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God. And nothing is so awful as the language in which he describes it. But we are here to observe, it is implied,that Sodom and Gomorrah should have a part in it,-but that their part should be less dreadful than that of the people of Capernaum.

It is implied, "that Sodom and Gomorrah should have a part in the day of judgment." You well know, that God executed his vengeance upon them in the most tremendous manner, for those detestable crimes, which have rendered the name of Sodom so infamous to these very distant ages: And the history of their ruin is so circumstantially described, that it is evident, God intended it should never be forgot. Let me call you all, let me call especially the impenitent sinners that hear me this day, to pause for a few moments on the case of these wretched men. When the rising sun in all its beauty and glory was on a sudden obscured to them, fatally and for ever obscured, by that storm of wrath; when the awful moment came, in which God had determined to Rain upon them snares, fire, and brimstone, and a horrible tempest † ; Snares indeed, that took them, wherever they might attempt to fly: Endeavour to conceive as you can, though you can but imperfectly conceive, what must be the consternation of these wretches, that felt the earth reeling under them, and saw at the same time the heavens thundering upon them, and pouring a vast shower of burning brimstone instead of rain, firing their habitations, and torturing with far more than the agonies of common flame the bodies they had so delicately pampered, so infamously abused. For a few minutes they remained, either stupid and dumb with amazement, or shrieking out in torment and despair, and Blaspheming the God of heaven because of their pain‡; the most lively image of hell, that earth ever saw, or shall see ; till down they sink into the opening ground, the city and its inhabitants vanished in a moment, and nothing remained of their country, which just before was Like the garden of the Lord §, but a smoaking sulphurous lake: For so it is expressly said, that Abraham Beheld, and lo, its smoke went up as the smoke of a furnace . Thus they became a sign and a proverb; for when God would describe the most entire destruction that can be conceived, it is by this emblem, As the Lord overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah T.

Isa. Ixi. 1, 2. + Psal. xi. 6. Rev. xvi. 11. § Gen. xiii. 10. '|| Gen. xix. 28. Compare Deut. xxix. 23. xxxi. 32. Isa. i. 7-10. iii. 9. xiii. 19. Jer. xxiii. 14. xlix. 18. Lam. iv. 6. Amos iv. 11. Zeph. ii. 9. Mat. x. 15. and Rev. xi. 8.

Their memorial is now perished; except it be that memorial which is preserved of them in the book of God, where they are marked out in so dreadful a manner: And yet, all their punishment is not over, Our Lord tells us, that in the day of judgment they shall be remembered and visited: And we may assure ourselves, that their doom then shall be more terrible, than that which they suffered from the sulphurous rain, the earthquake, and the pit, into which many of them no doubt went down alive. Whatever their anguish and their terror then was, it shall in the great day be far exceeded: For we can never imagine, that God would bring them into final judgment, to punish them less in that tremendous solemnity, than they had formerly been punished; and we may be confident, that to Depart accursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels, to be cast into that Lake which burns for ever with fire and brimstone †, must be infinitely more terrible than the momentary pain, under the anguish of which they would soon have expired, and from which suffocation would probably much sooner deliver them.

But is this the sentence of Sodom and Gomorrah only? And shall this dreadful climate, be inhabited only by them? Nay, but it is the doom of Capernaum too; and what is most terrible of all, it is expressly said, it shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment, than for Capernaum. And thus,

It is implied, "that their part shall be less dreadful in the day of judgment, than that of the people of Capernaum.” And it is reasonable that it should be so. Sodom and Gomorrah were righteously condemned: They abused the light of nature, which strongly witnessed against wickedness monstrous like theirs They rejected the preaching of Lot, by whom they might have learnt the knowledge of the true God, and the way to serve him with acceptance. But though they violated the dictates of reason, though they abused the bounties of providence, though they despised the preaching of Lot; yet they heard not the gospel of the Son of God. A much greater than Lot, was in the midst of thee, O Capernaum! Justly therefore are thy children, who would not receive his doctrine, who would not obey his charge, who would not regard his miracles, doomed to a severer vengeance, to a more intolerable condemnation so as to look with envy upon the milder tortures inflicted upon those egregious sinners against their own souls.

VOL. III

* Mat. xxv. 41.

+ Rev. xxi. 8.

L

But this is not said of them only: It touches us nearly; and Oh that, as we are so often reminding you of it, you may all seriously consider it! What our Lord asserts concerning Capernaum, he elsewhere says concerning all, who will not receive, embrace, and obey the gospel: For these are his words to the first messengers of it, Whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment, than for that city; and by a parity of reason, for every city, for every town, for every village, for every soul, by whom the gospel shall be rejected, after having been plainly and faithfully laid before them. Oh! hear it again! It shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment, than for them.

And now, methinks, I am ready to interrupt my discourse, and could rather, were I sure you would attend me in it, sit down, and cover my face, and weep. For if these are indeed the words of the Son of God, they are big with a terrible tempest; and it hangs over what we call the christian world; it hangs over this island, which is in many respects the glory of it. And have we no forebodings, where the heaviest part of it might justly fall? Is there no city that rises to our thoughts, far superior to Capernaum in its wealth and magnificence, and in some respects more than equal to it in its guilt? Oh London, London!-dear city of my birth and education,-seat of so many of my friends,-seat of our princes and senators,-centre of our commerce,-heart of our island, which must feel and languish, must tremble, and, I had almost said, die with thee!How art thou lifted up to heaven! How high do thy glories rise; and how bright do they shine! How great is thy magnificence! How extensive thy commerce! How numerous, how free, how happy, thy inhabitants! How happy above all, in their religious opportunities! In the uncorrupted gospel, so long, so faithfully, preached in thy synagogues! displayed in so many peculiar glories, which were but beginning to dawn when Jesus himself dwelt in Capernaum, and preached repentance there! But while we survey these heights of elevation, must we not tremble, lest thou shouldst fall so much the lower, lest thou shouldst plunge so much the deeper in ruin?

My situation, Sirs, is not such, as to render me most capable of judging concerning the moral character of this our justly celebrated metropolis. But who can hear what seem the most

*Mat, x. 14, 15,

credible reports of it, yea, I will add, who can walk its streets but for a few days with any other observation, and not take an alarm, and be ready to meditate terror? Whose spirit must not, like that of Paul at Athens, be stirred*, when he sees the city so abandoned to profaneness, luxury, and vanity? Is it indeed false, all that we hear? Is it indeed accidental, all that we see? Is London wronged, when it is said,That great licentiousness reigns among most of its inhabitants, and great indolence and indifference to religion even among those that are not licentious?—That assemblies for divine worship are much neglected, or frequented with little appearance of seriousness or solemnity; while assemblies for pleasure are thronged, and attended with such an eagerness, that all the heart and soul, seems to be given to them, rather than to God:-That most of its families are prayerless, wanting time it seems, or rather wanting heart, for these social devotions; while many hours of every day can be given to recreations and amusements at home, if by any accident that it is impracticable to seek them abroad:That the sabbath, instead of being religiously observed, is given to jaunts of pleasure into neighbouring villages, or wasted on beds of sloth, or at tables of excess :-That not only persons in the highest ranks of life, but that the trading part of its citizens, affect such an excessive gaiety, and grandeur, and delicacy, the very reverse of that frugality of our ancestors, who raised the city to what it is :That men in almost every rank are ambitious of appearing to be something more, than those who stand in the next rank above them could conveniently allow themselves to appear; and in consequence of this, are grasping at business they cannot manage, entering into engagements for what they cannot answer, and so, after a vain and contemptible blaze, drawing bankruptcy upon themselves, and exposing to the danger of it, honest, industrious persons, who are won by that suspicious face of plenty which they put on, to repose a confidence in them, on that very account so much the less reasonable and safe :-That the poorer sort of the people are so grossly ignorant, as to know hardly any thing of religion, but the sacred names, which they continually profane; so wretchedly depraved, as to consume their time and strength in reaching at those low and pernicious luxuries which they may hope to attain ; and so abandoned, as to sink unchastised into the most brutal sen

Acts xvii. 16.

sualities and impurities: While those who would exert any remarkable zeal to remedy these evils, by introducing a deep and warm sense of religion into the minds of others, are suspected and censured as whimsical and enthusiastical, if not designing men:-In a word, That the religion of our divine Master is by multitudes of the great and the vulgar openly renounced and blasphemed; and by others but coldly defended, as if it were grown a matter of mere indifference, which men might without any great danger of mischief, reject at their pleasure; yea, as if it were a matter of great doubt and uncertainty, whether men's souls were immortal, or whether they were extinguished with so empty and insignificant a life. Men and brethren, are these things indeed so? I take not upon me to answer absolutely, that they are; but I will venture to say, that if they are indeed thus, London, as rich, and grand, and glorious as it is, has reason to tremble, and to tremble so much the more for its abused riches, grandeur, and glory.

There is indeed, as has often and justly been observed, one token for good amongst these symptoms of danger; I mean, a variety of charitable foundations and institutions amongst you, so far as I know, unequalled through the whole world; as well as a freedom from persecution and oppression, those detestable evils, which wherever they are to be found, cry so loud for vengeance, and for which it is expressly said, that Babylon, Nineveh, and Jerusalem were destroyed. There are also, blessed be God, not a few inhabitants of this city, who reverence God; who be lieve, and obey, and adorn his gospel; who dare, in the midst of so many contrary examples, to stand up for the honour of christianity with resolution and zeal; and who are solicitous to infuse a deep sense of its excellency and importance, into the minds of their rising offspring, and of others whom providence has placed under their care and influence: These of whatever denomination, and with whatever modesty and silence their designs are conducted, Are the salt of the earth, that hinder the corruption from becoming universal: They are the guardians of the city in which they dwell, and stand in that breach, at which judgment would otherwise pour in like a torrent. Let such be established, encouraged, and quickened, by representations like those I have now been making. The eyes of the Lord are upon them especially at a crisis like this; and his ears will be open to their cry. Let them be exhorted, to exert themselves with a growing zeal for a general reformation, so far as their influence

* Mat. v. 31.

Psal. xxxiv. 15.

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