2. What an illustrious proof is here furnished of the Deity of Christ!

This glorious Person informs us, that the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son. On this awful day, the wonderful commission will be executed. On this day, the Son will be seated upon the throne of the Universe, and hold the sceptre of infinite dominion. On this Day, He will show, that all authority in heaven, and in earth, is in his possession; that he searches the hearts, and tries the reins, of all intelligent beings; and that their endless destiny is suspended on his pleasure. No other specimen of the Divine agency, no other exhibition of the Divine character, will in glory and greatness be equal to this: none, I mean, of which the tidings have reached the present world. Omniscience will never be so displayed. There will never be so awful, or affecting, a display of Omnipotence. Wisdom, Justice, Goodness, and Truth, will never be so divinely illustrated, as in the allotments of the Righteous and the wicked. In a word, the Divine character will be glorified, here, in a manner, unrivalled at any preceding period; and Christ, in his own person and office, will appear as God, with such splendour and majesty, as were never seen before, and will never be seen again.

3. What different views will, at this period, be formed of moral things, from those which are usually entertained by men in the present world!

How differently will mankind think concerning their own favourite pursuits in this life. What views will the miser, just risen from the grave, and fixing his eye with astonishment, and terror, on the Judge, awfully descending through the heavens, form concerning the devotion of his life, and labours, to the accumulation of gold! What is the value of that gold now? How wonderful will it seem, that he could lose his probation, and his soul, in the pursuit of money! With what emotions will the ambitious man look back on the power and place, for which he bartered his salvation; and on the fraud, slander, and falsehood, with which he depressed his rivals, and elevated himself to distinction! How will the votary of sense roll back his eyes to the scenes of sloth, luxury, and lewdness, to the tables of festivity,

drunkenness, and gluttony, at which he corrupted his soul, and converted it into a house of pollution, incapable of becoming a habitation of the Holy Spirit! In what manner will the devo tee of amusement survey the dance, the song, the party of pleasure, the festival, and the theatre, which allured the mind away from God, and turned the feet out of the path to Heaven! With what a change of opinion will the sophist regard the books, and the conversation, in which he laboured to seduce his fellow-men from piety; to withdraw their thoughts from religion; to awaken suspicions of the Gospel, and distrust of the Redeemer; to lull them asleep in security and impenitence; and to beget in them a final oblivion of the soul and its welfare, of the Judgment and eternity! How will he now regard his ingenuity, his false arguments, his successful struggles against truth, and his triumphs. over its friends! How will the soul of the impenitent sinner feel on this occasion, while recalling to its remembrance all its former attempts to support itself in unbelief and hardness of heart! Whither will be fled its mockery at sin; its bold profanations of that glorious and fearful name, the Lord its God; the contempt, which it has cast upon its Redeemer; its ridicule of things sacred; and its hatred of religion, and the religious! What apprehensions will it now entertain concerning its former jests, which it gaily uttered upon the Scriptures, the Sabbath, and the Sanctuary; upon the worship of God, the threatenings of his law, the warnings of his providence, and the invitations of his grace! With what emotions will it call to mind its contempt of heaven, and its disregard of hell!

4. What a mighty Change will this event produce in the Universe!

Our Saviour has taught us, that many who are last will be first, and that many who are first will be last. On this solemn Day, the declaration will begin to be wonderfully accomplished. On this day, those, who were wise men after the flesh, whose talents astonished mankind, and whose researches entailed on them the admiration and applause of a world, will descend from their envied elevation to contempt and infamy; and see, raised incalculably above them, the lowly, ignorant, and despised Christian, who believed, and obeyed, that preaching of the Cross; which in

this world they esteemed the most despicable folly. The monarch, who in the present life, was served, flattered, and idolized, by his courtiers, and regarded by the millions, whom he governed, only with awe and terror, will here find his power and splendour, the pride of distinction, and the incense of homage, vanished for ever; and himself depressed lower, than was in this world the meanest wretch, who shrunk from his nod, or lived upon his smile: while that very wretch, perhaps, has now cast off all his former attire of debasement and suffering, and risen to distinction and glory inexpressible. Here the hero, the foster-child of fame, the conqueror of realms, the murderer of nations, and the plunderer of a world, will see himself poor beyond the poorest, low beneath the lowest, and despised more than the most despicable; powerless, sunk, and miserable, în a degree outrunning conception. His misery will be mightily enhanced, also, by the sight of multitudes, whom in this world he trampled in the mire, tortured, butchered, and gave to be food for the fowls of heaven, looking down upon him from a height, to which he never raised his imagination, and commencing the possession of dignity and enjoyment, to which no limit is prescribed. Generally, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, such as this world never saw, when the rich, the splendid, the polished, and the noble, behold the clown, the beggar, and the slave, sitting down in the Kingdom of God with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and themselves thrust out.

At the same time it is to be remembered, that these will not be the only disappointments, undergone at this awful period. The rich, the learned, and the great, will not be condemned, because they possessed wealth, knowledge, or power; but for the measures, by which they acquired these possessions, or the unworthy use, which they made of them. Nor will the poor and lowly be accepted on account of their poverty, their ignorance, or their rusticity; but for the disposition, which they experienced, and the manner, in which they conducted themselves, in these humble circumstances. Wherever this has not been their disposition, and their conduct, they too will be rejected. Virtue and sin exist in the heart; and are never necessarily connected with our external condition. Let the rich consider how

dreadful a contrast it will be to have been opulent in this world, and to be in want of all things beyond the grave. Let the poor remember, how deplorable must be the condition of being poor, despised, and wretched, here; merely as a prelude to endless poverty, contempt, and misery, in the world to come.

Nor will the changes be less affecting, which will exist among those, who in the present life were found on the same level. Were we to select a single neighbourhood, and go with our inquiries from house to house; what mighty alterations in their relative condition, what affecting terminations of their former friendly intercourse, would be presented to the eye even of the most expansive charity! In what an affecting manner would the wealth and poverty, the reputation and disgrace, the enjoy ment and the suffering, be exchanged! To what a height would those, who here are in the most lowly circumstances, begin, in many instances, to rise on this awful Day! To what a depth, those, who are the most prosperous, begin to fall!

Still more affecting, more full of disappointment and anguish, will be the distinctions made in families. There will be instances, in which the Parents will ascend to glory inexpressible, accompanied sometimes by none, sometimes by one, sometimes by two, sometimes by three, and, it is to be hoped, and believed, sometimes by all their happy offspring. At other times, the Parents themselves will be left behind; and with failing eyes, and broken hearts, will follow their children rising to the heavens, and bidding them an everlasting farewell. Such will be, such in some respects has already been, the separation between Jeroboam and his son Abijah. Brethren and Sisters also, mutually and unspeakably beloved here, and such of them, as were devoted to sin, warned, reproved, and borne to Heaven on the wings of prayer by those, who consecrated themselves to God, will be parted asunder, to meet no more. No longer brothers and sisters, but strangers and aliens, some of them will be vessels of mercy, usefulness, and honour, in the house of their Father; and others vessels of wrath in the mansions of woe.

Most distressing of all; husbands and wives, here united in the nearest of all earthly relations, and in the tenderest of all human attachments, will there, not unfrequently be seated, one on

the right hand, and the other on the left. One will ascend with the Judge to the world of glory; the other, lost in the host of evil beings, go down to the regions of despair. One will advance in wisdom, worth, and joy, throughout endless ages; the other make a dreadful and melancholy progress in guilt, and sorrow, for ever.

5. How will sinners be amazed, when they awake out of the grave, and see all these things come to pass!

They will then behold Christ really come to Judgment; the day of retribution actually arrived, and the declarations of the Scriptures literally fulfilled. They will see the graves rent asunder, and themselves raised from the dead.

They will hear the
The rocks around

voice of the Archangel, and the trump of God. them will be rent; the mountains fall; and the earth heave with its final agonies. Over their heads, the heavens will be filled with the host of angels, and the glory of the Messiah. At their side, the Righteous, and among them their own beloved friends, their parents, husbands, wives, children, brothers, and sisters, will be arrayed in immortal beauty, and caught up, to meet the Lord in the air. With what bitterness of soul, will they call to the hills to fall on them, and to the mountains to cover them from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his majesty!

6. How delightful, and glorious, will be the assembly of the Righteous on this Day!

The endless multitude of the first-born will on this day, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, burst the grave, and stand upon their feet: their bodies fashioned like unto Christ's glorious body, and their souls informed with immortal life: their faces will shine as the sun, and their raiment be white and glistering. There are countenances in this world, which, when united with fine forms, and composed of superior features, when animated with intelligence, and moulded by peculiar virtue into the clear and strong expression of worth and loveliness, fascinate the eye, and engross the heart. What, then, must be the appearance of that aspect, which is wrought into harmony, beauty, and dignity, by the most exquisite workmanship of God, inspired with the intelligence of Heaven, and lighted with the beams of angelic excellence; around which virtue plays with