Taking the words in tins sense, they will be found to express the very same idea, and in the very same connexion, which the same Apostle has suggested in other places ; to which, in the progress of our sub- ject, we shall have occasion to refer a.
Fully persuaded in my own mind that the words do ultimately refer to the day of judgment, I shall proceed,
I. To mark the truths which are here declared —
These relate to all the different works of men ; — to,
1. Their evil works —
[Many sins are so flagrant, that, as they render a person manifestly unfit for admission to the ministerial office15, so they leave no doubt respecting the judgment which will be passed upon him in the last day. Nor do we include in this number those only which are of the grosser kind, and which are stamped with infamy by even the better kind of heathens, (such as for- nication and adultery,) but those also which, though they bring with them no stigma in the estimation of mankind, are de- cidedly reprobated by the word of God. Amongst the foremost of these we must mention a worldly spirit, which as decidedly proves a person to be destitute of true religion as any other sin whatever: for to serve God and Mammon too is impossible0. The true disciple of Christ is no more of the world than his Lord and Master wasd. A disregard of the Gospel too is another of those sins which will infallibly bring condemnation upon the soul : for " if judgment begin, as it surely will, at the house of God, what shall the end be of them that obey not the Gospel of Gode?" How is it possible that any should "escape, who neglect so great salvation*"?" We might men- tion a variety of other sins, which, though they are accounted
a 1 Cor. in. 9 — 15. and iv. 2 — 5. In both of these places the Apostle is speaking of the ministry of the word : in the former, he refers to the day of judgment as determining the quality of the fruits produced by it ; and in the latter, as deciding upon his character as to fidelity in the discharge of his ministerial office. Indeed so inti- mate was the connexion between the ministerial office and the day of judgment in his mind, that he scarcely ever mentions the one without referring to the other.
b The reader will observe, that the more limited sense of the words is not fost sight of, though the more enlarged sense is decidedly pre- ferred.
c Matt. vi. 24. d John xvii. 14, 16.
e 1 Pet. iv. 17. r Heb. ii 3.