Cijeap Jaepmsflarp. 
 
 SUNDAY READING. 
 
 THE 
 
 JUDGMENT DAY 3 
 
 In wMch a true \ and just Account is given of the Manner in 
 which the Scriptures teach that We^ and all Mankind ^ 
 are to be tried on the great Day ofJudgme?it. 
 
 Shewing plainly, who shall go away to everlasting Death, and who to 
 Life Eternal — with a few Wo; ds of Encouragement to 
 FEARFUL CHRISTIANS. 
 
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THE JUDGMENT DAY. 
 
 Of all the subjects in religion, there is none 
 more deeply interesting than that of the general 
 Judgment. That some sort of day of reckoning 
 will come upon the world, is what few men, I be- 
 lieve, have ever doubted, for it is a very natural 
 persuasion. Some new philosophers, indeed, have 
 attempted to teach people to the contrary, but sure- 
 ly it is hard to believe that there will be one event 
 to the righteous and to the wicked, and that the 
 grossest sinner and the purest saint, the man who 
 has indulged himself without caring how much he 
 hurt his fellow- creatures, and he who hath both 
 done and suffered much in order to do them good, 
 shall each, when they die, be placed in the very 
 same circumstances by God. No — we are all apt to 
 agree in the general belief, that there will cornea 
 day of judgment; the point in which we differ is, 
 the particular mode in which the Almighty will deal 
 with us when we are brought to tria^ and the sort 
 of preparation for it which is necessary, -kven 
 those who profess themselves Christians vary much 
 from one another in this particular, for we have our 
 own opinions and prepossessions; and though we 
 think that we believe the Bible, yet in fact, we all, 
 moreorless, invent a day of judgment of our own, 
 instead of seeking light from the revealed wordot 
 God. 
 
 It is the design, therefore, of the present tract, 
 not to attempt either to interest the feelings, or to 
 
3 
 
 alarm the fears of the reader, by representing to 
 him such a day of judgment as the writer's own 
 imagination might paint, but rather to collect to- 
 gether what scripture hath said on this subject.' — 
 All human speculations will be avoided, and no- 
 thing- will be introduced which may tend to lead the 
 mind into uncertainties, for the great point is to 
 know what we really have to expect. 
 
 " It is appointed unto all men," says the scrip- 
 ture, " once to die, and after death the judgment. " 
 What then is the nature of this judgment ? There 
 is no doubt, I think, that some trial is undergone 
 immediately after death, and that a suitable state 
 of happiness or misery is appointed for every one 
 as soon as he leaves this earth. " This day," said 
 our Savior, to the penitent thief, " thou shaltbe 
 with me in paradise." But what is here meant to 
 be spoken of, is rather that public and universal 
 judgment which we are taught to expect at the fi- 
 nal consummation of all things, in which God will 
 manifest his mode of dealing with his creatures be- 
 fore his holy angels, and before all the assembled 
 world. 
 
 The scriptures have given us many very plain 
 notices of what is to take place on this great day, 
 and of the rules by which. God will judge us ; and 
 it is worthy of remark, that what the scriptures 
 teach, is very agreeable to what, if our minds were 
 free from all corrupt bias, we might naturally sup- 
 pose to be the dealings of a very wise and merciful, 
 and at the same time, of a very righteous and holy 
 God. " >M 
 
 In the first place then, I would observe, that 
 the scriptures declare it to be an universal truth, 
 that ° God shall judge every man according 
 
 i 
 
to his works. M Jews and Gentiles, men of every 
 age of the world, and of every sect; men of every 
 language and nation shall be "judged, every man 
 according to his work, for there is no respect of 
 persons before God." Those indeed, " who have 
 been without law," that is, those that have not had 
 the scriptures given them, " and who have sinned 
 without law," it is said in the Romans, " shall also 
 perish without law ;" while those it is added, "who 
 have sinned in the law. shall be judged by the law." 
 Christ, we may take occasion here to remark, is 
 ordained by God to judge us in this manner, "for 
 he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the 
 world in righteousness by that man whom he hath 
 ordained ;" and again it is said, " for we must all 
 appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that 
 every one may receive the things done in his body, 
 according to that he hath done, whether they be 
 good, or whether they be evil." 
 
 That we are all to be judged according to our 
 works, is a plain and obvious first principle of re- 
 ligion ; the scriptures, nevertheless, again and 
 again repeat this truth in our ears; they do so, in 
 order, no doubt, to ground us in it thoroughly, and 
 to prevent our so misunderstanding any_ of the 
 christian doctrines, as to think they justify us m 
 departing from this fundamental truth. Thus, 
 for instance, it is said again, " to them, who 4 by 
 patient continuance in well-doing, seek for glory, 
 honor, and immortality, he shall render eternal 
 life; but unto them that are contentious, (that is, 
 as 1 suppose, contentious against God) and obey 
 not the truth, but obey unrighteousness— indigna- 
 tion and wrath, tribulation and anguish on every 
 
 scral of man that doeth evil, to the Jew first, ana 
 
5 
 
 a l s0 to the Gentile. s> " And I saw the dead, "says 
 St. John, " small and great, stand before God, and 
 the books were opened, and the sea gave up the 
 dead that were in it, and Death and Hell, (that is, 
 the place of'departed spirits) gave up the dead that 
 were in them, and they were judged, every man 
 according to his works." 
 
 When our Savior speaks of false pretenders to 
 religion, he recommends it to us to follow this 
 same rale of judging, by which his own conduct 
 will be guided on the great day. " Ye shall know 
 them," says he, " by their fruits ; do men gather 
 grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles ?" While of his 
 true disciples he says, " I have ordained you that 
 ye should go forth and bear much fruit." ■ " We 
 will only quote one passage more with a view to 
 this point. " Marvel not," says the Savior of the 
 world, in another place, " for the hour cometh in 
 which all that are in their graves shall come forth, 
 they that have done good to the resurrection of life, 
 and they that have done evil, to the resurrection 
 of damnation." 
 
 VVe shall have now to request the reader's very 
 careful attention, while we proceed to shew what 
 is meant in scripture, by " doing good and doing 
 evil, and by being thus judged, every man accord- 
 ing to his works," for there is much room for er- 
 ror on this point, if we do not seek for explanation 
 °f the matter in the word of God. 
 
 Here then, first I would observe, that there are 
 many sins spoken of in the scripture (some of them 
 sms made very light of by men) which, if a man 
 lives la them habitually, are considered by the apos- 
 tle as af once deciding the man's character, and they 
 are called works of the flesh, "No\y the woiks 
 
 < 
 
6 
 
 of the flesh are manifest, which are these, adul~ 
 tery, fornication, uncleanness, laciviousness, emu- 
 lation, wrath, strife, envyings, murders, drunken, 
 ness, revellings, and such like, and they that do 
 such things, shall not inherit the kingdom of God. n 
 And again, " be not deceived, neither fornicators, 
 nor adulterers, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor 
 drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall in- 
 herit the kingdom of God." Sinners of this class, 
 may hear read their doom as plainly as if their very 
 names were written in the word of God. that 
 they would therefore repent, and flee from the 
 wrath to come, " for hath the Lord said, and will 
 he not do it ?" The mercies of God indeed, are 
 great to the penitent and contrite in heart; they 
 extend even to the chief of sinners, and blessed be his 
 name, they are also sure mercies ; but so also are 
 his judgments sure to them that live and die in 
 their iniquity. 
 
 But there are various other marks given in scrip- 
 ture, whereby a man may know whether he shall 
 come under condemnation. " If ye live after the 
 flesh ye shall die, but if ye through the spirit, do 
 mortify the deeds of the flesh, ye shall live." And 
 again, " to be carnally minded is death, but to be 
 spiritually minded, is life and peace" What is it 
 then to be carnally minded and to live after the 
 flesh? It is undoubtedly to follow our own natural 
 
 inclinations, instead of following the good motions 
 of the holy spirit of God ; it is to live as we like, 
 to go where we like, to say and to do what we 
 
 like, 
 
 to spend our time and our money just as we 
 and to let our corrupt imaginations rove wherev 
 they like— it is to live to please ourselves, imw» 
 cf living to please God, I may here also remai . 
 
- arc sins of the mind which will just as 
 HI condemn a man on the judgment day if 
 nU e ruled over him, as any sins of the body, 
 ' th T -tmav be observed, that emulations, wrath, 
 T an d envyings have already been named, to- 
 rt er with murders and adultery; I may add, that 
 % d I is often treated of in scripture as highly of- 
 Insive to God, and humility as one of the best 
 s f acceptance, for « God resisteth the proud, 
 but ffiveth grace, or favor, to the humble." A rea- 
 d's to judge others is also a very bad sign.— 
 "Judge not, that ye be not judged ; for with what 
 judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged ;" so likewise 
 is an unforgiving spirit; " for if ye forgive not men 
 their trespasses,'* says our Savior, " neither will 
 your heavenly Father forgive you/' And in the 
 Old Testament it is most awfully declared, that 
 "he shall have judgment without mercy that hath 
 shewed no mercy. ,; O what need shall we all have 
 of mercy on that day, and how dreadful a crime 
 will it then seem, to have been in our life time 
 hard and unrelenting towards our fellow- creatures, 
 in comparison of what it does now. The sins even 
 of the tongue will also be enquired into, for " the 
 tongue, though a little member, is afire, a world 
 of iniquity It is inconceivable how much good 
 cj* ill is dor.e by it. The tongue indeed is an in- 
 dex of the heart, and therefore it is said, <( by thy 
 worls, thoushalt be justified, and by thy words thou 
 shaltbe condemned." 
 
 We have spoken hitherto only of actual sins, 
 and of these but shortly — but I must hasten to re- 
 mark, lhat \here are virtues which must be prac- 
 tised, if we vould hope to enter Heaven, as well 
 as crimes wlich must be avoided, Some people 
 
 $ 
 
are apt to think that iilne-tenths of the actions of 
 their lives are of a class that may be called indif- 
 feient. There is no good, they own, in them, but 
 they trust, neither is there any harm. But. the 
 scriptures are far from favoring notions of this 
 sort; and I think there is reason to suppose, that 
 when the day of judgment comes, it. will not be so 
 much a few great crimes on the one hand, era few 
 shining virtues on the other, that will decide a 
 man's character, as the ordinary tenor of his life, 
 and the general disposition of his heart as to What 
 some may call the more indifferent, and the lesser 
 matters. Our Savior, in order to impress his dis- 
 ciples with a just notion of the complete accouht- 
 ableness of man, and of the punishment due to un- 
 profitableness, spake to them the following para- 
 ble : — " A certain man went into a far country* 
 and he called his servants and delivered to each of 
 them his goods ; and to one he gave five talents, 
 and to another two, and to another one , and after 
 a long time, he cometh and reckoneth with them." 
 Now this is to represent God's manner of dealing 
 with us his creatures ; he has given us endowments 
 of many kinds ; a certain portion of wealth, for in- 
 stance, and of other things, (to some of us more, 
 and toothers less) all which we are required & 
 use in the service of the giver; and the day of judg- 
 ment is that time of reckoning, when he will rail 
 upon us to give account how far we have done 
 Every thing we had in this world will then con- 
 sidered, not as having been our own, to do jfi&jjtt w ^ e 
 pleased with it, but as having been our Lord s 
 goods, and the question to be tried atthe judgment 
 day will be, whether we have been a thful in 
 stewardship, In the parable, we Iwe, irst, a de 
 
9 
 
 scription of some servants who improved their ta- 
 lents for their Lord's use ; and to each of these it 
 is said, ■ Well done, thou good and faithful servant, 
 enter thou into the joy of thy Lord;' but one ser- 
 vant is spoken of who had * buried his talent in the 
 earth/ that is, who had turned it to no profit, for 
 it is not said that he had done any particular harm 
 with it, and on him is passed a solemn sentence of 
 condemnation. Woe be to that person, therefore, 
 who shall be obliged to confess on the judgment 
 day, that while he was in this world he idled away 
 his time, that precious talent entrusted to him by 
 his Maker, in such a manner as to bring no honor 
 to God and no good to his fellow creatures ; as for 
 instance, in empty talk, in unproductive work, and 
 in needless amusements ; who shall be forced to 
 own also, that he considered his health and strength 
 as given him only for his own enjoyment, that he 
 exerted his abilities for no other end than to get for 
 himself honor or profit, that he employed his in- 
 fluence all for the same purpose, and that he spent 
 the wealth which God gave him in order to do good 
 with it, in nothing else than procuring ease and 
 pleasure, and a multitude of surperfluities for him- 
 self and his family. A man of this kind possibly 
 may be brought in guilty of no very signal crime, 
 but he, undoubtedly, is the person who is pointed 
 at in the parable, and who is condemned by that 
 sentence denounced at t he end of it, * Cast ye the 
 unprofitable servant into outer darkness, there shall 
 "e wailing and gnashing of teeth/ 
 
 This may not be an improper place to add, that 
 a man's faith will unquestionably be enquired into 
 Pfl the day of judgment. < Without faith,' says 
 
 B 
 
10 
 
 the scripture, c it is impossible to please God \ 
 Faith also in our Savior, as well as in the great 
 doctrines of the gospel, is every where requi re( j 
 as necessary to salvation. " Go preach the gospel 
 to all nations, he that believeth shall be saved, and 
 he that believeth not, shall be damned. ' — < He thai 
 believeth not is condemned already, because he 
 hath not believed in the only begotten Son of God.' 
 And the reasonableness of thus condemning men 
 for their unbelief, is also explained ; — ' for this ' 
 says our Savior, ' is the condemnation, that light 
 is come into the world, and men love darkness ra- 
 ther than light, because their deeds are evil!'— • 
 When men do not believe the scriptures describe 
 the reason to be, that there is in them < an evil 
 heart of unbelief to depart from the living God.' 
 They never talk of the good heart of an unbeliever. 
 All, all are called upon to repent and believe at 
 their peril, and to obey God's blessed Gospel, and 
 are taught to expect that they shall be rewarded or 
 punished in the next life, as they have or have not 
 done so. 
 
 What an astonishing proof was it of the conde- 
 scension and goodness of God, that he should send 
 his only begotten Son down into the world to die 
 for us/as well as to teach us the way in which we 
 ought to walk, and to brin<^ life and immortality 
 to light by the gospel ; what a mercy is it that God 
 should provide for us mansions in the heavenly 
 world ; and that he should offer up his Holy Spirit 
 to produce all- the necessary preparations of heart 
 within us ! This rich offer of God in the gospel is 
 compared in the scripture to the invitation of a 
 man who prepares a great feast or supper; and 
 iiends to call many guests, saying ' my oxen and 
 
11 
 
 my ratlings are killed, come, for all things are 
 ready.'- — -The world, in general, slight the of- 
 fer of the gospel ; they plead business, or amuse- 
 ment, or engagement with their connexions ; and 
 they are therefore compared in the same parable, 
 to persons who when the invitation to the supper 
 comes, 'go ctae to his farm, and another to his 
 merchandize, and a third to his wife/ each of them 
 saying, ' I pray thee have me excused/ 
 
 It is observable, that the invitation of the para- 
 ble appears here to be somewhat civilly declined, 
 and that certainly no violent insult to the master 
 of the feast seems intended ; and yet he is repre- 
 sented as considering it to be a sufficient affront 
 that they merely will not come to partake of the 
 feast which he had been at the expence of prepar- 
 ing for them. — — -'None of those men/ says he, 
 'which were bidden, shall taste of my supper.' — 
 In this manner are we taught, that if we attend not 
 to the gospel, even though we should be guilty of 
 no intentional disrespect to God, or to Jesus Christ, 
 we shall not be permitted hereafter to taste of the 
 heavenly happiness — ' for how shall we escape if 
 we neglect so great salvation V 
 
 The same point may be very decisively proved 
 from some expressions at the end of the following 
 awful passage : — f For the Lord Jesus shall be re- 
 vealed from Heaven, with his mighty angels in 
 flaming fire, to take vengeance on them that know 
 not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ* who shall be punished with everlast- 
 ing destruction from the presence of the Lord, and 
 from the glory of his power, when he shall come 
 to be glorified in his saints and admired in all them 
 
12 
 
 that believe, because our testimony was believed ' 
 that day.' " 111 
 
 And here if it should be asked, But how com 
 it that we are to be tried by our faith, when i£ has 
 been already said, that it is by our works that we 
 shall be judged? I answer, most evidently the 
 word < works' is in such places as these to be un- 
 derstood in the very largest and most general 
 sense ; a point which must have partly appeared 
 already. The word is to be understood, as it seems 
 to me, in a sense so large, that even our faith is 
 to be included in it. The justice of this observa- 
 tion will, perhaps, be more fully aflmilted, after 
 considering the following passages. When the 
 Pharisees came to Christ, and said, — ' What shall 
 we do that we may work the works of God?— he 
 answered, 1 this is the work of God, that ye believe 
 on whom he hath sent;'— that is to say, this 
 is the first and great work that you have to attend 
 to, namely, to believe in me, and the other good 
 works which God would have you to do, wilf fol- 
 low in their due order. Believing then is express- 
 ly termed, " a work that is to be done," in this pas- 
 sage of. scripture. It is said in another place,— 
 " This is .the commandment of God, that ye be- 
 lieve on the Name of his Son Jesus Christ." Here 
 then to believe in Christ, is spoken of as one of 
 God's commandments ; and to disbelieve in Christ, 
 is, of course, to break God's commandment. Now 
 it is plain, that to break God's commandment in 
 this, in the same manner as in any other point, 
 mast be an evil work, and that it must be a work 
 for which we shall have to be judged when we come 
 to the day of judgment. 
 
 But here let it also be strongly insisted on, that 
 
13 
 
 't is not a barren and unfruitful faith that will stand 
 the test of that awful time of trial. It is not a man's 
 having been right in his doctrines, and sound and 
 orthodox in his creed, that will be the means of 
 saving his soul. No — we are well warned in scrip- 
 ture, that all that faith which did not teach a man 
 to depart from iniquity, will be pronounced to have 
 heen a dead faith, and utterly unavailing; ' for as 
 the body without the spirit is dead, even so faith 
 without works is dead also,' and * without holiness 
 no man shall see the Lord.' 
 
 The scriptures p ive us much reason to suppose, 
 that the number of persons who will have had this 
 false faith, and will have fondly trusted to it,, and 
 who will therefore, quite unexpectedly to them- 
 selves, be condemned as evil doers on the judg- 
 ment day, will prove not inconsiderable; and it 
 seems, Irom several passages, that among these 
 persons will be some who had known Christ fami- 
 liarly in the days of his flesh; others who had pos- 
 sessed great gifts in his church, and not a few in all 
 ages who had made a forward profession of his re- 
 ligion, who had had a strong conceit of their being 
 j some of the people of God, and a high confidence 
 of their salvation. 
 
 The following passage, which describes the fu- 
 ture disappointment of the Pharisees, and it is to 
 be feared also of many others, who will, in like 
 manner, be shut out of heaven, is very remark- 
 able. < Strive to enter in/ says our Savior, ' at the 
 strait gate, for many shall seek to enter in, and 
 shall not be able. When once the master of the 
 bouse is risen up, and has shut too the dour, and 
 ye begin to stand without, and knock at the door, 
 saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us, and he shall an* 
 
14 
 
 swer and say, I know you not whence ye are > th 
 shall ye begin to say, we have eaten and drunk f 
 thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets 
 But he shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence 
 ye are : depart from me, all ye workers of iniqui. 
 ty. Then shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth 
 when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaae, and Jacob' 
 and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and 
 you yourselves thrust out. For they shall come 
 from the east, and from the west, a»d from the 
 north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the 
 kingdom of God, and behold there at last which 
 shall be first, aird the first last/ 
 
 Tims it seems that there will be numbers whom 
 Christ will acknowledge as his saints, and will ga* 
 ther into his church in heaven, who were not ac- 
 knowledged as true Christians by many of their 
 brethren here below; and the reason of this error 
 is, that here we judge sometimes too hastily, and 
 by outward appearance, jand, at other times by false 
 marks of grace; for it is not easy to bring men to 
 try either themselves or others by the true scrip- 
 tural test. * Depart from me/ says our Savior in 
 like manner, in another place, to some who boasted 
 much* of their attachment to him, ' I know ye not, 
 ye workers of iniquity.' O how much easier is it 
 to attend the preaching of the gospel, and to be 
 present also at the Lord's table, to talk religiously 
 and to get credit with a religious circle, and even to 
 persuade ourselves that we are religious, than it is 
 to leave off iniquity. ' Not every one that saith 
 unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom 
 of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father 
 which is in heaven/ Indeed it is not impossible 
 
it present to seperate exactly the truly pious 
 Christian from the hypocrite and self deceiver ; — 
 • the tares and the wheat therefore must grow up 
 together, until the time of harvest, but then shall 
 the husbandman say unto the reapers, Bind ye the 
 tares together in bundles to burn them, but gather 
 ye the wheat into my garner.' 
 
 There are various signs to which, on the judg- 
 ment day our Savior will appeal for the reality of 
 the religion of his followers, imd one of these 1 will 
 now dwell upon, because it is in the evangelist Mat- 
 thew very specially mentioned ; I mean that kind- 
 ness and condescension which Christians will have 
 been in the habit of exercising to the poor, and to 
 all their suffering brethren. Their alms, indeed, 
 not like the alms of the worldly man, will have been 
 bestowed for the Lord's sake, and with a simple and 
 humble mind, according to that precept of their 
 Savior, — f Let not thy left hand know what thy 
 rhigt hand doeth/ Let every man, therefore, and 
 especially every rich man, who calls himself a 
 Christian, try himself by this, test, as ever he would 
 hope to stand uncondemned at the great day of our 
 Lord's appearance. That great and solemn scene 
 is thus described by our Savior :— 4 When the son 
 of Man shall come in his glory, and all his holy 
 angels with him, then shall he sit on -the throne of 
 his glory; and before him shall be gathered all na- 
 tions; and he shall seperate them one from ano- 
 W; as a shepherd divideth the sheep from the 
 goats; and he shall set his sheep on his right Ivancf, 
 and the goats on his left. Then shall the King say 
 unto them at his right hand, Come, ye blessed of 
 In y Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you 
 
15 
 
 from the foundation of the world. For I vvas an 
 hungry, and ye gave me meat- thirsty, and ye 
 gave me drink: a stranger, and ye took me in- 
 naked, and ye clothed me ; sick, and ye Visited me • 
 in prison, and ye came unto me.' But they, bein^ 
 little disposed to take credit for any good works 
 which they had done, are represented as replying 
 — * Lord, when saw we thee hungry, or thirsty,, or 
 naked?' — Then shall he say, unto them,-— < For. 
 asmuch as ye did it to the least of these my breth- 
 ren, ye did it unto me' -'Then shall he say 
 
 unto them on his left hand — Depart from me, y e 
 cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the de- 
 vil and his angels : for i was an hungry and ye gave 
 me no meat; thirsty, and ye gave me no drink; 
 naked, and ye clothed me not ; sick and in prison, 
 
 and ye visited me not.'- Then shall they say, 
 
 ( being astonished at the accusation brought against 
 them, and quite unwilling to allow it) 'Lord, 
 when saw we thee hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, 
 or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minis- 
 ter unto thee?— Then shall he answer thenV, 
 — ' Verily I say unto thee, for as much as ye did it 
 not to one of the least of these, yc did it not to me. 
 And these shall go away into everlasting punish- 
 ment, but the riglueous into life eternal.' 
 
 O, let us beware of that sort of religion which 
 does not expand the heart in love to God, afe well 
 as in fervent kindness and charily to our fellow- 
 creatures ; and let us, I will add, * beware of -that 
 sort of kindness which consists much in soft and 
 civil words, but very little in beneficent and self- 
 denying actions. — ' For if a brother or sister be 
 miked, and destitute of daily food, and one of you 
 
17 
 
 say unto them, Depart in Peace, be ye warmed and 
 filled, notwithstanding ye give them not those 
 things which are needful for the body, what doth k 
 profit ?' 
 
 The sum which professing Christians will have 
 given in charity, will no doubt, be enquired into 
 on the day of judgment, as well as the walks which 
 they have taken to see the poor, the attentions 
 which they have paid to the fatherless and the wi- 
 dow, the hospitality which they have exercised to- 
 wards the foreigner and the stranger, the conde- 
 i scensions towards the prisoner, and the various com- 
 j forts which they have administered to the afflicted. 
 It is not indeed the sum given, that will, in their 
 Lord's sight, determine the character, for the wi« 
 j dow's mite will hereafter count for a larger sum 
 
 \ than many an admired donation of the affluent; 
 
 and '* whoso shall have given even a cup of cold wa- 
 I ter to one of the little ones of Christ's flock, in the 
 name of a disciple, shall in no wise lose his re- 
 I ward. 
 
 Alas! how little is true Christianity as yet un- 
 derstood in the world. There is a slight and su- 
 perficial religion, which, in its fruits, is hardly to 
 j be distinguished from infidelity, and bv which, ne- 
 vertheless, men contrive to quit thcircoriscience ■ 
 while they are m this world. To expose all this 
 lalse Christianity to shame and contempt, will be 
 one efFect of the day of judgment, for that is the 
 great day in which the hearts of all men are to be 
 searched, and their several actions weighed; the 
 Motive to them examined, their truly good works 
 ascertained, and all their secret sins brought to 
 W What sacrifices did we here make to God 
 dnd a good conscience ? That will be one part of 
 
 C r 
 
the.question. How far .did we resist the world « 
 * The world,' we were told in Scripture, 4 1^ ; 
 wickedness/ We were warned to take heed, « w 
 we be condemed with the worm; We were com 
 manded ' not to be conformed to it." It is in this 
 manner the reality of faith and grace that were in 
 
 us will be enquired into on the judgment day. , 
 
 It is the reality of our repentance that will then 
 he tried, the reality of our love to God, and our 
 simplicity and sincerity in his sight. Vain excuses 
 will no longer serve. The various pleas which we 
 here have made for indulging ourselves in sloth, 
 or sin, for giving way to our evil tempers, for 
 conforming to the evil customs around us, for 
 omitting" unwelcome duties, for profaning the sab- 
 bath, or for neglecting prayer and the worship of 
 God, will not bear to be urged on the day of judg- 
 ment. No — our mouth will be stopped just as the 
 mouth of some poor criminal sometimes is in this 
 world, who, before he was brought to the bar, in- 
 sisted on his innocence, but when forced to give in 
 his evidence, finds it no longer possible to make, 
 before his judge the same shuffling excuses, by 
 which he had justified himself among his fellow cri- 
 minals. 
 
 * Verily, it is a small thing to be judged by one 
 another, or of man's judgment, for he thatjudgeth 
 us is the Lord/ What will it matter whether we 
 had more or less character while on earth ? The 
 day., of judgment will declare to the assembled 
 world what we really were. The day of judgment 
 will rectify all errors: the 'day of judgment will 
 find us out. 
 
 There is no circumstance, perhaps, in our de- 
 scription of this day, more calculated to strike ter- 
 
19 
 
 ror 
 
 . , ^ in v a heart than this ; I mean that the 
 
 i«T int J et things shall then he laid open. Oh 
 discoveries will then be made ! What secret 
 ^ r es and adulteries, and deeds of darkness will 
 ealed ! All the crimes perpetrated in the 
 1)6 TlTrom generation to generation ; all the cru- 
 *ities and oppressions which have been ever com- 
 ted under the sun, and which there was here no 
 Ze to redress, 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 entirely concealed, shall 
 be brought to light. ' For the earth shall disclose 
 
 her blood, and shall no more cover her slain/ 
 
 For now ' That great and terrible day of the Lord 
 ts come' on which also < the secrets of all hearts 
 shall he laid open/ It is the ' day of the revela- 
 tion of the righteous judgment of God/ when the 
 sentence against evil workers, which has been so, 
 long delayed, shall be executed; when the tri- 
 umph of the wicked shall be over, when ' the 
 Lord shall repay fury to his adversaries,' and 
 when he shall ' reward the faith and patience of his 
 saints/ 
 
 I ought here, lastly, to add, that we shall all 
 be judged, undoubtedly, according to our oppor- 
 tunities of improvement, and our means of grace. 
 ' The servant that knew not his master's will, shall 
 be beaten with few stripes j but the servant who 
 knew it, and yet did it not, shall be beaten with 
 many stripes/ What awful threatenings did our 
 Savior denounce on the cities that heard his gos- 
 pel, and yet would not attend to it. — ' Woe unto 
 thee, Chorazim ! woe unto thee, Bethsaida 1 for if 
 the mighty works which have been done in thee, 
 
20 
 
 had been done in Sodom and Gomcrrah tl 
 have repented; wherefore it shall be rnor y 
 able for Sodom and Gomorrah in the dav C f t - oler *- 
 nient than for thee." ! Those, therefore who' 1 ^* 
 world were long hearers of the gospel, and y^t* 
 Med not by ir, those < who had line upon lm e °^ 
 precept upon precept ; those who had Christian? 
 pents to direct them, and Christian friends to 
 prove them, and Christian pastors to instruct them' 
 and Christian examples set before them ! those wh' 
 had seasons for reflection afforded them by the 
 parents on the sabbath, and had religious book* 
 put in their hands, and had abumtent opportunities 
 of becoming acquainted with true religion; those 
 who, moreover, had alarming providences sent to 
 awaken them ; who were often warned by God's 
 own afflicting hand of the approach of death, and 
 heard addressed to them many an awful represen- 
 tation of their own future judgment, and who, in 
 spite of ail these advantages, still continued to be 
 hardened— these are they that shall receive the 
 chief condemnation. 
 
 But who are the persons that will be justified, 
 and that will have reason to rejoice at this great day 
 of their Lord's appearance? I answer, in the words 
 of our Savior, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for 
 theirs is the kingdom of God. Bkssed are the 
 merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. — Blessed are 
 the pure in heart, for they shall see God.— Blessed 
 are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness, 
 for they shall be filled. — Blessed are the peace ma- 
 kers, for they shall be called the children ©f God. 
 — Blessed are they who shall have been resiled and 
 persecuted, for righteousness sake, for now they 
 shall rejoice, and be exceeding glad, for great is 
 
, m r a i n heaven." u The fruit of the spirit is 
 th6ir ^ov P^ce, long suffering, gentleness, good- 
 l0Ve ' faith, meekness, temperance, against such 
 
 *TTnow before I close this tract, 1 wish to add, 
 fv words in the way of comfort and encourage- 
 a t as well as with a view to some further expia- 
 tion of the subject; for I am afraid it may be 
 id that the qualities which have been spoken ot 
 I" necessary for heaven, are high and difficult to be 
 attained insomuch that some fearful reader may 
 cry out/" who then shall be saved ?" |Let it there- 
 fore, in the first place, be observed in answer, that 
 the scriptures nowhere say, that these qualities 
 must have been possessed from the very beginning 
 of life, nor ever during any part of life in complete 
 perfection. 
 
 It may tend much to our purpose of encouraging 
 the well-dispostd reader, if we here digress a lit- 
 tle, in order to consider the case of Christ's own 
 apostles. 
 
 In the history of them which is given us by the 
 evangelists, 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 worldlines of their minds, exceed- 
 ingly to misunderstand their divine Master. They 
 sometimes discouraged these whom Christ was 
 willing to heal; they were-a.pt continually to won- 
 der at his words, and they were half disposed to 
 blame, some of his actions — they could not be- 
 lieve that lie was about to die for them, and they 
 sleptjyhen he was agonizing in the garden. Were 
 not these proofs of weakness in them ? And yet, 
 e ven at the time of their having these, infirmities. 
 
they had that degree of simplicity and inte CT it • 
 and of unfeigned attachment to their Master \ h 
 already entitled them to the name of trued' 1 " 
 pies. For when some of the followers of 
 cried out, ' This is a hard saying, who can b 
 it?' — And when others are said to have walked 1 
 more with him, they seem aH, with the excen'i 
 only of Judas, to have joined in that say in o- f p 
 ter, ' Lord, to whom shall we go but unto thee, for 
 thou hast the words of eternal 1 i f e • " They con- 
 tinued therefore to hear his words, and thus thev 
 had their minds gradually opened by his instruc- 
 tions, and except only when he was led away to be 
 crucified, they sided with him in his several trials 
 and temptations. On the whole, therefore, they 
 even in the season of their infirmity, were in favor 
 with God; and, as a testimony of it, they had that 
 glorious promise made to them by Christ himself, 
 just before his death, 'Ye are they which have 
 continued with me in my temptations, and I ap- 
 point unto you a kingdom, and ye shall sit on 
 
 thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.' 
 
 Which means, as I presume, that they should be 
 exalted on the day of judgment, as the twelve heads 
 of the church, and that they should join their voices 
 to that of Christ, when he should judge his peo- 
 ple. 
 
 We see then from the examples of the apostles, 
 that a man will be accepted by God on the judg- 
 ment day, even though he has had much imper- 
 fection, but I would also add, that imperfect as these 
 apostles for a long time were, both in their faith, 
 their knowledge, and their goodness, they were in 
 due time led on and strengthened, as well as com- 
 forted by the good Spirit of God, to whose gui* 
 
is 
 
 they committed themselves; and almost 
 ance one of those who, once through their worldly 
 feu" ' forsook their Master, are believed to have 
 died martyrs. 
 
 J say therefore, let us encourage ourselves by 
 these examples, and let us not be deterred by the 
 difficulties of the way, but ' let us press forward in 
 our course, and let us be followers of them, who by 
 faith and patience inherit the promises.' 
 
 And let me now also bring another point to my 
 readers comfortable remembrance, which is, that a 
 man's past sins, even if ever so great, will, when 
 they are repented of, be no obstacle to his salva- 
 tion, for such is the merciful appointment of God 
 in the gospel, ' Who are those/ it is said in thu 
 Revelations, ' who are clothed with white robes, 
 and have palms in their hands?' the answer is, 
 'these are they that have washed their garments, 
 and made them white in the blood of the lamb/ — 
 ' Christ is that Lamb of God which taketh away 
 the sins of the world, and by him all who believe 
 shall be justified from all things/ Heaven, as 
 we have reason to suppose, will not be peopled by 
 those who were innocent from their youth, and 
 whose spotless lives will form their title to admis- 
 sion — for an adulterous, though penitent David, 
 will be found there; a once persecuting Saul, a 
 converted Mary Magdalen, a thief, who repented 
 even on the cross, and a Peter, who once denied 
 his Master. 1 These, and ntany more, in point of 
 sinfulness, not unlike to these, siraTI, through the 
 all powerful grace of Christ, obtain a glorious re- 
 surrection; for these ail repented of their sins, 
 they all, as they had time and opportunity, 
 'brought forth fruits meet for repentance/ and 
 these fruits, which are called in scripture, ' the 
 
24 
 
 fruits of the spirit,' being produced by the Holv 
 Spirit's influence on the heart, are those very works 
 which we have been so largely describing. 
 
 Let us then lay our foundation for good works in 
 repentance and deep humility. The tempers which 
 have been spoken of, such, for instance, as for- 
 giveness of injuries, and a dread of judging others 
 as well as an overflowing love and pity to our fel- 
 low-creatures, arise naturally and easily from a 
 heart broken with the sense of our own iniquities ; 
 for the qualification for Heaven which God re- 
 quires in us, are not those of a sinless being, but 
 of a penitent and humbled sinner that has been 
 taught in the school of repentance, and has thus 
 learnt to walk in the newness of life ; and even that 
 love of God, which is so leading a part of true reli- 
 gion, is not a little excited and encreased by the 
 sense of God's forgiveness of us, according to that 
 remark of our Savior. — " Her sins, which are 
 many, are forgiven, therefore hath she loved much." 
 
 Let it be our great fear, however, lest profess- 
 ing to admire the grace of the gospel, and to be- 
 lieve its truths,\ve should not be found, on the Day of 
 Judgment to have been walking in a manner wor- 
 thy of it, and let us treasure up in our minds the 
 many warnings given us in scripture, that it is by 
 our works that we shall be called upon to prove 
 that we have been true disciples. " Behold," says 
 the blessed Savior of the world, " I come quickly, 
 and my reward is with me, to give to every man 
 according as his work shall be." 
 
 Just published The Two Shoemakers, Fart the gih ; on 
 
 theduty of carrying Religion into our Amusements. Frke 1^ 
 
 Hcixard and Evans. Fiintcr*, 42, Long Lane. 
 
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