in the forms of a judicial trial. How far this language is accommodated to our apprehensions, and derived from the forms of human tribunals, I presume not to say. He, however, will not have a less powerful and religious conception of this final account, who considers the book in which our actions are recorded as the mind of God, who sees at a glance all that is past, present, and to come; and that the division of the assembled universe to the right and to the left hand of the Judge, is an expression of the distinction, the everlasting distinction, of the character and fate of the righteous and the wicked.

Let us consider a few more of the scriptural delineations of this great event, remembering that whether they be understood literally or not, is of no importance as to the reality of the fact, or the final issue of the event; for this much is certain, that after death there will be a judicial dispensation of rewards and punishments, and that every soul will be punished or rewarded, in whatever manner this may be, according to the good or the evil of his past life.

We have the most particular account of this day of judgment given by our Saviour himself, in the twentyfifth chapter of Matthew. Another very intelligible description of the diversity of the rewards in the future life, we have, in the parable of the talents, which it is unnecessary to repeat. 'We must all appear before God,' saith St Paul, 'that every one may receive according to the

things done in the body, whether they be good or whether they be evil.'

For the day is coming, when every eye shall see him who was once on earth in suffering and humility, despised and rejected of men; but when he shall appear it shall be in power and great glory; for the Lord Jesus Christ shall descend from heaven with a shout, and with the voice of the archangel and the trump of God. In a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, those who are alive shall be changed. The men who shall call upon the rocks to shelter and the mountains to crush them, shall find the hills melt, and the foundations of the earth, and all nature passing away like a scroll. Watch, then, for ye know not the day, nor the hour. And however we may amuse ourselves with the thought, that these desriptions are accommodated to our gross and finite apprehensions, and that the literal language of the scriptures will not be accomplished, of this fact we have all the assurance which the word of God can give us, that we must stand before him, to receive according to the deeds done in the body; and then the wicked shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and the glory of his power, and the righteous shall enter to his joy, and live forever with Jesus Christ, in those mansions which he is preparing, and which were designed for them before the foundations of the world. 'What I say unto you,' then, in the words of our Lord, I say unto all, Watch.'

6

SERMON IV.

THE DISCLOSURES OF THE FUTURE JUDGMENT.

ROMANS, II. 16.

IN THE DAY WHEN GOD SHALL JUDGE THE SECRETS OF MEN BY JESUS CHRIST, ACCORDING TO MY GOSPEL.

OUR remarks this afternoon will relate to the great importance of the doctrine, which we considered this morning, of a future judgment, especially when it is viewed as a revelation of the secrets of all hearts.

When we reflect on the insufficiency of human laws, the vast sum of evil against which human legislation cannot provide, and the vast amount of good for which this world and its laws neither offer nor procure a recompense, we feel the importance of this doctrine of a judgment to When we are impatient at the long resounding groans of a land in bondage, and the inquiry is awakened whether there is not verily a reward for the righteous, let us consider that these are visible and public evils; but let us ask also, what shall be the retribution for all that hy

come.

pocrisy, which has enjoyed the favor of the world? What shall be the fate of those who have escaped the detection of all but their own consciences? Shall there be no account taken of those sinful inclinations, which have never ripened into acts; of those wicked intentions, which death or accident has frustrated; no. retribution for ingratitude, treachery, and many other offences of which neither the tribunal of public opinion nor of public law, is empowered to take cognizance?

Let us remember also, that the laws of society are full of threats and penalties, but barren of rewards. They repress only the greatest crimes, and have no recompense for the greatest virtues. The world offers little encouragement for secret and unpretending goodness. Will there not then be a day of judgment, when it shall not be forgotten who have secretly cast their mite, even all their living, into the treasury of human virtue and happiness?

The doctrine of a God, from whom nothing is hidden, and whose future judgment no creature can escape, is the very keystone of all the religions in the world. Take it away and society becomes a desolate mass of ruins. While then we feel the value of this doctrine as Christians and believers in God, what shall we think of those men, who, because they will not listen to the declarations of the Son of God, are yet willing, not only to despoil the believer of his hope, but see, without alarm, the foundations of human virtue bro

ken up, and all the fidelity of promises, the force of oaths, and every hold which truth and virtue give us upon one another, left to the protection of an undefined and variable sense of honor, which is, to say the most, as perishable as the creatures whom it governs.

Thus much we have thought proper to repeat of the truth and importance of this doctrine, not because your faith in it is weak, but to prepare you for the consideration of that circumstance mentioned in the text, that God will, in that day, judge the secrets of men. Leave out but this single fact, that the secrets of all hearts shall then be revealed for the purpose of an equitable decision, and we leave out the most interesting and solemn of the circumstances which attend the scene of judgment.

What a day will that be, which shall uncover the vast repository of human secrets? which shall lay bare the concealed crimes, the forgotten follies, and the unacknowledged motives of all the thoughtless actors in this busy world; the hidden purposes, wishes, fears, sorrows, and miseries of every creature that has ever been endowed with thought; the unregarded virtues, the ill requited goodness, the undervalued worth of the children of heaven; in one word, which shall expose all that man has loved, all that he has dreaded, desired, or intended! The thought is too great for us to feel its force, and we must attend to it in parts, that, by enumerating, we may strengthen rather than weaken the force of the persuasion.