ever? And must I bear it forever? What! Forever and ev er, without any end, and never find any refuge, never be suffered to return to my first nothing, and be no nearer to the end of these sufferings after millions of ages? O what dismal shrieks, and shaking of loins, and gnashing of teeth, will there be then! No wonder that fearfulness willthen surprise the wicked.

i come now,

IV. To show, why it will be especially thus with the sinners in Zion, or sinners that dwell among God's visible people, who sit under the preaching of the gospel, and have the offers of a Saviour, and yet accept not of him, but remain in an unconverted state.

There will hereafter be a very great difference between them and other sinners; a great difference between the most painted hypocrite of them all, and the drunkards, the adulterers, the Sodomites, the thieves, and murderers among the Heathen, who sin against only the light of nature. The fearfulness which will surprise them, although it will be very dreadful, yet will be in no measure so amazing and horrible, as that which will seize the sinners in Zion. That fierceness and wrath of Almighty God, which they will suffer, will be mild and moderate in comparison with that which the sinners in Zion will suffer.

The wrath of God is in his word manifested against the wicked Heathens; but it is ten times as much manifested against those sinners who make the profession and enjoy the privileges of the people of God; and yet remain enemies to God. Both the Old Testament and the New are full of terrible denunciations against such. Read the books of Moses, and read the prophets, and you will find them full of dreadful threatenings against such. Read over the history of Christ's life, and the speeches which he made when upon earth; there you will see what woes and curses he frequently denounced against such. How often did he say, that it should be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, VOL. VIII.

X

than for the cities in which most of his mighty works were: ⚫ done! Read over the history of the Acts of the Apostles, and their epistles; there you will find the same. It is the sinners in Zion, or hypocrites, that are always in scripture spoken of as the people of God's wrath: Isa. x. 6. "I will send him against an hypocritical nation, against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil."

Now, the reasons of this are chiefly these:

This is

1. That they sin against so much greater light. often spoken of in scripture, as an aggravation to the sin and wickedness of sinners in Zion. He that knows not his Lord's will, and doeth it not, is declared not to be worthy of so many stripes, as he who, being informed of his Lord's will, is in like manner disobedient. If men be blind, they have comparatively no sin; but when they see, when they have light to know their duty, and to know their obligation, then their sin is great, John ix. 41. When the light that is in a man is darkness, how great is that darkness! And when men live in wickedness, in the midst of great light, that light is like to be the blackness of darkness indeed.

The

2. That they sin against such professions and vows. Heathens never pretended to be the worshippers of the true God. They never pretended to be Christ's disciples; they never came under any covenant obligations to be such. But this is not the case with sinners in Zion. Now, God highly resents falsehood and treachery. Judas, who betrayed Christ with a kiss, was a greater sinner, and much more the object of God's wrath, than Pilate, who condemned him to be cruci fied, and was his murderer.

3. That they sin against so much greater mercy. They have the infinite mercy of God, in giving his own Son, often set before them: They have the dying love of Christ represented to them: They have this mercy, this glorious Saviour, his blood and righteousness, often offered to them: They have a blessed opportunity to obtain salvation for their souls; a great price is put into their hands to this end: They have

that precious treasure, the holy scriptures, and enjoy Sabbaths, and sacranients, and the various means of grace: But all these means and advantages, these opportunities, offers, mercies, and invitations, they abuse, neglect, despise, and reject. But there is no wrath like that which arises from mercy abused and rejected. When mercy is in this way turned into wrath, this is the fiercest wrath; in comparison with this, other wrath is cool.

Sinners in Zion, beside their fall by the first Adam, have a fall also by the second: He is a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence, at which they stumble and fall; and there is no fall like this; the fall by the first Adam is light in compar ison with it.

On these accounts, whenever we see the day of judgment, as every one of us shall see it, we shall easily distinguish between the sinners in Zion and other sinners, by their shriller cries, their louder, more bitter, and dolorous shrieks, the greater amazement of their countenances, and the more dismal shaking of their limbs, and contortions of their bodies.

I shall conclude with an earnest EXHORTATION to sinners in Zion, now to fly from the devouring fire and everlasting burnings.

You sinners who are here present, you are the very persons spoken of in the text; you are the sinners in Zion. How many of these people of God's wrath are there sitting here and there in the seats of this house at this time? You have often been exhorted to fly from the wrath to come. This devouring fire, these everlasting burnings, of which we have been speaking, are the wrath to come. You hear to day of this fire, of these burnings, and of that fearfulness which will seize and surprise sinners in Zion hereafter; and O what reason have you of thankfulness that you only hear of them, that you do not as yet feel them, and that they have not already taken hold of you! They are, as it were, following you, and coming nearer and nerer every day. Those fierce flames are, as it were, already kindled in the wrath of God; yea, the

fierceness and wrath of Almighty God burn against you; it is ready for you: That pit is prepared for you, with fire and much wood, and the wrath of the Lord, as a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it.

LOT was with great urgency hastened out of Sodom, and commanded to make haste, and fly for his life, and escape to the mountains, lest he should be consumed in those flames which burned up Sodom and Gomorrah. But that burning was a mere spark to that devouring fire, and those everlasting burnings, of which you are in danger. Therefore improve the present opportunity.

Now, God is pleased again to pour out his spirit upon us; and he is doing great things among us. God is indeed come again, the same great God who so wonderfully appeared among us some years ago, and who hath since, for our sins, departed from us, left us so long in so dull and dead a state, and hath let sinners alone in their sins; so that there have been scarcely any signs to be seen of any such work as conversion: That same God is now come again; he is really come in like manner, and begins, as he did before, gloriously to manifest his mighty power, and the riches of his grace. He brings sinners out of darkness into marvellous light. He rescues poor captive souls out of the hands of Satan; he saves persons from the devouring fire; he plucks one and another as brands out of the burnings; he opens the prison doors, and knocks off their chains, and brings out poor prisoners; he is now working salvation among us from this very destruction of which you have now heard.

Now, now, then, is the time, now is the blessed opportunity to escape those everlasting burnings. Now God hath again set open the same fountain among us, and gives one more happy opportunity for souls to escape. Now he hath set open a wide door, and he stands in the door way, calling and begging with a loud voice to the sinners of Zion: Come, saith he to me, come, fly from the wrath to come; here is a refuge for you; fly hither for refuge; lay hold on the hope set be fore you.