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factory and fleeting glitter of golden ore, can recompenfe you for the fhame and contempt which will then overwhelm you with eternal confufion, and that pain and anguifh which the fcorching and fiery lake will pour like water into your bowels, and like oil into your bones? Unthinking and deluded mortal! The praises of thy fellow-finners will then be turned into infults and hiffes, thy cup of pleasure into a draught of wrath, and thy glittering treasures into fiery ftreams of brimftone and torture. Streams thefe, which will for ever deluge thy defolated nature; a draught this, which will intoxicate thy foul with eternal horror; and hiffes and infults thofe, with which, as with whips and fcorpions, the fiends of hell will perpetually lash thy guilty and felf-accufing confcience! Believe me, my poor fellow-mortal, thou canst not, indeed thou canst not bear this devouring fire! Thou canst not dwell with thefe: everlasting burnings! If thou thinkeft otherwife,. it is because thou haft not counted the coft, but haft rafhly credited the devil and thy own deceit-ful heart, which were both liars from the beginning, and have not abode in the truth. They have agreed to make thee drunk with fenfuality: and fin, to put out thy eyes, and then to lead thee blindfold into endless ruin, a ruin from whence: thou shalt not efcape..

3. Oh! think, man, before the intoxicating: cup of fin renders thee incapable of thinking, in what a wretched condition thou art foon likely to be, if divine grace prevent not! Oh! look, before the god of this world hath closed thy eyes in eternal darkness, into that tremendous ocean of fiery and unfathomable wrath, into which the Stream of time will foon hurry thy frail and leaky veffel! How intolerable and lafting thy mifery! Oh! think of eternity! Canft thou number the

ftars

ftars in the firmament, the drops of rain, or the fand on the sea shore? Make the experiment; and when thou haft finished the calculation, fit down and reckon up the ages of thy woe! And fee that thy account be juft. Let every ftar, every drop, every grain of fand, reprefent one million of tormenting ages. And when thou haft afcertained the fum, know that as many more millions still remain behind, and yet as many more behind thefe, and fo on without end! Poor infatuated wretch! My heart bleeds for thee!Gladly would I warn thee that thou come not into this place of torment. Oh! that at length thou would't take warning! Oh! that thou would'st imitate the example of Noah, “who being warned of God concerning things not feen as yet, was moved with fear, and prepared an ark for the faving of his houfe."

4. I warn thee, thou unholy and ungodly foul, who doft not know God, nor obey the gospel of our Lord Jefus Chrift, of things not feen as yet: of the glorious coming of that adorable Saviour, whofe falvation thou haft rejected, whom thou haft refused to reign over thee, and whom, by fin, thou hast crucified afresh; I warn thee of an approaching and inexorable Judge, who, (if thou repent not) will fummon thee, with all thy fins about thee, to his bar, and pass an irreversible fentence upon thee. I warn thee of a defcending deluge of divine and infinite wrath, which will fpeedily drown an impenitent and unbelieving world with a fiery and unfathomable fea of mifery! I call upon thee without delay to prepare an ark for the faving of thy foul. Nay, for thy encouragement I tell thee, the ark is already prepared. The almighty Love of God, directed by infinite wifdom, hath prepared it: An ark this, which will defend thee against all the ftorms of wrath,

and

and which will bear thee up above all the waves of mifery. Yes, I point thee to that man "who is as an hiding-place from the ftorm, a covert from the tempeft, as rivers of water in a dry place, and as the fhadow of a great rock in a weary land." I bid thee look unto Jefus, and be Saved!

5. Oh! hide thyfelf, by faith in him, from the wind of temptation and fin; let his blood fprinkled upon thy guilty confcience, and his righteoufnefs put upon thy naked foul, cover thee from the tempeft of divine indignation: Let his Spirit, flowing into thy heart as a river, refresh and water thy fcorched and barren foul; and repofe thyfelf under his cooling fhade, till the burning fun of perfecution fhall go down, and the fiery heat of pain and affliction fhall finally ceafe! Flee for refuge to this hope fet before thee, and all fhall be well.-Forfake all known fin, ufe every appointed mean of grace, and be alfo careful to maintain and excel in good works. But yet reft not there. Oh! " tarry not in all the plain" of duty, but "efcape to this mountain left thou be confumed." And thus like juft Lot, thou fhalt be delivered from the common overthrow of the impenitent and unbelieving, and fhalt fing the praifes of thy Deliverer and Saviour world without end.

SERMON

SERMON VII.

THE

FUTURE MISERY OF THE WICKED.

2 THESS. I. 9.

"Who fhall be punished with everlafting deftruction from the prefence of the LORD, and from the glory of his power."

1.

H

OW infallibly certain, and how astonishingly grand and ftriking, are the events prefented to our view by the Apoftle in this alarming paffage of holy writ! How well worthy the ferious attention and devout contemplation of all who love the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, yea, and of all mankind! And yet (amazing it is) they are in general overlooked and difregarded, even by thofe who profefs to be affured of them!

2. The revolutions which are continually happening in the petty states and fluctuating affairs of this world; the acceffion of temporal princes to their transitory dignities and corruptible crowns; the poor and infignificant conquefts obtained by worms of the earth over their fellow-reptiles; the approach of earthly judges, and the trial, condemnation, and punishment of the violaters of human laws, these are events which fhortfighted mortals deem of confequence enough to occupy their thoughts in private, to employ their tongues in converfation, and to dignify the annals.

of

of history. They think, they talk, they write of these.

3. In the mean time, the grand revolution of univerfal nature; the glorious exaltation of the Prince of the kings of the earth; his complete and everlasting triumph over principalities and powers, and all the potent enemies of his government; the coming of the final Judge of angels and of men; the decifive trial of the whole world at his bar and the rewards and punishments then to be difpenfed to immortal fouls, united to incorruptible bodies;-thefe fubjects, tho' interesting beyond thought, and grand beyond comparison, are, alas! too generally treated with indifference and neglect! Thefe are judged unfit for meditation in fecret, left they fhould make us melancholy; unworthy of a place in polite and genteel company, for fear they should damp their mirth and fpoil their pleafure; and fure it is, he who means to gain either honour or profit by his pen, must take care not to employ it on thefe dreary and puritanical (not to fay methodistical) fubjects, for which this light and airy age has no relish.

4. Bleffed be God, that these heart-improving fubjects have any place left whither to retire! Bleffed be God, that they are not yet quite banifhed out of the world! They are ftill (thanks to Divine Providence!) allowed to remain in our Bibles, and now and then (altho' not often) to afcend the pulpit, and give ferious instructions to a few of the poor and illiterate, who are not yet arrived at fuch a pitch of refinement as to think it beneath them to attend their lectures. But who knows how foon they will be forced from this their laft retreat? Who knows how foon this jovial and licentious age, will forbid us to mention death and judgment, heaven and hell, even in the pulpit, and confine us to discourse on fub

jects

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