suffered for him. He will say, " Thou hast been faithful in a few things; be thou ruler over many things'^ :" and the precise measure of their glory shall be proportioned to the labours and sufferings to which in this life they had submitted for his sake^ In like manner, to the ungodly he will award a sentence of condemnation proportioned to their deserts. It will be to no purpose that they expostulate, and ask, as if aggrieved by his sentence, " Lord, have we not in thy name cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful works?" He will be alto- gether inflexible ; and will say, " Depart from me ; I never knew you, ye workers of iniquity*'."]
The importance of this subject appears from the solemn charge with which St. Paul enjoins Timothy to " put his hearers in remembrance of it." The same charge is in fact given to every minister of God's word : " Put your people in remembrance of these things." In comphance with this command I will now proceed yet further to remind you of them,
1. For your conviction —
[It is to no purpose to dispute against God. A criminal may dispute against human laws if he will, and may determine beforehand that they can never be executed against him. But the only effect of his confidence will be, to deceive his own soul, and to involve himself in irremediable ruin. Let him be ever so assured of impunity, he will not be able to stop the course of the law, or to prevent its execution upon him. How much less then can we suppose that the arm of God's justice shall be arrested, and the very truth of God violated, to rescue a man from perdition, merely because he will not believe that God will fulfil his word. I must declare to you, that all such hopes are groundless : and I call upon you carefully to examine the state of your own souls. Are you " dead to sin," to all sin, so that no iniquity whatever is suffered to have dominion
over you? Ai'e you openly confessing Christ before
men, so that it is seen and known " whose you are, and whom you profess to serve?" Are you " following him without the camp, bearing his reproach^;" and not bearing it only, but " rejoicing that you are counted worthy^ to suffer for his sake''?" In a word, are you Christians, not in word only, but in deed and in truth ? These are the inquiries which you must make ; for by them alone can you ascertain your state before God. Say not, that, in requiring these things, we require too much :
d Matt. XXV. 23. « 2 Cor. iv. 17. ^ Matt. vii. 22, 23.
K Heb. xiii, 13. »' Acts v. 41.