and magnanimity, and enable us to submit to the greatest sufferings for the sake of Christ and his cause. Thus the pious sufferers and martyrs of old submitted to be tortured, "not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection," Heb. 11: 35, i. e. a resurrection to a better life than they were to lose.

19. But let it be remembered, my dear Benjamin, that none can derive comfort from the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, but those who have evidence that they have part in the first resurrection from sin; that they have been quickened by the Spirit of God, regenerated and brought to repent towards God, and to exercise faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. He who lies buried in sin, can have no hope of a joyful resurrection. If your body and soul are spiritually dead to sin and alive to God, then you may rejoice in the prospect of the resurrection of a glorious body, which "shall shine as the stars in the kingdom of heaven;" for "when Christ, who is your life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory." Col.

3: 4.

awful the state of the The time will surely

20. How awful, tremendously wicked and their future prospects! come, when those who now stop their ears and will not hear the voice of God speaking in his word, and by his ministers, shall hear his voice whether they will or not; and shall come out of their graves to the resurrection of con demnation, like a malefactor led to the place of execution. Happy for such if there were no resurrection, that their souls did die as the brute beasts; but let such be assured that there shall be a resurrection of the unjust as well as the just; all in their graves shall come forth, but they shall be raised to damnation, John, 5: 28, 29; their terror will be great, Rev. 6: 15-17; and their end dreadful. Matt. 25 41. "Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men" to renounce their evil ways, to repent of

their sins, to believe on Jesus Christ, to live devoted to him, and their end will be glorious. May you and I, my dear Benjamin, upon scriptural evidence and happy experience, be enabled to say, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to his abundant mercy, hath begotten us again unto a lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time." 1 Peter, 1 : 3-5.

Letter II.

THE GENERAL JUDGMENT.

Farewell.

My Dear Benjamin,

Agreeably to promise, I will now invite your attention to the General Judgment day; an event, beyond all others, the most solemn and important: the coming of the Messiah to judge the whole world in righteousness, and fix unalterably the eternal condition of every individual of the human race, either in happiness inconceivably great, or misery inexpressibly awful. This truth, however, is denied by the scoffer, 2 Peter, 3: 3, 4; dreaded by the wicked, Acts, 24: 25; but believed, nay, earnestly desired by the saints. 2 Tim. 4: 8. Titus, 2: 13. Rev. 22: 20. I will endeavor,

§ 1. To prove the fact, that there will be a general judg

ment. This may be proved from the relation men stand in to God, as creatures to a Creator, and subjects to a King. He has a right to give them a law, and to make them accountable for a breach of it. Hence saith the apostle, "So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God." Rom. 14: 12.

§ 2. The certainty of a future judgment appears from the justice of God, which requires it; for it is evident that this attribute is not clearly displayed in the dispensation of things in the present state.

Things seem to be carried on in this world with an unequal balance. The candle of God shines upon the wicked. They that tempt God are delivered. Malachi, 3:15. The wicked and disobedient persons are often as happy as if they were rewarded for their iniquity, whilst the innocent and religious are often as miserable as if they were punished for their innocency. Hence Asaph tells us, in the 73d Psalm, that he almost stumbled and fell at the prosperity of the wicked and the adversity of the righteous; till he considered their latter end, their different situations in a future life, when Jehovah's message, sent by the prophet Isaiah, will be fulfilled: "Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him; for they shall eat the fruit of their doings. Wo unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him; for the reward of his hands shall be given him." Isa, 3: 10, 11. King Solomon also said in the days of his vanity, "there is a just man that perisheth in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man that prolongeth his life in his wickedness." Eccl. 7 15. But when he had grown wiser by experience, he said, "know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment; for God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil." Eccl. 119. 12: 14.

Diogenes, seeing Harpalus, a noted thief, going on prosperously, said, sure God has cast off the government of

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the world, and minded not how things went on here below." But the day is coming, when God will vindicate his justice. The saints," says Cyprian, "are put into the wine-press, and often the blood of these grapes is pressed out God will therefore have a day of judgment, that he may reward all the tears and sufferings of his people; they shall have their crown, and throne, and white robes; though they be losers for Christ, they shall lose nothing by him."

3. The next proof of a general judgment is derived from the dictates of conscience. God has implanted a presumption and sense of a future judgment in the minds and hearts of men by nature, from whence it is absolutely and eternally inseparable. "Conscience," says Dr. Owen, is nothing but that judgment which men do make, and which they cannot but make, of their moral actions with reference unto the supreme future judgment of God. Hence the apostle assures us that the heathen, who had nothing but the dim light of nature to guide them, had a conscience that accused them and forced them to own a judgment to come: 'For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves; which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another ;) in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel.'" Rom. 2: 14-16.

Now, what is this private passion, kept in the court of conscience, but a certain forerunner of that general day of judgment when all the world shall be summoned to God's tribunal?

Conscience, awakened by sharp afflictions, by sudden dangers, and the approaches of death, makes a sad detection of past sins, and forecasts cruel things; it cites the of fender before the enlightened tribunal of heaven, scourges

with remorse, and makes him feel, even here, the strokes of hell. Though the sin be secret, and the guilty person powerful, not within the reach or cognizance of human justice; yet conscience has a rack within, and causes pain and anxiety, by fearful expectations of judgment to come. Hence the mere hand-writing on the wall made King Belshazzar tremble, as much as Felix did at the preaching of St. Paul. Dan. 5: 6; Acts, 24: 25.

§ 4. Another proof of a future judgment is to be derived from some partial instances of judgment which God has already executed.

It is not without a reason that God has sometimes gone out of the usual way of providence. He does it, to intimate unto the world that they are not always to pass at their present rate, but are one day to be called to another account. In great judgments, the "wrath of God is revealed from heaven against the ungodliness of man," Rom. 1: 16, and an intimation is given of what he will farther do hereafter. For as he "leaves not himself without witness," in respect of his goodness and patience, "in that he doeth good and giveth rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling men's hearts with food and gladness," Acts, 14: 17; so he gives testimony to his righteousness and holiness, in the "judgments that he executes." Psa. 9: 16. And thus, in some particular instances, he has given us a pledge of a future judgment. Such was the flood whereby the world was destroyed in the days of Noah, which the apostle affirms expressly was a type, to shadow out the severity of God in the last final judgment, 2 Peter, 2: 5, 3:5-7. Of the same nature was his "turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemning them with an overthrow and making them an example unto those that after should live ungodly." 2 Peter, 2: 6. In like manner the apostle Jude says expressly, "they are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire," ver. 7,`