:72 THE WORLD TO COME. any expectation of living with him as my God hereafter, if I never seek after him here ? The face of God, as a stranger in the world to come, carries infinite terrors in it, and yet we are content to be strangers to him, and to live without his acquaint- ance. The wrath of God abides upon every man who is unre- generate in this life, and who has not trusted in the name of the Son of God ; John iii. 36. yet they are thoughtless of it, for they feel it not ; but the moment when they shall awake into the world of spirits, that wrath will be felt with sudden and dreadful an- guish, as a most insupportable burden, and will crush all the powers of the soul into torment." V. " It deserves, and it demands our highest gratitude to the great God, our humblest acknowledgments and our most exalted praises to his majestyand his mercy, that we who, have long ago deserved this misery, are not yet plunged into the midst of it :" That we have not been entirely cut off from the land of hope, and sent down to this destruction., Blessed. be the name and the grace of God for ever and ever. " While there are thousands who have been sent down to the place of punishment, whence there is no redemption before they had continued so long in sin as many of us have done, what a peculiar instance is it of divine long - suffering and goodness, that we are not actually put under the sting of this living worm, under this fiery vengeance from the hand of God ? 'What was there in us that should secure us from this destruc= tion, while we continued in our state of guilt, rebellion and im- penitence ? Have we not seen many sinners on our right -' hand, and on our left, cut off in their sins, and to all appear- ance they seem to be sent down to the place of sorrow ? What is it but the special mercy and distinguishing favour of God that has dealt thus kindly with us, and spared and saved us, week after week, and month after month, while we continued in our iniquities, and has given us space for repentance and hope ? What shall we render to the Lord for all his patience and long - suffering, even to this day ? How often have we incurred the penalty of the law of God, and the fiery sentence of con- dernnation by our repeated iniquities, both against the authority and the grace of God? And yet we are alive in his presence, and are hearing the words of hope and salvation. O let ús look back and shudder at the thoughts of that dreadful precipice, mi the edge of which we have so long wandered. Let us fly for escape to the refuge that is set, before us, and give a thousand glories to the divine mercy that we are not plunged into this perdition. VI. Let us learn from this description of hell, and our im- minent danger of it, "the infinite value and worth of the gospel of Christ f ' This gospel, which calls us aloud to fly from the
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