Forty-Six Sermons in Volume II of the Works by Jonathan Edwards (Available from Amazon or free here) - Read Sermon VII from the section entitled 'Seventeen Occasional Sermons'.
This week Edwards preaches a sermon from Romans ii. 8, 9. 'But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile'.
His doctrine is 'Indignation, wrath, misery, and anguish of soul, are the portion that God has allotted to wicked men'.
Firstly Edwards describes the wrath that pursues the wicked in:
(i) this life;
(ii) in the next life.
Then to apply his text Edwards tells us:
(i) what need we have to take care that our foundation for eternity is sure;
(ii) an argument for awakening ungodly men;
(iii) an argument to convince wicked men of the justice of God in allotting such a portion to them.
What grabbed me
I appreciated Edwards' clear statement of what eternity in hell means: ' In this condition they shall remain throughout the never-ending ages of eternity. Their punishment shall be then complete, and it shall remain in this completion for ever. Now shall all that come upon them which they so long trembled for fear of, while their souls were in a separate state. They will dwell in a fire that never shall be quenched, and here they must wear out eternity. Here they must wear out one thousand years after another, and that without end. There is no reckoning up the millions of years or millions of ages; all arithmetic here fails, no rules of multiplication can reach the amount, for there is no end. They shall have nothing to do to pass away their eternity, but to conflict with those torments; this will be their work for ever and ever; God shall have no other use or employment for them; this is the way that they must answer the end of their being. And they never shall have any rest, nor any atonement, but their torments will hold up to their height, and shall never grow any easier by their being accustomed to them. Time will seem long to them, every moment shall seem long to them, but they shall never have done with the ages of their torment. '
Mathematics is at a loss to tell us what an eternity in hell will be like. It simply blows the mind.
Next week's reading
Read Sermon VIII from the section entitled 'Seventeen Occasional Sermons'.
Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.
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