prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was an hungred and ye gave me meat, I was thirsty und ye gave me drink; I was a stranger and ye took me in, naked and ye cloathed me; I was sick and ye visited me; I was in prison and ye came unto me. And then, when the righteous (wondering at this divine goodness, and modestly under-valuing their own performances) shall answer, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred and fed thee; thirsty and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger and took thee in; or naked and clothed thee? When saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? The Judge graciously replies, Verily I say unto you, in as much as ye have done it to one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

Hence we see that our Saviour and Judge not only takes notice of the meanest offices, and the easiest expressions. of charity and compassion, but remembers them for us when we have forgotten them: and that, at the most advantageous season, when he comes in all his glory with crowns and kingdoms to bestow, in the most important and critical time, when our eternity depends on it.

Our Judge will make such allowances that the justice of our cause will bear; he will not look upon defects in our duties as wilful contempts of his laws; nor will he deem our frailties and infirmities as presumptuous sins. What! (says he to Peter) could you not watch with me for one hour? Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation. And when he returned from praying, and found his disciples

still asleep, for their eyes were heavy, how graciously does he palliate this failing: The spirit (says he) indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. Hence it is plain, that such infirmities as are consistent with a divine life, with a sincere love of God, and a true and hearty sense of virtue and goodness, shall not be rigidly aggravated against us.. I shall now, in the

Third place, Take notice of the rewards and punishments, which are the consequents of the proceedings of that day, and they will be proportioned to the calamities and sufferings of men in this life. St. Paul tells us, that as one star differeth from another in glory, so also is the resurrection of the dead; and our Saviour assures us, that in his Father's house are many mansions: not only room to receive many, but, as that phrase properly imports, several degrees and stations of glory; so that they who suffered most here, through poverty, sickness, or any other calamity, will be freed from their sorrows, and shine forth with an extraordinary ray of glory hereafter. Thus we see how the Almighty clears up and vindicates his providence.

As to the nature of these rewards and punishments, that is entirely conjectural; and whatever is offered as a particular description of them, is as much the product of fancy, as any of the flights that we meet with in the ancient poets. We are certain of nothing more than what is exhibited to us in scripture. The habitation of the virtuous is there represented by a city, a kingdom, a place of rest, a paradise;

all that can give us an idea of grandeur, delight, and happiness.

On the contrary, the dwelling of the wicked is described by unquenchable fire; a never dying worm; a bottomless pit; terms the most horrible and affrighting to human beings. And the manner how we shall become capable of receiving our merits, whether in the same bodies in which the deeds were done, or in such other bodies as God shall please to clothe our souls at the morning of the resurrection, though it has furnished matter of controversy amongst the learned in metaphysics, I look upon it to be a matter of indifference to us, since the soul will be equally capable of happiness or misery in any body that the Almighty shall give it. How body and spirit act reciprocally upon each other, and the manner by which their correspondence is supported in this life, never has,, and I believe never will be, explained. How then shall we pretend to demonstrate the nature of their junction after separation?

St. Paul tells us, that God shall change our vile bodies that they may be fashioned like unto his glorious body; but wherein that likeness consists we are at a loss to determine; and as neither Christ nor his Apostles have thought proper to tell us, there is no necessity of placing the opinion of men (fallible as ourselves) in the Christian credenda. We see that God has promised to reward the virtuous, and punish the wicked, in another hfe; and we know God can and will do what he promises. Let us therefore be more careful to avoid the punishment than

to dive into the nature of it; such secret things belong unto the Lord our God. Leaving them then to the Divine wisdom, I pass on to the

Fourth and last thing proposed, namely, the day set apart for this disquisition.

The text tells us, that God hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world. No doubt of it; but as the day of Christ's first coming was immoveably fixed, so also is that of his second coming to judge the world; but Christ tells us, that of that day or hour knoweth no man; no, not the angels of heaven, but my father only. After a declaration so plain and so positive, modesty I think might prompt us to let the event of that promise ripen in the womb of futurity.

God, no doubt, thought proper to keep the world in ignorance as to the precise time; and two of his reasons (amongst many others best known to his infinite wisdom) may be these::

First, That he might keep the negligent world on their guard, who are too apt to put far from them that terrible day; and,

Secondly, To keep up the economy of life; for if the precise day was known beyond all uncertainty, and it so near our time that we could count the number of our days, and be certified how long we have to live, we should be like so many criminals, whose time of probation is fixed; and who, in consequence thereof, would spend our whole time in preparing for this important day, and neglect to provide the common necessaries of life, which (without the interposition of a miracle) would hasten the

period of the world, and frustrate the purpose

of God.

To conclude. As Christianity gives us assurance of the resurrection of the body, which those who were instructed by reason only knew nothing at all of, and even has furnished us with a glorious instance of it in the resurrection of Christ; since the reward that Christianity proposes is worthy of God, an inheritance undefiled with misery or vice, a state in which we shall be fitted for the most exalted employments and pleasures; let us thankfully cherish this glorious hope, entertain it as the sum of all our wishes, the completion of all our joys:*

Of such rast moment was it to the wise St. Paul, that he counted all things but loss and dung in comparison of this one thing, that he might, by any means, attain unto the resurrection of the dead, unto an happy part in that resurrection. How earnestly did he press toward the mark (through all manner of afflictions, necessities, and distresses) for the prize of the high calling of God, in Christ Jesus. And what did not the old patriarchs gladly do? What did they not most willingly suffer that they might attain a better resurrection? And shall not the hope of this prompt us to make our peace with God, and by an effectual repentance abandon all the ways of sin for the future?

But if such examples be not sufficient to lead us to a preparation suitable to the importance of the trial, perhaps the thoughts of what must infallibly be the result of our petulent follies, wilful miscarriages, and treacherous infidelity,