their endeavours in that affair may justly be esteemed a common enemy to mankind Now I do not understand any way whereby men do more directly undermine the Authority of our holy Faith and hinder the enlargement of it than by defaming the persons to whom the delivery of the Sacred Oracles and the Ministry of Reconciliation is intrusted For though it be a very unsafe and unreasonable way of arguing for any man to disbelieve the truth of Christian Religion and to neglect the practice of it because this or that particular man in Holy Orders is unfaithful to his own soul and lives not up to the purity and perfection which he preacheth to others yet certainly it is an argument which doth extremely prevail in the World and is equally dangerous whether it be grounded on the real or but supposed faults of men whose Office it is to instruct or persuade others to the practice of holiness For to him who believes a false report of his spiritual Guide the occasion of Scandal is as effectual as though the report were true and the censure just and then who can persuade himself that the man who raised the false accusation is not as injurious to the Church as the man whose life is really scandalous What hath been said of the ill effect that redounds to the Publick from the uncharitable censurings of men of this publick capacity will in proportion hold concerning the rash judgments we make of private persons according to the several degrees wherein they may be useful either in the Church or Commonwealth 2. I proceed to a second instance of the ill effects which redound to the publick by our uncharitable judging one another namely that our rash and censorious practice towards others provokes the like usage from them towards our selves and thence arises those many feuds and animosities mutual revilings and bitter envyings so visible among men of all conditions and a feud thus begun commonly spreads it self and all our friends and correspondents are soon made partners in the quarrel and how hard it is to lay aside or allay those animosities which have been thus begun every mans experience may convince him Now I need not use any arguments to shew that divisions and animosities among men are of very dangerous consequence to the publick Society where they live it being a truth attested by the common consent of Mankind and by the experience of all Ages so that we must needs conclude that whatever practices tend to the begetting and increase of strife and contention are very hurtful to the Publick Nor do I know any practice that doth more effectually tend that way than this of uncharitable judging and censuring other men How much the greater the end and design of any Society is so much more dangerous and hurtful those practices are to be esteemed which cause divisions in it The Church of God therefore being a Society whose happiness is not terminated in the temporal peace and tranquillity of this life we must needs conclude that those uncharitable censures which cause divisions among Christians receive from hence a mighty aggravation in that they do not onely hinder their present peace and tranquillity but endanger their falling short of that eternal salvation which is promised to none that do not follow after peace and holiness And from this consideration that we are all members of the Church of Christ I cannot but add a third ill effect which this uncharitable practice of judging and censuring one another brings to the Publick 3. Viz. That it brings reproach upon our Christian Profession and upon that Holy Name whereby we are called For suppose a Jew or a Pagan should peruse the writings of the holy Evangelists and Apostles and should read there the many precepts which require of us the greatest degree of meekness and humility in our opinions and judgments of other men should they read S. Pauls description of Christian Charity that it thinketh no evil that it believeth all things and hopeth all things did they consider the many arguments the Gospel uses to enforce the duty and great reward undispensably depending upon our practice and lastly the example of our Saviour himself who in his conversation among men was the greatest enemy to all uncharitable judgment of others but did himself exercise the greatest candor towards all men scarce ever passing a severe censure upon any but that proud censorious Sect of the Pharisees who made themselves judges of all others should they then descend to compare the practice of Christians with that excellent rule they pretend to and with the example of their Lord and Saviour and see how vast the disproportion is between our Practice and Profession they would easily persuade themselves that the generality of Christians did not seriously believe the Doctrine they vaunt of nor own the authority of their Saviour in giving Laws for the Government of their lives nor expect the accomplishment of those things which he hath foretold They will find it very hard to reconcile how the belief of those things can consist with many uncharitable practices unjust reproaches and mutual enmities which the profest Disciples of the blessed Jesus are so easily tempted to Thus besides the injury we do to particular persons and to the publick Society whereof we should be feeling members we cast a stumbling block in the way of those who might be won over to our most holy Profession did they not see the Professors of it so manifestly contradict in their lives and practices what they plead for with so much zeal and affection I proceed to the third thing propounded to shew the particular force of the argument here used to dissuade from uncharitable judging one another Because the Lord cometh And this will appear 1. From the consideration of his infinite knowledge if compared with our great inability to judge aright This branch of the argument is particularly urged by our Apostle in the words following my Text Judge nothing before the time until the Lord come who both will bring to light the hidden works and will make manifest the counsels of the heart and then shall every man have praise of God The good and evil of what men do cannot be determined barely from outward appearances which onely are exposed to the knowledge of men Many actions may proceed from an heart truly pious and devout which may be acceptable to God that knows the heart which yet as to men may be liable to suspicion and mistake On the other side the outward actions of hypocrites may appear to men as instances of great piety and devotion when to God they are an abomination Now should we use the utmost of our discretion in these cases we could have no sufficient ground to judge rightly of these men or their actions So many are the secret windings and private retirements of the heart of man so various his thoughts and intentions and so numerous his pretences to disguise his actions that it
unto you that ye resist not evil but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek turn to him the other also Where by the way we may observe that our Saviour doth prevent the most plausible Argument men are wont to use to justifie their revenge Veterem ferendo injuriam invitas novam was always a pretence for it and many men who would otherwise be thought good Christians are still apt to urge it as a sufficient reason to return evil upon their adversaries because otherwise they may by too much forbearance be encouraged to go on in the same practice of doing injuries and offering affronts Now the case here mentioned by our Saviour is very plain in opposition to that pretence Whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek turn to him the other also The meaning of which words is that in matters of less moment as the instance there given is the good Christian ought rather expose himself to further injuries than return the same usage to his adversary that he hath suffered from him or be guilty of any revengeful act So patient must the Servant of the Lord be toward all men not rendring evil for evil nor railing for railing 1 Pet. 3.9 This duty will I know seem very difficult to men of this generation who are usually so far from being satisfied with an equal return of evil upon their adversaries that their revenge seldom ends with less then the death or ruine of their brethren and that often upon very slight or no provocation It is indeed a sad thing to consider that in a Christian Commonwealth Point of Honour and Gallantry should be so often pleaded as a just pretence for Bloudshed and Slaughter that a rash word or a contumelious expression should be thought a sufficient provocation to engage life and soul too in pursuance of our revenge and that in contradiction to so plain a precept which by the profession of Christianity we stand obliged to But how dangerous a choice these men make I shall have occasion to discourse by and by In the mean time we are to know that the forbearing Revenge is but the first and lowest degree of that Charity which the Gospel requires towards our Enemies and is exprest hereby the name of Love 2. It is not sufficient that we abstain from outward acts of Hostility and Revenge towards our Enemies but we must lay aside all thoughts and desires of it We are not to wish the same evil to our Neighbour that he hath done to us we are not to retain any angry or malicious thought no grudge or animosity no secret hate or envious design against the person of any man how much soever he hath been our Enemy We may have other reasons that may oblige us to refrain from outward acts of Revenge sometimes we may be too weak to do it and want power or opportunity to execute our designs of evil sometimes it may be against some other interest of ours which we prefer before it and to forbear Revenge onely in such circumstances is no part of our obedience to this precept of our Saviour which extends it self to the inward motions and dispositions of our soul and requires that our forgiveness be from the heart And indeed the primary intention of all the divine Law is to regulate the inward thoughts and habitual inclinations of the Soul and to bring them into subjection and conformity to the will of God Nor can we be said to obey any one precept of the Gospel onely by abstaining from the visible acts of sin unless we do likewise mortifie and subdue the secret lusts and inordinate desires of our heart which are the inward principles and seeds of our outward actions according to which the good or evil of them will be measured To be sure the word Love is of all other most properly to be understood of the inward affections of the Soul and therefore we are obliged by this precept to lay aside and restrain all those black passions which any ways prompt us to seek revenge or rejoice in the hurt that befalls our Neighbour To this purpose is S. Pauls direction Ephes iv 31. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice and be ye kind one to another tender-hearted forgiving one another even as God for Christs sake hath forgiven you Nay the Scripture is so positive in this case that though we should forbear to return evil upon our brother that hath offended us though our hand be not upon him to kill him or do him hurt yet if we nourish in our bosom any angry and malicious thought against him if we wish harm to him or rejoice over those evils that befall him this would be as direct a breach of the Law of forgiveness as though we our selves had been the executioners of our Revenge upon him So S. John tells us 1 John iii. 15. Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer 3. There is yet a further degree of Charity towards our Enemies We must not onely forbear the return of evil we must not onely forgive them heartily and wish them no evil but we are obliged also to exercise acts of mercy and goodness to them we must be ready to do them good whensoever they may need it from us If thine Enemy hunger feed him if he thirst give him drink But possibly he needs no such assistance possibly his malice is such that he would scorn thy offer yet still thou mayest do him good whether he will or no thy Prayers are in thy own power he cannot refuse the assistance of them he cannot defeat the design of this Charity Offer therefore thy prayers to God for him that the wickedness of his heart may be forgiven him and that he may be indued with the spirit of Peace and Charity This last branch of duty is the perfection of the other two and is chiefly intended in this place But I say unto you Love your Enemies c. And thus much may suffice briefly to explain the nature of this duty I come now to consider the extent of it For it may be demanded How oft and to what degree shall my Brother sin against me and I be bound to forgive him and love him must I always yield to Injuries and Reproaches Can no wound be so deep as to remove my brother from my affection and to justifie my revenge Must there be no end of my forbearance and suffering In answer to these Queries there are these two things to be considered 1. As to the number and multitude of our Brothers injuries against us we may remember that S. Matth. xviii 21. it is recorded of S. Peter that he came to Jesus and said Lord how oft shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him till seven times Jesus saith unto him I say not unto thee untill seven times but untill seventy times seven Now by this manner of speech
may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus The Judgment therefore here and elsewhere so frequently forbidden cannot be meant of the Judgment of authority in matter either Civil or Ecclesiastical 2. Neither are we forbidden all kind of judgment of the persons of men from their outward and visible practices though we have no superiority over them we are still allowed the judgment of discretion to distinguish between man and man to know whom to avoid and whom to associate our selves with and it is a great part of Christian prudence so to do The actions of many men are so plain and notorious that they are not capable of a mild and easie interpretation and should we stay till publick authority had set a mark upon such persons before we provide for our own innocence and security by forsaking their acquaintance and conversation we may in time grow partakers in their iniquity and be defiled by them Bad Company and Example do insensibly prevail upon our minds and betray us into evil and unless we were allowed to make a judgment of some persons from the actions we see we could have no reason to stand upon our guard or beware of them Nay further Christian Charity it self which obligeth us against all rash and malicious censures of other men doth in many cases not onely allow but exact of us to make a judgment of and be jealous over them that we be able to afford to them seasonable reproof and admonition before they are confirmed in a habit of sin And to this kind of Judgment if it be exercised with true charity and moderation out of a zealous concern for the soul of our offending Brother there is a reward annexed S. James v. 19. Brethren if any of you do err from the truth and one convert him let him know that he that converteth a sinner from the evil of his way shall save a soul from death and hide a multitude of sins Now we should be excluded both from this duty and blessing if it were not Iawful to judge of men in some measure by what we hear and see 3. We are not forbidden to judge and pass censure upon our selves For this is elsewhere made our duty and prescribed to us as a great means to escape the Judgment of God For this S. Paul tells us 1 Cor. xi 31. If we would judge our selves we should not be judged And the reason is plain For would men find leisure seriously to examine their own lives and actions and to judge impartially of them they would not then so freely indulge themselves in those practices to which they know the judgement of God is due They would think themselves obliged in all times and places to a more strict and circumspect walking with God and when they have through inadvertency and neglect yielded to temptation by a due examination and judging of themselves they would be convinced of the necessity of an hearty and sincere repentance before they go hence and be no more seen The power of Conscience was given us by God for that end that we might be enabled to judge of the good and evil of our actions and be thereby more vigorously engaged to continue in well-doing and eschew evil upon a prospect of a future and more dreadful judgment that would otherwise ensue When therefore S. Paul tells us verse 3. that he judged not his own self This is not to be understood as though he made no judgment at all of his own life and actions and particularly of his discharge of his Apostolick Office mentioned in the former Verses but that he was not finally to rely upon his own judgment but that although he knew nothing of himself as he declares Verse 4. yet he was not thereby justified in as much as he was afterward to be judged by the supreme Judge of all the Earth who knew better how he had behaved himself and would judge more impartially than he himself could and then immediately subjoins the prohibition of the Text Therefore judge nothing before the time until the Lord come These things therefore being excepted from the general prohibition the sin which is here forbidden is the uncharitable practice of censuring and condemning other men without any probable or just grounds when men take occasion from little circumstances and appearances to judge the person of their Neighbour and the inward thoughts and inclinations of his heart When they take up an ill opinion of him from every idle report and stick not to spread and divulge the same to his prejudice When they take all occasions to lessen and detract from the good he doth and aggravate the evil This unchristian practice is capable of many degrees and aggravations which I shall not insist on particularly I shall onely take notice in general that whoever will consider calmly with himself how he would have his Neighbour deal with him in the like matter with what candour and simplicity he would have him judge of the outward circumstances of his life how loth he would be to have the worst interpretation made of all his words and actions and how willing he would have others be to admit his excuses if not to take away yet at least to lessen and alleviate the guilt of any miscarriages such a one cannot but understand what those degrees of uncharitable judgment are which are here forbidden I proceed therefore to the second thing propounded to shew the great unreasonableness of this practice and this will appear from these three considerations 1. From the baseness of its original 2. From the greatness of the injury done to the person we censure unjustly 3. From the mischief which redounds to the Publick by uncharitable judgment of one another 1. For the original of this practice of censuring and reviling one another I think it may ordinarily be resolved into one of these three Principles 1. Secret pride and over-valuing our selves Men who are destitute of real worth and yet have a mighty opinion of themselves have no other means to buoy up themselves in that conceit but to pick faults in the life and actions of other men And this I doubt is the humour of too many pretenders to the strictness of Religion who if they declare a great abhorrence of some particular fault of their Neighbours which is contrary to their own natural inclination or present interest are apt vainly to please themselves with the opinion of their own righteousness and to vaunt it in the language of the Pharisee Luke xviii 10. God I thank thee that I am not as other men are Extortioners Vnjust Adulterers or even as this Publican Now the unreasonable folly of this method of proceeding no man can be ignorant of that considers the nature and genius of true Religion that it doth not consist in the abstinence from some particular sins which I may apprehend others to be guilty of but in an universal obedience to all the commands of God And therefore what
and true c. Such also are the general notions of good and evil which God hath planted in every mans soul which have so evident an obligation that no pretended demonstration in the World ought to shake our belief of them But there are other opinions which men take up upon lesser evidence which they are sometimes as tenacious of as of those first fundamental principles And these sort of prejudices are commonly the great hindrances of the propagation of truth there being scarcely any Sect in Religion which have not some peculiar tenets which they take up upon weak and incompetent grounds in proportion to which they judge of all other doctrines and make them the rule and measure according to which all places of Scripture must be interpreted Now in regard we all confess our selves liable to infirmity and mistake it is certainly the most equitable and reasonable thing in the World that when we come to enquire after truth we resolve with our selves always to submit to clear evidence though we have been otherwise persuaded Now that the want of this temper is a very great hindrance both to the receiving the Gospel and to our understanding it aright when we have received it I shall endeavour to prove by two notorious instances of the power of prejudice in either of these cases The first instance shall be that of the Jews in our Saviours days The great opposition which our Saviour met withall among the Jews the great reason why they would not receive him for their Messias was grounded upon this prejudice that they took it for granted that their long expected Messias was to have been a temporal Prince and to have appeared with worldly pomp and splendor and that he should have delivered them from the Roman Yoke and have reigned gloriously in Jerusalem And therefore when they saw him appear in so mean and despicable a condition not all the demonstrations of a divine authority accompanying him in all his mighty work not the greatest wisdom with which he spake not the most divine and excellent precepts he gave not all the predictions of their Prophets fulfilled by him not any of these things though they were in themselves as great evidence as they could have required yet none of them could prevail with them against that one prejudice that his Power was to be temporal and that he should restore the kingdom to Israel in a literal sense which was inconsistent with that state of sufferings in which our Saviour appeared Now that this Opinion of the Jews was taken up upon insufficient grounds is evident from hence because though there are glorious things spoken of the Messias yet his sufferings also are foretold by the same Prophets in as plain words as the other Nay it is expresly said by Isaiah that the glory that should be given to the Messias was to be consequent upon his sufferings as a reward of them And the Jews themselves have been so far sensible of the force of those predictions to prove that the Messias should suffer that to salve those prophecies they invented a Fable concerning a two-fold Messias one of which was to suffer for them and the other to redeem them and to reign gloriously over them Though the Prophet Isaiah ch liij v. 12. expresly attributes both to the same person making the suffering of the Messias the reason of the glory which God would afterward confer on him Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great and he shall divide the spoil with the strong because he hath poured out his soul unto death c. But the minds of the Jews were strongly affected with the love of this present World and the glory of it and they hoped that in the days of the Messias they should plentifully enjoy all the blessings of this life and therefore they were resolved to believe no more of the Prophets than agreed with this opinion that was so suitable to their inclinations and were uncapable of being convinced by the most powerful demonstration to the contrary that could possibly be given Thus we see how great the power of this one prejudice was to hinder the Jews from receiving the Gospel at first Nor is the power of preconceived opinions and prejudices less dangerous to hinder our understanding the Gospel when we have received it And of this I might produce many instances in the several dissenting Parties in Christendom every Sect having some peculiar and darling Notion which they hold tenaciously against all opposition and to comply with which all other doctrines must be bowed and wrested as they can best contrive it I shall give but one instance of this kind and that is the doctrine of Infallibility as it is maintained in the Church of Rome This is the leading prejudice of that Party which being once firmly received it becomes the Mother of the most absurd and contradictious opinions in the World and which is worst of all makes those who believe it uncapable of conviction by any argument though never so clear and cogent For what argument can possibly prevail with those who resolve to reject the testimony of their senses though never so well qualified rather than call in question the infallible decision of their Church And this the Papists plainly do in the doctrine of Transubstantiation which hath so many plain absurdities in it and is so clearly contradicted by our several senses that are capable of judging in that matter that there can be no other reason of their obstinate defending of it but that they cannot renounce the doctrine without quitting their claim to Infallibility It is beside my present business to consider upon what grounds they build that infallible power of their Church in determining matters of Faith but yet methinks I cannot persuade my self that they have any Argument for it so plain and cogent as the testimony of their senses and therefore it cannot but seem a strange way of arguing which they use to deny matter of fact evident to their several senses to maintain a doctrine for which they have infinitely less evidence than that they reject We see then how far preconceived opinions and prejudices may prevail both to make men uncapable of receiving the Gospel and of understanding it rightly when they have received it and consequently how much this simplicity of mind doth contribute to our success in the enquiries we make after divine truth 2. The second branch of duty which doth highly conduce to our receiving the Gospel and understanding it aright is purity of heart which consists chiefly in the moderation of our sensual appetites and pleasures He that intends to do the will of God must not retain in his bosom any lust or habitual inclination which he is not willing to forego if he find it contradictory to his will whom he resolves to obey and for that reason must have a constant watch over his sensual desires to keep them in their due bounds Those natural
Sufferings that he should give eternal life to as many as his Father had given him and this was that joy set before him expressed in the latter clause of the Verse by his sitting down at the right hand of the throne of God in prospect of which he endured the Cross despising the shame And we have all the reason in the World to believe that he who could endure so much ignominy shame and pain for the obtaining this Reward was both sufficiently certain of the reality of it that it would be made good to him upon the accomplishment of his Sufferings and likewise that this joy set before him was of inestimable value and far exceeding those tribulations and sorrows he undertook in order to it And lastly that he could not deceive his Followers with the promise of an imaginary Joy since he did himself endure such real and unexpressible pains to obtain it for and confirm it to them The sum of this Argument is briefly this Our blessed Saviour endured the Cross despising the shame in full assurance of the certainty of the Joy set before him and of the inestimable value of it above the proportion of his Sufferings and therefore that we also ought to imitate his Patience being well assured by his Example that the light afflictions of this life which endure but a moment are not worthy to be compared with the Glory which shall be revealed and that if we suffer with the HOLY JESUS we shall be also glorified together Thus far have I endeavoured to represent the force of the Apostles Argument from the Sufferings of our Saviour to engage us to imitate his Patience and to suffer with him when Gods calls us to it but we must not confine the influence of our Saviours Sufferings to this single duty The Race set before us mentioned in the former Verse may fairly be understood of the whole Course of a Christian Conversation and our Saviours Sufferings and Death have doubtless a very great efficacy to oblige us not onely to the patient enduring Afflictions and Calamities but to an universal and impartial obedience to the will of God For with what face can we look up unto JESUS and consider the intolerable weight of sorrow which he endured for the sins of men and not be ashamed and blush again to be guilty of any of those sins which put the Son of God to such shame and pain Or how can we call to mind his boundless compassion and love to us in enduring such things for our sake without being effectually moved to render to him all possible demonstration of our thankfulness and love for all his benefits Which we cannot better express than by a sincere and constant obedience to the precepts of the Gospel and by walking before him in all holiness and godliness of living Which that we may all do God of his infinite mercy grant for the sake and merits of our blessed Saviour to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all honour and praise and glory henceforth and for evermore Amen SERM. VI. 1 COR. v. 10. We must all appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad ONe great priviledge and perfection of Mankind whereby they are distinguished from and far excel the Beasts that perish is this that whereas other Creatures are either wholly determined in their actions by outward and necessary causes or at least are led on by those objects onely which are present and work immediately upon their senses without any prospect of or regard to future and remote events Men onely by comparing causes and effects are able to make an estimate and value of future good and evil and accordingly to determine their present actions and choice in proportion to those ends which they propose to themselves and therefore though all men naturally seek after good and are averse to those things which are painful and unpleasant yet if they are well assured that what is now pleasing and delightful to them will be the certain cause of future and more lasting evils than can be recompensed by any present and transitory pleasure This consideration to those that use their reason is sufficient to put a check to and divert them from any present enjoyments which will in the event be dangerous and hurtful On the contrary by the same principle men may be encouraged to undergo many difficulties and hardships if they can be convinced that their present sufferings shall be recompensed with a suitable reward and satisfaction for the time to come And therefore no kind of Arguments are more naturally fitted to persuade men to the practice of Vertue and Goodness and to discourage them from the contrary ways of Sin and Wickedness than a due consideration of those several ends which they lead to and of those Rewards and Punishments which will be the unavoidable events of them And accordingly no kind of persuasions are more frequent in the Gospel than those which are taken from an expectation of a judgment to come and from those incomparable rewards which will then be the portion of the Righteous and the unspeakable miseries which will be the lot of the Wicked and Disobedient And this is that which the Apostle particularly insists on in this place as the ground of his persuasions We must all appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body according to that which is done whether it be good or bad Knowing therefore the terrours of the Lord we persuade men In these words there are many circumstances of great weight and moment worthy of our most serious consideration which I shall briefly represent to you 1. Here is the certainty of a Judgment to come declared in these words We must all appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ 2. Here is the person before whom we must appear it is the Judgment Seat of Christ He who was before our Mediator and Advocate who came to redeem us from our iniquities and to make us capable of being happy in another life will then be our Judge and will actually dispense those rewards he promised to those for whom they are prepared and will also be the severe avenger of those who would not be reclaimed 3. Here are expressed the persons that must appear We we the same men that are now alive in the body though our earthly tabernacles be dissolved though our bodies die and see corruption yet we our selves must again appear The same Almighty power which at first framed us in our Mothers Wombs and curiously fashioned all the parts of our body though they be dissolved into dust and variously scattered over the earth will again restore them to life and we shall again appear the same men that we were before For we must appear and no other 4. Here is expressed the universality of the
appearance We must all appear all men that ever lived or shall live upon the Earth high or low rich or poor no order or degree of men excepted we must all then make our appearance 5. There is something considerable in the appearance it self Doctor Hammond interprets the Phrase We must appear onely with analogy to Tribunals of Justice among men that as Prisoners at the Bar are wont to be set in a conspicuous place in order to their Trial so we also must give our appearance before the Judgement Seat of Christ But the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath a more important signification and must be understood not onely of our being actually present at Gods Tribunal but we must appear or be made manifest as the same word is interpreted in the following Verse and then the Apostle means thus much that all our hidden actions and secret designs which are now undiscovered by men shall then at the Judgement Seat of Christ be made manifest and laid open to us before God and all his holy Angels We have now many ways to hide our selves and to disguise our actions from the knowledge of men we can now put on the Mask and Garb of a Righteous man and appear as such to the World when our hearts are full of wickedness and deceit but at the Judgment of the Great Day all these arts will avail us nothing our false pretences will then be discovered our disguise pulled off our hypocrisie made visible and manifest inasmuch as all things are naked and open before him with whom we have to do and we must all appear 6. Here is the method that will be used at the Judgment Seat of Christ Every one shall receive the things done in the body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad 7. Here is the use S. Paul makes of all these considerations Knowing therefore these terrours of the Lord and being assured how dreadful this appearance and the event of it will be we persuade men that they would now behave themselves as men that must then appear but to insist particularly on all these circumstances would be too large an Exercise of your Patience I shall therefore confine my Discourse to these three things 1. I shall endeavour to remind you of those grounds and reasons by which we may be assured of a Judgment to come that we must appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ 2. I shall consider the method of proceeding at the Day of Judgment Every man shall receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad 3. I shall draw some inferences that may be of use to us in the government of our lives First of the truth and certainty of a Judgment to come And this will appear upon these following accounts 1. From the dictates and testimony of our own Conscience 2. From the Nature of God and his Attributes 3. From the concurrent testimony and belief of all Nations 4. From the particular revelation of this truth in holy Scripture 1. If we look into the secrets of our own souls and examine the natural powers we are endued with they will afford us great evidence that there is a Judgment to come when we shall be called to account for our actions here and be rewarded or punished according to them The knowledge of good and evil and the obligation to do one and eschew the other is naturally written in the Soul of Man nor can any man be wicked without violence to his own reason and best faculties Every man bears about with him a secret Monitor in his bosom which upon the temptations to evil doth faithfully forewarn him of it and upon the commission of evil doth afflict his soul with a sense of guilt and with a fearful expectation of punishment due upon it On the contrary there is a secret joy and satisfaction naturally springs up in the soul of a good man which is an exceeding support and comfort to him in the discharge of his duty which enables him to bear many difficulties and oppositions which oft-times attend him in the practice of Vertue his conscience breeding in him a strong confidence and assurance of some future recompence for his good deeds Now that conscience is thus active and busie to forewarn men of the evil which they are about to do and to set before them in order the evils they have done and to support them in doing good every man that gives himself the leisure to attend to the motions of his own mind may be convinced by his own experience Or if we would rather learn from the experience of others it were easie to produce a crowd of Witnesses which give us large descriptions of the unsupportable burden a troubled spirit and the great comfort and security of a conscience void of offence And now would we know the true ground and foundation of those hopes and fears which the conscience naturally suggests to us according to our actions whether good or bad there is no sufficient reason of them can be assigned but this that they are the voice of God and Nature forewarning us of another state after this when all men shall be recompensed according to that they have done here For that the fears and disquiets of a guilty conscience are indeed the effects of Nature and are not grounded upon the apprehension of temporal punishment or of the Laws of men as some vainly suppose is sufficiently evident in that those persons who have been beyond the reach and above the fears of any earthly Tribunal have yet been the greatest examples of this force of conscience The Story of Caligula is in every bodies mouth and is indeed a signal instance of this truth He who was possessed with so unlimited a Soveraignty over a great part of the Known World and exercised his power with so extravagant a cruelty was yet upon every flash of Lightning and clap of Thunder awakened to a sense and fearful apprehension of the power and justice of that God whom at other times he was wont to defie But not to dwell upon a single instance a further evidence that these Fears are the effects of Nature may be gathered from hence that the sting of conscience is most remarkable in those actions which are done in secret and far removed from the knowledge of men For though we seek the darkest retirements where no mortal eye can trace our steps or behold our doings yet there our conscience is as a thousand Witnesses continually upbraiding us with what we have done and afflicting us with terrours which can proceed from nothing else but from a secret conviction of soul that there is a God whose power and knowledge reaches to all places even to our most secret retirements and who will one day bring upon us punishments proportionable to our deservings I will not insist longer upon this Argument than to take notice that S. Paul himself seems
conclusion and could such an Argumentation deceive we could have little encouragement to believe any thing upon the testimony of our Faculties Again If this were the effect of some early revelation made to men when they were yet few in number and retained in the dispersion of Nations and still preserved notwithstanding the gross ignorance they fell into as to other matters This must be a great evidence of the clearness and evidence of that revelation at first and must consequently much confirm us in the belief of it And indeed it is not improbable that the rational Evidences of this Truth of a Judgment to come might have been confirmed to the first Ages of the World by some divine revelations which were communicated to all and thence derived and propagated through all the several Religions and Superstitions which afterward were entertained by the Heathen World It is not to be doubted but that Noah understood this Truth and would not fail to instruct his Family which were all humane souls that were left alive in so necessary a matter which might have so great influence upon them to keep them in obedience to God who had so lately delivered them from so universal a destruction Nay there is still extant the remainder of a Prophecy concerning a Judgment to come much ancienter than the Flood This we find cited by Saint Jude 14. And Enoch also the seventh from Adam prophesied saying Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his Saints to execute judgment upon all and to convince all that are ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him And this leads me to the last and most undeniable evidence of this truth 4. The particular revelation of it in holy Scripture but the testimonies of this Truth that there is a Judgment to come are so frequent in the Writings of the Evangelists and Apostles that it were altogether needless to recite them to you Every one that hath heard of the Gospel must understand that is one chief Article of our Christian Profession Nothing more plainly revealed nothing more frequently inculcated than that we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ I proceed therefore to the second thing proposed The Method of proceeding at that day Every one shall receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad That the good or evil of mens actions in this life is the rule and measure according to which they shall be judged at the great day that they who have done good shall receive the good they have done and they who have done evil shall receive according to that likewise is a Truth so fully and plainly taught in holy Scripture that one would think men could not easily mistake or deceive themselves in this matter For 1. It is very plain that no other way of proceeding can be agreeable to the Purity and Justice of the Divine Nature The righteous God loveth righteousness and his countenance will behold the the thing that is just and he is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity The righteous therefore and they onely can be capable of reward from him when he cometh to judge the Earth and the wicked and unrighteous and they only must be the objects of his wrath and vengeance To do otherwise than so and to invert this method would be a contradiction to all the divine Attributes and to all the Methods whereby God hath made himself known to the Sons of men And therefore the Author of the Book of Wisdom saith thus to the Almighty Wisd xij 15. For as much as thou art righteous thy self thou orderest all things righteously thinking it not agreeable to thy power to condemn him who hath not deserved to be punished To which we may also add That it is not agreeable to his Purity and Justice to reward the unrighteous and disobedient And therefore we may observe That in all the methods of Gods dealings with the Sons of men he hath all along declared the greatest abhorrence of sin and wickedness and the greatest severity against those that continued in the commission of it It was Sin onely that brought Misery and Death into the World For by one mans disobedience sin entered into the World and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned And when God was pleased out of his infinite mercy and compassion to contrive the way of our recovery and to send his Son into the World for our Redemption he would not admit us to terms of Peace and Reconciliation without the greatest demonstration of his justice and severity against sin and that in the Sufferings of his onely begotten Son For he was made sin for us who know no sin he bore our griefs and carried our sorrows he was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities by his stripes we are healed Now we are not to persuade our selves that our Saviours sufferings in our stead can be available to us or free us from the punishment of our sins while we continue in them For he bare our sins in his own body on the tree for no other end but that we being dead to sin might live unto righteousness that so being saved from our sins here we might be saved from the Wages of them hereafter And therefore Saint Paul tells us that the grace of God hath appeared to all men to bring salvation no otherwise than by teaching us to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live righteously soberly and godly in this present World Thus if we consider the nature of God and his dealings with Mankind we cannot but expect that when he cometh to judge the World he will judge according to righteousness They who have done good shall be rewarded by him and they who have done evil shall receive a due recompence of their evil deeds 2. This is further evident from the several promises and threatnings in Scripture which are all along made use of as Arguments to persuade us to the practice of righteousness and true holiness and to discourage and dissuade us from sin and wickedness which it were in vain to do if the promises of the Gospel can be due to any but upon condition of their obedience or if the Wrath to come could be avoided any otherwise than by forsaking those sins to which it is threatned Thus Saint Paul argues from the promises of the Gospel 2 Cor. vij 1. Having therefore these promises dearly beloved let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God Thus again S. Peter i. 4. tells That by the Gospel there are given unto us great and pretious promises that by these ye may be partakers of the Divine Nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through Lust and besides this giving all