LECTURE IV.

NECESSITY OF PRESENT PREPARATION FOR

CHRIST'S COMING.

2 COR. vi. 2.

For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.

EVERY thing, both for this life, and for that to come, depends upon the proper employment of the present time. We have no right to count upon the future, for we know not "what a day may bring forth: " all that we can truly call our own is the

moment that is now passing. If it be necessary to act upon this truth for temporal success, it is much more necessary to act on it as respects eternity. For worldly losses may, peradventure, be repaired—at all events, they are of no such mighty and momentous interest-but nothing can compensate for the loss of the soul; no repentance or remorse can repair that ruin.

I argued, in the first discourse, that as all things which Moses and the prophets had predicted, concerning Christ, when he first appeared, were accurately fulfilled, so it is most sure, that what the same inspired men have foretold, must be accomplished in his return to judgment. In the second,

I proved to you, that the history of the world was evidence that the day of the Lord so cometh as "a thief in the night," -his desolating judgments have been ever sudden-all analogy therefore goes to confirm the annunciation, that, in a day when men look not for him, the thunders of his presence shall burst upon them. In the third discourse, I urged the necessity of watchfulness, from a consideration of the signs of the times: I said, I thought we might discern the symptoms of a rising storm-whether of that great catastrophe, when the earth shall be consumed, I did not take upon me to decide- but that there were some presumptive proofs, though the precise time of God's purposes

could not, by mortal ingenuity, be fixed on, that we are now amid "the last days:" I exhorted you, therefore, to set your house in order. I am here, as an inference from the whole subject, to enforce the paramount importance of present preparation. The mariner, who sees the dark cloud in the horizon, hastens to reach, if possible, a sheltering port: much more will they that are wise "enter into the rock and hide them in the dust, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth," "when the earth shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain."

I proceed to the immediate consideration of my subject, and I shall shew you,

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I. That now there is a hope of safety:

now is the accepted time."

II. That that time cannot be much prolonged.

May God the Holy Spirit incline you all to know this your day of visitation, and to embrace the things that make for your peace, before they be hid from your eyes!

I. To the first point. God never inflicts punishment without giving some intimation of his purpose. Our first parents were warned of the danger of touching the tree of knowledge. The fate which befel them was only what had previously been announced. Noah was, in like manner, a preacher of righteousness to the antedilu