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But among those of a more peaceable disposition, are there none, that are conscious to themselves of dishonest gain? No Merchant, or trader, that has held the balances of deceit in his hand, and has allowed himself to keep, as the scripture expresses it, A weight and a weight, a measure and a measure †, to buy by the one, and to sell by the other? None, that have Gone beyond and defrauded their brethren ‡, and practised arts by which they would have thought themselves to have been greatly injured, if they had met with them from others? If such there be, that as the prophet expresses it, have Coveted an evil covetousness to their house §, let them not wonder, if God has verified the words of his servant, so that The stone has cried out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber has answered it. And so will it be with those, who may attempt to found their rising houses in falsehood, and to cement them with perjury. And if any have already done it, by giving in, even upon oath, unjust accounts of their losses, let them Be sure, their sin will find them out ¶, and their unrighteous gain, the plunder of their fellow-sufferers, will be bitterness in the latter end.

But to insist no longer upon this head, it is very probable there are some, whose conscience would not allow them in such methods as these, who yet may accuse themselves of having been formerly, in their most prosperous days, backward to actions of bounty and charity; some, in whom the words of Solomon are fulfilled, They have withheld more than is meet, and it has tended only to poverty **. It may be, when compassionate objects have presented themselves, or been recommended to you, your hearts, instead of being opened and warmed, have rather been contracted; and you have been ingenious in finding out excuses, for not bearing your part in such expences. And now, all that you have spared and saved by such a mean and unworthy temper is gone, and perhaps, through the righteous judgment of God, has carried away with it a great deal more: while the generous and compassionate christian has at least had this satisfaction, that a part of his substance is laid up in the bank of heaven, and secured far beyond the reach of any unhappy accident; for nothing is indeed so truly, and so surely our own, as what we have laid out on such charitable occasions.

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And I shall have reason to congratulate you upon your present loss, if, having felt affliction yourselves, and experienced the compassionate assistance of others, you melt into more humane sentiments, and knowing the heart of sufferers, be for the future more ready to relieve them, and more abundant in every good word and work: and happy for you will it be, if The Lord purge away your dross, by the spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning, so that you come forth from his furnace as silver seven times purified, and take the divine image in brighter and fairer characters. It has been often observed, that places which have suffered by a kind of general conflagration, rise more beautiful out of their ashes. But there will be much greater reason to congratulate you, if by this means your tempers are refined; if the vain become grave, the luxurious temperate, the profane religious, the contentious meek, the fraudulent upright, and the sordid liberal. And sure I am, that with such an alteration, you would be happier in a cottage of clay, than you could have been before in a house of marble and cedar. And that this happy end may be answered, let me exhort you, once more,

4. That you endeavour to retain upon your hearts a lively sense of those important lessons, which you might, as it were, read by the light of these flames.

There are many very instructive truths, which God has often spoken to you from his word, and by his ordinances, which yet might, with some more sensible demonstration, be learned from such a scene of providence. And I doubt not but those that are truly wise, and who have set themselves with strict attention to reflect on what has passed, have prevented me in some of these meditations. Let me for a few moments, however, recall them to your minds, and suggest them to those, who have been either too indolent, or too perplexed, to form them for themselves.

I shall only mention two, which comprehend a great many more. How vain are worldly possessions, when compared with spiritual and eternal blessings!-And how unutterably dreadful is the divine displeasure, by which fires will be kindled so much more terrible than these!

You have seen here the vanity of worldly possessions, and the superior value of spiritual and eternal blessings; and therefore labour to preserve a sense of it.

You had often before read that expostulation, Wilt thou set

* Isa. iv. 4.

thine eyes upon that which is not? For riches certainly make themselves wings, and fly away as an eagle towards_heaven *. But perhaps you never saw those wings spreading so wide, and rising in so rapid a flight; you never saw so many families undone in an hour, the worth of so many hundreds and thousands of pounds dissipated in the air, and borne away by the wind in blazing and smoaking columns. You could not, when you came to look over the ruins, distinguish between the ashes of the most precious of your goods, and the poorest refuse of them; but they were mingled together, like the dust of the` dead. So vain is wealth, and so uncertain is our confidence in riches! Thus all our goods, and our houses may perish. And though our lands may seem a more lasting possession, yet, as you have seen, flames may devour the product of them, either before, or after it is gathered in: ond our lives themselves, yet frailer than almost any thing else, may fail us in a moment. This you have seen with your eyes; and forget it not; but charge it on your conscience, to observe the infinite difference between these transient enjoyments, and spiritual and eternal blessings. Those treasures are not liable to such accidents: as Neither moth nor rust can corrupt, nor thieves break through and steal them, so neither can fire break out and consume them. It is a known story of Bias the philosopher, that when in danger of shipwreck, he saw others concerned about their goods, which were like to be lost, even if they escaped with their lives, he said, in consciousness of superior worth, and therefore superior happiness, I carry all my treasure with me. And so can the christian say. The most valuable treasure is that, which by divine grace is laid up in the heart, or, to speak with more strict propriety, in the soul itself; so that should devouring flames surround the house, even the tabernacle of clay, or any other overwhelming calamity demolish it, the heaven-born inhabitant would escape with all its riches, and borrow wings from the tempest itself, to bear it on to eternal blessedness.

Once more, reflect, how unutterably dreadful the wrath of God is, by which fires will be kindled much fiercer than these. Our God, says the apostle, is a consuming fire ‡ ; and it is a representation which God himself has made, when describing his displeasure against sin, Who, says he, would set briars and thorns against me in battle? I would go through them, I would burn them together §. You have seen a burning town, and

*Prov, xxiii. 5.

Mat. vi, 20.

Hob. xii. 29. § Isa, xxvii. 4.

have found it, perhaps, an object of terror beyond all your imagination. But remember, Sirs, the day is approaching, when you must see a burning world: for The day of the Lord will come, and that as a thief in the night; in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat; the earth also, and the works that are therein, shall be burned up*. And though, long before that time, the grave will have received you, and you will Have no portion any more in all that is done under the sun; yet you yourselves must be called forth, and shall arise, to be spectators of that august solemnity: and you shall all behold The day, when the sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood; when The stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers thereof shall be shaken §; when The heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll, and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig-tree ||; when The streams shall be turned into pitch, and the dust into brimstone ¶, and all the beauties of nature and art shall be sunk into rubbish and chaos. Happy men, who shall then be able to Lift up their heads with joy, knowing that their complete redemption draweth nigh**; and who According to the pro'mise of that God, who amidst all the convulsions and revolutions of nature is still the same, look for new heavens, and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness ††·

But let it be remembered, that all this pomp is to usher in that Day of judgment, which shall be a day of perdition to ungodly men: For a fire shall then be kindled in God's anger, which shall burn even to the lowest hell, when it has consumed the earth with its increase, and calcined the very foundations of the mountains §§. And in this view, let The sinners in Zion be afraid, and let fearfulness surprise the hypocrites; for who can dwell with the devouring fire? Who can dwell with everlasting burnings? Yet this, you well know, is the doom of every impenitent sinner; a doom, to be pronounced by the lips of Christ himself, in words which he has already uttered and recorded, that by weighing their terror, we may be roused from our security, and be alarmed to escape it; Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels TT. Nor can you imagine the sentence shall be pronounced in vain, or that all the confederate nations of the

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condemned shall be able to ward it off. But who can sustain the terror of its execution! What, if, while your habitations were in flames, and you were endeavouring to escape for your lives, a host of armed enemies had cut off your retreat, and forcibly driven you back to the fire! You cannot bear the thought; the horror of it strikes you to the heart, and nature shudders at it. But will it not be infinitely more terrible, when legions of angels with irresistible power urge you on, and the wrath of God like an overflowing torrent sweeps you away into The lake that burns with fire and brimstone? Wretched creatures, that are yet obnoxious to such a destruction! Weep not, Sirs, if this be the case, for your houses and goods consumed. Weep not for your substance wasted, and your families undone. You have a far juster cause for deep lamentation. Mourn over your perishing souls. Say not, we will recover our affairs as fast as we can, by renewed application to worldly business; and much less presume arrogantly to Say in the pride and stoutness of your hearts, The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones: the sycamores are cut down, but we will change them into cedarst. Remember, that Pride goes before destruction ‡ ; and amidst all the most pressing cares and hurries of life, let it be still considered by you, there is one great concern, that even now demands a more attentive regard; that you may Flee from the wrath to come, to Jesus, who is appointed to deliver from it §. Think not of repairing your losses, and of settling your affairs here; but let me rather say to each of you, as the Angel to Lot, while he lingered in Sodom, perhaps from too great a regard for the goods he was to leave there, Escape for thy life; look not behind thee; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed. I must be insensible of the worth of souls, and most regardless of the great end of my office, if I were not willing to digress much farther than I have now done, to give so necessary a caution. May divine grace make it effectual to awaken those, who, if their present stupidity continue a while longer, must feel those flames, which they will not see!

But I trust, my brethren, there are those of you, whom God has plucked as brands out of the burning, in the noblest and most important sense of these words, and who have sought, and found your shelter, from this most terrifying prospect, in the grace of the gospel-covenant. Whatever your other circumstances are, be thankful for this most gracious interposition: let your losses and sorrows sit light on your hearts, while God

Rev. xxi. 8. † Isa. ix. 9, 10. ‡ Prov. xvi. 18. § 1 Thess. i. 10. || Gen. xix. 17.

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