and progressive in its operations, it is certain and effectual; and will continue to increase in power, till a full and final separation shall be made between good and evil. This work will be accomplished, both by the order and course of God's providence, and by the operations of the Spirit of Christ in his chosen witnesses, agreeable to ancient prediction: "Behold, the Lord cometh in ten thou "sands of his saints,* to execute judgment upon all, and to con❝ vince all that are ungodly among them, of all their ungodly deeds "which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches, which ungodly sinners have spoken against him."+

66

Here is a true description of the work of the judgment day. First, to separate between the principles of good and evil, and to convince souls of their ungodliness; and secondly, to render impartial justice to all souls, according to their works, after giving them a free and fair choice between good and evil. The same work is also alluded to, in the visions of the prophet Daniel. "The "kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under "the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of "the Most High ;" and "the judgment was set, and the books "were opened."

That the saints are to judge the world, is a doctrine which was taught in the primitive church. Thus saith Paul to the Corinthians; "Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world ?”|| And again; "Some men's sins are opened beforehand, going before to judgment; and some men they follow after." Hence it is evident that all sin must be brought to judgment; and this work of judgment commences by bringing souls to an honest confession of their sins. Here a door is set open, and a free offer is made for all souls to enter in, and bring their sins to judgment by confession. And those who honestly do this, will have their sins separated from them by the spirit of judgment, and the purifying fire of the gospel: and thus the soul will be justified. But those who refuse to come to this equitable and righteous judgment of Christ, their sins will follow after them to the judgment of condemnation. "For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged." That is; if we try ourselves by the righteous judgment of God, and condemn all evil, and separate ourselves from it, and cleave only to that which is good, we shall not be judged to condemnation. But if we do not judge ourselves in this manner, we shall be judged unworthy of any portion with the righteous.

This Day of Judgment has now commenced, and God has begun to judge the nations of the earth, who have long been erring in judgment, and straying from the paths of justice and truth; and

In myriads of his saints," according to the original: the Greek proposition EU signifies in, and ought to be so translated. T1 Cor. xi. 31.

Jude 14, 15.

Dan. vii. 10 & 27.

|| 1 Cor. vi. 2.

this righteous judgment will never cease until the work of God shall be fully accomplished. It will prove efficacious in its operations, and will be made manifest in the conviction of evil of every description, and in the full developement of error of every kind, whether in judgment, opinion or practice. It will produce in the willing and obedient, the effectual destruction of all kinds of vice and immorality, and every principle of evil. It will enlighten mankind in the knowledge of the truth, and widely extend the benign principles of peace and good-will to man. It will greatly increase the practical duties of humanity, benevolence and charity, and produce a universal diffusion of divine light, and the knowledge of salvation; and in the end, it will effect the final decision and termination of the probationary state of all souls.

This Day of Judgment will be gradual and progressive, but certain and effectual; and it will continue till a full and final separation shall be made between good and evil. Then shall the righ teous no longer suffer under the oppressive hands of the wicked; nor shall the wicked any more shelter himself under the banners of the righteous; but each shall reap the reward of his own doings, whether they be good or evil: for God will search the heart and try the reins of every creature. Then shall the covering be taken off from all people, and the veil be removed from all faces. Then shall Antichrist no longer beguile mankind with the mere name of religion in which there is no reality; nor his ministers any more deceive souls with the hope of salvation in their sins. Fraud and violence, theft and robbery, pride and ambition, malice and envy, falsehood and deception, and every species of wickedness will be completely uncovered, and appear in all their naked deformity; nor will it be in the power of man to conceal the smallest crime: for every secret sin will be brought fully to view. Then shall be accomplished the testimony of the Lord Jesus; "There is nothing covered that shall not be revealed; neither hid that shall not be known."*

All these things will be effectually accomplished by the unerring Judgment of God. The judgment is already set, and the books are opening, and all flesh shall be judged according to the deeds done in the body. The book of life will be displayed, in due time, before the face of every human being, and every secret action will be brought to light, and it will be seen and known what kind of lives all have lived. Good and evil will then be made manifest to all, and in all; and that which was long ago spoken by the prophet Malachi, will then be clearly known and understood: "But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand "when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner's fire, and like fuller's "soap. And he sha sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he

"shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, "that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.”* Then shall righteousness reign triumphant over iniquity, "and all shall know the Lord, from the least to the greatest.

This work having already commenced, will continue its progressive influence till all souls shall have seen and felt its purifying effects; or, through wilful disobedience shall have rejected their day of trial, because of the cross, and numbered themselves with the impenitent and rebellious, as vessels of wrath fitted for destruction. But this day of judgment is yet in its beginning; it is yet like the little stone, spoken of by the prophet Daniel, and which pointed to this very work. It will yet grow and increase till it shall break in pieces the mighty image; the pride of human nature, and the power of Antichrist shall fall before it, and become "like the chaff of the summer threshing-floors," and be driven away with the wind; while the little unseen, tho powerful agent, shall increase and grow, till, like a mountain of righteousness, it shall fill the whole earth.†

This work, tho powerful and effective in its operations, will at the same time, be so apparently slow in its progress, and so much out of sight of the natural man, that those who, through impenitence and hardness of heart, chuse to put far away the evil day, will be so blinded by wilful unbelief, that they will not be aware of the danger to which they are exposed, until, like the inhabitants of the old world, they shall be finally overwhelmed in the deluge of destruction which it will occasion. "Then shall no man be able to save him that is destroyed, nor to oppress him that hath gotten the victory." The final and everlasting state of all souls will then be decided, not by the stroke of death, but by the unerring judgment of God. "Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun, in the Kingdom of their Father." They shall increase from glory to glory, and from one degree of perfection to another, through eternal ages.

But alas! what will become of the wicked? The Judge of the living and the dead hath decided the question: "These shall go away into everlasting punishment, prepared for the devil and his angels; where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.” A solemn and awful consideration!

How vain and inconsiderate are the pursuits of the great mass of mankind! How little do the generality of people consider their awful responsibility to their Creator! Regardless of eternal realities, their whole attention seems to be engrossed with the things that belong to the short span of human life, as tho they were to live forever in this world. The Day of Judgment they put far away from their thoughts, as a matter of no concern, little consid

ering that they are continually increasing the black catalogue of their sins, for which they must finally be brought into judgment. Many flatter themselves that repentance and conversion, according to the general understanding of the terms, will some time or other, release them from any further trouble or responsibility for their sins, and then all will be well. Relying on this vain hope, this delusive snare of the devil, they willingly deceive themselves till death unexpectedly closes the scene upon them. Such people ought to consider that the infinite difference between Heaven and hell, does not depend on the small change generally occasioned by what is commonly called conviction and conversion, where there is no radical change of life and pursuit in the creature. The all important decision between eternal happiness and endless misery, is not weighed in such a slender balance; nor is it settled on such easy conditions.

Souls who are thus deceiving themselves, ought to remember and consider well this unalterable decree of the Almighty; "The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” And let them know of a certainty, that this death the sinner cannot escape; and remember that every repeated act of sin is still increasing the power of this death upon them; still separating them at a greater distance from God, and plunging them still deeper into the gulf of spiritual darkness and loss. And every soul that ever rises from that death, must rise through sufferings, and in perfect subjection and obedience to the cross. If mankind would but seriously reflect that the more sin they commit, the deeper they sink from God, and the heavier must be their judgment, and the greater their sufferings to rise from their lost state and gain their redemption, they would dread sin as the greatest plague that could possibly come upon them. Therefore, let no one who knowingly and willingly commits sin, ever flatter himself with the vain hope that he can escape the righteous judgment of God against sin, and let all be assured "that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God.”

Let all lay aside the false doctrines of Antichrist, and consider and rightly appreciate this important truth; That man is a free agent, capable of thinking, believing and acting for himself; and therefore he is accountable to God for the use and improvement he makes of his free agency, and must be judged and rewarded according to his works. The important period is fast approaching when the dividing line must be fully drawn, when the decisive sentence must be pronounced; "He that is unjust, let him be unjust "still; and he that is filthy, let him be filthy still; and he that is ❝righteous, let him be righteous still; and he that is holy, let him "be holy still. And behold I come quickly; and my reward is "with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.”

CHAPTER VII.

A few Remarks concerning the true nature of Perfection. MANY controversies have been excited and maintained among the professors of christianity, concerning the doctrine of christian perfection; and modern professors of religion have most generally rejected the doctrine as unreasonable and unscriptural. Hence nothing seems to excite contempt and opposition sooner than to talk of attaining to a state of perfection in this life. This opposition evidently proceeds from two causes; first, a wrong conception of the true nature of perfection; and second, the impossibility of attaining to it while living in any known sin; as has been fully proved by the general experience of professed christians. And indeed, if it be impossible to live without sin, as many suppose, then surely it must be impossible to be perfect christians.

But those who profess to believe the Bible to be the word of God, ought to acknowledge the testimony of Jesus Christ which is contained in the Bible; for surely that cannot be unscriptural. "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect." Would Christ require any thing impossible or unreasonable of his people? Certainly not. Then perfection must be attainable; for Christ does positively require it.

The doctrine so frequently taught, and so extensively believed among mankind; "That no one can be perfect in this life," originated in the dark kingdom of Antichrist, and is admirably calculated to ease the conscience, and encourage slothfulness and indifference in the duties of religion : for who will seek after that which he believes to be unattainable? But a little attention to this subject will show the inconsistency of such a belief.

1. God who is infinite in righteousness and goodness, can never require impossibilities of any of his creatures. If then, perfection were not attainable in this life, God never would require it. Yet he does require it. He required it of Abraham: "Walk before ine, and be thou perfect." He required it of the Israelites under the law: "Ye shall be holy; for I am holy." Perfection is therefore attainable.

2. It has been attained. God declared Job to be “a perfect and upright man.”|| Noah was also declared to be "a just man, and perfect in his generations." The apostle Paul saith, "We speak wisdom to them that are perfect." And again; "Let as many as be perfect, be thus minded."** Hence it is evident that there were those in his day, who were perfect, according to the work of that day. Perfection has therefore been attained in this life.

* Matt. v 48

Job i.8. and ii. 3.

† Gen. xvii. 1,

¶ Gen. vi. 9.

Lev. xi. 44. and xix. 1. ** 1 Cor. ii. 6. and Phil. iii. 15.