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THE VAIN REFUGE
OF
SINNERS.
fDPSO.
VY,
from
his
thunder. They
call now
to the
mountains
and
the
rocks to
be
an eternal screen
;
but the
rocks
and
the
mountains
are
deaf
to
their
cry
;
then
shall they remem-
ber,
with
unknown
regret
and anguish, those
days
of
grace
when
Christ
Jesus,
who
is
now
their judge,
offered
himself
to become
a
screen
to them,
and
a
defence
from
the anger
of
God,
their
Creator:
But
they
rejected
this
offered grace.
He
would have been the
rock
of
their
safety, where
they should have found
refuge from
the
fiery
threatenings
of
the broken
law,
and
the majesty
of
an
offended
God.
The Father
himself
hath appointed
him
for
this kind
office
to
repenting
sinners
;
and, perhaps,
he
gave Moses
a type
or
emblem
of
it,
when he com-
manded himself
"
to hide
in
the clefts
of
the
rock,
to
secure
him from
destruction,
while
the burning
blaze
of
his glory
passed
by;"
xxxiii. 22.
And
Isaiah
the
prophet
had foretold,
that
this
Jesus
"
should
be as
the
shadow
of
a great rock
;"
Is.
xxxii. 2.
to
shelter
them
from the beams
of
the wrath
of God
;
but
they refused
this
blessing,
they
renounced
this refuge
;
and
now
they
find
there
is
no
other
rock
sufficient to become
a shelter
from the
stroke
of
his
almighty arm,
or a
sufficient sha-
dow from
the burning vengeance.
Sinners,
who
once over
-rated their
flesh
and
blood,
and
loved
it
with infinite fondness, who
treated
their
fleshly
appetites
with excessive nicety
and
elegance, and
affected
a
humourous
delicacy
in
every
thing round
about
them, they would
now
gladly creep into the mouldy
ca,
verns of
the
rocks, they would
be glad
to hide, and de-
file
themselves
in
the dark and
noisome
grottos of
the
earth, and
squeeze
their
bodies
into
the rough and
nar-
row
clefts,
to
shield
themselves from
the
indignation
of
him
that
sits
upon the throne,
and
of
the Lamb.
Those, who once were
so
tender of
this
mortal
life
and
limbs,
and could
not
think
of
bearing
the least hardship
for
the sake
of
virtue and
piety,
are
now
wishing to have
those delicate
limbs
of
theirs crushed
by
the
fell
of
rocks
and
mountains
:
They
wish
earnestly
to
have their.lives
and their
souls
destroyed
for
ever,
and
their
whole
na-
tures buried
in
desolation and death,
if
they might
but
avoid. the
eternal
agonies
and torments
that
are pre-
pared
for
them.
Now
they long for caverns and graves
to
hide them
fig
ever from the
justice of
God,
whose
au-