the gospel of Christ, lest to-morrow the days of his commission of mercy toward me expire, lest the patience of a God be finished, lest the abused love of a Saviour turn into fury, and nothing remain for me, but unavoidable destruction.'

6. It is a sentence of divine wrath, which shall be attended with the fullest conviction of sinners, and ́ self.condemnation in their own consciences.' This doubles the sensations of divine wrath, and enhances the anguish of the criminal to a high degree.

This final unbelief and rejection of grace, is a sin against so much light and so much love, that however men cheat their consciences now, and charm them into silence, yet at the last great day their own consciences shall be on the side of the Judge, when he pronounces wrath and damnation upon them. What infinite terrors will shake the soul, when there is not one of its own thoughts can speak peace within? When all its own inward powers, shall echo to the sentence of the Judge, and acknowledge the justice and equity of it for ever.

Oh who can express the agonies of pain and torture, when the impenitent sinner shall be awakened into such reflections as these? I was placed in a land of light and knowledge; the light of the gospel of grace shone all round me; but I winked my eyes against the light, and now I am plunged into utter and eternal darkness; I was convinced often that I was a sinner, and in danger of death and hell, I was convinced of the truth of the gospel, and the all-suffieiency of the salvation of Christ, but I loved the

vanities of this life, I followed the appetites of the Aesh, and the delusive charms of a tempting world, I delayed to answer to the voice of Providence and the voice of mercy, the voice of the gospel inviting me to this salvation, and the voice of Christ requiring me to be saved. My own heart condemns me with ten thousand reproaches: how righteous is God in his indignation! How just is the resentment of the Lamb of God in this day of his wrath! What clear and convincing and dreadful equity attends the sentence of my condemnation, and doubles the anguish of my soul?'

7. It is such wrath as shall be executed immediately and eternally, without one hour of reprieve, and without the least hope of mercy, and that through all the ages to come:' For though Jesus is the Mediator between God and man, to reconcile those to God who have broken his law, there is no mediator appointed to reconcile those sinners to Christ, when they have finally resisted the grace of his gospel. There is no blood nor death that can atone, for the final rejection of the blood of this dying Saviour. If we resist Jesus Christ the Lord, and his atonement, and his sacrifice, his gospel, and his salvation, there remains no more atonement for us. Let us consider each of these circumstances apart, and dwell a little on these terrors, that our hearts may be affected with them.

(1.) This wrath shall be executed immediately,' for the time of reprieve is come to an end. Here divine wisdom and justice have set the limits of divinę patience, and they reach no further.

(2.) It is wrath that shall be executed without mercy,' because the day and hour of mercy is for ever finished. That belongs only to this life. The day of grace is gone for ever: "He that once made them, will now have no mercy upon them; and he that formed them will shew them no favour," Isa. xxvii. 11. The very mercy of the Mediator, the compassion of the Lamb of God, is turned into wrath and fury. The Lamb himself has put on the form of a Lion, and there is no Redeemer or Advocate to speak a word for 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 immortal, 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 1. 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 express image of his person.'

And besides, the Father hath armed him with powers of divine vengeance, as well as with powers of mercy and salvation. Psal. ii. 9. He has put "the rod of iron' into his hand, "to dash the nations like a potters vessel." Rev. ii. 27. and xix. 13. He is the "elect and precious corner stone laid in Ziop,” 1 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," Matth. 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 over 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 preach 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 in mercy' The Lamb hath wrath as well as grace, and he is to be feared 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.'