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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
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
mortal 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 part
with
it,
nor can any
creature
take it from them. They
would
rather
die,
than
see
God
in his majesty,
or
the