8. For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup. The punishment of the wicked is prepared, God himself holds it in
readiness; he has collected and concocted woes most dread, and in the chalice
of his wrath he holds it. They scoffed his feast of love; they will be dragged
to his table of justice and made to drink their due deserts. And the wine is red. The retribution is terrible; it is blood for blood. It is full of mixture. Spices of anger, justice, and incensed mercy are there. Their
misdeeds, their blasphemies, their persecutions have strengthened the liquor as
with potent drugs. And he poureth out of the same. The full cup must be
drunk; the wicked cannot refuse the terrible draught, for God himself pours it
out for them and into them. They could once defy him, but that hour is over,
and the time to requite them is fully come. But the dregs thereof, all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out, and drink them. They must drink
even the dregs of deep damnation. Happy they who drink the cup of godly sorrow,
and the cup of salvation; these, though now despised, will then be envied by
the very people who trod them underfoot.
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