also of neglected good. He will examine even your good actions themselves, and discover if they be accompanied with any imperfections as to intention and exactness. " I will judge justices," he says by the mouth of David. (Ps. lxxiv. 3.) And by Sophonias, " I will search Jerusalem with lamps." (i. 12.) If God judge so strictly the "justices" of the Saints, and "search" even "Jerusalem," with how much more rigor will He act towards Babylon and sinners!
III. Ask yourself this all-important question: "What shall I be able to say or produce in my defence, at that fearful moment?" Take the advice of Ecclesiasticus, " Before sickness take a medicine, and before judgment examine thyself, and thou shalt find mercy in the sight of God." (Ecclus. xviii. 20.) Whilst you have power and time, do good, and fly from evil; for this conduct alone will screen you from the terrors of judgment.
The Particular Judgment. II.
I. Consider the miserable situation of a sinful soul, at the moment of judgment, if it be found wanting, and in the state of sin. For if that should be its unfortunate case, it will be completely degraded. — In the first place, it will be deprived of the gift of faith; because its actions did not correspond with its faith. 2. It will be stripped of the gift of hope; for, having hitherto neglected to adopt the means of gaining what Christians hope for, it can now hope no longer. 3. Its supernatural graces, if it had any, will be taken from it, and all its moral virtues, which it has abused. 4. Its natural knowledge will still remain, but will remain to torture it, for it will forever know and feel what it has lost and what it has gained, by sinning. 5. The character of baptism and every other
