enticements have prevailed to persuade others to the violation of GOD's Commandments.

And what a horrible meeting then will this be, to see before their eyes, the partners in their sins, and them that drank the round, when they crowned their head with folly and forgetfulness, and their cups with wine and riotings! What will they be able to say in excuse for themselves, when they shall behold those poor souls stand trembling before the dreadful tribunal of the great Judge of the world, whom they tempted to adultery, whoredom, and wantonness; to drunkenness, and perjury, and rebellion; by power or craft, by witty discourses, or deep dissembling; by evil example, or pernicious counsel? For though we may now make but light account concerning these things, yet it will be a fearful circumstance of appearing, to hear one or two, or ten, or twenty unhappy souls, cursing us as the cause of that eternal misery into which they are just going to be plunged by our means. Our lust, it may be, betrayed and rifled the weak and unguarded innocence of some young woman: our example made our servants confidently to lie, or to be perjured: our company brought others into intemperance, or the disguises of a beast. And when we see those souls, with whom we did sin, condemned to hell, well may we fear to drink the dregs of their intolerable portion. For most certainly, it is the greatest of evils to destroy souls, for whom the LORD JESUs died: and to undo that grace which our LORD purchased with so much sweat and blood, and pain, upon the cross.'

Let us who are still in the land of the living, consider very seriously, that though by the mercy of God, our life has still been spared, yet the mischief of our sin is gone before us: the soul of our brother or friend, whom we tempted to sin, is perhaps sealed up to an eternal sorrow. And who shall pay for this loss? A soul is lost by thy means; thou hast defeated the holy purposes of thy LORD's bitter passion by thy

impurities; and what shall happen to thee by whom. thy brother died eternally!

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This is a most fearful circumstance indeed, but yet there is one comfort relating to it. That those who are confederate in the same fortunes, and interests, and actions, may yet have a different sentence. For an early and an active repentance will cancel this account, and nail it to the cross. And though it ought to make us diligent, careful, charitable, and penitent, extremely penitent, even as long as we live, yet when we shall appear together at the last day, there is a mercy that shall then separate us, who had sometimes joined each other in a common crime. Blessed be the mercies of GOD, who hath so carefully provided a fruitful shower of grace, to wash away the guilt, and to relieve the miseries and dangers of a great part of mankind.'

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Again, besides those whom we have directly tempted to sin, there may be others, in whom we have not endeavoured to prevent it, when it was in our power, and for whose sins therefore we must be answerable, in some sort," at the Judgment-seat of CHRIST;" 'such are those, who being under our government, we did not take care to relieve their spiritual wants; as, suppose, of our children and domestic servants; but neglected our duty to them, and did not instruct them. better, and forewarn them of the danger they were in, of being miserable in this world, and in the next; whom we did not restrain from sin when we ought to have done it, by correcting and punishing them for their sins. How will it cut us to the heart, and pierce us to the very soul, to have them challenge us in the great day of the LORD, and say to us one by one, Had you been as careful to teach me the good knowledge of the LORD, as I was capable of learning it; had you been as forward to instruct me in my duty, as I was ready to have learnt it, it had not been with me as it is this day. I had been now in a state of salvation,

and not stood trembling here, in a fearful expectation of my impending doom.'

Let us, therefore, now consider in time, how greatly it concerns us, to be solicitous about the fate of those souls, whom we may have subjected to sin and death, by our carelessness and negligence, and wilful omissions for their good. For many of those sentences which have been past and decreed, concerning our departed relations, will concern us nearly, and bring upon us a sorer punishment, unless we repent for our own sins and double our sorrows for their damnation.

' And thus we see what the articles are for which we must be accountable at the great day, our thoughts and intentions, as well as our words and actions; for those which were done in secret, and with the greatest privacy, as well as for those which were done in public, and in the open view of the world: for the sins we have done in our own persons, and for what others have done by our countenance, or from the influence of our counsel or example, or what we ought to have prevented or hindered by our power and authority, but did not. All these things will be surveyed and searched into, and weighed in an equal balance at that day, that we may receive a reward or punishment proportionable to them.'

And if so, what ought in reason to be more powerful with us, to beget in us a strict care and conscience of all our thoughts, words, and actions, than this; To reflect, that after a little while, when a few days or years more are over, all that ever we did, in this world, shall be strictly examined, and looked into, and be approved or condemned, by the impartial judgment of GOD? since we are assured that there is a most exact register kept of our lives and actions, how circumspect ought we to be, what manner of persons we are in all holy conversation and godliness? How much does it concern us to take heed to our ways, to keep our hearts with all diligence, to set a watch before the

door of our lips, that we may never offend with our tongue! The wise man's advice would be very proper for every one of us to have always in our thoughts; "Fear GOD, and keep his commandments, for GOD will bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil," Eccles. xii. 13, 14.

What will be the Consequence of this Judgment.

I PROCEED now to the last thing which I proposed to consider upon this great and momentous subject, viz. What will be the consequence of this Judgment? That undoubtedly will be the sentence which shall be passed upon all men, according to the nature and quality of their actions done in this world, whether good or evil. Good shall be rewarded to the good, and evil to the evil. For thus says our Saviour, Matt. xvi. 27, "The Son of Man shall come in the glory of his Father, with his angels, and then he shall reward every man according to his works." And Rev. xxii. 12, "Behold I come quickly, and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be." And St. John v. 28, 29, "The hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation." And St. Matt. xxv. 34, this, our Saviour has assured us, shall be the sentence passed on the righteous at the last day; "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:" and on the wicked, ver. 41, "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the

devil and his angels." And ver. 46, speaking of the wicked, he says, "These shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal." This then can by no means be doubted of, since CHRIST himself, who is to be the Judge, has told us that thus it shall be.

Now, since we are assured that a sentence of everlasting happiness, or everlasting misery, will be passed upon all mankind at the last day, according as they shall have deserved in this world: what care does it behove every one of us now to take, that we may be of the number of the happy, and not of the miserable? And yet so blind and inconsiderate are the greatest part of mankind, that in a matter of this vast moment to them, they appear to make this the least part of their care and business in this world! Men are generally very solicitous to advance their fortunes in the world, to be rich and great, to be in a healthful and prosperous condition: and do with all possible care seek to avoid all sickness, and poverty, and meanness; but few are concerned to be virtuous and good, and to avoid vice and wickedness; whereas the moral differences of men will be the only things that will be taken into consideration at the day of Judgment. Other things will not profit us in the day of wrath. As to all civil differences, they will then vanish, and be of no account, as to exempting any. man from judgment, or procuring him any favour or respect therein. For GOD, at that day, will not proceed with men according to their outward quality and condition in this life. Their eternal state shall not then be decided according to their wealth or power, their greatness or meanness in this world. It will not then avail them, what large estates they were possessed of; what high offices they bore in the state; what titles of honour they were distinguished by; what manors or lordships they were owners of: but the great inquiry will be, how they behaved themselves in those circumstances; what use they made of their wealth and power; what good or