of judgment; for by thy words, as well as thy actions, thou shalt be justified; and by thy words thou shalt be condemned." Matt. xii. 36, 37.

What strange discoveries will this trial make? what noble dispositions that never shone in full beauty to mortal eyes; what generous purposes crushed in embryo for want of power to execute them; what pious and noble actions concealed under the veil of modesty, or misconstrued by ignorance and prejudice; what affectionate aspirations, what devout exercises of heart, which lay open only to the eyes of Omniscience, are now brought to full light, and receive the approbation of the Supreme Judge before the assembled universe? But on the other hand, what works of shame and darkness, what hidden things of dishonesty, what dire secrets of treachery, hypocrisy, lewdness, and various forms of wickedness artfully and industriously concealed from human sight, what horrid exploits of sin now burst to light in all their hellish colors, to the confusion of the guilty, and the astonishment and horror of the universe? Sure, the history of mankind must then appear like the annals of hell, or the biography of devils! Then the mask of dissimulation will be torn off. Clouded characters will clear up, and men as well as things will appear in their true light. Their hearts will be as it were turned outwards, and all their secrets exposed to full view. The design of the judicial inquiry will not be to inform the omniscient Judge, but to convince all worlds of the justice of his proceedings; and this design renders it necessary that all these things should be laid open to their sight, that they may see the grounds upon which he passes sentence. And may not the prospect of such a discovery fill some of you with horror for many of your actions, and especially of your thoughts, will not bear the light. How would it confound you, if they were now all published, even in the small circle of your acquaintance? How then can you bear to have them all fully exposed before God, angels, and men! Will it not confound you with shame, and make you objects of everlasting contempt to all worlds?

These are the facts to be tried. But by what rule shall they be tried? From the goodness and justice of God we may conclude that men will be judged by some

rule known to them, or which at least it was in their power to know. Now the light of reason, the law of nature, or conscience, is a universal rule, and universally known, or at least knowable by all the sons of men, heathens and Mahometans, as well as Jews and Christians and therefore all mankind shall be judged by this rule. This the consciences of all now forebodes; "for when the Gentiles which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, not having the law, are a law unto themselves, which show the works of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts, the mean while, accusing or else excusing one another." Rom. ii. 14,

15. By this rule their consciences now acquit or condemn them, because they know that by this rule they shall then be judged: this seems to be a kind of innate presentiment of human nature. As the heathens were invincibly ignorant of every rule but this, they shall be judged by this only. But as to those parts of the world that enjoyed, or might enjoy the advantages of revelation, whether by tradition with the Anti-Mosaic world, or in the writings of Moses and the prophets with the Jews, or in the clearer dispensation of the gospel with the Christian world, they shall be judged by this revealed law. And by how much the more perfect the rule, by so much the stricter will their account be. That which would be an excusable infirmity in an African or an American Indian, may be an aggravated crime in us who enjoy such superior advantages. This is evident from "As many

the repeated declarations of sacred writ. as have sinned without the law, (that is, without the written law,) shall also perish without the law; and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law, in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men according to my gospel." Rom. ii. 12, 16. "If I had not come and spoken unto them," says the blessed Jesus, they would not have had sin;" that is, they would not have had sin so aggravated, or they would not have had the particular sin of unbelief in rejecting the Messiah: but now they have no cloak for their sin, John xv. 22; that is, now when they have had such abundant conviction, they are utterly inexcusable. "This," says he, "is the condemnation ;" that is, this is the

66

occasion of the most aggravated condemnation; "that light is come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil.” John iii. 19. “That servant which knew his Lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes; but he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, (observe, ignorance is no sufficient excuse, except when invinci ble,) shall be beaten with few stripes; for unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required." Luke xii. 47, 48. Upon these maxims of eternal rightousness, the Judge will proceed in pronouncing the doom of the world; and it was upon these principles he declared, in the days of his flesh," that it should be more tolerable in the day of judgment for Sodom and Gomorrah, for Tyre and Sidon," than for those places that enjoyed the advantages of his ministry, and misimproved it. Matt. xi. 21, 24. Whether upon these principles sinners among us have not reason to expect they will obtain a horrid precedence among the million of sinners in that day, I leave you to judge, and to tremble at the thought.

There is another representation of this proceeding, which we often meet with in the sacred writings, in allusion to the forms of proceedings in human courts. In courts of law, law-books are referred to, opened, and read for the direction of the judges, and sentence is passed according to them. In allusion to this custom, Daniel, in vision, saw the judgment-seat, and the books were opened: Dan. vii. 10. And St. John had the same representation made to him: "I saw the dead," says he, "small and great, stand before God, and the books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged out of the things which were written in the books, according to their works: Rev. xx. 12.

Should we pursue this significant allusion, we may say, then will be opened the book of the law of nature; and mankind will be tried according to its precepts, and doomed according to its sentence. This is a plain and vast volume, open and legible now to all that can read their own hearts; that have eyes to look round upon the works of God, which show his glory and their duty; and

who have ears to hear the lectures which the sun and moon, and all the works of creation, read to them night and day. Then, too, will be opened the book of scripture-revelation, in all its parts, both the law of Moses and the gospel of Christ; and according to it will those be judged who lived under one or other of these dispensations. Then it will appear that that neglected, oldfashioned book called the Bible is not a romance, or a system of trifling truths, but the standard of life and death to all who had access to it. Then will also be opened the book of God's remembrance. In that are recorded all the thoughts, words, actions, both good and bad, of all the sons of men and now the immense account shall be publicly read before the assembled universe. Then, likewise, as a counterpart to this, will be opened the book of conscience; conscience which, though unnoticed, writes our whole history as with an iron pen and the point of a diamond.* Then, also, we are expressly told, will be opened the book of life; Rev. xx. 12, in which are contained all the names of all the heirs of heaven. This seems to be an allusion to those registers which are kept in cities or corporations, of the names of all the citizens or members who have a right to all the privileges of the society. And I know not what we can understand by it so properly as the perfect knowledge which the omniscient God has, and always had from eternity, of those on whom he purposed to bestow eternal life, and whom he has from eternity, as it were, registered as members of the general assembly and church of the first-born, who are written in heaven, or

* O treacherous Conscience! while she seems to sleep
On rose and myrtle, lull'd with Syren song;
While she seems, nodding o'er her charge, to drop
On headlong appetite the slacken'd reign,

And give us up to license unrecall'd,

Unmark'd-as from behind her secret stand
The sly informer minutes every fault,
And her dread diary with horror fills-
Unnoted notes each moment misapply'd,
In leaves more durable than leaves of brass,

Writes our whole history; which Death shall read
In every pale offender's private ear;

And Judgment publish, publish to more worlds
Than this; and endless age in groans resound.
Such, sinner, is that sleeper in thy breast:
Such is her slumber; and her vengeance such
For slighted counsel

YOUNG.

as denizens of that blessed city. These, having been all prepared by his grace in time, shall be admitted into the New Jerusalem in that day of the Lord.

Farther, the representation which the scripture gives us of the proceedings of that day leads us to conceive of witnesses being produced to prove the facts. The omniscient Judge will be a witness against the guilty. "I will come near to you to judgment, and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the swearers, and against the adulterers, and against those that oppress, and against those that fear not me, saith the Lord of Hosts:" Mal. iii. 5. And he will, no doubt, be a witness for his people, and attest their sincere piety, their interest in Christ, and those good dispositions or actions which were known only to him.

Angels also, that ministered to the heirs of salvation, and no doubt inspected the affairs of mankind, will be witnesses. Devils too, who once tempted, will now become accusers. Conscience within will also be a witness! it shall acquit the righteous of many unjust imputations, and attest the sincerity of their hearts and their many good actions. But O! it will be the most terrible witness against the ungodly!-They will be witnesses against themselves, (Josh. xxiv. 22,) and this will render them self-tormentors. Conscience will re-echo to the voice of the Judge, and cry, Guilty, guilty, to all his accusations. And who can make the wicked happy when they torment themselves? Who can acquit them when they are self-condemned? Conscience, whose evidence is now so often suppressed, will then have full scope, and shall be regarded. Whom concience condemns the righteous Judge will also condemn ; for, "if our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts, and knoweth all things," 1 John iii. 20, knoweth many more grounds for condeming us than we, and therefore much more will he condemn us. In short, so full will be the evidence against the sinner, that the scripture which is full of striking imagery to affect human nature, gives life to inanimated things upon this occasion, and represents them as speaking. Stones and dust shall witness against the ungodly. The dust under the feet of their ministers shall witness against them: Matt. x. 14. "The stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber