DIS C. bling and dying for fear: nay "fo terrible "was the fight, that even Mofes faid, I

XI.

exceedingly fear and quake "." And if Mofes, who, as the figure of him that fhould come, had the honour to be a mediator between an offended God and his offended people-if he exceedingly feared and quaked at this terrible fight, what must be the ftate of the carelefs finner, who having incurred all this heavy difpleasure, nor ever employed an hour in meditating his cfcape, fhall be fuddenly called upon by death to meet it all, unprepared? And who is there among us, that thinks himfelf prepared to meet his God, as he appeared upon mount Sinai? Let the experiment be made only in an ordinary tempeft of thunder and lightning. No fooner is that glorious voice of Jehovah heard in the heavens, but the earth trembles and is ftill. "Hear attentively," faith Elihu in Job, "the norfe of his voice, and the "found that goeth out of his mouth. He "directeth it under the whole heaven, and

u Heb. xii. 21.

XI.

"his lightning to the ends of the earth. DISC. "At this my heart trembleth, and is moved "out of his place". What fenfations then would be produced in the hearts even of the best of men by a manifestation like that at Sinai? And if the righteous fcarcely sustain it, where fhall the ungodly and the finner appear

?

Nor let any man think himself unconcerned in that fcene, because it is paft. The terrors of mount Sinai are still in force against every one who is not found in Christ Jefus, unless we fuppofe that the defpifers of the Gofpel will fare better than the contemners of the Law, and not rather be thought worthy of much forer punishment. The hour is coming, when our eyes fhall fee more amazing fights, and our ears shall hear more terrifying founds, than were feen and heard by the house of Ifrael in the wilderness. For yet a little while, and the fame God who was revealed from heaven in flaming fire to give the

DISC. law, fhall again be revealed from heaven in XI. flaming fire to inquire how it hath been

observed, and to take vengeance on those who have not secured unto themselves a fponfor to ftand in the gap for them. So that although the things feen and heard at mount Sinai did not affect us, yet the argument enlarged upon by the Apostle, Heb. xii. undoubtedly doth; namely, that if the law was fo terrible, when enacted, how much more terrible must it be, when required at our hands by God, coming in glorious majefty to judge the world! Then fhall there be blacknefs of darkness, not for a time, but for ever; then shall the lightnings of Sinai be extended over all the earth, and a fire be kindled which shall not be quenched; then fhall the heavens pafs away with the noise of a great and intolerable thunder; a far louder trumpet fhall then not only pierce the ears of the living, but also found an alarm through all the regions of the grave, and awaken those who shall have flept for ages in the duft; then he whofe voice formerly fhook the

earth,

XI.

earth, fhall fulfil his promife, "Yet once DISC. "more I shake not the earth only, but "alfo heaven;" both of which fhall be removed, and their place no more be found; then fhall all the tribes of the earth, as well as thofe of Ifrael, tremble, and mourn, and wail; and who, where is he, that thinketh he shall not then find cause to say with Mofes, "So terrible is "the fight, that I exceedingly fear and quake!"

Such therefore is the wrath which the law worketh, and fuch is the condemnation of that “hand writing against us," from which our dear Master and Redeemer, as at this time, the time of his circumcifion, engaged to refcue all who fhould believe in him. Then it was, that he took upon himself the law, and the penalty annexed to the breach of it, being (as an Apoftle has expreffed it) "made a "curfe for us, to redeem us from the "curfe of the law;" that is, to deliver

x Heb. xii. 26.

VOL. I.

Y

y Gal. iii. 13.

us

XI.

;

DISC. us from the black darkness of fin and death; from the thunders and lightnings of the Father's vengeance; from the dread of the trumpet of eternal judgment; the diffolution and deftruction of the world the words of condemnation, and the unextinguishable flame; and having delivered us from all these terrors, to introduce us to a far different scene of things; to the light of righteousness and immortality; to the peace and love of God; to the ftill fmall voice of evangelical grace; to the harps of angels, and the mufic of Hallelujahs; to the final fentence of abfolution, "Come,

ye blessed;" to a kingdom that cannot be moved; to the joys of heaven, and the glories of eternity. "For we are not come "unto the mount that might be touched

(the palpable, material mount), that "burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and "darkness, and tempeft, and the found of "a trumpet, and the voice of words, which "voice they that heard, intreated that the "word fhould not be fpoken to them any more (for they could not endure that

" which