is a stone that will bruise those who stumble at him, and those on whom he shall fall, he will grind them to powder: Mat. xxi. 44. He is a Lamb and a Lion too: He can suffer at Jerusalem and mount Calvary with silence, and not open his mouth; Isa. liii. 7. and he can roar from heaven with overspreading terror, and shake the world with the sound of his anger. See that his mercy be not abused. II." The day of Christ's patience makes haste to an end." Every day of neglected grace hastens on the hour of his wrath and vengeance. Sinners waste their months and years in rebellion against his love, while he waits months and years to be gracious But Christ is all-wise, and he knows the proper period of long-suffering, and the proper moment to let all his wrath and resentment loose on obstinate and unreclaimable sinners. Oh may every one of our souls awake to faith and repentance, to religion and righteousness, to hope and salvation, before this day of our peace be finished, and gone for ever. Ps. ii. 12. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. There was once a season when he saw the nation of the Jews, and the people of Jerusalem wasting the proposals of his love; they let their day of mercy pass away unimproved, and he foretold their destruction with tears in his eyes. Luke xix. 41, 42. He beheld the city, and wept over it; alas, for the inhabitants who would not be saved! He was then a messenger of salvation, and clothed with pity to sinners; but in the last great day of his wrath, there is no place for these tears of compassion, no room for pity or forgiveness. III. "When we preach terror to obstinate sinners, we may preach Jesus Christ, as well as when we preach love and salvation, for he is the minister of his Father's government, both in vengeance and in mercy." The Lamb hath wrath, as well as grace, and he is to be feared, as well as to be trusted; and he must be represented under all the characters of dignity to which he is exalted, that, knowing the terrors of the Lord, as well as the compassion of the Saviour, we may persuade sinful men to accept of salvation and happiness ;”2 Cor v. 11. - DISCOURSE VI. The vain Refuge of Sinners; or, a Meditation on the Rocks near Tunbridge-Wells, 1729. Rev. vi. 15, 16, 17.-And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bond-man, and every free-man hid themselves in the dens, and in the rocks of the mountains; and said to the mountains and rocks, fall on us, and hide us from the face of him_that_sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of his wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand? IN the former discourse of this text, we have taken a survey of these two persons, and their characters, God and the Lamb, whose united wrath spreads so terrible a scene through the world at the great judgment-day; we have also enquired and found sufficient reasons, why the anger and justice of God should be so severe against the sinful sons and daughters of men, who have wilfully broken his law, and refused the grace of his gospel, and why the indignation of the Son of God should be superadded to all the terrors of his Father's vengeance. We are come now to the third, and last general head of discourse, and that is to consider, "How vain will all the refuges and hopes of sinners be found in that dreadful day, when God and the Lamb shall join to manifest their wrath and indignation against them." These hopes, and shifts, and refuges of rebellious and guilty creatures, are represented by a noble image and description in my text: They shall call to the rocks and the mountains to fall upon them, and to cover them from the face of him that sits upon the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb. As this address to mountains and rocks appears to be but a vain hope in extreme distress, when a feeble and helpless criminal is pursued by a swift and mighty avenger, so vain and fruitless shall all the hopes of sinners be to escape the just indignation and sentence of their Judge. In order to shew the vanity of all the refuges and shifts to which sinners shall betake themselves in that day, let us spread abroad this sacred description of them in a paraphrase under the following heads: 1. Let us consider the rocks and mountains, as vast and mighty created beings, of huge figure, and high appearance, whose aid is sought in the last extremity of distress; and what is this but calling upon creatures to help them against their Creator? What is it but flying to creatures to deliver and save them when their offended God resolves to punish? A vain refuge indeed, when God, the almighty Maker of all things, and Jesus, his Son, by whom all things were made, shall agree to arise and go forth against them in their robes of judgment, and with their artillery of vengeance! What created being dares interpose in that hour, to shelter or defend a condemned criminal? What high and mighty creature is able to afford the least security or protection? The princes of the earth, and the captains, the kings, and heroes, and conquerors, with all their millions of armed men, are not able to lift a hand for the defence of one sinner against the anger of God and the Lamb. They themselves shall quake and shiver at the tremendous sight, and they shall fly into the holes of the rocks, like mere cowards, and shall join their outcries with the poor and the slave, entreating the rocks and mountains to befriend them with shelter and safety. Not the highest mountains, not the hardest or the strongest rocks, not the most exalted, or most powerful persons, or things in nature can defend, when the God of nature resolves to destroy: When he, who is higher than the highest, and stronger than the strongest, shall pronounce destruction upon rebels, what creature can speak deliverance? The rocks and the mountains obey their Maker, they shiver in pieces at the word of his wrath, and will yield no relief to criminals: But man, resellious man, disobeys his Maker, and calls to the rocks and mountains to protect him. Vain hope, Oh sinner! to make the most exalted creatures your friends, when God, the Creator, is your enemy. These inanimate things have never learned disobedience to their Maker, and rather than screen a rebel from his deserved judgments, they will offer themselves as instruments of divine vengeance. 2. Rocks and mountains, in their clefts and dens and caverns, are sometimes considered as places of secrecy and concealment. My text tells us, that kings, and mighty men, the rich and the free-man, as well as the poor and the slave, hid themselves in dens, and in the rocks of the mountains. They hoped there might be some secret corner, whose thick shadows and darkness were sufficient to hide them, where the Judge might not spy or find them out. Vain hope for sinners to hide in the holes of the rocks, and the deepest caverns of the mountains, to escape the notice of that God, who is all eye and all ear, and present at once in every place of earth and heaven! Foolish expectation indeed, to avoid the notice of the Son of God, whose eyes are as a flame of fire; Rev. i. 14. and shoot through the earth, and its darkest caves! Read the cxxxix. Psalm, Oh sinner! and then think if it he possible to flee from the eye of God, and to hide thyself in the clefts of the rock, where his hand shall not find thee.- -He has already beset thee behind and before, and his hand already Ι VOL. VII. compasses thee round about in all thy paths. Darkness itself cannot cover thee: The night shines as the day before him, and scatters light round about the criminal, that would hide himself from the wrath of God. Ask Jeremy the prophet, and he shall tell thee, that none can hide himself in secret places, where God shall not see him, the God who fills heaven and earth; Jer. xxiii. 24. He shall hunt obstinate sinners from every mountain, and out of the holes of the rocks, for his eyes are upon all their ways; neither their persons, nor their iniquities, can be hid from him. And as you can never conceal yourselves from the sight and notice of the judge, so neither can you turn your eyes away from him: You must behold his face in vengeance, and endure the distressing sight. The rays of his Majesty in the day of his wrath, shall strike through all the crannies of the darkest den, and pierce the deepest shade. Lord, when thy hand is lifted up, they will not see; but they shall see, and be ashamed; Isa. xxvi. 11. And the face of the Lamb must be seen in all its unknown terrors. Rev. i. 7. Behold he comes in the clouds, and every eye shall see him; The guilty creature, and the divine avenger, shall meet eye to eye, though the creature has hid himself under rocks and mountains. 3. These rocks and mountains are designed to represent not only concealment and darkness, by their holes and caverns, but they are known bulwarks of defence, and places of security and shelter, by reason of their strength and thickness. When the prophet would express the safety of the man, who practises righteousness in a vicious age; Isa. xxxiii. 16. he says, He shall dwell on high, his place of defence shall be the munitions of rocks. These shall be a bulwark round him for his guard and safety. When sinners therefore flee to the mountains and to the rocks, they may be supposed to see a thick covering, or a shield of defence, to secure them, where the strokes of divine anger shall not break through and reach them: They trust to the solid protection of the rocks, and the strength of the mountains to guard them; but these, alas, can yield no shelter from the stroke of the arm of God. Should the rocks, Oh sinner! attempt to befriend thee, and surround thee with their thickest fortification, bis wrath would cleave them asunder, and pierce thee to the soul with greater ease, than thou canst break through a paperwall with the battering engines of war. Ask the prophet Nahum, who was acquainted with the majesty of God, and he shall tell thee, how it throws down the mountain, and tears the rock in pieces: When his fury is poured out like fire, the mountains quake at him, the hills melt, the earth is burned at his presence, with all that dwell therein. He that has his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet; what mountain can stand before his indignation, and where is the rock that can abide in the fierceness of his anger? Nab. i. 2-6. Were the whole globe of the earth one massy rock, and should it yawn to the very centre, to give thee a refuge and a hidingplace, and then close again, and surround thee with its solid defence, yet when the Lord commands, the earth will obey the voice of him that made it; this solid earth would cleave again, and resign the guilty prisoner, and yield thee up to the sword of his justice. Wheresoever a God resolves to strike, safety and defence are impossible things. The sinner must suffer without remedy, and without hope, who has provoked an Almighty God, and awakened the wrath of that Saviour, who can subdue all things to himself. 4. Rocks and mountains falling upon us, are instruments of sudden and overwhelming death. When sinners therefore call to the rocks and mountains to fall upon them, and cover them, they are supposed to endeavour to put an end to their own beings by some overwhelming destruction, that they may not live to feel and endure the resentments of an affronted God, and an abused Saviour, Though they are just raised to life, they would fain die again; but God, who calls the dead from their graves, will forbid the rocks and the mountains, and every creature, to lend sinners their aid to destroy themselves. Sinners, in that dreadful day, shall seek death, but death shall flee from them. Their natures are now made immortal, and the fall of rocks and mountains cannot crush them to death. They must live to sustain the weight of divine wrath, which is heavier than rocks and mountains. The life which God hath now given to men in this mortal state, may be given up again, or thrown away by the daring impiety of self-murder; and they may make many creatures instruments of their own destruction; but the life which the Son of God shall give them, when he calls them from the dead, is everlasting; they cannot resign their existence and immortality, they cannot part with it, nor can any creature take it from them.They would rather die, than see God in his majesty, or the Lamb arrayed in his robes of judgment; but the wretches are immortalized to punishment, by the long abused majesty and power of God: And they must live for ever to learn what it is to despise the authority of a God, and to abuse the grace of a Saviour.Their doom is everlasting burnings: They have no rest day nor night, the smoke of their torment will ascend for ever and ever in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb; Rev. xiv. 10, 11. Thus have we considered those huge and bulky beings, the rocks and the mountains, in all their vast and mighty figures and appearances, with all their clefts, and dens, and caverus for |