righteous and the wicked as to happiness and misery, there might have been ground to suspect that, since universal disorder at present prevailed, disorder would ever continue, and never be rectified by any future Judgment. But neither of these suppositions is founded in fact. The present state of the moral world is neither a state of complete justice and order, nor of absolute disorder, but a state of order and justice begun and carried to a certain length, though left as yet imperfect. Observe, my brethren, that, in the whole structure and constitution of things, God hath shown himself to be favourable to virtue, and inimical to vice and guilt. He hath made a fixed provision for happiness to virtue by the powerful recommendation which it carries to universal esteem and love; by the manifold benefits which it procures to society; by the health, peace, and comfort of mind which it brings to the virtuous man. At the same time from the crimes of the wicked, a multitude of miseries is made infallibly to spring; loss of character and esteem, and of confidence and regard in society; health always impaired by vice; and all comfortable enjoyment of life disturbed by an uneasy companion, which the sinner carries about with him in his own conscience, upbraiding him for his crimes, and theatening him with the displeasure of the Almighty.

These are not things of casual or accidental occurrence, but of universal experience, taking their rise from the constitution of our nature, and from the fixed laws which regulate human events. They show us what the direct tendency of virtue and vice is appointed by Providence to be; and if this tendency be not, in every instance, carried into effect, owing

to circumstances which belong to our present state of probation and discipline, yet such an established natural tendency carries a sufficient intimation of the will and pleasure of our Creator.

We see his throne already set for Judgment. By his beginning in this world both to reward and to punish, we clearly behold him acting as a governor and a judge, and are led to prognosticate what course he will hereafter hold. By the constitution of things which he has fixed here, he has as plainly signified that he favours the virtuous, and is displeased with the wicked, as if he had declared it to us by a voice from the clouds. Although the present state of mankind requires that the just should sometimes suffer, and the sinner be allowed to prosper, the strongest presumption still remains that there is a period to come, when God will complete his righteous government, by making the one fully blest, and rendering the other as miserable as they deserve to be; especially as we can observe,

In the fourth place, that a satisfactory account may be given why judgment is at present postponed, and complete retribution not made, either to the good or bad. We are to take notice, that even among men, the wisdom and justice of government do not consist in immediately rewarding and punishing on every occasion, but in exercising those acts of government publicly, at such times, and with such circumstances as may have the most powerful effect for the benefit of society. A similar consideration perfectly accounts for the full execution of justice being delayed by God in this world; for rewards and punishments being only begun here, but left

unfinished. Were they completed in this world to their full extent, all the purposes of a state of trial and discipline would be defeated. No room would be left for exercise and improvement to the good in many virtues, if they never were to undergo any trials; if they felt full reward immediately conferred on every righteous action they performed, and saw the wicked instantly cut off, as soon as a crime was committed. For salutary discipline, therefore, to the good, in order to improve their virtues; and from patience to the bad, in order to give them room for repentance; it was fit and wise that final judgment should at present be postponed. Divine justice

stands for a while, as behind the veil, and leaves men at full scope to act according to their different dispositions, that their real characters may be fully displayed; the fidelity of the upright be tried and proved, and the obstinately wicked left without excuse. ——— The delay of judgment therefore, and the seeming inequality that now takes place in the ways of Providence, is so far from forming any ground of suspicion that judgment will never come, that on the contrary, it is an argument of the wisdom of the Divine government, and necessarily enters into the plans it is now carrying forward.

Such are the presumptions which reason furnishes for rendering it more than probable that, at the conclusion of human things, God will render to every one according to his works. They may serve to strengthen our faith; but on mere reasonings our faith rests not. God in his mercy has given us surer light in an article of so great importance. To the consideration, therefore, of the discoveries which

the gospel of Christ hath made to us, we now proceed.

II. You all know how often we are assured in the New Testament, that God hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness; a day and an hour which no man knoweth, but which is fixed in the counsels of heaven. In the Sacred Writings a very particular account is given us of the whole procedure of that solemn day, accompanied with an assemblage of circumstances of the most awful and terrific nature. The scene is such as forbids all attempts to heighten, or even to do it justice by human description. Beneath such a subject all imagination sinks. The efforts of the declaimer or the poet are here alike in vain.—We are informed that the Last Day shall be ushered in by signs in the sun, and signs in the moon and stars; upon the earth, distress of nations with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after the things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. The sound of a trumpet shall be heard, at which the dead shall rise out of their graves. The sign of the Son of man shall appear. He shall come in a cloud with power and great glory, and all the holy Angels with him. A great white throne shall be set, and he shall sit thereon in his glory. Before Him shall be gathered all nations. Books shall be opened, and the dead shall be judged out of the things which are found written in the books. He shall separate the righteous from the wicked as a shepherd divideth the sheep from the goats; and he shall set the righteous on his right hand, and the

wicked on his left! Then shall he say to them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. To them on his left hand he shall say, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the Devil and his angels; and these shall go into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal.*

Whether every one of the circumstances here set forth, is to be understood in a strictly literal sense, or with some measure of mystical and allegorical interpretation, it is not easy to determine, nor is it essential for us to know. Regard must be had to the figurative style frequently employed by the sacred writers, of which we find so many examples in the prophetical writings and the Book of Revelation, wherein those spiritual divine things, which are above our conception, are set forth under such representations of sensible objects and appearances as are most calculated to strike and impress our minds. The circumstance, for instance, of books being opened before the Judge, as containing a register of every man's actions, and of the dead being judged from what had been written in those books, is plainly a metaphorical allusion to what is practised among men; designed merely to convey the strongest impression of God's strict and accurate observation of the minutest particulars of men's behaviour on earth. It is sufficient for us to be satisfied, that whatever tremendous grandeur may attend the judgment of the Last Day, it will be conducted in such a manner as shall be perfectly suitable to the perfections of the Almighty. Resting on such facts as are plainly

* Luke, xxi. 25. Daniel, vii. 9. Matth. xxv. 31.