing shall be withheld because it is so hard for you
to bear. Ezek. viii. 18, "Therefore will I also deal in fury: mine eye
shall not spare, neither will I have pity: and though they cry in mine
ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them." Now God stands ready to
pity you; this is a day of mercy; you may cry now with some encouragement
of obtaining mercy: but when once the day of mercy is past, your most
lamentable and dolorous cries and shrieks will be in vain; you will be
wholly lost and thrown away of God, as to any regard to your welfare; God
will have no other use to put you to, but only to suffer misery; you shall
be continued in being to no other end; for you will be a vessel of wrath
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