CLARK'S CLARK'S WORKS. SERMON I. PERDITION A DARK SPOT IN THE MORAL Ezekiel xviii. 32. "I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God." EVERY other doctrine of the Scriptures must be compatible with this one. God has done enough in the work of saving sinners from hell to show beyond controversy that he cannot delight in their blood. The covenant of redemption, and the descent of Jesus Christ to tabernacle in the flesh, and especially his death on the cross, must have satisfied even devils that God had no pleasure in their blood. And then, when God gave the world the Scriptures, and directed that men be pressed with the invitations of mercy, how could the truth of the text be doubted, even in the place of torment? Shall the very men whose way to hell God is hedging up, while he opens before them the portals of everlasting life-shall they have any doubt of his mercy? Every Sabbath, and every offer of pardon, and every mercy the sinner receives from the hands of God, testify to his unwillingness to destroy, and his willingness to save lost men. And if, on the other hand, because sinners are abundantly convinced that God is merciful, they are brought to doubt whether he is holy and just and true, is there not an assault made upon the divine character, which no ingenuous being would be willing to be charged with? May he not condemn and punish the unholy, who will not repent, while yet he does not delight in the death of a sinner? In all governments, divine and human, the laws must be executed, and the administration of justice must be certain. If mercy interpose, it must not be in every case, else the law loses its sanctions, and the motives to duty are lessened. And yet in every government, there may be compassion the most warm in the heart of him who administers justice. Nor will any thing tend so much as this to honour the law and the government. When the parent, while he corrects the child, weeps over him, more is done to impress his conscience with a sense of guilt than can be accomplished by any other means. And the judge who finds it impossible to suppress his tears, while he reads to the criminal the sentence of death, makes a deep and dreadful impression on the conscience of the culprit. He puts on his chains again and goes to his dungeon a sober-thinking man. And the same principle must operate in the divine government. God has assured us that upon some he intends to execute the full penalty of the law. And yet over these he bends with a sympathy indescribably tender, "How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? how shall I deliver thee, Israel? how shall I make thee as Admah, how shall I set thee as Zeboim? my heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together." "If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hidden from thine eyes." Judgment is declared to be his strange work. He has no pleasure in the death of him that dieth. God may see the necessity of executing his law while he may wish there had not been that necessity, and that his kingdom could be as safe and happy in administering mercy as in the display of justice. It is when the destruction of the sinner is viewed in itself, separated from the bearing it may have upon the general welfare of the universe, that God has no pleasure in it. Of this we shall be satisfied when we consider what is implied in the ruin of a soul. I. It is painful to see such noble affections misplaced.--The very spirit that falls under the divine condemnation, and goes to endure the outer darkness, and gnawing worm, is capable of putting forth the best affections. The sinner was created capable of loving the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, with all the subjects of God's holy kingdom, his law, his gospel, and his service. True, he could not have comprehended entirely their nature, but he could have known enough to have risen to the most ardent glow of affection. Though he could not have loved as angels do, could not have glowed with the ardour of cherubim and seraphim, yet could he have reached a sublimity of holy emotion which would have rendered him glorious in their eyes, and entitled him to a station high and honourable among the hosts of heaven. The Saviour he could have loved with peculiar affection, such as angels cannot feel. In the strain of praise which told of dying love, they would have yielded him the highest note; and probably when ages of ages had given him opportunity to improve his powers in the salubrious climes of heaven, there might have appeared far less difference between his powers and theirs than now, and eternity might at length have seen him rising through a thousand grades till he had filled a station by their side, and had beamed with an ardour of attachment not inferior to theirs. But these noble affections are all misplaced. Neither God nor the holy subjects of his kingdom have any share in his affections. He glows with no pure desire ; he sees nothing in God, nor in what he loves, that in his account has any worth. That which charms the angels and enraptures all the holy family has nothing in it that can move one affection. His own polluted self, his foul person and ruined character, engrosses in his eye all the loveliness in the universe. He can hate most cordially that which good beings love. He calls home every affection, and becomes himself a little world, engrossing every care, every wish, and every hope. Thus can he love himself supremely, while all others consider him the essence of deformity. Now can any suppose that God has pleasure in seeing such noble affections so misplaced? Would he not rather delight to be their object, and satisfy their immense capacities with his own immensity. We shall be still more deeply impressed with the sentiment of the text on reviewing again the state of the lost sinner to see II. Such keen sensations tortured.-When God shall execute his law upon the sinner, every sense, both of body and mind, will become an inlet of misery. The body will be fuel for the flames, and, if we can learn any thing from Scripture, will welter in brimstone and fire forever. The rich man lifts up his eyes in hell, being in torment, and begs a drop of water to cool his tongue, while between him and heaven there is an impassable gulf. We read, "that they shall gnaw their tongues for pain," "their worm shall not die, nor their fire be quenched." And while the body thus suffers, the soul will be the inlet of another species of misery not less dreadful. It will be subject to envy, wrath, shame, guilt, disappoint ment, and despair. And all these corroding passions will live commensurate with the duration of the soul. To see heaven happy, and heaven will be forever happy, will feed the flames of envy. The quarrel continuing between God and the sinner will forever produce new sensations of wrath. The law continuing in full force, with all its dreadful sanctions, will fill the soul with guilt that can never abate, and this guilt will produce correspondent shame. The memory alive to recollection, will perpetuate the sensation of disappointment, while the certainty that God remains unalterably true, will render despair eternal. Thus will there be some fuel to feed the flames of every passion, while these passions will corrode the mind and fill the whole soul with misery. Every new inlet of light will kindle anew the fires of the pit, while, till the judgment, the still increasing number of convicts will exhibit living testimony that God is resolved to be respected and loved by all his intelligent subjects, or treat them as outlaws in his kingdom. And when the pit shall be full, and every cavern shall ring with the howlings of despair, it will be seen that just enough are lost to express suitably God's everlasting resentment of sin, "and the smoke of their torment shall ascend up forever and ever," as a living testimony of his unchangeable holiness, justice, and truth. At their dreadful expense the righteous will forever cry Hallelujah. Now to see such sensations tortured while they might have been the inlets of pleasure unspeakable, must be a sight which can have nothing in it calculated to please Jehovah. He is a God of tender compassion; possesses bowels of mercies. God feels when his creatures suffer, as much more sensibly than we feel as his heart is more |