i It) Man'J natural Stata, &c. State If. but no man can apprehend the wrath of God to b~ more dreadful than it really is: the power of it can never b·e know~ to ~the utmoft ; fee1ng it is infinite, and (properly fpeakmg) has._ no utmofi: how fierc .e foever it be·, either on– earth, or in hell, God can fiill carry it further. Ever.y rhing in God is moll perfed in its kind ; and therefore no wrath is fo fierce as 'his. 0 finner, how wilt thou be able to en· ' dure that wrath, which will tear thee inpiece!, Pfal. 1. 22, and grind thee to powd~r, Luke xx. I 8. The hiA-ory of the two fue-bears, that tare the children of Bethel, is an ~~wful one, 2 Kings ii. 23, 24. But the un ited force of the rage cf lions, leopards, and ilie-beats bereaved of their whelps ,' is not fufficient,' to give us even a fcanty view of the power .Of tbe wrath of-God, Hof. xiii. 7, 8. Therefore 1 will b~ unto them as a lion; as a leopardby the rwa)' will] obferve them,. I will meet them aJ a bear that i.r bereaved'of her 'Whelp1, . attd will rmt the caul oftheir heart, &c. (5.) It · is penetrating and piercing wrat-h. It is bt1rning wrath, and :bery indignation. There is t~o pain more exquifite, than that which is caufed by fire; and n? fire fo piercing as the fire - ,of God's indignation, tbat bu·rm into the lottvefl heli, Dem~ :xxxii. '2 2. The ·arrows of men's wrath can pierce fiefh, •blood and bones ; but cannot reach the [Qul : but the wrath <If God will fiok into the foul, and fo pierce a man in the mofi tynder part . Like as, when a perfoo is thunder ~ firuck, oft -times there is not a wound to be feen in the :fkin: yet life is gone, and the bon:,s are; as it were, melted, : fo God's wrath can penetrate into, and melt one's foul with ~ in.him, when his earthly comfotts fl•wd about him entire and untou,:hed as in Be(;1Jazzar's cafe, Dan. v. 6. (6.) h: 1 is confiant wrath, running par'alld with the man's c.ontiml· anc.e in an unregenerate Gate ; conllantly att~nding ~im~ from the womb to the grwe. There -are few fo dark days, bu't the fun fometimes looketh 'out from ·t;nder 'the clouds: but the wrath of God, is an abiding cl0ad on tbe {uhj t Cl:s of it, John iii. 36. The wrath of G1d a .~ideth on ~im that belie_v•es not. (7.) It is erer-nal. 0 miferable foul! If thou fly not from this wrath u ~1 t0 Jefus Cbrift, thy mifery had · a beginning, but it fuatl never have an eod: Should·devour– ing death wholly fwallow thee up, and foi ever hold thee fait in a grave 1 it. wou.ld be kind : but thou mu!l: li\•e a"aio~-' 0 · ,.. I
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