nal books; in which are feen the caufes from which they fprung-the circumstances with which they were accompanied-their relations to others-and their confequences to ourselves, and to mankind to the remotest time.

That no form of trial may be omitted-that nothing may be wanting to the perfect equity of the decifion, our conduct fhall be attefted by the most faithful and incorruptible witneffes. Chriftians! your prayers, your tears, your felf-denials, your active zeal, your fuccefsful labours in the caufe of your Redeemer, or for the happiness of mankind, shall bear witness for you at the bar of God. Our Saviour himfelf points to the works of charity and benevolence performed by his people as the beft and pureft evidences in that day of their fincerity and faithfulness-" For I was hungry, faith he, and ye gave me meat-I was thirty, and ye gave me drink-I was a flranger, and ye took me in-naked and ye clothed mefick and ye vifited me-in prifon and ye came unto me."* Have you, then, been

Mat. xxv. 35, 36.

eyes to the blind, or feet to the lame? Have you fed the hungry, or clothed the naked? Have you relieved the afflicted, and comforted the diftreffed? Have you inftructed the ignorant, and brought the erring back to the way of truth and life? Have you contributed by your difinterested liberality, or your painful labours-by your active influence or your pious example, to diffuse among mankind the precious knowledge of divine truth, or to fend to diflant regions the glorious light of the gofpel? Thefe bleffed monuments of your charity and zeal fhall appear for you in the day of the Lord.

you

Parents! have trained your children in the path of virtue, and the fear of God? Have you folicitoufly ftudied to promote their higheft, their immortal interefts? Have your counfels, your example, your persuafions, and your prayers early touched their hearts with the fentiments of piety, guarded them from dangerous errors, and conducted them in the way of everlafling peace? Precious witneffes! Thefe dear and cherished pledges of your love fhall rife up, and, in the face of the univerfe, fhall call you bleffed.

A cloud of witneffes fhall accompany finners also to their condemnation. All whom the unjust have injured-all whom the artful have beguiled-all whom the licentious have corrupted-all whom the voluptuous have feduced-all whom the profligate have, by their example, betrayed into vice -all whom the impious, by pernicious. principles, have alienated from virtue-all who, by any influence, or even by any omiffion of others, have been involved in diftrefs, or drawn into vice, fhall rise up in the judgment to condemn them.

Above all, confcience is a witness that will raise a faithful and decifive teftimony at that tribunal. All our actions, and all our principles of action, all our fins, and every defect of duty-our actual crimes, and the purposes of the heart that have never been brought into act-the evils which we concealed from the world, and thofe which we ftudied to conceal from ourselves, all fhall be brought to light by it, and denounced to us with a voice louder than the thunders that rend the univerfe.-In this life, men ftifle its dictates and remonftrances in a thoufand ways. Bufinefs or pleasure pre

vent its being heard-inclination and the habits of vice bias its decifions; and finners, in the midst of their crimes, often live in a great degree of fecurity and peace. But there, no more caufes of felf-deception can exift-nothing can arise to bias its judgment, or to flifle its voice. It fpeaks with fearful energy. It anticipates the fentence, and vindicates the righteoufnefs of the Supreme Judge. The finner has not, in perishing, the miferable confolation of faying that his fate is hard or unjuft. His frightful remorfe confirms the decree by which he is configned to everlasting burnings. God hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteoujnefs.

IV. He will judge it, finally, by that man whom he hath ordained. Although he is man he comes invested with the glories of the Deity, and armed with the powers of omnipotence. Once he fojourned upon earth for our falvation; but his divinity was veiled under the frailties of human naturehe now appears upon the throne of the universe as the judge of the quick and dead, and the fplendors of the godhead feem to have abforbed in themfelves all that is human.

-What language can defcribe, or what thought can comprehend that power that, with a word diffolves the worlds which, with a word, he had created? Who can conceive of that celeftial effulgence that will make the radiance of the fun look like darkness-that would confume mortals if they were admitted to behold it—and that will require the regenerated powers of immortality to enable them to fuftain the view. Ah! what a difference between the manger and the ftalls where oxen fed, and the glorious throng of heavenly powers and dominions that now encircle, and wait upon their Lord! What an infinite disparity between the cross on which he expired for the redemption, and the throne on which he fits for the judgment of mankind! But, on this fubject, language is impotent, and the mind fatigues itself in vain to grasp those bound

lefs ideas.

His glory and majefly are heightened by the dreadful effects of his power, and the infinite decifions of his juftice.-Of each let us take a fhort review.