459 / 674
Disc.
VT.]
thority
they have despised,
and
from the
wrath of a
Sa-
viour,
whose
mercy they have impiously
renounced.
"
Look forward, O
my soul,
to this awful
and
dread-
ful
hour
;
survey this
tremendous
scene
of
confusion,:
when sinners
shall
run
counter to
all
their
former
princi-
ples
and
wishes,
and
pass
a quite different
judgment
upon their
sinful delights from
what
they were
wont to
do in the days
of
this life
of
vanity.
Learn,
O
my
soul,
to
judge of
things more
agreeable
to
the appearances
of
that
day
:
Never canst thou
set the flattering pleasures
of
sense,
and the joys
of
sin,
in
a
truer
and
juster
view,
than
in
the light
of
this
glorious
and tremendous judgment."
Reflection
III.
"
How
great
and dreadful
must
the
dis-
tress
of
creatures
be, when they
cannot bear
to
see
the face
of
God, their Creator
?"
How
terrible must
be
the circum-
stances of
the sons
of
men, when they
cannot endure to
see the face
of
the
Son of
God,
but
would fain hide
them-
selves from
the sight
under
rocks and
mountains
?
How
wretched must
their
state
be, who avoid
the
face
of
the,
blessed
God
with
horror,
which
the
holy
angels ever
be-
hold
with
the most intense
delight, and
which
the
saints
rejoice
in as
their
highest happiness
?
It
is
their
heaven
to
see
God, and
behold the glory
of
his
Son
Jesus
;
Mat.
v.
8.
John
xvii.
24.
But
this
is
the very
hell
of
sinners
in
that
dismal hour,
and
will
fill
their
souls with
such inexpressible anguish,
that
they
call
to the
rocks
and mountains,
to hide them from the
sight.
Dreadful
and
deplorable
is
their
case
indeed,
who
cannot
endure
to
see
the countenance of Jesus, the
Son
of
God,
Jesus
the Saviour
of
men,
the
copy
of the Father's
glory,
and
the
image
of
his
beauty and
love.
They
cannot hear
to
see,
that
Jesus,
who
is
the chiefest
of
ten thousands,
and
altogether
lovely
;
they
fly
from
that
blessed
counte-
nance, which
is
the ornament and the
joy
of all the holy
and
happy creation
:
That
blessed
countenance
is
become
the
terror
and
confusion
of impenitent and
guilty reliels.
"
And what shall I
do,
if
I
should be
found among
this
criminal
number
in
that great
day
?
If
I
look
at
the
wis-
dom and the righteousness
of God,
these
will
reflect the
keenest rays
of
horror and
anguish
upon
my soul,
for it
is
that
wisdom
and
that
righteousness
that
have joined to
prepare
the salvation
which
I
have
rejected,
and
there
-
forej now
that
wise
and righteous
God
seetli
it proper
2
F4
TìiE
VA4N
REFVGE
OE
SINNERS.
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