All deities, like fummer's fwarms, on wing➡ I fee the Judge enthron'd! the flaming guard ! A Sun-Beam pointing out each fecret thought!" Striking, indeed!—A fun-beam, not pointing at each word or action which we may have forgotten, or not noted, or others not known, but-each fecret thought. Well may we cry out, Create a clean heart, and renew a right spirit within me! O may I never indulge a thought, a temper, word, or action, which I fhall not wish to be discovered in that Great Day! 3. BUT fuppose we anticipate the tremendous fcene a little, and think the day is come, or, as the Poet fays, See the Judge enthron'd, the Volume open'd, &c. and let the righteous come forth; for, it is likely, their cafe will be first heard, because they will fit in judgment upon the reft. Know ye not that the faints fhall judge the world? * And we can hardly think they will fit as affeffors with their Lord, in judgment, who are not honourably acquitted themselves. With regard to their own crimes, for they had been finners, and rebels, yet had fled for refuge to the Hope fet before them; therefore, I fay, with regard to their cwa fins, they are blotted out as a cloud-and their iniquities as a thick cloud; fo that when their iniquities are fought for they fhall not be found-they are remembered no more. Repentance, faith, and perfevering obedience having taken place, the Lord is their furety; they have committed their caufe to him, and he will plead for them; he is their ranfom, he is Сс their peace, and, having wrought their ranfom upon the Cross, delivers them from going down to the pit; they are now manifested to be members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bone; he is their Lord and Husband, and, as such, will own and confefs them before his Father and the angels, where they fhall fhine as the fun for evermore. They lived in the Lord, they died in the Lord, and their works fhall follow them. All these have their names written in the Book of Life, of the Lamb flain from the foundation of the world. That term, the Book of Life, seems an allufion to the register which was kept in Jerufalem, in which the names of all free citizens were enroll'd, and what is done in most cities, which fhews who have a right to the privileges of the fame. So our bleffed Lord, as the Book of Life, the true High-Prieft, bears the names of all fuch as wafh their robes in his most precious blood. O, bleffed are they who do his Commandments, that they may have a right to enter into the New Jerufalem. 4. VERY probable the noble Martyrs and Confeffors may have their honourable award firft, as it is conjectured many of these have received their bodies, raised from the duft, a long space of time before the Day of Judg ment. Perhaps, next to these, may be the eminently holy and fuffering Ministers, or fuch as have used themselves, and their abilities, to ferve the Lord in their day and generation. Nothing fhall be loft, which has been done for the good of mankind. Their bleffed Lord will make honou able mention of their works of faith, and labour of love, which they have done for his name's fake. O ye, ye, that are on the Lord's fide, be not ftraitened in your own bowels-don't think all is loft which has been done for the honour of our Great Redeemer! You will lofe nothing by becoming his creditor. Not a cup of cold water fhall be forgotten before your God. Have you loft a fmall matter of your reputation? See your name shine in the Book of Life, and hear it confeffed to liftening multitudes, by Him whofe voice is as the founding of many waters. Have you loft a little money, house, or land? Have you voluntarily yielded it up, or has it been extorted, unjustly extorted from you, for his fake who died for you?-See your inheritance, which is incorruptible, undefiled, and which fadeth not away, referved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God, through faith, unto full falvation. O how will the noble army of Martyrs fhine, whofe bodies were miferably torn by racks, or wild beasts, or cruelly burnt in the flames, ftarved to death in loathfome prifons, or otherwise most dreadfully tormented by human fiends here below!-In like manner, what a fhining figure muft the glorious company of Confeffors make, with their eyes dug out, maimed limbs, and other diftreffes, honourable badges, glorious fcars, which they bear for their Lord! who bore their fins, and carried their forrows. Yes, "Out of great diftrefs they came, "Wash'd their robes by Faith below"In the blood of yonder LAMB, "Blood which washes white as fnow." 5. THE eminently holy and ufeful Minifters, who, though they have neither loft life nor limb for their bleffed Mafter, yet will meet a goodly company, whom they shall have for a crown of rejoicing in that great day. O bleffed reward! eternal emolument ! glorious employment! to pluck brands from the burning! To fetch the poor loft fheep from the wilderness; to conduct them to his dear wounds, the fource of all our comfort; "To lead them to his bleeding fide "The sheep for whom the Shepherd died". Alas, alas! what are the poor pitiful confiderations of large falaries, the honour of Man! in comparison of meeting a glorified Soul, at God's right hand, to own them for their fpiritual father in Chrift? Nay, the very found of one, even now, faying to a Minifter,-" You "were an inftrument of plucking my foul as a brand " from the burning"-carries an air of confolation with it, fuch as the world can neither give nor take away. Much more fo, when they meet in their father's house, to give honour to Him-who faved them with an everlafting falvation. 6. AND how many filent and patient fufferers, who, though they have made no figure, even among the faints below, yet have been patiently and fincerely waiting for their Lord; and who, in the crowd of noify profeffors, have been overlooked. Perhaps in their naked garrets, cold and comfortless cellars, in want, in hunger, cold, and nakedness,-yet, like their Lord, they have neither cried, nor caused their voice to be heard in the streets; now these will emerge out of their obfcurity, and fhine like the fun in the kingdom of their Father. These have have been like the pearls in the fhell, filent, and little known; but now the fhell is opened, and their fingular worth and value is known. They were little known, because they faid little; yet, to fuch as obferved them, their light did fhine before men; but as it did not sparkle and glitter before the purblind world-did not smoke much, therefore it was fcarce feen by many. Well, to the comfort of all fuch, their work is with the Lord, and their judgment is with their God. Thefe ranfomed of the Lord fhall return to Zion, and everlasting joy upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and fighing fhall flee away *. 7. WHILE the Lord is bringing forth the righteoufness of his faints into judgment, and their just dealing as the noon-day, the ungodly are ftanding forth in dreadful expectation, and feeing and hearing the glorious reward of the righteous; and now-Thy repenting, and groaning for anguish of Spirit, fhal fay within themfelves, This was he whom we had fometimes in derifion and a preverb of reproach. We, fols, accounted his life madness; and his end without bonour. How is he numbered among the children of God, and his lot among the faints! Ah, ye enemies to your own fouls, what has piile profited you? Or what good hath riches, with vaunting, brought you? All these things are paffed away like a poft, only the bitter remem brance-to fting you for ever. 8. MEANWHILE, the Judge gives the awful fignal for their coming forth; and now the dreadful yell is fet up, O rocks, fall upon us! O. hills, cover us! Hide us from A is 'the' ·C c 3 * Ifa. xxxv. 10. † Wil. v. 3, 4, 5. |