or fin, for giving way to our evil tempers, for conforming to the evil customs around us, for omitting unwelcome duties, for profaning the fabbath, or for neglecting prayer and the worship of God, will not bear to be urged on the day. of judgment. No; our mouth will be stopped jult as the mouth of fome poor criminal fometimes is in this world, who, before he was brought to the bar, infifted on his innocence, but when forced to give in his evidence, finds it no longer poffible to make, before his judge, the fame fhuffling excufes by which he had juftified himself among his fellow criminals.

"Verily, it is a fmall thing to be judged by one another, or of man's judgment, for he that judgeth us is the Lord." What will it matter

whether we had more or lefs character while on earth? The day of judgment will declare to the affembled world what we really were. The day of judgment will rectify all errors: the day of judgment will find us out.

There is no circumftance, perhaps, in our defcription of this day, more calculated to ftrike terror into many a heart than this: I mean that the moft fecret things fhall then be laid open. Oh what discoveries will then be made! What fecret robberies and adulteries, and deeds of darknefs, will be revealed! All the crimes perpetrated in the world from generation to generation all the cruelties and oppreffions which have been ever committed under the fun, and which there was here no one to redrefs, and all

the violences and murders under which the world has groaned, but which, by some means or other, have gone unpunished, and many of which have been here entirely concealed, fhall be brought to light. For the earth fhall difclose her blood, and fhall no more cover her flain." For now" that great and terrible day of the Lord is come," on which alfo" the fecrets of all hearts fhall be laid open." It is the "day of the revelation of the righteous judgment of God," when the fentence against evil workers, which has been fo long delayed, fhall be executed; when the triumph of the wicked fhall be over, when" the Lord fhall repay fury to his adverfaries," and when he fhall" reward the faith and patience of his faints"

I ought, here, laftly, to add, that we fhall all be judged, undoubtedly, according to our op. portunities of improvement, and our means of grace. "The fervant that knew not his mafter's will fhall be beaten with few ftripes; but the fervant who knew it, and yet did it not, fhall be beaten with many stripes. What awful threatenings did our Saviour denounce on the cities that heard his gospel, and yet would not attend to it."Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee Bethfaida! for if the mighty works which have been done in the, had been done in Sodom and Gomorrah, they would have repented; wherefore it fhall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for thee." Thofe, therefore, who in this world

were long hearers of the gospel, and yet profited not by it; those "who had line upon line,' and precept upon precept;" those who had Chriftian parents to direct them, and Chriftian friends to reprove them, and Chriftian paftors to instruct them, and Christian examples fet before them! thofe who had feafons for reflection af forded them by their parents on the fabbath, and had religious books put into their hands, and had abundant opportunities of becoming acquainted with true religion; thofe who, moreover, had alarming providences fent to awaken them; who were often warned by God's own afflicting hand of the approach of death, and heard addreffed to them many an awful reprefentation of their own future judgment, and who, in spite of all these advantages, ftill continued to be hardened-these are they that fhall receive the chief condemnation.

But who are the perfons that will be juftified, and that will have reafe: to rejoice at this great day of their Lord's appearance? I anfwer, in the words of our Saviour, "Bleffed àre the poor in fpirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God. Blessed are the merciful, for they fhall obtain mercy. Bleffed are the pure in heart, for they fhall fee God. Bleffed are they who hunger and thirst after righteoufnefs, for they fhall be filled. Bleffed are the peace-makers, for they fhall be called the children of God. Bleffed are they who fhall have been reviled, and perfecuted, for righteousness fake, for now they fhall rejoice,

and be exceeding glad, for great is their reward in heaven."-" The fruit of the fpirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meeknefs, temperance, against fuch, there is no law."

And now, before I close this tract, I wish to add a few words in the way of comfort and encouragement, as well as with a view to fome further explanation of the subject; for, I am afraid, it may be faid, that the qualities which have been spoken of as neceffary for heaven, are high and difficult to be attained, infomuch, that fome fearful reader may cry out, "who then shall be faved ?" Let it here, therefore, be observed in answer, that the scriptures no where fay, that thele qualities must have been poffeffed from the very beginning of life, nor even during any part of life in complete perfection.

It may tend much to our purpose of encouraging the well-difpofed reader, if we here digrefs a little, in order to confider the cafe of Chrift's own apoftles.

In the history of them, which is given us by the evangelifts, they appear to have been at one time very weak in faith, to have labored under much prejudice and ignorance, and to have been often led through the worldlinefs of their minds exceedingly to mifunderftand their divine mafter. They fometimes difcouraged thofe whom Chrift was willing to heal; they were apt continually to wonder at his words, and they were half difpofed to blame fome of his actions,

they could not believe that he was about to die for them, and they flept when he was agonizing in the Garden. Were not these proofs of weakness in them? And yet, even at the time of their having thefe infirmities, they had that degree of fimplicity and integrity, and of unfeigned attachment to their master, which already entitled them to the name of true difciples. For when fome of the followers of Chrift cried out, "This is a hard faying, who can bear it ?" And when others are faid to have walked no more with him, they feem all, with the exccption only of Judas, to have joined in that faying of Peter, "Lord to whom shall we go but unto thee, for thou haft the words of eternal life." They continued, therefore, to hear his words, and thus they had their minds gradually opened by his inftructions, and, except only when he was led away to be crucified, they fided with him in his feveral trials and tempations. On the whole, therefore, they, even in this feafon of their infirmity, were in favor with God; and, as a teftimony of it, they had that glorious promife made to them by Chrift himself, just before his death, "Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations, and I appoint unto you a kingdom, and ye fhall fit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Ifrael." Which means, as I prefume, that they fhould be exalted on the day of judgment, as the twelve heads of the church, and that they fhould join their