to religion, he recommends it to us to follow this fame rule of judging, by which his own conduct will be guided on the great day. "Ye fhall know them," fays he, " by their fruits do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thiftles?" While of his true difciples he fays, "I have ordained you that ye fhould go forth and bear much fruit." We will only quote one paffage more with a view to this point. "Marvel not," fays the Saviour of the world in another place," for the hour cometh in which all that are in their graves will come forth, they that have done good to the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil, to the refurrection of damnation.”

We shall have now to request the reader's very careful attention while we proceed to fhew what is meant in fcripture" by doing good and doing evil, and by being thus judged, every man according to his works," for there is much room for error on this point if we do not seek for an explanation of the matter in the word of God.

Here then, firft I would obferve that there are many fins fpoken of in fcripture (fome of them fins made very light of by men) which, if a man lives in them habitually, are confidered by the apostle as at once deciding the man's character; and they are called works of the flefh. "Now the works of the flefh are manifeft; which are thefe, adultry, fornication, uncleannefs, lafciviousness, emulations, wrath, ftrife, cnvyings,

murders, drunkenness, revellings, and fuch like, and they that do fuch things fhall not inherit the kingdom of God." And again," be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor adulterers, nor thieves,, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners fhall inherit the kingdom of God." Sinners of this clafs may here read their doom as plainly as if their very names were written in the word of God. O that they would therefore repent, and flee from the wrath to come," for hath the Lord faid and will he not do it?" The mercies of God indeed are great to the penitent and contrite in heart; they extend even to the chief of finners, and bleffed be his name, they are alfo fure mercies; but fo alfo are his judgments fure to them that live and die in their iniquity.

But there are various other marks given in fcripture whereby a man may know whether he fhall come under condemnation. "If ye live after the flesh ye fhall die, but if ye, through the fpirit, do mortify the deeds of the flesh, ye fhall live." And again, "to be carnally minded is death, but to be fpiritually minded is life and peace." What is it then to be carnally minded and to live after the flefh? It is, undoubtedly, to follow our natural inclinations, inftead of following the good motions of the holy fpirit of God; it is to live as we like, to go where we like, to fay and do what we like, to spend our time and our money just as we like, and to let our corrupt immaginations rove

wherever they like; it is to live to please our felves, inftead of living to pleafe God. I may here alfo remark, that there are fins of the mind which will juft as much condemn a man on the judgment day, if they have ruled over him, as any fins of the body, and it may be observed that emulations, wrath, ftrife and envyings have been already named, together with murders and adultery; I may add, that pride is often treated of in the fcripture as highly offenfive to God, and humility as one of the beft figns of acceptance, for "God refifteth the proud, but giveth grace (or favor) to the humble." A readinefs to judge others is alfo a very bad fign. "Judge not that ye be not judged; for with what judgment ye judge, ye fhall be judged;" fo likewife is an unforgiving fpirit; "for if ye forgive not men their trefpaffes," fays our Saviour, "neither will your heavenly Father forgive you." And in the Old Teftament it is moft awfully declared, that "he fhall have judgment without mercy that hath fhewed no mercy," O what need fhall we all have of mercy on that day, and how dreadful a crime will it then feem, to have been in our life time hard and unrelenting towards our fellow-creatures, in comparison of what it does now. The fins even of the tongue will also be enquired into, for "the tongue, though a little member, is a fire, a world of iniquity." It is inconceivable how much good or ill is done by it. The tongue, indeed, is an index of the heart; and therefore it is faid, "by thy

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words thou fhalt be juftified, and by thy words thou fhalt be condemned."

We have spoken hitherto only of actual fins, and of these but shortly, but I must haften to remark that there are virtues which must be practifed if we would hope to enter Heaven, as well as crimes which must be avoided. Some people are apt to think that nine-tenths of the actions of their lives are of a clafs which may be called indifferent. There is no good, they own, in them, but they truft, neither is there any harm. But the fcriptures are far from favoring notions of this fort; and I think there is reason to suppose, that when the day of judgment comes, it will not be fo much a few great crimes on the one hand, or a few fhining virtues on the other, that will decide a man's character, as the ordinary tenor of his life, and the general difpofition of his heart, as to what fome may call the more indifferent, and the leffer matters. Our Saviour, in order to imprefs his difciples with a juft notion of the complete accountablenefs of man, and of the punishment due to unprofitableness, spake to them the following parable: "A certain man went into a far country, and he called his fervants and delivered to each of them his goods; and to one he gave five-talents, and to another two, and to another one ; and after a long time, he cometh and reckoneth with them." Now this is to reprefent God's manner of dealing with us his creatures; he has given us endowments of many kinds; a certain

portion of wealth, for inftance, and of other things, (to fome of us more, and to others lefs) all which we are required to use in the service of the giver, and the day of judgment is that time of reckoning, when he will call upon us to give account how far we have done fo. Every thing we had in this world will then be confidered, not as having been our own, to do what we pleafed with it, but as having been our Lord's goods; and the question to be tried at the judgment day will be, whether we have been faithful in our stewardship. In the parable, we have, firft, a defcription of fome fervants who improved their talents for their Lord's ufe; and to each of these it is faid, "Well done, thou good and faithful fervant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord;" but one fervant is spoken of who had "buried his talent in the earth," that is, who had turned it to no profit, for it is not said that he had done any particular harm with it, and on him is paffed a folemn fentence of condemnation. Woe be to that perfon, therefore, who fhall be obliged to confefs on the judgment day, that while he was in this world, he idled away his time, that precious talent entrusted to him by his maker, in fuch a manner as to bring no honor to God, and no good to his fellowcreatures; as for inftance, in empty talk, in unproductive work, and in needlefs amusements; who fhall be forced to own alfo, that he confi dered his health and ftrength as given him only for his own enjoyment, that he exerted his abi