́shall be summoned to judgment by the trumpet of the arch-angel. Then the wicked will come forth like miserable captives from their dungeons, filled with horror by the stings of conscience and apprehensions of their approaching doom, while the saints will rise out of their graves with joy and gladness in their countenances, and approach with rapture the solemnities of the judgment. Enoch the seventh from Adam, prophesied saying, Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints to execute judgment upon all. When the Son of Man shall sit upon the throne of his glory, ye shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.'

Now, the wicked take it upon them to judge the saints. They pass their censures and pronounce condemnation upon God's children as they see fit. Some they denounce as the most arrant hypocrites; others as deluded fanatics, deceived themselves and labouring to decive others.

The professions and devotions of christians are frequently made a subject of ridicule by the wicked. They will accuse them of exhibiting to the world much outward show of religion, while they carry within them hearts desperately wicked of being like whited sepulchres, beautiful without; but within full of uncleanness. The malicious censures of the wicked are often very forcibly felt by christians: they acknowledge them just and are depressed and overcome with a sense, of their sins, and of the dishonor they have brought upon the religion they profess.The trials they experience are so great, that they feel the full force of the observation of the Apostle• If we have hope in this life only, we are of all men the most miserable.'

But christians, you have no cause to faint. The accusations of the wicked, will not disgrace you in the view of your heavenly father. You are yet to judge the world. You are to give your according appro

bation to the final sentence which shall be pronounced upon those guilty men, who have with such violence and malignity traduced your characters before the world. You will yet, O believer, be fully vindicated before all the assembled universe. It will be made to appear, that though you had many imperfections yet your motives and springs of action in religious pursuits, were good, and that they have been maliciously misrepresented by wicked men.

But how will you be able to pass a righteous sentence on others, for those sins of which yourselves aré guilty? This consideration should induce you to take an elevated stand; to pursue a course of life, which shall reflect, lustre on your profession, and make the fact strikingly to appear, that you do, and are, more than others. By the holiness of your lives, you should show the unrenewed in heart, the wickedness of theirs. By your exemplary walk, you should endeavour to wipe away the prejudice which the world entertain of religion. Let there be no longer occasion for it to be reproachfully said, that with your lips you profess Christ; but in your works you deny him.

7thly. The disciples of Christ should do more than others, because they expect more. They do not view this world as their abiding place; they consider themselves as pilgrims and sojourners in a strange land. They are seeking another and a better country, that is an heavenly. They expect soon to enter upon that incorruptible inheritance, which fadeth not away; which Christ has gone before to prepare for those that love him. John in his first epistle says, Every man that has this hope, purifies himself, even as he is pure. That hope which is like an anchor tó the soul, sure and steadfast, and entering into that within the vail, never flourishes in a barren soil.

If you live thoughtless and secure here, you must not expect to reign with Christ hereafter. You can: not go from Delilah's lap of carnal ease, to Abraham's

bosom of happy repose. As you are expecting an open and abundant entrance to be administered unto you into the kingdom of heaven; you must lead a life which will qualify you for the kingdom of heaven. The ungodly do not expect to be crowned with glory. They live without hope and without God in the world. But believers are the expectants of a glorious and a happy immortality. Let your present life and conversation be suitable to your prospects of future adyancement at the right hand of the majesty on high, when you shall be crowned with glory, honor, and immortality. You cannot lead a vicious, unholy life and receive the rewards of the blessed. It was impossible for Balaam to die the death of the righteous, or to have his last end like his, when he had been a diviner, a heathen soothsayer, and a worshiper of false Gods. Without holiness no man shall see the Lord, Though holiness be what a sinner despises, it is that, which a saviour crowns. If you would be crowned, so run that ye may obtain. Lay aside every weight and the sin which does most easily beset you, and run with patience the race which is set before you, looking unto Jesus Christ. If you neglect to run the race of holiness here, you will certainly lose the crown of blessedness hereafter. Every tree that bear eth not good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. You may perish for being servants that are unprofitable, as well as for being servants that are abo minable. How constant, how diligent,ought believers to be in duty, when they are assured by infallible testimony that their labor is not in vain in the Lord.

If you who profess religion do no more than others, you certainly can expect no more in the eternal world. If you love them that love you, what reward have you? It is nothing but mere nature to give, where you expect again to receive. True religion teaches you bless them that curse you, to do good to them that hate you, and to pray for them which dispitefully

to

use you and persecute you, that ye may be the children of your father which is in heaven, for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye ? Do not even the Publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? Do not even the Publicans so? If you would not have God put you off with a Pharisee's recom, pence, do not put off God with a Pharasee's perform,

ance.

8thly Believers are bound to do more than others, because they have a perfect pattern set for their im itation. They are required to be conformed in all things to Christ the Redeemer, to be perfect as he is perfect.

Christ is the standard of moral excellency to which all his followers are bound to conform. He is the root on which the saint grows, and the rule by which he is to square all his actions. It pleased him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect. Christ lived to teach you how to live, and died to teach you how to die. His words are, For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done. Glorious example! Worthy of the Blessed Redeemer who gave it--worthy of the imitation of all christians.

My christian brethren; attend to the heavenly precepts which proceeded from his lips; to that perfect conduct which appeared in his life. It should be your greatest delight to yield obedience to his requirements, to be holy in both heart and life. You should be as willing to be ruled by his laws, as to be saved by his grace. If you would reign with him in glory, you must take up your cross and follow him through life.

IMPROVEMENT.

1st. While attending to this subjeet, I make no doubt, but the sinner has been flattering himself with the idea, that, it furnishes him with an excuse for his neglect of religion. It may have been the language of his heart. I am glad to hear it thus publicly acknow. ledged, that christians are bound to do more than others they have indeed a burden lying upon them, of which I rejoice that I am free: While they are tied up to rigid rules, and obliged by their profession to lead the rigid, and austere life, which has been described, I am not shackled with these restrictions, but may live as I list.

But suffer me O sinner, to reply to you, that if what has now been said pointing out the obligations of Christians to holy living, has afforded any food to your guilty mind, it is not more substantial, than the husks on which the prodigal fed before he was brought to a sense of his situation. It is the plain truth, that you are under the most indispensible obligations to immediately become a christian, and to lead the very life which the godly man leads. No plea, or excuse which you can frame, can free you from this solemn obligation; and every moment which you delay to become a hearty penitant and a true follower of the lamb; you are hazarding your eternal all. You are in a most awful manner aggravating your eternal condemnation. How gloriously will the justice of God soon shine in your utter destruction, unless you im. mediately flee for refuge and lay hold on Jesus Christ by a true and living faith.

2dly. Learn hence that a christian's life is a life of activity. A sleepy, lifeless christian, is a stumbling block to the wicked. Hear what the Lord says of the Laodicean Church. And unto the Angel of the Church of the Laodiceans write, These things saith the Amen, the faitful and the true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; I know thy works that