fons; they are wretched, poor, blind, and naked; they are without Chrift, being aliens from the Common-wealth of Ifrael, and ftrangers to the Covenant of Promife, having no hope, and without God in the world, Eph. ii. 12. Oh finners, this is your condition, who are graceless and Chriftless perfons; and though this be fad, yet this is not all; for your hearts are bar'd and bolted against the Lord of life and glory. O thou that hear, or read this, how can thou but tremble to think, that thy heart fhould be thus bar'd and bolted against Jelus Chrift with ignorance, unbelief, felf-conceitedness, earthly-mindednefs, prejudice, and hardness of heart; and yet all this open to fin, fatan, and to the world, which are cruel enemies to the foul! That I may foon be out of this condition, if it be the will of God (as the Angel did Lot out of Sodom, Gen. xix.) I fhall turn my discourse into an exhortation..

Let me exhort you O! finner, to hear the voice of Chrift, he speaks to your confciences, by his fpirit, rod, and fervants: O! you men and women of this city, God. hath Ipoken to you by all thefe voices, but you have turned the deaf ear to him.. The voice of the Lord crieth to the city,. (and the man of wisdom fhall fee thy name) hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it,. Micah ix 9. O! God fpeaks to thee by

his

his judgments, and because thou would not hear the voice of his word, he hath made thee to feed the voice of his rod. O great city! how hath the plague broke in upon thee because of thy abominations? Thus they provoked him to anger with their inventions, and the plague broke in upon them, Pfal cvi. 29. O you of this city! how is the wrath of the Lord kindled againit you, that fuch multitudes of thousands are fallen without thy borders by the noifome peftilence-God's immediate sword: O!: how are thy ftreets thinned, thy widows increafed, and thy burying places filled, thy inhabitants fled, thy trade decayed! O therefore lay to heart, you that are yet alive, all these things, and turn from your wicked ways, and be like unto the city of Nineveh, who believed God, and gave credit to Jona's words, who humbled themfelves, fafted, and cried mightily unto the Lord, Jonas iii. 5. Turn therefore from your evil ways, and amend your doings, that God may repent him of the evil which otherwife he may bring upon you. O fee what the Lord faith, Jer. xxvi. 20 If fo be they will hearken, and turn every man from his evil way, &c. O ve people, rent your hearts, and not your garments, and turn to the Lord, who is willing to receive you, fo that his judgments may be diverted, your former mer

cies restored, and his bleffings poured down upon you.

Dearly love the faints and fervants of the molt high God, which are among you. These are they of whom the world is not worthy, Heb. xi. 18. They are a chofen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people, 1 Pet. ii. 9. therefore he fuffereth no man to do them wrong; yea, he reproveth Kings for their fakes, Pfal. cv. 14. O beloved, those that will not accept of Chrift, fhall not be act cepted in him; who hath made us accepted in the beloved, Eph. i. 6. The door of falvation will be fhut against you, if you fhut the door of your hearts against your Saviour. He that made you, will not fave you; and he that formed you, will fhew you no favour; but refufe to own you as his people; fee the words of our bleffed Lord himself, Luke xiii. 15. When once the mafler of the houfe is rifen up, and hath shut the door, and ye begin to ftand without, and to knock, Jaying Lord, Lord, open to us; and he fhall anfwer and fay unto you, I know you not, whence are you; depart from me ye workers of iniquity. Then shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye fhall fee Abraham, Ifaac, and Jacob, and all the Prophets in the kingdom of God, and ye yourselves thrust out. Confider what hath been faid and the Lord give you understanding in all things. SERMON

F f

SERMON

XIV.

The Great Day of GOD's, WRATH.

REV. vi. 17.

For the Great Day of his Wrath is come, and how fhall be ale to stand.

EVERY man's thoughts run now like

Nebuchadnezzar's, with a defire to know what fhall come to pafs hereafter, or what things time will bring forth, Dan. ii. 29. There is nothing in the womb of time, but what was firft in the womb of God.

Now this book of the Revelations fhews us thefe three things. 1. The ftate and condition of the true church of Chrift upon earth, under the power and reign of Antichrift. 2. The rife, reign, and rage of Antichrift in the world. 3. The quiet, bleffed and glorious ftate and condition of the true church here below, after the ruin and downfal of Antichrift. The coming of Chrift will be the ruin of Antichrift,

2 Theff.

2 Theff. ii. 8. Whom the Lord fhall déftroy with the brightness of his coming. This was decreed in heaven, and declared on earth.

This chapter out of which my text is taken, fhews us three things:

1. You may see what God's dreadful judgments are, by which he cuts off and deftroys the inhabitants of the earth, for their fin and wickedness; they are likened (or compared) to horfes, as you may fee. from ver. 4, to 8. Here you have a red horfe, the fword; a black one, the famine; a pale one, the peftilence, (or plague) which leads to death.

2. You may fee here, where all the holy martyrs and witneffes of Jefus Chrift are, who have been flain for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jefus, they are under the alter. ver. 6. that is, under the glorious protection of Chrift in heaven. They are before the throne of God, ferving him day and night, and the Lamb leads them to the living fountain, and God wipes away all tears from their eyes, Rev. xv. 16. 3. Here you may fee, that all the faints precious blood, which hath been spilt from time to time by the whore of Babylon, viz. by cruel and blood-thirsty men, crieth aloud day and night to God for vengeance upon Babylon, ver. 10.

4. You have here the answer of God,

in