,DISe/ VI.3 Tilt VAIN REFVGE OF SINNERS. 431 ful 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 description in my text " They shall call to the rocks and the mountains to fall upon them, and to cover them frorn the face of hirn that sits upon the throne, and from the wrath of the Larnb." As this address to mountains and 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 thejust 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 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 ap- pearance, 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,,,todeliver 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, andgo forth against them in their robes of judgment, and with their artillery of vengeance ! What created being dares interpose, in that hour, to shelter or defend a con- demned 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 armed 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 be- friend them with shelter and safety. Not the highest mountains, not the hardest or the strongest rocks, not the most exalted, or most powerful persons, or things in nature can defend, when the God 4
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=