endured to deliver you from it, What will ye say to him ? Will ye then make the foolish excuses that ye now do ? No, verily : your mouths will then be shut : you will be amazed and confounded at your present folly and impiety : and it will be no consolation to you then that there are so many in the same condemnation with yourself. The antediluvian scoffers, when warned of the approaching deluge, thought it impos- sible that such a judgment should ever be inflicted ; or con- soled themselves perhaps, that they should be in no worse plight than others. But when the deluge actually came, did they find their own terrors less appalling, or their sufferings less acute, because they were endured by others also ? Nor will ye in that day find the wrath of God a whit more tolerable because of the multitudes that shall bear it with you. Had the Saviour never come, you would have had to endure the wrath of God; but since he has come, and been despised and rejected by you, your shall have to bear " the wrath of the Lamb\" even of that Lamb whom you " cruci- fied afresh'' :" and hell itself will be sevenfold more terrible, in consequence of the means which have been used to deliver you from it. Yes, the punishment of Sodom and Gomori'ha will be light in comparison of yours'. Oh that you were wise, and would consider this, ere it be too late !]
2. Ye who found your hopes of mercy on your own self-righteous endeavours —
[What can ye think of yourselves, when ye recollect the principles which you yourselves acknowledge ? You know that Christ was manifested to take away your sins : how then do you presume to imagine, that you can remove them by any efibrts of your own ? Is there any such virtue in your own tsars or almsdeeds, that you will rely on them, rather than on the atoning blood of Christ ? Or is there any such strength m your own resolutions, that you will trust to them for the subduing of sin, rather than to the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ ? Docs it never strike you, that whilst you are enter- taining such proud thoughts as these, you are thrusting the liord Jesus Christ from his office, and virtually declaring, that, whatever he may be to others, he shall be no Saviour to you ? Why will ye thus presume to set aside the very ends for which lie came into the world? Why, when he has actually girded himself with the towel, and presented himself before you, will you say with Peter, " Thou shalt never wash mj/ feet !" Know you not, that " unless he wash you, you have no part with him'"!" Be assured, he never came to make you your own Saviours, but to offer you a free and full
salvation. ' Rev."vi. 16. ' Heb. vi. 6.
} Matt. X. 15. " John xiii. 4, 8.