monitors ; and the more innocent among them occupied in nothing better than " eating and drinking, buying and selling, Planting and building, marrying and giving m marriage. How terrible to be called to judgment in a state so unprepared ! Will the suddenness of the event be any excuse for them m that day ? or will it be any reason for averting or mitigating their punishment ? No : it will be with them as with those mentioned in our text : " As soon as Noah entered into the ark, the flood came and destroyed them all ;" and, " as soon as Lot went out of Sodom, the fire and brimstone descended and consumed them all :" so will all, that are unprepared to meet their God, be utterly and eternally destroyed. Hence the day of judgment is called, " the day of the perdition of ungodly menm." As long as we are in this world, it is " a day of acceptance, a day of salvation"." Yes, even to the eleventh hour we are warranted to invite men to return to God, and to assure them of a favourable reception : but when death or judgment arrive, there is an end of the day of grace, and then commences the day of everlasting perdition.]
Address —
1. The congregation in general — [We would entreat every one of you to inquire, whether you are prepared to meet your God? This is no trifling question, no enthusiastic question, no party question ; it is a question in which all are equally interested, the old and the young, the rich and the poor, the learned and the unlearned. And we beg leave to remind you all, that an inoffensive con- duct is not sufficient to secure happiness for you in the last clay. You will observe, that no gross sin is imputed to the antediluvian world, or to the inhabitants of Sodom ; many of them doubtless were guilty of heinous transgressions : but the universal sin, the sin that destroyed them all, was careless- ness. Say then, brethren, whether this do not characterize your state ? and whether you have not reason to tremble for the judgments that shall come upon you ? You are apt to promise yourselves a more convenient season for turning to God : but how many are disappointed in that hope ! Suppose that, at the deluge, there were some so far wrought upon by the ministry of Noah, that they determined to follow his ad- vice as soon as they should have finished their present business, and got more time for spiritual employments: suppose them surprised by the flood, witnessing the destruction of thousands around them, and, from an eminence to which they had fled, seeing the ark borne up by the waves in which they were shortly to be immersed ; how would they wish that they had
m 2 Pet, ii. 7. The Greek. n 2 Cor. vi. 2.