more than a branch cut off from the stock? John xv. 5. Thou art become unprofitable, Rom. iii. 12, as a filthy rotten thing, fit only for the dunghill. (3.) Death has come up into thy windows, yea, and has settled on thy face; for God, in whose favour is life, Psal. xxx. 5, is gone from thee; and so the soul of thy soul is departed. What a loathsome lump is the body, when the soul is gone? Far more loathsome is thy soul in this case. Thou art dead, while thou livest. Do not deny it, seeing thy speech is laid, thine eyes closed, and all spiritual motion in thee ceaseth. Thy true friends, who see thy case do lament, because thou art gone into the land of silence. (4) Thou has not a steady friend among all the creatures of God; for now that thou hast lost the Master's favour, all the family is set against thee. Conscience is thine enemy; the word never speaks good of thee; God's people loathe thee, so far as they see what thou art, Psal. xv. 22. The beasts and stones of the field, are handed together against thee, Job v. 23, Hos. ii. 18. Thy meat, drink, clothes, grudge to be serviceable to the wretch that has lost God, and abuseth them to his dishonour. The earth groaneth under thee; yea, the whole creation groaneth, and travaileth in pain together, because of thee, and such as thou art, Rom. xiii. 22. Heaven will have nothing to do with thee; for, "There shall in nowise enter into it, any thing that defileth, Rev. xxi. 27. Only hell from beneath is moved for thee, to meet thee at thy coming, Isa. xiv. 9. Lastly, Thy hell is begun already. What makes hell but exclusion from the presence of God? "Depart from me ye cursed.” ye are gone from God already, with the curse upon you. shall be your punishment at length, (if ye return not) which is now your choice. As a gracious state is a state of glory in the bud, so a graceless state is hell in the bud; which, if it continue, will come to perfection at length.

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That

MOTIVE 3. Consider the dreadful instances of the wrath of God; and let them serve to awaken thee to flee out of this state. Consider, (1.) How it has fallen on men. Even in this world, many have been set up as monuments of divine vengeance; that others might fear. Wrath has swept away multitudes, who have fallen together by the hand of an angry God. Consider how the Lord "spared not the old world, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly, and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them with an overthrow, making them an example unto those that after should live ungodly," 2 Pet. ii. 5, 6. But it it yet more dreadful to think of that weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth, amongst those, who in hell lift up their eyes,

but cannot get a drop of water to cool their tongues. Believe these things, and be warned by them, lest destruction come upon thee, for a warning to others. (2.) Consider how wrath fell upon the fallen angels, whose case is absolutely hopeless. They were the first that ventured to break the hedge of the divine law, and God set them up for monuments of his wrath against sin. They once left their own habitation, and were never allowed to look in again at the hole of the door; but they are "reserved in everlasting chains under darkness, unto the judgment of the great day," Jude 6. Lastly, Behold how an angry God dealt with his own Son, standing in the room of elect sinners. Rom. viii. 32, "God spared not his own Son." Sparing mercy might have been expected, if any at all. If any person could have obtained it, surely his own Son would have got it; but he spared him not. The Father's delight is made a man of sorrows; he who is the wisdom of God, becomes sore amazed, ready to faint away in a fit of horror. The weight of this wrath makes him sweat great drops of blood. By the fierceness of this fire, his heart was "like wax melted in the midst of his bowels." Behold here how severe God is against sin! the sun was struck blind with this terrible sight, rocks were rent, graves opened, death, as it were, in the excess of astonishment, letting its prisoners slip away. What is a deluge, a shower of fire and brimstone on Sodomites, the terrible noise of a dissolving world, the whole fabric of heaven and earth falling down at once, angels cast down from heaven into the bottomless pit? What are all these, I say, in comparison with this? God suffering, groaning, dying upon a cross! Infinite holiness did it, to make sin look like itself, viz. infinitely odious. And will men live at ease, while exposed to this wrath?

LASTLY, Consider what a God he is, with whom thou hast to do, whose wrath thou art liable unto. He is a God of infinite knowledge and wisdom; so that none of thy sins, however secret, can be hid from him. He infallibly finds out all means whereby wrath may be executed toward the satisfying of Justice. He is of infinite Power, and so can do what he will against the sinner. How heavy must the strokes of wrath be, which are laid on by an omnipotent hand! Infinite Power can make the sinner prisoner, even when he is in his greatest rage against heaven; it can bring again the several parcels of dust, out of the grave; put them together again, re-unite the soul and the body, cite them before the tribunal, hurry them away to the pit, and hold them up with the one hand through eternity, while they are lashed with the other. He is infinitely just, and therefore must punish; it were acting contrary to his nature to suffer the sinner to escape wrath. Hence the

executing of this wrath is pleasing to him; for though the Lord hath no delight in the death of the sinner, as it is the destruction of his own creature, yet he delights in it, as it is the execution of justice: "Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire, and brimstone, and an horrible tempest." Mark the reason, "For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness," Psal. xi. 6, 7. "I will cause my fury to rest upon them, and I will be comforted," Ezek. v. 13-"I also will laugh at your calamity," Prov. i. 26. Finally, he lives for ever, to pursue the quarrel. Let us therefore conclude, "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."

Be awakened then, O young sinner; be awakened, O old sinner, who art yet in the state thou wast born in: Your security is none of God's allowance, it is the sleep of death; rise out of it ere the pit close its mouth on you: It is true, you may put on a breast plate of iron, make your brow brass, and your hearts as an adamant; who can help it? But God will break that brazen brow, and make that adamantine heart, at last, to fly into a thousand pieces. Ye may, if you will, labour to put these things out of your heads, that ye may yet sleep in a sound skin, though in a state of wrath. Ye may run away with the arrows sticking in your consciences to your work, to work them away; or to your beds, to sleep them out; or to company to sport and laugh them away; but convictions so stifled will have a fearful resurrection; and the day is coming, when the arrows of wrath shall so stick in thy soul, as thou shalt never be able to pluck them out through the ages of eternity, unless thou take warning in time.

But if any desire to flee from the wrath to come, and for that end, to know what course to take, I offer them these few advices, and obtest and beseech them, as they love their own souls, to fall in with them: (1.) Retire yourselves into some secret place, and there meditate on this your misery; believe it, and fix your thoughts on it: Let each put the question to himself, How can I live in this state? How can I die in it? How will I rise again, and stand before the tribunal of God in it? (2.) Consider seriously the sin of your nature, heart, and life: A kindly sight of wrath flows from a deep sense of sin. They who see themselves exceeding sinful, will find no great difficulty to perceive themselves to be heirs of wrath(S.) Labour to justify God in this matter: to quarrel with God about it, and to rage like a wild bull in a net, will but fix you the more in it. Humiliation of soul before the Lord, necessary for an escape. God will not sell deliverance, but freely gives it to those who see themselves altogether unworthy of his favour. Lastly, Turn your eyes, Ŏ prisoners of

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hope, towards the Lord Jesus Christ, and embrace him as he offereth himself in the gospel: "There is no salvation in any other," Acts iv. 12. God is a consuming fire; ye are children of wrath: if the Mediator interpose not betwixt him and you, ye are undone for ever. If ye would be safe, come under his shadow; one drop of that wrath cannot fall there, for he "delivereth us from the wrath to come," 1 Thess. i. 10. Accept of him in his covenant, wherein he offereth himself to thee: and so thou shalt, as the captive woman, redeem thy life, by marrying the Conqueror. His blood will quench that fire of wrath which burns against thee: in the white raiment of his righteousness thou shalt be safe; for no storm of wrath can pierce it.

II. I shall drop a few words to the saints.

FIRST, Remember, that at that time, (namely, when ye were in your natural state) ye were without Christ-having no hope, and without God in the world." Call to mind that

state ye were in formerly, and review the misery of it. There are five memorials I may thence give in to the whole assembly of the saints, who are no more children of wrath, but heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, though as yet in their minority. (1.) Remember, that in the day our Lord took you by the hand, ye were in no better condition than others. O what moved him to take you, when he passed by your neighbours? he found you children of wrath, even as others; but he did not leave you so. He came into the common prison, where you laid in your fetters, even as others; and from amongst the multitude of condemned malefactors, he picked out you, commanded your fetters to be taken off, put a pardon in your hand, and brought you into the glorious liberty of the children of God, while he left others in the devil's fetters. (2.) Remember there was nothing in you to engage him to love you, in the day he first appeared for your deliverance. Ye were children of wrath, even as others, fit for hell, and altogether unfit for heaven; yet the King brought you into the palace: the King's Son made love to you, a condemned criminal, and espoused you to himself, on the day in which ye might have been led forth to execution. "Even so, Father, for so it seemeth good in thy sight," Matth. xi. 26. (3.) Remember, ye were fitter to be loathed than loved in that day. Wonder, that when he saw you in your blood, he looked not at you with abhorrence, and passed by you. Wonder that ever such a time could be "a time of Love," Ezek. xvi. 8. (4.) Remember, ye are decked with borrowed feathers. It is his comeliness which is upon you, verse 14. It was he that took off your prison-garments, and clothed you with robes of righte

ousness, garments of salvation: garments wherewith ye are arrayed as the lilies, which toil not, neither do they spin. He took the chains from off your arms, the rope from about your neck; put you in such a dress as ye might be fit for the court of heaven, even to eat at the King's table. (5.) "Remember your faults this day:" as Pharaoh's butler, who had forgotten Joseph. Mind how you have forgotten, and how unkindly you have treated him, who remembered you in your low estate. "Is this your kindness to your friend?" In the day of your deliverance, did ye think ye could have thus requited him, your Lord?

SECONDLY, Pity the children of wrath, the world that lies in wickedness. Can ye be unconcerned for them, ye who were once in the same condition? Ye have got ashore indeed, but your fellows are yet in hazard of perishing; and will not ye make them all possible help for their deliverance? What they are, ye sometimes were. This may draw pity from you, and engage you to use all means for their recovery. See Tit. iii. 1, 2, 3.

THIRDLY, Admire that matchless love, which brought you out of the state of wrath. Christ's love was active love, he "loved thy soul from the pit of corruption." It was no easy work to purchase the life of the condemned sinner! but he gave his life for thy life. He gave his precious blood to quench that flame of wrath, which otherwise would have burnt thee up. Men get the best view of the stars, from the bottom of a deep pit; and from this pit of misery into which thou wast cast by the first Adam, thou mayest get the best view of the Sun of Righteousness in all its dimensions. He is the second Adam, who took thee out of the horrible pit, and out of the miry clay. How broad were the skirts of that love, which covered such a multitude of sins! Behold the length of it, reaching from everlasting to everlasting." Psal. ciii. 17. The depth of it, going so low as to deliver thee "from the lowest hell," Psal. Ixxxvi. 13. The height of it, in raising thee up to sit in heavenly places," Eph. ii. 6.

FOURTHLY, Be humble, carry low sails, walk softly all your years. Be not proud of your gifts, graces, privileges, or attainments; but remember ye were children of wrath, even as others. The peacock walks slowly, hangs down his starry feathers, while he looks to his black feet. "Look ye to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged," and walk humbly as it becomes free-grace's debtors.

LASTLY, Be wholly for the Lord. Every wife is obliged to be dutiful to her husband; but double ties lie upon her who