I.

Antichriftian powers making war against DISC. the church, encompaffing the camp of "the faints, and the beloved city," the habitation of the great King, as the men of Sodom furrounded the house where the facred guests were lodged. After which, it is faid-" And fire came down from God "out of heaven, and devoured them. And "the devil, that deceived them, was caft "into the LAKE OF FIRE AND BRIM"STONE (an expreffion plainly alluding to "the LAKE Afphaltites, or the Dead Sea) "where the beaft and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night "for ever and ever." What Sodom is, the world shall be: and at the last day, when we shall arife, and look toward the place, where it's enchanting pleasures and delights, it's dazzling beauties and glories once exifted, as " Abraham arofe in the morning, "and looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, " and toward all the cities of the plain," we shall behold a fight like that which sented itself to the patriarch, "The fmoke "of the country going up as the smoke of

"a furnace !"

pre

But

DISC.

I.

But the fame all gracious and merciful

God, who,

when he destroyed the cities

1

"of the plain, remembered Abraham, and "fent Lot out of the midst of the over

throw," when he shall destroy this place wherein we dwell, will remember the true Abraham," the father of us all," our dear Redeemer and Interceffor; and for his fake, if we now repent, and believe in him, will save us, in that day, from the ruins of a burning world, and from thofe fires which are never to be extinguished; that so, being delivered from the wrath to come, and admitted to a participation of the felicities of his kingdom, we may there, with angels and archangels, and the whole company of the redeemed, glorify him for his mercy, through the endless ages of a blessed eternity; ascribing, as is due, to the most holy and adorable Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, three perfons co-equal and coeternal, all honour and power, might, majefty, and dominion, for ever and ever.

DISCOURSE II.

THE SINNER CALLED.

EPHES. V. 14.

Awake, thou that fleepest, and arife from the dead, and Chrift fhall give thee light.

W

E are now in the midft of that DISC. hallowed feafon, when the church,

by the voice of all her holy services, calleth the world to repentance, from the rifing of the fun to the going down thereof. And if ever there was an inftitution calculated to promote the glory of God, by forwarding the falvation of man, it is this appointment of a certain fet time for all perfons to confider their ways, to break off their fins, and to return from whence they have fallen through the infirmities of the flesh and the prevalence of temptation. For

though

II.

II.

DISC though most certain it is, that forrow fhould be the conftant attendant upon fin, and daily tranfgreffions call for daily penitence, yet fatal experience convinces us of another truth no lefs certain, that in a body fo frail, and a world fo corrupt, cares and pleasures foon oppress the heart, and insenfibly bring on the flumbers of liftleffness and negligence as to it's fpiritual concerns, which, unless diffipated and dispersed by frequently repeated admonitions, will at length feal it up in the deep fleep of a final impenitence. It was wifely foreseen, that should the finner be permitted to reserve to himfelf the choice of a convenient feafon wherein to turn from fin to righteoufnefs, that convenient feafon would never come; and that the specious plea of keeping every day holy alike would often be found to cover

defign of keeping none holy at all. It seemed good therefore to the church to fix a stated time, in which men might enter upon the great work of their repentance. And what time could have been selected with greater propriety than this Lenten, or Spring season, when

H.

when univerfal nature, awaking from her DISC. wintry fleep, and coming out of a state of deformity, and a courfe of penance, impofed for the tranfgreffion of man, her lord and mafter, is about to rife from the dead, and, putting on her garments of glory and beauty, to give us a kind of prelude to the renovation of all things? So that the whole creation most harmoniously accompanieth the voice of the church, as that sweetly accordeth to the call of the Apostle, "A

wake, thou that sleepest, and arise from "the dead, and Chrift fhall give thee light."

tr

These lively and animating words, the peculiar force and energy of which it would be an affront to every understanding and every heart to point out, like the found of that wakeful herald of the morning, which once called Peter to repentance, and which, daily admonishing the world of the fun's approach, calls up the inhabitants thereof, to behold the brightness of his rifing, and to walk in his light, addrefs themselves