before the Judges in Areopagus as we find it in Vers. 32. And when they heard of the Resurrection of the Dead some Mocked for he had said in the words immediately foregoing That now God Commandeth all Men every where to Repent because he hath appointed a Day wherein he will Judge the World with Righteousness by that Man whom he hath Ordained viz. by Christ whereof he hath given assurance in that he Raised him from the Dead Though he had seen before how this Doctrine was entertain'd with scorn as idle talk and for which he was counted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and for such and no better it was esteemed by Pliny in Hist. Nat. l. 2. c. 7. and l. 7. c. 55. pnerile deliramentum and also by the Heathen Cecilius in Minutius Felix Christianorum aniles fabulae yet he knowing of what great importance and weighty consequence it was to Preach this necessary Doctrine of the Resurrection and that which it is in order to the Judgment to come and what the Power of it was as it afterward made Felix the Roman Governour to tremble he thought it Seasonable to declare it before that Grave and Severe Senate and Judicatory of the Areopagites at Athens And what he did here assert and Preach before them was very fit and Seasonable for that Court or Judicatory was a little Figure and Emblem of the great Day of Judgment This Court was the Supreme Court of Justice at Athens the Judges were persons of great note and renown'd for their Wisdom and Integrity able and fit to Judge of the most weighty matters and therefore were the most difficult causes wont to be refer'd to them they sat in the Dark that they might not be moved to any undue affection and compassion upon Sight of the Malefactor they would not permit him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to use any Rhetorick to move their affections but onely to make a plain and bare Narration They were also very strict and severe in enquiring into the Lives and Manners of Men for this was another End to which this Court was appointed and taking an account hereof ubi quid quisque Atheniensium ageret diligentissimè inquiri soleb at ut homines honestatem vitae rationem memores reddendam esse sequerentur as Valerius Maximus describes it they were strictly inquisitive what any one of the Athenians did how he demean'd himself that Men might see it to be their interest to live well as considering that they were to give an account of their lives and behaviour and therefore it was called Sanctissimum Consilium the most Holy Council or Judicatory and by this it seem'd a little Representation of the Great Tribunal of Christ and Solemn Day of Judgment at what time the Books shall be opened the Rolls wherein Mens Actions are Recorded and when All must 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 good or evil as the Apostle speaks in 2 Cor. 5. 10. And upon this account and consideration as a proper and powerful perswasive to a good Life he would have Christians to make it their great design and Holy Ambition to live so as to be acceptable unto God in the foregoing Verse as he adds also in the following Verse Knowing therefore the terrour of the Lord this dreadful appearance of the Lord at the Last Day we perswade Men. Thus we see how the Apostle made it his great care and business to Preach the Resurrection of Christ as also the General Resurrection or which amounts to as much the Great Day of Judgment What ever Doctrine more smooth and flattering and complying with Mens eâ—e and carnality Others might Teach yet this is that which S. Paul with all faithfullness Preacht unto the World this was his Preaching of the Gospel he made sure always to clear and confirm and inculcate this great Evangelical Truth this Fundamental Article of Christian Religion The Doctrine of the Resurrection Concerning which I shall onely add this one Consideration more and it s worthy to be well consider'd by us That though in this Fifteenth Chapter to the Corinthians he useth many Arguments to evince and perswade the Belief of Our Resurrection yet first of all and principally 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he makes use of the Resurrection of Christ for the proof of it who rose as the Head of the Church the Second Adam being a Common Head as well as the First in the Sense we have shewed and as the First fruits of them that Slept and the First-born from the Dead And further consider That the Argument drawn from Christs being Raised to Life and to a Life of Immortal Blessedness Rom. 6. 9 is a most plain and easie Argument to prove that there is a Blessed Life and Immortality hereafter There are other Arguments to evince this but some of them are too sublime for every capacity but the meanest are capable of understanding this For the Man Christ one in our nature and flesh Died and Rose again and is now Alive and liveth for Ever which is an evident proof of a future Life after the Death of the Body and a fair pledge of a Blessed Immortality hereafter which God will reward the faithful with those that have the Spirit of God dwelling in them as the Apostle speaks Rom. 8. 11. And now having seen how Christians have good ground to hope for and expect a Future Reward of Soul and Body from the Light of Revelation we shall shew in the following Arguments how they may hope for it from the Light of Reason 2. From the Justice of God they may know their Labour is not in vain His Justice manifests it self in rendring to every one according to his works and this without any respect of Persons Both Maximes are much insisted upon in the Scriptures both of the Old and New Testament The first is acknowledged by David the Royal Psalmist in Psal. 62. 12. by that Royà l Oracle of Wisdom Solomon his Son Prov. 24. 12. by the Prophets Jeremy 32. 19. Ezek. 33. 20. and by one greater then Solomon and the Prophets even Christ Jesus the Judge himself in Matth. 16. 27. Revel 22. 12. and by his Apostles S. Paul Rom. 2. 6. 2 Cor. 5. 10. and S. Peter 1 Ep. 1. 17. Now the ways or works of Men are either good or evil and God who rewards cannot be deceived or mistaken as not corrupted or wrought upon by fear or flattery but he has a perfect knowledge and just value of Mens works knows the inward Springs and Principles of their actions And he which is Lord over all shall fear no Mans persons nor shall he stand in awe of any Mans greatness c. Wisdom 6. 7. He seeth not as Man seeth for Man looketh on the outward appearance but the Lord looketh on the Heart 1 Sam. 16. 7. The Righteous Lord tries the Reines and Heart
them unto Goodness It was not out of Ambition or Love to the World but out of a serious regard to the good of others and that he might be in a capacity and have the fairer advantages to promote the Interest of Christianity among Jews and Gentiles that he denyed himself the use of his Christian Liberty and framed himself to the observance of certain Mosaical and Jewish Rites as on the contrary he behaved himself otherwise among the Gentiles 2 Cor. 9. 20. PROPOSITION II. Christians must be unmoveable particularly in the Profession of the Faith of the Resurrection and a Life to come BE NOT MOVED 1. By any hardships and troubles from the World The Apostle that here exhorts Christians to be unmoveable was so himself as he speaks of himself Acts 20. he knew that bonds and afflictions did abide and wait for him But none of these things move me saith he Vers. 24. Neither count I my life dear unto my self so that I might finish my Course with joy And having thus bravely quitted himself he could say with Triumph a little before his Death I am now ready to be offered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am already poured out I am as it were Wine for a Libamen or Drink-offering poured out upon the Sacrifice The time of my departure is at hand I have fought a good fight I have finished my Course I have kept the Faith and therefore he had a Holy confidence that God the Righteous Judge as the Judge or Rewarder in the Graecian Games did adjudge the Crown or Prize which hung over the Goal to the Conquerour would give to him the Crown of Righteousness as the reward for behaving himself well in his Christian Combate 2 Tim. 4. 6 7 8. The same Apostle in Rom. 8. fortifies and encourages believers against afflictions and hardships upon this score that they should reckon and make account that the Sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the Glory which should be revealed bear no proportion with the Glory to come For if sufferings be laid in one Ballance and the Glory or Reward in the other the Glory will far outweigh them For 1. The sufferings or afflictions are but Momentary for a Moment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 4. 17. and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the time now of this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but the Glory is Eternal an Eternal weight of Glory And Vers. 18. The things which are seen are Temporal or Temporary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but the things which are not seen the things of the other World are Eternal 2. The sufferings and difficulties here are but light our light affliction but the Reward to come is a weight of Glory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and therefore it is far beyond and beyond compare doth exceed the sufferings yea a far more exceeding 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a super superlative weight of Glory Such forms of Speech use not to be met with in other Authors either Philosophers Poets or Orators for they never had such great things such high and excellent objects to think and speak of as the Holy and Heavenly Apostle who had another perception of things Heavenly and Divine and who was caught up into the Third Heaven or Paradice and there heard words unspeakable Nay further The sufferings and hardships which the better sort of Men meet with in this World should rather fortifie in them the belief and hope of a Resurrection and Glorious Reward then any way abate it for Verily there is a Reward to the Righteous If Lazarus has evil things here he shall have his good things hereafter and infinitely better then those good things which Dives had here as the evil things Lazarus had here were nothing to the evil those worse things that Dives was to feel hereafter 'T is not possible that the better sort of God's Creation his best Servants his friends and faithful ones should always be in a Calamitous condition that there never should be a difference between them that fear God and them that fear him not What Shall it never be better with those that Love God and whofe serious care is to please him and obey him who endeavour to be like him purifying themselves as he is pure Shall it never be better with them then commonly it is in the World where they suffer for Righteousness sake Shall it never be worse with the wicked who live in Enmity against God and Disobedience who live after their own Lusts and own Will who make no Conscience of their ways but respect themselves wholly their profit pleasure interest c. and love not God nor their Neighbour but are onely lovers of themselves not caring how they Rebel against God and Oppress Men Certainly it is easie to infer hence There is a God who will Judge the Earth and a time coming when it shall be well with the Righteous 2. Be not moved by the Allurements of the World the Blandishments of this present Life the Tentations of Pleasure or Profit any Worldy or Fleshly Lusts whatsoever The Glory and Lusters of the World Honours and Greatness the Pleasures of the Sensual Life Softness and Ease these and the like have a very bad influence upon the Minds and Hearts of Men upon their apprehensions and affections they are apt to enfeeble and darken the Notions of a future State and Life Prosperitas effaeminat virtutem fidei saith Tertullian The good Seed of Truth as also good Principles and Purposes is stifled and made unfruitful by the Thorns which in the Parable of the Seed and Sower are said to be the cares of this World the deceitfulness of Riches and the Lusts of other things Mark 4. 19. Luke adds the pleasures of this Life These Worldly and Fleshly Lusts call Men off from what is Spiritual and the things above fasten and nail them down to the Earth unqualifie Men for either apprehending or relishing what is Heavenly and Spiritual Sensual Men that provide for the Flesh to fulfil the Lusts thereof are very untoward and unfit to frame an Idea a right Notion of what is Spiritual The more a Christian lives Godly Soberly and Righteously in this present World the more easily will he apprehend the things of the World to come To such a one the things which are Eternal and concern the Life to come are more clear The more thou art purged from all inordinate desire to the things of this World and the less Earthly and Sensual thou art the better thou wilt conceive what is Heavenly the better thou wilt apprehend the State of the Life to come The more thou art Spiritualiz'd Spiritually-minded and to be so is Life Rom. 8. the more thou livest a Life worthy of thy Soul and art not enslaved to thy Body the Sense to this outward World the more thou livest a Lise of Purity Temperance Humility and Sobriety the better thou wilt conceive of what is Spiritual and Immaterial
of Life and Immortality Immersion or a being sunk into the Body Sensuality eagerly pursued as if there were nothing higher nothing better then what is common to Man and Beast as also those more dry and seemingly cleaner sins viz. Earthly-mindedness Anxious cares and busie endeavours about geting and encreasing and keeping much of the things of this outward World a Spirit of Earthy self-seeking Policy an Ambitious Spirit after Glory and the Splendours of Titles and Places these and the like make Men that they cannot Relish or Tast so neither clearly apprehend what is Heavenly and Spiritual they cannot receive the things of God Such Sensual Epicureans and also Worldlings are great Strangers as to Heaven so to any clear and full apprehensions of what is Spiritual and Immortal Of such there is this account in Wisdom 2. 21 22. Their own wickedness hath blinded them as for the Mysteries of God they knew them not nor discerned they a Reward for blameless Souls Men must live better Lives if they would know these things as they ought to know 3. Be not moved by the Apostacy and falling away of others That some even in the Apostles times were moved and fell away from the Stedfast Belief and Profession of this grand Fundamental Truth the Resurrection and Life to come appears by some passages in S. Paul's Epistles Three are mention'd by Name Hymenaeus Philaetus and Alexander who as they are said concerning Faith to have made Ship-wrack 1 Tim. 1. 19. and in 2 Ep. 2. 18. to have Erred concerning the Truth particularly that great Truth and Article of the Resurrection and any future State or Life for they said that the Resurrection is past already And thus as they were far from being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Stedfast and Vnmoveable so did they unsettle others and cause them to back-slide overthrowing the Faith of some Vers. 18. For their words their Speech or Discourse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did Eat or spread as a Canker or Gangrene their wicked Principles did spread and corrupt many Vers. 17. and therefore the Apostle bids Timothy to shun to look to and avoid them Vers. 16. That which the Apostle did fear and warn the Christians of in those times is still very seasonable and it is strange that many who are otherwise shy and wary are not aware of the Devils cunning and devices It is the great Policy of the Devil to amuse the World with things of less moment and consequence and about these things to provoke the Zeal enflame the Passions and Choller of Men and heighten differences about things either more obscure or less necessary and that into such heats as if the whole Stress of Religion or Salvation were to be laid upon such or such Notions and Opinions as if the Kingdom and Honour of Christ and Glory of God were mainly concerned herein And all this the Devil is so busie at that so some more dangerous principles might be more secretly and undiscernably conveyed and spread amongst Christian Professours viz. such principles as tend clearly to the advancing of his Kingdom of Sin to the bringing in and cherishing of all ungodliness and unrighteousness to the eating out and consuming of any good principle left in the Conscience which testifies for God in a word such as tend to the corrupting of good Manners to the debauching of the World such as strike at the Fundamentals of Religion and Christian Life as Gnosticism Sidducism Atheism do that these may be more secretly conveyed and spread in the World Is it not matter of just wonder That amidst the many animosities and eager contentions and bitter strifes amongst Christians about the Externals or Extra-essentials of Religion for which they Un-saint and Un-christian one another that they are so little sensible of that Gnosticism that Sadducism that Atheism that hath grown and spread in the Christian World But to speak more particularly such Doctrines and Notions as these That the Soul is extinguished and perisheth with the Body That there is no other State or Being but in the World That there is no Angel nor Spirit no Immaterial or Spiritual Being nothing but Body or Matter That there is no Resurrection no Judgment to come and therefore no Punishment or Reward hereafter which Doctrines are the Leaven of the Sadducees of old and the modern Sadducees Sowre and unwholesome Sadducism as also those corrupt Doctrines viz. That nothing is intrinsecally good or evil That Religion is onely a Politick device a trick of Polititians to keep People in awe These Doctrines and Opinions as well as those that deny there is a God as the Atheists do or if there be a God That he sees no sia in such who conceit themselves to be his People to be nearly allyed to him as the Gnosticks of old and the Ranters of late That Men may be free to any thing Such Doctrines and Principles as these tend clearly to the advancing of the Kingdom of Sin and Satan to the bringing in and cherishing of all ungodliness c. And therefore there is good Reason for the Apostles advice That every serious Christian that minds the Salvation of his Soul would take heed and flee such keep at a distance from Men of such corrupt minds and beware of the Leaven of the Sadducees And if others go a Whoreing after such Doctrines pleasing to Flesh and Blood if others Apostatize and fall away from the Truth yet as S. Peter speaks do ye beware lest ye be led away with the Errour of the wicked and fall from your own Stedfastness 2 Ep. 3. 17. Reason Christians must be Stedfast and Vnmoveable in the Belief and Profession of the Truth those great things of the Christian Faith the Resurrection and Life to come Because else they cannot they will not be always Abounding in the work of the Lord. Clear and strong persuasions of the Resurrection of the Dead and of a future State are a Root and Principle full of sap and lise and Holiness is the kindly Fruit thereof Whereas on the contrary the denial of the Resurrection and Judgment to come is the principle of sin and disobedience and opens the way to all manner of wickedness They that banish out of their Minds all sense of a future State will instead of abounding in the work of the Lord abound in every evil work all that being taken away which onely is able to lay a powerful restraint upon the unbridled Lusts of Men. And here I may Appeal to the experience and observation of discerning and serious persons Let it be considered and observed whether those that can hardly imagine or cannot conceive any thing but Body Flesh and Matter those that slight the Notion of Spirit Immaterial and Immortal Substance Whether the Commandments of God are not grievous and Religion a burden something to them whether it be not more desireable to them to be Epicuri de grege porci to wallow in the
Psal. 7. 9. And this That he may give every Man according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings which is mention'd with God's searching and pondering the Heart and trying the Reins Jer. 17. 10. Prov. 24. 12. And that God renders to every one without respect of persons is a Maxime frequently also asserted in Scripture in the Old Testament Deut. 10. 17. 2 Chron. 19. 7. Job 34. 19 and in the New Testament Acts 10. 34. Rom. 2. 11. Gal. 2. 6. Ephes. 6. 9. Colos. 3. 25. We read in Prov. 11. 1. that A false Ballance is Abomination to the Lord surely then God will not Practise that himself which he Abominates in Men but he will weigh the actions of Men in a true Ballance He will be far from all Partiality and respect of persons which are false Weights and Measures and Ballances of deceit He will not accept or respect persons in Judgment In the dispensation of Rewards and Punishment he will not regard or look at any thing but the temper of their Minds and their Actions whether good or evil Now the Justice of God requires ut bonis bene malis male sit Isa. 3. 10 11. Say ye to the Righteous That it shall be well with him Wo unto the wicked it shall be ill with him But we often experience it otherwise to be in this World yea good Men in the Old Testament found it not seldome to be otherwise and yet under that dispensation there is more abundant mention of Temporal good things in the Promises there recorded and hence were those complaints in Mal. 3. 15. and in Psal. 73. from Verse 3. to 12. as Job 12. 6. and in Jer. 12. 1. and Holy David observ'd the like of wicked Men the Men of the World Psal. 17. 14. and in the Epistle to the Hebrews the Calamities of the most Eminent in goodness are described Vers. 36. 37 38. The Israelites God's People gather Straw make Brick live a Life of bitter affliction when as the Egyptians live at ease and in pleasures When Jacob and his Children were afflicted partly as being in a Sojourning and uncertain condition and partly while they were Strangers and Servants in Egypt Esau and his Posterity flourished in Honour Lazarus a Son of Abraham had many evil things was in hard Circumstances not onely poor but full of Sores a sick weak thing unable to get his Bread with labour and sweat of his brows desired but the Crumbs that fell from the Rich Mans Table Dives the Rich Man and wicked had his good things he was Richly Attired and fared Deliciously every Day Luke 16. 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Every Day he enjoy'd all that made for pleasure and not onely at some great or Solemn times He and his Five Brethren with other jolly Company While others as Lazarus fared hardly So that Sin is not alway punished in this Life nor Holiness rewarded God did not render unto Lazarus and those of whom the World was not Worthy he did not render unto them in this Life according to what they had done or suffered God did not render unto Dives here according to the evil he did his Unmercifulness his Luxury and Riot with the Sins attending thereon He had the good things of this Life lived in ease and pleasure he received in full Measure his good things Now this was not a Reward according to what he did he Reaped what was better then he Sowed And therefore if Divine Providence does not equally distribute Rewards and Punishments here it follows since God is Just That in the World to come he will dispense Rewards and Punishments according as they have lived here that every one may receive according to what they have done in the Body whether good or evil There is therefore a time a Day to come wherein the Judge of the World will make it appear that he did weigh and consider the Spirits and Lives of all Men and now they shall be dealt with according as they have done well or ill here and therefore this time is called Rom. 2. 5. The Day of the Revelation of the Righteous Judgment of God This Argument taken from the Justice of God is mention'd by the Apostle in 2 Thes. 1. 6 7. It is a Righteous thing with God to recompense Tribulation to them that trouble you And to you who are troubled Rest with us when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels In short thus God the Wise and Righteous Law-giver and Ruler of the World hath given us a Law and Rule to walk by and govern us and he hath shewed us what is good and what the Lord our God requires of us and his Will is Holy and Wise and Perfect this Law he hath Written in Mans Conscience and hath more fully declared it in his Word Now he will not let the Transgression of his Righteous Law the open and constant violation of it by wicked Men go unpunished tho' he may bear with them here for a while he will not suffer them to devour and cruelly to treat his obedient Servants the Rod of the wicked shall not always rest upon the Lot of the Righteous Psal. 125. But they shall know that there is a God that Judgeth in the Earth and shall find that Tribulation and Anguish Indignation and Wrath will be to every Soul that doth Evil Rom. 2. Nor will God forget the faithful and sincere obedience of his Servants but will render Eternal Life to them that by patient continuance in well-doing seek for Honour and Glory and Immortality So in Hebr. 6. 10. God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of Love He hath his Book of remembrance Mal. 3. He hath promised and Eternal Reward a Crown of Life and this Crown of Life and Glory is also a Crown of Righteousness 2 Tim. 4. And God as he is the Righteous Judge as well as a God of Mercy will give it because he hath promised to give it upon the Terms of Faith and sincere Obedience or patient continuance in well doing And he who hath promised will be Just and Righteous to perform as he is abundantly Merciful in Pardoning our Infirmities and Imperfections and also in Rewarding us and doing for us exceeding abundantly above all that we have done So Rich is his Mercy and so Noble his Goodness And so far are our works our doings or sufferings from any Merit or any Worthiness to be compared with the Reward and Glory to be revealed Rom. 8. It is a Merciful Justice and therefore it s said in Psal. 62. 12. Also unto thee O Lord belongeth Mercy For thou rendrest to every Man according to his Work Human Judicatories and Tribunals cannot take notice of all Sins and Offences and where they do they may be corrupted or bribed or they may be deceived and mistaken But the Judge of all the Earth he regardeth not persons nor taketh reward Deut. 10. 27. Nor
can he be deceived by false pretensions for the Lord is a God of knowledge and by him actions are weighed 1 Sam. 2. and before him all things are naked and open Heb. 4. Humane Laws onely restrain Words and outward Actions But the Divine Law reacheth the Spirit of Man his inward Thoughts and Secrets of the Heart There are Spiritual Sins as Hypocrisie Pride of Heart Envy Lusts of the Heart Murder of the Heart These and the like are not punished by Human Laws but are greatly Criminal before God There are Speculative Sins Sins acted over in the Phansy and there repeated and remember'd with delight when the outward act is past which are highly provoking to God and shall be judged For for Men to do this to recal in their thoughts with pleasure and delight such and such Sins is to act over the same Sins in Phancy and Speculation to aggravate their Sins by new and fresh guilt it is to stand to and make good their former Transgressions instead of repenting of them for then they would be remembred with Sorrow and Abhorrence These Sins not falling under Mans Cognisance as onely Words and Actions do but not Thoughts which yet are the first contrivers of that Sin and evil in Words and Actions and these Sins escaping the Judgment and Punishments of Humane Judicatories yet shall not escape the Judgment of God The Day of Judgment is described by this 1 Cor. 4. 5. Judge nothing before the time until the Lord come who both will bring to light the Hidden things of Darkness and will make manifest the Counsels of the Heart and then shall every Man have praise of God that is every one that hath done well as on the contrary they shall have shame and everlasting contempt Dan. 12. 2. that have done evil how cunning and close soever they were and whatsoever fair pretences they might make before Men. The Day of Judgment is described here by the time when Christ shall bring to light the Hidden things of Darkness and make manifest the Counsels of the Heart And so in Rom. 2. 16. its call'd the Day when God shall judge the secrets of Men by Jesus Christ. 3. From the Testimony of Conscience Conscience is God's Deputy and Vice-gerent The voice of Conscience is God's voice and it does powerfully witness a Future State and the Rewards and Punishments to be dispensed therein according to what we have done here Good or Evil. Upon the Consciousness of doing their duty there arises within Men a Peace and Satisfaction and Comfortable expectations from God who is the Father of Mercies And there is no such satisfaction no such joyous reflections as those as 't was said of the Athenians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A continual Feast is a good Conscience But this Feast is but an Antipast a foretast of a better in Heaven Now on the contrary there follows upon Sin inward Trouble and Anguish and Fear a fearful expectation of a sad after-reckoning and Judgment to come Hae sunt impijs assiduae domesticaeque furiae saith Tully And these inward Fears and Troubles Terrors of another World are not imprest upon Men by Politians and Statesmen for Secular ends and interest of State to awe Men into obedience For 1. They follow upon such sins as are not punishable by Human Laws as Secret Sins Sins of the Heart Speculative Sins and Spiritual Wickednesses which are such Sins as no Earthly Judges no Magistrates can have Cognisance of and no Human Laws can reach It would be a vain thing for the Supreme Powers to make Laws about what its impossible for them to know and consequently impossible for them to punish 2. Yea they follow upon such Sins as are hid from Men if punishable by Laws when discovered such Sins as no Man can accuse the Malefactor of or not prove them against him 3. Yea they follow upon such sins as being known by Man yet are not punishable by the Laws of that Country nay sometimes are applauded and esteem'd by Men. Judas his sin was so far from being punished by the Jewish Powers that he was rewarded for it But the reward he had and all the applause and encouragement they could give him could not ease and sree him from the Anguish in his Conscience and Fear of what was to come 4. Yea these Fears and Terrors are found to be amongst them in whom is no Policy Nations that are rude and barbarous and not governed by Crafty Polititians yet even in such appear'd Magna vis Conscientiae So universally have they possest Men and in all ages whereas vain and causeless and Panick Fears are of a short and uncertain continuance and not so universal as these inward Fears and Troubles of Conscience Nor are these Fears pleasing and grateful to Men as is easie for any Man to judge and acknowledge but contrary to the inclinations of Men who are carried out to the love and practise of such Sins as Revenge Injustice Lust and the like whence these inward Troubles arise 5. To what hath been said I shall superadd this That the Deepest Polititians and Greatest Statesmen the Greatest Potentates of the Earth are not more free and secure from these inward Fears then the populus terrae the mean Peasants and those of low degree which yet these Grandees could not have been disturbed with had they known that these were but arts and a juggle invented by them for State-reasons yea the Great Men of the Earth Men of Policy and Power have been rather more severely lasht caeco verbere with these secret and unseen lashes They have been more severely assaulted and haunted by these domesticae furiae and inward Horrors though they would fain have been delivered from them and have used all arts to be freed from this evil Spirit a Self-corroding and tormenting Conscience which troubled them 4. From the Souls inward Sense in good Men. There are certain Instincts and Sympathies and Propensions in the Soul of Man to Religion to God and the Enjoyment of him and these are more especially enlivened and vigorous in Holy and renewed Souls There is a vehement thirst and longing in such Souls after Union with God the Father of Spirits Their Souls pant after God after the living God that they may see and enjoy him whom their Souls love whom they have chosen for their Portion for whom they have forsaken all the vanities of the World and denyed All to enjoy Him They have none in Heaven but Him none in Earth in comparison of Him As for this present Life and State they groan being burdened while they are in this Tabernacle this is their State of Pilgrimage while they are here they are absent from the Lord 2 Cor. 5. And hence it is that these Holy Souls perswade themselves that the Father of Spirits God who is Love that implanted these Instincts and Affections in them that hath awakened them by his Grace that hath drawn out their Hearts after him so