THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES GIFT i , w ATT * D THE WORLD TO COME : OR. DISCOURSES ON THE JOYS OR SORROWS OP DEATH, JUDGMENT AND ETERNITY : TO WHICH ARE ADDED AN ESSAY ON THE SEPARATE STATE OF SOULS, AND AN APPENDIX, CONTAINING SELECT POEMS. BY ISAAC WATTS, D. D. WITH A PREFACE AND NOTES BY JOHN BURTT, V. D. M. DAYTON: PUBLISHED BY B.F.ELLS. 1836. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1836, BY B. F. ELLS, in the Clerk's Office for the District Court of Ohio. CONTENTS. EDITOR'S PREFACE Page v. AUTHOR'S PREFACE viii. Discourses on the -world to come. DISCOURSE I. The End of Time 13 DISCOURSE II. The watchful Christian dying in peace 33 DISCOURSE III. Surprise in Death 58 DISCOURSE IV. Christ admired and glorified in his Saints 78 DISCOURSE V. The Wrath of the Lamb 10 DISCOUKSE VI. The vain Refuge of Sinners, or a meditation on the rocks near Tunbridge- Wells. 1729 114 DISCOURSE VII. No Night in Heaven 130 DISCOURSE VIII. A Soul prepared for Heaven 147 DISCOURSE IX. No Pain among the Blessed 175 DISCOURSE X. The first fruits of the Spirit, or the foretaste of Hea- ven 210 DISCOURSE XI. Safety in the Grave, and joy at the Resurrection . . 233 A Speech over a Grave 255 DISCOURSE XII. The Nature of the Punishments in Hell 257 DISCOURSE XIII. The eternal Duration of the Punishments in Hell 291 An Essay toward the proof of a Separate State of Souls between Death and the Resurrection , 334 APPENDIX. Earth and Heaven 383 Death and Eternity 384 The Atheist's Mistake 385 The Welcome Measenger 386 The Farewell 387 Launching into Eternity 388 Happy Frailty 388 The Day of Judgment 390 A Prospect of the Resurrection , 391 A Sight of Heaven in Sickness 392 Felicity Above 393 The Presence of God worth dying for ; or the Death of Moses 394 God's Dominion and Decrees 395 The Incomprehensible 396 True Wisdom 397 Christ dying, rising, and reigning 399 The Song of Angels above 399 Two happy Rivals, Devotion and the Muse 402 Come, Lord Jesus 404 A Sight of Christ 408 EDITOR'S PREFACE. Dr.. ISAAC WATTS, the author of the following Discourses, was born at Southampton, in England, in the year 1674. His parents were noncon- formists, and his father was a sufferer for conscience' sake, having been im- prisoned more than once for refusing to conform to the religion established by government During his confinement, his afflicted and sympathising wife was sometimes seen sitting on a stone, near the prison door, with her son Isaac on her bosom. Isaac, at a very early age, gave promising indica- tions of genius, and from fifteen to fifty, poetical composition contributed to his amusement, as it also did to his usefulness and fame. In his nineteenth year, he became a professed follower of Christ, and devoted himself to those studies, and assiduously cultivated those habits, which were calculated to prepare him for the sacro:! duties of a Christian tninister. At the age of twenty-four, and on his birth-day, he preached his first sermon. During the iirst three or four years of his ministry, his labours were much interrupted by sick-.iess ; but he was so far restored as to labour with much acceptance and success, till 1712, when a violent fever so completely prostrated his constitution, that he was never afterwards able to discharge, statedly, the public duties of a pastor. During a period of thirty-six years, which he spent in a state 01* retirement, he laboured most laudably and industriously, to promote by his pen, that holy cause, which he was no longer permitted to plead from the sacred desk. In 1748, he died, in the 74th year of his age, sustained by the consolations, and animated with the hopes of that gospel, which h ' had so long been spared and privileged to recommend to others. His poetical works are, for the greater part, well known, and favourably appreciated, by all who love pious sentiments expressed in an elegant sim- plicity of diction. His prose works arc various and excellent. The writer of these remarks takes a pleasure in recording here his obligations to Dr. Walts' treatise " On the improvement of the mind," from which, in youth, A 2 V vi EDITOR'S PREFACE. he derived more permanent advantage than from any other work of human composition. The Discourses contained in this volume, and generally pub- lished under the title of " The World to come," have been long known to the Christian public, and highly esteemed by pious people, of every degree of mental cultivation. The author combines, in the happiest manner, ele- gance with perspicuity, tenderness with fidelity, a vivacity of imagination with cogency of argument, clear statement, and impressive thought. While I think that every serious Christian reader will agree with me, in a high estimate of the excellence of these Discourses, I would not conceal, and at the same time, I would not aggravate, the blemishes which I see in them. A few, and but a few sentences occur, in which there are expres- sions, which although not intended to teach error, are rather loose and un- guarded. On several of the most remarkable of these, I have taken the lib- erty to comment briefly in the Notes, which the reader will find at the bottom of the pages, where the faulty expressions occur. It would not have been consistent with my respect for the author, nor with the sense which I enter- tain of my own imperfection, to enter my caveat against every turn of ex- pression which might appear to me exceptionable : to notice some of these, I considered to be necessary, for the sake of guarding the inexperienced and unsuspecting reader from taking upon trust every thing which may fall from the pen of even a truly learned and pious man. With the few excep- tions to which I have reference, the reader will find that the work is at once scriptural, luminous, and solemn, treating of the most awful subjects that can engage the attention of men, in a manner the most becomingly tender, and instructively interesting. Besides these Notes, which I hope the intelligent reader will not consider captious, as they were not written in a captious spirit, there are a few others, intended for illustration. I might have increased the number of these; but in a work professedly, and I may add, pre-eminently practical, I judged it best not to divert the attention of the reader too often from the train of thought presented by the author. The subjects treated of in the following pages are o r universal concern ; every human being, now on earth, is hastening on, as rapidly as time can carry him, to the joys or terrors of a " World to come." The change which we must all experience at death, and the asi-crtained or possible in- terests, which we may have in eternity, as they unspeakably surpass all earthly objects of contemplation, so they ought to have a suitable share of our daily attention, and awaken in us the most serious thoughts. " What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul V What will be the amount of all our care, and toil, and acquire- ments, when calculated in the dying hour, if we have not cared and toiled for our eternal interests, and obtained a hope, through grace, of an inheri- tance in heaven ? These are questions which we all should ask ; and none EDITOR'S PREFACE. Yii of us should rest, until we are enabled to adopt the language of the apostle, and say : " According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in no- thing I shall be ashamed, but that .... Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death : for to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain." That the perusal of this volume may be blessed to the reader, and be a means of exciting him to live habitually in view of the glory of God, and the salvation of his soul, is the earnest prayer of his sincere well-wisher, JOHN BURTT. THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE. AMONG all the solemn and important things which relate to reli- gion, there is nothing that strikes the soul of man with so much awe and solemnity, as the scenes of death, and the dreadful or delightful consequents which attend it. Who can think of entering into that unknown region where spirits dwell, without the strongest impres- sions upon the mind arising from so strange a manner of existence ? Who can take a survey of the resurrection of the millions of the dead, and of the tribunal of Christ, whence men and angels must receive their doom, without the most painful solicitude, ' What will my sen- tence be ?' Who can meditate on the intense and unmingled plea- sure or pain in the world to come, without the most pathetic emotions of soul, since each of us must be determined to one of these states, and they are both of everlasting duration 1 These are the things that touch the springs of every passion in the most sensible manner, and raise our hopes and our fears to their su- preme exercise. These are the subjects with which our blessed Sa- viour and his Apostles frequently entertained their hearers, in order to persuade them to hearken, and attend to the divine lessons which they published amongst them. These were some of the sharpest weapons of their holy warfare, which entered into the inmost vitals of man- kind, and pierced their consciences with the highest solicitude. These have been the happy means to awaken thousands of sinners to flee from the wrath to come, and to allure and hasten them to enter into that glorious refuge that is set before them in the gospel. It is for the same reason that I have, selected a few discourses on these arguments out of my public ministry, to set them before the eyes of the world in a more public manner, that if possible, some thoughtless creatures might be roused out of their sinful slumbers, and might awake into a spiritual and eternal life, through the concur- ring influences of the blessed Spirit. lam not willing to disappoint my readers, and therefore I would viii AUTHOR'S PREFACE. ix let them know before-hand, that they will find very little in this book to gratify their curiosity abort the many questions relating to the in- visible world, and the things which God has not plainly revealed. Something of this kind, perhaps, may be found in two discourses of death and heaven, which I published long ago : but in the present dis- courses I have very much neglected such curious enquiries. Noi will the ear that has an itch for controversy be much entertained here, for I have avoided matters of doubtful debate. Nor need the most zealous man of orthodoxy, fear to be led astray into new and dangerous sentiments, if he will hut take the plainest and most evident dictates of Scripture, for his direction into all truth. My only design has been to set the great and most momentous things of a future world in the most convincing and affecting light, and to enforce them upon the conscience with all the fervour that such subjects demand and require. And may our blessed Redeemer, who reigns Lord of the invisible world, pronounce these words with a di- vine power to the heart of pvery man, who shall either read or hear them. The treatise which is set as an introduction to this book, * was printed many years 230 without the author's name, and there, in a short preface, represented to the reader these few reasons of its wri- ting and publication, viz. The principles of atheism and infidelity have prevailed so far upon our age, as to break in upon the sacred fences of virtue and piety, and to destroy the noblest and most effectual springs of true and vital religion? I mean those which are contained in the blessed gospel. The doctrine of the resurrection of the body, and the consequent states of heaven and hell, is a guard and motive of divine force ; but it is re- nounced by the enemies of our holy Christianity : and should we give up the recompences of separate souls, while the deist denies the resurrection of the lody, I fear between both we should sadly enfeeble and expose the cause of virtue, and leave it too naked and defenceless. The Christian would have but one persuasive of this kind remaining, and the deist would have none at all. It is necessary therefore to be upon our guard, and to establish eve- ry motive that we can derive either from reason or Scripture, to se- cure religion in the world. The doctrine of the state of separate spirits, and the commencement of rewards and punishments, imme- diately after death, is one of those sacred fence? of virtue which we borrow from Scripture, and it is highly favoured by reason,and there- * In the present edition, the treatise, or Essay, referred to here, is placed it the end of the volume. ED. x AUTHOK'S PREFACE. fore it may not le unseasonable to publish such arguments as may tend to the support of it. In this second edition of this small treatise, I have added several paragraphs and pages to defend the same doctrine, and the last sec- tion contains an answer to various new objections which I had not met with, when I first began to write on this subject. I hope it is set upon such a firm foundation of many Scriptures, as cannot pos- sibly be overturned, nor do I think it a very easy matter any way to evade the force of them. May the grace of God lead us on further into every truth that tends to maintain and propagate faith and holi- ness. In the first cf these discourses, I have endeavoured to prove, that 'at the departure of the soul from the body by death, the rewards or punishments,' i. e. the joys or sorrows ' of the other world, are ap- pointed to commence :'. and I hope I have given, from the evidence of Scripture, such arguments to support this doctrine, as that the faith of Christians may not be staggered and confounded by different opin- ions, or made to wait for these events, through all the many years that may arise between death and the resurrection. I know nothing besides this, that is made r. matter of controversy ; and I hope that the whole of these sermons, by the blessing of God, wil 1 be made happily useful to Christians, to awaken and v/arn them against the danger of being seized by death in a state unprepared for the presence of God, and the happiness of heaven, and to raise the comforts and joys of many pious souls in the lively expectation of future blessedness. The last discourses of this book, especially the 'eternity of the punishments of hell,' have been in latter and former years made a matter of dispute ; and were I to pursue my enquiries inLo this doc- trine, only by the aids of the light of nature and reason, I fear my natural tenderness might warp me aside from the rules and the de- mands of strict justice, and the wise and holy government of the great God. But as I confine myself almost entirely to the revelation of Scripture in all my searches into the things of revealed religion and Christianity, I am constrained to forget or to lay aside that soft- ness and tenderness of animal nature which might lead rie astray, and to follow the unerring dictates of the word of God. The Scripture frequently, and in the plainest and strongest man- ner, asserts the everlasting punishment of sinners in hell ; and that by all the methods of expression which are used in Scripture to sig- nify an everlasting continuance. God's utter hatred and aversion to sin, in this perpetual punish- AUTHOR'S PREFACE. xi ment of it, are manifested many ways ; (1.) By the just and severe threatenings of the wise and righteous Governor of the world, which are scattered up and down in his word. (2.) By the veracity of God in his intimations or narratives of past events, as Jude v. 7. " Sodom and Gomorrah suffering the vengeance of eternal fire." (3.) By his express predictions, Matth. xxv. 46, " These shall go away into evarlasting punishment :" 2 Thess. i. 9, " Who shall be pun- ished with everlasting destruction ;" and I might add, (4.) by the veracity and truth of all his holy Prophets and Apostles, and his Son Jesus Christ at the head of them, whom he has sent to acquaint man- kind with the rules of their duty, and the certain judgment of God in a holy correspondence therewith, and that in such words as seem to admit of no way of escape, or of hope for the condemned criminals. i. must confess here, if it were possible for the great and blessed God any other way to vindicate his own eternal and unchangeable hatred of sin, the inflexible justice of his government, the wisdom of his severe threatenings, and the veracity of his predictions, if it were also possible for him, without this terrible ex-scution, to vindicate the veracity ^sincerity, and wisdom of the Prophets and Apostles, and Jesus Christ his Son, the greatest and chiefest of his divine messengers ; and then, if the blessed God should at any time, in a consistence with his glorious and incomprehensible perfections, re- lease those wretched creatures from their acute pains and long im- prisonment in hell, either with a design of the utter destruction of their beings by annihilation, or to put them into some unknown world, upon a new foot of trial, I think I ought cheerfully and joyfully to accept this appointment of God, for the good of millions of my fel- low-creatures, and add my joys and praises to all the songs and tri- umph* of the heavenly world in the day of such a divine and glori- ous release of these prisoners. But I feel myself under a necessity of confessing, that I am utter- ly unable to solve these difficulties according to the discoveries of the New Testament, which must be my constant rule of faith, and hope, and expectation, with regard to myself and others. I have read the strongest and best writers on the other side, yet after all my studies I have not been able to find any way how these difficulties may be removed, and how the divine perfections, and the conduct of God in his word, may he fairly vindicated without the establishment of this doctrine, as awful and formidable as it is. 'The ways' indeed of the great God and his 'thoughts are above our thoughts and our ways, as the heavens are above the earth ;' yet I most rest and acquiesce where our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father's Xll AUTHOR'S PREFACE. chief Minister, both of his wrath and his love, has left me in the di- vine revelations of Scripture ; and I am constrained therefore to leave these unhappy creatures under the chains of everlasting darkness, in- to which they have cast themselves by their wilful iniquities, till the blessed God shall see fit to release them. This would be indeed such a new, such an astonishing and univer- sal jubilee, both for devils and wicked men, as must fill heaven, earth, and hell, with hallelujahs and joy. In the mean time it is my ardent wish, that this awful sense of the terrors of the Almighty, and his everlasting anger, which the word of the great God denounces, may awaken some souls timely to bethink themselves of the dreadful danger into which they are running, before these terrors seize them at death, and begin to be executed upon them without release and without hope. Note. Where these Discourses shall be used as a religious service in private families on Lord's-day evenings, each of them will afford a division near the middle, lest the service be made too long and tiresome. DISCOURSES WORLD TO COME DISCOURSE I. THE END OF TIME. RET. x. 5, 6. And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea, and upon the earth, lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, that there should be time no longer. THIS is tfie oath and the solemn sentence of a mighty angel who came down from heaven, and by the descrip- tion of him in the first verse, he seems to be the "angel of God's presence, in whom is the name of God, 7 ' even our Lord Jesus Christ himself, * who pronounced and sware that "Time should be no longer;" for all seasons and times are now put into his hand, together with the book of his Father's decrees, Rev. v. 7, 9. What special age or period of time in this world the prophecy refers to, may not be so easy to determine; t but this is certain, that it may be happily applied to the period of every man's life ; for whensoever the term of our continuance in this world is finished, 'our Time,' in the present cir- cumstances and scenes that attend it, ' shall be no more.' We fhall be swept off the stage of this visible state into an unseen and eternal world: Eternity comes upon us at once, and all that we enjoy, all that we do, and all that we suffer in 'Time, shall be no longer.' * Commentators are generally agreed, in considering the Angel, men- tioned in the text, as Christ himself, or that which represented him to John, in the vision, as the Messenger of the covenant. ED. f Judicious expositors concur in believing this part of the prophecy to apply to that period, which immediately precedes the sounding of the seventh trumpet, and during the events which are introductory to the latter day of glory, predicted to the church. ED. B 13 14 THE END OF TIME. Let us stand still here, and consider in the first place what awful and important thoughts are contained in this sentence ; what solemn ideas should arise to the view of mortal creatures when it shall be pronounced concerning each of them, that ' Time shall be no more. ' 1. 'The Time of the recovery of our nature from its sinful and wretched state shall be no longer.' We come into this world fallen creatures, children of iniquity, and heirs of death ; we have lost the ' image of God' who made us, and which our nature enjoyed in our first parents; and instead of it we are changed into the 'image of the devil' in the lusts of the mind, in pride and malice, in self-sufficiency and enmity to God; and we have put on also the ' image of the brute' in sinful appetites and sensu- alities, and in the lusts of the flesh; nor can we ever be made truly happy till the image of the blessed God be restored upon us, till we are made holy as he is holy, till we have a divine change past upon us, whereby we are created anew and reformed in heart and practice. And this life is the only time given us for this important change. If this life be finished before the image of God be restored to us, this image will never be restored ; but we shall bear the likeness of devils for ever; and perhaps the image of the brute too at the resurrection of the body, and be further off from God and all that is holy than ever we were here upon earth. Of what infinite importance is it then to be frequently awakening ourselves at special seasons and periods of life to enquire, whether this image of God is begun to be renewed, whether we have this glorious change wrought in us, whether our desires and delights are fixed upon holy and heavenly things, instead of those sensual and earthly objects which draw away all our souls from God and heaven. Let it appear to us as a matter of utmost moment to seek after this change; let us pursue it with unwearied labours and strivings with our own hearts, and perpetual importunities at the throne of grace, lest the voice of him who swears that, < there shall be Time no longer,' should seize us in some unexpected moment, and lest he^wear in his wrath concerning us, "let him that is unholy be unholy still, and let him that is filthy be filthy still." 2. When thissentence is pronounced concerningus, < the THE END OP TIME. 15 season and the means of restoring us to the favour and love of God shall be no longer.' We are born ' children of wrath' as well as the sons and daughters of iniquity, Ephes. ii. 2. We have lost the original favour ef, our Maker and are banished from his love, and the superior blessings of his goodness; and yet, blessed be the Lord, that we are not at present for ever banished beyond all hope : This ' Time of life' is given us to seek the recovery of the love of God, by returning to him according to the gospel of his Son : Now is pardon and peace, now is grace and salvation preached unto men, to sinful wretched men, who are at enmity with God and the objects of his high displeasure ; now the voice of mercy calls to us, "This is the accepted time, this is the day of salvation," 2 Cor. vi. 2. "To-day if ye will hear his voice, let not your hearts be hardened to refuse it:" Now the fountain of the blood of Christ is set open to wash our souls from the guilt of sin; now all the springs of his mercy are broken up in the ministrations of the gospel: Now ' God is in Christ reconciling sinners to himself,' and 'he has sent us,' his ministers, 'to intreat you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God ;' and we beseech you in his name, continue not one day, or one hour, longer in your enmity and rebellion, but be ye reconciled to God your Creator, and accept of his offered forgiveness and grace. 2 Cor. v. 20. The moment is hastening upon us when this mighty angel, who manages the affairs of the kingdom of Provi- dence, shall swear concerning every unbelieving and im- penitent sinner, that the l Time of offered mercy shall be no longer, the time of pardon and grace and reconciliation ehall be no more:' The sound of this mercy reaches not to the regions of the dead; those who die before they are reconciled, die under the load of all their sins, and must perish for ever, without the least hope or glimpse of recon- ciling or forgiving grace. 3. At the term of this mortal life, 'the Time of prayer and repentance and service, for God or man, in this world, shall be no longer.' Eccl. ix. 10. "There is no work nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave whither thou goest," whither we are all hastening. Let every sinful creature therefore ask himself, ' Have I never yet begun to pray ? Never begun to call upon the mercy of God that made me ? Never begun to repent of all my crimes 16 THE END OF TIME. and follies ? Nor begun in good earnest to do service for God, or to honour him amongst men ?' Dreadful thought indeed ! when, it may be, the next hour, we may be put outof all capacity and opportunity to do itfor ever! Assoon as ever an impenitent sinner has the vail of death drawn over him, all his opportunities of this kind are for ever cutoff. He that has never repented, never prayed, never honoured his God, shall never be able to pray, or repent, or do any thing for God, or his honour, through all the ages of his future immortality. Nor is there any promise made to returning or repenting sinners in the other world, whither we are hastening. "As the tree falls," when it is cut down, "so it lies," and it must for ever lie, 'pointing to the north or the south,' to hell or heaven, Eccles. xi. 3. And, indeed, no true prayer, no sincere repentance can be exercised after this life ; for the soul that has wasted away all its time given for repentance and prayer, is, at the moment of death, left under everlasting hardness of heart ; and whatsoever enmity against God and godliness was found in the heart in this world is increased in the world to come, when all manner of softening means and mercies are ever at an end. This leads me to the next thought. 4. 'How wretched soever our state is at death, the day of hope is ended, and it returns no more. ' Be our cir- cumstances never so bad, yet we are not completely wretched while the time of hope remains. We are all by nature miserable by reason of sin, but it is only despair that can perfect our misery. Therefore fallen angels are sealed up under misery because there is no door of hope opened for them. But in this life there is hope for the worst of sinful men : There is the word of grace and hope calling them in the gospel ; there is the voice of di- vine mercy sounding in the sanctuary, and ' blessed are they that hear the joyful sound.' But if we turn the deaf ear to the voice of God and his Son, and to all the tender and compassionate intreaties of a dying Saviour, hope is hastening to its period ; for this very angel will shortly swear, that this joyful sound shall be heard no longer. He comes now to the door of our hearts, he sues there for admittance, l Open unto me and receive me as your and your Lord, give me and my gospel free ad- THE END OP TIME. 17 mission, and I will come in and bestow upon you the riches of my grace and all my salvation : Open your hearts to me with the holy desires and humble submission of penitence, and receive the blessings of righteousness, and pardon, and eternal life.' He now invites you to return to God with an acknowledgement and renunciation of every sin, and he offers to take you by the hand and introduce yoa into his Father's presence with comfort. This is a day of hope for the vilest and most hateful crimi- nals; but if you continue to refuse^ he will shortly swear in his wrath, that you shall never enter into his kingdom, you shall never taste of the provisions of his grace, you shall never be partakers of the blessings purchased with his blood, Heb. iii. 18. "I sware in. my wrath," saith the Lord, "they sbill not enter into my rest." Oh the dreadful state of sinful creatures, who continue in such obstinacy, who waste away the means of grace and the seasons of hope, week after week, and month after month, till the day of grace and hope is for ever at an end with them! Hopeless creatures! Under the power and the plague of sin, under the wrath and curse of a God, under the eternal displeasure of Jesus who was once the minister of his Father's love; and they must abide under all this wretchedness through a long eternity, and in the land of everlasting despair. But I forbear that theme at present, and proceed. 5. At the moment of our death, f the Time of our pre- paration for the hour of judgment, and for the insurance of heaven and happiness shall be no longer.' Miserable creatures that are summoned to die thus unprepared! This life is the only time to prepare for dying, to get ready to stand before the Judge of the whole earth, and to secure our title to the heavenly blessedness. Let my heart inquire, ' Have I ever seriously begun to prepare for a dying hour, and to appear before the Judge of all ? Have I ever concerned myself in good earnest to secure an interest in the heavenly inheritance, when this earthly tabernacle shall be dissolved ? Have I ever made interest for the favour of God and a share of the inheritance of the saints, by Jesus the great Mediator while he afforded life and time !' Death is daily and hourly hastening upon us: Death is the 'king of terrors,' and will fulfil all his name to every soul that is unprepared. It is a piece of wisdom 3 B 2 18 THE END OP TIME. then for every one of us, since we must die, to search and feel whether death has lost its sting or no: whether it be taken away hy the blood of Christ : Is this blood sprinkled on my conscience by the humble exercise of faith on a dying Saviour ? Are the terrors of death re- moved, and am I prepared .to meet it by the sanctifying influences of the blessed Spirit ? Have -I such an interest in the covenant of grace as takes away the sting of death, as turns the curse into a blessing, and changes the dark scene of death into t)ie commencement of u new and everlasting life ? This is that preparation for dying for which our time of life was given us ; and happy are those who are taught of God to make this use of it. Judgment is making haste towards us ; months and days of divine patience are flying swrft away, and the last great day is just at hand: Then we must give an account of "all that has been done in the body whether it has been good or evil:" And what a dismal and distressing surprise will it be to have the Judge come upon us in a blaze of glory and terror, while we have no good account to give at Jiis demand ? And yet this is the very end and design of all our time, which is lengthened out to us on this side the grave, and of all the advantages that we have enjoyed in this life, that we may be ready to render up our account with joy to the Judge of all the. earth. Heaven is not ours by birth and inheritance, as lands and houses on earth descend to us from our earthly parents. We, as well as they, are by nature unfit for heaven and children of wrath; but we may be born again, we may be born of God, and become heirs of the heavenly inheritance through Jesus Christ. We may be renewed into the tem- per and spirit of heaven; and this life is the only season that is given us for this important change. Shall we let our days and years pass away one after another in long succession, and continue the children of wrath still ? Are we contented to go on this year as the last, without a title to heaven, without a divine temper, and without any preparation for the business or the blessedness of that happy world ? 6. When this life comes to an end, 'the time of all our earthly comforts and amusements shall be no more.' We shall have none of these sensible things around us, to employ to entertain our eyes or our ears, to gratify our THE END OP TIME. 19 appetites, to soothe our passions, or to support our spirits in distress. All the infinite variety of cares, labours and joys, which surround us here, shall be no more ; life, with all the busy scenes and pleasing satisfactions of it dissolve and perish together. Have a care then that you do not make any of them your chief hope ; for they are but the things of time ; they are all short and dying en- joyments. Under the various calamities of this life we find a varie- ty of sensible reliefs, and our thoughts and souls are called away -from their sorrows by present business, or diverted by present pleasures; but all these avocations and amuse- ments will forsake us at once, when we drop this mortal tabernacle; we must enter alone into the world of spirits, and live without them there. Whatsoever agonies or terrors, or huge distresses, we may meet with in that unknown region, we shall have none of these sensible enjoyments to soften and allay them, no drop of sweetness to mix with that bitter cup, no scenes of gaiety and merriment to relieve the gloom of that utter darkness, or to soothe the anguish of that eternal heart-ate. take heed, my friends, that your souls do not live too much on any of the satisfactions of this life, that your affections be not setupon them in too high a degree, that you make them not your idols and your chief gorod, lest you be left helpless land miserable under everlasting disappointment, for they cannot follow you into the world of souls. They are the things of time, and they have no place in eternity. Read what caution the apostle Paul gives us in . our converse with the dearest comforts of life; 1 Cor. vii. 39. "The time is short;" and let those who have the largest affluence of temporal blessings, who have the nearest and kindest relatives, and themost endeared friendships, be mortified to them, and be, in some sense, 'as though they had them not,' for ye can- not possess them long. St. Peter joins in the same sort of advice, 1 Pet. iv. 7. " The end of all things is at hand, therefore be ye sober," be ye moderate in every enjoy- ment on earth, and prepare to part with them all, when the angel pronounces that ' Time shall be no longer.' His sentence. puts an effectual period to every joy in this life, and to every hope that is not eternal. There we have taken a brief survey, what are the solemn 20 THE END OP TUVTE. and awful thoughts relating to ' such mortal creatures in general,' which are contained in this voice or sentence of the angel, 'That Time shall be no longer.' In the second place let us proceed further, and inquire a little ' what are those terrors which will attend sinners, impenitent sinners, at the end of time.' 1. A dreadful account must be given of all this lost and wasted time. When the Judge shall ascend his throne in the air, and all the sons and daughters of Adam are brought before him, the grand inquiry will be, ' What have you done with all the time of life in yonder world ? You spent thirty or forty years there, or perhaps seventy or eighty, and I gave yo'u this time with a thousand oppor- tunities and means of grace and salvation ; what have you done with them all ? How many sabbaths did I .afford you ? How many sermons have ye heard ? How many seasons did I give you for prayer and retirement, and con- verse with God and your own souls ? Did you improve time well ? Did you pray ^ Did you converse with your souls and with God ? Or did you suffer time to slide a- way in a thousand impertinencies, and neglect the one thing necessary ?' 2. ' A fruitless and bitter mourning for the waste and abuse of time' will be another consequence of your foljy. Whatsoever satisfaction you may take now in passing time away merrily and without thinking, it must not pass away so for ever. If the approaches of death do not awaken you, yefe judgment will do it. Your consciences will be worried-! with terrible reflections on your foolish conduct. could we but hear the complaints of the souls in hell, what multitudes of them would be found groaning out this dismal note, 'How hath my time been lost in vanity, and my soul is now lost for ever in distress: How might I have shone among the saints in heaven, had I wisely improved the time which was given me on earth, given me on pur- pose to prepare for death and heaven?' Then they will for ever curse themselves, and call themselves eternal fools, for hearkening to the temptations of flesh and sense, which wasted their time, and deprived them of eternal treasures. 3. Another of the terrors which will seize upon impeni- tent sinners at the end of time, will be ' endless despair of the recovery of lost time, and of those blessings whose hope is for ever lost with it' There are blessings offered THE END OF TIME. 21 to sinful miserable men in time, which will never be of- fered in eternity, nor put within their reach for ever. The gospel hath no calls, no invitations, no encouragements, no promises for the dead, who have lost and wasted their time, and are perished without hope. The region of sor- row, whither the Judge shall drive impenitent sinners, is a dark and desolate place, where light and hope can never come: But fruitless repentance, with horrors and agonies of soul, and doleful despair reign through that world, without one gleam of light or hope, or one moment of intermission. Then will despairing sinners gnaw their tongues for anguish of heart, and curse themselves with long execrations, and curse their fellow sinners, who assis- ted them to waste their time, and ruin their souls. 4. The last terror I shall mention which will attend sin- ners at the end of time, is an ' eternal suffering of all the painful and dismal consequences of lost and wasted time.' Not one smile from the face of God for ever, not one glimpse of love or mercy in his countenance, not one word of grace from Jesus Christ, who was once the chief messenger of the grace of God, nnt nnp favourable regard from all the holy saints and angels; but the fire and brim- stone burn without end, " and the smoke of this their tor- ment will ascend for ever and ever before the throne of God and the Lamb." Who knows how keen and bitter will be the agonies of an awakened conscience, and the vengeance of a provoked God in that world of misery ? How will you cry out, ' what a wretch have I been to renounce all the ad- vices of a compassionate father, when he would have per- suaded me to improve the time of youth and health! Alas, I turned a deaf ear to his advice, and now time is lost, and my hopes of mercy for ever perished. How have I treated with ridicule among my vain companions the compassionate and pious counsels of my aged parents who laboured for my salvation ? How have I scorned the tender admonitions of a mother, and wasted that time in sinning and sensuality which should have been spent in prayer and devotion ? And God turns a deaf ear to my cries now, and is regardless of all my groanings.' This sort of anguish of spirit with loud and cutting complaints would destroy life itself, and these inward terrors would sting their souls to death, if there could be any such thing 22 THE END OF TIME. as dying there. Such sighs and sobs and bitter agonic* would break their hearts, and dissolve their being, if the heart could break, or the being could be dissolv- ed. But immortality is their dreadful portion, immortal- ity of sorrows to punish their wicked and wilful abuse of time, and that waste of the means of grace they were guilty of in their mortal state. I proceed in the last place to consider what reflections may be made on this discourse, or what are some of the profitable lessons to be learnt from it. Reflect. 1. We may learn with great evidence 'the inestimable worth and value of time, and particularly to those who are not prepared for eternity.' Every hour you live is an hour longer given you to prepare for dy- ing, and to save a soul. If you were but apprized of the worth of your own souls, you would better know the worth of days and hours, and of every passing moment, for they are given to secure your immortal interest, and save a soul from everlasting misery. And you would be zeal- ous and importunate in the prayer of Moses, the man of God, upon a meditation of the. shortness of life, Psal. xc. 12. " So teach us to number our days, as to apply our hearts to wisdom ;" i. e. so teach us to consider how few and uncertain our days are, that we may be truly wise in preparing for the end of them. It is a matter of vast importance to be ever ready for the end of time, ready to hear this awful sentence con- firmed with the oath of the glorious angel, that Time shall be no longer.' The terrors or the comforts of a dy- ing bed depend upon it : the solemn and decisive voice of judgment depends upon it : the joys and the sorrows of a long eternity depend upon it. Go now, careless sinner, and in the view of such things as these, go and trifle away time as you have done before ; time, that invaluable treas- ure ! Go and venture the loss of your souls, and the hopes of heaven and your eternal happiness, in wasting away the remnant hours or moments of life. But remember the awful voice of the angel is hastening towards you, and the sound is just breaking in upon you, that ' Time shall be no longer.' Reflect. II. ' A due sense of time hastening to its pe- riod, will furnish us with perpetual new occasions of holy meditation. THE END OP TIMU. 23 Do I observe the declining day and the setting sun sink- ing into darkness ? so declines the day of life, the hours of labour, and the season of grace. may I finish my ap- pointed work with honour, before the light is fled ! May I improve the shining hours of grace before the shadows of the evening overtake me, and my time of working is no more! Do I see the moon gliding along through midnight, and fulfilling her stages in the dusky sky ? This planet also is measuring out my life, and bringing the number of my months to their end. May I be prepared to take leave of the sun and moon, and bid adieu to these visible heav- ens and all the twinkling glories of them! These are all but the measurers of my time, and hasten me on towards eternity. Am I walking in a garden, and stand still to observe the slow motion of the shadow upon a dial there ? It passes over the hour lines with an imperceptible progress, yet it will touch the last line of day-light shortly: so my hours and my moments move onward with a silent pace ; but they will arrive with certainty at the last limit, how heed- less soever I am of their motion, and how thoughtless so- ever I may be of the improvement of time, or of the end of it. Does a new year commence, and the first morning of it dawn upon me ? Let me remember that the last year was finished, and has gone over my head, in order to make way for the entrance of the present. I have one year the less to travel through this world, and to fulfil the various services of a travelling state. May my diligence in duty be doubled, since the number of my appointed years is diminished. Do I find a new birth-day in my survey of the kalendar, the day wherein I entered upon the stage of mortality, and was born into this world of sins, frailties and sorrows, in order to my probation for a better state ? Blessed Lord, how much have I spent already of this mortal life, this season of my probation, and how little am I prepared for that happier world ? How unready for my dying moment? I am hastening hourly to the end of the life of man, which began with my nativity; am I yet born of God ? Have I begun the life of a saint? Am I prepared for that awful day which shall determine the numbed of my months on 24 THE END OF TIME. earth ? Am I fit to be born into the world of spirits through the strait gate of death ? Am I renewed in all the powers of my nature, and made meet to enter into that unseen world, where there shall be no more of these re- volutions of days and years ; but one eternal day fills up all the space with divine pleasure, or one eternal night with long and deplorable distress and darkness ? When I see a friend expiring, or the corpse of my neigh- bour conveyed to the grave, alas! their months and min- utes are all determined, and the seasons of their trial are finished for ever; they are gone to their eternal home, and the estate of their souls is fixed unchangeably. The angel that has sworn their 'time shall be no longer,' has conclud- ed their hopes, or has finished their fears, and, according to the rules of righteous judgment, has decided their misery or happiness for a long immortality. Take this warning, my soul, and think of thy own removal. Are we standing in the church-yard, paying the last hon- ours to the relics of our friends ? What a number of hillocks of death appear all round us? What are the tomb-stones, but memorials of the inhabitants of that town, to inform us of the periods of all their lives, and to point out the day when it was said to each of them, * your time shall be no longer.' may I readily learn this important lesson, that my turn is hastening too; such a little hillock shall shortly arise for me in some unknown spot of ground, it shall cover this flesh and these bones of mine in dark- ness, and shall hide them from the light of the sun, and from the sight of man till the heavens be no more. Perhaps some surviving friend may engrave my name with the number of my days, upon a plain funeral stone, without ornament and below envy. There shall my tomb stand among the rest as a fresh monument of the frailty of nature and the end of time. It is possible some friend- ly foot may now and then visit the place of my repose, and some tender eye may bedew the cold memorial with a tear. One or another of my old acquaintance may pos- sibly attend there to learn the silent lecture of mortality from my grave stone, which my lips are now preaching a- loud to the world. And if love and sorrow should reach so far, perhaps while his soul is melting in his eyelids, and his voice scarce finds an utterance, he will point with his finger, and shew his companion the month and the day of THE END OF TIME. 25 my decease. that solemn, that awful day, which shall finish my appointed time on earth, and put a full period to all the designs of my heart, and all the labours of my tongue and pen! , Think, my soul, that while friends and strangers are engaged on that spot, and reading the date of thy departure hence, thou wilt be fixed under a decisive and unchange- able sentence, rejoicing in the rewards of time well-im- proved, or suffering the long, sorrows which shall attend the abuse of it, in an unknown world of happiness or misery. Reflect. III. We may 'learn from this discourse, the 'stupid folly and madness of those who are terribly afraid of the end of time, whensoever they think of it, and yet they know, not what to do with their time as it runs off daily and hourly.' They find their souls unready for death, and yet they live from year to year without any further preparation for dying. They waste away their hours of leisure in mere trifling, they lose their seasons of grace, their means and opportunities of salvation, in a thoughtless and shameful manner, as though they had no business to employ them in; they live as though they had nothing to do with all their time but to eat and drink, and be easy and merry. From the rising to the setting sun you find them still in pursuit of impertinencies; they waste God's sacred time as well as their own, either in a lazy, in- dolent, And careless humour, or in following after vanity, sin and madness, while the end of time is hastening upon them. What multitudes are there of the race of Adam, both in higher and lower ranks, who are ever complaining they want leisure, and when they have a release from business for .one day, or one hour, they hardly know what to do with that idle day, or how to lay out one of the hours of it for any valuable purpose ? Those in higher station and richer circumstances, have most of their time at their own command and disposal : but by their actual disposal of it, you plainly see they know not what it is good for, nor what use to make of it; they are quite at a loss how to get rid of thjs tedious thing called Time, which lies daily as a burden on their hands. Indeed if their head ake, or their face grow pale, and a physician feel their pulse, or look wishfully on their countenance; and, especially, if he should shake his head, or tell them his fears that they will not hold out long, what surprise of soul, what agonies and ter- 4 C 26 THE END OF TIME. rors seize them on a sudden, for fear of the end of time ? For they are conscious how unfit they are for eternity. Yet when the pain vanishes, and they feel health again, they are as much at a loss as ever what to do with the remnant of life. the painful and the unhappy ignorance of the sons and daughters of men, that are sent hither on a trial for eternity, and yet know not how to pass away time! they know not how to wear out life, and get soon enough to the end of the day. ' They doze their hours away, or saunter from place to place,' without any design or meaning. They enquire of every one they meet, what they shall do to kill time (as the French phrase is,) because they cannot spend it fast enough; they are perpetually calling in the assis- tance of others to laugh, or sport, or trifle with them, and to help them off with this dead weight of time, while, at the same moment, if you do but mention the end of ti/ne, they are dreadfully afraid of coming near it What folly and distraction is this! What sottish inconsistency is found in the heart and practice of sinful men! Eccles. ix. 3. " The heart of the sons of men, is full of evil, madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go down to the dead." that these loiterers would once consider that time loi- ters not; days and hours, months and years, loiter not; each of them flies away with swiftest wing, as fast as suc- cession admits of, and bears them onward, to the goal of eternity. If they delay and linger among toys and shad- ows, time knows no delay; and they will one day learn by bitter experience what substantial, important, and eternal blessings they have -lost by their criminal and shameful waste of time. The apostle Peter assures them, 2 Pet. ii. 3, though they slumber and sleep in a lethargy of sin, so that you cannot awaken them, yet 'their judgment linger- eth not, and their damnation slumbereth not' The awful moment is hasting upon them which shall teach them terribly the true value of time. Then they would give all the golden pleasures, and the riches and the grandeur of this world, to purchase one short day more, or one hour of time, wherein they might repent and return to God, and get within the reach of hope and salvation. But time and salvation and hope are all vanished, and fled, and gone out of their reach for ever. THE END OP TIME. 27 Reflect. IV. Learn from such meditations as these, ' the rich mercy of God, and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, in giving us so long a warning, before he swears that time shall be no more." 1 Every stroke of sickness is a warning- piece that life is coming to its period : every death amongst our friends and acquaintance, is another tender and painful admonition that our death also is at hand. The end of ev- ery week and every dawning Sabbath is another warning; every sermon we hear of the 'shortness of time/ and the 1 uncertainty of life/ is a fresh intimation that the great angel will shortly pronounce a period upon all our time. How inexcusable shall we be if we turn the deaf ear to all these warnings ? St Peter advises us to "count the long- suffering of the Lord for salvation," 2 Pet iii. 15; and to secure our eternal safety, and our escape from hell, du- ring the season of his lengthened grace. Alas! how long has Jesus, and his mercy, and his gos- pel, waited on you, before you began to think of the things of your everlasting peace ? And if you are now solemn- ly awakened, yet how long has he waited on you with fresh admonitions, and with special providences, with mercies and judgments, with promises and invitations of grace, with threatenings and words of terror, and with the whispers and advices of his own Spirit, since you began to see your dan- ger ? And after all, have you yet sincerely repented of sin ? Have you yet received the offered grace ? Have you given up yourselves to the Lord and laid hold of his salvation ? 2 Cor. vi.2. " This is the accepted time, this is the day of salvation; To-day if ye will hear his voice harden not yourhearts." Heb. iii. 7, 8, &c. It is never said through all the Bible, that * to-morrow is the day of grace/ or l tomorrow is the time of acceptance.' It is the present hour only that is offered. Every day and every hour is a mercy of unknown impor- tance to sinful men. It is a mercy, sinners, that you awaked not this morning in hell, and that you were not fixed without remedy beyond the reach of hope and mercy. Reflect. V. Learn from this discourse what ' a very use- ful practice it would be to set ourselves often before hand as at the end of time/ to imagine ourselves just under the sound of the voice of this mighty angel, or at the tribunal of Christ, and to call our souls to a solemn account in what manner we have past away all our leisure time hitherto: I mean, all that time which hath not been laid out in the 28 THE END OP TIME. necessities of the natural life, for its support and its need- ful refreshment, or in the due and proper employments of the civil life : both these are allowed and required by the God of nature and the God of providence who governs the world. But what hast thou done, man, Q woman, what hast thou done with all the hours of leisure which might have been laid out on far better 'employments, and to far nobler purposes ? Give me leave to enter into particulars a little, for generals do but seldom convince the mind, or awaken the conscience, or affect the heart. 1. Have you not ' slumbered or squandered* away too much time ' without any useful purpose or design' at all ? How many are there s that when they have morning hours on their hands, can pass them off on their beds, and lose and forget time ih ' a little more sleep and a little more slumber;' a few impertinences, with breakfast and dressing, wear out the morning without God. And how many af- ternoon and evening hours are worn away in such saunter- ing idleness as I have described, that when the night comes they cannot review one half hour's useful work, from the dawn of morning to the hour of rest. Time is gone and vanished, and as they knew not what to do with it while it was present, so now it is past, they know not what they have done with it: they keep no account of it, and are ne- ver prepared to come to a reckoning. But will the great Judge of all take this for answer to such a solemn inquiry? 2. Have you never laid out much more time than was needful in ' recreations and pleasures of sense ?' Recreations are not unlawful, so far as they are necessary and proper to relieve the fatigue of the spirits, and when they are tired with business or labour, and to prepare for new labours and new business ; but have we not followed sports with- out measure and without due limitation ? Hath not some of that very time been spent in them which should have been laid out in preparing for death and eternity, and in seeking things of far higher importance ? 3. Have you not wasted too much time in your frequent clubs, and what you call good company, and in ' places of public resort ?' Hath not the tavern, or the coffee-house, or the ale-house, seen and known you from hour to hour for a. whole evening, and that sometimes before the trade or labours of the day should have been ended ? And when your Bible and your closet, or the devotion of your family, THE END OF TIME. 29 have sometimes called upon your conscience, have you not turned the deaf ear to them all ? 4. Have not ' useless and impertinent visits' been made to no good purpose, or been prolonged beyond all neces- sity or improvement ? When your conversation runs low even to the dregs, and both you and your friends have been at a loss what to say next, and knew not how to fill up the time, yet the visit must go on, and time must be wasted. Sometimes the wind and the weather, and twen- ty insignificancies, or (what is much worse) scandal of persons or families, have come in to your relief, that there might not be too long a silence; but not one word of God or goodness could find room to enter in and relieve the lull hour. Is none of this time ever to be accounted for ? And will it sound well in the ears of the great Judge, We ran to these sorry topics, these slanderous and back- biting stories, because \ve could not tell what to talk of, and we knew not how to spend our time.' 5. Have you not been guilty of ' frequent and even per- petual delays or neglects of your proper necessary business in the civil life, or in the solemn duties of religion, by bu- sying yourselves in some other needless thing under this pretence, it is time enough yet ?' Have you learnt that important and eternal rule of pru- dence, ' never delay till to-morrow what may be done to- day; never put off till the next hour what may be done in this ?' Have you not often experienced your own disap- pointment and folly by these delays ? And yet have you ever so repented as to learn to mend them ? Solomon tells us. Eccles. iii. 1. "There is a time for every purpose, and every work, under the sun :" a proper and agreeable time for every lawful work of nature and life ; and it is the business and care of a w-ise man to ' do proper work in proper time;' but when we have let slip the proper season, how often have we been utterly disappointed ? Have we not sustained great inconveniencies ? And sometimes it hath so happened that we could never do that work or bu- siness at all, because another proper season for it hath never offered ? Time hath been no more. Felix put off his dis- course with Paul about the " faith of Christ, and righteous- ness, and judgment to come, to a more convenient time," which probably never came, Acts xxiv. 25. And the word of God teaches us, that if we neglect our salvation in the c2 30 THE END OF TIME. present day of grace, the angel in my text is ready to swear^ that ' Time shall he no longer.' Here permit me to put in a short word to those who have lost much time already. my friends, begin now to do what in you lies to re- gain it, by double diligence in the matters of your salvation, lest the 'voice of the arch-angel' should finish your time of trial, and call you to judgment before you are prepared. What time lies before you for this double improvement, God only knows. The remnant of the measure of your days are with him, and every evening the number is dimin- ished. Let not the rising sun upbraid you with continued negligence. Remember your former abuses of hours, and months, and years, in folly and sin, or at best in vanity and trifling. Let these thoughts of your past conduct lie with such an effectual weight on your hearts, as to keep you ever vigorous in present duty. Since you have been so lazy and loitering in your Christian race in time past, take larger steps daily, and stretch all the powers of your souls to hasten towards the crown and the prize. Hearken to the voice of God in his word, with stronger attention and zeal to profit. Pray to a long-suffering God with double fervency; cry aloud and give him no rest till your sinful soul is changed into penitence, and reuewed to holiness, till you have some good evidences of your sincere love to God, and unfeigned faith in his son Jesus. Never be sat- isfied till you are come to a well-grounded hope through grace, that God is your friend, your reconciled Father; that when days and months are no more, you may enter into the region of everlasting light and peace. But I proceed to the last general remark. ' Learn the unspeakable happiness of those who have improved time well, and who wait for the end of time with Christian hope.' They are not afraid, or at least they need not be afraid of the sentence, nor the oath of this mighty angel, when he lifts up his hand to heaven, and swears with a loud voice, ' There shall be time no more.' blessed creatures, who have so happily improved the time of life and day of grace, as to obtain the restoration of the image of God, in some degree, on their souls, and to recover the favour of God through the gospel of Christ, for which end time was bestowed upon them ! They have reviewed their follies with shame-in the land of hope; they THE END 01 s TIME. 31 have mourned and repented of sin, ere the season of repen- tance was past, and are become new creatures, and their lips and their lives declare the divine change. They have made preparation for death, for which purpose life and time were given. Happy souls indeed, who have so valued time as not to let it run off in trifles, but have obtained treas- ures more valuable than that time which is gone, even the riches of the covenant of grace, and the hopes of an eternal inheritance in glory. Happy such souls indeed when time is no more with them 1 Their happiness begins when the duration of their mortal life is finished. Let us survey this their happiness in a few particulars. The time of their ' darkness and difficulties' is no longer: the time of painful ignorance and error is come to an end. You shall wander no more in mistake and folly : you shall behold all things in the light of God, and see him face to face, who is the original beauty and the eternal truth. You shall see him without vails and shadows, without the re- flecting glass of his word and ordinances, which at best give us but a faint glimpse of him, either in his nature or wisdom, his power or goodness. You shall see him in himself and in his son Jesus, the brightest and fairest im- age of the Father, and ' shall know him as you are known,' 1 Cor. xiii. 10, 12. There is no more time for 'temptation and danger:' when once you are got beyond the limits of this visible world, and all the enticing objects of flesh and sense, there shall be no more hazard of your salvation, no more doubt- ing and distressing fears about your interest in your Father's love, or in the salvation of his beloved Son. There is no more place nor time for 'sin to inhabit in ydu:' the lease of its habitation in your mortal body must end, when the body itself falls into the dust: you shall feel no more of its powerful and defiling operations either in heart or life for ever. The time of * conflict with your spiritual adversaries is no longer.' There is no more warfare betwixt the flesh and spirit, no more combat with the world and the devil, who, by a thousand ways haveattempted todeceive you. and to bear you off from your heavenly hope. Your warfare is accomplished, your victory is complete, you are made over- comers through him that has loved you.. Death is the last 32 THE END OP TIME. enemy to be overcome; the sting of it is already taken away, and you have now finished the conquest, and are assured of the crown, 1 Cor. xv. 56, 57. The time of your ' distance and absence from God is no more: the time of coldness and indifference, and the fear- ful danger of backslidings, is no more. You shall be made as ' pillars in the temple of your God, and shall go no more out.' He shall love you like a God, and kindle the flames of your love to so intense a degree, as is only known to an- gels, and to the spirits of the just made perfect. There is no more time for you to be vexed with the 'so- ciety of sinful creatures.' Your spirit within you shall be no more ruffled and disquieted with the teazing conversa- tion of the wicked, nor shall you be interrupted in your holy and heavenly exercises by any of the enemies of God and his grace. The time of your ' painful labours and sufferings is no more.' Rev. xiv. 13, "Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord, for they rest from all their labours" that carry toil or fatigue with them. ' There shall be no more' complaints nor groans, ' no sorrow or crying;' the springs of grief are for ever dried up, ' neither shall there be any more pain' in the flesh or the spirit. " God shall wipe away all tears from your eyes, and death shall be no more." Rev. xxi. 4. " It is finished," said our blessed Lord on the cross: ' It is finished,' may every one of his followers say at the hour of death, and at the end of time. My sins and follies, my distresses and my sufferings, are finished for ever, and the mighty angel swears to it, that the time of those evils is no longer: they are vanished, and shall never return. happy souls, who have been so wise to count the short and uncertain number of your days on earth, as to make an early provision for a removal to heaven. Blest are you above all the powers of present thought and language. Days, and months, and years, and all these short and pain- ful periods of time, shall be swallowed up in a long and blissful eternity; the stream of time which has run between the banks of this mortal life, and borne you along amidst many dangerous rocks of temptation, fear and sorrow, shall launch you out into the ocean of pleasures which have no period. Those felicities must be everlasting, for duration has no limit there, Time, with all its measures, shall be no more. Amen. DISCOURSE II. THE WATCHFUL CHRISTIAN DYING IN PEACE. OCCASIONED BY THE DECEASE OF MISS SARAH ABNEY, DAUGHTER OF THE ' LATE SIR THOMAS ABNEY, KNT. &C. PREACHED APRIL 2, 1732. . Dedicated to the Lady ABNEY, mother of the deceased, and to Miss MARY and Miss ELIZABETH ABNEY, her two surviving sisters. MADAM, IF sorrows could be diminished in proportion to the multitude of those who share in them, the spring of your tears would have been drawn almost dry, and the tide of grief have sunk low, by being divided into a thousand streams. But though this cannot afford perfect relief to your Ladyship, yet it must be some consolation to have been blessed with a daughter, whose removal from our world could give occasion for so general a mourning. I confess, Madam, the wound which was made by such a smarting stroke is not to be healed in a day or two ; reason permits some risings of the softer and kinder passions in such a season ; it shews at least that our hearts are not marble, and reveals the tender ingredients that are moulded up in our frame ; nor does religion permit us to be insensible when a God afflicts, though he doth it with the hand of a father and a friend. Nature and love are full of these sensibilities, and incline you to miss her presence in every place where she was wont to attend you, and where you rejoiced in her as one of your dearest blessings. She is taken away indeed from mortal sight, and to follow her remains to the grave, and to dwell there, gives but a dark and melancholy view, till the great rising-day. Faith may ken the distant prospect, and exult in the sight of that glorious futurity ; yet I think there is also a nearer relief, Madam, to your sorrows. By the virtues which shone in her life, you may trace the ascent of her spirit to the world of immortality and joy. Could your Ladyship keep the eye of your soul directed thither, you would find it an effectual balm for a heart that bleeds at the painful remembrance of her death. What could your Ladyship have asked as a higher favour of heaven, than to have born and trained up a child for that glorious inheritance, and to have her secured of the possession beyond all possible fear or danger of los- ing it. This, Madam, is your own divinest hope for yourself, and you are hasten- ing on- toward that blessed society as- fast as days and hours give leave. When your thoughts descend to this lower world again, there are two living comforts near you of the same kind with what you have lost. May your Ladyship rejoice in them yet many years, and tfyey in you ! And when Je- sus, who hath the keys of death and the invisible state, shall appoint the hour for your ascent to heaven, may you leave them behind to bless the world with fair examples of virtue and piety among men, and a long train of servi- ces for the interest of their Redeemer. 5 33 34 DEDICATION. If I were to say any thing, young Ladies, to you in particular, it saould be in the language of our Saviour, and his beloved apostle ; " Hold fast what you have till the Lord comes, that none may deprive you of your crown. Take heed to yourselves, that you lose not the things which you have wrought, but that ye receive a full reward." Go on and persevere as you have begun, in the path of true religion and happiness : and in this age of infidelity and degenerate life, be ye daily more established in the Christian faith and practice, in opposition to the smiles and frowns, and every snare of a vain delusive world. Let this one thought set a double guard upon you, that while your elder sister was with you, it was something easier to resist every temptation, when she had pronounced the first refusal : Her steadiness was a guard which you have now lost, but you have an Almighty God in covenant on your side, and the " grace of our Lord Jesus is sufficient for you." To his care, My Lady, I commend yourself, and your whole family, with affectionate petitions ; and am, MAD AH, Tour Ladyship's most obliged and faithful Servant, I. WATTS. London, April 28, 1732. A FUNERAL SERMON. IT is an awful providence which hath lately removed from among us a young person well known to most of you, whose agreeable temper and conduct had gained the es- teem of all her acquaintance, whose constitution of body, together with the furniture of her mind, and circumstan- ces in the world, concurred to promise many future years of life and usefulness. But all that is born of the race of man is frail and mortal, and all that is done by the hand of God is wise and holy. We mourn, and we submit in si- lence. Yet the providence hath a voice in it, and the friends of the deceased are very solicitous that such an unex- pected and instructive appearance of death might be religi- ously improved to the benefit of the living. For this end I am desired to entertain you at present with some medi- tations on those words of our Saviour, which you read in LUKE xii. 37. Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord,when he com- eth, shall find watching. Various and well chosen are those parables whereby our Saviour gave warning to his disciples, that when he was departed from this world they should ever be upon their guard, and always in a readiness to receive him at his return : because he would come on a sudden, and " in such an hour as they thought not," to demand an account of their behaviour, and to distribute his recompences accor- ding to their works. There are two of these parables in this chapter. But to enter into a detail of all the particu- lar metaphors which relate to this one, whence I have bor- rowed my text, would be too tedious here, and would spend too much of the present hour. Without any longer pre- face therefore, I shall apply myself to improve the- words to our spiritual profit in the following method. 35 36 THE WATCHFUL CHRISTIAN I. I shall enquire what is meant by the ' coming of Christ* in the text, and how it may be properly applied to our present purpose, or the 'hour of death.' II. I shall consider what is implied in the watchfulness which our Saviour recommends. III. I propose some considerations which will discover the * blessedness of the watchful soul' in a dying hour. IV. I shall add some practical remarks. First, Let us enquire what is meant by the 'coming of Christ,'in my text. The 'coming of Christ,' in some of these parables, may have reference to his speedy appearance in the course of his providence in that very age, to ju(?ge and punish the Jewish nation, to destroy their city, and put an end to their church and state, for their many heinous iniquities, and the most provoking crime of rejecting and crucifying the Son of God. But these words, in their supreme and most important sense, always point to the 'glorious appear- ance of Christ at the last day/ when he shall come to shut up all the scenes of- this frail life, to put an end to the pre- sent world, to finish all the works of this mortal state, and to decide and determine the eternal states of all mankind by the general judgment. Yet ' Christ comes' to each of us in ' the hour of death' also, for 'he hath the keys of death and of hell,' or of the in- visible world, Rev. i. 18. It is he who appoints the very moment when the soul shall be dismissed from this flesh ; he opens the door? of the grave for the dying body ; and he is Lord of the world of spirits, and lets in new inhab- itants every minute into those unseen regions of immortal sorrow, or immortal peace. And as Christ may be said to 'come to us' by the message or ' summons of death,' so the many solemn wri- tings and commands of ivatchfulness, which attend these parables of Christ, have been usually, and with good rea- son, applied to the ' hour of death' also, for then the Lord comes ' to shut up the scene of each of our lives, our 'works are then finished,' our ''last day is cojne,' and the f world is then at an end' with us. Let it be observed also, that there is a further parallel between the day of the ' general judgment,' and that of DYING IN PEACE. 37 ' our own death.' The one will as certainly come as the other ; but the time when Christ will come in either of these senses, is unknown to us and uncertain : and it is this, which renders the duty of perpetual watchfulness so neces- sary to all men. The parable assures us, that our Lord will certainly come ; but whether at the 'second or third watch/ whether 'at midnight, or at cock-crowing, or near the morning,' this is all uncertainty ; yet whensoever he comes, he expects we should ' have our loins girded,' like servants fit for business, 'and our lamps burning,' to attend him at the door, and that we ' be ready to receive him as soon as he knocks.' * * It may not be unacceptable to the -reader, to find here an account of the manner in which the marriage processipn was conducted anciently among the Jews, as it will help to illustrate and explain the allusions, which our Lord employs in the context, and in other passages. " After the connubial union was solemnly ratified and attested, and the religious part of it con- cluded, it was customary for the bridegroom, in the evening, to conduct his upouse from her friends to his own house, with all the pomp, brilliancy and joy, that could be crowded into the procession. It was usual for the bride- groom, to invite his young female friends and relations to grace this pro- cession, and to add numbers and lustre to his retinue : these, adorned in robes suitable to the occasion, "took lamps, and waited in a company near the house, till the bride and bridegroom with their friends issued forth, whom they welcomed with the customary congratulations, then joined in the train, and with songs and acclamations and every demonstration of joy, advanced to the bridegroom's house, where an entertainment was provided, according to the circumstances of the united pair. The nuptial feast was adorned and cele- brated only by a select company of the bride and bridegroom's friends ; no strangers were admitted ; by these the evening was spent in all the convivial enjoyment, which social happiness, their approbation of the [recent] union, and the splendor of such a festivity could inspire." [These circumstances are finely alluded to in the parable'of the ten virgins, Mat. xxv. Five of these inconsiderately took lamps, but neglected the oil. As the return of the bridegroom was always at night, and the precise time of his approach uncertain, these virgins, after waiting long, and becoming fatigued with tedious expectation, fell asleep.] ' But lo ! at midnight, they were sud- denly alarmed with a cry, " The bridegroom ! the bridegroom is coming ! Hasten to meet and congratulate him." Roused with this unexpected pro- clamation they all rose up and trimmed their lamps. The thoughtless then began to solicit the others to impart to them some of their oil, telling them that their lamps were entirely extinguished. To these entreaties the prudent [virgins] answered, that they had only provided a sufficient quanti- ty for their own use, and therefore advised them to go and purchase oil of those who sold it. They departed accordingly ; but during their absence the bridegroom came, and the prudent virgins, being prepared for his re- ception, went along with him to the entertainment. The doors were then immediately shut. After some time the others came to the door, and sup- plicated earnestly for admission. But the bridegroom repulsed them, telHng D 38 THE WATCHFUL CHRISTIAN Were the appointed hour of judgment, or of death, made known to us for months or years before-hand, we should be ready to think constant wattfi fulness, a very needless thing. Mankind would persuade themselves to indulge their foolish and sinful slumbers, and only take care to rub their eyes a little, and bestir themselves an hour or two be- fore this awful event. But it is the suddenness and uncer- tainty of the coming of Christ to all mankind, for either of these purposes, that extends the charge of watchfulness to all men as well as to the Apostles, Mark. xiii. 37, and that calls upon us aloud to keep our souls ever awake, ( lest (as our Lord there expresses it,) coming suddenly, he should find us sleeping.' And remember this, that if we are unpre- pared to meet the Lord at death, we can never be ready when he comes to judgment.; peace and blessedness attend the watchful Christian, whensoever his Lord cometh. " Blessed is that servant, whom, when his Lord comes, he shall find watching." This leads me to the second general head. Secondly, What is implied in watchfulness ? In general, it is opposed to sleeping, as I have already hinted, in Mark xiii. 35, 36. And in the language of Scrip- ture, as well as in common speech, sleep and slumbering, denote an unpreparedness to receive whatever comes, for this is the case with those who are asleep. On the other hand, watchfulness is a preparation and readiness for every event, and so it is expressed in some of these parables ; ver. 40, " Be ye therefore ready." But to enter into a few particulars. 1. There is a "sleep of death," Psal. xiii. 3. Spiritual death as well as natural, is sometimes called a sleep. Such is the case of a soul " dead in trespasses and sins," Eph. them he did not know them, and would not admit any strangers." Home's Introduction, vol. iii. p. 409. As no admittance was granted after the shutting of the door, it is plain, that careless friends, who, through un- watchfulness, might suffer surprise, and not be prepared to join the pro- cession, in time to enter in with the bridegroom, would also be excluded. If the servants, whose business it was to prepare every thing for the recep- tion of their master and his friends, should have been found asleep, negligent, and unprepared, when his knock at the door admonished them of his arrival, it is evident, that they would have been liable to punishment. If we, as unfaithful servants, be found, when our Lord, in the night of death, shall knock at the door of our earthly tabernacle, unprepared to meet him, what imagination can anticipate the anguish of our doom ? ED. DYING IN PEACE. 39 v. 14. compared with ii. 1 : Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light." Watchfulness therefore implies life, a principle of spir- itual life in the soul. Surely those who are dead in sins are not prepared to receive their Lord. He is a perfect stranger to them, they know him not, they love him not, ' they obey him not ; and a terrible stranger he will be, if he comes upon them before they are awake. But those who are awakened by divine grace into a spiritual life, have seen something of " the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ ;" they are acquainted with their Lord, they love him, and have some degree of preparation to meet their Saviour when he summons them to leave this world. This is therefore a matter of highest consequence, that we awake from a state of sin and death, that we be made alive to God, begin the Christian life, and set upon religion in good earnest, according to the rules of the gospel, before Christ call us away. It is only this divine life begun in us, that can secure us from eternal death ; though even Christians may be found slumbering in other respects, and expose themselves to painful evils, if that hour surprise them at unawares. 2. There is 'a sleep of indolence and thoughtlessness.' When a man is insensible of his own circumstances, and too careless of the things which most concern him, we say, l the man is asleep.' Such a sleep seems to be upon the church of Israel, Isa. xxix. 10, " a spirit of deep sleep," when the law which contained the great things of God, and their salvation, was to them ' as a sealed book,' they read it not, their eyes were closed, their spiritual senses were bound up. Many a Christian who hath been raised from a death in sin, has been seized with this criminal slumber, and has had the image of death come again upon him. He has grown too careless and unconcerned about his most important and eternal affairs ; and in this temper he hardly knows what his state is toward God, nor keeps up a lively rense or notice of divine and eternal things upon his spirit. Watchfulness in opposition to this sleep, implies a ho- ly solicitude and diligence, to know our own spiritual state; a consciousness of what we are; a keeping all the spiritual senses in proper exercise, and maintaining a live- ly perception of divine things. It implies an acute, pain- 40 THE WATCHFUL CHRISTIAN ful sense of indwelling sin, and the irregular propensities of the heart, a delightful relish of heavenly objects, fre- quent thoughts of death and eternity, constant waiting for those awful events, with a quick apprehension and resent- ment of all things, that help or hinder the spiritual life. This is the character of a wakeful Christian, and such a one as is ready to receive his returning Lord. 3. There is- a 'sleep of security and foolish peace,' when a person is not apprehensive of imminent danger, and is much unguarded against it. Such was the sleep of Jonah ' in the storm, of Sampson on the lap of Delilah, when the Philistines were upon him, and of the disciples, when Judas and the barld of soldiers were just ready to seize their Master. This is the case of many a slumber- ing Christian; he is not "upon his guard against his inward lusts and passions, nor against those outward temptations and perils to which he is continually exposed, while he dwells in flesh and blood. Watchfulness in this respect is, when a Christian hath his eyes open, and turns them round on every side to fore- see approaching evil, and prevent it; when he is- prepared for every assault of every adversary, whether sin or the world, whether death or the devil; he hath his spiritual armour girt upon him, and is ready for th,e combat. He is every hour guarded against the powers of the flesh, and watching against its allurements and attractions, lest he be defiled thereby, and unftt to meet his returning' Lord. He is daily loosening his, heart from all' sensual attach- ments, and weaning himself from the world and creatures, because he knows he must quickly take his long farewell, and part with them all, at the call and appointment of his great Master. He is Hke a sentinel upon his watch-tow- er, ever awake, because dangers stand thick around him. 4. There is a < sleep of sloth and inactivity,' Prov. xix. 15: " Slothfulness casts into a deep sleep." a fear to offend God possessed and governed her thoughts and ac- tions from her childhood, and heavenly tnngs were her youthful choice. She had appeared, for some years, in the public profession of Christianity, a^d maintained the practice of godliness in the church, And the world ; but it began much more early in secret., Her beloved closet, and her retiring hours, were silent witnesses of her dai- ly converse with God, and her SaVaour, There she devo- ted her soul to her Creator betimes, according to the en- couragements and rules of tte gospel of Christ, and there she found peace and salvatUn. It was there she made a DYING IN PEACE. 49 conscientious recollection -of the sermons she heard in public, from her tender years, and left behind her these fruits of her memory and her pen, to attest what improve- ments she gained in knowledge, by the ministrations of the word ; and her cabinet has now discovered to us anoth- er set of memoirs, wherein she continually observed what advances she might make in real piety by those weekly seasons of grace. It was under 'these influences she maintained a most dutiful and affectionate behaviour to her honoured parents, and with filial fondness mingled with esteem, submission and reverence, paid her constant regards to the lady her mo- ther, in her widowed estate. It was by the united princi- ples of grace and nature, she lived with her younger sis- ters in uncommon harmony and friendship, as though one heart and soul animated them all. It was under these in- fluences she ever stood upon her guard, amongst all the in- nocent freedoms of life : and though she did not immure herself, in the walls of a mother's house, but indulged a just curiosity to learn some of the forms of the world, the magnificence of courts, and the grandeurs of life ; yet she knew how far to appear among them, and when to re- tire. Nor did she forbid herself all the polite diversions of youth, agreeable to her rank ; nor did reason or reli- gion, or her superior relatives forbid her ; yet she was still awake to secure all that belongs to honour and virtue, nor did she use to venture to the utmost bounds, of what sobriety and religion might allow. Danger of guilt stands near the extreme limits of innocence. Shall I let this paper inform the world, with what friend- ly decency, she treated her young companions and acquain- tance ; how far from indulging the modish liberties of scandal on the absent ; how much she hated those scornful and derisive airs, which persons on higher ground, too of- ten assume toward those who are seated in the inferior ranks of life ? Is it proper I should say, how much her behaviour won upon the esteem of all that knew her, though I could appeal to the general sorrow at her death, to confirm the truth of it ? But who can forbear on this occasion, to take notice, how far she acquired that lovely character in her narrow and private sphere, which seems almost to have been derived to her by inheritance, from her honoured father, deceased, who had the tears of his 7 E 5C THE WATCHFUL CHRISTIAN country long dropping upon his tomb, and whose memory yet lives in a thousand hearts ? , Such a conversation, and such a character, made up of piety and virtue, were prepared for the attacks of a fever, with malignant and mortal symptons. Slow and unsus- pected were the advances of .the disease, till the powers of reason began to falter and retire, till the heralds of death had made their appearance, and spread on her bosom, their purple ensigns. When these" disorders began, her lucid intervals were longer, and while she thought no person was near, she could address herself to God, and say, how often she had given herself to him ; she hoped she had done it sincerely, and found acceptance with him, and trusted that she was not deceived. The gleams of reason that broke in between the clouds, gave her light enough to discern her own evidences of piety, and refresh her hope.- Then she repeated some of the last verses of the 139th Psalm in metre, viz. " Lord, search my soul, try every thought : Tho' my own heart accuse me not, Of walking in a false disguise, I beg the trial of thine eyes. Doth secret mischief lurk within ! Do I indulge some unknown sin ? O turn my feet whene'er I stray, And lead me in thy perfect way." She was frequent and importunate in her requests for the Psalm-book, that she might read that Psalm, or at least have it read to her throughout ; and it was with some dif- ficulty, we persuaded her to be composed in silence : thus sincerely willing was she, that God might search and try her heart, still hoping well concerning her spiritual state, yet still solicitous about the assurance of her own sinceri- ty, in her former transactions with heaven. The next day among the roving of her thoughts, she re- hearsed all those verses of the 17th Psalm, which are par- aphrased in the same book, with very little faltering in a line or two : " Lord I am thine ; but wilt thou prove My faith, my patience, and my love," &c. The traces of her thoughts under this confusion of animal nature, retained something in them divine and heavenly. blessed situation of soul, when we stand prepared for DYING IN PEACE. 51 death, though it come with the formidable retinue of a disordered brain, and clouded reason '. It would be too long at present to represent to you the ' sad consequences of being found asleep when Christ comes to call us away from this world,' I shall therefore only make these three reflections. Reflect. 1. ' None can begin too early to awake to righteousness, and prepare for the call of Christ, since no one is too young to be sent for by his messenger of death.' I do not here speak of the state of infancy, when persons can hardly be said to be in a personal state of trial :* but when I say, l none can awake too early to mind the things of religion,' I mean,- after reason begins its proper exer- cise, and this appears sometimes in early childhood. All our life in this world, compared with heaven, is a sort of night and season of darkness ; and if our Lord summon us away " in the first watch of the night," in the midst of youth and vigour, and the pleasing allurements of flesh and sense, we are in a deplorable state if we are found .sleeping, and hurried away from earth, into the invisible world, in the midst of our foolish dreams of golden vani- * Properly speaking, no one can now be Said to be in a state of trial, since all are in a state of condemnation. Rom. v. 19. The trial has been made ; man has fallen ; and all are " by nature children of wrath." What the author and others mean by " a personal state of trial" is their being pla- ced under a dispensation of long suffering, in which time is afforded for the exercise of unmerited grace towards those who are the subjects of it; occa- sion given to all the adult part of the human race to develope their real character, as alienated from God ; and, in those places especially where the Lord has sent the gospel, opportunity granted to embrace the overtures of mercy, and thus return to the Fountain of blessedness from which they have sinfully departed. The trial consists in sufficient opportunity and privilege being bestowed upon them, and such a course of discipline administered, as may have a tendency to lead them to repentance, and to God. If they im- prove the circumstances in which they are placed, to the glory of God, and the salvation of their souls, it shows, not that they have caused themselves to differ, but that they have " obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful." If they neglect and misimprove their privileges, and persevere in sin, they exhibit the fearful nature of our fallen state, demonstrate the power and magnitude of that grace by which any are saved, and justify to every mind and conscience the divine procedure, in condemning all who live and die impenitent. To say of any, therefore, that they are in " a stale of personal trial," in any other sense than that they are placed in such circumstances, aa to show the power of sin, or of grace in them, according as the one or the other of these contrary principles operates and reigns, would be opposed to fact; and as the language doe's not quadrate very well with Scripture, or with the true state of the case, it would be better not to employ it.-r-ED. 52 THE WATCHFUL CHRISTIAN ty. Dreadful indeed, to have a young thoughtless crea- ture carried off the stage, sleeping and dead in trespasses and sins ! Let those that arc drunk with wine fall asleep upon the top of a mast in the middle of the . sea, where the winds and the waves are tossing and roaring all around them ; let a madman who has lost his reason, lie down to sleep upon the edge of a precipice,* where a pit of fire and brimstone is burning beneath him, and ready to receive his fall ; but let not young sinners, whose rational powers are in exercise, and whose life is every moment a mere un- certainty, venture to go on in their dangerous slumbers, while the wrath of a God and eternal misery attend them, if they die before they are awake. It is granted that no power beneath that which is divine, can effectually quicken a dead soul, and awaken it into a divine life. It is the work of " God to quicken the dead," Rom. iv. 17.; Eph. ii. 5. It is the son of God who is the "light and life of the world," John i. 4, to whom "the Father hath given this quickening power," John, vi. 26. He calls sinners to awaken them from their deadly sleep, Eph. v. 14; and "they live by him, as he lives by the Father," John vi. 57. He awakens dead souls to life, by the same living spirit, which " shall quicken their mortal bodies," and raise them from the grave, Rom. viii. 9, 11, 13; 2 Cor. iii. 3, which spirit he " hath received from the Father," John iii. 34. And on this account we are to seek the vital influences of this grace from heaven, by constant and importunate prayer. Yet in my text, as well as in other scriptures, " awaking out of sleep," and "watching unto righteousness," is represented as our duty, and we are to exert all our natural powers with holy fer- vency, for this end, while our daily petitions draw down from heaven the promised aid of grace. Our diligence indu.- ty, and our dependence on the* divine power and mercy, are happily and effectually joined in the command of our Sa- viour, on this very occasion, in one of his parables ; Mark xiii. 33, " Watch and pray, for ye know not when the time is that the Lord will come." And again, chap. xiv. 38, " Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation." Trust not in your own strength and sufficiency for the glo- rious change to be wrought in your sinful hearts, and yet neglect not your own labours and restless endeavours un- der a pretence, that it is God's work and not yours. DYING IN PEACE. 53 " Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light." Nor should frail dying creatures in their youngest years, delay this work, one day, or one hour, since the conse- quences of being found asleep when Christ calls, are ter- rible indeed. We are beset with mortality all around us ; the seeds of disease and dissolution are working within us from our very birth and cradle, ever since sin entered into our natures ; and we should ever be in a readiness to remove hence, since we are never secure from the sum- mons of heaven, the stroke of death, and the demands of the -grave. There was a 'lovely boy, the son of the Shunamite, who was given to his mother in a miraculous way, and when he was in the field among the reapers, he cried out, my head, my head ; he was carried home immediately, and in a few hours died in his mother's bosom, 2 Kings iv. 18. Who would have imagined that head-ache should have been death, and that in so short a time too ? This is al- most the case which we lament at present ; the head-ache was sent but a few days before, -nor was the pain very in- tense, nor the appearance dangerous, yet it became the fa- tal, though unexpected fore-runner of. death. This providence is an awful warning-piece to all her young acquaintance, to be ready for a- sudden removal ; for she was of a healthy make, and seemed to stand at as great distance from the gates of death as any of youc but the firmest constitution of human nature is born with death in it. From every age, and every spot of ground, and every moment of time, there are short and sudden ways of descent to the grave. Trap-doors (if I may use so low i metaphor) are always under us, and a thousand unseen avenues to the regions of the dead. A malignant fever strikes the strongest nature with a mortal blast, at the command of the great Author and Disposer of life. My youngest hearers may be called away from the earth, by the next pain that seizes them. Nothing but religion, early religion, and sincere godliness, can give you hope in youthful death, or leave a fragrant savor on your name or memory among those that survive. Reflect. 2. If such blessedness as I have described, belong to every watchful Christian at the hour of deatb, then it may not be improper here to take notice of < some E2 54 THE WATCHFUL CHRISTIAN peculiar advantages which attend those who shake off tha deadly sleep of sin in their younger years, and are awake early to God and religion.' (1.) They have much fewer sins to mourn over' on a death-bed, and they prevent much hitter repentance for youthful iniquities. Holy Job was a man of distinguished piety, and God himself pronounces of him that " there was none like him in all the earth," Job i. 2. But it is a question whether his most early days were devoted to God, and whether he was so watchful over his behaviour, in that dangerous season of life ; for he makes a heavy complaint in his addresses to God, Job xiii. 26, "Thou writest Bitter things against me, and makest me to possess the iniquities of my youth." The sooner we begin to be awake to ho liness, the more of these follies and sorrows are prevented. Happy those who have the fewest of them, to embitter their following lives, or make a death-bed painful ! (2.) Young persons have fewer attachments to th*e w.orld, and the persons and things of it, which are round about them, and are more ready to part with it when their souls are united to God by an early faith and love. They have not yet entered into so numerous engagements of life, nor dwelt long enough here to have their hearts grown so fast on to creatures, which usually makes the parting stroke so full of anguish and smarting sorrow. A child can much more easily ascend to heaven, and leave a parent behind, without that tender and painful solicitude, which a dying parent has for the welfare of a surviving child. The sur- render of all mortal interests at the call of God, is much more easy when our souls are not tied to them by so ma- ny strings, nor united by so many of the softer endear- ments of nature, and where grace has taught us to practise an early weaning from all temporal comforts, and a little loosened our hearts from them, by the faith of things eternal. (3.) Those that have been awake betimes to godliness, give peculiar honours to the gospel at death, and leave this testimony to the divine religion of Jesus, that it was able to subdue passion and appetite in that season of life, when they are usually strongest and most unruly.- They give peculiar credit and glory to the Christian name and the gospel, which has gained them so many victories over the DYING IN PEACE. 55 enemies of their salvation, at that age wherein multitudes are the captives of sin, and slaves to folly and vanity. (4.) Those Christians who are- awake to God in their early years, leave more happy and powerful examples of living and dying, to their young companions and acquaint- ance. It is the temper of every age of life, to be more in- fluenced and affected by the practice of persons of the same years. Sin has fewer excuses to make, in order to shield itself from the reproof of such examples, who have re- nounced it betimes ; and virtue carries with it a more ef- fectual motive to persuade young sinners to piety and goodness, when it can point to its votaries of the same age, and in the same circumstances of life. < Why may not this be practised by you, as well as by your companions round about you, of the same age ?' But I muet hasten to the last reflection. Reflect. 3. ' When we mourn the death of friends who were prepared for an early summons, let their preparation be our support.' Blessed be God they were not found sleeping ! While we drop our tears upon the grave of any young Christian who was awake and alive to God, that blessedness which Christ himself pronounces upon them, is a sweet cordial to mingle with our bitter sorrows, and will greatly assist to dry up the spring of them. The idea of their piety, and their approbation in the sight of God, is a balm to heal the wound, and give present ease to the heart-ache. We are ready to run over their virtues, and spread abroad their amiable qualities in our thoughts, and then, with seeming reason, we give a loose to the mournful pas- sion ; whereas all these, when set in a true light, are real ingredients towards our relief. We lament the loss of our departed friend, when we review that capacious and uncommon power of memory, which the -God of nature had given her, and which was so well furnished with a variety of human and divine knowl- edge, and was stored with a rich treasure of the word of God, so. that if Providence had called her into a more public appearance, she might have stood up in the world as a burning and shining light, so far as her sex and station required. This furniture of the mind seems indeed to be lost in death, and buried in the grave ; but we give in too much to the judgment of sense. Did not this extensive 56 THE WATCHFUL CHRISTIAN knowledge lay a foundation for her early piety ? And did it not, by this means, prepare her for a more speedy re- moval to a higher school of improvement, and a world of sublimer devotion ? Ajid does she not shine there among the better and brighter company ? We mourn again for our loss of a person so valuable, when we think of that general calmness and sedateness pf soul, which she possessed in a peculiar degree, so that she Was not greatly elevated or depressed, by common accidents or occurrences : but this secured her from the rise of un- ruly passions, those stormy powers of nature, which some- times sink us into guilt and distress, and make us unwilling and afraid of the sudden summons of Christ, lest he should find us under these disorders. We think of her firmness of spirit, and that steady re- solution, which, joined with a natural reserve, was a happy guard against many of the. forward follies and dangers of youth, and proved a successful defence against some of the allurements and temptations of the gayer years of life : and then we mourn afresh that a person so well formed for growing prudence and virtue, should he so suddenly snatched away from amongst us. But this steady and dis- passionate frame of soul, well improved by religion and divine grace, became an effectual means to preserve her youth more unblemished, and made her spirit fitter for the heavenly world, where nothing can enter that is defiled, and whose delights are not tumultuous as ours are on earth ; but all is a calm and rational state of joy. We lament yet further when we think of her native goodness and unwillingness to displease ; but goodness is the very temper of that region to which she is gone, and she is the fitter companion for the inhabitants of a world of love. We lament that such a pattern of early piety should be taken from the earth, when there are so few practisers of it, especially among the youth of our degenerate age, and in plentiful circumstances of life. But it is a matter of high thankfulness to God, who endowed her with those valuable qualities, and trained her up so soon for a world so much better than ours is. Let our sorrow for the de- ceased be changed into devout praises to divine grace. Let us imitate the holy language of St. Paul to the Thes- salonians. and say, l we are comforted' even at her grave, CYING IN PEACE. 57 < in all our affliction and distress, by the' remembrance of 'her faith' and piety. 'What' sufficient 'thanks can we render unto God, upon her account, for all the joy where- with we rejoice for' her 'sake bjefore our God, night and day, praying exceedingly that we m,ay see her face' in the state of perfection ? And ' may God himself, even our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, direct our way,' to the happy world, where she dwells, 1. Thess. iii. 7, &c. The imitation of what was excellent in her life, and watch- ful readiness to follow her in death, are the best honours we can pay her memory, and the wisest improvements of the present providence. May the Spirit df grace teach us these lessons, and make us all learn them with power, that when our Lord Jesus shaH come to call us hence by death, or shall appear with all his saints, in the great ris- ing-day, we may* be found ampng his wakeful servants, and partake of the promised blessedness ! Jlmen. DISCOURSE III. SURPRISE IN DEATH. MARK xiii. 36. > Watch ye therefore, lest coming suddenly, he find you sleeping. AMONG the parables of- our Saviour, there are several recorded by the Evangelists, which represent him as a Prince, or Lord and Master of a family, departing for a season from his servants, and in his absence, appointing them their proper work, with a solemn charge to wait for his return ; at which time he foretold them, that he should require an account of their behaviour in his absence, and he either intimates or expresses a severe treatment of those, who should neglect their duty while he was gone, or make no preparation for his appearance. He informs them also that he should come upon them on a sudden, and for this reason charges them to be always awake and upon their guard, ver. 35, "Watch ye therefore, for ye know not when the Master of the house cometh, whether at even, or at midnight, or at cock-crowing, or in the morning." Though the ultimate design of these parables, and the * coming of Christ' mentioned therein, refer to the great day of judgment, when he shall return from heaven, shall raise the dead, and call mankind to appear before his judg- ment seat, to % receive a recompense according to their works ; yet both the duties and the warnings, which are represented in these parables, seem to be very accommo- dable to the hour of our death ; for then our Lord Jesus, who < has the kej-s of death and' the grave, and ' the un- seen world,' comes to finish our state of trial, and to put a period to -all our works on earth : He comes then to call us into the invisible state ; he disposes our bodies to the dust, and our souls are sent into other mansions, and taste some degrees of appointed happiness or misery, according to their behaviour here. The solemn and awful warning 58 SURPRISE IN DEATH. 59 which my text gives us concerning thereturn of Christ to judgment, may be therefore pertinently applied to the sea- son, when he shall send his messenger of death, to fetch us hence ; " Watch ye therefore, lest coming suddenly, he find you sleeping." When I had occasion to treat on a subject near akin to this,* I shewed that there was a distinction to be made, between the ' dead sleep of a sinner,' and ' slumber of an unwatchful Christian.' Those who never had the work of religion begun in their hearts or lives, are sleeping the sleep of death, whereas some who are made alive by the grace of Christ yet may indulge sinful drowsiness, and grow careless and secure, slothful and unactive. "The wise virgins as well as the foolish, were slumbering and sleeping," Matt. xxv. 5. The mischiefs and sorrows which attend each of these, when Christ shall summon them to judgment, or shall call them away from earth, by natilral death, are great and formidable, though they are not equally dangerous. Let us consider each of them in succession, in order to rouse dead sinners from their lethargy, and to keep drowsy Christians awake. First. Let us survey the sad consequences which attend those that are ( asleep in sin and spiritually dead,' when the hour of natural death approaches. They are such as these: I. ' If they happen to be awakened on the borders of the grave, into what a horrible confusion and distress of soul are they plunged ?' What keen anguish of conscience for v their past iniquities seizes upon them ? What bitter re- morse and self-reproaches, for the seasons of grace which they have -vasted, for the proposals of mercy which they have abused and rejected, and for the divine salvation which seems now to be lost for ever, and put almost be- yond the reach, of possibility and hope. They feel the messenger of death, faying his cold hands upon them, and they shudder and tremble,- with the expectation of approach- ing misery. They look up to heaven and they see a God of holiness there, as a consuming fire ready to devour them, as stubble fit for the flame. They look to the Son of God, who has the keys of death in his hand, and who calls them away from the land of the living, even to Jesus, the com- * In a funeral Sermon for Miss Sarah Abney, on Luke xii. 37. " Blessed re those servants, whom the Lord, when he cometh, shall find watching.'* 60 SURPRISE IN DEATH. passionate Mediator, but they can scarce persuade them- selves to expect any thing from him, because they have turned a deaf ear so long to the invitations of his gospel, and so long affronted his divine compassion. They look behind them, and w ith painful agonies are frighted at the mountains of their former guilt, ready to overwhelm them. They look forward, and see the pit of hell opening upon them, with all its torments ; long darkness without a glimpse of light, and eternal despair with no glimmerings of hope. Or, if now and then amidst their horrors, they would try to form some faint hope of mercy, how are their spir- its perplexed with prevailing and distracting fears, with keen and cutting reflections'?- ' Oh that I had improved my former seasons for reading, for praying, for meditating on divine things ! But I cannot read, I can hardly medi- tate, and scarce know how to pray. Will the ear of God ever hearken to the cries and groans of a rebel that has so' long resisted his grace ? Afe there any pardons to be had for a criminal, who never left his sins till vengeance was in view ? Will the blood of Christ ever be applied to wash a soul, that has wallowed in his defilements, till death roused him out of them ? Will the meanest favour of heav- en, be indulged to a wretch who has grown bold in sin, in opposition to so loud and repeated warnings ? I am awake indeed, but I can see nothing round me but distresses and discouragements, and my soul sinks within me, and my heart dies at the thoughts of appearing before God/ It is a wise, and just observation among Christians, though it is a very common one, that the Scriptures give us one instance of a penitent saved in his dyin hour, and that is the ' thief upon the cross,' that so none ?night utterly despair ; but there is but one such instance given, that none might presume. The work of repeutance is too dif- ficult, and too important a thing, to be le/t to the languors of a dying bed, and the tumults and flutterings of thought, which attend such a late conviction. There can be hardly any effectual proofs given of the sincerity of such repent- ings : and I am verily persuaded there are few of them sincere ; for we have often found these violent emotions of conscience vanish again, if the sinner has happened to recover his health. They seem merely to be the wild per- plexities and struggles of nature, averse to misery, rather SURPRISE IN DEATH. 61 than averse to sin. Their renouncing their former lusts, on the very borders of hell and destruction, is more like the vehement and irregular efforts of a drowning creature, constrained to let go a most beloved object, and taking eager hold of any plank for safety ; rather than the calm and reasonable, and voluntary designs of a mariner, who forsakes his earthly joys, ventures himself in a ship that is offered him, and sets sail for the heavenly country. I never will pronounce such efforts and endeavours Desperate, lest I limit the grace of God, which is unbounded ; but I ran give very little encouragement for hope to an hour or two, of this vehement and tumultuous penitence, on the very brink of damnation. ' Judas repented,' but his ago- nies of soul, hurried him to hasten his own death, " that he naight'go to his own place." And there is abundance of such kind of repenting, in every corner of hell ; that is a deep and dreadful pit, whence there is no redemption, though there are millions of such sort of penitents ; it is a strong and dark prison, where no beam of comfort ever shines, where bitter anguish' and mourning for sins past, is no evangelical repentance, but everlasting and hopeless sorrow. II. ' Those that are found sleeping at the hour of death' are carried away at once, from all their sensual pursuits and enjoyments, which were their chosen portion, and their highest happiness.' At once they lose all their golden dreams, and their chief good is, as it were, snatched away from them at once and for ever. ' They stand on slippery places, they are brought to destruction in a moment,' and all their former joys ' are like a dream when one awaketh,' and finds himself beset round with terrors. Are there any of you that are pleasing yourselves here in the days of youth and vanity, and indulge your dreams of pleasure, in the sleep of spiritual death ? Think of the approaching moment, when the death of nature shall dis- solve your sleep, and scatter all the delusive images of sinful joy. This separation from the body of flesh, is a fearful shock given to the soul, that makes it awake indeed. Sermons would not do it ; the voice of the preacher was not loud enough ; strokes of affliction, and smarting pro- vidences would not do it ; perhaps the soul might be roused a little, but dropt into profound sleep again : sudden or surprising deaths near them, and even the p GLORIFIED IN HIS SAINTS. 91 the pricking thorns of peevishness, nor the wild ferments of ' wrath and passion :' none of them shall ever find those 1 unruly appetites' which wrought so strongly in their old flesh and blood, and too often overpowered their unwilling souls, those appetites which brought their consciences sometimes under fresh guilt, and filled them with inward reproaches, and agonies of spirit. These evil principles are all destroyed by death, they are lost in the grave, and shall have no resurrection. The new-raised bodies of the righteous in that day, shall be completely obedient to the dictates of their spirits, without .any vicious juices to make reluctance, or perverse humours to raise an inward rebellion.* And not only so, but perhaps even our bodies shall have some active holy tendencies, wrought in them so far as corporeal nature can administer, towards the sacred exercises of a glorified saint A sweet and blessed change indeed ! And Jesus who raised these bodies in this beauty of holiness, shall receive the glory of .this divine work. The last instance I shall mention,, wherein Christ shall be admired in his saints, is this, 'they shall appear in that day, as so many images of his person, and as so many monuments of the success of his office.' Is the blessed Jesus a great Prophet, and the Teacher of his church ? These are the persons that have learnt his di- vine doctrine, they have ' heard the joyful sound' of his gospel, and the holy truths of it are copied out in their hearts. These are the disciples of his school ; and by his word', and by his Spirit, they have been taught to know God and their Saviour, and they have been trained up in the way to eternal life. Is Jesus a great ' High Priest, both of sacrifice and inter- cession ?' Behold all these souls, an endless number, puri- * " Vicious juices," and ''perverse humours," may be the causes or ef- fects of bodily disease ; and disease, together with the habits which some- times produce it, may make "reluctance," and " raise inward rebellion," may try the faith and patience of God's people, and detect the deficiency and feebleness, of their graces, and the strength of their remaining corruptions. But disease in any part of the material frame, is not the cause of moral de- linquency. It is the consequence of sin, the evidence that we " were by nature the children of wrath, even as others," or, it may be the occasion of remaining depravity in some way discovering itself; but it would be approx- imating too much the confines of Gnosticism, to admit the idea that any of the "juices" or " humours" of the body are morally "vicious" or "per- Terse," ED. 92 CHRIST ADMIRED AND fied from their defilements by the blood of his cross, wash- ed and made white in that blessed laver, and reconciled to God by his atoning sacrifice. Behold the power of his in- tercession, in securing millions from the wrath of God, and in procuring for them every divine blessing. He has obtained for each of them grace and glory. Is Jesus the ' Lord of all things,' and the 'King of his church ?' Behold his subjects waiting on him, a numerous and a loyal multitude, who have the laws of their King engraven on their souls. These are the sons and daughters of Adam, whom he has rescued by his power from the kingdom of darkness, and the hands of the devil : he has guarded them from the rage of their malicious adversaries in earth and hell, and brought them safe through all diffi- culties, to behold the glories of this day, and to celebrate the honours of their King. Is he the ' Captain of salvation ?' See what a blessed ar- my he has listed under his banner of love ; and they have followed him through all the dangers of life and time under his conduct. These are the 'chosen, the called, the faith- ful.' They have sustained many a sharp conflict, many a dreadful battle, and they are at last, ' made more than conquerors through him that has loved them.' They at- tribute all their victories to the wisdom, the goodness, and the power of their divine Leader : and even stand amazed at their own success against such mighty adversaries. But they fought under the banner, conduct, and influence of the 'Prince of life,' the King of righteousness, who is always victorious, and has a crown in his hand for every conqueror. Is Jesus the great 'example of his saints?' Behold the virtues and graces of the Son of God, copied out in all his followers. ' As he was, so were they in this world, holy r harmless and undefiled, and separate from sinners.' As he now is, so are they, glorious in holiness, and divinely beautiful, while each of them reflects the image of their blessed Lord, and they appear as wonders to all the be- holding world. They 'were unknown' here on earth, even as ' Christ himself was unknown.' This is the day appointed to reveal their works and their graces. Jesus is the 'brightness of his Father's glory, and the express image of his person ; and all the Sons and daughters of God shall then appear, as so many pictures of the blessed Jesus, drawn by the finger of the eternal Spirit GLORIFIED IN HIS SAINTS. And not their souls only, but their glorified bodies also are framed in his likeness. What grace and grandeur dwells in each countenance ! 'As thou art,' blessed Jesus, so shall they be on that day, ' all of them resembling the children of a king !' Vigour and health, beauty and immor- tality, shine and reign throughout all that blessed assembly. The adopted sons and daughters of God resemble the original and only begotten Son. Christ will have all his brethren and -sisters conformed unto his glories, that they may be known to be his kindred, \\^ children of his Father, and that he 'may appear the first-born qmong many breth- ren.' When the Son of God breaks open the graves, he forms the dust of his saints, by the model of his own glo- rious aspect and figure, "and changes their vile bodies into the likeness of his own glorious body, by that power whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself," Phil, iii. 91 He shall be admired as the bright original, and each of the saints as a fair and glorious copy. The various bftantiPs that, are dispersed among all that assembly, are ;a 'ip and unite/I in b.'mepif . < h e is the chiefest of ten thniKwnrK nnd altogether loVtiy ne 1! v/nb e S, 1 ., 01 firmament can paint his own bright image at once, upon a thousand reflecting glasses, or mirrors of gold. What a dazzling lustre would arise from such a scene of reflec- tions ! But what superior and inexpressible glory, above all the powers of similitude and beyond the reach of com- parison, shall irradiate the world in that day, when Jesus the Son of righteousness shall shine upon all his saints, and find each of them well prepared to receive this lustre, and to reflect it round the creation ; each of them displaying the image of the original Son of God, and confessing all their virtues and graces, all their beauties and glories, both of soul and body, to be nothing else but mere copies and deri- vations from Jesus, the first and fairest image of the Father ! USE. The doctrines and the works of divine grace are full of wonder and glory. Such is the person and offices of Christ, such are his holy and faithful followers, and such eminently will be the blessed scene at his appearance. In the foregoing part of the discourse, we have briefly surveyed some of those glorious wonders, we now come to consider what use may be made of such a theme. Use 1. It gives us eminently these two lessons of in- struction. 94 CHRIST ADMIRED AND Lesson 1. 'How mistaken is the judgment of flesh and sense, in the things that relate to Christ and his saints.' The Son of God himself, was abused and scorned by the blind world, they esteemed him as " one smitten of God and unbeloved," and they saw no beauty nor comeliness in him," Isa. liii. 23. He was poor and despised all his life, and he was doomed to the death of a criminal and a slave. As for the saints they find no more honour or es- teem among men than th^r Lord, they are many times called and counted < tJ* filth of the world, and the off- scouring of all things/ 1 Cor. iv. 13. This is the judg- ment of flesh and sense. But when the great appointed hour is come, and Jesus shall return from heaven ' with a shout of the arch-angel, and the trump of God/ when he shall call up his saints from their bods of dust and darkness, and make the graves resign those 'prisoners of hope/ when they shall -ill gath- er together around their Lord, a bright, ami numerous ar- my, shining and reflecting the splendours of his pi-pspnce, how will the judgment of flesh and sense be . . i * ini onaniK ! i Is this tne JI&TI ffiafwas loaded with scandal, that was buffeted with scorn, and scourged and crucified in the land of Judea ? Is this the person that hung on the c.ursed tree, and expi- red under agonies of pain and sorrow ! Amazing sight! how majestic, how divine his appearance ! the Son of God, and the king of glory ! And are these the men that were made the mockery of the world ? that wander- ed about in sheep-skins, and goat-skins, in dens and caves of the earth? Surprising appearance! how illus- trious! how full of glory!' that such a meditation might awaken us to judge more by faith. Lesson 2. The next lesson that we may derive from the text is this, viz. ' One great design of the day of judgment, is to advance and publish the glory of Christ.' He shall some on purpose to ' be glorified in his saints / the whole creation was made by him and for him ; the transactions of Providence, grace and justice, are managed for his honour ; and the joyful and terrible affairs of the day of judgment, are designed to display the majesty and the power of Jesus the King, the wisdom and equity of Jesus the Judge, and the grace and truth of Jesus the Saviour. I will grant indeed that the appointment of GLOHIFIED IN HIS SAINTS* 95 this day is partly intended for the glory of Christ, in the 'just destruction of the impenitent,' for he wi'l be glori- fied in pouring out the vengeance of his Father upon rebellious sinners. " The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, ta- king vengeance on them that know not God, and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power," ver. 7, 8, 9. before my text. But his sweetest and most valua- ble revenue of glory arises from among his saints. If the 'messengers of the churches' are called ' the glo- ry of Christ,' with all the weaknesses, and sins, and fol- lies that attend the best of them here, as in 2 Cor. viii. 23, much more shall they be in his glory hereafter, when they shall have no. spot or blemish found upon them, and when the work of Christ upon their souls has formed and finished them in the perfect beauty of holiness. The saints shall reflect glory on each other, and all of them cast su- preme lustre on Christ their head. The people shall be the crown and glory of the minister in that day, and the minister shall be the joy and glory of the people, and both shall be the crown, joy and glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, 1 Thes. ii. 19, 20. 2 Cor. i.. 14. 2 Thes. i. 12. He shall appear high on a throne in the midst of that bright assembly and say, ' Father, th'ese are the sheep that thou hast given me, in the counsels of thine eternal love ; all these have I ransomed from hell at the price of my own blood ; these have I rescued by my grace, from the do- minion of sin and the devil ; I have formed them unto ho- liness and fitted them for heaven : I have kept them by my power through all' the dangers of their mortal state, and have brought them safe to thy celestial kingdom. Ml thine are mine, and all mine are thine; I teas glorified in them on earth, John xvii. 10, and they arc now my ev- erlasting crown and glory.' Then shall the unknown worlds that never fell, worlds of angels and innocent creatures, and the world of guilty devils and condemned rebels, stand and wonder together at the recovery and salvation Christ has provided for the fallen sons of Adam. They shall stand amazed to see the millions of apostate creatures, the inhabitants of this earth- ly globe, recovered to their duty and allegiance by the 96 CHRIST ADMIRED AND Son of God going down to hell amongst them ; millions of impure and deformed souls restored to the divine im- age, and made beautiful as angels, by the grace and spirit of our Lord Jesus. Those spectators shall be filled with admiration and transport, to see such a multitude of crim- inals pardoned and justified, for the sake of a rightousness which they themselves never wrought, and accepted as righteous in the sight of God, by a covenant of grace un- known to other worlds, and by faith in the great Media- tor. They shall wonder to see such an innumerable compa- ny of polluted wretches, washed from their sins in so pre- cious a laver as the blood of God's own Son. And he that hung upon the cross as a spectacle of wretchedness at Jer- usalem, shall entertain the superior and inferior worlds with the sight of his adorable and divine glories, and the spoils he has brought from the region of death and hell. Thus to ' the principalities and powers in heavenly places, shall be made known by the church triumphant, the ma- nifold wisdom,' and the manifold grace of God the Father, and his Son Jesus Christ, Eph. iii. 10. But tremble, ye obstinate and impenitent wretches ! ye sensual sinners ! ye infidels of a Christian name and nation ! Christ will be glorified in you one way or anoth- er : if your hearts are not bowed and melted to receive his gospel, you shall be ' punished with everlasting destruc- tion' among those that ' knaw not God, and obey not the gospel of his Son.' Tremble, ye sensual and ye profane sons of iniquity, when ye remember this day, when ye shall see the holy souls that ye scorned, with crowns on their heads, and palms in their hands, with the shout of victory and joy on their tongues, and the God-man whom ye despised, and whose grace ye neglected, shining at the head of that bright assembly. Tremble, ye infidels, ye despisers of the name of a cru- cified Christ, behold his cross is become a throne, and his crown of thorns a crown of glory. See the man whom ye have scorned and reproached, at the head of millions of angels, and adored by ten thousand times ten thousand saints, while wicked princes and captains, armies and na- tions of sinners, wait their doom from his mouth, nor dare hope for a word of his mercy. make haste, and come and be reconciled to him, and to God by him, that ye may GLORIFIED IN HIS SAINTS. 37 belong to that blessed assembly, that ye may bear a part in the triumphs of that day, and that Christ may be glori- fied in your recovery from the very borders of damnation. This thought leads me to the next use. II. This discourse gives l rich encom*agement to the greatest sinners to hope for mercy, and to the weakest saints to hope for victory and salvation.' Such sort of subjects of the grace of Christ, shall yield him some of the brightest rays of glory at the last day. Yet, sinners, let me charge you here never to hope for this happiness with- out solemn repentance, and an entire change of heart unto holiness ; for an unholy soul would be a fearful blemish in that assembly, and a disgrace to our Lord Jesus. Chris- tians, I would charge you also never to hope for the hap- piness of this day, without battle and conquest ; for all the members of that assembly must be overcomers : but where there is a hearty desire and longing after grace and salva- tion, let not the worst of sinners despair, nor the weakest believer let go his hope, for it is such as you and I are, in whom Christ will be magnified in that day. Believe this. thou humbled and convinced sinner ! who complainest that thy heart is hard, though thou would- est fain repent and mourn ; who fearest that the bonds of thy corruptions are so strong that they shall never be bro- ken ; believe that the sovereign grace of Christ has de- signed to exalt itself in the sanctifi cation of such unholy souls as thou art, and in melting such hard hearts as thine. And thou poor trembling soul that wouldest fain trust in a Saviour, but art afraid, because of the greatness of thy guilt, and thine abounding iniquities, believe this, that ' where sin has abounded, grace has much more abounded." It is from the bringing such sinners as thou art to heaven, that the choicest revenues of glory shall arise to our Lord Jesus Christ, and thy acclamations of joy and honour to the Saviour, shall perhaps be loudest in that day, ' when he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and admired in all them that believe/ Read 1 Tim. i. 13, 14, 15, and 16, and see there what an account the great Apostle gives of his own conversion ; " I was a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious, yet I obtained mercy ; and the grace of our Lord was exceed- ing abundant with faith, and love, which is in Jesus Christ" Now I am sent to publish and preach to blas- 13 I 38 CHRIST ADMIRED AND phemers and persecutors, that " this is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came intd the world to save sinners ; of whom I am the chief. How- beit, for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first, Je- sus Christ might show forth all long-suffering, for a pat- tern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting." Turn to another text, ye feeble believers, 2 Cor. xii. 9, 10, and there you shall find the same Apostle a convert and a Christian, but too weak to conflict with the messen- ger of Satan that buffeted him, nor able to release himself from that sore temptation that lay heavy upon him : but having received a word from Christ that his 'grace was sufficient,' and that his ' strength was' to shine ' perfect in glory in the midst of our weakness,' the Apostle encoura- ges himself to a joyful hope. Now, says he, I can even " glory in my infirmities, (so far as they are without sin.) that the power of Christ may rest upon me ; when 1 am weak" in myself, " I am strong" in the Lord. Are not the most diseased patients the chief honours of the physician that hath healed them ? And must not these appear eminently in that day, when he displays to the sight of the world the noblest monuments of his healing power? When cripples and invalids gain the victory over mighty enemies, is not the skill and conduct of their leader most admired ? You are the persons then in whom Christ will be glorified, be of good cheer, receive his offered grace, and wait for his salvation. III. The next use I shall make of this discourse, is to draw a 'word of advice' from it. ' Learn to despise those nonours and ornaments in this world, in which Christ shall have no share in the world to come.' I do not say, ' cast them all away,' for many things are needful in this life, that can have no immediate regard to the other ; but 'learn to despise them,' and set light by them, because they reach no further than time, and shall be forgotten in eternity. Never put the higher esteem on yourselves or your neigh- bours, because of the gay glitterings of silk or silver : nor let these employ youreyes and your thoughts in the time of worship, when the things of the future world should' fill up all your attention ; nor let them entertain your tongues in your friendly visits, so as to exclude the discourse of di- vine ornaments and the glorious appearance of our Lord Jesus. GLORIFIED IN HIS SAINTS. 99 When I am to put on my best attire, let me consider, if I am hung round with jewels and gold, these must perish before that solemn day, or ir.elt in the last great burning, they can add no beauty to me in that assembly. If I put on love and .faith, and humility, I shall shine in these here- after, and Christ shall have some* rays of glory from them. may your souls and mine be drest in those graces which are ornaments of great price in the sight of God!" 1 Pet. iii. 3, 4, such as may command the respect of angels, and reflect honour upon Christ in that solemnity ! I confess we dwell in flesh and blood, and human na- ture in the best of us is too much impressed by things sen- sible. When we see a train of human pomp and grand- eur, and long ranks of shining garments and equipage, it is ready to dazzle our eyes, and attract our hearts. Vain pomp, and poor equipage, all this, when compared with the triumph of our blessed Lord, at his appearance with an endless army of his holy ones ; where every saint shall be vested, (not in silks and gold,) but in robes of refined light, out-shining the sun, such as Christ himself wore in the mount of transfiguration. Millions of suns in one fir- mament of glory. Think on that day and the illustrious retinue of our Lord : think on that splendor that shall at- tract the eyes of heaven and earth, shall confound the proud sinner, and astonish the inhabitants of hell. Such a meditation as this will cast a dim shadow over the brigh- test appearances of a court, or a royal festival ; it will spread a dead colouring over all the painted vanities of this lifc ; it will damp every thought of rising ambition and earthly pride, and we shall have but little heart to admire or wish for any of the vain shows of mortality. Methinks every gaudy scene of the present life, and all the gilded ho- nours of courts and armies, should grow faint, and fade a- way and vanish, at the meditation of this illustrious appear- ance. IV. This text will give us also two hints of caution. First, ' You that are rich in this world, or wise, or mighty, dare not ridicule nor scoff at those poor weak Christians, in whom Christ shall be admired and glorified in the last day.' You that fancy you have any advan- tages of birth or beauty, of mind or body here on earth, dare not make a jest of your poor pious neighbour that wants them, for he is one of those persons whom Christ 100 CHRIST ADMIRED AND calls his glory, and he himself has given you warning, lest you incur his resentment on this account, Matth. xviii. 6, " Whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea." Perhaps the good man has some ble- mish in his outward form, or it may be his countenance is dejected, or his mien and figure awkward and uncome- ly ; perhaps his garments sit wrong and unfashionable up- on him-, or it may be they hang in tatters : the motions of his body perhaps are ungraceful, his speech improper, and his deportment simple and unpolished ; but he has shining graces in his soul, in which Christ shall be admired in the last day, and how darest thou make him thy laughing- stock ? Wilt thou be willing to hear thy scornful jest re- peated again at that day, when the poor derided Christian has his robes of glory on, and the Judge of all shall ac- knowledge him for one of his favourites ? The second hint of caution is this, c You that shall be the glory of Christ in that day, dare not do any thing that may dishonour him now.* Walk answerable to your cha- racter and your hope, nor indulge the least sinful defile- ment. Say within yourselves, ' Am I to make one in that splendid retinue of my Lord, where every one must ap- pear in robes of holiness, and shall I spot my garments with the flesh ? When I am provoked to anger and indigna- tion, let me say, doth wrath and bluster become a follow- er and an attendant of the meek and peaceful Jesus? When I am tempted to pride and vanity of mind, will this be a beauty, or a blemish, to that assembly that shines in glorious humility ? Or perhaps I am wavering, and ready ta yield, and become a captive to some foolish temptation ; but how then can I expect a place in that holy triumph, which is appointed for none but conquerors? And how shall I be able to look my blessed General in the face on that day, if I prove a coward under his banner, and aban- don my profession of strict holiness, at the demand of a sinful and threatening world?' V. The last use I shall make of the text, is matter of * consolation and joy' to two sorts of Christians. First, 'To the poor, mean, and despised followers of Christ,' and in whom Christ himself is despised by the ungodly world ; read my text, and believe that in you, GLORIFIED IK HIS SAItfTS. 101 Christ shall be glorified and admired, when, with a mil- lion of angels, he shall descend from heaven, and make his last appearance upon earth ; mean as you are in your own esteem, because of your ignorance and your weakness in this world, you shall be one of the glories of Christ in the world to come : little and despicable as you are in the esteem of proud sinners, they shall behold your Lord ex- alted on his throue, and you sitting, among the honours at hi$ right hand, while they shall rage afar off, and gnash their teeth at your glory. When the eye of faith is open, it can spy this bright hour at a distance, and bid the mour- ning Christian rejoice in hope. Secondly, There 'is comfort also in my text, to those ' who mourn for the dishonour of Christ in the world ;' those lively members of the mystical body who sympathize with the blessed Head, under all the reproaches that are cast upon him and his gospel, who groan under the load of scandal that is thrown upon Christ in an infidel age, as though it were personally thrown upon themselves. It is matter of lamentation indeed, that there are but few of this sort of Christians in our day, few that love our Lord Jesus with such tenderness ; but if such there be among you, open your eyes, and look forward to this glorious day.' This day, to which Enoch, the first of all the prophets, and John, the last of all the Apostles, direct our faith. Read their own words, Jucle 14, 15. Rev. i. 7. "Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them, of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodlily committed, and of all the hard speeches, which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. Behold, he cometh with clouds j and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him : and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him." Bear up your hearts, ye mourners, and support your hopes with the promise of our Lord. "Again, a little while and ye shall see me;" ye shall see "the Son of man sitting on the throne of his glory," Matt. xxv. 31. 'Then shall your heart rejoice' in his honours and in your own, and this "joy no man tak- eth from you," John xvi. 19, 22. And while he repeats this promise with his last words in the Bible, 'surely I come quickly/ let every soul of us echo to the voice of our beloved, Jlmen. Even so come Lord Jesus. i2 DISCOURSE V. THE WRATH OF THE LAMB. RET. vi..l5, 16, 17. And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bond- man, and every free-man, hid themselves in the dens, and in the rocks of the mountains ; and said to the "mountains and rocks, fall on us, and hide fls from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb : for the great day of his wrath is come ; and who shall be able to stand. ' . WHEN some terrible judgment, or execution of divine vengeance is denounced against an age or a nation, it is Sometimes described in the language of prophecy, by a resemblance to the last and great judgment-day, when all mankind shall be called to account for their sins, and the just and final indignation of God shall be executed upon obstinate and unrepenting criminals ; the discourse of our Saviour in the xxivth of Matthew, is an eminent example of this kind, where the destruction of the Jewish nation is predicted, together with the final judgment of the world, in such uniform language, and similar phrases of speech, that it is difficult to say whether both these scenes of ven- geance run through the whole discourse, or which part of the discourse belongs to the one and which to the other. The same manner of prophecy appears in this text. Learned interpreters suppose these words to foretell the universal consternation which was found among the hea- then idolaters and persecutors of the Church of Christ, when Constantine, the first Christian Emperor, was raised to the throne of Rome, and became governor of the world. But whether they hit upon the proper application of this prophecy or not, yet still it is pretty evident, that this scene of terror is borrowed from the last judgment, which will eminently appear to be the " day of wrath," as it is called, Rom. ii. 5. It is the great day of divine indignation, in so eminent a manner, that all the tremen- dous desolations of kingdoms and people, from the crea- 102 THE WRATH OF THE LAMB. 10S tion of the world, to the consummation of all things, shall be but as shadows of that day of terror and vengeance. I shall therefore consider these words at present, as they contain a solemn -representation of that last glorious and dreadful day ; and here I shall enquireparticularly,(l.)< Who are the persons whose aspect and appearance shall then be so dreadful to sinners ? (2.) How comes the wrath which discovers itself at that time to be so formidable ? and (3.) How vain will all the shifts and hopes of sinners be, in that dreadful day, to avoid the wrath and vengeance.' First, Who are the persons lhat appear clothed in so much* terror ? It is he that " sits upon the throne, and the Lamb." It is God the Father of -all, the great and Almighty Creator, the supreme Lord and Governor of the world, and the Lamb of -God, i. e. our Lord JESUS CHRIST, his Son, dwell- ing in human nature, to whom the judgment of the world is committed, and by whom the Father will introduce the terrible and the illustrious' scenes of that day, and manage the important and eternal affairs of it. It is by these names that the Apostle John, in this prophetical book, describes God the Father and his Son Jesus. Rev. iv. 10. and v. 6. 13. . If it be enquired, why God the Father is described as the person 'sitting on the throne,' this is plainly agreeable to the other representations of him throughout the Scrip- ture, where he is described as first and supreme in author- ity, as sitting on the throne of majesty on high, as denot- ing and commissioning the Lord Jesus, his well-beloved Son, to act for him, and as placing him on his throne, to execute his works of mercy or vengeance. Rev. iii. 21. " He that overcometh shall 'sit down with me on my throne," saith our Saviour, " even as I have overcome, and am set down with the Father on his throne." John v. 22, 27. "The Father hath committed all judgment into the hands of the Son." It is true, the Godhead or divine essence is but one, and it is the same Godhead which be- longs to the Father that dwells in the Son, and in this res- pect "Christ and the Father are one, he is in the Father, and the Father in him," John x. 30, 38 ; yet the Father is constantly exhibited in Scripture, with peculiar charac- ters of prime authority, and the Son is represented as re- 104 THE WRATH OP THE LAMB. ceiving all from the Father.* John v. 19,20,23, 26, 27. If it be farther enquired, i why Christ is called the Lamb of God,' I hall not pursue those many fine metaphors and similqs, in which the wit and fancy of men have run a long course on this subject ; but stiall only mention these two things. 1. He is called the Lamb, from the innocence of his behaviour, the quietness and meekness of his disposition and conduct in the world. The character of Jesus, among men, 'was peaceful, and harmless, and patient of injuries; "when* he was reviled, he" reviled not again^ but was led as a Lamb to the slaughter," with submission, and without revenge. This resemblance appears, and ia set forth to view in several Scriptures, wherein he is compared to this gentle creature. Acts viii. 32. 1 Pet. ii. 23. 2. He was called the Lamb, because he was appointed a sacrifice for the sins of men ; John i. 29, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world." 1 Pet. i. 18, 19, " You were re'deemed with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish, and without spot." It was a lamb that was ordained for the constant daily sacrifice among the Jews, morning and evening, to typify the constant and everlasting influence of the atone- ment made by' the death of Christ. Heb. x. 11, 12. It was a lamb which was sacrificed at the passover, and on which the families of Israel feasted, to commemorate their redemption from the slavery of Egypt, and to typify Christ who is " our passover, who was sacrificed for us," and for whose sake the destroying angel spares all that trust in him. 1 Cor. v. 7. But will a lamb discover such dreadful wrath ? Has the Lamb of God such indignation in him'? Can the meek, the compassionate, the merciful Son of God, put on such terrible forms and appearances ? Are his tender mercies vanished quite away,' and will he renounce the kind aspect, and the gentle language of a lamb for ever? To this I answer, that the various glories and offices 'of our blessed Lord require a variety of human metaphors and emblems to represent them. He was a lamb, full of gentleness, meekness, and compassion, to invite and en- * All the passages of Scripture which ascribe inferiority or dependence to the Son, speak of him in his mediatorial character, or have reference to hi* human nature. ED. THE WRATH OP THE LAMB. 105 courage sinful perishing creatures, to accept of divine mer- cy : but he has now to deal with obstinate and rebellious criminals, who renounce his Father's mercy, and resist all the gentle methods of his own-grace and salvation : and he is sent by the Father to punish those rebellions ; but he is named ( the Lamb of God' still, to put the rebels in mind what gentleness and compassion they have affronted and abused, and to make it appear that their guilt is utterly inexcusable. Let us remember, Christ is now a Lamb, raised to the throne in heaven, and furnished and armed 'with seven eyes and seven horns,' with perfect knowledge and per- fect power, to govern the world, to vindicate his own honour, and to avenge himself upon his impenitent and obstinate enemies, Rev. v. 5, 6. Here the Lamb will as- sume the name of the " Lion of the tribe of Judah" also, and he must act -in different characters, according to the persons he has to deal with. The second general question which we are to consider, is, ' How comes the wrath of that great day to be so terri- ble ?' I answer in general, because it is not only the ( wrath of God,' but of < the Lamb.' It is the wrath that is manifest- ed for the affronts of divine authority, and the abuse of divine mercy : it is wrath that is awakened by the con- tempt of the laws of God, written in the books of nature and Scripture, and for the contemnt of his Invo rw>^or\ ; n the Gospel by Jesus Christ. lA_^..j-jppr to observe hcic, th.nt +h^ ' T.T^O+U f Oc-J,' ^..a thp < wrath of the Lamb,' are not to be conceived as exact- ly the same, for it is tne wrath of the Son of God in his human nature exalted, as well as the displeasure of God the Father. It is the righteous and holy resentment of the man Jesus, awakened and let loose against rebellious creatures that have broken all the rules of his Father's government, and have refused all the proposals of his Father's grace. It is the wrath of the highest, the great- est, and the best of creatures, joined to the wrath of an of- fended Creator.* But let us enter a little into particulars. * Hc*e let it be observed, that when the holy Scripture speaks of the torath and indignation of the blessed God, we are not to understand it as though God were subject to such passions or affections of nature, as we feel fermenting or working within ourselves when our anger rises. But because 14 106 THE WRATH OF THE LAMB. 1. It is righteous wrath, and just and deserved venge- ance, that < arises from the clearest discoveries of the love of God neglected, and the sweetest messages of -divine grace refused.' All the former discoveries of the love of God to men, both in nature and providence, as well as by divine revelation, whether in the days of the Patriarchs, or in the days of Moses and the Jews, were far inferior to the grace which was revealed by Jesus Christ; and therefore the sin of rejecting it is greater in proportion, and the punishment will be more severe. "If the word spoken by angels was stead fast, 'and every transgression and dis- obedience .received -a just recompence of reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation, as THIS which began to be spoken by our Lord?" Heb. ii. 2, 3. Moses had man)* true discoveries of grace made to him and entrusted with him, for sinful nien. But the Scrip- ture saith, John i. 17, "The law came by Moses, and grace and truth came by Jesus Christ," i. e. in such super- abundance, as though grace and truth had never appeared in the world before. The forgiving mercy of God, under the veil of ceremonies and sacrifices, and the mediation of Christ, under the type of the high priest, was but a dark and imperfect discovery, in comparison of the free, the large, the full forgiveness, which is brought to us by the gospel of Christ. Learn this doctrine at large, from Heb. x. 1. 14. This is amazing mercy, astonishing grace, and the despisers of it will dese.i ve to perish with double -at-strtTCnon, rurTney wink Their eyes against clearer light and reject the offers of more aV^uuUiij^ love. the justice or rectoral wisdom of God Inclines Him to bring natural evil, pain or sorrow, upon those who are obstinately guilty of moral evil or sin, and U> treat them as anger or wrath inclines men to treat those that have offended them ; therefore the Scripture, speaking after the manner of men, calls it, the -wrath and indignation of God. And it is hard to say, whether or no the wrath of the J,amb, i. e. of the man Christ Jesus, in whom the Godhead dwells, be any thing more than the calm, dispassionate, rectoral wisdom of tlic human nature of Christ, in- clining him to punish rebellious and impenitent sinners, in conformity to the will of God his Father, or in concurrence with the Godhead which dwells in him. WATTS. [Jesus is not to be viewed as merely man, in discharging the functions of Mediator. We might as well imagine a human body to act without a soul, as Christ to act separately from the divine nature. In his Person the two natures are inseparably united. The " wrath of the Lamb" is the execution of his just judgment upon sinners.~ED.] THE WRATH OP THE LAMB. 107 2. It is wrath that is 'awakened by the most precious and most expensive methods of salvation slighted and under- valued.' Well may God say to Christian nations, especial- ly to Great-Britain, who sits under the daily sound of this gospel, 'What could I have done more for you than I have done ?' Isa. v. 4. 'I have sent my own Son, the son of my bosom, the sou of my eternal love, to take flesh and blood upon him, that he might be able to die in your stead who were guilty rebels, and deserved to die : I have given him up to the insults and injuries of men, to the tempta- tions, the bufferings, and rage of devils, to the stroke of the sword of my justice, to the cursed death of the cross for you ; here is heaven and salvation purchased for man, with the dearest and most valuable life in all the creation, with the richest blood that ever ran in the veins of a creature, with the life and blood of the Son of God ; and yet you refused to receive and accept of this salvation, procured at so immense a price. I called you to partake of this inval- uable blessing freely, "without money and without price," and yet you slighted all these offers" of mercy ; what re- mains but that my wrath should kindle against you in the hottest degree, and fill your souls with exquisite anguish and misery ; you have refused to accept of a covenant which was sealed with the blood of my own Son, which was confirmed by miraculous operations of my own Spirit ; you have valued your sinful pleasures, and the trifles of this vain world, above the blood of my Son, and the life of your souls : it is divinely proper that divine vengeance should be your portion, who have rejected such rich treas- ures of divine love.' - Heb. x. 28 31. ' He that despised Moses' law, died without mercy, under two or three wit- nesses ; of how much sorer punishment suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace ? For we know him that hath said vengeance belongeth unto me, I will repay, saith the Lord.' 3. It is wrath that 'must avenge the affronts and inju- ries done to the prime minister of God's government, arid the chief messenger of his mercy.' All the patriarchs, and the prophets, and angels themselves, were but ' ser- vants* to bring messages of divine grace to men : and some 108 THE WRATH OF THE LAMB. of them in awful forms and appearances, represented the authority of God too. But the < Son of God' is the prime minister of his government, and the noblest ambassador of his grace, and the chief deputy or vicegerent in his Fa- ther's kingdom. See Heb. i. 1, 2. Psal. ii. 6, 9, 12. His Father's glory and grandeur, compassion and love, are most sublimely exhibited in the face of Christ his Son, and God will not have his highest and fairest image disgra- ced and affronted, without peculiar and signal vengeance. The great God will vindicate the honours of his Son Jesus, in the infinite destruction of a rebellious and unbe- lieving world : and the Son himself hath wrath, and just resentment ; he will vindicate bis own authority, and his commission of grace. He hath a rod of iron put into his hands, as well as a sceptre of mercy ^ and with this rod will he break to pieces rebellious nations. Rev. iii. latter end. It is not fit that the first minister of the empire of the King of heaven, and the brightest image of his majesty and of his love, should appear always in the character of a Lamb, a meek and uriresenting creature. He will put on the Lion when his commission of grace is ended : he is the ' Lion of the tribe of Judah,' Rev. v. 5, and will * rend the caul of the heart' of those unrepenting sinners, who have resisted his authority and abused his love. And how will the wrath of the Lamb of God penetrate the soul of sinners with intense anguish, when the meek and the compassionate Jesus, shall be commissioned and constrained to speak the language of resentment and divine indignation ? { Did you not hear of me, sinners, in yonder world, which lies weltering in flames ? Did you not read of me in the gospel of my grace ? Did you not learn my cha- racter and my salvation in the ministrations of my word ? Were you not told that I was appointed to be the Saviour of a lost world, and a minister of divine mercy to men ? And was there not abundant evidence of it by miracles and prophecies ? Were you not told that I was exalted after my sufferings to the right hand of God, on purpose to " bestow repentance and remission of sins ?" Acts. v. 31. And were you not informed also, that I had a "rod of iron" given me to dash rebels to death ? Psal. ii. What is the reason you never came to me, or submitted to my government, or accepted of my grace ? Did you never THE WRATH OF THE LAMB. 109 hear of the threatenings that stood like drawn swords against those who wilfully refuse this mercy ? Did you think these were mere bugbears, mere sounding words to fright children with, and harmless thunder that would ne- ver blast you ? Did you think these flashes of wrath in my word, were such -sort of lightnings as you might safe- ly play with, and flame that would never burn ? What punishments think you, do you deserve, first for the abuse of my authority, and then for the wilful and obstinate re- fusal of my grace ? Is it npt divinely fit and proper, my wrath should awake against such heinous criminals 1 ? Where is any proper object for. my resentment, if you are not made objects of it ? Take them, angels, bind them hand and foot, and cast them into utter darkness. Let them be thrown headlong into the prison of hell, where fire and brimstone burn unquenchably, where light, and peace, and hope can never come. Let them be crushed with the rod of iron, which the Father hath put into my hands, as the first minister of his kingdom, as the avenger of his despised grace.' 4. It is a wrath, that is 'excited by a final and utter re- jection of the last proposals of divine love.' When mercy was offered to men by the blessed God at first, the discov- eries were more dark and imperfect ; there were still further discoveries to be made in following ages. There- fore the crime and guilt of sinners in those former days, was much less than the crime and guilt of those who reject this last proposal of mercy. There is no further edition of the covenant of grace, for those who refuse this offer. Those who neglect Christ as he is set forth in the gospei, to be a sacrifice for sin, "there remains no more sacrifice for them, but a certain fearful expectation of vengeance and fiery indignation, which shall consume the adversa- ry." Heb. x. 26, 28. . All the former dispensations of grace are contained em- inently and completed in this dispensation of the gospel. God can send no greater messenger than his own Son, and he concludes and finishes the whole scene and period of grace, with the gospel of Christ. There remains noth- ing but wrath to the uttermost for those who have abused this last offer of mercy. This was exemplified in the de- struction' of Jerusalem and the Jews, a little after they had put Christ to death, and rejected the salvation which he K 110 'THE WRATH OF THE LAMB. proposed' ; and this wrath will be more terribly glorified in the final destruction of every sinner that wilfully re- jects the glad tidings of this salvation. 5. It is such wrath, as 'arises from the patience of God, tired and worn out by the boldest iniquities 'of men, and by a final perseverance in their rebellions.' It is the cha- racter and glory of God to be " long-suffering, and slow to anger." Exod. xxxiv. 6. " The Lord God merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth ;" and Jesus his Son, is -the minister of this his pa- tience, and the intercessor for this delay of judgment and vengeance. He is represented as interceding one year after another, for the reprieve of obstinate sinners, and at his intercession, God the Father ' waits to be gracious :' but God will not wait and delay, and keep silence for ev- er, nor will Jesus for ever plead. Psal. 1. 1, 3, 21, 22. " Consider this ye that forget God, lest he tear you in pie- ces, and there be none to deliver." God will say then to obstinate sinners, as he did to the Jews of old, Jer. xv.' 5, 6. " I will stretch out my hand against thee and destroy thee, I am weary of repenting ;" and even the abused pa- tience of Jesus the Saviour, shall turn into fury, when the 'day of recompence' shall come, and the "day of venge- ance which is in his heart," Isa. Ixiii. 1, 4. let each of us consider, 'How long have I made the grace of God wait on me ? How many messages of peace and pardon have I neglected? How many years have I delayed to accept of this salvation, and made Jesus wait on an impenitent rebel with the commission of mercy in his- hand, while I have refused to receive it ? Let my soul be this day awakened to lay hold of the covenant of grace, to submit to the gospel of Christ, lest to-morrow the days of his commission of mercy toward me expire, lest the patience of God be finished, lest the abused love of a Sav- iour turn into fury, and nothing remain for me, but una- voidable destruction.' 6. It is a sentence of divine wrath, which 'shall be at- tended with the fullest conviction of sinners, and self-con- demnation 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 THE WRATH OP THE LAMB. Ill 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 damna- tion upon them. What infinite terrors will shake the soul, when there is not one of its own thoughts that 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 forever. who can express the agonies of pain and torture, when the impenitent sinner shall be awakened into such reflec- tions as these ? ' I was placed in aland of light aad knowl- edge ; the light of the gospel of grace shone all around me ; but I winked my eyes against the light, and now I am plunged into utter and eternal darkness ; I was con- vinced 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-sufficiency of the salvation of Christ ; but I loved the vanities of this life, I followed the appetites of the flesh, 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 resent- ment 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 hmnediately and eternally, without one hour 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 1 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 112 THE WRATH OF THE LAMB. and justice have set the limits of divine 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 t& speak a word for them who have finally rejected Jesus the only Mediator, worn out the age of his pity, and provok- ed his wrath as well as his Father's. (3.) It is f wrath without end,' for their souls are immor- tal, their bodies are raised to an immortal state, and their whole nature being sinful and miserable, and immortal, the} r 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 1 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 knowl edge," 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 im- age of his person." And besides, the Father hath armed him with powers of divine vengeance, as well as with powers of mercy and salva- tion. Psal. ii. 9. He has put 'the rod of iron' into his hand, THE WRATH OF THE LAMB. 113 " to dash the nations like a potter's vessel." Rev. ii. 27. and xix. 1 3. He is the " elect and precious corner stone laid in Zion," 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 over- spreading 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-suffer- ing, and the proper moment to let all his wrath and re- sentment loose, on obstinate and unreclaimable sinners. may every one of our souls awake to faith and repen- tance, to religion and righteousness, to hope and salvation, before this day of our peace be finished and gone for ev- er! Psa!. 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 na- tion of the Jews, and the people of Jerusalem, wasting the proposals of his love ; they let their day of mercy pass av/ay unimproved, and he foretold their destruction \vi-:li tears in his eyes. Luke xix. 41, 42. " He beheld the city a;ul wept over 'it ;" alas, for the inhabitants who would not be saved. He was then a messenger of salva- tion, and clothed with pity to sinners, but in the last great day of his wrath, there is no place for these tears of com- passion, no room for pity or forgiveness. Remark 3. 'When we preach terror 'to obstinate sin- ners, 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 aod 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 repre- sented 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.' 15 * 3 DISCOURSE VI. THE VAIN REFUGE OF SINNERS : OR A MEDITATION ON THE ROCKS NEAK 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. IN the former discourse on this text, we have taken a survey of these two persons and their characters, 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 sufficient reasons, why the anger and justice of God should be so severe against the sinful sons and daughters of men, who have wilfully broken his law, and refused the grace of his gospel ; and why the in- dignation of the Son of God should be superadded to all the terrors of his Father's vengeance. We are now r come 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, when 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 de- scription 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 Lamlr." 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 114 THE VAIN REFUGE OF SINNERS. 115 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 deliv- er 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 ven- 'geance ! What created being dares interpose in that hour to shelter or defend a condemned criminal ? What high and mighty creature is able to afford the least security or protection ? The princes of the earth, and the captains, the kings, and heroes, and conquerors, with all their millions of arm- ed men, are not able to lift a hand, for the defence of one sinner against the anger of God and the Lamb. They themselves shall quake and shiver at the tremendous sight, and they shall fly into the holes of the rocks like mere cowards, and shall join their outcries with the poor and the slave, entreating the rocks and mountains to befriend them with shelter and safety. Not the highest mountains, not the hardest or the strong- est rocks, not the most exalted or most powerful persons, or things in nature can defend, when the God of nature re- solves to destroy. When HE who is higher than the high- est, and stronger than the strongest, shall pronounce de- struction upon rebels, what creature can speak deliverance? The rocks and the mountains obey their Maker, they shiver in pieces at the word of his wrath, and will yield no relief to criminals : but man, rebellious man, disobeys 1 his Maker, and calls to the rocks and mountains to protect him. Vain hope, sinner, to make the most exalted creatures your friends, when God the Creator is your ene- my. These inanimate things have never learnt disobe- dience to their Maker, and rather than screen a rebel from his deserved judgments, they will offer themselves as in- struments of divine vengeance. 2. Rocks and mountains in their clifts, and dens, and caverns, are sometimes considered as places of secresy 116 THE VAIN UEFtTGE OP SINNERS. and concealment.' My text tells us, that ' kings and mighty men, the rich and the free man, as well as the poor and the slave, hid themselves in dens, and in the rocks of the mountains.' They hoped there might he some secret corner, whose thick shadows and darkness were sufficient to hide them, where the Judge might not spy or find them out. Vain hope for sinners to hide in the holes of the rocks, and the deepest caverns of the mountains, to escape the notice of that God, who is all eye and all ear, and present at once in every place of earth and heaven ! Fool- ish expectation indeed,, to avoid the notice of the Son of God, "whose eyes are as a flame of fire," and shoot through the earth and its darkest caves. Read the 139th Psalm, sinner ! and then think if it be possible to flee from the eye of God, and to hide thy- self in the clefts of the. rock, where his hand shall not find thee. He has already 'beset thee behind and before,' and his hand -already compasses thee round about in all thy paths. Darkness itself cannot cover thee ; ' the night shines as the day' before him, and scatters light round about the criminal that would hide himself from the wrath of God. Ask Jeremy the prophet, and he shall tell thee, that " none can hide himself in secret places where God shall not see him, the God who fills heaven and earth," Jer. xxiii. 4. He shall hunt obstinate sinners from every mountain, and 'out of the holes of the rocks; for his eyes are upon all their ways, neither their persons, nor their iniquities/can be hid from him. And, as you can never conceal yourselves from the sigh and notice of the Judge, so neither can you turn your eyes away from him. You must behold his face in vengeance, and endure the distressing sight. The rays of his Majes- ty, in the day of his wrath, shall strike through all the crannies of the darkest den, and pierce the deepest shade. "Lord, when thy hand is lifted up they will not see ; but they shall see and be ashamed,' Isa. xxvi. 10. And the face of the Lamb must be seen in all its unknown terrors, Rev. i. 7. " Behold, he comes in the clouds, and every eye shall see him :" the guilty creature, and the divine Avenger, shall meet eye to eye, though the creature has hid himself under rocks and mountains. 3. These- 'rocks and mountains' are designed to repre- sent, not only concealment and darkness by their holes THE VAIN REFUGE OF SINNERS. 117 and caverns, but they are known 'bulwarks of defence.' and ' places of security and shelter, by reason of their strength and thickness.' When the prophet would ex- press the safety of the man who practises righteousness m a vicious age, Isa. xxxiii. 16, he says, "He shall dweli on high, his place of defence shall be a munition of rocks." These shall be a bulwark round him for his guard and safety. When sinners therefore flee to the mountains, and 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 mountains to guajrd them ;. butthese, alas ! can yield no shelter from the stroke .of the arm of God. Should the rocks, sinner. ! 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, antl 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 anJ in the storm, anrl t.hf r.lnuds a-rn the. 'dust of his fcet" 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 hiding-place, 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 guil- ty prisoner, and yield thee up to the sword of his justice. Wheresoever God resolves to strike, safety and defence are impossible things. The sinner must suffer without remedy, and with'out hope, who has provoked an Almigh- ty God, and awakened the wrath of that Saviour "who can subdue all things to himself." 4. 'Rocks and mountains' falling upon us are 'instru- ments of suddea and overwhelming death.' When sin- ners therefore call to the 'rocks and mountains to fall up- 118 THE VAIN REFUGE OF SINKERS. on 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, wiill 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 mor- tal 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 destruction ; 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 pai't with it, nor can any creature take it from them. They would ra- ther die than see God in his majesty, or ihe Lamb arrayed in his robes of judgment ; but the wretches are immortal- ized to punishment, by the long abused majesty and pow- er of God : and they must live forever to learn what it is to desplstthe authority of God, and to abuse the grace of a Saviour. -Tneir duum 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 insufiicient to hide, cover, or protect guilty creatures, in that great day of the wrath of God and the Lamb. 4 REFLECTIONS ON THE FOREGOING DISCOURSE. 1. ' How strangely do all the appearances of Christ to sinners, in the several seasons and dispensations of his THE VAIN REFUGE OP SINNERS. 119 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, whelihe 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 1 gospel, and in the ordinan- ces 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 vis- its 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 thai" 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 right- eous indignation, to condemn the rebellious world, and inflict upon them the pains of eternal death. Hast thou seen him, 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 counte- nance without terror and confusion. Refl. 2. ( How very different will the thoughts of 'sin- ners 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 180 THE VAIN BEFUGE OF SINNERS. 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 des- olation, at the appearance .of God their Creator in flaming fire, and the. Son of God their Judge ; for he is the aven* ger of his own and his Father's, injured honours. Sinners who were ' once fwid 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 con- founded in that day, when God shall appear in his Majes- ty, to shake the earth to the centre, and to burn the sur- face 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 made, each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats, to go into the clefts of the rock, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his Majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth." Sinners who once 'could not tell how to spend a day without gay company, 5 those sons and daughters of mirth, who turned their midnights into noon, with the splendor of their lamps, and the rich and shining furniture of theii palaces, those noidy companions of riot, who made the streets of the city resound with their midnight revels, they shall now fly to the solitary caverns of the rocks, and would be glad to dwell there in darkness and silence for ever, if they might but avoid the wrath of a provoked God, and the countenance of an abused Saviour. They would fain be shut up for ever from day-light, lest they should see the face of art Almighty enemy, whose name and hon- our have been reproached, in their songs of lewd-jollity and profaneness. Sinners who once l were fond qf liberty in the wildest sense,' and could not bear that any restraints should be laid upon their persons or their wishes, who never could endure the thought of a confinement to their closets, for THE VAIN REFUGE OF SINNERS. 121 one half hour to converse with God, or with their own souls there, they call now aloud to, the rocks and the moun- tains to immure them round, as a refuge from the eye of their Judge. They were once perpetually roving abroad, and gadding through all the gay scenes of sensuality, in quest of new and flowery pleasures, but now they beg to be imprisoned for ever in the dens and caves of the earth; the deepest and most dismal caves are their most ardent wishes, that they might never see the countenance of their divine Avenger, nor feel the weight of his hand. Sinners who ' heretofore thought themselves and their deeds of darkness secure enough from the eye of God, and from the strokes of his justice,' while they revelled in their common habitations, those, who even under the open sky could defy the Almighty, could laugh at his threat- enings,and mock the prophecies of his vengeance, now they can find no caverns, deep or dark enough, to hide them from his sight ; his lightnings penetrate the hardest rocks, and shine into the deepest solitudes : there is no screen or shelter thick and strong enough to stand between God and them, and to cover and shield them from his thunder. They call now to the mountains and the rocks to be an eternal screen ; but the rocks and the mountains are deaf to their cry. Then shall they remember, with unknown regret and anguish, those days of grace, when Christ Je- sus, who is now their Judge, offered himself to become a screen to them, and a defence from the anger of God their Creator : but they rejected this offered grace'. He would have been the rock of their safety, where they should have found refuge from the fiery threatening* of the broken law, and the majesty of an offended God : the Father himself had appointed him for this kind office to repenting sinners, and perhaps he gave Moses a type or emblem of it, when he commanded him to hide himself in the clefts of the rock, to secure him from destruction, while the burning blaze of his glory passed by, Exocl. xxxiii. 22. And Isaiah the prophet had foretold, that this Jesus should be as "the shadow of a great rock," to shelter them from the beams of the wrath of God ; but they refused this blessing, they renounced this refuge ; and now they find there is no other rock sufficient to become a shelter from the stroke of his almighty arm, or a sufficient shadow from the burning vengeance. 16 L 122 THE VAIN REFUGE OF SINNERS. Sinners, who ' once over-rated their flesh and blood, and loved it with infinite fondness,' who treated their flesh- ly appetites with excessive nicety and elegance, and affect- ed a humourous delicacy in every thing round about them, would now gladly creep into the mouldy caverns of the rocks, they would be glad to hide and defile themselves in the dark and noisome grottos of the earth, and squeeze their bodies into the rough and narrow clefts, to shield themselves from the indignation of him that sits upon the throne, and of the Lamb. Those who ' once were so tender of (his mortal life and limbs,' arid could not think of bearing the least hardship for the sake of virtue and piety, are now wishing to have those delicate limbs of theirs crushed by the fall of rocks and mountains. They wish earnestly to have their lives and their souls destroyed for ever, and their whole natures buried in desolation and death, if they might but avoid the eternal agonies and torments that are prepared for them. Now they long for caverns, and graves, to hide them for ever from the justice of God, whose authority they have despised, and from the wrath of a Saviour whose mercy they have impiously renounced. Look forward, my soul ! to this awful and dreadful hour ; survey this tremendous scene of confusion, when sinners shall run counter to all their former principles and wishes, and pass a quite different judgment upon their sinful delights, from what they .were wont to do in the days of this life of vanity. Learn, my soul ! to judge of things more agreeably to the appearances of that day. Never canst thou set the flattering pleasures of sense, and the joys of sin, in a truer and juster view, than the light of this omi- nous and tremendous judgment. Refl. 3. c How great and dreadful must the distress of- creatures be, when they cannot bear to see the face of God their Creator ?' How terrible must be the circumstances of the sons of men, when they cannot endure to see the face of the Son of God, but would fain hide themselves from the sight under rocks and mountains ? How wretched must their state be, who avoid the face of the blessed God with horror, which the holy angels ever behold with most in- tense delight, and which the saints rejoice in as their high- est happiness ? It is their heaven to see God, and behold the glory of his Son Jesus, Matth. v. 8. John xvii. But THE VAIN REFUGE OF SINNERS. '123 this is the very hell of sinners in that dismal hour, and will fill their souls with such inexpressible anguish, that they call to the rocks and mountains to hide them from the sight. Dreadful and deplorable is their case indeed, who cannot endure to see the countenance of Jesus the Son of God, Jesus the Saviour of men, the copy of the Father's glory, and the image of his beauty and love. They cannot bear to see that Jesus who is the chiefest of ten thousands, and altogether lovely ; they fly from that blessed countenance, which is the ornament, and the joy of all the holy and happy creation ; that blessed countenance is become the terror and confusion of impenitent and guilty rebels. . And what shall I do, if I should be found among this criminal number, in that great day ? If I look at the wis- dom and the righteousness of God, these will reflect the keenest rays of horror and anguish upon my soul, for it is that wisdom, and that righteousness, that have joined to prepare the salvation which I have rejected ; and therefore now that wise and righteous God seeth it proper and ne- cessary to punish me with everlasting sorrows. If I look at the power of God, it is a dreadful sight. Eternal and almighty power, that can break through rocks and moun- tains, to inflict vengeance upon the guilty, and that stands engaged by his honour to break my rebellious spirit with unknown torments. If I look at his goodness or his love, it is love and goodness that I have despised and abused, and it is now changed into divine fury. If I look at the face of Jesus, and find there the correspondent features of his Father, I shall then hate to see it for this very reason, because it bears his Father's image, who is so terrible to my thoughts. I shall neither be able to bear the sight of God nor of his fairest copy, that is, Jesus his Son, because I am so shamefully unlike them both ; and besides, I have affronted, their majesty, and despised their mercy. How painful and smarting will be the reflection of my heart in that day, when I shall remember, that Jesus called out to me from heaven, by the messengers of his grace, and said, " Behold me, behold me, look unto me from the ends of the earth, and be saved. But now he is armed with a commission of vengeance, and he strikes terror and exquis- ite pain into my soul with every frown, so that I shall wish to be forever 'hid from the face of the Lamb, for the great day of his wrath is come, and who shall be able' to endure 124 THE VAIN REFUGE OF SINNERS. this wrath, to stand before his thunder, or bear the light- ning of this day ? Alas, how miserable must I be by an everlasting necessity, if I cannot bear the countenance of God and Christ, which is the spring of unchangeable hap- piness to all the saints and the blessed angels ? may I timely secure the love of my God, and gain an in- terest in the favour and salvation of the blessed Jesus ! Here, Lord, at thy foot I lay down all the weapons of my former rebellions ; I implore thy love through the in- terest of thy Son, the great Mediator. Let me see the light of thy countenance, and- the smiles of thy face. Let me see a reconciled God, and let him tell me that my sins are all forgiven ; then shall I not be afraid to meet the countenance of him that sits upon the throne, or the Lamb, when Christ shall return from heaven, to punish the im- penitent rebels against divine grace. Refl. 4. ' How hopeless, as well as distressed, is the case of sinners in that day, when they are driven to this last extremity, to seek help from the rocks and the moun- tains ?' It is the last, but the fruitless refuge of a frighted and perishing creature. The rocks and mountains refuse to help them ; they will not crush to death those wretches, whom the justice of God has doomed to a painful immor- tality, nor will they conceal or shelter those obstinate re- bels, whom the Son of God has raised out of their graves, to be exposed to . public shame and punishment. Those high and hollow rocks, those dismal dens and caverns, dark as midnight, those deep and gloomy retreats of mel- ancholy and sorrow, which they shunned with the utmost aversion, and could hardly bear to think of, without hor- ror, here on earth, are now become their only retreat and shelter ; but it is a very vain and hopeless one. When I see such awful appearances in nature, huge and lofty rocks hanging over my head, and at every step of my approach they seem to nod upon rne with overwhelm- ing ruin, when my curiosity searches far into their hollow clifts, their dark and deep caverns of solitude and desola- tion, methinks while I stand amongst them, I can hardly think myself in safety, and at best they give a sort of solemn and dreadful delight. Let me improve the scene to religious purposes, and raise a divine meditation. Am I one of those wretches, who shall call to these huge im- pending rocks to fall upon me ? Am I that guilty and THE VAIN REFUGE OF SINNERS. 125 miserable creature, who shall entreat these mountains to cover me from him that sits on the throne and the Lamb ? Am I prepared to meet the countenance of the blessed Jesus the Judge in that day ? Have I such an acquain- tance with the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, such a holy faith in his mediation, such a sin- cere love to him, and such an unfeigned repentance of sill my sins, that I can look upon him as my friend and my refuge, and a friend infinitely better than rocks and moun- tains; for he not only screens me from the divine anger, but introduces me into the Father's love and places me in his blissful presence for ever? Refl. 5. 'What hideous and everlasting mischief is contained in the nature of sin, especially sin against the gospel of Christ, against the methods of grace, and the offers of salvation, which exposes creatures to such ex- treme distress ?' The fairest and the most flattering ini- quity, what beautiful colours soever it may put on in the hour of temptation, yet it carries all this hidden mischief and terror in the bosom of it, for it frights the creature from the sight of his Creator and his Saviour, and makes him fly to every vain refuge. Adam and Eve, the par- ents of our race, when they lost their innocence and became criminals, fled from the presence of God, with whom they conversed before in holy friendship, Gen. iii. 8. ' They hid themselves among the trees of Paradise,' and the thickest shadows of the garden ; but the eye and the voice of God reached them there. The curse found them out, though that was a curse allayed with the promised bles- sing 'of a Saviour. Guilt will work in the conscience, and tell .us, that ' God is angry,' and the next thought is, ' where shall I hide myself from an angry God ?' But when the mercy of God has taught us where we may hide ourselves, even under the shadow of the cross of his Son, and we refuse to make him our refuge, there remains no- thing but a final horror of soul, and a hopeless address to rocks and mountains, to hide us from an offended God, and p. provoked Saviour. Whensoever, my soul! thou shalt find or feel some nattering iniquity alluring thy senses, making court to thy heart, and ready to gain upon thy inward wishes, remem- ber the distress and terror of heart that sinners must under- go in the great and terrible day of the Lord. Think of 1 2 126 THE VAIN REFUGE OF SINNERS. the rocks and mountains which they vainly call upon to befriend them, to shield'them from the vengeance of that almighty arm which is provoked by sin, to make his crea- tures miserable. Remember, my soul! and fear; re- member and resist the vile temptation, and stand afar off from that practice, which will make thee afraid to see the face of God. Refl. 6. l Of what infinite importance is it then to sin- ners, to gain a humble acquaintance and friendship with the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, that we may be able with comfort,to behold the face of him that sits on the throne in that day.' Which of us can say, ' I" am not a sinner, I am not guilty before God ?' And which of us then has the courage and hardiness to declare, 'I have no need of a Saviour?' And is there any one among us, who hath not yet fled for refuge to Jesus our only and sufficient hope ? There is a protec- tion provided against a provoked God, but there is none against a neglected and abused Saviour : I mean, where this neglect and abuse is final and unrepented of. how solicitous should every soul be, in a matter of this divine moment, this everlasting importance ? What words of compassion shall we use, what words of awake- ning terror, to put sinners in mind of their extreme dan- ger, if they neglect the only security which the gospel has appointed ? What language of fear and importunity shall we make use of, to hasten you, sinners ! to the acquain- tance, the faith and the love, of Jesus the Saviour, that you may behold his face, and the face of the Father, with serenity and joy iu the last day ? Give yourselves jp to him then without further delay, as your teacher, your high-priest, your reconciler, your Lord and king. His blessed offices are the only chambers of protection, when God shall arise to burn the world, and to avenge him- self on his enemies that will not be reconciled. Refl. 7. 'Let us take occasion from my text, also to meditate on the happy circumstances of true Christians, in that day of terror.' Behold the Judge appears, he cometh in the clouds surrounded with armies of avenging angels, the ministers of his indignation ; he rideth on a chariot of flaming fire, the earth with all its mountains melt like wax at the presence of the Lord, the fields and the forests become one spacious blaze, the sea grows dry THE VAIN REFUGE OF SINNERS. 127 and forsakes its shores, and rivers flee away at his light- ning; the rocks are broken and shivered at the appear- ance of his majesty, the tombs are thrown open, and with terrible dismay shall the graves give up their dead ; the py- ramids of brick and stone, moulder and sink into dust, the sepulchres of brass and marble yield up their royal pris- oners, and all the captives of death awake and start into life, at the voice of the Son of God. Amidst all these scenes of surprise -and horror, with how serene a counte- nance, and how peaceful a soul, do the saints awake from their beds of earth ?, Calm and serene among all these confusions they arise from their long slumber, and go to meet their returning Saviour and their friend. They have seen him in 'the glass of his gospel, submitted to his laws, and rejoiced in his grace, and they now delight to see him face to face in his glory. They have seen him vested with his commission of mercy, they have heard and received his message of goodness and love, and they cannot but rejoice to see him coming to fulfil his last prom- ises. They have cheerfully subjected themselves to his government here on earth, they have followed him in paths of holiness through the wilderness of this world ; and what remains, but that. they be publicly acknowl- edged by Jesus the Judge of all, and follow him up to the place of blessedness which he hath prepared for them. Perhaps some of these holy ones, in the days of the flesh, were banished from the cities and the societies of men for the sake of Christ, they were driven out from their native towns, and forced to seek a shelter in solitary 'dens and caves' among rocks and mountains, " to wander through deserts in sheep-skins and goat-skins, destitute, afflicted, tormented," Heb. xi. 31. They made the clefts of the rock and caverns of the earth their refuge from the face of their cruel persecutors. The mountains and rocks sheltered them from the wrath of princes, and the dark grottos of the earth, and the dens of wild beasts, concealed them from the rage of men, from the sword of the mighty ; but now the scene is gloriously changed, the martyrs and holy con- fessors awaking from their graves, exult and triumph in the smiles of their Judge, and receive public honours be- fore the whole creation of God. They behold the infinite consternation of haughty tyrants and persecuting princes, of proud generals and bloody captains in that day : they 128 THE VAIN REFUGE OF SINNERS. hear them 'call to rocks and mountains to hide them from the face of him that sits upon the throne and the Lamb/ The authority and regal honour of the emperors of the earth, hath long slept in the dust, but it is lost there for ever ; their glory shall not awake nor arise with them. Behold the mighty sinners who have been the enemies of Christ, or negligent of his salvation, how they creep af- frighted out of their shattered marbles, and leave all that pomp and pride of death in ruins, to. appear before God with shame and everlasting contempt. The men of arms, the captains and sons of valour, whose swords lay under their heads, with their trophies and titles spread around them, shall raise their heads up from the dust, with utmost affright and anguish of spirit : their courage fails them be- fore the face of Jesus the Lord and Judge of the whole creation. They would fly to the common refuge of slaves, they shrink into the holes of the rocks, and call to the mountains to screen and protect them : 'and every bond- man, and every freeman,' who have not known nor loved God and Christ, are plunged into extremest distress ; but the humble Christian is serene and joyful, and lifts up his head with courage and delight, in the midst of these scenes of astonishment and dismay. 1 He is come, he is come, saith the saint, even that Lord Jesus, whom I have seen, whom I have known and loved in the days of my mortal life, whom I have long waited for in the dust of death ; he is come to reward all my la- bours, to wipe away all my sorrows, to finish my faith, and turn it into sight, to fulfil all my hopes and his own promises ; he is come to deliver me for ever, from all my enemies, and to bear me to the place which he has prepar- ed for those that love him, and long for his appearance. ' blessed be the God of grace, who hath convinced me of the sins of my nature, and the sins of my life in the days of my flesh ; who hath discovered to me the danger of a guilty and sinful'state, hath shewn me the commis- sion of mercy in the hands of his Son, hath pointed me to the Lamb of God, who was offered as a sacrifice to take away the sins of men, and hath inclined me to receive him in all his divine characters and offices, and to follow the Captain of my salvation through all the labours and dan- gers of life. I have trusted him, I have loved him, I have endeavoured, though under many frailties, to honour and THE VAIN REFUGE OP SINNERS. 129 obey him, and I can now behold his face without terror. While the mighty men of the earth tremble with amaze- ment, and call to the rocksand mountains to hide them from his face, I rejoice to see him in his robes of judgment, for he is come to pronounce me righteous in the face of men and angels, to declare me a good and faithful servant before the whole creation, to set the crown of victory on my head, to take me to heaven with him, that 'where he is I may be also to behold his glory,' and to partake for ever of the blessings of his love.' Amen. 17 DISCOURSE VII. NO NIGHT IN HEAVEN. REV. xxii. 25. And there shall be no Night there. LENGTH of night and overspreading darkness in the winter season, carries so many inconveniences with it, that it is generally esteemed a most uncomfortable part of our time. Though night and day necessarily succeed each other all the year, by the wise appointment of God in the course of nature, by means of the revolution of the hea- venly bodies, or rather of this earthly globe ; yet the night- season is neither so delightful nor so useful a part of life, as the duration of day-light. It is the voice of all nature, as well as the word of Solomon, " light is sweet, and a pleasant thing to enjoy the sun-beams." Light gives a glory and beauty to every thing that is visible, and shews the face of nature in its most agreeable colours ; but night, as it covers all the visible world with one ^ark and undistin- guishing veil, is less pleasing to all the animal parts of the creation. Therefore as hell and the place of punishment is called ' utter darkness' in Scripture ; so heaven is rep- resented as a mansion of ' glory,' as the ( inheritance of the saints in light.' And this light is constant without inter- ruption, and everlasting, or without end. So my text ex- presses it, ' there shall be no night there.' Let it be observed, that in the language of the holy wri- ters, ' light' is often ascribed to intellectual beings, and is used as a metaphor to imply 'knowledge, and holiness, and joy.' 'Knowledge' as the beauty and excellency of the 'mind,' 'holiness' as the best regulation of the 'will,' and 'joy' as the harmony of our best affections in the posses- sion of what we love : and in opposition to these, ' igno- rance, iniquity, and sorrow,' are represented by the meta- phor of ' darkness.' Then we are in ' darkness' in a spi- ritual sense, when the understanding is beclouded or led 130 NO NIGHT IN HEAVEN. 131 into mistake, or when the will is perverted or turned away from God or holiness, or when the most uncomfortable affections prevail in the soul. I might cite particular texts of Scripture to exemplify all this. And when it is said, < there shall be no night in heaven,' it may be very well applied in the spiritual sense ; there shall be no errors or mistakes among the blessed, no such ignorance as to lead them astray, or to make them uneasy ; the will shall ne- ver be turned aside from its pursuit of holiness, and obedi- ence to God ; nor shall the affections ever be ruffled with any thing that may administer grief or pain. Clear and unerring knowledge, unspotted holiness, and everlasting joy, shall be the portion of all the inhabitants of the upper world. These are more common subjects of discourse. But I chuse rather at present to consider this word NIGHT, in its literal sense, and shall endeavour to repre- sent part of the blessedness of the heavenly state, under this special description of it. ( There is no night there.' Now in order to pursue this design, let us take a brief sur- vey of the several evils or inconveniences which attend the night, or the season of darkness here on earth, and shew how far the heavenly world is removed, and free from all manner of inconvenience of this kind. 1. Though night be the season cf sleep for the relief of nature, and for our refreshment after the labours of the day ; yet ( it is a certain sign of the weakness and weari- ness of nature, when it wants such refreshments, and such dark seasons of relief.' But there is no night in heaven. Say, ye inhabitants of that vital world, are ye ever wea- ry ? Do your natures know any such weakness ? Or are your holy labours of such a kind, as to expose you to fa- tigue, or to tire your spirits ? The blessed above 'mount up towards God as on eagles' wings, they run at the command of God and are not weary, they walk on the hills of para- dise and never faint,' as the Prophet Isaiah expresses a vig- orous and pleasurable state. Chap. xl. ver. last. There are no such animal bodies in heaven, whose natural springs of action can be exhausted or weakened by the business of the day : there is no flesh and blood there, to complain of weariness, and to want rest* blessed state, * When the apostle, 1 Cor. xv. 60, says, " Flesh and blood cannot inher- it the kingdom of God," the meaning is that moral pravity , a fallen and cor- rupt nature, cannot We have no precise instruction concerning the nature 132 NO NIGHT IN HEAVEN. where our faculties shall be so happily suited to our work, that we shall never feel ourselves weary of it, nor fatigued by it. And, as there is no weariness, so there is no sleeping there. Sleep was not made for the heavenly state. Can the spirits of the just ever sleep, under the full blaze of di- vine glory, under the incessant communications of divine love, under the perpetual influences of the grace of God the Father, and of Jesus the Saviour, and amidst the invi- ting confluence of every spring of blessedness ? 2. Another inconvenience of night, near akin to the former, is that ' business is interrupted by it, partly for want of light to perform it, as well as for want of strength and spirits to pursue it.' This is constantly visible in the successions of labour and repose here on earth ; and the darkness of the night is appointed to interrupt the course of laborr, and the business of the day, that nature may be recruited. But the business of heaven is never interrupt- ed ; there is everlasting light and everlasting strength. Say, yeblessed spirits on high, who join in the services which are performed for God and the Lamb there, ye who unite all your powers in the worship and homage that is paid to the Father .and to the Son, ye that mingle in all the joyful con- versation of that divine and holy Assembly, say, is there found any useless hour there ? Do your devotions, your duties and your joys, ever suffer such an entire interrup- of our bodies after the resurrection. Our Lord's body after his resurrection had still the same physical constitution apparently, which it always had. When his disciples were terrified, supposing that they saw an apparition, he shewed them his body, and feet, told them to feel or handle him, and ad- ded, " For a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have." Luke xxiv. 39. Now, we are told, that Jesus will " change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body," Phil. iii. 21. If then he still possess the same body in glory with which he rose, and if it be of the same materials as then; it will follow, that" flesh and blood," in the physical sense of the phrase, may enter into the heavenly state ; but it will be flesh and blood purified from all its present infirmities, and endued with every quality to render it a delightful habitation for thi>. blessed soul in the worship and enjoyments of heaven. God can as easily render a body of flesh and blood immortal as any other kind of body. Still we have no assurance of what kind it will be; for we are not certain that no change passed upon our Lord's body, when he ascended to heaven. It would therefore seem wise not to attempt to define or deny what the holy Scriptures do not define or deny. Whatever the bodies of glorified saints may be, they will not be subject to weariness, or any other painful sensation. They will be instruments of utility and pleasure, not clogs and hindrances ; and to know this, seems sufficient for \a iu our present sUte. KB. NO NIGHT IN HEAVEN. 133 tion of rest and silence, as the season of darkness on earth necessarily creates among the inhabitants of our world ? The living creatures * which are represented by John the Apostle, in Rev. ~iv. whether they signify saints or angels, yet .they were 'full of eyes' that never slumber ;