God's terrible voice in the city

2. Let them stay a while, and God will answer them himself, and give them an experimental conviction of his righteous judgments, 1 Pet. 4. 17, 18. If judgment begin at the house of God, what shall the end be of them that obey not the Gospel? and if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall ⟨p. 80⟩the ungodly and sinners appear? we read Psal. 75. 8. Of a Cup of red Wine in the hand of the Lord, he may give his people to drink the top of it, but the most bitter and dreggish part, which is at the bottom, the wicked shall wring forth and drink; if God whip his children with rods, he will scourge his enemies with scorpions.

2. Let them stay a while, and God will answer them himself, and give them an experimental conviction of his righteous judgments, 1 Pet. 4. 17, 18. If judgment begin at the house of God, what shall the end be of them that obey not the Gospel? and if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall ⟨p. 80⟩the ungodly and sinners appear? we read Psal. 75. 8. Of a Cup of red Wine in the hand of the Lord, he may give his people to drink the top of it, but the most bitter and dreggish part, which is at the bottome, the wicked shall wring forth and drink; if God whip his children with rods, he will scourge his enemies with scorpions.

I am persuaded that the notoriously ungodly of this generation will not go out of this World, without some remarkable temporal judgment; and that the Lord will make them feel something even here, what an evil thing, and a bitter it is so audaciously to fly in the face of the great God, by their hideous oaths and blasphemies, by their horrid wickedness and abominations, whereby they do as it were challenge God to do his worst against them; and when God doth draw forth his glittering Sword, and make ready his sharp arrow upon the string; when God doth clothe himself with fury, as with a garment, and his hand doth take hold on vengeance; when their iniquities are grown fully ripe, and the day of their visitation and recompense is come, how then will these sinners of England be afraid, and what amazing terror will there then surprise this vile generation? Can their hearts endure, or their hands be strong in the day that the Lord shall deal with them?