2 Cor. x. 4, 5. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of ftrong-holds, cafting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity The Divine Perfections illuftrated in the Method of Salvation through the Sufferings of Chrift. John xii. 27, 28. Now my foul is troubled; and what shall I fay? Father, fave me from this hour: but for this caufe came Religion the highest Wisdom, and Sin the greatest Pfalm cxi. 10. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom : a good understanding have all they that do his commandments. The Doom of the Incorrigible Sinner. Prov. xxix. 1. He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, SERMON XX. THE UNIVERSAL JUDGMENT. ACTS xvii. 30, 31. And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent, because he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that Man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given affurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead. THE HE present state is the infancy of human nature; and all the events of time, even those that make fuch noife, and determine the fate of kingdoms, are but the little affairs of children. But if we look forwards and trace human nature to maturity, we meet with events vaft, interefting and majestic; and fuch as nothing but divine authority can render credible to us who are fo apt to judge of things by what we fee. To one of thofe fcenes I would direct your attention this day; I mean the folemn, tremendous, and glorious fcene of the univerfal judgment. You have fometimes feen a ftately building in ruins; come now and view the ruins of a demolished world. You have often seen a feeble mortal ftruggling in the agonies of death, and his fhattered frame dif folved; come now and view univerfal nature feverely labouring and agonizing in her last convulfions, and her well-compacted fyftem diffolved. You have heard of earthquakes here and there that have laid Lisbon, Palermo, and a few other cities in ruins; come now and feel the tremors and convulfions of the whole globe, that blend cities and countries, oceans and continents, mountains, plains, and vallies in one VOL. II. promifcuous B promifcuous heap. You have a thousand times beheld the moon walking in brightness, and the fun fhining in his ftrength; now look and fee the fun turned into darkness, and the moon into blood. It is our lot to live in an age of confufion, blood, and flaughter; an age in which our attention is engaged by the clash of arms, the clangor of trumpets, the roar of artillery, and the dubious fate of kingdoms; but draw off your thoughts from these ob jects for an hour, and fix them on objects more folemn and interesting: come view "A fcene that yields A louder trumpet, and more dreadful fields; The World alarm'd, both Earth and Heav'n o'erthrown, Death's ancient fceptre broke, the teeming Tomb, The righteous Judge, and man's eternal Doom." YOUNG. Such a fcene there certainly is before us; for St. Paul tells us that God hath given affurance to all men hè will judge the world in righteousness by that Man whom he bath ordained; and that his refurrection, the refurrection of him who is God and man, is a demonftrative proof of it. In this My text is the conclufion of St. Paul's defence or fermon before the famous court of Areopagus, in the learned and philofophical city of Athens. auguft and polite affembly he speaks with the boldnefs, and in the evangelical ftrain, of an apoftle of Chrift. He firft inculcates upon them the great truths of natural religion, and labours faithfully, though in a very gentle and inoffenfive manner, to reform them from that ftupid idolatry and fuperftition into which even this learned and philofophical city was funk, though a Socrates, a Plato, and the most celebrated fages and moralifts of pagan antiquity had lived and taught in it. Afterwards, in the close of his difcourfe, he introduces the glorious peculiarities of Christianity, particularly the great duty of repentance, from evangelical motives, the refurrection of the the dead, and the final judgment. But no fooner has he entered upon this fubject than he is interrupted, and feems to have broken off abruptly; for when he has just hinted at the then unpopular doctrine of the refurrection of the dead, we are told, fome mocked, and others put it off to another hearing: We will hear thee again of this matter. In thefe dark times of ignorance which preceded the publication of the gofpel, God feemed to wink or connive at the idolatry and various forms of wickednefs that had overfpread the world; that is, he feemed to overlook* or take no notice of them, so as either to punish them, or to give the nations explicit calls to repentance. But now, fays St. Paul, the cafe is altered. Now the gospel is published through the world, and therefore God will no longer feem to connive at the wickednefs and impenitence of mankind, but publishes his great mandate to a rebel world, explicitly and loudly, commanding all men every where to repent; and he now gives them particular motives and encouragements to this duty. One motive of the greatest weight, which was never fo clearly or extensively published before, is the doctrine of the univerfal judgment. This the connection implies: He now commandeth all men to repent, because he hath appointed a day for judging all men. And furely the profpect of a judgment must be a ftrong motive to finners to repent:-this, if any thing, will roufe them from their thoughtless fecurity, and bring them to repentance. Repentance should, and one would think must be as extenfive as this reafon for it. This St. Paul intimates. He now commandeth all men to repent, because he hath given affurance to all men that he has appointed a day to judge the world. Wherever the gofpel publifhes the doctrine of a future judgment, there it requires all men to repent; and wherever it requires repentance, there it enforces the command of this alarming doctrine. yperidon. God |