and mifcarriages he fhall judge and condemn to death even those who have owned him, and done miracles in his name, when he comes at laft to render to every one according to what he had DONE in the flesh, fitting upon his great and glorious tribunal, at the end of the world.

The first place where we find our Saviour to have mentioned the day of judgement, is John v. 28, 29, in these words: "The hour " is coming, in which all that are in their graves fhall hear his "[i. e. the fon God's] voice, and fhall come forth; they that "have DONE GOOD, unto the refurrection of life; and they that " have DONE EVIL, unto the refurrection of damnation." That which puts the diftinction, if we will believe our Saviour, is the having" done good or evil." And he gives a reafon of the neceffity of his judging or condemning thofe "who have done evil" in the following words, ver. 30. "I can of my own felf do no"thing. As I hear I judge, and my judgement is juft; because I "feek not my own will, but the will of my father who hath fent "me," He could not judge of himfelf; he had but a delegated power of judging from the father, whofe will he obeyed in it, and who was of purer eyes than to admit any unjuft perfon into the kingdom of heaven.

Matt. vii. 22, 23. Speaking again of that day, he tells what his fentence will be, Depart from me, ye WORKERS of iniquity." Faith, in the penitent and fincerely obedient, fupplics the defect of their performances, and fo by grace they are made juft. But we may obferve, none are fentenced or punished for unbelief, but only for their mifdeeds. "They are workers of iniquity" on whom the fentence is pronounced.

Matt. xiii, 14.." At the end of the world, the fon of man shall "fend forth his angels, and they fhall gather out of his kingdom

all scandals, and them which DO INIQUITY, and cast them into a furnace of fire; there fhail be wailing and gnashing of teeth." And again,. ver. 49. The angels, fhall fever the WICKED from "among the JUST, and fhall caft them into the furnace of fire." ..Matt. xvi. 24. For the fan of man fhall come in the glory of

his father, with his angels, and then he fhall reward every man according to his WORKS.",

Luke xiii. 26. "Then fhall ye begin to fay, We have eaten and drunk in thy prefence, and thou haft taught in our ftreets. But he fall fay, I tell you, I know you not depart from me, ye WORKERS of iniquity."

Matt. xxv. 24-26. "When the fon of man fhall come in his glory, and before him shall be gathered all nations, he shall fet the fheep on his right-hand, and the goats on his left: then fhall the king fay to them on his right-hand, Come, ye bleffed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat; I was thirty, and ye gave me drink, I was a ftranger, and ye took me naked, and yo cloathed me; I was fick, and ye vifited me;

1 was

"I was in prifon, and ye came unto me. Then fhall the righteous! ❝ answer him, saying, Lord, when faw we thee an hungred, and "fed thee? &c. And the king shall anfwer, and fay unto them, "Verily, I fay unto you, inafmuch as ye have done it unto one of "the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Ther "fhall he fay unto them on the left-hand, Depart from me, ye "curfed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: "for I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat; I was thirfty, "and ye gave me no drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me not "in; naked, and ye cloathed me not; fick and in prison, and ye “ visited me not. Infomuch that ye did it not to one of thefe, ye "did it not to me. And these fhall go into everlasting punish "ment; but the righteous into life eternal.

Thefe, I think, are all the places where our Saviour mentions the laft judgement, or describes his way of proceeding in that great day'; wherein, as we have obferved, it is remarkable, that every where the fentence follows doing or not doing, without any mention of believing, or not believing. Not that any to whom the gofpel hath been preached fhall be faved, without believing Jefus to be the Meffiah; for all being finners, and tranfgreffors of the law, and fo unjuft, are all liable to condemnation, unless they believe, and fo through grace are juftified by God for this faith, which fhall be ac counted to them for righteoufnefs: but the reft, wanting this cover, this allowance for their tranfgreffions, muft anfwer for all 'their actions; and, being found tranfgreffors of the law, fhall, by the letter and fanction of that law, be condemned, for not having paid a full obedience to that law, and not for want of faith; that is not the guilt on which the punishment is laid, though it be the want of faith which lays open their guilt uncovered, and expofes them to the fentence of the law against all that are unrighteous.

The common objection here, is, If all finners fhall be condemn ed, but fuch as have a gracious allowance made them, and fo are juftified by God for believing Jefus to be the Meffiah, and fo taking him for their king, whom they are refolved to obey to the utmost of their power, what fhall become of all mankind who lived be fore our Saviour's time, who never heard of his name, and confe quently could not believe in him? To this the anfwer is fo obvious and natural, that one would wonder how any reasonable man should think it worth the urging. Nobody was, or can be, required to believe what was never propofed to him to believe. Before the ful nefs of time, which God from the council of his own wifdom had appointed to fend his fon in, he had at feveral times, and in dif ferent manners, promised to the people of Ifrael an extraordinary perfon to come, who, raifed from amongst themfelves, fhould be their ruler and deliverer. The time, and other circumstances of his birth, life, and perfon, he had in fundry propheties fo particularly defcribed, and fo plainly foretold, that he was well known and expected by the Jews under the name of the Meffial, or Anointed, given him in some of these prophefies All then that was required

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before

before his appearing in the world, was, To believe what God had revealed, and to rely with a full affurance on God for the performance of his promife; and to believe, that in due time he would fend them the Meffiah, this anointed king, this promifed Saviour and deliverer, according to his word. This faith in the promises of God, this relying and acquiefcing in his word and faithfulness, the Almighty takes well at our hands, as a great mark of homage, paid by us frail creatures, to his "goodness" and "truth," as well as to his "power" and "wifdom;" and accepts it as an acknowledgement of his peculiar providence and benignity to us. And therefore our Saviour tells us, John xii. 44. "He that believes on me,' "believes not on me, but on him that fent me." The works of nature fhew his wifdom and power; but it is his peculiar care of mankind, most eminently discovered in his promises to them, that hews his bounty and goodnefs; and confequently engages their hearts in love and affection to him. This oblation of an heart fixed with dependance on, and affection to him, is the most acceptable tribute we can pay him; the foundation of true devotion, and life of all religion. What a value he puts on this depending on his word, and refting fatisfied in his promifes, we have an example in Abraham, whose faith "was counted to him for righteousness," as we have before remarked out of Rom. iv. And his relying firmly on the promise of God, without any doubt of its performance, gave him the name of the Father of the Faithful, and gained him fo much favour with the Almighty, that he was called" the Friend of God;" the highest and most glorious title can be beftowed on a creature. The thing promifed was no more but a fon by his wife Sarah, and a numerous pofterity by him, which fhould poffefs the land of Canaan. These were but temporal bleffings, and (except the birth of a fon) very remote, fuch as he should never live to fee, nor, in his own perfon, have the benefit of; but because he questioned not the performance of it, but refted fully fatisfied in the goodness, truth, and faithfulness of God who had promised, it was counted to him for righteoufnefs. Let us fee how St. Paul expreffes it, Rom. iv. 18-22. Who, against hope, believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations; according to that which was fpoken, fo fhall thy feed be: and being not weak in his faith, he confidered not his own body now dead, when he was above an hundred years old; neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb: he "ftaggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was Aftrong in faith, giving glory to God; and being fully perfuaded,

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that what he had promifed he was able to perform: and THEREFORE it was imputed to him for righteousness." St. Paul, having here emphatically defcribed the ftrength and firmness of Abraham's faith, informs us, that he thereby "gave glory to God ;" and therefore it was "accounted to him for righteoufnefs." This is the way that God deals with poor frail mortals. He is graciously pleafed to take it well of them, and give it the place of righteoufnefs, and a kind of merit in his fight, if they believe his promifes, and have a stedfast

a stedfast relying on his veracity and goodness. St. Paul, Heb. xi. 6. tells us, "Without faith it is impoffible to please God:" but at the fame time tells us what faith that is. "For," fays he, "He "that cometh to God, muft believe that he is; and that he is a "rewarder of them that diligently feek him." He must be perfuaded of God's mercy and good-will to thofe who feek to obey him, and reft affured of his rewarding those who rely on him for whatever, either by the light of nature, or particular promifes, he has revealed to them of his tender mercies, and taught them to expect from his bounty. This description of "faith" (that we might not mistake what he means by that "faith" without which we cannot please God, and which recommended the faints of old) St. Paul places in the middle of the lift of those who were eminent for their faith," and whom he fets as patterns to, the converted Hebrews under perfecution, to encourage them to perfift in their confidence of deliverance by the coming of Jefus Chrift, and in their belief of the promises they now had under the gospel: by thofe examples he exhorts them not to "draw back" from the hope that was fet before them, nor apoftatize from the profeffion of the Christian religion. This is plain from ver. 35-38. of the precedent chapter; "Caft not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward. For ye have great need of perfifting, or per"feverance" (for fo the Greek word fignifies here, which our tranflation renders "patience," fee Luke viii. 15.), that after ye

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"have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. For yet a little while, and he that fhall come, will come, and will not "tarry. Now the juft fhall live by faith. But if any man draw "back, my foul fhall have no pleasure in him."

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The examples of" faith," which St. Paul enumerates and propofes in the following words, chap. xi. plainly fhew, that the "faith" whereby those believers of old pleafed God was nothing -but a ftedfast reliance on the goodness and faithfulness of God, for thofe good things which either the light of nature, or particular promifes, had given them grounds to hope for. Of what avail this "faith" was with God, we may fee, ver. 4. By faith Abel offer"ed unto God a more excellent facrifice than Cain; by which he "obtained witnefs that he was righteous." Ver. 5. "By faith "Enoch was tranflated, that he fhould not fee death: for before "his tranflation he had this teftimony, that he pleased God.” Ver. "Noah, being warned of God of things not feen as yet;" :being wary," by faith prepared an ark, to the faving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith." And what it was that God fo gracioufly accepted and rewarded, we are told, ver. 11. "Through faith alfo Sarah herself received ftrength to conceive feed, and "was delivered of a child, when the was paft age." How the came to obtain this grace from God, the apoftle tells us; "because "The judged him faithful who had promifed." Those therefore who pleased God, and were accepted by him before the coming of

Christ,

Chrift, did it only by believing the promises, and relying on the goodness of God, as far as he had revealed it to them. For the apoftle, in the following words, tells us, ver. 13. These all died

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in faith, not having received (the accomplishment of) the pro"mifes; but having feen them afar off: and were perfuaded of "them, and embraced them." This was all that was required of them to be perfuaded of, and embrace the promises which they had. They could be "perfuaded of" no more than was propofed to them; "embrace" no more than was revealed, according to the promises they had received, and the difpenfations they were under. And if the faith of things "feen afar off," if their trufting in God for the promises he then gave them; if a belief of the Meffiah to come, were fufficient to render those who lived in the ages before Chrift acceptable to God, and righteous before him; I defire thofe, who tell us that God will not (nay, some go so far as to fay cannot accept any who do not believe every article of their particular creeds and fyftems, to confider, why God, out of his infinite mercy, cannot as well juftify man now for believing Jefus of Nazareth to be the promised Meffiah, the king and deliverer, as thofe heretofore, who believed only that God would, according to his promife, in due time, fend the Meffiah to be a king and deliverer?

There is another difficulty often to be met with, which feems to have fomething of more weight in it; and that is, that though the "faith" of thofe before Chrift (believing that God would fend the Meffiah, to be a prince, and a Saviour to his people, as he had promifed), and the "faith" of thofe fince his time (believing Jefus to be that Meffiah, promised and fent by God), fhall be accounted to them for righteoufnefs; yet what fhall become of all the reft of mankind, who, having never heard of the promise or news of a Saviour, not a word of a Meffiah to be fent, or that was come, have had no thought or belief concerning him?

To this I anfwer, That God will require of every man, "ac"cording to what he hath, and not according to what he hath not.” He will not expect ten talents where he gave but one; nor require any one fhould believe a promife, of which he has never heard. The apoftle's reafoning, Rom. x. 14. is very juft: "how fhall

they believe in him, of whom they have not heard?" But though there be many, who, being ftrangers to the commonwealth of Ifrael, were alfo ftrangers to the oracles of God committed to that people; many, to whom the promise of the Meffiah never came, and fo were never in a capacity to believe or reject that revelation; yet God had, by the light of reafon, revealed to all mankind, who would make ufe of that light, that he was good and merciful. The fame fpark of the divine nature and knowledge in man, which making him a man fhewed him the law he was under as a man, fhewed him alfo the way of atoning the merciful, kind, compaffionate author and father of him and his being, when he had tranfgreffed that law. He that made ufe of this candle of the Lord, fo far as to find what was his duty, could not mifs to find also the