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moved exceedingly; and it shall fall and not rife again. Then the moon fhall be confounded and the fun afhamed, when the Lord of hosts fhall reign in Mount Zion, and in Jerufalem, before his Ancients gloriously +. And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of Smoke. The fun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord come*. The fun and moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their fhining; the Lord alfo fhall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerufalem; and the heavens and the earth fhall quake. The Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and in the ftorm, and the clouds are the duft of his feet. He rebuketh the fea, and maketh it dry, and drieth up all the rivers: The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt. and the earth is burned at his prefence, yea, the world, and all that dwell therein. Who can stand before his indignation? and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? His fury is poured down like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by bim §. God came from Teman, and the Holy One from mount Paran. Before him went the peftilence, and burning coals avent forth at his feet. He flood, and measured the earth: he beheld, and drove afunder the nations; and the everlafting mountains were scattered, and the perpetual bills did bow ||. For, behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven, and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh fhall burn them up, faith the Lord of hofts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch ‡||• Such are the witnesses of the Old Testament, which may

have

+ Ifa. xxiv. 19, 20-23. * J el ii. 30, 31. Joel iii. 15, 16. § Hab. iit. 3.

Mal. iv. I.

Nahum i. 3---7

have had their accomplishment in a low degree, but their full, and fublime, accomplishment is yet to take place in a flaming world.

5. Let us hear the language of the New Teftament. After our Lord has defcribed the deftruction of Jerufalem, he makes a tranfition from one awful fubject to another still more awful, the former being a faint emblem of the latter. Immediately after the tribulation of thofe days fhall the fun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the ftars fhall fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven shall be shaken: And then shall appear the fign of the Son of Man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall fee the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven *. The Lord Jesus fhall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels-In flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and obey not the Goffel of our Lord Jefus Chrift: Who fhall be punished with everlafting deftruction from the prefence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power t. But the heavens and the earth which are now, by the fame word are kept in ftore, referved unto fire against the day of judgment, and perdition of ungodly men. But the day of the Lord cometh as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noife, and the elements fhall melt with fervent heat; the earth also, and the works therein, fall be burnt up. Seeing, then, that all thefe things fhall be diffolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all hely converfation and godliness, looking for, and baftening unto the coming of the day of Ged, wherein the lea

A a

*Matth. xxiv. 29, 30. † 2 Thef i. 7, 8, 9.

vens,

vens, being fet on fire, fhall be diffolved, and the elements fhall melt with fervent heat. Nevertheless we, according to his promife, look for new heavens, and a new earth, wherein dwell righteousness *.

6. SUCH is the express language of Holy Writ, and upon which we may affuredly depend. A truth so fully and repeatedly declared, by Him who cannot lie, calls loudly for our full affent. O that we could imprefs, deeply imprefs it upon the minds of mankind! We fhould fee a happy change in the general tenor of their conduct; but few will give themselves time to think. One is drunk with worldly cares, or furfeiting himself with riches, while another cries, Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die; while a third is wholly carried away with the parade and state of this perishing world, fo that the loud clamour of things below quite drowns the voice of God and their own confciences. Others again, who plume themselves with the liberty of free-thinking, treat the whole affair as a cheat, a mere juggle of priestcraft, and, like the fcoffers in the days of old, who walked after their own hearts lufts, and faying, Where is the promife, or even the threatening, of his coming? For fince the fathers died, all things continue alike from the creation †• By these gentlemen, a black fun, a bloody moon, falling ftars, melting heavens, and a burning world, are treated as mere fictions; and God, and his facred word, fet at nought. But, I add again, I am addreffing myfelf to fuch as be-. lieve the Bible; and, having confidered the Certainty of the awful catastrophe, I fhall now,

II. CONSIDER

* 2 Pet. iii. 7---14. † Ibid---ver. 3, 4.

II. CONSIDER the Uncertainty of it. Nothing is more certain than that it will be, yet nothing is more uncertain than the time. For as it is nearly connected with the Day of Judgment, so what is faid of the uncertainty of one may be faid of the uncertainty of the other; and, therefore, we may be fure it is not for us to know the times and feafons, which the Father hath reserved in his own power; but our wisdom is to be ready; for at fuch an hour as ye think not, the Son of Man will come Nay, fo profound a fecret is this, that while our Lord was upon earth, in the likeness of finful flesh, he was ignorant of the precife time: hence he says, But of that day and bour knoweth no man; no, not the angels which are in heaven; neither the Son himself, but the Father †. Therefore it is great prefumption for any man to pretend to fix the time when that amazing scene shall commence.

**

2. BUT notwithstanding the many friendly warnings which are given by our Lord, and by his faithful fervants, yet fo great a ftupor will have feized the minds of many, that it will be as in the days of Noah, though he was warning them, yet they took not the warning; no, they did eat and drink, married, and were given in marriage, until the day in which Noah entered into the ark, and the flood deftroyed them all t. And mark what was faid before, the General Deluge was a type of this overthrow by fire, and is a proof that it fhall come to pafs. Likewise our Lord mentions the ftupid and fatal fecurity of the Sodomites in the days of Lot;-they ate, they drankthey bought, they fold—they planted, they builded. But the fame day

A a 2

Matth. xxiv. 44. † Mark xiii. 32. Lev. xxii. 27.

day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and deftroyed them all; * fo fhall it be in the awful day of which I am now fpeaking. And here again is another striking figure of that dreadful conflagration and one may obferve the exact refemblance. Thofe fenfual people were warned; but the warning was fet at nought; that very morning the fun arofe upon Sodom, perhaps with as much splendour as it ever had done, which might confirm thofe unhappy wretches in their infidelity, as the mercies of God generally do fuch as are disobedient, and, very probable, will be the cafe with many, when the Laodicean ftate fhall commence, which will precede the burning of the world.

come,

be

3. THE uncertainty of this dreadful scene is expreffed by the fimile of a thief coming in the night. So says our Lord,-But know this, that if the good man of the house would had known in what hour or watch the thief would have watched, and would not have fuffered his house to have been broke through: Therefore be ye also ready; for in fuch an hour as ye think not, the Son of Man cometh*. But of the times, and the feafons, ye have no need that I write unto you. For ye yourjelves know perfilly, that the day of the Lord fo cometh as a thief in the night. For when they fhall fay, Peace and safety,—then fudden deftruction cometh upon them as travail upon a woman with child, and they fhall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day fhould overtake you as a thieft. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens fhall pass away with a great noife, and the elements fall

* Matth. xxiv. 43, 44.- Lev. xii. 39. † 1 Thef. v. 2.

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