SERMON XVIII.

LAST JUDGMENT.

REVELATIONS xx. 11, 12, 13.

And I saw a great white throne and him that sat on it; from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead small and great stand before God, and the books were opened; and another book was opened which was the book of life, and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them; and they were judged every man according to their works.”

SUCH, my brethren, are the circumstances of that final, infallible, irreversible judgment which we must all undergo. Time, as it rapidly flies, bears us nearer to this decisive bar. In a very little while, the period afforded us for preparing to appear there with joy, will be past. In a very little while our pulses will cease to throb and our hearts forget to beat. Our friends will follow our lifeless corpses. to the tomb; and the dust of the church-yard shall press upon our cold and unpalpitating breasts. Even before our friends shall perform these last offices of humanity for us, and hide our corrupting bodies in the grave our souls shall stand before the judg

ment-seat of Christ, shall be by him acquitted or condemned, and shall enter upon their endless state. After the souls of successive generations shall have been thus acquitted or condemned, and their bodies shall have mouldered in the dust after the period appointed from eternity for the duration of our system shall have elapsed, then the end shall comethen that general judgment will take place, which will confirm all the particular judgments before pronounced, and shew to the assembled universe the justice and mercy of the King of kings. It is this general judgment on which we are now to meditate. The Lord grant that this exercise may be so accompanied by his Spirit, that we may be enabled to stand then fearless and undaunted amidst the wreck of nature.

When the purposes of God, with respect to mankind, shall have been accomplished, then "a mighty angel shall descend from the skies, clothed with a cloud, and a rainbow upon his head, and his face shining as the sun-and standing upon the sea and upon the earth, he shall lift up his hand to heaven, and swear by Him that liveth for ever and ever, that time shall be no longer :" (Rev. x. 1, 5, 6.) The oath shall no sooner proceed from his lips than it shall be ratified by the God of heaven. The voice of the archangel and the trump of God shall resound through the universe; shall penetrate the lowest graves and the depths of the sea, and shall cause

the sleeping dust to spring into new life. At this delightful moment, light shall beam upon the tombs of the saints; for "the dead in Christ shall rise first." The particles of their frames, which in all their various changes have been preserved by omniscience, shall re-assemble at the command of God. Their bodies shall rise from the dust, clothed with new properties and with heavenly attributes, shining like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Their souls which have tested during the state of separation in the bosom of Jesus, shall rapidly fly to be re-united to their former companions, and to obtain with them the consummation of bliss. At the same instant, all the believers that are then alive upon the earth, shall be "changed in the twinkling of an eye," and caught up to meet their Saviour. The righteous being thus collected, the loud peal of the trump shall again float on the air, shake the earth to its centre, and re-echo through the dreary abodes of hell. The ungodly well know the portentous sound; and shuddering, trembling, and unwilling, rise from the dust; whilst their souls are dragged from the place of torment to meet those bodies once partakers of their sin, now to be partakers of their punishment. Thus united, they, with the sinners that are upon the earth, are borne through the air to meet their offended Lord. All mankind being thus assembled, the loud clangour of the trump again is heard, and re-echoes round the extensive vaults of heaven. Hell vomits forth its victims, and the

apostate spirits, with satan at their head, are drag ged, oh! how reluctantly! to the dreadful bar.Thus two worlds are collected to be judged; and the third is advancing as an assistant spectator.

Whilst these preparations are making, the Judge approaches. At the brightness of his presence, the sun hides its beams and shrouds itself in darkness. It covered itself with sack-cloth when the humbled Jesus expired upon Calvary; it starts back with astonishment and terrour when he comes in the splendour of his glory. The moon lays aside its brilliancy and changes into blood: why should it continue to measure times and seasons when eternity commences? The stars of heaven shake and fall from their spheres; the expiring earth trembles in mighty throes and convulsions, and is enwrapped in flames; the heavens shrink like a shrivelled scroll from the face of their Creator.

In the midst of circumstances so august and terrible, the Judge descends. This Judge is Jesus Christ, to whom according to the appointment of the most sacred Trinity this sublime office is made appropriate―Jesus Christ, who being both God and man, is properly constituted the Judge between God and man; Jesus Christ who is our owner as Creator, our purchaser as Redeemer, and therefore has a just authority to judge us by both these titles. With what lustre and glory this Saviour now ap

pears! how different from the despised Nazarene ! Instead of the manger at Bethlehem, he sits on the throne of the universe; instead of the humble son of Mary, he comes as the eternal son of God; instead of a few swaddling cloths as the sign of his advent, the sun eclipsed and the moon darkened precede his appearance; instead of appearing in the silence of midnight, he comes in the midst of thunders and lightnings and dissolving systems; instead of being unjustly cited to a criminal bar, he summons the whole world to answer to him; instead of the crown of thorns, he bears one beaming with glory; instead of the insulting reed, the emblem of mock-majesty, he wields the sceptre of the universe; instead of being surrounded by a reviling crowd who pour upon him their reproaches, their contumelies, their curses, he is attended by myriads of the angelic host who prostrate themselves before him, blessing him for his mercies and adoring him for his perfections.

Such is the appearance of the Judge-He comes dressed in that body which was crucified on Calvary, and which now inconceivably glorified and exalted, is taken into union with divinity, and remains in heaven the eternal monument of redeeming love. In this he comes to decide the destinies of men. The prints of the nails, of the thorns, of the spear, still are manifest, and a flood of glory beams from these precious wounds. O joyful spectacle to the