he has risen up, and done his will on the poor lost being, and the wretch is actually suffering the weight of his indignation, then will he summon the universe to come, and see how awful is his majesty, and how mighty his power. "And the people shall be as the burnings of lime, as thorns cut up shall they be burned in the fire. Hear, ye that are afar off, what I have done; and ye that are near, acknowledge my might. The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites; who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings." Thus shall it be with you who shall remain unconverted. In the ineffable terrors of your ruin, there will be displayed the might, and the majesty, and the terribleness of the Omnipotent God. You will be tormented in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb; and when you shall be in all your sufferings, the glorious inhabitants of heaven shall come and look upon the awful spectacle, and learn what is the wrath and fierceness of Almighty God, and when they have looked they will fall down and adore his power and majesty, "And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord. And they shall go forth, and look upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against me; for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh." 4. It is everlasting wrath. It would be dreadful to suffer the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God one moment, but sinners must suffer it forever. There will be no end to your plagues. When you look forward you will see before you a long forever, and will despair of having deliverance, mitigation, or rest through this whole amazing futurity. You will know certainly that you must wear out millions of ages, in wrestling and conflicting with matchless vengeance. And when these ages are gone, you will see them to be but a point of time to what remains. Endless misery! Oh, who can describe the horrid circumstances of a ruined soul? What one can say on such a subject, is all feebleness compared with the reality. "Who knows the power of his anger?" How inconceivably dreadful is the state of those who are daily and hourly in danger of this wrath and misery! But this is the dismal case of every soul in this congregation who is not born of God, be his morals ever so strict, and sober, and religious. O that you would consider it whether you be old or young! Many who are present will probably be the subjects of this very misery through eternity. We know not who they are, or in what seats they sit, or what thoughts they have. They are perhaps at their ease, and hear all this without being in the least disturbed. They are saying to themselves, It is not I, I shall Did we know that there was one person, and but one in this whole congregation, who is to be the subject of all this misery, how should we all gaze with anguish upon him! how should we raise over him our loud and bitter cry! Ah one! no doubt there are many present who will think of this sermon in hell, and some perhaps in a very few days, or months at farthest. Ah calculate not on months, for notwithstanding your health and quiet, and security, hell may have become your home ere the sun shall rise once more, escape. AN ADDRESS. THE INFLUENCE OF A GOOD TASTE UPON THE MORAL AFFECTIONS. THE question has been often asked, whether this is a deformed or a beautiful world; whether it came from the hand of its Maker in its present aspect, or has been marred and defaced by some mighty disaster. Men have had on this subject widely different opinions. One has seen nothing in which this world is defective; no mountain he would have levelled, no valley he would raise, no rock he would bury, no marsh he would drain, no heath he would fertilize, no morass he would redeem. Another has seen, or thought he saw deformity every where, and has in many a gloomy hour responded to that moan of the poet, uttered in view of the first transgression: "Earth felt the wound, and Nature, from her seat Sighing through all her works, gave signs of wo, To him it has seemed, that in every hill and vale and ocean and lake and heath and river there is some curse to be deplored. Others again have discovered on the face of this world many beauties, which must have been designed as such by its Creator; while yet they see deformities, which indicate, that when Jehovah rested from his work he left this world not as it now is, and which bespeak some convulsion, by which its distortions |