465 / 674
DISC.
VI.]
THE VAIN REFUGE OF SINNERS.
445
them before the
face
of
Jesus,
the
Lord and Judge of the
whole creation.
They
would
fly
to
the common refuge
of
slaves,
they
shrink into the
holes
of
the rocks,
and
call
to
the
mountains
to screen
and
protect them:
"
And
every bond -man,
and
every
freeman,"
who
have
not
known,
nor
loved
God
and Christ, are plunged into
ex-
tremest distress;
but
the humble christian
is
serene
and
joyful, and
lifts
up
his
head, with
courage
and
dielght,
in the midst
of
these scenes
of
astonishment
and
dismay.
He
is
come, he
is
come,
saith the saint, even
that
Lord
Jésus,
whom
I
have
seen, whom
I
have known,
and
loved
in
the
days
of
my
mortal
life,
whom
I
have
long waited for
in
the
dust of death;
he
is
come
to
re-
ward
all
my
labours,
to wipe away all my sorrows,
to
finish my faith,
and turn
it
into
sight,
to
fulfil
all my
hopes,
and
his own
promises;
he
is
come to deliver me
for ever
from all my enemies,
and
to
bear
me
to
the place
which he has
prepared
for those
that
love
him,
and
long
for his
appearance.
O
blessed be
the
God
of
grace, who
bath
convinced
me
of
the
sins
of
my
nature, and the
sins
of
my
life
in
the
days
of
my
flesh; who
hath
discovered to
me
the
danger
of
a
guilty and sinful state,
bath
shewn me
the commis-
sion of
mercy in the
hands
of
his Son,
hath pointed
me
to
the Lamb
of God,
who was
offered as
a
sacrifice to
take
away the sins
of
men,
and bath inclined
me
to
re-
ceive him
in
all his
divine
characters
and
offices,
and
to
follow
the
captain
of
my
salvation
through
all the
labours
and
dangers
of
life.
I
have
trusted
in
him,
I
have loved
him,
I
have
endeavoured, though
under
many frailties,
to honour
and
obey
him,
and
I can now
behold
his
face
without
terror
:
While the
mighty men
of
the
earth trem-
ble
with
amazement, and
call
to the rocks and
moun-
tains to
hide them from
his face,
I
rejoice
to see him
in
his
robes
of
judgment,
for
he
is
come to
pronounce"me
righteous,
in
the
face
of
men
and
angels,
to
declare
me
a
good
and faithful servant before the
whole
creation, to
set
the crown
of
victory
on
my
head,
to
take
me to
heaven
with
him,
"
that
where
he. is,
I
may be also, to
behold
his glory,"
John
xvii.
24. and
to
partake
for ever
of
the
blessings
of
his
love." Amen.