The signs which are to precede that ap

motion to all things that live and move, pro- | with a rod of iron, and no wrath can be so ceedeth forth from its central throne in the terrible as that of the Lamb; but the humble body of the sun; so the riches, and the wis- penitent, believing in Jesus as a Saviour, and dom, and the providence, and the power, obeying him as a Master, shall behold with and the majesty of the Deity, are dispensed joy the golden sceptre reached forth, in the to mankind, through the glorified humanity day of his appearance as a judge. of the holy Jesus; to whom every creature in heaven and earth is therefore taught to as-pearance, and, like so many heralds, to cribe blessing, and honor, and glory, and power. Thus hath it been done unto the man whom God delighteth to honor. And for this reason it is said, that "the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment to the Son;" in exact conformity to what St. Paul asserteth in the text, that God shall judge the world in the person of his Son Christ Jesus; "he shall judge the world by that man, whom," having united to himself, "he hath ordained" and constituted head over all things for that purpose.

prepare the way for it, shall be eminently calculated for the purpose. Strange and portentous phenomena shall cause a fearful looking-for of judgment, while every part of the creation shall discover horrible symptoms of its approaching dissolution. The heavens, those most beautiful and glorious of the works of God, shall shrink at the prospect of the fire in which they are to melt; and the powers of the heavens, which sustain the world, shall be shaken, as the leaves of the wood are shaken by a mighty And by whom should God judge mankind, wind. The sun, that marvellous instrubut by that man by whom he was first re- ment, that fountain of light, that heart of the deemed? "God was in Christ reconciling system, whence are the issues of life, and the world to himself; and God in Christ will health, and joy, shall suddenly cease from shireward every man according to his works."ning, and by that means depriving the moon He who took upon him the form of a servant, of her borrowed brightness, shall leave the was crowned king of glory, and crowned for astonished inhabitants of the world in darkthat reason. "Because he humbled himself, ness and the shadow of death. The stars, and became obedient unto death, even the quitting their stations and courses, and falldeath of the cross; therefore God highly ex-ing in wild disorder on each other, shall inalted him, and gave him a name which is above crease the horrors of the night spread over every name;" therefore, by himself, he hath the world, an image of the darkness soon to sworn, that to him, when sitting on the throne receive the wicked for ever. The sea of judgment, "every knee shall bow, and meanwhile will rise into vast mountains, every tongue confess, that the man Christ and roll itself upon the shore, with the Jesus is Lord, to the glory of God the Fa- most tremendous and terrifying noise All ther." these things shall come upon the earth, at And can there then be a tongue, which a time when it is filled with wars and rudoth not exult in the confession of the glorious mors of wars; when there shall be sore and salutary truth? For surely had Heaven distress of nations, visited with all the judgindulged us in the option of our judge, where ments of God, and become the scourges could all our wishes have centred, but in a and destroyers of each other; when divine man like ourselves; our near kinsman, our truth, like the sun, shall be obscured; when brother as concerning the flesh; one who bore the church, as well as the moon, shall be our sins, and carried our sorrows; one in all turned into blood, through the abundance things tempted like as we are, and therefore of persecutions; and when they, who, for touched with a feeling of our infirmities? In the brightness of their doctrines and the whose hands should we rather desire to see purity of their lives, shone as the stars, the law, than in his who, having himself ful-through the prevalence of iniquity and tempfilled it for us, bestows on repentance what was only due to innocence? Whom can we behold with so much comfort on the judgment-seat, as the person who once stood at the bar, and suffered the execution of an unjust sentence, that we might escape the execution of a just one? And since we must needs be tried by unerring wisdom, impartial justice, and boundless power, what a reviving consideration is it, that they are under the direction of infinite and tenderest mercy? Abused and insulted mercy, indeed, will rule

tation, shall fall away from their integrity, minding earthly things, and worldly interests. Consternation and perplexity unutterable shall seize and distract the hearts of men fainting for fear, and for expectation of the changes about to happen.

And now, the voice of that trumpet, which was once heard from the top of Sinai, shall again be heard from heaven; and the judge of all the earth shall make his entry with power and great glory, having in his retinue an innumerable company

eous, and wonder why they did not see it before, and give themselves up to the study of it; there they shall clearly behold the folly of irreligion in the persons of the wicked, and be astonished at their insensibility in following so hard after it. Amidst all this unimaginable multitude, there shall not be one idle and unconcerned spectator; not one that shall have leisure to trouble himself with the affairs of his neighbor. Every man will have a cause to be heard, and how will he be straightened until it be determined!

of angels, and the spirits of the righteous. | the latter they shall behold with joy and Thus attended, he shall descend towards us, rejoicing. There they shall view the wisriding upon the clouds of heaven, and take dom of religion in the persons of the righthis seat on the throne prepared for him. There he shall be seen, in the form and fashion of a man, exceeding glorious, clothed with the robes of majesty and honor, from whence we may suppose him opening his commission, in those words of his own; "All power is given unto me, in heaven and in earth. The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son." The apostles are placed around him; the court is set; and all things are prepared for him to "judge the world in righteousness." The nature and manner of this judgment call for our strictest attention. Let us, therefore, transfer our thoughts from a temporary tribunal to the throne of eternal judgment. And here it must be considered that, as the whole world is become guilty before God, so we must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ; not only they who shall be found alive at his coming, but they also who shall have been detained by death in the prisons of earth and sea. For, at the sound of the last trumpet, the prison door shall be opened, and all that are within shall come forth to judgment. "I saw the dead," saith the well-beloved John, "I saw the dead, both small and great, stand before God." All the senates that ever were convened, and all the assemblies that ever met upon business or pleasure; all the armies that were ever conducted into the field, and all the generals who conducted them; all the kings and princes who ever swayed a sceptre, and all the multitude of the nations that were ever in subjection to them; in a word, all the men and women that shall have lived, from the first pair to their last born son and daughter, are to appear together, and to take their respective trials, at the day of the great assize. High and low, rich and poor, learned and unlearned, will then be distinguished only by their virtues and their vices; so that the whole world shall perceive and acknowledge that "God is no respecter of persons." The injured virgin, the afflicted widow, and the oppressed orphan, shall then see those, face to face, who have spoiled them of their innocence, their reputation, or their substance. There men shall meet all those who have seduced them, or whom they have seduced into the ways of sin; and all those who have directed and encouraged them, or whom they have directed and encouraged, to proceed in the paths of righteousness. From the former they shall turn away with shame and fear;

The prisoners, thus brought to the bar, are to be judged concerning the counsels of their hearts, the words of their lips, and the works of their hands, which will be found registered against them in the volumes of their consciences. These volumes, indeed, are often closed during the present life, by the hands of negligence and forgetfulness: but at the last day they shall be unfolded to all the world. These, perhaps, are the books, which, as Daniel and St. John inform us, shall be opened before the throne of Christ, that men may be judged out of those things which are written therein. The dust shall be wiped away from these important writings; each obliterated character shall be renewed and restored; and a light shining from above shall make them legible to every eye. There is nothing now hidden which shall not then be known; nothing spoken or done in the secret chambers, which shall not be proclaimed in public. Conscience shall then do the work perfectly, which, through our own faults, it doth at present imperfectly; and we shall know, as we are known; we shall know ourselves as God knoweth us. But beside this, the great Accuser shall stand forth at the last day in his proper character, and aggravate with all his malice the sins to the commission of which he tempted the ungodly. "These wretches," may he say to the judge, "my power never created, nor my providence sustained; I never was incarnate, nor did I ever hang three hours upon the cross for them; I gave them no grace, and promised them no glory. Yet, by their own choice, they have forsaken thee, who didst all this for them, and voluntarily yielded themselves servants to me. Mine therefore they are, and with me shall be their portion." They who have beheld the countenance of a malefactor, when suddenly confronted by an accomplice appearing as an evidence against him, may

form some idea of that confusion which shall | whom kings reign and princes decree judgoverwhelm the sinner, when conscience, ment," and at whose bar kings and princes awaking out of sleep, shall witness his ini- with all in authority under them, must one quity to his face; when the very thoughts day appear. At present, "God standeth in of his heart shall be made manifest, and the the congregation of princes," observing the tempter shall be his accuser. manner in which they exercise the power delegated to them; but hereafter he shall sit as a judge even of them, who, by reason of that delegated power, are styled gods. The care then of the magistrate, when he goeth up to the judgment-seat, will be, to put on righteousness as a glorious and beautiful robe; and to render his tribunal a fit emblem of that eternal throne, of which justice and judgment are the habitation.

Nor shall the faithful escape the malice of him who is styled the accuser the brethren; but he shall accuse them also before their God; alleging against them the follies of their youth, and the infirmities of their old age; their fruitless repentances, and frequent relapses; their excesses in the pleasures of sense, and their deficiences in the duties of religion; the wanderings of their prayers, and the coldness of their charity. And, alas! if God should be extreme to mark what is done amiss, who could stand? But for those who believe, upon the preaching of the Gospel, who lay hold on the benefits of that act of grace, and come in upon the easy terms of the Christian covenant, for them there is Ilapazantos, an advocate ready to appear, even the Spirit, which now "maketh intercession for them," and shall do the same at the last day against the allegations of Satan, pleading the merits of the Redeemer, and the promised pardon made effectual by grace; what he wrought for his people, and what he wrought in them; the groans and the tears of the penitent, the fastings and the watchings, the prayers and the alms of the faithful; the weakness and imperfection of which shall be forgiven, and they shall be accepted, not for their own sake, but for the sake of the beloved; through whose blood all shall be saved who depart in the faith and fear of God, notwithstanding their relapses, through infirmity, in the days of their flesh. These, therefore, go to the portion on the right hand, because the Lord their God doth answer for them. They shall hear the joyful sound of pardon and peace the angels who ministered to them, and often rejoiced at their repentance, shall place them in everlasting habitations of pleasure and glory; while the wicked, forsaken by their guardians, and condemned by the righteous judgment of their God, are consigned over to the executioners of eternal vengeance.

A consideration of these important truths suggesteth the best rules for the conduct of those who are concerned in human judicatories.

Mindful, therefore, of " that man by whom God shall judge the world in righteousness," he who sitteth on the seat of judgment, as the representative of an earthly sovereign, will consider himself likewise as his minister, "by

Mindful of those holy and exalted personages, who shall sit with their Lord upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel, they to whom the laws of their country commit the lives and properties of their fellow subjects, will not suffer themselves to be biassed by any worldly considerations. They will neither be intimidated by the frowns of the mighty, nor seduced by the promises of the opulent, to depart one step from the disinterested uprightness and integrity which characterize the apostles of the Son of God.

Mindful of that true and faithful witness which every man carries in his bosom, which no gift can blind, no power can silence, or prevent its appearing to testify concerning his thoughts, his words, and his actions at the last day, they who are called upon to give evidence, will do it with simplicity and sincerity; neither palliating the crimes of the guilty, nor aggravating the calamities of the wretched, but so speaking, "the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth," as their consciences will hereafter infallibly do, and as they expect help from the God of their salvation in that dreadful hour.

Mindful of that blessed and gracious Spirit, who now "maketh intercession for us with unutterable groanings," and who shall plead our cause at the judgment-seat of Christ, the advocate will rejoice in the godlike task of patronizing the injured and oppressed; of contributing, by his skill and industry, towards the elucidation of truth, the detection of villainy, and the vindication of innocence. But he will never employ his learning for the establishment of falsehood, nor display his eloquence in favor of injustice.

Mindful of their happy lot whom mercy shall receive to glory, and of their sad estate whom justice shall hurry away to torments, we shall all provide against that day which is to determine our fate for everlasting ages. Should a door of hope be opened to those unhappy wretches who are now reserved in

chains, to be brought forth to judgment before an earthly judge, how eagerly would they press into it? Could sorrow for their past offences, and unfeigned resolutions of amendment, procure the royal pardon, restore them to a state of probation, and enable them to lay hold on life, how thankful would they be for the offer, how readily would they close with the proposal! This favor is graciously vouchsafed to us. For, "behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation. The judge standeth before the door," but his entrance is not yet. The evangelical act of grace continueth in full force, and all are invited to partake of the benefits of it; that so having repented, and believed the Gospel, having kept the faith in a pure conscience,

and kept it unto the end, they may obtain their pardon under the seal of the living God, and receive the promised reward, in the day of eternal recompense. For "there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." While, therefore, we bless God, who preserveth to us the administration of justice in our land, let the present solemnity, by reminding us of the trial we likewise must undergo, be made profitable in things pertaining not only to this life, but also to that which is to come; that so, when we shall all meet again, after our separation by the chances of life, and the stroke of death, we may remember that we met on this day; and remember with pleasure, that we met not in vain.

COUR

DISCOURSE XXIV.

THE ORIGIN OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT.

ROMANS, XIII. 4.

He is the minister of God to thee for good.

It is impossible for any one to consider, with attention, the harmony in which all the parts of the natural world conspire to act for the benefit of the whole, without feeling an ardent desire to learn by whom, and in what manner, they were first framed and compacted together; how the agents were suited to the patients, and the causes proportioned to the effects; so that the former have ever since operated invariably in the production of the latter; and the result hath been an uniform obedience to the laws originally imposed upon inanimate matter.

A "state of nature" hath been supposed by writers of eminence upon this subject, "when men lived in a wild and disorderly manner; and, though they had a principle of restraint from religion, and a kind of general law that exacted punishment of evil-doers, yet as the administration of this law was in common hands, and they had no one arbiter or judge, with authority over the rest, to put this law, with any regularity, in execution; so, from the excess of self-love, many mutual violences and wrongs would ensue, which would put men upon forming themselves into civil socieA diligent survey of the blessings for which ties, under some common arbiter, for remedy the moral world is indebted to civil polity, and of this disorder."-And it hath been, accordthe due execution of its edicts, must needs ex-ingly, concluded, that "the civil magistrate cite a curiosity equally earnest and equally was called in as an ally to religion, to turn laudable, to inquire into the origin of so useful the balance, which had too much inclined to and necessary an institution; to know at what the side of that inordinate self-love." time, and under whose direction, a machine was In the "wild and disorderly state" here constructed, capable, by a variety of well-supposed, when mankind were mere savages, adjusted springs and movements, of controlling it is not easy to conceive how they had obthe irregularities of depraved nature, and of tained "a principle of restraint from religion," ensuring to us, amidst the restless and contra- or "a kind of general law that exacted pundictory passions and affections of sinful men, ishment of evil-doers." And it is no less a quiet possession of our lives and proper- difficult to imagine, what benefit could accrue to them from either; since, as the religion had

ties.

The reason assigned for the above assertion," that no man can submit himself to the absolute will of another," is this, that "no man can give that of which himself is not

life." But how then came any government to be invested with the power of life and death? And what would a government avail which was not invested with that power? If laws inflicting capital punishments are frequently broken, in what a state would the world be, if there were no such laws? Here, then, is a dignus vindice nodus; and therefore, DEUS intersit! For, without the interposition of some power superior to human, a a system of civil polity calculated to answer, in any degree, the end of its institution, can neither be framed nor supported.

no priest to teach and enforce it, the law had no magistrate to promulgate and to execute it. "The administration of this law was in common hands," that is, in the hands of every man who had his own law, canon as well as statute, suit-possessed, namely, the power over his own ed to his present occasion, convenience, or caprice. And what was this, but to be truly and properly destitute both of law and religion? As this independent state of nature was a state of perfect liberty; and as they, who had the happiness to live under so pure and primitive a dispensation, were, doubtless, too sensible of their happiness to exchange it readily for government, always liable to degenerate into tyranny and oppression, it is obvious to think, that when the project for "calling in the civil magistrate as an ally to religion," was first proposed, it would not fail to meet with a very vigorous opposition. "An inordinate self-love," we find, was in possession; and no possessor is with more difficulty ejected. Of the privilege enjoyed by every man, to do without control what was "right in his own eyes," every man would be exceedingly tenacious; and no one who thought himself, by his superior strength of body or intellect, better entitled to an ox or an ass than his neighbor, could be presently made to see the propriety of his suffering for the good of the community.

"The free consent of every individual," we are told, "is necessary to be obtained for the institution of civil government." But upon what plan shall the universal assembly be convened? Or who, in a state of nature, hath authority to convene it? How shall the proceedings of this tumultuous congress of independents be regulated, or the votes of its members be collected? And when will all agree to invest some with a power of inflicting pains and penalties, which others cannot but be sensible they shall soon incur?

It is by no means reasonable to imagine, that each person would consent from thenceforth to be determined by a majority of the whole body, which might chance, upon questions of the utmost importance, to exceed the minority only by a single vote. And that one half of the society should thus domineer over the other half, would be deemed an infringement on liberty, to which men, born free and equal, might, with great appearance of reason, scruple to subject themselves.

It is indeed sometimes asserted, that "no man can submit himself to the absolute will of another" in which case he cannot submit himself to any government whatsoever; since the legislature, in every government, is absoJute, having a power to repeal or dispense with its own laws, upon occasions of which itself is judge.

And the truth is, when we reflect a little farther upon the subject, we cannot but perceive our apprehensions greatly shocked at the supposition, that the wise and good Creator, who formed mankind for society in this world, and designed to train them, by a performance of its duties, for a more noble and exalted fellowship with angels in the world to come, should place them, at the beginning, in the abovementioned wild and disorderly state of independence, to roam in fields and forests, like the brutes that perish, and to search for law and government where they were not to be found; that he should give them no rulers, by whom or how they should be guided and directed, but leave them to choose for themselves, that is, to dispute and fight, and, in the end, to be governed by the strongest. One cannot think of multitudes in such a state of equality, with fierce and savage tempers and dispositions, prepared to contend for superiority, but it brings to mind that army, which, according to a pagan fiction, from the teeth of serpents sown in the earth, sprang up together, ready armed for battle, and destroyed each other.

But are these things so? Did God indeed, at the beginning, bring into being, at the same time, a number of human creatures independent of each other, and turn them uninstructed into the woods, to settle a civil polity by compact among themselves? We know he did not. He who "worketh all things according to the counsel of his own will," or that law which his wisdom prescribes to his power; he who appointed a regular subordination among the celestial hierarchies; he who "made a law for the rain, and gave his decree to the sea, that the waters should not pass his commandment; " he who is the God of Peace and order, provided for the establishment and continuation of these blessings among mankind, by ordaining, first in the