By Jonathan Edwards
So that, thus it is that natural men are held in the hand of God, over the pit of hell; they have
deserved the fiery pit, and are already sentenced to it; and God is dreadfully provoked, His
anger is as great toward them as to those that are actually suffering the executions of the
fierceness of His wrath in hell, and they have done nothing in the least to appease or abate that
anger, neither is God in the least bound by any promise to hold them up one moment: The devil is
waiting for them, hell is gaping for them, the flames gather and flash about them, and would fain
lay hold on them, and swallow them up: the fire pent up in their own hearts is struggling to break
out: And they have no interest in any Mediator, there are no means within reach that can be any
security to them.
In short, they have no refuge, nothing to take hold of: all that preserves them every moment is
the mere arbitrary will, and uncovenanted, unobliged forbearance of an incensed God.
The use of this awful subject may be for awakening unconverted persons in this congregation.
This that you have heard is the case of every one of you that are out of Christ. That world of
misery, that lake of burning brimstone, is extended abroad under you. There is the dreadful pit
of the glowing flames of the wrath of God; there is hell's wide gaping mouth open; and you have
nothing to stand upon, nor anything to take hold of; there is nothing between you and hell but
the air; it is only the power and mere pleasure of God that