of God's presence, and all thought of death and judgment. Let but the thoughts of eternity rush into their minds, and there is an end of their gaiety at once: their mind is appalled: and they can find no relief, but in dissipating their unwelcome reflections, and drowning them in business or pleasure. Their peace, even at the best, is only like that which is enjoyed by the brute creation : it is not such as becomes a rational and immortal being. Scriptural peace consists in a state of recon- ciliation with God, and in the testimony of a good conscience. But how can this be possessed by one who is walking in crooked ways ? It cannot be. As the prophet says, in the words before my text, " The way of peace they know not :" yea, rather, when they reflect at all, " they are like the troubled sea, which cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith my God, to the wickeda." And for the truth of this, I appeal to you, even to the most gay and thoughtless among you. Why are you so averse to think of death and judgment ? Is it not that such reflections are a source of pain to you, rather than of holy delight and pleasure? Yes, if once you come to the light, your boasted satisfactions issue in nothing but fear and terror.]
2. In death —
[Here again I must acknowledge, that many delude them- selves with a persuasion of their own goodness; or of God's mercy, which prevents him from executing the judgments he has threatened : and by these vain conceits they are buoyed up with a kind of hope, which yet rises but little above a brutish insensibility. As for looking up to God as a reconciled God and Father, and contemplating the blessedness of dwelling in his presence, they have no such thought : the utmost that they hope for, is a freedom from pain. They know not what it is to sprinkle their consciences with the blood of Christ, and to lay hold on the great and precious promises of the Gospel: they have no realizing views of Christ, as their Intercessor with God, or as their Forerunner, who is gone to prepare a place for them in heaven. These are the great constituents of scriptural peace : but of these things they know nothing : it is the upright soul alone whose end resembles this : " his end is peace," in the best and highest sense : but of this, the man who walks in paths of his own has no conception : and, if he be at all awakened to a sense of his condition, he has nothing but " a certain fearful looking-for of judgment and fiery indig- nation" to consume him.]
3. In the eternal world —
a Isai. lvii. 20, 21.