behold the face of our blessed Redeemer smiling upon us, and taste that fulness of pleasures which is at his right hand for evermore. From our full hearts even now shall burst that song, which will be ever continued and ever new: Glory, infinite and eternal, to that grace which hath crowned us with such unmerited mercies.'

The righteous being thus openly acquitted and acknowledged by their Lord, and a manifestation of the propriety of his conduct in raising them to glory having been made to all the spectators, he will next prove to the assembled universe, and to sinners themselves, his justice in condemning them to eternal perdition. The books are again opened, and all the iniquities of the open sinner and unfruitful professor are fully revealed. On earth they can delude themselves into a belief that their hearts are not opposed to God; that by nature they are not so unholy as the scriptures represent; that their crimes have been few and venial. But then God, by a forced conviction, will show them their true character; will cause them to feel that their hearts were full of iniquity, that their affections were totally alienated from him, and that they were enemies to him by wicked works. However ingenious they now are in blinding and deceiving themselves, God in an instant will convince them of their deep pollution, and their full desert of hell. The flames that are prepared for the ungodly will not only scorch, but enlighten the impious, and teach them the demerit of sin and the holiness of God; and the splendours of divine justice and purity with which they will be encompassed, will make them shudder at their character and their doom.

But it is necessary, for the vindication of the justice of God, that not only they, but also the spectators, have this conviction. The Judge will therefore compel them to confess what they feel in their hearts, and openly to bewail their folly in continuing in sin and despising the proffered grace of God. In the agony of their souls they shall cry, O that we had been wise, and lived in the believing prospect of this awful day! Cursed be those sins in which we indulged, and for which we sacrificed our God, our Redeemer, our souls, our everlasting felicity! O that we could cease to exist, or could comfort ourselves in the midst of the flames by the reflection that our sufferings were undeserved, and inflicted only by an arbitrary tyrant! But this consolation is denied us; for we feel, we confess, that our condemnation will be just.'

Innumerable witnesses will also be produced to show the guilt of the unrighteous. All the ministers of the Lord Jesus, who once pointed them to the cross, and expostulated with them on the folly and madness of their conduct, and told them of the infinite mercy of God and the riches of grace in the Saviour, and exhibited to them the glories of heaven, the pains of hell, the solemnities of judgment, and prayed and wept over them, will then be obliged to testify that they wilfully rejected offered mercy and everlasting salvation. All their pious friends and relatives, whose hearts they so deeply wounded on earth by their forgetfulness of God and their eternal destination, will then lift up their voices for the condemnation of those to whom they were once so tenderly attached. The parent will testify against that ungrateful child whom he now loves as himself, and for whose neglect of his pious admonitions

and entreaties, his "soul now weeps in secret places." The husband will testify against that wife to whom he is united by the tenderest affection, who shares his earthly cares and joys, but who is deaf to his solicitations to form ties for eternity. The wife shall testify against that thoughtless husband, who disregards her gentle but warm and heartfelt supplications, that he will have mercy on his.. soul. In one word, all the children of God will be compelled to bear witness against those to whom they were connected by the most tender and endearing human bonds, but who persisted in remaining the enemies of Jesus. The persons whom they have injured will testify against them. The blood of Abel shall still cry against Cain; and that of Naboth against Ahab. Drusilla will imprecate the divine vengeance against Felix; and the unwary who have been seduced by the conversation or the writings of the libertine and the infidel, will declare their guilt. The poor whom they have suffered to perish, the afflicted whom they would not comfort, the persecuted whom they would not defend, the widow and the orphan whom they would not console, will proclaim these neglected duties. Even inanimate things will testify against them: the sacred desks where the truths of religion have been announced; the temples dedicated to the Lord, in which they heard of the dying love and the everlasting righteousness of Jesus; the baptismal fonts, over which they were devoted to the Sacred Trinity; the sacramental tables, which they have despised or profaned; the temporal enjoyments which they have abused to sin; the places where their iniquities and their deeds of darkness were committed; all these will be "swift witnesses against them." The angels

of God will testify against them: they will declare that these guilty men rejected their ministrations, and gave themselves up to the control of evil spirits. Satan, who now tempts them, will testify against them; he now watches them; he seduces them into guilt, and he will remember their crimes, and declare them then with a malicious joy. The Spirit of God will testify that he often moved upon their hearts, and, by his secret suggestions and influences, wooed them to abandon their iniquities and turn to the Lord; but that they grieved, resisted, and quenched him, and chose rather to comply with the temptations of the devil than with his incitements.

Unhappy men! what will you do, where will you hide your blushing heads, when such a crowd of witnesses appear against you? But there is still another witness: it is your Judge himself; who, opening the book of remembrance, will show to you and to the vast assembly, every unholy thought, every irregular desire, every criminal motive, every impure wish, every unhallowed design, every libertine, slanderous, or blasphemous word, every mercy that was abused, every judgment that was contemned, every duty that was omitted, every warning that was despised, every sin of others produced by your conduct, every work done in secret or at midnight, and seen by no eye but that of God. Millions of crimes which had never been observed, or were long since forgotten, will be then remembered, will show the deep guilt of your souls, and the terrible nature of that punishment which awaits you. Unhappy men! thus shall you stand, in vain "calling the rocks and the mountains to fall upon you upon and hide you from the wrath of the Lamb," the in

jured, insulted Lamb of God. The saints will view you as the enemies of their Lord. Though they now weep over you, yet they then will adore the just judgments of God. It is the same Abraham that interceded for Sodom, who refuses to listen to the supplications of the rich man in the flames. The damned will regard you with malicious triumph, as condemned to the same everlasting torments with them. The devils, who now tempt you, will laugh you to scorn for having listened to their delusions, and will rejoice as the fierce executioners of God's wrath for ever to glut their fury upon you. Your Judge will then turn upon you his eyes burning with indignation, and pronounce upon you that decisive sentence, Depart from me, and all hope of future joy; depart, bearing the curse of Him who shed his blood to redeem you, who made you the offer of salvation, and importunately besought you to accept it: you have despised this blood and scorned this offer; depart then into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels!'

Sinners, where will you then look for succour? Above you, will be the God, who now " calls while ye refuse; who now stretches out his arms, while ye regard not; but who then will laugh at your calamity, and mock at your fear." (Prov. i. 24—26.) With him will be seated those saints with whom you now refuse to associate, but whom you shall then behold possessed of a glory and felicity from which you shall be eternally excluded. Around you, will be none but the sharers of your guilt and the partakers of your punishment. Below you, will be only the dreadful glare of the flames in which you must for ever abide. Within you, will be a forced illumination, which will torture you by compelling you