Select Sermons: Delivered on Various Occasions from Important Passages of Scripture

Excerpt from Select Sermons, Delivered on Various Occasions, From Important Passages of Scripture But notwithstanding all difficulties, necessary. Labour must be done and done faithfully. An architect whom you might see fit to employ to repair your house, mi t, on due examination, find that the labour and expense 'of repairing would be surely lost, for wantof soundness in the foun dation; and however disagreeable it might be to you to hear it, or to him to declare it, yet it would be most consistent with your interest and his duty. But it is hard to give up the ancient, the vener able, though decayed building. The habitations of our fathers hold our fond hearts with a sort of charm that is not easily broken. But from this digression we may return to our subject. This passage read for our present consideration, as has already been hinted, is generally applied to the subject of a day of judgment, in a' future state, when and 'where all mankind will be brought to trial, duly examined, judged and rewarded accord ing to their works in this mortal 'life. Some of the absurdities of this notion of a future judgment, I have pointed out in a discourse which I recently delivered in this house, and which has since been published. That sermon, having stirred up the minds of the thoughtful, has thereby, been the means of calling our present subject into consid cration; which gives me another occasion to at tend to this very important inquiry.