his life together, and the scrutiny of justice, with its perilous consequences. But the day has ever been regarded as the season of security. The first ray of the morning chases the phantoms of the imagination, and terminates the horrors of fancy. Light discovers real peril, and bears with it the means of escape. When the day breaks upon us, it scatters peace, and joy, and safety, in its smiles. Ah, how little do we know where danger lurks, and when the dream of happiness shall be broken! Sodom escapes the perils of night, to fall by unexpected vengeance in the morning! “And while he lingered”—who that had a heart to feel, and connexions to relinquish; could refrain?— "while he lingered the men laid hold of his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters; the LORD being merciful unto him: and they brought him forth and set him without the city" A gentle constraint is laid upon him, to snatch him from ruin. It is thus that we feel a divine power gently attracting us from the world to the cross: we are drawn with "the cords of love:" no violence is imposed upon our will in leading us from the paths of death: but we feel, and acknowledge, that it is HE, "who worketh in us to will and to do his own good pleasure." It is thus when our wandering hearts "follow lying vanities, and forsake their own mercies," that God sends some gentle and salutary affliction, to chastise our folly, and to bring our spirit home to its rest. "And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad, that he said, Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain lest thou be consumed.” Judgment once awakened is not always directed to discriminate characters; and the righteous are some

It

times permitted to suffer in the general calamity. is not safe to dwell in the tents of sin; and those who take up their abode in the tabernacles of the wicked must be content to share their portion, and their punishment at least, in the present life. Nothing short, of a total separation from them can afford security: for to linger on the plain is as hazardous as to tarry in the city. "And Lot said unto them, Oh, not so, my Lord." In the very midst of danger, and while the cloud of ruin hangs over his head, self willed man cannot refrain from opposing his opinions to the arrangements of Deity; and it must be "according to his mind," or he will scarcely be satisfied with his deliverance. “Behold now, thy servant hath found grace in thy sight”— should he therefore presume? "and thou hast magnified thy mercy, which thou hast shewed unto me in saving my life;" should he not therefore be satisfied? Is the goodness of God a reason why he should tempt his forbearance? "and I cannot escape to the mountain" -why not? What shall hinder when God leads the way? what can successfully oppose, when he commands? "lest some evil take me and I die!" O thou of little faith! wherefore didst thou doubt? Was not HE, who led thee forth from the midst of a people given over to utter desolation, strong to deliver? Was he not able to preserve thee? And had he not given a tacit pledge of security, in the very command which he issued? "Behold now this city is near to flee unto, and it is a little one”-it is a small request that I prefer, in comparison with the unsolicited mercy which thou hast already manifested; or, it is a little city, and may well be spared in so wide and general a destruction as thine offended justice meditates "Oh, let me escape thither, (is it not a little one?) and my soul shall live."

What is the punishment which awaits the man who dares to lift his little plans to a competition with the wisdom of Deity? Let us adore the long suffering of God! Heaven lends a gracious ear to this supplication; "and he said unto him, See, I have accepted thee concerning this thing also, that I will not overthrow this city, for the which thou hast spoken." How consistent is this with the character of God, who delighteth to have mercy, and to forgive! Lot had an high gratification in seeing this little object of his compassion escape the devastation of its vicinity, if benevolence urged his plea: but if selfishness dictated it, as the narrative seems to insinuate, he was greatly disappointed: for although his request was granted, his terrors suffered him not to derive from it the advantage which he proposed: since he afterwards abandoned the retreat which he had chosen, and fled to the mountain, whither God had at first directed him, "for he feared to dwell in Zoar." "Haste thee, escape thither;" thy presence disarms my wrath, and withholds my righteous vengeance: for I cannot do any thing till thou be come thither." Behold the value and importance of one righteous man? It was the lip of infallible truth, which said of his disciples-"Ye are the salt of the earth!" "Therefore," In remembrance of the successful plea of Lot, "the name of the city was called Zoar," which signifies little, and relates to the argument which its intercessor used. Most of the names, given to persons, and to things, in the scriptures, bear a reference to some signal circumstances, more nearly, or remotely, connected with them.

“The sun was risen upon the earth when Lot entered into Zoar." This calm is perfectly natural, and agrees with almost every account transmitted to us, of tem

pests, earthquakes, and great convulsions of nature. We know that the wind usually falls, and that there is a profound serenity diffused over the atmosphere, before a storm. The former part of that day, in which Lisbon was destroyed by an earthquake, was uncommonly fine; and the danger was not even apprehended, till an unusual subterraneous noise, and a slight trembling of the ground, preceded, for a few moments, the first great shock which almost levelled the whole city. This same agitation of the earth was almost universal, and extended nearly over the whole globe; and in every place where it was felt, the same tranquillity was observed to reign, before the calamity was endured. This calm, however, is unspeakably dreadful! Who can read this single verse without shuddering? As the destruction was unexpected, it was the more terrible; and as it was sudden, it admitted of no escape. The sonsin-law of Lot mocked his admonitions; and they were roused to a sense of their importance and truth, only by the hand of death. Let this consideration prepare us for a still greater event, in the solemnities of which we must all participate; and which will be equally sudden and unexpected: for "as it was in the days of Lot, even so shall the coming of the Son of man be!"

"Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah, brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven; and he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground." Some commentators translate the words "brimstone and fire," brimstone inflamed; and the interpretation which they build upon this translation is, that brimstone inflamed, in the Hebrew style of writing, signifies neither more nor less, than lightning. It is reasonable to conclude, that

this lightning penetrated so far into the veins of bitumen, with which these plains are known to be impregnated, as to enkindle the combustible matter; which would quickly communicate its heat and flame to the cities, and to the whole country, more entirely and ex-. peditiously than the lava of a burning mountain lays waste the lands over which it flows: and after consuming all that was capable of such a destruction, formed the heavy, fetid, unwholesome lake, called the Dead Sea, from its wide expansion, and the stillness of its waters. Justin observes, respecting this sea, that it cannot be moved by the winds, by reason of the large quantity of bitumen immersed in it; which also renders it incapable of being navigated. The same remark will not be found to apply to the same sea in the present day; as we have instances of some modern travellers having ventured to bathe in it: but this also may be accounted for, on the same principle; the diminution of the bitumen; which is continually removed, by persons on the spot, as it emerges from this singular lake. Neither is it true, that no bird will adventure to stretch his wing across it, as some ancient writers have asserted: for many have been observed to sport along its dreary banks: but the salt with which it is impregnated is inimical to vegetation; its waves retain a sufficient degree of malignity to endanger the health of those who are rash enough to plunge into its unnatural waters; and it retains a sufficient degree of desolation, to justify the description of the destruction suggested in the present Lecture; and to confirm the general account of antiquity, making a reasonable allowance for the alterations which time may be supposed to have effected.