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bold in sin, notwithstanding the terrible penalty annexed, what might we expect were this penalty lessened or removed.

SECTION VI. The misery of sinners.-I. If a vast loss can make you miserable, then is your misery unspeakably great. Those alone can estimate it, who are in the enjoyment of the advantages you lose, or who are writhing in the torment to which you are doomed.

You now cleave so fast to the world, that neither the promises nor the threatenings of the Gospel are sufficient to make you quit your hold. And yet death will strip you of every thing you have most delight in. Your property, your friends, your carnal mirth, all will be left on this side of the grave. The Gospel, too, you will lose, when God punishes you. The Gospel has in it treasures for the poor, eyes for the blind, feet for the lame, understanding for the simple, peace for rebels, pardon for condemned malefactors, a title to heaven for the heirs of hell, life for the dead, and happiness for the miserable. What loss can be compared with this? It may appear small to you now, but death will open your eyes to see its value. And heaven, too, you will lose forever. Who can measure the greatness of such a loss? Who

can weigh that "far more exceeding and eternal Who can take the dimen

weight of glory?

sions of the vast "inheritance of the saints in light?" Who can count the treasures of the paradise of God? Who can fathom the rivers of pleasure that are at God's right hand for evermore? Who can conceive of that blissful sight, where the eye is not obscured by intervening clouds? All this you must lose forever. You lose God, you lose your own souls; and what will it profit you to gain the whole world and lose your souls? In a word, you lose all the treasures of this world and of that which is to come.

II. And not only will you suffer the absence of pleasure, but you must endure positive, unspeakable pain forever, both of soul and body. "Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." Who can "dwell with the devouring fire?" Who can "dwell with everlasting burnings?" You cannot now bear the pain of a speck of dust in your eye; how can you bear to “drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation?" when you "shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the

holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb ?" It is God with his own hand who will inflict the punishment. "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hand of the living God." For such "shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power." "God is jealous, and the Lord revengeth; the Lord revengeth and is furious; the Lord will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies. The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked; the Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet. Who can stand before his indignation? and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? his fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him." Such is that being from whose hand the sinner is to receive his final destiny.

And this punishment will come suddenly and unexpectedly. The same breath which pronounces the sinner's separation from all his carnal delights, sends him away into everlasting burning. "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire." Sudden, indeed, then, will be your destruction. "For when they shall say, peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them." When the man, who

had resolved to pull down his barns and build greater, was singing a requiem to his soul, then on that very night his glory departed and his misery came. Christ will come suddenly, "in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ." The word has already gone forth, "So I sware in my wrath, they shall not enter into my rest."

And now, reader, art thou still asleep? O, awake then, without delay. We cannot tell but your stupidity may provoke God to leave you, and never give you another warning. We know not but he may soon say, Let no fruit grow on this barren sinner any more. How will your spirit fail within you, when you hear the dreadful sentence pronounced? Now, if you awake in time and flee to Christ, you may avoid this fearful doom. O, then, hasten your escape, before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as the chaff, before the day of the fierce anger of the Lord come upon you.

PART II.

MAN'S RECOVERY BY FAITH IN CHRIST, OR, THE CONVICTED SINNER'S CASE AND CURE

ACTS xvi. 29-31.-"Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas: and brought them out and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house."

CHAPTER I.

THE JAILER'S QUESTION CONSIDERED.

In the former part of this treatise, it was remarked, that there are three questions in which man is principally concerned, namely: "What have I done?" "What must I do to be saved?" "What shall I render to the Lord?" The first of these questions has already been considered; we now come to the second, which was the question taken by the terrified jailer of Philippi.

From this question of the jailer we may lay down the proposition: That a sinner, really convinced of sin and its consequences, will, with serious concern, put the question, What 70

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