True grace, distinguished from the experience of devils; in a sermon, preached before the…

Your Wickedness makes you as it were heavy as Load, and to tend downwards with great Weight and Pressure towards Hell; and if GOD should let you go, you would immediately sink and swiftly descend and plunge into the bottomless Gulf, and your healthy Constitution, and your own Care and Prudence, and best Contrivance, and all your Righteousness, would have no more Influence to uphold you and keep you out of Hell, then a Spider's Web would have to stop a falling Rock. Were it not, that so is the ⟨p. 53⟩sovereign Pleasure of GOD, the Earth would not bear you one Moment; for you are a Burden to it; the Creation groans with you; the Creature is made subject to the Bondage of your Corruption, not willingly; the Sun don't willingly shine upon you to give you Light to serve Sin and Satan; the Earth don't willingly yield her Increase to satisfy your Lusts; nor is it willingly a Stage for your Wickedness to be acted upon; the Air don't willingly serve you for Breath to maintain the Flame of Life in your Vitals, while you spend your Life in the Service of GOD's Enemies. GOD's Creatures are good, and were made for Men to serve GOD with, and don't willingly subserve to any other Purpose, and groan when they are abused to Purposes so directly contrary to their Nature and End. And the World would spue you out, were it not for the sovereign Hand of him who hath subjected it in Hope. There are the black Clouds of GOD's Wrath now hanging directly over your Heads, full of the dreadful Storm, and big with Thunder; and were it not for the restraining Hand of GOD, it would immediately burst forth upon you. The sovereign Pleasure of GOD, for the present, stays his rough Wind; otherwise it would come with Fury, and your Destruction would come like a Whirlwind, and you would be like the Chaff of the Summer threshing Floor.

The Wrath of GOD is like great Waters that are dammed for the Present; they increase more and more, and rise higher and higher, till an Outlet is given, and the longer the Stream is stopped, the more rapid and mighty is it's Course, when once it is let loose. 'Tis true, that Judgment against your evil Works, has not been executed hitherto; the Floods of GOD's Vengeance have been with-held; but your Guilt in the mean Time is constantly increasing, and you are every Day treasuring up more Wrath; the Waters are continually rising, and waxing more and more mighty; and there is Nothing but the mere Pleasure of GOD, that holds the Waters back, that are unwilling to be stopped, and press hard to go forward; if GOD should only withdraw his Hand from the Flood-Gate, it would immediately fly open, and the fiery Floods of the Fierceness and Wrath of GOD, would rush forth with inconceivable Fury, and would come upon