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I. A judgment to come, or a future state, may be PROVED FROM REASON, OR THE PRINCIPLES OF NATURE. And hence it was, that every sect of men that did prescribe morality, did teach an afterlife. Nothing was more generally believed among the heathens. Their tribunal below, where three most severe judges were appointed, meant the same thing with our last judgment; their elysian fields were but a poetical paradise; their Phlegethon, or river of fire, was set to express our lake of fire and brimstone. The notion of future judgment is so obvious to the capacity of every natural man, that when St. Paul (Acts 24:25) reasoned about it, Felix, though a heathen, trembled at it. The certainty whereof may appear to any considerative man from these three things —

1. The unequal distribution of rewards and punishments in this world.

2. Those natural hopes and expectations which good men have of a state of perfect happiness.

3. Those natural fears which wicked, men usually have of a state of torment.

II. FROM SCRIPTURE AND DIVINE REVELATION. The principal evidence, therefore, of a future judgment is to be found in (2 Corinthians 5:10; 2 Timothy 1:10).

1. The great Judge of heaven and earth hath clear knowledge.

2. Entire justice in God is no quality, that may be got and lost again; but His very nature and essence. And can there flow any injustice from the pure fountain of justice? (Genesis 18:25.)

3. A third property of the Judge of all the earth, which may render Him terrible to as, is His uncontrollable power, which no earthly judge can pretend to. For though man by sin runs away from his God, yet he is still in His chain; and though he may have put on the devil's livery, yet he is still within the verge and reach of God's power, who can deliver him up to Satan, and make his new master whom he serves his gaoler, his executioner. When Popilius, by order of the Roman Senate, required Antiochus to withdraw his army from the king of Egypt, and he desired time to deliberate upon it, Popilius drew a circle about him with his wand, and said, "Give me your answer and final resolution, which I may return to the Senate, before you stir out of this circle." The day of judgment is making its approaches towards you, and you must now, before you go out of the circle of this world, resolve whether you will withdraw from the service of sin and Satan, and thereby make it prove to you a joyful and a happy day.

(R. Neville, B. D.)

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KJV: And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:

WEB: Inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once, and after this, judgment,