and kept within bounds by divine patience, fhall then rife fo high as to burst through all reftraints, and overwhelm the guilty globe, and turn it into an univerfal ocean of liquid fire. This refiftless torrent shall fweep away all the refuges of lies, and them that trufted in them, into the gulph of remediless destruction. We, my brethren, fhall be concerned in this univerfal catastrophe of nature; and where fhall we find a fupport to bear us up in this tremendous day? Where fhall we find a rock to build upon, that we may be able to ftand the fhock, and remain fafe and unmoved in the wreck of diffolving worlds? What can support the fabric when this vaft machine of nature, formed with so much skill and ftrength by the hands of a divine architect, fhall be broken up and fall to pieces? Now is the time for us to look out; it will be too late when all created fupports are fwept away, and this folid globe itself is diffolved beneath our feet into a fea of fire. Now, now is the time for you to provide. And where will you look? Whither will you turn? This earth, and all its riches, honours and pleasures, will prove but a quickfand in that day. Your friends and relations, were they ever fo great or powerful, can then afford you no fupport. If they can but find refuge for themselves, that will be all; therefore bethink yourselves once more, where fhall you find a rock on which you may build a happiness that will stand the shock in that day?

If you are anxious and perplexed, I need only point you to my text for relief. Behold, fays the Lord God, behold I lay in Zion for a foundation-ftone, a tried stone, a precious corner-ftone, a fure foundation; he that believeth fball not make hafte. Let me expatiate a little upon the properties of this foundation.

* C

1. It is a stone: a ftone for folidity, ftability and durableness. 'Every thing else,' fays the charming Hervey, is fliding fand, is yielding air, is a breaking bubble. Wealth will prove a vain fhadow, hoVOL. II.

Bb

* Theron and Afpafio, Vol. II. p. 361, &c.

nour

nour an empty breath, pleasure a delufory dream, our own righteousness a spider's web. If on these we rely, disappointment muft enfue, and fhame be inevitable. Nothing but Chrift, nothing but Chrift, can ftably support our fpiritual interefts, and realize our expectations of the true happiness.' And, bleffed be God! he is fufficient for this purpose. Is a ftone firm and folid? fo is Jefus Chrift. His power is almighty, able to fupport the meaneft of his people that build their hopes on him, and render them proof against all the attacks of earth and hell. His righteoufnefs is infinitely perfect, equal to the highest demands of the divine law, and therefore a firm immoveable ground of truft. We may fafely venture the weight of our eternal All upon this rock; it will ftand for ever, without giving way under the heaviest preffure; without being broken by the most violent fhock. Let thousands, let millions, with all the mountainous weight of guilt upon them, build upon this founda. tion, and they fhall never be moved. Is a ftone durable and lasting? fo is Jefus Chrift; the fame yefterday, to-day, and for ever. His righteousness is an everlasting righteoufnefs, his ftrength an everlasting ftrength, and himself the everlasting Father. liveth for ever to make interceffion for his people, and therefore he is able to fave to the uttermoft, to the uttermoft point of duration, all that come unto God by him. Here is a ftone that can never moulder away by the wafte of all-confuming time. Parian marble, and even the flinty rocks decay: the firm foundations, the stately columns, the majestic buildings of Nineveh, Babylon, and Perfepolis, and all the magnificent ftructures of antiquity, though formed of the most durable ftone, and promifing immortality, are now shattered into ten thousand fragments, or lying in ruinous heaps. But here is a foundation for immortal fouls, immortal as themselves: a foundation that now ftands as firm under Adam, Abel and Abraham, as the first moment they ventured their dependance

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dependance upon it: a foundation that will remain the fame to all eternity. Therefore it deferves the next character given to it, namely,

2. A tried ftone.

His

Tried,' fays the fame fine writer, in the days of his humanity by all the vehemence of temptations, and all the weight of afflictions; yet, like gold from the furnace, rendered more fhining and illuftrious by the fiery fcrutity.' His obedience was tried; and it appeared upon trial that it was perfect and univerfal. His meeknefs was tried, by the abufive treatment he met with from men. patience and refignation to the divine will was tried, when the bitter cup of the wrath of God was put into his hand, and when the abfence of his Father extorted that bitter cry from him, My God, my God, why haft thou forfaken me? Matt. xxvii. 46. His love to his Father, and his zeal for his honour were tried, and they were found an unquenchable flame, that glowed without once languifhing through the whole of his life. His love to men-to finners-to enemies, was tried; tried to the uttermoft: it was put to the trial whether his own life or theirs was most dear to him; whether he would rather fee his enemies perifh by the sword of juftice, or that himself should feel the agonies of a crofs. This was a trial indeed; and you know how it iffued. The feverity of the trial did but render his love to us the more illuftrious. In short, this stone was thoroughly tried by God and man, and it ftill remained firm without a flaw.

Jefus has also been tried under the capacity of a Saviour, by millions and millions of depraved, wretched, ruined creatures, who have always found him perfectly able, and as perfectly willing to expiate the moft enormous guilt; to deliver from the moft inveterate corruptions; and to fave to the very utmost all that come unto God through him. Ten thoufand times ten thousand have built their hopes upon this ftone, and it has never failed fo much as one of them. Manaffeh and Paul, that had been bloody perfecutors,

Mary

Mary Magdalen, that had been poffeffed of feven devils, and thousands more that were finners of the most atrocious characters, have ventured upon this rock with all their load of fin upon them, and found it able to fuftain them. This ftone is the foundation of that living temple the Church, which has been now building for near fix thousand years, and the top of which already reaches the highest heaven. All the millions of faints from Adam to this day, both thofe in heaven and thofe on earth, are living ftones built upon this foundation-ftone; this fupports the weight of all. And this trial may encourage all others to build upon it; for it appears fufficient to bear them all.

But I muft farther obferve, that a new translation of this fentence, ftill nearer to the original, will give a new and important view of the fenfe of it. Inftead of a tried ftone, it may be rendered a ftone of trial;" or, a trying ftone;' that is, this is the true touchftone of mens characters. It is this that, above all other things, discovers what they really are, whether good or bad men, whether heirs of heaven or hell. Only propofe Jefus Chrift to them as a Saviour, and according as they receive or reject him, you may know their true character, and their everlasting doom. If with eager hearts they spring forward and embrace him as a Saviour, they are true fubjects to the King of heaven; they give the highest, the last, the most decifive proof of their fubjection to his authority. That men fhould fubmit to Jefus Chrift as a Saviour, is not a fingle command of God, but it is the drift, the scope, the fubftance of the whole Law and Gofpel; it is the grand capital precept; it is a kind of univerfal command that runs through all the difpenfations of heaven towards the fons of men. And therefore, while men refuse to submit to this command, they are guilty of a kind of univerfal difobedience; and it is in vain for them to pretend to have a real regard to God and his authority in any one inftance whatsoever. If they obey God fincerely

in falling in with this command, they will obey him in every thing; but if they will not obey him in this, they will truly obey him in nothing. Hence it is that good works are the infeparable fruits of faith in Christ, and that unbelief is the root of all evil. Submiffion to Chrift is alfo the moft effectual trial, whether the corrupt difpofitions of the heart, whe ther the innate enmity to God, pride, stubborness, &c. be thoroughly fubdued? If a man is once made fo dutiful, fo humble, fo pliable, as to fubmit to this humbling, mortifying method of falvation through Jefus Chrift, it fhews that divine grace has got an entire victory over him, and that now the rebel is fo fubdued that he will be obedient in any thing. There is nothing in the whole law or gofpel to which the hearts of finners are so averse, as this method of falvation; and therefore, when they are fubdued to this, and made willing captives of the cross of Chrift, we may be fure they have furrendered themselves to univerfal obedience.

This text has made ftrange discoveries in the world in every age. This touchftone has difcovered many glittering virtues to be but drofs. The Pharifees and Scribes had a high character among the Jews for piety, till this trying ftone was applied to them; and then it appeared what they were; then it appeared they were the moft inveterate enemies of God upon earth. Thefe were the builders that rejected this ftone, and would not build upon it. They rather chose to build upon the fandy foundation of their own righteoufnefs. Nay inftead of making him the foundation of their hopes, they made him a fone of tumbling, and a rock of offence. Rom. ix. 32, 33. 1 Pet. ii. 8. and they ftumbled and fell into deftruction. Chrift crucified, fays the apoftle, is to the Jews a ftumbling block. Cor. i. 23. This teft made ftrange discoveries alfo in the heathen world. Many of the fages of Greece and Rome had a high reputation for wisdom and virtue; they gloried in it themselves,