eous person, while looking forward to that last account.

Still, as we are repeatedly forewarned, God surely will take account of His servants. None, let them ever so humbly and earnestly beseech Him, can be excused from appearing at His judgment-seat. Also, the case may be put, that an accuser will be there, to plead against such as God would approve. By the beloved disciple, Satan is called "the accuser of the "brethren, who accused them night and day "before God," (Rev. xii. 10.) and he is described to us actually doing so in the cases of Job, (Job ii. 4, 5.) and of Joshua. (Zechariah iii. 1, &c.) However, he is to be previously cast down, and shall hardly be suffered to resume his malignant office in the judgment of the great day, when his own final doom is to be awarded to him. But this we cannot doubt, that the most upright will then need, as Joshua did, the interposition of an advocate in his behalf. Although a man's conscience be his only accuser before the throne, how gladly, even in such case, will he hear his Redeemer commanding to take away his filthy garment of corruption, and to clothe him with garments of righteousness, and exclaiming over him, in his changed apparel,-" Is not this a brand pluck"ed out of the fire ?"

There can be no occasion to dwell longer on this topic. You cannot, let me suppose, be needing more to convince you, that the righteous are scarcely saved in the day of wrath, insomuch that they often seem to be within a little step of destruction. Hence, then, I will proceed to impress upon you the fearful case of the ungodly and the sinner.

Where, accordingly, in time of peril to the righteous, is it reasonable to suppose that persons of such a description shall be found? Since the righteous are scarcely saved, we must almost necessarily conclude that they shall not be saved at all. This, arguing from the one

case to the other, might be our own not uncertain conjecture. What, however, hath always, in fact, been their portion? and what saith the Scripture concerning them? Truly, in the examples to which I have referred you, it was from the furiousness of the Divine anger provoked by, and let loose against, these men, that the righteous so narrowly escaped. Where appeared the world of the ungodly, when Noah had entered into the ark?-where, when, with a friendly violence, the angels had thrust Lot out of Sodom?-where, be it added, when the children of Israel had come up from the deep of the Red sea?-where, I repeat, on these, and on other similar occasions, appeared the

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ungodly and the sinner? Behold them always in the very midst of the plague, the principal marks of Almighty vengeance! The floods overwhelmed them, the flame burned them up, the waves returned on them; "not one of them 'escaped." And thus, Holy Scripture positively testifies, shall it evermore be with all of such a character, when God ariseth to judgment. Upon the ungodly He shall rain snares, fire " and brimstone, storm and tempest, this shall "be their portion to drink :-the wicked shall "be turned into hell, and all the people that forget God." (Psalm ix. 17.)

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So far, my brethren, I have shewn you the answer which must be returned to the question, or rather appeal of St. Peter. But further, it will behove you to observe, how many, and what kind of men, have to expect the portion of the ungodly: and, in order to this, the passage last above cited may conveniently be taken for a guide.

By that therefore, which the Psalmist hath said, namely," the wicked shall be turned into "hell, and all the people that forget God," we are given to understand, that under the term ungodly all who forget God are comprised. The sinner is any wilful and presumptuous transgressor of God's law; the ungodly are the more numerous class, who neglect duly to ac

knowledge God in their ways, who live to themselves, and to the world, more than unto Him, and who, whether outwardly they break or keep His commandments, have no hearty and entire respect to them. For instance, the men of Sodom, who compassed Lot's door, were sinners in the strongest sense, and were doomed irrevocably to die; whereas his sonsin-law, who might have been saved, but for their neglect of the Divine warning, were the ungodly. (Genesis xix.) Regarding likewise the days before the flood, among the violent and corrupt sinners of those days, we have described a class of mere ungodly persons, who were stupidly eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, when the fatal period arrived. (Matthew xxiv. 38, 39.) And very many of a similar description are to be met with in every age,-men who care not enough about God purposely either to please or offend Him, who resolve what to do, and what not to do, without any reference to His will, and who live on from year to year, just as their fallen nature and temporal interests incline them, notwithstanding the urgent exhortations, and the constraining promises and threatenings of His word. Now these men, whatever terrible judgments may be appointed, cannot expect a good deliverance. They have no reason to hope

that the Divine Being, whom they forget, will graciously remember, and prove a Saviour unto them. "If the righteous scarcely are saved" in the perilous time, verily they have none other lot to expect than that which hath invariably befallen them-the same with the wicked or the sinner. It is contrary to all probability, that the Lord should ever shew Himself strong and active to rescue a people, who have Him not either in their thoughts or ways. Perdition is their native inheritance from Adam; and the Almighty, who alone is able, will never undertake for such a people to avert it.

Accordingly, in drawing to a conclusion, let us observe for a moment, the necessity of a constant circumspection, and waiting upon God, in order to the attainment of salvation. Men are fond of supposing that this precious and indispensable benefit, is to be secured upon very easy terms, as it were, in the common course of things, and that nothing short of some gross wickedness can bring them into hazard of losing it. But the scripture which has been just considered, is beyond dispute to the contrary effect. Thence it hath more truly been inferred, that even the righteous shall not easily abide the day of wrath; and that, for the ungodly and the sinner-meaning not only the