and zeal the great importance of good works, as evidences and fruits of faith; and that others seeing them, might be excited to glorify their Father who is in heaven.

11. They often brought into view the resurrection of the dead, the last judgment, and the final states of men. On the first of these, Paul enlarges with great strength and propriety of reasoning, in 1 Cor. xv. to which I refer you.

They also assure us, in language calculated to awaken all our attention, that Jesus Christ will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and the trump of God; that the heavens being on fire, shall be dissolved; the elements shall melt with fervent heat; the earth and all that is therein shall be burnt up. Then they who have done good shall come forth to the resurrection of life, and they who have done evil to the resurrection of damnation. O how solemn will be this concluding scene! The last trump will awake the sleeping millions; the sex give up the dead that are in it; death and hell give up the dead that are in them; and all crowd around that throne on which the Judge is seated, from whose sentence there will be no appeal! Amazement all!

The different characters of men are marked; all carry their destination in their countenances. The righteous fly to meet their glorious Judge, their Saviour and their Friend, and bid him welcome ten thousand times. Their hearts beat high with joy and praise. Each eye beams peace; and all the innumerable multitude of redeemed sinners sing, "Lo, this is our God, we have wait

ed for him; we will rejoice and be glad in his salvation." These he shall place on his right

hand.

But the ungodly approach with horror and despair; for their consciences at this fatal moment more than ever anticipate their doom; hence they "say to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth upon the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb for the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?" These the Judge shall place on his left hand. The critical and decisive moment is arrived; all nations are before him; they are separated the one from the other, as a shepherd divideth the sheep from the goats. To them on his right hand he will say, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink ; I was a stranger, and ye took me in; naked, and ye clothed me; I was sick, and visited me; was in prison, and ye came unto me. he say also unto them on his left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: for I was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me not in; naked, and ye clothed me not; sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment; but the righteous into life eternal." Thus the solemn scene is closed. "They that were ready went in with him to the marriage, and the door was shut.”

ye

Then shall

I

"Eternity, the various sentence past,
Assigns the sever'd throng distinct abodes,
Sulphureous, or ambrosial! What ensues?
The deed predominant! the deed of deeds !
Which makes a hell of hell, a heav'n of heav'n.
The goddess, with determin'd aspect, turns
Her adamantine key's enormous size
Through destiny's inextricable wards,

Deep driving ev'ry bolt, on both their fates.
Then, from the crystal battlements of heav'n,
Down, down she hurls it through the dark profound
Ten thousand thousand fathoms; there to rust,
And ne'er unlock her resolution more.

III. I pass to shew, that God hath put the most distinguished honour on these doctrines, by making them the means of saving those who believe.

They were not only remarkably successful du.. ring the first age of the church, when thousands were converted to the Christian faith, but have been so at different periods since, down to the present day.

"Before the destruction of Jerusalem, the gos pel was not only preached in the less Asia, and Greece and Italy, the great theatres of action then în the world, but was likewise propagated as far northward as Scythia, as far southward as Ethiopia, as far eastward as Parthia and India, as far westward as Spain and Britain."§

During the three first centuries, the gospel was preached with great success, notwithstanding the violence of persecution. The more the Christians were oppressed, the more they grew; hence it became a maxim, that "the blood of the mar tyrs is the seed of the church.”

Dr. Young's Night Thoughts, † See Acts ii. 41. iv. 4, &c.

§ Bishop Newton on the Prophecies, Vol. II. page 237.

From the time of the death of Constantine till the reformation from popery, the church passed through various dark and trying scenes. Sometimes she appeared to be near destruction. "This is the darkest and most dismal day that ever the church saw, and probably the darkest it ever will see." Yet through all that period God raised up some faithful witnesses for his cause; among whom, by general consent of ecclesiastical writers, we are to place the Waldenses,* who are said by some authors to have preserved and handed down the apostolic doctrines pure, from primitive times to the days of Luther.†

Reinerus, their violent enemy, tells us, "that of all sects that ever were, none were so pernicious to the church of Rome as the Leonists or Waldenses; and that for these reasons: 1. For their antiquity and long continuance, even from the time of pope Sylvester, who was made pope in the year 316; or, as others have affirmed, from the time of the apostles. 2. For the universality of that sect, because there was scarce any country where they were not. 3. When all other heretics, by reason of their blasphemy against God, were abhorred, the Waldenses had a great appearance of piety, because they lived justly before men, believed all things well of God, and had the articles of the creed, only they blasphemed the church and clergy of Rome."

After this long night of error and persecution, during which period the witnesses were

* For a full account of these pious people, see Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History.

The confession of their faith shews their attachment to the apostolic doctrines.

Gillies' Success of the Gospel, Vol. I. p. 30:

few, and were obliged to prophecy in sackcloth, the reformation took place. Wickliff appeared in England, whose disciples became numerous, Luther and Melancthon in Germany, John Huss and Jerome in Bohemia, Zuinglius and others in Switzerland. It would be almost endless to mention the names of the worthy men in different parts of the world, whom God raised up to befriend the truths of the gospel, many of whom sealed them with their blood.

If we consult the history of the church since the reformation, we shall find that God hath set his seal to the apostolic doctrines in different parts of the world, by making them the means of great reformations among mankind. In England, Scotland, Ireland, Holland, America, &c. there have been remarkable revivals of religion; at which times crowds of sinners have been turned from darkness to light: whole towns and villages have become serious and reformed: places of public worship, at such seasons, were crowded with anxious inquirers; and converts have come like the clouds and the doves to their windows.*

It is readily granted, that the great end of the preaching of the gospel is to make mankind wiser and better. When therefore the wicked are reformed; churches filled with members who adorn their profession; and the youth especially are made willing to become the followers of the Lamb of God, at a period of life when they are most capable of enjoying the pleasures of sense, we may safely call this the work of God. And blessed be his name, such have been the effects of the faithful ministry among all denominations

*Christian History.