I shew'd First, That the Judge here mention'd was no less a Person than Jesus Christ the Son of God himself, who hath told us, that the Father Judgeth no Man, but hath committed all Judgment unto the Son.

Secondly, I proceeded to shew, who those are, that shall be Judged by him: And made it apparent, that in this important Case, there should be no distinction of Persons or Party, Sect or Faction, Nation, or Climate, but that All must Appear, Jew and Greek, Christian and Heathen, Heretic and Orthodox, High and Low, Rich and Poor, Young and Old, as St. John foretels; as well the Chief Captains, as the Kings of the Earth, as well every Bond-man, as every Free-man; For every one of Us, (says St. Paul Rom. xiv, 12.) Shall give an Account of himself to God. The Armies of Princes shall not defend them from Justice, nor the Tatters of the Beggar exclude him the Court; The Treasures of the Indies will not Buy off our Appearance, nor the Coarsest Cottage shroud us from God's Notice: The array of Dives will not dazzle his Eye, nor the Sores of Lazarus make him turn away his Face; But we must All meet together upon equal Terms, (and Read in Characters of the largest Size; THAT THE LORD IS MAKER OF US ALL.) We must All attend the same BAR, and there ALL receive our last Sentence, the just Rewards of our Deeds upon Earth. And this naturally came under the third particular, to shew, What it is we are to be judged for.

We must all appear before the Judgment-Seat of Christ, that every one may receive the Things done in his Body, according to what he hath done, whether Good or Bad. - That is the Great and Terrible Day, the day of Accounts; then is the time, we shall come to a Reckoning, for all our Scores. On this side the Grave, the Distributions of Providence are to us unaccountable; and as it is in the Story of Dives and Lazarus, we see, that Good Men are frequently Afflicted and Despised, whilst the Wicked live in Ease, Luxury, and Prosperity. But this is a time when all Accounts are ballanced, and a sufficient Allowance is made to one as well as the other. Now he is comforted, and thou art tormented; (says Abraham to the Rich Man): Then Vertue and Religion will lift up their Heads with Honour and Applause, whilst the Profane and Vicious shall hide their Faces with Shame and Confusion.

They shall then perceive, that as the Tears of the Righteous are laid up in his Bottle, so the Crimes of the Wicked are noted in his Book; They shall then hear of all their Impieties at once; the black Catalogue of all their Sins will then be display'd; their most private Intrigues; their most deep laid Plots will all be laid open, for the Son of Righteousness.

Then shall we be Naked and Expos'd, stripp'd of our Disguises; depriv'd of our Excuses, and in spight of all Hypocrisy and Dissimulation, God will bring every Work into Judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be Good, or whether it be Evil.

Having thus clear'd the Way to a plain Understanding of my Text, I came to make some Observations, both Speculative and Practical; the First to inform our Understanding; and the Second to direct our Actions: And having gone through these I drew an Application suitable to the Circumstances of the Miserable Objects, the dying Malefactors.