Thus you see, though we have cause of fearing God's judgments, yet there is something to comfort us in the midst of all. God mingles our comforts and crosses together whilst we are here, both to keep us in awe of offending his Majesty, and to encourage us in well-doing. Securitatis custos timor. Therefore let us always look what matter of fear and what matter of hope we have, for both these are operative affections. Spes exercitat ad opus. Oh that I could stir up this blessed fear in you. It is that which preserves the soul ; and God hath promised that ' he will put his fear into our hearts, that we shall not depart from him,' Jer. xxxii, 40. I beseech you, ply the throne of grace, and desire the Lord that it may be to every one of your souls according to his good word.
Labour likewise for encouragement in the ways of holiness. Blessed be God, yet we have a time of respite. God forbears us with much patience and goodness. Answerable to our good courses that we take now, will be our comfort in the evil day. If we carelessly go on in sin, and think it time enough to renew our covenant with God then, when his judgments are abroad and ready to cease * upon us, we do but delude our own souls, and expose ourselves to inevitable dangers. Mark what the Lord saith, Because I called, and you would not hear, &c., therefore will I laugh at your destruction, Prov. i. 24, 26. Is it not strange that the merciful God should laugh at the calamity of his poor creatures ? Yet thus it is with every wilful sinner that dallies with God, and puts off his repentance from time to time. God will take pleasure in the ruin of such a man, and laugh when his fear cometh, because those that seek him then, do it not out of any love or lildng of God and the ways of goodness, but merely out of self- love and respect to their own welfare.
* Qu. ' rest ?' or ' fall ?'— Ed.
NOTES.
(a) Pago 375. — ' Tliat. which was Bethel, is now become Bcthaven.' That is, wliat was ' Bethel,' which means 'house of God,' was become ' Buthaven,' which means ' house of idols ;' a sort of j'eu de mot applied to Bethel, after it became the seat of the worship of the golden calves.
(6) Page 378.. — ' First ten f)ersecutions.' Tlie first was under Nero, A.n. 64 ; the second under Domitinn, 05 ; the third under Trajan, 100 ; the fourth under Adrian, 118 ; the fiflh under Suvcrus, iy7 ; the sixth under Maximinus, '235 : the seventh under Dccius. more bloody Ihan any preceding; the eightli under Valerian, 267; the ninth under Aurelian, 272 ; and the tenth under Dioclesian, which lasted ten years, 302. G.
THE UNGODLY'S MISERY.
SERMON n.
And if it first begin at us, what shall the end of those be that oheij not the gospel ! — 1 Pkt. IV. 17.
These words are propounded by way of admiration,* as if the apostle had been at his wits' end, and could not certainly set down how great the judgment should be, of those that obey not the gospel, it was so terrible and unavoidable. The points considerable are these : —
Three points considerable. 1. That the seeming prospeiity of the' wicked shall have an end.
2. That it is wisdom to consider the end of graceless persons.
3. The description of them; in these words, they are such as obey not the gospel.
Obs. 1. The seeming prosperity of the ivicked shall have an end. It is naturally in the hearts of carnal persons, to think it shall be always well with them, whereas the prophet saith, the happiness of a wicked man is but ' as a candle, that ends in a snuff,' Prov. xxiv. 20, or like a rose, the beauty whereof suddenly fades, and nothing remains but the prickles. The favours of men, for which they so much offend God, shall have an end ; then- strength shall end, their pleasure shall end, (alas, they are but pleasures of sin for a season !) theii- life itself, the foundation of all their comforts, that shall have an end ; but their sins, by which they have offended God, shall never have an end. See what a fearful judgment follows every wicked wretch ; that which he sins for, his honour, riches, delights, all shall vanish and come to nothing ; they shall not be able to afford him one drop or dram of comfort at his dying day ; but the sin itself, the guilt of that, and the punishment due to the same, shall endure for ever, to torment his soul, without serious repentance and turning to God in time.
Obs. 2. The happiness of the ivicked is momentary; their misery endless. But secondly, if the happiness of wicked men shall have an end, and their misery shall have no end, let us not be dazzled with their present happiness, so as to imitate their evil ivays ; let us tremble at their courses, whose end we tremble at. If we walk in the same path, shall we not come to the That is, ' amazement.'— Q.