bise. vi.] THE VAIN REFUGE OF SINNERS: 433 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 sight and notice of the judge, so neither can you turn your eyes away from hirn: You must behold his face, in vengeance, and endure' the distressing sight. The rays of his Majesty, 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. 1 1. 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 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 in a vicious age; Isa. xxxiii. 16. he says, He shall dwell on high, his place of defence shall be the muni- tions 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 pro- tection of the rocks, and the strength of the mountains to guard them ; but these, alas, can yield no shelter from the stroke of the arm of God. Should the rocks, Oh 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, and tears the rock in pieces : When his fury is poured out like fire, the mountains quake at him, the hills melt, the earth is burned at his presence, with all that dwell VOL. I I. :r
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