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out of his prefence for ever, by a fentence from the throne, faying, Depart from me ye curfed: he shall adjudge them to everlasting fire, and the fociety of devils for evermore. And this fentence alfo, we fuppofe, fhall be pronounced with an audible voice, by the man Chrift. And all the faints fhall fay, "Hallelujah, true and righteous are his "judgments." None were fo compaffionate as the faints, when on earth during the time of God's patience. But now that time is at an end; their compassion on the ungodly is fwallowed up in joy, in the Mediator's glory, and his executing of juft judgment, by which his enemies are made his footftool. Ihough fometimes the righteous man did weep in fecret places for their pride, and because they would not hear; yet then he fhall rejoice when he feeth the vengeance; he fhall wash, his feet in the blood of the wicked," Pfal. lviii. 10. No pity fhall then be thewn to them, from their nearest relations. The godly wife fhall applaud the juftice of the Judge, in the condemnation of her ungodly husband: the godly husband thall fay Am `n to the damnation of her who lay in his bofom: the godly parents fhall fay Hallelujah at the paffing of the fentence against their ungodly child: and the godly child fhall, from his heart approve the damnation of his wicked parents. the father who begat hin, and the mother who bore him. The fentence is juft: they are judged according to their works, Rev xx 12.

There is no wrong done them. "For I was an hungry," faith our Lord," and ye gave me no meat: I was thirty, and ye gave me no "drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye "clothed me not: fick, and in prifon, and ye vifited me not," Ver. 42, 43. Thefe are not only evidences of their ungodly and curfed ftate, but moft proper caufes and grounds of their condemnation: for though good works do not merit falvation, yet evil works merit damnation. Sins of one kind only, namely, of omiffion, are here mentioned; not that thefe alone fhall then be difcovered. (for the o ening of the books lay all open) but because thefe, though there were no more, are fufficient to damn unpardoned finners. And if men fhall be condemned for fins of omillion, much more for fins of éommiffion. The omiffion of works of charity and mercy, is condefcended on particularly, to stop the mouths of the wicked; for it is moft juft, that he have judgment without mercy, that hath fhewed & no mercy," James in 13 The mentioning of the omiffion of acts of charity and mercy towards the diftreffed members of Chrift, intimates, that it is the judgment of those who have heard of Chrift in the gofpel, that is principally intended here, in this portion of Scripture, and that the flighting of Chrift will be the great caufe of the ruin of thofe who hear the gofpel: but the enmity of the hearts of the wicked against himself, is difcovered by the entertainment they now give to his members.

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In vain will they fay, "When faw we thee an hungred, or a thirst? &c." ver. 44. For the Lord reckons, and will reckon, the world's

world's unkindness to his people, unkindness to himself: “ In as much "as ye did it not to one of the leaft of thefe, ye did it not to me,” Ver. 45. O meat and drink unhappily spared, when a member of Chrift was in need of it!0 wretched neglect, that the stranger faint was not taken in! it had been better for them, they had quitted their own room, and their own bed than he had wanted lodging. O curfed cloathing, may the wicked fay, that was in my houte, locked up in my cheft, or hanging in my wardrobe, and was not brought out to clothe fuch a one! O that I had stripped my self, rather than he had gone away without cloathing? Curied bu'inefs, that diverted me from visiting fuch a fick saint? Ŭ that I had rather watched whole nights with him Wretch that I was! why dd I fit at eafe in my house, when he was in prison, and did not vitit him? But now the tables are turned: Chrut s fervants shall eat, but I shall be hungry; his fervants hal drink, but I fhall be thirty; they rejsice, but I am athamed, Ifa. lxv 13. They are taken in, but I am cait out, and bid depart: they are cloathed with robes of glory, but I walk naked, and they fee my fbume Rev. xvi 15. They are now raifed up on high, beyond the reach of fickness or pain; but I must now by down in farrow, Ifa. 11. Now thall they go to the palace of heaven, but I muft go to the prison of hell.

But if our Lord thus refents men's neglecting to help his people under these, and the like diftreffes; what may they expect, who are the authors and instruments of them? It they thail be fed with wrath, who fed them not, when they were hungry; what shall become of thofe, who robbed and spoiled them, and took their own bread away from them? What a full cup of wrath fhall be the portion of thote who were fo far from giving them meat or drink, when hungry or thirsty, that they made it a crime for others to entertain them, and made themfelves drunken with their biod! they must lodge with devils for ever-more, who took not in the Lord's people, when ftrangers: then what a lodging fhall thofe have, who drave them out of their own houses, out of their native land, and mad- them ftrangers? Men will be condemned for not cloathing then, when naked then, how heavy must the fentence of thofe be, who have itript them, and made them go without cloathing? Surely, if not vifiting of them in tickness, or in a prifon fhall be fo feverely punished; thy fhall not escape a moft heavy doon who have caft them into prfons, and have put them under such hard.hips, as have impaired their health, brought sickness on them, and cut their days in prifon, or out of prifon.

To put a face upon fuch wicked practices. men will pretend to retain an honour for Christ and relig on, while they thus treat his members. walking in his ways, and keeping the truth They are here reprefented to fay," When faw we thee an hungred, or a thirit, "or a ftranger, or naked, or fick, or in prifon and did not minifter "unto thee?” Ver. 44. And if they fhould fay. Our bread. drink, lodging, cloathing, and vifits, were indeed refused, but not to Chrift;

but

but to a fet of men, of a bad character, men who turned the world up-fide-down (Acts xvii. 6) who troubled Ifrael (2 Kings xviii. 17.) an humorous and fantastic fort of people, having laws diverfe from all people; factious and rebellious, (they did not keep the king's laws) and therefore a very dangerous fet of men it was not for the king's profit to fuffer th m, Efther iii. 8. But although men caft iniquity upo the godly, and give them ill names, that they may treat them as criminals; all these pretences will avail them nothing, in the great day, before the righteous Judge, nor before their own confciences neither; but the real ground of their enmity against the faints, will be found (to their own conviction) to be their enmity against Christ himself. This feems to be the import of the objection of the damned, (ver. 44. and of the anfwer to it, ver. 45) " In as much as ye did it "not to one of the leaft of thefe, ye did it not to me."

Laftly, Sentence being paft on both parties, follows the full execution of the fame, ver. 46. And these fhall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal. The damned fhall get no reprieve, but go to their place without delay; they fhall be driven away from the judgment-feat into hell: and the farts hall enter into the king's palace, (Pfal. xlv. 15.) namely, into heaven the feat of the bleffed. But our Lord Chrift, and his glorious company, fhall keep the field that day, and fee the backs of all their enemies; for the damned go off fift.

In this day of the Lord, the great day, fhall be the general conflagration; by which thofe vifible heavens, the earth, and fea fhall pass away. Not that they fhall be annihilated, (or reduced to nothing) that is not the operation of fire: but they fhall be diffolved, and purged by that fire, from all the effects of fin, or of the curle, upon them; and then renewed, and made more glorious and stable. Of this conflagration, the Apostle Peter fpeaks, 2 Pet. iii. 1o. "But "the day of the Lord will come, as a thief in the night: in the "which the heavens fhall pafs away with a great noife, and the "elements fhall melt with fervent heat: the earth alfo, and the "works that are therein fhall be burnt up." See also ver. 7, 12. And of the renewing of the world, he adds, ver. 13 "Neverthelefs we, according to his promife, look for new heavens, and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteoufnefs."

I feems molt agreeab e to the fcriptures, and to the nature of the thing, to conceive this conflagration to follow after the general judgment; fentence being paft on both parties before it. And I judge it probable, that it will fall in with the putting of the lentence in execution against the damned; fo as they fhall (according to their fentence) depart, and the heavens and the earth pass away, together and at once, at that furious rebuke from the throne, driving away the damned out of the world (in this fire) to the everlafting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. Even as, in the deluge, with which the Apoflle Peter compares the conflagration, or

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burning of the world, (2 Pet. iii. 6, 7.) the world itself, and the wicked upon it, perifhed together; the tame water which deftroyed the earth, fweeping away the inhabitants. For it is not likely, that the wicked fhall at all stand on the new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness, (2 Pet. iii. 13) and as for this earth, it thall flee away, (which feems to denote a very quick difpatch) and it fhall flee from his face, who fits on the throne, Rev. xx. 11. And I faw a great white throne, and him that fat on it, from whofe face the earth and the heavens fled away. The execution of the fentence on the wicked, is alfo thus expreffed; they fhall be punished with everlasting deftruction from the prefence, or from the face of the Lord. 2 Theff i. 9. The original word is the fame in both texts, the which, being compared, feem to fay, that these creatures abufed by the wicked, being left to ftand, as witneffes against them in the judgment, are, after fentence paft on their abufers, made to pafs away with them from the face of the Judge. It is true, the fleeing away of the earth and heaven is narTated (Rev. xx. 11.) before the judgment: but that will not prove its going before the judgment, ver. 12. before the refurrection, ver. 13 will prove the judgment to be before it. Further, it is remarkable, in the execution of the fentence, Rev. xx. 14, 15 that not only the reprobate are caft into the lake, but death and hell are caft into it likewife: all effects of fin, and of the curfe, are removed out of the world, (for which very caufe fhall the conflagration be) and they are confined to the place of the damned. Befides all this, it is evident the end of the world is by the conflagration; and the Apoftle tells us, (1 Cor xv. 24, 25.) that "Then cometh the end,

when he fhall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the "Father: when he fhall have put down all rule, and all authority, "and power. For he muft reign, till he hath put all enemies un"der his feet." The which laft, as it must be done before the end: fo it seems not to be done, but by putting the fentence in execution, paft in the day of judgment, against the wicked.

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Now if the burning of Sodom and Gommorrah, that are set forth for an example, (Jude 7.) was fo dreadful: how terrible will that day, be, when the whole world fhall be at once in flames! how will wretched worldlings look, when their darling world shall be.all on fire? Then fhall ftrong caftles, and towering palaces, with all their rich furniture, go up together in one flame with the loweft cottages. What heart can fully conceive the terror of that day to the wicked, when the whole fabric of heaven and earth fhall at once be diffolved by that fire! when that miferable company fhall be driven from the tribunal to the pit, with fire within them, and fire without them; and fire behind them, and on every hand of them; and fire before them, awaiting them in the lake: whither this fire (for ought appears) may follow them!

As for the particular place of this judgment, though fome point us to the valley of Jehoshaphat for it, yet our Lord, who infallibly

knew

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knew it, being asked the question by his difciples, where Lord? told them only, "Wherefoever the body is, thither will the eagles be "gathered together," Luke xvii. 37. After which anfwer, it is too much for men to renew the question. As for the time when it hali be; in vain do men fearch for what the Lord has purposely kept fecret, Acts i. 8. "It is not for you to know the times or the fea"fons, which the Father has put in his own power." The Apofile Paul, after having very plainly defcribed the fecond coming of Chrift, Theff. iv. 16, 1.7. adds, (chap. v. 1, 2.) "But of the times ❝and feafons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. "For yourfelves know perfectly, that the day of Lord fo cometh, "as a thief in the night" Nevertheless, fome in feveral ages, have made very bold with the time; and feveral particular years, which are now paft, have been given out to the world, for the time of the end, by men who have pried into the fecrets of God. Time has proclaimed to the world their rafhnefs and folly: and it is likely they will be no more happy in their conjectures, whole determinate time is yet to come. Let us reft in that he cometh. God hath kept the day hid from us, that we may be every day ready for it, Matth. xxv. 13. "Watch therefore, for ye know "neither the day nor the hour, wherein the Son of man cometh." And let us remember, that the last day of our life will determine our flate in the last day of the world and as we die fo fhall we be judged.

I fhall now fhut up this fubje&t, with fome application of what

has been faid.

USE 1. Of comfort to all the faints. Here is abundance of confolation to all who are in the fate of grace. Whatever be your afflictions in the world, this day will make up all your loffes.

Though you have lain among the pots, yet fhall ye be as the wings of a dove covered with filver, and her feathers with yellow gold," Pfal. xvii. 13. Though the world reproach, judge and condemn you; the Judge will, at that day, ablolve you, and bring forth your righteoufnefs as the light. The world's fools will then appear to have been the only wife men who were in it. Though the cross be heavy, you may well bear it in expectation of the crown of righteoufnefs, which the righteous Judge will then give you. If the world do defpife you, and treat you with the utmost contempt, regard it not: the day cometh wherein you fhall fit with Chrift in his throne. Be not difcouraged, by reafon of manifold temptations; but refift the devil, in confidence of a full and compleat victory; for you thall judge the tempter at laft. Tho' you have had wrestling now with the body of fin and death; yet ye fhall get all your enemies under your feet, at length, and be prefented faullefs before the prefence of his glory. Let not the terror of that day difpirit you, when you think upon it: let thefe who have flighted the

Judge,