3. Our responsibility to him is more manifest —
[Of a resurrection from the dead, and a future judg- ment, that unhappy monarch must have had a very indistinct notion. But we are as assured of these things as if they were at this moment exhibited before our eyes. We know that God has appointed a day " wherein he will judge the world in righteousness by that Man whom he has ordained," even by the Lord Jesus Christ, whom he has raised from the dead. We know that he will then call, not our overt acts only, but " every secret thing, into judgment;" and recompense us " according to what we have done, whether it be good or evil." Hence we have been concerned to take especial care to our ways ; and so to order them before him, that we may find acceptance with him in that day. What guilt, then, must attach to us, for our neglect of him, and for our numberless violations of his holy laws ! What excuse shall we have, when we stand at his judgment-seat ? Belshazzar, though he can never excuse, may palliate, his guilt, by saying, ' Lord, I knew not what a judgment would await me :' but we must stand self-condemned, as having set at nought our God and Judge, and, in defiance of his justice, have " treasured up for ourselves wrath against the day of wrath y.]
Address —
1. Those who are insensible of all the guilt they
have contracted —
[The greater part of mankind, though they live alto- gether as without God in the world, are as unconcerned about
« Rom. i. 25. x Heb. x. 28, 29. y Rom. ii. 5.