will be our state, if " God pour upon us his indignation, even all his fierce anger ! " Let us not indulge in presumptuous security. Who that had been told a few years ago that either the ancient capital of the Russian empire, or that of the British empire, would before this be certainly destroyed by fire, would have imagined on which the lot should fall ? O let us tremble for ourselves, and labour to fulfil the gracious designs of God, before his wrath come upon us to the uttermost ]
2. In a way of mercy —
[The Jews have an idea that the Messiah's advent was deferred on account of the wickedness of their nation : but it was not deferred ; nor shall any thing prevent the final execu- tion of God's promises, in the restoration of the Jews, and the
bringing in the fulness of the Gentiles1 No : we look
for those events with full assurance that they shall be accom- plished in due season. It is probable, indeed, that great cala- mities will precede those events k; and there is great reason to hope, that the calamities of the present day are preparing the way for them. May God hasten forward that glorious period ! and then, grievous as have been the distresses of the world for so many years, we shall not think we have sustained one too much, if it has been accessary in any measure to the pro- motion of so blessed an end.]
Application —
[Let us now drop all idea of national concerns, and come to those which are purely personal. Let us call to mind our personal transgressions, and reflect upon the personal judg- ments or mercies that await us — ■ And may God reap
the fruit of all his kindness ; and Christ " see of the travail of his soul, and be satisfied ! "]
i ver. 9, 10. k Luke xxj. 25—28.