moment of his life in which he is not liable to the execution of that awful fentence which the law paffes upon him. His life hangs in doubt, and depends on the on the mercy of his offended Judge. The almighty Sovereign has declared, that the workers of iniquity shall be cut off, that he is angry with the wicked every day; if they turn not he will whet his fword, he hath bent his bow and made it ready; he hath prepared for them the inftruments of death.

How then, O finner, can you be thoughtlefs and fecure, how can you reft quietly under the weight of all your crimes, and in so much danger? You know not that you fhall live another day, another hour. Death may meet you at your board, in your bed, in the field, or on the high way, and at once remove you from this world to another. You may be of the number of those who perish at the rebuke of his countenance. When he fends the ghaftly messenger to fummon you away, you cannot evade the call.

But what is ftill more awful, if you die in a state of impenitence, you will immediately enter on the bitter pangs of eternal death. O confider what it will be to have your fouls everlastingly banished from the favourable prefence of God, and shut up in darkness and perpetual despair. Can you read fuch awakening declarations as the following, withL

out

...4.4.

out trembling?" He shall take vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jefus Chrift: who fhall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power!" Though you can now live contented without the enjoyment of God's favour, your eyes will then be opened to fee the infinite value of it.

The withdrawings of the light of God's countenance for a time, have filled holy fouls in this world with deep diftrefs and forrow. What then will it be to lie expofed to his awful indignation for ever? Your vain and delufive hopes, O finners, will then exist no more, the felf-flattering delufion will be at an end. Your fenfual delights will be over; in the room of them, there will be weeping and wailing and gnafhing of teeth, drinking of the wine of the wrath of God, poured out without mixture. O dreadful ftate of hopeless mifery, where their worm dieth not, and where the fire is not quenched! Think, O finners, on the dangerous condition of your poor fouls, while there is yet hope of fleeing from the wrath to come. There is but a step between you and death, between you and that everlafting punishment prepared for the devil and his angels. Your breath is in your noftrils, when that departs, your everlasting state is unalterably fixed.

Your

Your hearts, I fear, are hardened through the deceitfulness of fin, fo that the threatenings of God, your Maker, and your Judge, make no impreffions on them. Is not this a fad indication that you are ripening for ruin? You are fleeping on the bed of carnal fecurity, yet your judgment lingereth not.

Think on the miferable condition of thofe unhappy men, who were once as carelefs and as unconcerned as you can be, but are now lifting up their eyes in hell, being in torments, and crying in vain for a drop of water to cool their tongues. They are execrating those days of vanity, when they lived in this world as you do now. They are calling themselves a thousand fools, for that ftupidity, that forgetfulness of God, that disregard of the threatenings of his wrath, and of the promises of his mercy, of which you are now living examples.

And ancient writer used to fay, "I would not for all the world be in the ftate of an unconverted man for one hour, left, in that hour, death fhould cut me off, and the dungeon of eternal darkness receive me." What fhall I fay to you, O poor unconcerned finners, to roufe you from your fatal fecurity? Who can dwell with devouring fire! Who can dwell with everlasting burnings! Will you not begin seriously to inquire how you fhall escape that dreadful and never-ending punishment, which

L 2

which is the juft reward of your multiplied tranfgreffions? Muft it always be the lot of poor minifters to labour in vain, and to say, with the lamenting prophet, "Who hath believed our report ?" If you die in a state of impenitence, you will most certainly feel, ere long, what you will not now believe. The threatenings of God's holy word will not fall to the ground. In the latter day, when all hope is paft, you will confider them, and feel to your coft, that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. You fay, "I fhall have peace though I walk in the way of my own heart," but it will be seen by and by, whofe word fhall ftand, yours, or that of the God of truth. Death and judgment will decide the controversy.

Perhaps some will fay, "You are very harsh and fevere; why do you dwell fo much upon God's favour? Will he difown his creatures? We hope he is more merciful than you would represent him.” To this I anfwer, by afking fúch perfons, " Do you imagine that all men are in a state of acceptance with their Maker? Do you think that none fhall be hereafter punished for their crimes? If you will not believe the awful declarations of his own mouth, but make the God of truth a liar, you will be convinced of your mistake, when conviction will come too late, and coft you dear. Hath he not faid, that

he

he will not be merciful to any wicked and impeni. tent tranfgreffor? Hath he not faid of fome, "They are a people of no understanding, therefore he that made them will have no mercy on them, he that formed them will fhew them no favour ?"

How dreadful is the ftate of that man who cannot be happy unless God falfify his word, but who muft perish if his word be true! He hath faid most pofitively, for fubftance, that impenitent perfons are not in his favour, that unconverted, unholy men cannot be faved, yet you hope it may be otherwife: that is to fay, you hope that he who fpeaks to you in his facred word, is not God; for, if he be God, he must be holy, righteous, just and true, and not altogether such a one as yourselves. But know, O finners, that juftice and judgment are the habitation of his throne. He will by no means clear the guilty, the perfevering finner. He will reprove you, and fet your fins in order before you. Confider this, ye that forget God, left he tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver you.

There are fome perfons who may be called prefumers on God's favour. They imagine themselves in a state of acceptance with their Maker, yet have no fcriptural evidence of their being fo. But that confidence, which is not fupported by the divine word, is no better than prefumption. A poor man