d been better for that man he had never been born," Matth. xvi. 24.

As Chrift shall appear in the form of a man, fo this Man all appear in a glorious form. O finner, look about you,

Judge is coming: a fire devours before him, and behind im a flame burns: on every fide the people tremble, and all ces fhall gather blacknefs. Here is a change indeed! He, at was at the bar now fits on the throne, and that for ever ad ever. Then, Christ stood as a Lamb before Pilate; now, ilate stands as a malefactor before Chrift. He that was made e footstool of his enemies, muft now judge, till he has made is enemies his footftool. Where fhall they run? and how shall hey feck the clefts of the rocks and hollow places? The glory f his majesty will kindle a flame, while the heavens and the arth fhall flee away from the prefence of the powerful Judge. But if here be the Judge, where is the guard? Behold him oming from above with great power and glory! Would you now his habit? He is indeed clothed with majefty. Would ou know his attendants? They are an hoft of holy angels; ay, yet a much longer train, even the fouls of the faints decending from their imperial feats, and attending the Lamb with great glory. Never was there any judge lord of fuch a ircuit: His footstool is in the clouds, his feet are in the rainbow; his judges are faints, his officers angels and archangels. The trumpet proclaims a filence, whilft a juft fentence cometh from his mouth upon all the world. Thus you fee the affize begun. "I beheld till the throne was caft down (faith the prophet), and the Ancient of days did fit, whofe garments were white as fnow, and the hair of his head like pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and the wheels as burning fire," Dan. vii. 9.

ap.

This is the Judge, whofe coming is fo fearful, and ufhered in by a fiery cloud, and apparelled in fnowy white, carried in his circuit on burning wheels, and attended with thousands of thoufands. O, ye Jews, behold the Man whom before e crucified as a malefactor! behold him on his throne, who a ye faid his difciples had ftolen away by night out of his grave! Matth. xxviii. 13. Behold him in his majefty, him upon whom you would not look in his humility! This is he at whofe pearance the kindreds of the earth fhall mourn. Such a fhout of fury follows the fight of his majelty, that the vaults fhall echo, the hills refound, the earth thall thake, the heavens fhall pafs away, and be turned to confufion. Then fhall the wicked mourn, then fhall they weep and wail, yet their tears fhall not ferve their turn; their fins paft betray them, and their fhame condemns them, and their torments to come confound VOL. III. 4 C them:

them: Thus fhall the wicked bewail their miferable, hapless, unfortunate birth, and curfed end. O fearful Judge! terrible as an army with banners! The kings of the earth fhall be aftonished, and every eye fhall fee this Judge, and tremble at his fight. Lo, but conceive the guilty prifoner come to his trial. Will not the red robes of this Judge makes his heart bleed, for his blood fhed. Thus have I fhewed you how Chrift will appear in a glorious manner.

1. Think now, O finner, what fhall be thy reward, when thou shalt meet this Judge. The adulterer for a while may flatter beauty, the fwearers grace their words with oaths, the drunkards kifs their cups, and thank their bodily healths, till they drink their fouls to ruin: but let them remember, "for all these things God will bring them into judgement." A fad comfort in the end. How fhall the adulterer fatisfy luft, when he lies on a bed of flames? The swearer shall have enough of wounds and blood, when the devil fhall torture his body and rack his foul in hell. The drunkard shall have plenty of his cups, when fcalding lead fhall be poured down his throat, and his breath draw flames of fire inftead of air. As is thy fin, fo is thy punishment; this Judge will give juft measure in the balance of his indignation and wrath.

For comfort to all that are the Judge's favourites, now is the day (if ye are God's fervants), that Satan fhall be trodden under your feet, and you, with your Mafter Chrift, fhall be carried into the holy of holies. You may remember, how a!! the men of God, in their greatest anguifh here below, have fetched comfort from the eyes of faith. It was at this moun tain Job rejoiced, being caft on the dunghill, that his Redeemer lived, and that he should fee him at the laft day ftand on the earth. So like wife the evangelift John longed, and cried, "Come, Lord Jefus, come quickly," Rev. xxii. 20. “Now, little children, abide in him, that, when he fhall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed at his coming. And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life," 1 John ii. 28. 29. But I proceed.

The perfons to be judged are a world of men, good and bad, elect and reprobate.

(1.) There is a fummons, and this every man must hear, and this fhall be the voice of the laft trumpet," Arife, ye dead, and come to judgement." O what a fearful and ter rible voice will t is be to all the wicked? How will they tremble at his voice, which makes the earth to tremble? Even at this voice the graves of the dead fhall be opened, and every foul re-united to its own body; the dark pit of hell fhall be fhaken, when the dreadful foul fhall leave its

place

place of terror, and once more re-enter into its stinking carrion, to receive a greater condemnation, John v. 28. 29. The voice of Chrift is a powerful and ftrong voice; "The dead shall hear his voice, and they fhall come forth, they that have done good unto the refurrection of life, and they that have done evil to the refurrection of condemnation."

Thus much for the fummons, you hear it given, and every man must appear. Death must now give back all that he hath taken from the world. What a ghaftly and fhocking fight shall this be, to fee all the graves open, and to fee dead men arife out of their graves, and the scattered flying on the wings of the wind, till they meet together in one body, Ezek. xxxvii. 6. "The dry bones fhall live." Behold, the power of God Almighty, out of the grave and the duft of the earth, from these chambers of deathand darkness, fhall raife the bodies of the buried, Rev. xx. 12. 13. "I faw the dead (faith St John), small and great, ftand before God; and the fea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead that were in them; and they were judged every man according to his works." He that faid to corruption, Thou art my father, and to the worm, Thou art my fifter and mother, said also, "I know that my Redeemer liveth, and mine eyes fhall behold him." O good God! how wonderful is thy power! Jcel iii. 11. 12. "Affemble yourfelves, and come all ye heathen to the valley of Jehoshaphat, for there will I fit to judge all the heathen round about."

Thus have you an account of the dead being raised; they are all brought together, and now we must put them asunder; the sheep fhall be put on the right hand, and the goats on the left hand. And now fee the parties thus fummoned, raised, gathered, and fet apart. Is not here a world of men to be judged all in one day? All tongues, all nations and people of the earth, thall appear in one day: We fhall then behold each fon of Adam, and Adam fhall then fee all his pofterity. Confider this, ye that are high and low, rich and poor, one with another, for with God there is no refpect of perfons." Hark, O beggar! petitions are out of date, yet thou needest not fear, for thou shalt have justice done thee this day. All caufes fhall be heard, and thou, though ever fo poor, and even defpifed in the world, muft with the reft receive thy fentence. Hark, O farmer! now are the lives and leafes together finifhed; this day is the new harvest of the judge, who gathers in his wheat, and burns up his chaff with fire unquenchable: no bribes, no prayers, no tears: but as thou haft done, fo thou art fentenced. Hark, O landlord! where is thy pur

chafe

chase to thee and thy heirs for ever? This day makes an end of all; and unhappy were thy foul, if thou hadst not better Jand than a barren rock, to cover and shelter thee from the prefence of the Judge. Hark, O captain! how vain is the hope of man to be faved by the multitude of an host. Thou haft commanded all the armies of the earth and hell, yet canst thou not refift the power of heaven. Hark, the trumpet founds, and the alarm fummons thee; thou must appear: All muft appear, the beggar, the farmer, the captain, the prince, and the greatest potentates of the world; nay, all fhall receive their reward according to their deferts.

(2.) This is for terror to the wicked; every man must appear that every man would but think of it! Would you know the man that fhall at this day be bleffed? It is he that thinks on this day, and prepares for it. O then, I beseech you, meditate every day, that you and every man must one day appear before the Judge of the quick and dead, and receive according to your works.

And now, having brought the prifoners to their trial, I must tell you how this trial must be; for your works: Faith justifies, but it is by works we are judged. Mistake me not, he thall be judged according to his works, as being the best witnefs of his inward righteoufnefs. But, the better to acquaint you with this trial, we come to confider,

1. How all men's works thall be manifefted to us. 2. How all men's works fhall be examined by God.

1. Of the manifeftation of every man's works: Rev. xx. 12. "I faw the dead, fmill and great (faith St John) stand before God: and the books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of thefe things which were written in the books, according to their works." Remember this, O forgetful finner, thou mayft commit fin after fin, and multiply your fins; but be fure God keeps a juft account, and none of your fins, though ever fo fecret, fhall be forgot. There is a book of God's memory; it is called a book of remembrance, Mal. iii. 16. "A book of remembrance was written before God, for them that feared the Lord, and called upon his name." This is that which manifefts all fecrets; this is that which reveals all doings, whether good or evil. In thefe records are found at large Abel's ficrifice and Cai's murder, Abfalom's rebellion and David's devotion, the jews cruelty and the prophets innocency. Nothing thall be hid when this book is opened, for all may run and read it. "God will bring every man into judgement, with every fecret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be cyil," Ecclef. xii. 14. Wail, ye wicked, and

tremble

tremble in aftonifhment. Now your clofet fins must be difclofed, and your private faults laid open.

Imprimis, For adultery, envy, blafphemy, drunkenness, eaths, violence, murder, fabbath-breaking, lying, and every other fin from the beginning to the end, from your birth to your death, the total fum is eternal death and damnation. But there is another book, that fhall give a more fearful evidence than the former, and the fecretary in the foul of man: No man can commit a fin, but the foul that is privy to the fact will write it in this book. What a woful cafe will thy poor heart then be in! What a strong terror of trembling muft it then ftand poffeffed with, when this book fhall be opened, and thy fins revealed? This book is now perhaps hut up and fealed but in the day of judgement it fhall be opened, and what will be the evidence that will be brought in? There is a private feffion to be held in the breast of every finner; the memory is the record, truth is the law, damnation is the judgement, hell is the prifon, devils are the jailors, and confcience both the witnefs and the judge to país fentence upon thee. What hopes can he have at the general aflize, whofe confcience hath condemned him before he appears? Confider this, O thou impenitent finner!

But yet there is another book we read of, and that is the book of life, wherein are written all the names of God's elect, from the beginning of the world unto the end thereof. This is the precious book of heaven, wherein if we be registrated, not all the powers of darknefs, death, or devils, can blot us out again. Therefore, to make fome useful applications,

1st, Confider now, O finner, what books one day must be fet before thee. The time will come, when every word of thy mouth, every glance of thy eye, every moment of thy time, every fermon thou haft heard, every thing thou haft left undone, all fhall be feen, and laid open before men, angels, and devils; thou fhalt then and there be horribly and everlaftingly afhamed. Never go about then to commit fin, though ever fo fecretly, though at midnight, and all the doors locked about thee, yet at this great day it fhall be brought to light. 2dly, As you intend the good of your fouls, amend your lives, call yourselves to an account, while it is called to-day; fearch and examine all your thoughts, words, and deeds; proftrate yourselves before God, with broken and bleeding affections; pray that your name may be written in the book of life; and if you do fo, God is not unrighteous to for get your labour of love, and all your good works: for at that great day, the book fhall be opened, our works manifefted, and, as we have done, fo we must be rewarded; for then fhall

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