831 given; and the longer the stream is stopped, the more rapid and mighty is its course when once it is let loose. It is true that judgment against your evil works has not been executed hith erto; the floods of God’s vengeance have been withheld; hut your guilt in the meantime is constantly increasing, and you are every day treasuring up more wrath; the waters are constantly rising, and waxing more and more mighty. If God should only withdraw His hand from the floodgate, it would immediately fly open. Thus are all you that never passed under a great change' of heart, by the mighty power of the Spirit of God upon your souls; all you that were never born again, and made new creatures, and raised from being dead in sin, to a state of new, and before altogether unexperienced light and life, are in the hands of an angry God. However unconvinced you may now be of the truth of what you hear, by and by you will he fully convinced of it. Those that are gone from being in the like circumstances with you, see that it was so with them; for destruc tion came suddenly upon most of them. Now they see, that those things on which they depended for peace and safety, were nothing hut thin air and empty shadows. O sinner, consider the fearful danger you are in! It is a great furnace of wrath, and consider here more particu larly. 1. Whose wrath it is. It is the wrath of the infinite God. If it were only the wrath of man, though it were of the most potent prince, it would he comparatively little to he regarded. The wrath of kings is very much dreaded, especially of absolute monarchs, who have the possessions and lives of their subjects wholly in their power, to he disposed of at their mere will. Prov. 20:2. “The fear of a king is as the roaring of a lion; whoso provoketh him to anger, sinneth against his own soul.’’
THE K I N G ’ S B U S IN E S S ment. is the mere arbitrary will, and uncovenanted, unobliged forbearance of God. This is the case of every one out of Christ. You probably are not sensible of this; you find you are kept out of hell, but do not see the hand of God in it, hut look at the other things, as the good state of your bodily constitution, your care of your own life, and the means you use for your own preservation. In deed these things are nothing; if God should withdraw His hand, they would avail no more to keep you from fall ing than the thin air to hold up a person who is suspended in it. Your healthy constitution, and your own care and prudence, and best contriv ance, and all your righteousness would have no more influence to uphold you, than a spider’s web would have to stop a falling rock. Were it not for the sovereign pleasure of God, the earth would not bear you one moment, for your are a burden to it; the creation groans with you; the creature is made 'subject to the bondage of your corrup tion, not willingly: the sun does not willingly shine upon you, to give you light to serve sin and Satan; the earth does not willingly yield her increase, to satisfy your lusts; nor is it willingly a stage for your wickedness to he acted upon; the air does not willingly serve you for breath to maintain the flame of life in your vitals, while you spend your life in the service of God’s ene mies. God’s creatures are good, and were made for men to serve God with; and do not willingly subserve any other purpose, and groan when they are abused to purposes so directly contrary to their nature and end. And the world would spew you out, were it not for the sovereign hand of Him who hath sub jected it in hope. The wrath of God is like great waters that are restrained for the present, but they increase more and more, and rise higher and higher,- till an outlet is
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