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DIS C. bling and dying for fear: nay "fo terrible "was the fight, that even Mofes faid, I exceedingly fear and quake "." And if Mofes, who, as the figure of him that hould 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 state of the careless finner, who having incurred all this heavy displeasure, nor ever employed an hour in meditating his escape, shall 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 tempest 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 noise of his voice, and the "found that goeth out of his mouth. He "directeth it under the whole heaven, and

u Heb. xii. 21.

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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 manifeftation 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 ftill 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 fhall hear more terrifying founds, than were seen and heard by the house of Ifrael in the wildernefs. For yet a little while, and the fame God who was revealed from heaven in flaming fire to give the

DISC. law, shall again be revealed from heaven in

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flaming fire to inquire how it hath been obferved, and to take vengeance on those who have not fecured unto themselves a fponfor to stand 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 muft it be, when required at our hands by God, coming in glorious majesty to judge the world! Then fhall there be blacknefs of darknefs, 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 fhall not be quenched; then fhall the heavens pass 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 fhall have flept for ages in the duft; then he whofe voice formerly shook the

earth,

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earth, shall fulfil his promife, "Yet once DISC. "more I shake not the earth only, but "alfo heaven;" both of which shall be removed, and their place no more be found; then shall 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 fhall 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 hand writing against us," from which our dear Mafter 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 Apostle 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 Gal. iii. 13.

Y

us

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DISC. us from the black darknefs 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 righteoufnefs and immortality; to the peace and love of God; to the still small voice of evangelical grace; to the harps of angels, and the mufic of Hallelujahs; to the final fentence of abfolution, “ Come,

ye bleffed;" 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 should not be fpoken to them any more (for they could not endure that

" which