Sinners Denied of Christ in the Day of Judgment.
By South
To be denied of Christ is a compendious expression of hell. It is condemnation itself; and, what is most of all, it is condemnation from the mouth of a Saviour. O, the inexpressible horror that will seize upon a poor sinner when he shall stand arraigned at the bar of divine justice! when he shall look about and see his accuser, his judge, the witnesses, all of them his remorseless adversaries; the law impleading mercy, the gospel upbraiding him, the devil his grand accuser, drawing his indictment, numbering his sins with the greatest exactness, and aggravating them with the cruellest bitterness; and conscience, like a thousand witnesses, attesting every article, flying in his face, and rending his very heart. And then, after all, Christ from whom only mercy could be expected, owning to the accusation. It will be hell enough to hear the sentence; the very promulgation of the punishment and anticipated execution. If Peter was abashed when Christ gave him a look after his denial; if there was so much dread in his looks when he stood as a prisoner, how much greater will it be when he sits as a Judge! If it was so fearful when he looked his denier into repentance, what159shall it be when he shall look him into destruction? Believe it, when we shall hear an accusation from an Advocate, our eternal doom from an Intercessor, it will convince us that a denial of Christ is something more than a few transitory words. What trembling, what outcries, what astonishment will there be upon the pronouncing of this subject! Every word will come upon the sinner like an arrow striking through his veins, like thunder that is hard and consumes at the same instant; yea, it will be a denial with scorn, with taunting reprobations! and to be miserable without commiseration is the height of misery. He that falls below pity can fall no lower. And for those whom Christ has denied it will be in vain to appeal to the Father, unless we can imagine that those whom Mercy has condemned Justice will absolve.—South.