It is no security to wicked people for one moment, that they are in no apparent danger of dying soon. It is no security for the natural man, that he is now healthy, or that he does not foresee how he might suddenly be taken by some accident, though his present circumstances pose no visible danger. The long and varied history of humanity disproves the assumption that we are not on the very brink of eternity itself, and that our very next step will not be into another world. The unseen and unexpected ways that people suddenly leave this world are too numerous to imagine. The unconverted walk over the pit of Hell on a rotten bridge, and there are countless places on that bridge that are too weak to bear their weight. These places go unseen. The arrows of death fly unnoticed at high noon; the sharpest eyes cannot spot them. God has so many unfathomable ways of taking people out of this world and sending them to Hell that He does not need miracles or unnatural causes to do so. His ordinary providence alone is able to destroy the wicked at any moment. All the means by which sinners leave this world are under His control. Those means are so subject to His power and choosing, that it depends no less on His will if God uses them than if He does not.
Jonathan Edwards. Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.
