so with us, let us examine ourselves, and consider how much of our time is spent in preparing for eternity-how often our thoughts are turned to the great and terrible day of the coming of our Lord and Judge! Too few are the moments, too fleeting are the thoughts, which we give up to this. Too careful and troubled are we about many things which are even now of trifling use to us, and will hereafter be of none: too little attention do we bestow upon the one thing needful. Not all the goodness, the forbearance, the long-suffering, the warnings, the threatenings, the promises of God; not the mercy and the love of a Saviour dying upon the cross, can prevail upon some of us, to cast away our sins, our vices, and our follies, and humbly and earnestly betake ourselves to the great and important work of preparing to meet our Judge. Yet if we perish, everlastingly perish, upon whom but our own sinful selves, can we cast the blame? Every thing that could be said or done, has been said and done by our merciful Creator and Redeemer, to incline our

hearts to the only true wisdom, and to draw us to Himself.

May the great truth which the text declares, and the great question which it asks, sink most deeply into our hearts! What manner of persons ought we to be in all holiness and godliness, not only looking for but even hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens, being on fire, shall be dissolved, that is, shall pass away, and the elements, that is, all that the world is made of, shall melt with fervent heat! Behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven, and all the proud, yea, all that do wickedly shall be stubble, and the day that cometh shall burn them saith the Lord of Hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. That day, the apostle tells us, a few verses before my text, will come like a thief in the night, when men shall be asleep and not expecting it and our Saviour likewise has said, that it will come as a snare upon the inhabitants of the earth. It will come, as a thief, when we are not thinking of it, nor prepared for it, to strip us of all our earthly possessions and empty pleasures: it will come as a

1

up,

snare, when we are not supposing it to be near, to catch us in the midst of all our neglect, our thoughtlessness, and sins. Numbers, in that day, who shall be alive, and numbers who at the sound of the great trumpet shall arise from the dead, will be found only fit to go away into outer darkness, into weeping and gnashing of teeth.

O, can we think of this, and not tremble lest we should be amongst them? can we think of the fearful punishments prepared for those who have forsaken their Maker, and despised their Saviour, and not feel both conscience-stricken that we are guilty sinners, and, at the same time, heartily desirous that we may escape the sufferings deserved by sin? Surely it cannot be. None of us, I trust, are so hardened in sin, that we do not, at times at least, long for the glories of the heavenly kingdom, and feel that we hate our sins, and love the ways of righteousness. But let us be careful that we fall not into a most dangerous mistake it is not a few short, irregular moments of religious feeling which will carry

us to heaven, we must by a patient continuance in well doing seek for the kingdom of God.

Seeing, then, that all the things of this world will be dissolved, may such a continuance in doing well mark the whole conduct of our lives. Let us bear constantly in our thoughts what manner of persons we ought to be in all holy conversation and godliness, that having looked for and hasted unto the coming of the day of God, it may not take us by surprise, nor find us unprepared: and the flames which shall then destroy the guilty world, may not be our miserable portion for ever! which God grant, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

SERMON XIII.

2 PETER iii. 13, 14.

Nevertheless, we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness: wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of Him in peace, without spot and blameless.

THE Apostle St. Peter, in the verses just before my text, from which I preached to you on Sunday last, endeavours to awaken our most serious attention to the most serious things, by reminding us that this world is to come to an end; and sets before us the necessity of passing through the short life which is given us here, constantly looking forward to the coming of that day, in which the world and the things that are in the world shall be destroyed. His words are these seeing then that all these things