them who have finally rejected Jesus the only Mediator, worn out the age of his pity, and provoked his wrath as well as his Father's.

(3.) It is wrath without end, for their souls are im. mortal, their bodies are raised to an immortal state, and their whole nature being sinful and miserable and immortal, they must endure a wretched and miserable immortality. This is the representation of the book of God, even of the New Testament, and I have no commission from God either to soften these words of terror, or to shorten the term of their misery.

REMARKS ON THIS DISCOURSE.

Remark I. What a wretched mistake is it to imagine the great God is nothing else but mercy, and Jesus Christ is nothing else but love and salvation. It is true, God has more mercy than we can imagine, his love is boundless in many of its exercises, and Jesus his Son, who is the image of the Father, is the fairest image of his love and grace. His compassions have heights and depths and lengths and breadths in them that pass all our knowledge. Eph. iii. 18. But God is an universal Sovereign, a wise and righteous Governor: there is majesty with him as well as grace; and Jesus is Lord of lords, and King of kings; he bears the image of his Father's justice as well as of his Father's love; otherwise he could not be the full brightness of his glory, nor the ex press image of his person.

And besides, the Father hath armed him with powers of divine vengeance as well as with powers of mercy and salvaton Psal. ii. 9. He has put the rod of iron into his hand" to dash the nations like a potter's vessel." Rev. ii. 27. and xix. 13. He is the "elect and precious corner stone laid in Zion." } Pet. ii. 6. But he is a stone that "will bruise those

who stumble at him, and those on whom he shall fall he will grind them to powder." Matt. xxi. 42. He is a Lamb and a Lion too: he can suffer at Jerusalem and Mount Calvary with silence, and not open his mouth, and he can roar from heaven with overspreading terror, and shake the world with the sound of his anger. See that his mercy be not abused.

Remark 2. The day of Christ's patience makes haste to an end. Every day of neglected grace hastens on the hour of his wrath and vengeance. Sinners waste their months and years in rebellion against his love, while he waits months and years to be gracious but Christ is all-wise, and he knows the proper period of long-suffering, and the proper moment to let all his wrath and resentment loose on obstinate and unreclaimable sinners. Oh may every one of our souls awake to faith and repentance, to religion and righteousness, to hope and salvation, before this day of our peace be finished and gone for ever. Psal. ii. 12. "Kiss the Son lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little.". There was once a season when he saw the nation of the Jews and the people of Jerusalem wasting the proposals of his love; they let their day of mercy pass away unimproved, and he foretold their destruction with tears in his eyes. Luke xix. 41, 42." He beheld the city and wept óver it," alas, for the inhabitants who would not be saved. He was then a messenger of salvation, and clothed with pity to sinners, but in the last great day of his wrath there is no place for these tears of compassion, no room for pity or forgiveness.

Remark 3. When we preach terror to obstinate sinners, we may approach Jesus Christ as well as when we preach love and salvation, for he is the minister of his Father's government both in vengeance and mercy: the Lamb hath wrath us well

as grace, and he is to be fearea as well as to be trusted; and he must be represented under all the characters of dignity to which he is exalted, that knowing the terrors of the Lord as well as the compassion of the Saviour, we may persuade sinful men to accept of salvation and happiness,

DISCOURSE VI.

THE VAIN REFUGE OF SINNERS

OR,

Ameditation on the Rocks near Tunbridge Wells. 1729.

REV. vi. 15, 16, 17.

And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, &c. hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; And said to the rocks and mountains, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb.

N the former discourse on this text, we have taken

God and the Lamb, whose united wrath spreads so terrible a scene through the world at the great judgment day; we have also inquired and found suffi cient reasons why the anger and justice of God should be so severe against the sinful sous and daughters

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of men, who have wilfully broken his law and refused the grace of his gospel, and why the indignation of the Son of God should be superadded to all the terrors of his Father's vengeance.

We are come now to the third and last general head of discourse, and that is to consider, how vain' will all the refuges and hopes of sinners be found in that dreadful day, wher God and the Lamb shall join to manifest their wrath and indignation against

them.

These hopes and shifts and refuges of rebellious and guilty creatures, are represented by a noble image and description in my text: they shall call to the rocks and the mountains to fall upon them and to cover them from the face of Him that sits upon the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb. As this address to mountains and to rocks appears to be but a vain hope in extreme distress, when a feeble and helpless criminal is pursued by a swift and mighty avenger, so vain and fruitless shall all the hopes of sinners be to escape the just indignation and sentence of their Judge. In order to shew the vanity of all. the refuges and shifts to which sinners shall betake themselves in that day, let us spread abroad this sacred description of them in a paraphrase under the following heads.

1. Let us consider the rocks and mountains as vast and mighty created beings, of huge figure and high appearance, whose aid is sought in the last extremity of distress; and what is this but calling upon creatures to help them against their Creator? What is it but flying to creatures to deliver and save them when their offended God resolves to punish? A vain refuge indeed, when God the Almighty Maker of all things, and Jesus his Son, by whom all things were made, shall agree to arise and go forth against them in their robes of judgment and with their artillery of vengeance! What created being dares interpose