My car makes an extremely loud noise?

My 95 Toyota Corolla makes an extremely loud noise which seems to come from its engine. Whenever I accelerate the noise gets much louder and when stopped the car kind of sputters. There was a slightly loud noise before this happened but it got much louder as I was driving out of nowhere. What could the possible problem be and would it be safe to drive it a little longer till I can get to a mechanic? Thanks for the help.