434 THE VAIN REFUGE OF SINNERS. [DISC. VI. therein. Ile that has his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet, what mountain can stand before his indignation, and where is the rock that can abide in the fierceness of his anger ?" R'ah. 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 a 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 guilty prisoner, and yield thee up to the sword of his justice. Wheresoever a God resolves to .strike, safety and defence are impossible things. The sinner must suffer without remedy, and without hope, who has provoked an Almighty 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 sudden and overwhelming death. When sin- ners therefore call to the rocks and mountains to fall upon them, and cover them, they are supposed to endea- vour to put an end to their own beings by some over- whelming 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, will forbid the rocks and the moun- tains, 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 nowmade 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 mortal state, may be given up again, or thrown away by the daring impiety ofself-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 part with it, nor can any creature take it from them. They would rather die, than see God in his majesty, or the
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