their being involved in the common calamity, he ap- prises them of his intention, and exhorts them to hide themselves, till the danger should be overpast. It is not, how^ever, necessary to confine the words to this sense ; because there are many other occasions on which God comes forth to punish mankind ; and because the advice given, is suitable to all such occasions.
In discoursing on this passage, we shall call your attention to,
I. The warning here given —
Heaven is the habitation of God's holiness and glory ^ And from thence he is said to " come forth," when he manifests himself in any signal manner upon earth''. And, alas! how often do the iniquities of men necessitate him to come down and visit them with his sore judgments^! But there is one period in particular, when God shall come, not to punish one particular nation only, but all who shall have lived and died in sin, from the foundation of the world.
[The day of judgment is called " the day of wrath," "the day of vengeance," "the day of the revelation of God's righteous judgments," " the day of the perdition of ungodly men'\" In that day the Lord Jesus Christ, "whom the heavens have received till the time of the restitution of all things'," " shall come in power and great glory :" and the express end of his coming will be "to reveal his wrath against all ungodliness and luirighteousness of men^."
Noiv he winks, as it were, at men's iniquities'; and endures with much patience and longsuffering the vessels of wrath that are fitting themselves for destruction"^ : yea, to such a degree does he exercise forbearance towards them, that scoffers are ready to say. Where is the promise of his coming"? But soon the time fixed for the exercise of his grace, shall come to an end, and all the dead shall be summoned to his tribunal, to receive at his hands according to their works".
^ Isai. Ivii. 15. and Ixiii. 15. f Mic. i. 3.
e If this were the subject of a Fast Sermon, the particular judg- ments tliat are deprecated, should be specified here as the toliens of God's displeasure, and sliould be dwelt upon at some length.
>> Rom. ii. 5. 2 Pet. iii. 7. ' Acts iii. 21. k Rom. i. IS.
1 Acts xvii. ,30. m Rom. ix. 22. " 2 Pet. iii. 3,4.
° Rev. XX. 12, 13.