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the trials to which that day will subject every man's work. (1 Corinthians, 11 chap. 13 verse): Every man's work shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. St. Paul speaks of all this as something future. This day of St. Paul, which is to try every man's work by fire, is the same day referred to by St. Peter, as a time of fiery trial, and they both mean the judgment dispensation which is to follow the gospel dispensation.

Let us now proceed to notice objections, which I am sure will be made to this theory of the judgment day-objections which bring with them the force of long-established opinions amongst good men, as well as the authority and weight of great names.

It will be objected to this mode of explaining the day of judgment, "That it deprives that day of the awful pomp and "grandeur with which the commonly-received opinion of "Christians has always invested it--that it does away with "the assembled millions of earth's inhabitants, from Adam "down to the last-born amongst men, all of whom we supposed would stand before the bar of God, in solemn silence, "to receive the sentence of approval or condemnation of the "Omniscient Judge."

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This is the popular opinion on this subject, and poets have embellished it with their various fancies; giving it as many features and forms as their different tastes might suggest.

But I do not regard poetry as of any authority on a subject like this. The attributes of God and the revelation He has given to man, of the purposes and mode of his government, are a safer guide.

The common opinion of the day of judgment looks to it as the period when sentence will be pronounced upon all men, both saint and sinner, which is to introduce the former into the felicities of heaven, and consign the latter into the torments of hell!

But I doubt whether any experimental Christian, who

lives in the enjoyment of the consciousness of God's favor, and whose hopes of future happiness are supported by a gospel faith, ever entertains this opinion as a religious conviction, of the scene through which he shall pass after death.

What is the hope of such a Christian? What his firm belief? Why, that the death of the body releases him from the sorrows of this life, and lets him into the joys of his Lord. His last words, as he sinks in death, are, not that he is going to a judgment bar, but that he is going to the joys of heaven! and his happiness, at that moment of his departure from the world, is often expressed by those words, as they fall from his dying lips

"Angels beckon me away,

And Jesus bids me come!"

The question is in place : in view of the common opinion of the judgment, will the righteous who have departed this life, in all ages since the days of Adam, and have gone to their rest in heaven, have their state of happiness interrupted and be called away from the society of God and angels, to stand before a judgment bar, to await the sentence of the Judge, which is to entitle them to eternal life? Can such a view of the judgment be consistent with the justice and omniscience of God?

And of the wicked, it may also be inquired: will their state of punishment be suspended while they are brought before the same bar with the righteous, to receive the sentence which is to doom them to everlasting woe? What mind, enlightened by the Christian Scriptures, can seriously entertain opinions such as these? ascribing to the infinitely holy and all-wise God, a procedure in his government, which would discredit the imperfect wisdom of frail men !

But to escape from the inconsistency of such a plan of the judgment day, some tell us that the righteous and the wicked do not enter upon their respective states of felicity and woe when they die; but they occupy some intermediate place in the universe, neither of happiness or woe, where they await

the sentence of the final judgment! It is unecessary to say anything more in answer to this opinion than to refer it to the parable of Lazarus and the rich man. In the presence of that parable, uttered by our Lord himself, it stands rebuked and reprobated.

But, it will be asked, as this view of the judgment day limits its proceedings to the people and nations who live in that time; how is it to be reconciled to the following texts in the writings of St. Paul: For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God. Rom. xiv. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. 2 Cor., 5 chap.

From these, and other texts of a similar character, the common opinion has arisen of a future judgment of all the human family at one time, particularly the text which says: It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment. It might be a sufficient refutation of the inference drawn from these texts, to urge, that Christ speaks of no other judgment than that which gathers the nations of the earth before him at his appearing. But I think the sayings of St. Paul are susceptible of an explanation which will reconcile them with this opinion of the judgment; or, at least will show that they do not contradict it.

In referring all these scriptures which seem to imply the act of judgment, or the conferring rewards and punishments, to some period after death, in another world, the gospel system appears to be quite forgotten; or, at least to be regarded as presenting no present rewards or punishments; that God does not either reward or punish men in this life. Now, no one can look into the history of the Jewish nation, without being forcibly struck with the frequent exhibitions of divine judgment upon that people, when their iniquities provoked the displeasure of the Almighty.

I will visit the iniquities of the fathers upon the children to

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the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, established principle of divine government over man, and it is not likely that the punishments here spoken of are to be looked for in the next world. Indeed the whole economy of the old testament scriptures stands upon the ground of punishment for transgression in the present world, and treats of the judgments of God as designed to prevent the transgressions of men: When thy judgments are in the earth the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness, was the doctrine taught by Isaiah. And can the Christian system be less perfect in its adaptation to the ends of divine government than the Jewish system was? It is true that the Christian code breathes mercy, long-suffering, much forbearance with the ungodly; but still, it would be greatly misconceiving it, to suppose that it proposes no present punishments for the obstinate and persevering violation of its laws.

The gospel system, or, as it is likewise called, the kingdom of heaven, has its laws; and it administers rewards and punishments, in a modified sense, suited to its forbearing spirit; while it at the same time points to a higher and and more glorious state of the righteous, and a deeper condemnation of the ungodly in the next life.

In order to a proper understanding of the apostle's meaning in the texts before us, we must take a comprehensive view of the gospel system in its operations and designs.

The gospel economy is a spiritual kingdom or moral government over mankind, having all the laws necessary to its object, and enforcing them by the application of such rewards and punishments in the present life as are suited to its great end, which is to train men for a higher and purer state of intellectual and moral existence hereafter.

The laws of this kingdom, which are its doctrines and teachings, have been settled and established by Christ, who is the head of it. All rules of duty, as subjects of civil as well as religious government, are there laid down, and it is to the laws of this kingdom that Christians are to refer all

questions of right or wrong, and they must conform to the decisions of those laws, or suffer the punishment connected with their neglect.

In this sense, I consider the gospel system to be the judgment seat of Christ, or the bar of Chrisi, referred to by the apostles, before which we, as Christians, mat all stand or appear.

Our faith and practice must be subjected to the judgments or decisions of this bar, and we are either justified by them or we are condemned.

How singular it would appear if the gospel system, designed to discipline men, should present no considerations of a chastening nature, which all admit to be necessary to man in his present state. Whom he loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. Now, this chastening must be necessary for the things done in the body—that is, done in the present time. I consider these texts, in the Epistle to the Romans and the 2 Cor., as referring to the exercise of the divine government, through and by the gospel as an instrumentality. Its laws are in constant course of administration, in rewarding the faithful follower of his Lord, and in visiting with God's displeasure the unrighteous, in such ways as are suited to the life of man in this present world. The language of the apostle, I think, is quite in favor of this view of his texts, where he speaks of the bar and the judgment seat of Christ.

Christians, in that early day of the gospel, frequently fell into sharp controversies about non-essentials. The old Jewish canon, for a long time, worked itself into the Christian Church, and gave much trouble respecting the use of meats and the observance of days. The apostle, in order to quiet these dissensions, and to impress upon Christians that their duties were not to be learned from Jewish rites and ceremonies, but from the law of Christ, says to them: But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.

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