DISCOURSE XII. 271 been treasuring up for many years, shall be poured out upon them without any mitigation or mixture of mercy. IV. " It is matter of surprize, and great astonishment, that thousands and ten thousands of the sinful children of men, from day to day, and from year to year, are walking on the borders of all this misery, and yet are so thoughtless and unconcerned about it." They carry peaceful and easy minds in the midst of this dreadful danger, and while they have all the symptoms of the children of wrath upon them, they live without fear, and make no effort toward their escape. Wretched creatures indeed ? Who have a mortal disease upon them that will breed this gnawing worm of conscience, that will grow up into all this anguish and distress, and yet are senseless of their own peril`, unacquainted with their own state of soul, and are daily treading their earthly rounds of business and of pleasure with a merry heart. All the heavy artillery of divine vengeance is ready to be discharged upon them as soon as the door of death opens and lets them into the invisible world ; and yet they walk on fearless and joyful, and have no guard or defence from all this misery, besides their own vain presumption. Stupid creatures, to lie down at night, and awake in the morning within an inch of hell, and yet secure and fearless ! They live without God in the world, and that even in this land of light and hope, where he offers to visit them with all his graces ; and yet they are hastening hourly to the eternal world, where they must meet and behold him in all his terrors. Will nothing awaken you, O ye obstinate transgressors against God, ye,obstinate rejecters of his grace and. gospel? Will nothing warn you to flee from the wrath to come ? But just thus it was in the days of Noah ; the sinners of that gene- ration would not hearken to that preacher of righteousness ; and even when they saw the clouds of heaven grow big and black over their heads, and the rain began to be poured down from the skies, little did they imagine that it would have drowned the earth, till they were overwhelmed with the rising destruction. And so shall it be in the days of the Son of man, when all the warnings of the preachers have been despised, and the threaten. ed vengeance of the book of God derided, when they have set up for bold and witty scoffers, and impudently demanded, Where is the promise of his coming 2 Pet. iii. 4. Then shall the great and terrible day-of the Lord come, and pour out upon them the full measure of wrath and indignation. " Is it not time, my friends, to bethink yourselves, whether this be your case ? Is it not time for every one of us to examine our souis ? Am I exposed to this danger ? Am I every mo. ment on the brink of this misery, and . yet content to continue so one night or one day. longer ? Can I ever hope to escape the fury of a God,. while I thus abuse his patience ? Or can I have
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