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which, from a reptile, becomes a butterfly. What a a wonderful change is this, both in appearance and in powers? Who would fuppofe it to be the fame creature? Yet, who can deny it? It is fafeft and most comfortable for us, to refer to the wisdom and power of God, the accomplishment of his own word.

III. These great events will take place unexpectedly and fuddenly. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. We have reason to believe, that a part, at least, of mankind, will be employed as they are now, and as they were in the days of Noah and Lot *, eating, drinking, buying, felling, building, and planting; having nothing less in their thoughts, than the calamity and destruction, which shall overwhelm them without warning. For while they are promifing themfelves peace, the day of the Lord shall come upon them, like a thief in the night, unlooked for, and, like the pangs of a labouring woman, unavoidable. In that day the lofty looks of man fhall be humbled, and the haughtiness of man fhall be bowed down, and the Lord alone fhall be exalted †. So large + Ifa. ii. 6.

*Luke xvii. 26-30.
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a part of divine prophecy remains yet to be fulfilled, that I apprehend, it is not probable that any of us fhall be alive, when this great and terrible day of the Lord fhall be revealed. But are not fome of us expofed to a fimilar, dreadful furprize! If you die in your fins, the confequences will be no lefs deplorable to you, than if you faw the whole frame of nature perishing with you. Alas, what will you do, whither will you flee for help, or where will you leave your glory, if, while you are engroffed by the cares or pleasures of this world, death fhould arreft you, and fummons you to judgment! The rich man in the gospel is not charged with any crimes of peculiar enormity. It is not faid that he ground the faces of the poor, or that he, by fraud or oppreffion, kept back the hire of the labourers who had reaped his harveft; he only rejoiced in his wealth, and in having much goods laid up for many years, and that, therefore, he might fecurely eat, drink, and be merry. But God faid unto him, Thou fool, this night fhall thy foul be required of thee *. Awful difappointment! Thus will it be

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* Luke xii. 20.

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fooner or later, with all whofe hearts and portions are in this world, but are not rich towards God! Confider this, you that are like-minded with him. Tremble at the thought of being found in the number of those, who have all their confolation here, and who, when they die, must leave their all behind them. Now is the acceptable time, the day of falvation. Now, if you will feek the Lord, he will be found of you pray for grace and faith, he will anfwer you. But when once the mafter of the house fhall arife, and with his own fovereign, authoritative hand, shall shut the door of his mercy, it will then be in vain, and too late, to fay, Lord, Lord, open unto us* !

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IV. The great scene will be introduced by a fignal. At the last trump; for the trumpet fball found. Thus the approach of a king or judge is ufually announced; and the fcripture frequently borrows images from our little affairs and customs, and, in condefcenfion to our weakness, illuftrates things, in themselves too great for our conceptions, by comparing them with thofe which are more familiar to us.

* Luke xiii. 25.

It will, indeed, be comparing great things with finall, if I attempt to illustrate this fublime idea, by local cuftoms, which obtain in this kingdom. At a time of affize, when the judges, to whom the administration and guardianship of our laws are entrusted, are making their entrance, expectation is awake, and a kind of reverence and awe is felt, even by those who are not immediately concerned in their inqueft. The dignity of their office, the purpose for which they come, the concourfe of people, the order of the proceffion, and the found of the trumpet, all concur in raifing an emotion in the hearts of the spectators. Happy are they then, upon whom the inflexible law has no demand! But who can defcribe the terror, with which the found of the trumpet is heard, by the unhappy criminal; and the throbbings of his heart, if he be already convicted in his own confcience, and knows or fears, that there is fufficient evidence at hand, to fix the fact upon him, and to prove his guilt? For foon the judge will take his feat, the books will be opened, the cause tried, and the criminal fentenced. Many circumftances of this kind are alluded to in the fcripture, to affift us in

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forming fome conception of what will take place, when all the race of Adam, small and great, fhall stand before the sovereign Judge, the one Law-giver, who is able to fave and to deftroy. But the concourse, the folemnity, the fcrutiny, the event, in the most weighty causes that can come before a human judicature, are mere fhadows, and trivial as the fports of children, if compared with the bufinefs of this tremendous tribunal, The Lord himself will defcend with the voice of the archangel, and the trump of God. What a trumpet will that be, whose found fhall diffolve the frame of nature, and awaken the dead? When the Lord is feated upon his great white throne *, the heavens and the earth fhall flee from his prefence; but the whole race of mankind fhall be affembled before him, each one to give an account of himfelf, to him, from whofe penetrating knowledge, no fecret can be hidden, and, from whofe unerring, inflexible fentence, there can be no appeal. Where then shall the wicked and the ungodly appear?

But it will be a joyful day to believers, They fhall be feparated, as the wheat from

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