If ever there was a subject worthy to fix the attention of a reasonable creature, it is that on which I am now to speak. All the little distinctions of this world shrink to nothing in comparison with it. All the studies which have employed the learned, all the glories which attend the conqueror, appear unworthy of regard. We know and feel that all are vanity and vexation of spirit. This is a subject in which we can gain no information, except from the revealed Word of GOD. Of this the heathens knew nothing, and frequently wished for instruction. They committed the bodies of their friends to the earth, or to the flames, and knew not that they were ever to rise again. They resigned their souls to sure and certain hope that He would make them for ever happy. All human prospects end with death, and the eye of reason can pierce no farther. None ever returned to tell the secrets of the invisible world. Little remained of that light which God had given to our first parents. The hopes of the best men were mixed with doubt and uncertainty, and it was only by death they were taught those glorious truths which every Christian knows; it was only by death thev were taught that there

GOD, without any

is a reward for the righteous, that there is a GOD who judgeth the earth.

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But to us, my brethren, the Gospel has brought life and immortality to light. There we learn, that when our blessed LORD had ascended into Heaven in the presence of his disciples, and a cloud received him out of their sight; two men stood by them in white apparel, who said, Why stand ye gazing up into Heaven? This same JESUS, which is taken up from you into Heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into Heaven."* Our Saviour in my text informs us, that we shall see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of Heaven. He tells us, that "when the Son of Man shall come in his glory, and all the Holy Angels with him, then shall he sit on the throne of his glory; and before him shall be gathered all nations."+

"Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him."* Such is the language of scripture, and such is the firm belief of every Christian. Of the day and the hour knoweth no man; but we all know that the day of the LORD will come; and

*Acts i. 11.

Matt. xxv. 31.

* Rev. i. 7.

blessed is he whom his LORD, when he cometh, shall find watching!

"He cometh indeed, but how changed! How different his appearance to what it once was! How shall we be able to conceive of it as it deserves; to raise our thoughts from the voice of the tender Babe in the manger, bewailing our sins that brought him thither, to the voice of the Son of GOD, from which the heavens and the earth shall flee away, and no place shall be found for them any more for ever? Yet so it is. Behold, He who came in swaddling clothes, cometh with clouds. He who came to preach the day of salvation, cometh again to proclaim the day of vengeance. He who was led as a lamb to the slaughter, leads his ten thousands to the prey, as the lion of the tribe of Judah. He who cried not, nor lifted up his voice against his enemies on earth, thunders with the glorious voice of his excellency against them from heaven. He who quenched not the smoking flax, extinguishes the great lights of the world, darkens the sun, and turns the moon into blood; commands the stars from their stations, and the dead from their graves; shakes the powers of Heaven, and

the foundations of the earth, and all hearts that are not fixed on him."*

He cometh to judge the world, and before him shall be gathered all nations. To him all hearts are opened; to him all crimes are known. In vain may his enemies call on the mountains to cover them; they can be no longer hid. Every secret sin, every wicked thought, will then be known; the time of repentance will be past, the day of vengeance will be come. A dreadful sentence is recorded in the Word of truth, and we must not conceal it. We must give the warning, and show you the terrors of the LORD. He hath spoken, and we cannot reverse it. "The wicked shall go away into everlasting punishment!" Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels."+ "The fearful, the unbelieving, and the abominable, the murderers and whoremongers, the sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: this is the second death." These are the words of scripture; the Minister of the Gospel dares not change them. + Matt. xxv. 41.

Bishop Horne's Sermons.

Rev. xxi, 8.

If

However he may grieve for others, however he may tremble for himself, it is his duty to declare the truth. "God is not a man, that he should lie, neither the son of man, that he should repent hath He said, and shall He not do it ?"* These are the terrors which should be strongly impressed on every human being. "Be not afraid of them who kill the body; but fear Him who after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell. Yea, I say unto you, fear Him." Christianity be true, if we have any reason to trust in the merit of our Saviour's sufferings, if we have any reason to hope for happiness in Heaven, we have the very same reason to believe and to know that every sinner who will not repent, must expect punishments, of which no degree of misery that can be felt on earth can give us an idea. Think of this, ye who would tremble at the sentence of an earthly judge, at the sufferings of an hour! Think of the worm that never dies; think of the fire that never will be quenched.

But to those who look for their LORD, he shall appear in a very different character. The judgment of the great day, while it reveals every

*Numb. xxiii. 19.

† Luke xii. 4, 5.