those only, which do the will of our Heavenly Father, shall have right to the tree of life and enter through the gates into the city. Do not, my impenitent friends, delay the salvation of your souls until the harvest of the gospel is past; and then, in the end, have it to say, as said the prophet Jeremiah, "The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved." AMEN.

LECTURE ON

THE FINAL JUDGMENT.

ACTS xvii. 31.

Because he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness.

JUDGMENT is the sentence or decision of a judge, and implies that there is a right and wrong, good and evil. And in judging, it is always supposed that the judge will, in his judgment, bring to light the right and wrong, good and evil. And in judgment, too, it is expected to receive rewards and punishments, according to the law by which we are judged. There are many judgments spoken of in the Scriptures: but my object will not be to take you into all the different ways in which judgment is there used, but I shall endeavor to prove that God hath appointed a day of retribution, in which he will judge the world in equity and truth; those under the law he will judge by the law, and those under the gospel by the gospel.

I. I WILL PROVE THAT THERE IS A DAY APPOINTED FOR THE JUDGMENT OF THE WHOLE WORLD, AFTER THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD.

Acts xvii. 31: "Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness, by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof

he hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead."

It is very evident that those who heard the apostle, understood him to assert, plainly, that there was a day of judgment appointed, in which all men that were dead would be raised and participate in it, as well as those who were alive. See what follows. Verse 32: "And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked; and others said, We will hear thee again of this matter." Again, Rom. ii. 16: "In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men, by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel." We see by this passage, that the day of judgment spoken of in this text is yet in the future; for every man knows that every secret thing is not yet brought to light. Luke viii. 17: "For nothing is secret that shall not be made manifest; neither anything hid that shall not be known and come abroad." Or, as Paul says, 1 Cor. iv. 5: “Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts; and then shall every man have praise of God." What time? In the day appointed. And when? When the Lord shall come. Then shall every man who has done well have praise of God. "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these, ye have done it unto me."

Again, we are told, that Jesus Christ is to judge the quick (or the living) and the dead, at his appearing, and his kingdom. See Acts x. 42: "And he commanded us to preach unto the people, and to testify that it is he which was ordained of God to be the judge of quick and dead." 2 Tim. iv. 1: "I CHARGE thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom." See also 1 Peter iv. 5: "Who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead." By these passages we are taught that there is a judgment after death, at the resurrection. You will permit me to bring

another text, to prove that Christ will judge his people at his coming. Psalm 1. 3-6: "Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence; a fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him. He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, (that he may judge his people,) Gather my saints together unto me, those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice. And the heavens shall declare his righteousness, for God is judge himself." This passage, if it prove anything, proves that when Christ comes to gather his elect, he will judge his people, and that all his saints will be there, both which are in heaven and on earth.

Again. Peter clearly shows that there is a day of judgment, when the world shall be cleansed by fire. 2 Peter iii. 7: "But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men." This text agrees with the fiftieth Psalm, and evidently refers to the same time, when Christ shall come; for he in the tenth verse says, "But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with great heat; the earth also, and the works that are therein, shall be burnt up." We learn by this passage, that it is the same time as Paul tells us in 1 Thess. iv. 15-18; also v. 1-4: "But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly, that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief." And in 2 Peter iii. 15, 16, we are assured by Peter that Paul "had written unto us concerning these things." Paul speaks of the same day of the Lord coming as a thief, &c., and says, "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of

the archangel and the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first."

Let these passages be sufficient to prove that God has revealed unto us the following truths :

1. That he has appointed a day of judgment. 2. That the judgment follows the resurrection. 3. That his saints are raised and judged at the second advent of the Lord Jesus Christ.

II. I WILL NOW SHOW HOW LONG THAT DAY WILL BE, AND WHEN THE WICKED WILL BE RAISED AND JUDGED.

1. This day of judgment is often called "the day of the Lord," as in Isaiah ii. 12: "For the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and every one that is lifted up, and he shall be brought low." Isaiah xiii. 9: "Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger; and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it." (Consult Isaiah xxxiv. 8. lxi. 2. Ixiii. 4.) These passages all go to show, that, when Christ comes to recompense the controversy of Zion and reward his people, he will destroy the incorrigible, the proud, and wicked out of his kingdom. And we are clearly made to understand by the prophets and apostles, that this is to be done by literal fire. And Christ, in the parable of the tares and wheat, more than intimates the same thing. Malachi, in the fourth chapter of his prophecy, shows, as plain as words can make it, "that the proud and all that do.wickedly shall be stubble, and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts; it shall leave them neither root nor branch." This day has not yet come, certainly, that all the proud and all that do wickedly are burnt up, not one of them left. We have too much evidence that there are such characters yet in the earth; and as the word all is said by our opponents to mean all, they, of course, to be consistent with themselves, will not deny the conclusion. "But unto you that fear my name, shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings, and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall."