folly V' but should give him such counsel and admo- nition as his necessities require. Mark the conduct of the prophet on this occasion :
1. His admonition —
[He tells the inquirer, that, though his countrymen should yet have a season of prosperity, a night of fearful adversity awaited them. And this is the answer which I must make to the profane scoffer, or the careless unbeliever : ' You may go on prosperously for a season ; you may have riches in the world; you may account yourselves happy, and be so accounted by all your carnal friends: but, though your day may be bright and long, as in the height of summer, a night, a long and fearful night, will come at last. O ! how terrible will be that night, which shall never be irradiated with so much as a single gleam of hope ! Yet such is the state that awaits you : for, for you "is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever'^."' It may seem at present to be at a great distance ; but every day and hour brings it nearer to you ; and at the appointed hour it will commence. Yes : St. Peter tells us, that " now of a long time your judgment lingereth not, and your damnation slumbereth not^." Whilst men " refuse to turn, God whets his sword, and bends his bow, and ordains his arrows against them" for their destruction™. And the very interval that is allowed them is only given that they may " fill up the measure of their iniqvxities," and have " his wrath come upon them to the utter- most." Their present prosperity is only like the rich pasture to flocks and herds, whereby " they are nourished for the day of slaughter °." Happy, happy is the brute creation, which, if taken in an unexpected hour, survives not the stroke that takes them hence ! But let us reflect a moment on that hour when a profane scoffer, or a careless unbeliever, shall open his eyes in the eternal world. He has buoyed himself up with the hope that he should see the face of his God in peace : but how will he shrink back at the sight of an angry God ! What a shriek will he utter, that shall be heard through the vast expanse of hell ; when, instead of a listless and unobservant Deity, as he had pictured to himself, he shall see a holy God filled with wrath and fiery indignation, and prepared to execute all the judgments which he had denounced against him ! I must, I must warn you, my beloved Brethren, that these are indeed the true sayings of God ; and, whether believed or not, they shall be verified ere long : for " God will be true ; and every man," that contradicts him, " will be found a liar."]
2. His counsel —
i Prov. xxvi. 4, 5. ^ Jude, ver. 13. '2 Pet. ii. 3.
ni Ps. vii. 12, 13, " .lam. v. 5.