A

DISCOURSE.

REV. xx. 11-13.

And I saw a great white throne and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, 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 those things which were written in the books according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them; and they were judged every man according to their works.

THE doctrine of Judgment, like that of our mortality, has seldom been the subject of serious disputation. Both are sustained by the highest classes of evidence; the one by the testimony of sense, the other by the testimony of conscience. No man, perhaps, lives an hour without judging himself; and this continuous self-arraignment is, at once, the anticipation and the proof of a final Judgment.

Hence the fact of a Judgment has been admitted, where the teachings of Revelation have not been known. The heathen believed, however feebly, that, as men terminated the common path of life, they were exposed to inquisition, and were separately doomed to enter on ways which led either to Tartarus or Elysium. In one form or another, this opinion has universally prevailed. Man, unwilling to entertain it, could not eject it. Those who have laughed at the resurrection, have, like Felix, trembled at the " Judgment to come."

This sentiment is greatly assisted by the aspects of the Divine government. It is evident that this is a state of probation. The dispensations which pass over us are not final— are not complete. Judgment, indeed, sometimes surprises the hypocrite, crushes the wicked, and relieves the oppressed; but then vice is often swollen with success, and virtue is as often dishonoured and in tears. Providence, for the present, interposes sufficiently to assure us of a judgment, and not enough to supersede it; so that when it strikes and when it spares, it alike points to one solemn day of retribution yet to come.

It might be expected, that the word of God would support and confirm the testimony of

his Providence. And, accordingly, this word has shed on our subject a flood of light. What was before only current opinion, is now made authorized truth. The voice of nature and the voice of conscience have become the voice of God; and we learn, not from inference or impression, but from the very lip of Jehovah, that he "hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man. whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath given assurance to all men in that he hath raised him from the dead."

While, however, it is generally allowed, that the great fact of a future Judgment is beyond the range of discussion, the particulars connected with its arrival and close have frequently given occasion to debate. It is fully known, that, in the present day, debate of this nature has been revived with an unusual earnestness and zeal; and it is apparent, by placing the subject of the Final Judgment on the list of monthly exercises, it was meant that the preacher should, more or less, bring the points in dispute under your attention.

Wholly, therefore, to shun this course would be to disappoint fair expectation; yet permit him to say, that, in adopting it, he has considerable jealousy of his hearers and of himself.

To no one subject is controversy less becoming than to this. The nice inquiry, the petty detail, and the fanciful theory are miserably out of place here, both as they degrade the theme and endanger the soul. In such case, the duty can only be shown from the necessity. It is undoubtedly needful, that the minister, in watching over the interests of truth, should adapt his defence to the nature of the attack; but if, in attempting to do so, this discourse should excite curiosity instead of awakening devotion; if it should divert the mind to particulars instead of filling it with one great sentiment, he would regard it with unmixed lamentation. His duty is thus of a twofold kind; and on this account perplexing. He will, however, endeavour to disengage the subject as early as may be from the bonds of controversy; and to present it, in its own simple majesty, to the conscience of all.

In entering on the disputed portion of the subject, serious difficulty arises from the variety of opinion held concerning it, by the very persons who are labouring to uphold one common theory. From this evil arises another. The doctrine of the Judgment has been so closely connected with many other speculations, that it becomes impossible to treat it as an independent subject. The first of these difficulties

may probably be overcome, and some method may be given to the course of observation, by restricting ourselves to the notice of existing opinions as they affect the time-the circumstances-and the issues of the Judgment. And as to the remaining difficulty, it must be allowed us to refer to kindred subjects, while we are exonerated from dwelling on their evidence. It is to be remembered on the one hand, that most of these have been disposed of in the preceding Lectures; and on the other hand, that if a just opinion can be established from Scripture on the day of Judgment, it will of itself go very far to settle every relative question.

I. Our first inquiry, then, is to respect the TIME of the Judgment. The sentiments which have been warmly espoused by many on this particular, are partly new and partly revived. Chiefly they maintain, that there will be two Judgments, the one synchronizing with the opening of the millennium, and the other with its termination. Then there are those, who, evidently shrinking from the hazard of such a position, contend that this great event is to run through the entire period of the millennium, and so may be denominated one Judgment. And finally there are those, who, connecting the Judgment, as these have done, with the opening of the millennium, and believing that period.