one who was accounted the darling of the world. O! what an aggravation of the misery of the wicked will it be, that he shall pronounce this sentence also! to hear the curse from mount Zion, must needs be most terrible. To be damned by him, who came to save sinners, must be double damnation. But thus it shall be. The Lamb of God shall roar, as a lion against them: he shall excommunicate, and cast them out of his presence for ever, by a sentence from the throne, saying, "Depart from me ye cursed." He shall adjudge them to everlasting fire, and the society of devils for evermore. And this sentence also we suppose, shall be pronounced with an audible voice, by the man Christ. And all the saints shall say, "Hallelujah, true and righteous are his judgments." None were so compassionate as the saints, when on earth during the time of God's patience. But now that time is at an end, their compassion on the ungodly is swallowed up in joy, in the Mediator's glory, and his executing of just judgment, by which his enemies are made his footstool. Though sometimes the righteous man did weep in secret places for their pride, and because they would not hear yet, then, "He shall rejoice, when he seeth the vengeance; he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked," Psal. Iviii. 10. No pity shall be then shewn to them, from their nearest relations. The godly wife shall applaud the justice of the Judge, in the condemnation of her ungodly husband: the godly husband shall say, Amen, to the dam nation of her who lay in his bosom: the godly parents shall say, Hallelujah, at the passing of the sentence against their ungodly child and the godly child, shall from his heart, approve the damnation of his wicked parents, the father who begat him, and the mother who bore him. The sentence is just: they are judged "according to their works," Rev. xx. 12.

There is no wrong done them: "For I was hungry," saith our Lord, " and ye gave me no meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me not in; naked, and ye clothed me not; sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not," ver. 42, 43. These are not only evidences of their ungodly and cursed state, but most proper causes and grounds of their condemnation: for though good works do not merit salvation, yet evil works

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merit damnation. Sins of one kind only, namely, of omission, are here mentioned; not that these alone shall then be discovered (for the opening of the books lay all open) but because these, tho' there were no more, are sufficien to damn unpardoned sinners. And if men shall be condemned for sins of omission, much more for sins of commission. The omission of works of charity and mercy, is condescended on particularly, to stop the mouths of the wicked; for it is most just, that he have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy, James ii. 13. The mentioning of the omission of acts of charity and mercy towards the distressed members of Christ, intimates, that it is the judgment of those who have heard of Christ in the gospel, that is principally intended here, in this portion of scripture; and that the slighting of Christ, will be the great cause of the ruin of those who hear the gospel; but the enmity of the hearts of the wicked against himself is discovered by the entertainment they now give to his members.

In vain will they say, "When saw we thee an hungered, athirst?" &c. ver 44. For the Lord reckons, and will reckon, the world's unkindness to his people, unkindness to himself! "In as much as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me," ver. 45. O meat and drink unhappily spared, when a member of Christ was in need of it! O wretched neglect, that the stranger saint was not taken in!` it had been better for them, they had quitted their own room, and their own bed, than he had wanted lodging. O cursed clothing, may the wicked say, that was in my house, locked up in my chest, or hanging in my wardrobe, and was not brought out to clothe such a one! Oh that I had stripped myself, rather than he had gone away without clothing! Cursed business, that diverted me from visiting a sick saint! O that I had rather watched whole nights with him. Wretch that I was! why did I sit at ease in my house, when he was in prison, and not visit him? But now the tables are turned; Christ's servants shall eat, but I shall be hungry; his servants shall drink, but I shall be thirsty; they rejoice, but I am ashamed, Isa. lxv. 13. They are taken in, but I am cast out and bid depart; they are clothed with robes of glory, but I walk naked, and they see my shame, Rev. xvi. 15.

They are now raised up on high, beyond the reach of sickness or pain; but I must now lie down in sorrow, Isa. 1. 11. Now shall they go to the palace of heaven, but I must go to the prison of hell.

But if our Lord thus resents mens neglecting to help his people under these and the like distresses; what may they expect, who are the authors and instruments of them? If they shall be fed with wrath, who fed them not, when they were hungry; what shall become of those, who robbed and spoiled them, and took their own bread away from them? What a full cup of wrath shall be the portion of those, who were so far from giving them meat or drink, when hungry or thirsty, that they made it a crime for others to entertain them, and made themselves drunken with their blood! they must lodge with devils for evermore, who took not in the Lord's people, when strangers; then, what a lodging shall those have, who drave them out of their own houses, out of their native land, and made them strangers? Men will be condemned for not clothing them when naked; then, how heavy must the sentence of those be, who have stripped them, and made them go without clothing? Surely, if not visiting of them in sickness, or in a prison, shall be so severely punished; they shall not escape a most heavy doom, who have cast them into prisons, and have them put under such hardships, as have impaired their health, brought sickness on them, and cut their days in prison, or out of prison.

To put a face upon such wicked practices, men will pretend to retain an honour for Christ and religion, while they thus treat his members, walking in his ways, and keeping the truth. They are here represented to say, “ When saw we thee an hungered, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?" yer. 44. As if they should say, Our bread, drink, lodging, clothing, and visits, were indeed refused, but not to Christ; but to a set of men, of a bad character; men who turned the world upside down, (Acts xvii. 6.) who troubled Israel, (2 Kings xviii. 17.) an humorous and fantastic sort of people, having laws diverse from all people; factious and rebellious (they did not keep the king's laws) and therefore a very dangerous set of men; it was not for the king's profit to suffer them, Esther iii. 8. But although men

cast iniquity upon the ungodly, and give them ill names, that they may treat them as criminals; all these pretences will avail them nothing; in the great day, before the righteous Judge, nor before their own consciences neither; but the real ground of their enmity against the saints, will be found, (to their own conviction) to be their enmity against Christ himself. This seems to be the import of the objection of the damned, (ver. 44. and of the answer to it, ver. 45.) "In as much as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me."

Lastly, Sentence being past on both parties, follows the full execution of the same, ver. 46. "And these shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal." The damned shall get no reprieve, but go to their place without delay; they shall be driven away from the judgment-seat into hell; and the saints shall enter into the king's palace, (Psal. xlv. 15.) namely, into heaven the seat of the blessed. But our Lord Christ, and his glorious company, shall keep the field that day, and see the backs of all their enemies for the damned go off first.

In this day of the Lord, the great day, shall be the general conflagration, by which those visible heavens, the earth and sea shall pass away. Not that they shall be annihilated (or reduced to nothing), that is not the operation of fire; but they shall be dissolved, and purged by that fire, from all the effects of sin, or of the curse, upon them; and then renewed, and made glorious and stable. Of this conflagration, the Apostle Peter speaks, 2 Pet. iii. 10. "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 fervent heat: the earth also, and the works that are therein shall be burnt up." See also ver. 7, 12. And of the renewing of the world, he adds, ver. 13. "Nevertheless we, according to his promise look for new heavens, and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness."

It seems most agreeable to the Scriptures, and to the nature of the thing, to conceive this conflagration to forlow after the general judgment; sentence being past on both parties before it. And I judge it probable, that it will fall in with the putting of the sentence in execution

against the damned; so as they shall (according to their sentence) depart, and the heavens and the earth pass away together and at once, at that furious rebuke from the throne, driving away the damned out of the world (in this fire) to the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. Even as, in the deluge, with which the Apostle Peter compares the conflagration or burning of the world, (2 Pet. iii. 6, 7.) the world itself, and the wicked upon it, perished together; the same water which destroyed the earth, sweeping away the inhabitants. For it is not likely, that the wicked shall at all stand on the new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness, 2 Pet. iii. 13. and as for this earth, it shall flee away, (which seems to denote a very quick dispatch) and it shall flee from his face, who sits on the throne, Rev. xx. 11. " And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the heavens and the earth fled away. 99. The execution of the sentence on the wicked, is also thus expressed: They shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence, or from the face of the Lord, 2 Thess. i. 9. The original word is the same in both texts, the which being compared, seem to say, that these creatures being abused by the wicked, being left to stand, as witnesses against them in the judgment, are, after sentence past on their abusers, made to pass away with them from the face of the judge. It is true, the fleeing away of the earth and heaven is narrated, Rev. xx. 11. before the judgment; but that will not prove its going before the judgment, more than the narrating of the judgment, ver. 12. before the resurrection, ver. 13. will prove the judgment to be before it. Further, it is remarkable, in the execution of the sentence, Rev. xx. 14, 15. that not only the reprobate are cast into the lake, but death and hell are cast into it likewise; all effects of sin, and of the curse, are removed out of the world (for which very cause shall the conflagration be) and they are confined to the place of the damned. Besides all this, it is evident the end of the world is by the conflagration; and the Apostle tells us, (1 Cor. xv. 24, 35.) that "then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father: when he shall have put down all rule, and all authority, and power. For he must reign, till hath put all enemies under his fect." The which last