SERMON XX. THE UNIVERSAL JUDGMENT. And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent, 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.-ACTS xvii. 30, 31. THE present state is the infancy of human nature ; and all the events of time, even those that make such noise, and determine the fate of kingdoms, are but the little affairs of children. But if we look forwards, and trace human nature to maturity, we meet with events vast, interesting, and majestic; and such as nothing but divine authority can render credible to us who are so apt to judge of things by what we see. To one of those scenes I would direct your attention this day; I mean the solemn, tremendous, and glorious scene of the universal judgment. You have sometimes seen a stately building in ruins; come now and view the ruins of a demolished world. You have often seen a feeble mortal struggling in the agonies of death, and his shattered frame dissolved; come now and view universal nature, severely labouring and agonizing in her last convulsions, and her well-compacted system dissolved. You have heard of earthquakes here and there, that have laid Lisbon, Palermo, and a few other cities in ruins; come now and feel the tremors VOL. II. B and convulsions of the whole globe, that blend cities and countries, oceans and continents, mountains, plains, and vallies in one promiscuous heap. You have a thousand times beheld the moon walking in brightness, and the sun shining in his strength; now look and see the sun turned into darkness, and the moon into blood. It is our lot to live in an age of confusion, blood, and slaughter; an age, in which our attention is engaged by the clash of arms, the clangor of trumpets, the roar of artillery, and the dubious fate of kingdoms; but draw off your thoughts from these objects for an hour, and fix them on objects more solemn and interesting: come view "A scene that yields A louder trumpet, and more dreadful fields; The world alarmed, both Earth and Heaven o'erthrown, YOUNG. Such a scene there certainly is before us us; for St. Paul tells us, that God hath given assurance to all men, he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; and that his resurrection, the resurrection of him who is God and man, is a demonstrative proof of it. My text is the conclusion of St. Paul's defence or sermon before the famous court of Areopagus, in the learned and philosophical city of Athens. In this august and polite assembly, he speaks with the boldness, and in the evangelical strain, of an apostle of Christ. He first inculcates upon them the great truths of natural religion, and labours faithfully, though in a very genteel and inoffensive manner, to reform them from that stupid idolatry and superstition, into which even this learned and philosophical city was sunk, though a Socrates, a Plato, and the most celebrated sages and moralists of pagan antiquity had lived and taught in it. Afterwards, in the close of his discourse, he introduces the glorious peculiarities of Christianity, particularly the great duty of repentance, from evangelical motives, the resurrection of the dead, and the final judgment. But no sooner has he entered upon this subject than he is interrupted, and seems to have broken off abruptly; for when he has just hinted at the then unpopular doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, we are told, some mocked, and others put it off to another hearing: We will hear thee again of this matter. In these dark times of ignorance, which preceded the publication of the gospel, God seemed to wink or connive at the idolatry and various forms of wickedness that had overspread the world; that is, he seemed to overlook* or take no notice of them, so as either to punish them, or to give the nations explicit calls to repentance. But now, says St. Paul, the case is altered. Now the gospel is published through the world, and therefore God will no longer seem to connive at the wickedness and impenitence of mankind, but publishes his great mandate to a rebel world, explicitly and loudly, commanding all men every where to repent; and he now gives them particular motives and encouragements to this duty. One motive of the greatest weight, which was never so clearly or extensively published before, is the doctrine of the universal judgment. This the connexion implies: He now commandeth all men to repent, because he hath appointed a day for judging all men. And surely the prospect of a judgment must be a strong motive to sinners to repent:-this, if any thing, will rouse them from their thoughtless security, and bring them to repentance. Repentance should, and one would think must be, as extensive as this reason for it. This St. Paul intimates. He now commandeth all men to repent, because he hath given assurance to all men, that he has appointed a day to υπερίδων. judge the world. Wherever the gospel publishes the doctrine of a future judgment, there it requires all men to repent; and wherever it requires repentance, there it enforces the command of this alarming doctrine. God has given assurance to all men: that is, to all that hear the gospel, that he has appointed a day for this great purpose, and that Jesus Christ, God-man, is to preside in person in this majestic solemnity. He has given assurance of this; that is, sufficient ground of faith ; and the assurance consists in this, that he hath raised him from the dead. The resurrection of Christ gives assurance of this in several respects. It is a specimen and a pledge of a general resurrection, that grand preparative for the judgment: it is an incontestible proof of his divine mission; for God would never work so unprecedented a miracle in favour of an impostor: it is also an authentic attestation of all our Lord's claims; and he expressly claimed the authority of supreme Judge as delegated to him by the Father: the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment to the Son, John v. 22. There is a peculiar fitness and propriety in this constitution. It is fit that a world, placed under the administration of a Mediator, should have a mediatorial Judge. It is fit this high office should be conferred upon him as an honorary reward for his important services and extreme abasement. Because he humbled himself, therefore God hath highly exalted him, Phil. ii. 8, 9. It is fit that creatures clothed with bodies should be judged by a man clothed in a body like themselves. Hence it is said that all judgment is given to the Son, because he is the Son of man, John v. 27. This would seem a strange reason, did we not understand it in this light. Indeed, was Jesus Christ man only, he would be infinitely unequal to the office of universal Judge; but he is God and man, Immanuel, God with us; and is the fittest person in the universe for the work. It is also fit that Christ should be the supreme Judge, as it will be a great encouragement to his people for their Mediator to execute this office; and it may be added, that hereby the condemnation of the wicked will be rendered more conspicuously just; for, if a Mediator, a Saviour, the Friend of Sinners, condemns them, they must be worthy of condemnation indeed! Let us now enter upon the majestic scene. But, alas! what images shall I use to represent it? Nothing that we have seen, nothing that we have heard, nothing that has ever happened on the stage of time, can furnish us with proper illustrations. All is low and grovelling, all is faint and obscure that ever the sun shone upon, when compared with the grand phenomena of that day; and we are so accustomed to low and little objects, that it is impossible we should ever raise our thoughts to a suitable pitch of elevation. Ere long we shall be amazed spectators of these majestic wonders, and our eyes and our ears will be our instructors. But now it is necessary we should have such ideas of them as may affect our hearts, and prepare us for them. Let us therefore present to our view those representations which divine revelation, our only guide in this case, gives us of the person of the Judge, and the manner of his appearance; of the resurrection of the dead, and the transformation of the living; of the universal convention of all the sons of men before the supreme tribunal; of their separation to the right and left hand of the Judge, according to their characters; of the judicial process itself; of the decisive sentence; of its execution, and of the conflagration of the world. As to the person of the judge, the Psalmist tells you, God is Judge himself, Psalm 1. 6. Yet Christ tells us, the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment to the Son; and that he hath given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of man, John v. 22. 27. It is therefore Christ Jesus, God-man, as I observed, who shall sustain this high character; and for the reasons already alledged, it is most fit it should |