Woe be to all the Philistines!

(William Secker, "The Consistent Christian" 1660)

"Be happy, young man, while you are young, and let your heart give you joy in the days of your youth. Follow the ways of your heart and whatever your eyes see — but know that for all these things, God will bring you to judgment!" Ecclesiastes 11:9

This is just as if God had said, "Well, poor sinner, run down the hill as fast as you please — but know that you will surely break your neck at last!"

As God's mercy lets no service pass unregarded — so God's justice lets no sin pass unrevenged!

As God is too merciful to condemn the innocent — so He is too just to acquit the guilty!

Poor sinner, will you so willfully embrace those poisonous vipers, your lusts — which will so assuredly sting you with the pains of eternal damnation? Why will you rashly pursue anything in this world — which will subject you to the intolerable curse of God in the eternal world?

This is the day of God's long-suffering — but the judgment day will be the day of the sinner's long-suffering. Here, the cords of patience, do, as it were, tie the hands of vengeance. But our Samson will at last be roused, and break all these cords — and then woe be to all the Philistines!

He who now shakes His sword over the hardened sinner's head — will in the great day, sheathe it in His heart!

"Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and every free man hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. They called to the mountains and the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of Their wrath has come, and who can stand?" Revelation 6:15-17

Thus, all who refuse and reject Him as a refining fire — must be obliged to meet, and feel Him as a consuming fire! How can they endure the wrath of the Lamb — who have consistently disregarded the death of the Lamb? If the night of death finds them graceless — the day of judgment will find them speechless!

Reader, if you have uniformly lifted up your rebellious hand against Christ — how will you be able to lift up your guilty head before Christ? "For God will bring every act to judgment, including every hidden thing, whether good or evil!" Ecclesiastes 12:14