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to the rocks, they may be supposed to seek a thick covering, or a shield of defence to secure them, where the strokes of divine anger shall not break through and reach them: They trust to the solid protection of the rocks, and the strength of the moun. tains to guard them; but these, alas! can yield no shelter from the stroke of the arm of God. Should the rocks, Oh sinners, attempt to befriend thee, and surround thee with their thickest fortification, his wrath would cleave them asunder and pierce thee to the soul, with greater ease than thou canst break through a paper wall with the battering engines of war. Ask the prophet Nahum, who was acquainted with the majesty of God, and he shall tell thee, how it "throws down the mountain, and tears the rock in pieces: When his fury is poured out like fire, the mountains quake at him, the hills melt, the earth is burnt at his presence, with all that" dwell therein. He that "has his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet," what mountain "can stand before his indignation?" And where is the rock "that can abide in the fierceness of his anger?" Nah. i. 2-6. Were the whole globe of the earth one massy rock, and should it yawn to the very centre to give thee a refuge and hidingplace, and then close again and surround thee with its solid defence, yet, when the Lord commands, the earth will obey the voice of him that made it; this solid earth would cleave again and resign the guilty prisoner, and yield thee up to the sword of his justice. Wheresoever a God resolves to strike, safety and

defence are impossible things. The sinner must suffer without remedy, and without hope, who has provoked an Almighty God, and awakened the wrath of that Saviour "who can subdue all things to himself."

4. 'Rocks and mountains' falling upon us are 'instruments of sudden and overwhelming death.'--When sinners therefore call to the 'rocks and mountains to fall upon them and cover them,' they are supposed to endeavour to put an end to their own beings by some overwhelming destruction, that they may not live to feel and endure the resentments of an affronted God, and an abused Saviour. Though they are just raised to life, they would fain die again; but God, who calls the dead from their graves, will forbid the rocks and the mountains, and every creature, to lend sinners their aid to destroy themselves. Sinners, in that dreadful day, shall 'seek death, but death shall flee from them.' Their natures are now made immortal, and the fall of rocks and mountains cannot crush them to death. They must live to sustain the weight of divine wrath, which is heavier than rocks and mountains.

The life which God hath now given to men in this. mortal state, may be given up again, or thrown away by the daring impiety of self-murder; and they may make many creatures instruments of their own de struction; but the life which the Son of God shall give them, when he calls them from the dead, is everlasting; they cannot resign their existence and immortality, they cannot part with it, nor can any crea

ture take it from them. They would rather die than see God in his majesty, or the Lamb arrayed in his robes of judgment; but the wretches are immortalized to punishment, by the long abused majesty and power of God: And they must live for ever to learn what it is to despise the authority of a God, and to abuse the grace of a Saviour. Their doom is "everlasting burnings: They have no rest day nor night, the smoke of their torment will ascend for ever and ever, in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb." Rev. xiv. 10, 11.

Thus have we considered those huge and bulky beings, the rocks and the mountains, in all their vast and mighty figures and appearances, with all their clefts, and dens, and caverns, for shelter and concealment, with all their fortification and massy thickness for defence, and with all their power to crush and destroy mankind, and yet we find them utterly insuffieient to hide, cover, or protect guilty creatures, in that great day of the wrath of God and the Lamb.

REFLECTIONS ON THE FOREGOING DISCOURSE.

1. How strangely do all the appearances of Christ to sinners, in the several seasons and dispensations of his grace, differ from that last great and solemn appearance, which to them will be a dispensation of final vengeance. He visited the world in divine visions of old, even from the day of the sin of Adam, and it was to reveal mercy to sinful man; and he sometimes assumed the majesty of God, to let the

world know he was not to be trifled with. He visited the earth at his incarnation: How lowly was his state! How full of grace his ministry! yet he then gave notice of this day of vengeance, when he should appear in his own and his Father's most awful glories.

He visits the nations now with the word of salvation, he appears in the glass of his gospel, and in the ordinances of his sanctuary, as a Saviour whose heart melts with love, and in the language of his tenderest compassions, and of his dying groans, he invites sinners to be reconciled to an offended God: He appears as a Lamb made a sacrifice for sin, and as a Minister of his Father's mercy, offering and distributing pardons to criminals. But, when he visits the world as a final judge, how solemn and illustrious will that appearance be? How terrible his countenance to all those who have refused to receive him as a Saviour? "Behold he cometh in flaming fire, with ten thousand of his angels, to render vengeance to them that" resisted his grace, and disobeyed the invitation of his gospel, 2 Thes. i. 7.

Time was, when the "Father sent forth his Son, not to condemn the world, but that through him the world might have life," John iii. 17. But the time is coming, when God shall send him arrayed with 'Majesty, and with righteous indignation, to condemn the rebellious world, and inflict upon them the pains of eternal death. Hast thou seen him, Oh my soul, in the discoveries of his mercy, fly to him with all the wings of faith and love, with all the speed of desire and joy fly to him, receive his grace, and accept of

his salvation, that when the day of the wrath of the Lamb shall appear, thou mayest behold his countenance without terror and confusion.

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Ref. 2. How very different will the thoughts of sinners be in that day, from what they are at present ? How different their wishes and their inclinations?' And that with regard to this one terror, which my text describes, viz. that they shall address themselves to the rocks and mountains for shelter, and fly into the dens and caverns of the earth for concealment and safety. Let us survey this in a few particulars.

Sinners, whose 'looks were once lofty and disdainful,' whose eyes were exalted in pride, their mouth set against the heavens, and their hearts haughty and full of scorn, they shall be humbled to the dust of the earth, they shall creep into the hiding-places of the moles and the bats, and thrust their heads into holes and caverns, and dens of desolation, at the appearance of God their Creator in flaming fire, and the Son of God their Judge; for he is the avenger of his own and his Father's injured honours.

Sinners who were once fond of their idols and their sensual delights,' who made idols to themselves of every agreeable creature, and gave it that place in their hearts which belongs only to God, they shall be horribly confounded in that day, when God shall appear in his Majesty, to shake the earth to the centre, and to burn the surface of it with all its bravery. This is nobly described by the prophet Isaiah, chap. the 2d from 10-21. "In that day shall a man cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they

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