words make strongly for the last judgement As I live saith the Lord 't is an oath peculiar to God himself Have I purposed and shall not I bring it to passe have I sworne and shall it not stand Shall not I who punish perjury in others fulfill mine own oath doubtlesse I will Every knee shall bow Those knees which bowed to him in mockage shall now do him homage and those feeble sinnews shall tremble before him on the throne whom in a contumelious manner they scraped to on the Crosse Every tongue shall confesse Every reviling tongue shal confesse him to be God whom once they thought the worst of men and upon constraint acknowledge him their Judge whom they lately executed as a guilty Malefactor The Apostle Jude in the 14 and 15 verses of his Epistle hath another Testimony to the same purpose And Enoch also the seventh from Adam prophesied of these saying Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of Saints to execute judgement upon all c. 'T is hard to say Vtrumque vitium est omnibus credere nulli tutiùs hoc crimen est illud honestiùs Sen. Rawliegh histor lib. 1o. part 1. cap. 5. §. 6. Vid. Bez. which is worst to believe every one or no body they are both faults only with this difference the former is more ingenuous the later is more secure That this testimony is true there will be more will averre And who this Enoch was is not so hard to ghesse as what was his prophesie That it was an unwritten prophesie calculated onely for that Nation and delivered over from hand to hand is not improbable we find that he prophesied that he spake it but that it was written we do not read Enoch no question was a faithfull Preacher in his time and strove by a floud of divine Rhetorick to beat down those sins which nothing could stop but a floud of water and amongst other of his divine sayings this might be one by the care of the faithfull continuing to succeeding ages Secondly It might be written either by himselfe or some other yet not by divine inspiration nor never reduced into the Canon and such it may be was the Book of Jasher the upright if a very learned man mistake not Junius in loc for the word rendred Book signifies either a Catalogue of books or else it signifies publick records containing acts and proceedings in a Court of Judicature or Ecclesiasticall concerning Church-government or historicall concerning events and occurrences in the State of all which sorts there were severall lodged up in the Ark which never came to light which might be lost without any detriment to the Canon and of this sort might be this of Enoch Thirdly We are not to reckon all those books lost whose names we find mentioned in Scripture but not the books that bear those names as those of Nathan the Seer and Gad the Seer with those which Samuel himselfe wrote Manent libri tacentur nomina Junius make up the two Books of Samuel the books remaine though their names be supprest or changed so have I often seen smaller streams emptying themselves into the vaster Channel lose their own and assume the name of the greater current and so this of Enoch as others may remaine in holy Writ though being annexed with greater works it hath lost its name And it moves not much though we find not the very words if we find that which is equivalent which is sufficient to prove the citations out of the Old Testament true as you saw made clear in the former quotation Thus having proved Enoch to be bonum legalem hominem a man of credit and repute in his country let us hear his evidence Behold the Lord cometh c. where we have two things 1 the Judge and then 2 the Judgement it selfe The Judge set forth by his title and his train 1 His title 't is the Lord and for his traine ther 's the quality or nature of them Saints and the number of them ten thousand of Saints and for the judgement 't is to convince all the ungodly of all their hard speeches and evill works and all this with an ecce Behold ut de presenti loquitur as if it were within his kenn Enoch the seventh from Adam through the perspective of faith saw the day of judgement even at his heels we are some thousands of years nearer then he and can that be far from us Verstegan in his tract of the ancient English tongue p. 192. which so nearly bordered upon him Had Enoch been silent his very name had proclaimed a judgment to come In the old Teutoniâ—â— language the ancient speech of this Nation E signifies Law or Equity and Noch signifies yet once again or to come so that his very name imports a time to come where shall be the administration of justice according to right 2 Tim. 4.8 Paul when he came downe from the third heaven brought with him the certaine newes of a Judge that should come to crown him at that great day and not him onely but all those that shall love his appearing * Causab in annal Baron exer 2. c. 11. 1 Tim. 3. ult 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now there is a double appearance of Christ the first called by the Ancients 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the unridling of that great mystery God manifested in the flesh the second that is here mentioned by the Apostle 2 Thes 1.6 7. When the Son of man shall come in the clouds and every eye shal see him or to use his own words in that most accurate and dreadfull expression When the Lord Jesus Christ shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and obey not the Gospel of Jesus Christ c. Not to be injurious to your patience in a businesse so obvious our Saviour the best of preachers hath laid down this truth in the parable of tares and in plain terms Matth. 25.31 2 Thus have you heard the testimony of Nature Naturae naturantis Naturae naturatae now lend an ear to nature her selfe Nor is this word far from thee that thou shouldest ask Who will bring it unto me only unrivet the secret Cabine of thy brest and thou shalt find this doctrine legible Whence else arise those secret twinges girds of thy conscience which like an under-officer bind thee over to the great Assize whence else that horror in thy dejected soule for sin committed which anticipates thy finall doom and executes thee before thou art condemned whence else those renting spasmes and tearing convulsions in his brest whose sin is so secret that none can know it whose person is so eminent that none can punish him Every mans secret thoughts bode and fore-speak a judgement to come whenâ—â— conscience tels him that sinne went before Culpam paena premit comes Hor. Carm. lib. 4. Od. 4. Sin and
Christ Nay Our blessed Lord and Saviour hath at once sanctified and strengthened this argument by his own using it when he forbids us to beat our fellow-servants and not to eat Matth. 24.49 and drink with the drunken lest the Lord of the House come in an hour that we think not of and give us our portion with hypocrites in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone Five things considerable about the last judgement All which will yet appear more clear if we consider these five things which set out the nature of this judgement so as may render it more vigorously quickning men to the performance of their duties and more effectually restraining them from the violation of Gods sacred Lawes 1 The Impartiality of it as to persons Rom. 14.10 it will teach all persons wee must all stand saith the Apostle before the Judgement Seat of Christ the reverend age the blooming youth the eloquent Oratour the blunt Peasant rich Dives poor Lazarus the new fresh varnish'd Lady as well as she that sits grinding at the Mill. Heb. 9.27 As 't is appointed for all men once to die so for all that die to come to judgement no prerogative can procure exemption from his jurisdiction who is to be Judge of quick and dead and that is good Logick with Saint Peter Acts 10.24 Because that without respect of persons he judgeth every man according to his works therefore we should passe the time of our our sojourning here in fear 2 The Exactnesse of it as to all manner of offences Matth. 5.25 1 Of Omission where Christ gives us a pattern of the last judgement the Sentence is past onely for negatives for omitting the duties they should have done Thou hast not cloathed not visited not fed therefore Go ye cursed If he who gives not cloathes to the naked nor food to the hungry nor lodging to them that want be punish'd with such whips what scorpions shall be provided for them who strip the poor of their clothes turn them out of their own houses pull the bread out of their throats if not to visit and comfort those that are imprisoned for Christs cause be a sin what is it to cast the innocent into prison to feed them with the bread and water of affliction 2. Of Commission 1 King 22.27 Whether they be open and notorious or private and secret for God shall bring every mans work to judgement Eccles 12.14 1 Tim. 5.24 with every secret thing Some mens sins are open before-hand going before to judgement and some men they follow after Open profanenesse runs to the Bar of Justice before-hand and waits for the sinner Sly Hypocrisie and dissembled sins these follow after The murders thefts rapes burglaries of the prisoner at the bar they go before to judgment the passion injustice bribery of a Judg the partiality of a Juror the perjury of a witnesse these follow after unto judgement We must be brought to an account not only for the outward acts and grosser commitments of sin but for the first risings of the heart it 's secreter tendencies inclinations to sin for that sin which is conceived in the heart though never produced nor acted by the hand Matth. 5.22 I need not trouble you for this further then that one Text But I say unto you whosoever is angry with his brother without cause shall be in danger of judgement and whosoever shall say unto his brother Racha shall be in danger of the Councell and whosoever shall say Thou fool shall bee in danger of hell fire where we may see that if we go no further then the Pharisees we shall come to judgement for actuall murder and adultery we must give an account of all our works thus far the divinity of a Pharisee will lead us But is this all no not onely he that kils his brother but he who is angry with him rashly unadvisedly shall be liable to a future account and brought to judgement in another world for it Not that all anger binds over to judgement 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad textum pertinere ex eo comprobatū dari potest quod iram quae à Christo prohibetur pulchrè determinat limitat ne omni justâ etiam irâ ac zelo interdictum sibi esse Christiani existimant Sol. Glas Philo. sac lib. 1. tract 2. but this rash unadvised anger Over and above the usuall interpretation which the Pharisees put upon this text our Saviour shews there be three other things beside actuall murder whereby this cōmandment is violated to each of which he affixes a severall punishment proportionable to the nature and quality of the offence The first way by which the sixth commandment is broken even by him who doth not actually kill his brother is by rash and unadvised anger which is then rash and unadvised when it hath no good cause nor ground to warrant it and when it exceeds its bounds either in the degrees or continuance of it And to this rash andunadvised anger though it never went further then the brest which bred it he assignes a sutable punishment it makes a man guilty of judgement 2 But he that sayes Racha which is a second way whereby this commandment may be broken without actuall murder 1. Either from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vacuum mente optbus ingenio 2. Or from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 conspuere making it an interjection of disdaining and abhorring Linwood provinciall Constit and suffers the anger conceived in his heart to break forth at his mouth though with some moderation that shall give any contumelious language in calling his brother a vaine and empty fellow a fool ideot or beggar or shall by any significant gestures or carriages expresse the disdaine rancour and indignation of his heart shall be in danger of the councell But he that shall say Thou fool which is the third way that is whose anger breaks out by some speciall and remarkeable kind of reproach and vents his passion not only in contumelious language but in virulent and bitter raylings shall be guilty of hell fire You have seen the three severall sorts of sin whereby the sixth Commandment is broken as well as by the actuall shedding of the blood of man now cast your eyes upon the three sorts of punishment which are here threatned to these three degrees of sin and you wil find then rise in degrees as the sins do in guilt The first to wit rash anger shall bee in danger of judgement where by judgement is meant that Court of Judgement which sate almost in every Town Dr Reynolds praelect in Apoc. Practicall catech and in matters criminall of inferiour nature had power of life and death who punish'd the offender with beheading But he that saith Racha shall be in danger of the Councell which meanes the great Councell the Sanhedrim consisting of seventy one persons who had cognizance of the greater and
MARAN-ATHA THE SECOND ADVENT OR Christ's Coming to Judgment A SERMON PREACHED Before the Honorable JUDGES of Assize at Warwick July 25. 1651. BY WILLIAM DURHAM B. D. Late Preacher at the Rolls Now Pastor of the Church at Tredington in Worcester shire 1 COR. 4.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greg. Nazianz. Orat. 53. in fine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 LONDON Printed by T. Maxey for M. M. G. Bedell and T. Collins and are to be sold at their Shop at the Middle Temple Gate Fleetstreet 1652. To the Right Honourable WILLIAM LENTHALL ESQUIRE SPEAKER of the PARLIAMENT AND Master of the Rolls SIR WHen importunity had prevail'd with me to this service who was never fond of such publick imployments 't was not intended that this Sermon should be made more publick by the shewing it to the world But that candid and charitable account which some persons of worth then Auditors gave thereof unto your Honour made you inquisitive after it and solemnly invite the Publication I was never yet so far in love with any thing of mine own as to fancy it worth the publick view but since 't is so sutable to your desires which must ever have with me the force of a command I shall not decline this advantage of leaving some testimony to the world of those many favours which I have received from your hand The Argument of this Discourse is a plaine but a fundamentall and a saving truth concerning which I may take up the language of that Pious and laborious servant of Christ in a businesse of the like nature Mr. Carryll in Job 7.6 'T is a point easie to be known but hardly to be beleeved every man assents to it but few live it we slight the hearing of common Principles but common truths neglected cause the neglect of every truth had we more serious thoughts of Heaven and Hell that these are and what these are that there is a God and who he is that there shall be such a judgement and what it shall be we should more profitably improve and trade our times and talents Under whose grave and sober judgement I shall secure my self from the censure and contempt of them who are taken onely with new-Doctrines It being the much unhappinesse of this present age that so many are willing to exchange old Truths for new Notions Solid and sober truths for strained Allegories Practicall Truths for frothy speculations For its dresse and harnesse that 's plaine too and such as is sutable to the Country where it was born indeed such is the native beauty of Divine truths that they suffer by that paint which humane wit would put upon them they ever look best in their own colours the best Character of a Sermon is that it be honest and tend to edification That this so inconsiderable a piece should flie under your wings for shelter besides that you have pleased to invite it can bee no wonder to them who know with what exceeding tenderness for many yeers you have there cherished its unworthy Author The children of our Brains as wel as those of our loyns should learn that lesson of the Wiseman Not to forget their fathers friends 'T is the too usuall consequent I wil not say effect of great places to swel men with thoughts of impunity because men cannot call them to an account they are too apt to flatter themselves that God will not and when once that piece of Atheisme hath siezed on their heart they easily give the reins to pride and oppression and what not which fault though in the strictest scrutiny you could never be found tainted with who in the height and continuance of your great Imployments retain your naturall and Christian Clemency meeknesse and humility yet 't is not amiss to fortifie your heart with all possible strength against such encroaching thoughts where Place and Imployment is so apt to become a snare To this purpose I take the Confidence to recommend this ensuing discourse unto your service which may be like Philip of Macedon's Page your daily remembrancer of that which I know is your frequent and serious meditation I am not so much a stranger to your affairs to conceive you at leisure to read large Epistles I have only one word to you and one for you and I have done that to you is That as God hath been pleased to set and contitinue you so long in so eminent a place inabled you to such incessant labour and preserved you under such great Revolutions of State you would make it your businesse more and more to advance him in the Gospel of his dear Son And wherein at present can you better improve your power and interest for him then in cherishing and preserving his Great Ordinance of the Ministry The tender compassion which I bear to those poor souls which sit in darknesse and the shadow of death makes me continue to beg the utmost improvement of your power for the setling of a learned and a pious Ministry in every Congregation of the Land That the Excellency of that calling may be preserved from those virulent and bitter tongues which are set on fire of hell that their Office may not be publickly invaded by those who are not called to that but to other imployments that oile may be preserved and provided for burning lamps 1 Cor. 9.7.14 That they who preach the Gospel may live upon the Gospel which in the Apostles judgment is the highest equity until they that go a warfare go on their own charges That there may be a constant supply of persons fit for that weighty imployment by preserving cherishing those Seminaries of learning the Universities so famous through the Christian world without which ignorance error and atheism wil suddenly and unavoidably overspread the Land In a word that they be not justled out of their Function maintenance to gratifie a people who are no better friends to Magistracy then to Ministry And to speak what mine own experience assures to be truth you have vouchsafed to make me so much privy to your thoughts I know these things you desire and endeavor wherein if after all your labour you fail in the success yet you have freed your own soul and your reward is with your God That for you is that that gracious God who hath inabled you to so continued a service would multiply all the gifts and graces of his spirit upon you and yours that your days may be prolonged your health strength continued and increased your Honors fastned on you that your Family may flourish you rewarded a thousand fold for all those incoragements and tender indeerments whereby you have for ever obliged Sir Your Honours most faithfull and humble Servant WIL. DURHAM From my Study at Tredington May 1. 1652. I have perused this Sermon of Master Durham's on James 5.9 and do approve of it as very fit to be printed OBADIAH SEDGVVICK May 5. 1652. P. 9. l. 27. for Teutonish r. Teutonick
19.13 1 Sam. 24.1 Act. 7.59 but David himselfe in some cave at Engedi If you look for a Stephen you 'l hardly see him through the showre of stones which in a horrid and detestable charity the Jews threw to make his tomb and to bury him before dead Act. 12.4 Mat. 14.3 Look you for a Peter a Baptist examine the prison the not unlikely place to find an honest downright preacher Look you for a Paul you may know him by the wales of his back imprinted by the sturdy hand of some cruell Bedle. 2 Cor. 11.23 24. Mat. 27.31 To conclude Look you for a Jesus a Saviour no so likely place to find him as between two theeves numbred amongst the transgressors groaning under the heavy pressures and bloody agonies of the Cross And if this be all the reward that is in Gods service Exod. 5.2 Job 21.15 Mat. 13.30 Mat. 25.32 33 Luk. 16.25 Numb 23.10 Heb. 4.9 Jer. 5.28 29. Jer. 12.1 3. men would be ready to ask with Pharaoh Who is this Lord that I should serve him and with those contemptuous ones in Job What profit is there in serving the Almighty On the other side should the tares overlook the wheat here and hereafter be sheafed up into the barn should the Goats enjoy their pleasure here and hereafter feed with the Lamb should Dives injoy his lusts here and rest hereafter in Abrahams bosom men would readily invert Balaams wish O that my life might he like the wickeds and my latter end like his But God hath prepared a rest for the Godly and fitted the wicked for the day of slaughter Dives may be their witnesse they cannot have their pleasure here and hereafter both That God suffers wicked men to ride on the backs of the righteous and makes them groan under their burdens is an act of that wisdome and providence which we must admire but not dispute But that he disposes his kingdome to the poor in spirit when the wicked shall be shut out with dogs and swine complies with and salves that Justice of his where at Good men rejoyce and bad tremble But I leave this point to be applyed together with the next and descend to the consideration of the words in their Relative sense The Lord is ready to come to judgment therefore O ye rich men do not ye oppresse the poor O ye poor men do not ye repine and grumble at the rich Whence this The consideration of Christs neer approach to judgement Proposition should awe the hearts of men Demonstrated by testimony of 1. Heathen and mould their conversations into a dutifull obedience to all Gods Commandments For the evidencing of which truth 1. If you consult with them who saw only by the dim eye of Nature they are able to tell you That nothing hath a greater influence upon mens lives for their mendment Nulla res magis prodcrit quam cogitatio mortalitatis Sen. de Ira l. 30. cap. 42. Julius Poll. Harpoc then the serious and frequent meditation of their death The Athenians had a law that no man was to be questioned during the time of his office which law they kept sacred and inviolable but no sooner was his office expired but there was as it were a Committee of Acounts to whom they were to be exactly answerable for all their miscarriages in the precedent year The Romanes had the like for their Consuls and Darius Polib Histo de cons Rom. lib. 6. Dan. 6.2 a custome not much unlike for the Princes of his Provinces an excellent meanes doubtlesse to keep them to their duty when they knew they were to undergo so speedy and so exact a scrutiny If you look higher to those who had their eyes cleered with Spirituall eye-salve 2 Fathers Sic quotidic vivamus quasi die illa judicandi simus Hierom in 24 Matth. they look upon this as the most effectuall means to bridle their unruly passions It was this which St. Jerome found of good use for the crucifying the flesh with the affections and lusts in himselfe and therefore prescribes it as a speciall remedy to others that whether they eat or drink Sive editis c. Surgite mortui venite ad judicinum Id. ib. or whatsoever they did they should still conceive that they heard the last Trumpet blowing and the Arch-Angel crying Arise ye dead and come to Judgement Chrysostome expounding that Text Rom. 13.11 Now is the high time to awake out of sleep c. .i. saith he Paraeus in loc The Resurrection is at hand and the last Judgement is at hand the day approaches therefore let 's awake out of sleep and cast off the works of darknesse How genuinely the text is interpreted let others censure sure I am that his sense is very apposite to our present purpose that the sense of that day should quicken us to our duties And * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom. in Psal 7. Basil the Great thus in many places of the Scripture there is mention made of the last and great Judgement which is a consideration most necessary and most effectuall for the preservation of Piety in the hearts and lives of those that beleeve the Gospel of Jesus Christ The Apostles have not a more effectuall argument to keep men to the imbracement of the faith 3 Apostles and practice of holinesse then by minding them of Christ's coming to judgement 1 Thes 5.1.6 Let us watch and bee sober for the day of the Lord cometh as a thiefe in the night 2 Pet. 3.10 11. The day of the Lord will come as a thiefe in the night in which the Elements shall melt with fervent heat c. therefore what manner of persons ought you to be in all holy conversation and godlinesse Seeing beloved ye look for such things be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace 1 Pet. 4.7 without spot and blamelesse The end of all things is at hand Phil. 4.5 be ye therefore sober and watch unto prayer Let your moderation be known unto all men the Lord is at hand and as if there were nothing by which he could more effectually obtest them the Apostle beseeches them by the coming of Christ 2 Thes 2.1 and by their gathering together to him And when he is closing up his first Epistle to the Corinthians Chap. 16.22 as if he were most firmly to clench in that great duty of our love to Christ which he had been long hammering at he concludes If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema accursed How accursed Why Maran-atha The Lord cometh and though we cannot now expresse how heavily he shall be accursed yet he shall then feel it It was the heaviest kind of all their cursings and execrations Pessimum Anathematis genus Vid. Bez. Piscat 4. Christ himselfe when the sinner was left off and given up as an incorrigible person to the coming of
bring every work Eccles 12. ult to judgment with every secret thing whether it be good or whether it be evill What the design of some men is Catech. Racov. in charging the morall Law with imperfections and vacuities which were fill'd up as they pretend by these Additions of our Saviour is sufficiently evident and that the consequences of this position with them are no lesse then the utter evacuating and nulling the meritorious passion of our blessed Lord. For others who solemnly professe to abhorr such impious conclusions and aim at nothing in the use of such language but the bringing men up to a higher degree of holinesse and perfection then the Pharisees prest upon the Jews I wish they would consider whether the same end might not be as well attained by charging the Pharisees with misinterpretation of the Law as by charging the Law it self with imperfections and vacuities And if so whether were not more sutable to Christian charity to say no more to forbear those expressions Master Jean's Treatise of the appearance of evill in expressions p. 28. which smell so strongly of the Polonian-infected aire rather then to grieve and give just occasion of offence to such who are as conscienciously solicitous to preserve the truth so exemplarily zealous Antequam nasceretur Arius innocenter quaedam minus cautè loquuti sunt Patres quae non possunt perversorum hominum calumniam declinare Hierom. Apol. 2. cont Ruff. Ante errorum â—eresâ—â—n originem nondum satis illustratâ patefactâ rei veritate quaedam scriptis suis asperserint Patres quae cum orthodoxae fidei regulâ minimè consemiant Dion Petav. in Epiphan Daille treatise of the right use of the Fathers p. 80. to carry men up to the highest degrees of holinesse in conscience and conversation An honest and grave Matron would blush to be found in the dresse and harnesse of an harlot and those who would be accounted orthodox should not contend for such expressions as carry with them but an appearance of evill for though they may be used by us perhaps in a good sense and so used by the Ancients yet being abused by wicked men to broach their heresies under they carry a shrewd shew of evill and render others jealous and suspicious of our soundnesse In points not controverted the Fathers speak oftentimes more uncircumspectly then they would in a businesse that is under dispute and I am apt to believe that if those Fathers who are pretended to have maintained this doctrine of the vacuities of Moses Law and the additions thereunto by Christ how farre and how fully they do it let others judge but if they had but fore-seen those sad and dismall conclusions which some desperate wretches have deduced thence in derogation to the satisfaction made by Christ they themselves would have done execution upon those papers which are pretended to have conveyed it to the Christian World But I have been too long in this point 3. The un-appealablenesse from this judgement he is the supreme Judge to him all appeals are made but none from him Acts 25.10 Paul made his appeale from Festus Court to Caesars Throne 't is the priviledge of this Nation that we have a Chancery to appeal to by such who are cast by the Rigour of the Common-Law The Countesse of Arundel made her bold appeal against King Richard the third Life of Richard the 3 d. to the Tribunal of him that was above The woman in the story who appealed from King Philip sleeping to King Philip waking had some ground for what she did but we have none such for our appeal Non temere è triclinio abscessit nisi distentus madens interdiu in juredicendo nonnunquam obdormisceret vixque ab advocatis de industriaÌ„ vocem augentibus exitaretur Sueton. in vita Claud. 33. 'T is not with him as it was wont to be with Claudius the Emperour who never used to rise from dinner but with a full panch and well whitled and was wont to sleep so soundly on the Bench that the Lawyers who pleaded before him though they purposely strained their voices and bawled could hardly awake him a posture very much mis-becoming a Judge But the Judge of Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps he is unlimited in power and untainted in point of Judicature he admits of no superiour 't is at his Judgement Seat that that we must stand or fall 4 The un-repealablenesse of this judgment it can never be revers'd It is appointed for all men once to die and after death to judgment * Qualem te invenit Deus cum vocat talempariter judicat Cypr. de mort after death comes judgment and after judgment nothing but the continuation of happinesse or misery as death leaves us judgement finds us and as judgement leaves us we must remain for ever This present age is the †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greg. Nazianzen Oratio 15 season of mercy that to come is the time of justice when the Sentence is past and the door is shut thou mayest cry and call and plead thine ancient acquaintance but thou shalt hear nothing but that comfortlesse language I know you not Go ye cursed God's Sentence is firmer then the decrees of the Medes and Persians which can never be revers'd 5. And beyond all this which ye have heard The nearnesse of this judgement 't is at hand Behold the Judge standeth at the door 't is a desperate degree of boldnesse to be cutting of purses while the Judge is on the bench this is to sin in defyance of Justice next to him who sins as Ahaz did when hee was under judgement those who sin while judgement is at their heels are most desperately guilty 't is a strange boldnesse in a Scholer to set himselfe to play when his Master is taking out the rod and for a sinner to go on in his evill ways when God hath bent his bow and fitted his arrows upon the string and prepared the instruments of death is either blockish stupidity or daring presumption Oh but say the scoffers in Peter 2 Epist 3.4 where is the promise of his coming This hath been long talk'd of but 't is not yet come nor is there any likelihood of it for all things remaine as they were but what sayes the Apostle to this Objection God is not slack as men count slacknesse a thousand yeers is with him but as one day though it be much to us yet 't is nothing to his eternity 't is but a day Behold hee 'l come quickly hee 'l come suddenly as a whirlewind as lightning in a moment in the twinkling of an eye in an hour we little dream of What if he should rend the heavens and come downe draw the curtaines and do execution when thou art in the heat of thy lust as in Zimri and Cosbies case what if that day overtake thee when thy heart is overcharged with surfetting