the hands of wicked Spirits for the Devil is the Prince of the Power of the Air the great Tempter of Men while they live and their Tormenter when they die whoever is so far rejected by God as to be delivered up to the power of wicked Spirits without any restraint on their Malice and Cruelty as wicked Men are when they die need no other Punishment till the Day of Judgement when they together with the Devil and his Angels shall be cast into utter Darkness where there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of Teeth for ever more We know what cruel Tyranny the Devil exercised upon the Pagan World who so devoutly worshipped him and what then must the Case be of those wretched Souls who are delivered to him by God as their Jaylor and Tormentor till the Day of Judgment I will not say this is the Case though it seems no improbable Account oâ— it but if it be and thus it may be before Christ comes to judge the World you must all confess that to have the Devil for our Tormentor is the very next degree to being tormented with the Devil and his Angels But yet this is not a final Judgment the last Sentence is not pronounced against them and though I doubt not but most bad Men as certainly know what their Doom will be as the Devils themselves do yet there is reason to think that some bad Men as bad Men we see are very apt to flatter themselves with vain Hopes in this World and may do so in the next for ought we know are still in hopes of finding Mercy at the Day of Judgment when Christ comes to judge the World for if they knew themselves under a final and irreversible Sentence there can be no account given why at the last Day they should put in any Plea for themselves or sue for Mercy and yet thus our Saviour represents it In that day many will say unto me Lord Lord have we not prophesied in thy name and in thy name cast out devils and in thy â—ame done many wonderful works And then will I profess unto them I never knew you depart from me ye that work iniquity Matth. 22 23. And thus in the Description of the last Judgment when he shall say to them on the left hand Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels For I was an hungred and ye gave me no meat I was thirsty and ye gave me no drink I was a stranger and ye took me not in naked and ye clothed me not sick and in prison and ye visited me not Then shall they answer him Lord when saw we thee an hungred or a thirst or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister unto thee 25 Matth. 41 42 43 44. Now it is not imaginable that these Men at the last Day of Judgment should make any of these Plea's had they been judged and condemned and the final Sentence passed on them before The sum is this That Mankind shall not be finally judged till Christ comes to judge the World but yet good Men are in a State of Happiness and bad Men in a State of Punishment and Misery that very good Men as they are happy at present so they have the joyful Expectations of the Day of Judgment when they shall be finally rewarded and received into the immediate Presence of God in Heaven and that very bad Men besides the Miseries which they at present suffer have the terrible Prospect of a Future Judgment when they know they shall be condemned to endless Miseries 3. There is this farther to be added That according to that account the Scripture gives us of this matter though bad Men shall be miserable and good Men happy as soon as they go out of these Bodies yet bad Men shall not be condemned to Hell nor good Men received into Heaven till the Day of Judgment There is no great difficulty in proving this since the Rewards of good Men and the Punishments of the wicked that is their final Rewards and Punishments or Heaven or Hell are throughout the New Testament referred to the Day of Judgment This our Saviour expresly tells us 13 Matth. 41 42 43. The Son of man shall send forth his angels that is at the end of the World v. 39. and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend and them which work iniquity and shall cast them into a furnace of fire there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth Then shall the righteous shine forth like the sun in the kingdom of their Father But there is no need of any other Proof of this but that at the Day of Judgment good Men shall be received into Heaven and bad Men condemned to Hell 25 Matth. And if good Men were in Heaven before it is very strange that they should be brought out of Heaven to be judged and to be received into Heaven again with greater Authority and Solemnity and if bad Men were in Hell before it seems as strange that they should be fetched out of Hell to be more solemnly condemned thither again this would be thought a very odd kind of Proceeding among Men and we have no reason to suspect this of GOD's Judgment As for bad Men they are to be cast into the Fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels and therefore it is not likely they should be cast into this Fire before the Devil himself is and yet the Scripture assures us that at present he is the Prince of the Power of the Air the Spirit that now worketh in the Children of Disobedience 2 Eph. 2. And St. Peter tells us That God spared not these angels that sinned but cast them down into hell and delivered them into the chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment 2 Pet. 2.4 which is very ill translated for if they were cast down into Hell how are they reserved for the Day of Judgment for what worse Judgment can they undergo than to be cast into Hell But the words are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 casting them down into Chains of Darkness for so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies only to cast down that is those Angels who formerly inhabitated the AEthereal Regions where there was perpetual Light were for their Sin cast down into this darksome Region of Air where the clearest Light is Smoke and Darkness in comparison with those brighter Regions from whence they fell for the Devil is the Prince of the Power of the Air and they are called Chains of Darkness because by the Decree of God they can go no farther cannot ascend higher to those Regions of Light again and here they are reserved till the Judgement of the last Day While our Saviour was on Earth it is plain that these evil Spirits were not confined to Hell for they possessed the Bodies of Men and very much complained that Christ came to torment them before their time 8 Matth.
and this Proof consists of several Branches and though each particular considered apart by itself may not be thought sufficient yet if we unite them into one and take them in their natural order they add such light and strength to each other that I perswade myself they will convince any Man of a Future Judgment who is not obstinately resolved against this belief SECT I. That Man is by nature an accountable Creature FIrst then I observe That the very make and frame and condition of Humane Nature proves that Man is an accountable Creature who can give an account of his Actions and therfore may be called to an account for them and that is a strong Presumption that he will be called to an account that is that he will be judged There are four things necessary to make any Being accountable 1. That he have a Principle of Reason to know what he does and to judge for himself 2. That he have a Rule to live by to direct him what to do and what to avoid 3. That he have liberty of Choice and the free government of his own Actions 4. That he be an inferior and subordinate Creature who has some above him to call him to an account I. As for the first we know a Beast which is governed by Instincâ— not by Reason can't be judged because such brute Creatures know not what they do and therefore can give no account what they do which is the case also of Infants of Fools and mad Men who must be governed that they may do no hurt but can't be judg'd but a reasonable Creature as Man is who knows what he does and can judge of his own actions may be judged for them too II. Where there is no Rule to live by there is nothing to be judged for when nothing is commanded and nothing forbid all actions are alike indifferent and in this case there is no other Rule but for every Man to please himself and to do what he likes best and he who does so gives a good account of himself and cannot be blamed for it if there were no Rule of Good and Evil there could be no place for Rewards and Punishments and consequently no place for Judgment but when we have a Rule to live by as all Mankind have either the Laws of Nature or the revealed Will of God we may do either good or evil and may deserve either rewards or punishments and then we may be judged too III. Whatever Being acts by Necessity or Fate not by Choice is no more capable of being judged then the Winds and Seas are or any other natural and necessary Causes for where there is no choice there is neither moral good nor evil but Man is a free Agent who not only knows the difference between good and evil but can choose the good and refuse the evil and therefore he is capable of praise or blame of rewards or punishments for the good or evil which he does that is he may be called to an account and be judged for what he does Especially IV. if he be an inferior and subordinate Creature who has a Superior to judge him to judge indeed is an act of Superior authority and power and therefore those who have none above them cannot be judged but an Inferior is by the condition of his nature or circumstances of life obnoxious to the judgment of his Superiors for the very Notion of a Superior and Inferior signifies to govern and to be governed to judge and to be judged An Inferior is obnoxious to the judgment of his Superior who may judge him if he pleases and this is the condition of all Mankind if we believe that there is a God above us who is our Natural Lord. So that Man by his very nature and condition was made to be judged which is a very good argument that he shall be judged if we will but allow that God will govern all Creatures according to their natures which is essential to the wisdom and justice of his Goverment As to take a particular Review of this matter 1. If it be naturally decent and fitting that a reasonable Creature should give a reason of his actions why should we doubt whether the wise Governor of the World will require a reason of him and call him to an account Reason makes us capable of giving an account of our actions and which is more than that it makes us sensible that we ought to give an account our own minds exact an account of us and when we cannot give a good account to ourselves we blush alone when nobody sees us nay Reason makes us so liable to give an account that it requires no Authority to ask it it is what we owe to all Mankind and the meanest Man may expect it from us as well as our Judge and when we cannot give a reasonable account of our actions a Child or Beggar shall shame and confound us whatever our Quality or Character be And it would seem strange if Reason should make us accountable to all the World but only to God who is the Soveraign Lord of all that God should make us accountable to ourselves and to all other reasonable Beings but noâ— to himself 2. If GOD have given Man a Rule of Life and a natural Measure of Good and Evil can it be thought that he will require no account of him whether he keeps or breaks these Laws for to what purpose then did he give ' em how contemptible are Laws without a Sanction or a Sanction without a Judge to dispense Rewards and Punishments to give Laâ—s without taking notice how they are observed or punishing the breach of them is so very absurd that no Humane Government was ever wholly guilty of such Folly and why should we charge God with such Absurdities in Government as would be ridiculous in Men If we will but allow God as much wisdom and discretion as an earthly Prince we may certainly conclude that if he have given Laws to Men he will judge them by those Laws 3. There is no way of governing a free Agent as Man is but by Hopes and Fears by Rewards and Punishments for Force and Violence is not the Government of a free Agent because it destroys its Liberty so that if God govern Mankind at all he must judge them that is he must reward or punish them according to the good or evil they do and though this does not directly and immediately prove a Future Judgment yet it is a fair step towards it as will appear more heareafter All that I desire to conclude from hence at present is only this That if God govern Men like reasonable Creatures he must judge them and if we have as great assurance that God will judge the World as we have that he governs it there is an end of this Dispute to Men who believe a God and a Providence Nay indeed we need onely suppose that Man was made by a wise Being to
Failings this makes Men believe that they may be good and yet live wickedly if they do but take care of their Hearts and they can easily perswade themselves that their Hearts are very good It were easie to reckon up a great many Mischiefs of this judging Mens Hearts especially when Censures fall upon the Ministers of Religion whick weakens their Authority and Counsels and Examples and Reproofs which was the Case of St. Paul himself who it seems was censured on all hands but Appeals from Man's Judgment to the Judgment of God With me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you or of man's judgement yea I judge not myself For I know nothing by myself yet am I not hereby justified but he that judgeth me is the Lord. Therefore judge nothing before the time until the Lord come who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and make manifest the counsels of the heart and then shall every man have praise of God 1 Cor. 4.3 4 5. Let us then judge of Mens Actions according to those Rules of Good and Evil which the Gospel has given us but leave their Hearts to God who alone knows the Secrets of Hearts and who alone can judge them this is God's Prerogative and it is Presumption in us to intermeddle with it and worse then that it is very dangerous too with respect to our own Account at the last Judgment as our Saviour tells us 7 Matth. 1.2 Iudge not that ye be not judged For with what judgment ye judge ye shall be judge and with what measure ye meet it shall be measured unto you again So that if we will judge we ought to be favourable and charitable in our Judgment if we defire to be judged favourably by God and I believe there is none of us but will confess that we stand in need of a very favourable Judgment that God should make great Allowances for the Weakness Ignorance Folly Mistakes Inadvertencies Surprizes Temptations of Humane Nature and if we are so far from making any favourable Allowances for the Miscarriages of our Brethren that we search into their very Hearts and Thoughts to find something to quarrel with either to aggravate visible Faults or to turn appearing and visible Vertues into Faults what may we expect from the Just and Righteous Judge of the World It is a known Rule of Righteousness To do as we would be done to and all Mankind think it very just to suffer what we do to receive the same measure we mete to others and therefore we may make a Law to our selves and by a severe rigorous uncharitable Judgment of Men make God not an Unjust but yet a Severe and Rigorous Judge of us And if he be severe to marâ— what we have done amiss who can stand before him 2 dly As we must not judge Mens Hearts and Thoughts much less must we judge their final State to condemn them to eternal Miseries or to advance them to eternal Glories as we please for this is to pre-judge the Judgment of God and to prescribe to him whom he shall save and whom he shall damn by our own byaft and partial Affections It becomes us to take care of our own Accounts and to leave other Men to the merciful Judgement of God it is an argument of a very ill temper of Mind when Men are hasty and froward in pronouncing the Sentence of Damnation against others it looks as if they had a mind such Men should be damned as if they would direct God what to do least he should be too merciful It is enough for us to consider what the Terms of Salvation are which the Gospel has proposed to us and to take care to perform these Terms our selves whether other Men have performed them or not is none of our business to judge that God will do when he comes to judge the World But all pious and charitable Christians who consider what it is to be Damned are very unwilling to pronounce this Sentence upon any Man Our Church has been extreamly blamed by some Men for that Charity she has expressed in her Office of Burial towards all that die in her Communion when she teaches us to pray We meekly beseech Thee O Father to raise us from the death of Sin unto the life of Righteousness that when we shall depart this Life we may rest in Him as our hope is this our Brother doth And yet it may be the Person then buried is known to have lived a very wicked and profligate Life And how can we express our hope of the Salvation of such a Man Now the truth is our Church never intended this Office of Burial for Men of profligate Lives no more than she intended that such Men should live and die in her Communion for this Office is only for those who die in the Communion of the Church and were Church-Discipline duely exercised all such notorious Sinners must have been flung out of Church-Communion And those who raise the Clamour about this have been one great Hindrance of exercising Discipline having weakened the Power and Authority of the Church by their Schisms and Factions but taking things as they are I confess I can see no Impiety in it nor any such mighty Fault as is pretended The Church does not pretend to judge any Man's final State how wicked soever his Life was that is God's Work and she leaves them to him and what great Fault is it to hope well when we cant pretend to know enough of the worst os Men especially of the end and conclusion of their Lives to pass a final Sentence on them There are a great many degrees of Hope and one degree but the next remove from Despair that is but the next remove from pronouncing Damnation against them and if we must not do that we may say we hope still Suppose our Hope be no more than a charitable Wish how can that offend God that we wish well even to very bad Men an excess of Charity an Unwillingness that any Man should be eternally miserable is no Fault I am sure it is a greater to pronounce the final Sentence of Damnation against any Man But it is said that this encourages his wicked Companions who attend his Funeral to hope they may be saved too though they persist in their Wickedness to the last as he did now indeed what little matters may encourage such Men in sin I cannot say but there is no reason that a faint and charitable Wish should do this If they know the Gospel of Christ they know that He has threatened eternal Damnation against all impenitent Sinners if they know the Doctrine of the Church they know she teaches the very same thing if they saw their wicked Companion die they saw his dying Horrors and Agonies too which few of them die without if they have any time to consider their State and when they know and see all this is there any reason
go out of these Bodies they shall go to Christ 2 Cor. 5.6 8. and this made it so difficult a Choice to St. Paul whether he should desire to live or die by living he might do great service to the Church and therefore he was very well contented to live but if he departed he should be with Christ which is best of all For I am in a strait between two having a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you 1 Phil. 23 24. And it is universally pronounced Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth Yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours and their works follow them 14 Revel 13. This evidently proves that good Men shall be happy as soon as they die and besides the express Authority of our Saviour in the Parable of Dives and Lazarus the reason of the thing proves that bad Men must be miserable that as the Happiness of good Men commences with their death so must the Miseries of the Wicked Bad Men indeed many times live very happily in this World for this is the time of God's Patience while he waits to be gracious not being willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance but the Day of Grace ends with this Life the next World is for Retributions we must there receive according to our Works and therefore though we should suppose that the perfect Rewards of good Men and the perfect Miseries of the wicked should be deferred till the Day of Judgment when the final Sentence shall be pronounced which shall bestow Heaven upon good Men and condemn the wicked to Hell yet the Punishment of bad Men must begin when they leave this World because God's Patience is then at an end and the Rewards of good Men must begin too because their Work and Labour is at an end And this has been the universal Belief of Mankind who have believed a future State though they knew nothing of a General Judgment when all Mankind should be summon'd before God's Tribunal yet they all believed that when bad Men died they immediately went to a place of Punishment and good Men to Elysium a place of Rest and Happiness for if we shall be rewarded and punished in the next World for what we have done in this it is natural and reasonable to think that our Rewards and Punishments shall begin as soon as we go into the next World 2. And yet we read of no other formal Judgment but that great and general Judgment when the Son of Man shall descend from Heaven with a glorious Retinue of Angels to Judge the World if we examine all those express Declarations of Christ and his Apostles concerning Judgment or those Parables of our Saviour which relate to it we shall plainly find that they concern the last and general Judgment It is in that day which relates to a certain determined Day of Judgment that many shall say unto him Lord Lord have we not prophesied in thy Name 7 Matth. 22. It is at the end of the World when the Angels shall separate between the Wheat and the Tares between the good and bad Fish which were taken in the same Net 13 Matth. It is when the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his Angels that he shall reward every man according to his works 16 Matth. 27. that is as St. Paul speaks when the Lord Iesus 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 our Lord Iesus Christ 2 Thess. 8 9. God hath given him authority to execute judgment because he is the Son of man And when he must do this he tells us The hour is coming in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth they that have done good to the resurrection of life and they that have done evil to the resurrection of damnation 5 John 27 28 29. And in his account of his Judging the World he tells us When the Son of man shall come in his glory and all his holy Angels with him then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory And before him shall be gathered all nations and he shall separate them one from another as a shepherd separateth his sheep from the goats 25 Matth. 31 32. Then it is when the Man who travelled into a far Country returns and calls his Servants to an Account how they have improved their Talents v. 14 c. Christ is the only Judge of the World for all Judgment is committed to the Son and he does not judge the World till his second Appearance till he returns in the Glory of his Father with his Angels The Apostle to the Hebrews indeed tells us It is appointed unto men once to die and after death the judgment which might seem to intimate a particular Judgment of all Men as soon as they die but he adds when this Judgment shall be in the next Verse So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many he died once for us because we must once die and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation That is he shall appear the second time to judge the World which shews that this Judgement after Death is the general Judgement 9 Heb. 27 28. And the truth is if all Men have a final Sentence past on them as soon as they go into the other World it is very unaccountable why Christ at the last Day shall come with such a terrible Pomp and Solemnity to Judge and Condemn those who are judged and condemned and executed already as much as ever they can be And therefore in the Parable of Dives and Lazarus we have no mention of their being judged but Lazarus was carried by an Angel into Abraham's Bosom the Angels being ministring spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation 1 Heb. 14. Thus they minister to good Men in this World and do a great many kind Offices for us which we know not of and thus they minister to us when we go out of this World and conduct us to a place of Ease and Rest carry us safe through the Crowds of evil Spirits which fill these lower Regions into Abraham's bosom but the rich man was dead and buried and lift up his eyes in hell or Hades not Gehennah which signifies the State of separate Souls and it seems of wicked Souls and was in Torment but how he came thither it is not said there is no notice given us of any Judgment which sat on him or who carried him thither and therefore if we may guess by the Analogy of the Parable as Lazarus was carried by an Angel into Abraham's Bosom so Dives having no good Angel to guard him fell into
tremble at Judgment who are afraid of the Judge we are his he has bought us with his Blood he has renewed and sanctified us by his Spirit and now he is come to own us in the presence of Men and Angels to bestow a Kingdom on us to receive us to himself that where he is we may be also and behold his Glory But then on the other hand consider I beseech you what a terrible Sight this will be to bad Men who have laughed at the Fable of a Crucified Jesus and mocked at Future Judgment And is he come will such a Sinner say and must I be judged at last when I thought myself so secure of Judgment Behold I see him and can be an Infidel no longer Lord what Terrour is there in his Looks how do his Eyes flame with Vengeance who can abide the Day of his Wrath How can I appear before him as my Judge whom I would not have for my Saviour what account can I give of my actions who never expected to be called to an account for them what Plea can I make for my self who would never believe who would never be perswaded how shall I bear his Presence and yet whether can I flie from him when he condemns me to whom can I Appeal from the Judge and the Saviour of the World O Wretch that I am who would never believe never think of this Day and now I must be condemned by the Saviour of the World Let these Thoughts then make a deep impression upon our Minds before that Day comes let us remember that the Son of Man will be our Judge he who laid down his Life for us he who now invites us to Repentance he who now promises Pardon and Forgiveness to true Penitents let this teach us to reverence his Laws to imitate his Example to put our whole Trust and Confidence in his Merits and Intercession That when he cometh again in his glorious majesty to judge both the quick and the dead we may rise with him unto life immortal as our Church teaches us to pray Secondly Let us now consider what Assurance we have that the Man Christ Jesus shall be the Judge of the World and of this St. Paul tells us That God hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead But you 'll say how does the Resurrection of Christ from the Dead prove that he is made the Judge of the World For that any Man rises from the Dead does not prove that he is Judge of the World we shall all rise again the last Day but not to judge but to be judged This is very true and therefore if we knew no more of Christ but only that he rose again from the Dead this would not prove him to be the Judge of the World But we must consider 1. That the Resurrection of Christ is a great and irresistible Proof of the Doctrine which he preached this our Saviour himself appeals to as the last Proof of his Divine Authority Destroy this temple and in three days will I raise it up And thus his Resurrection from the Dead proves that he is the Judgâ— of the World for this he expresly taught his Disciples That God had committed all judgment into his hands that the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels and then shall he reward every man according to his works So that our Saviour plainly declared that God had made him the Judge of the World and God has confirmed his Testimony by raising him from the Dead 2. We must consider also that the Resurrection of Christ was his visible Advancement into his Kingdom then his Kingdom began when he rose from the Dead then all power was committed to him both in heaven and in earth 28 Mat. And that God has thus advanced him was visible to all Men in the Effusion of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles on the Day of Pentecost and in those wonderful Miracles which they wrought in his Name Thus St. Peter tells the Iews that the miraculous Effusion of the Spirit was a visible Proof that God had advanced Christ into his Kingdom 2 Acts 33. Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost he hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear And from hence concludes v. 36. Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Iesus whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ. Thus upon occasion of the Miracles the Apostles wrought when they were forbid to preach in his Name St. Peter tells the Sanhedrim The God of our fathers raised up Iesus whom ye slew and hanged on a tree Hiâ— hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour for to give repentance unto Israel and remission of sins And we are his witnesses of these things and so is also the Holy Ghost whom God hath given to them that obey him 5 Acts 30 31. So that when Christ rose again he took possession of his Kingdom and he must Reign till he hath put down all Enemies under his Feet that is till he hath judged the World finally condemned all bad Men and rewarded his faithful Disciples and then he shall give up the Kingdom again unto his Father that God may be all in all 1 Cor. 15. But besides this there are two visible Effects of the Resurrection of CHRIST which are plain Presages and Preludiums to a Future Judgment the Destruction of the Iewish Nation and Policy and the Destruction of the Kingdom of Darkness 1. The Destruction of the Iews for their great Sin in Crucifying their Messias This Christ foretold he would do this is the meaning of that Parable of the noble man who went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return But his citizens hated him and sent a message after him saying We will not have this man to reign over us And when he returned he said But those mine enemies which would not that I should reign over them bring hither and slay them before me 19 Luke 12 14 27. And therefore when Christ had foretold the Destruction of the Temple and his Disciples asked him When shall these things be and what shall be the sign of thy coming and of the end of the World Our Saviour intermixes the Prophesie of the Destruction of Ierusalem the Fate of the Iewish Nation and the last Judgment or the end of the World the Destruction of the Iewish Nation being the beginning and the Presage of a Future Judgment 24 Matth. This was a visible Act of his Justice and Power and a fair Warning to the World what all the Enemies of Christ's Kingdom must expect 2. The Overthrow of the Devil's Kingdom in the World is another Presage of a Future Judgment When Christ appeared the Devil had his Kingdom in this World was the God
of this World and was worshipped with Divine Honours and St. Iohn tells us For this end the Son of God was manifest to destroy the works of the devil 1 Joh. 3.8 And Christ tells us That the Holy Ghost whom he would send upon his Apostles after his Resurrection from the Dead should convince the world of judgment because the prince of this world is judged 16 John 11. Where by Judgment I understand the final Judgment which the Spirit should convince the World of by that visible Judgment he would execute upon the Prince of this World For by the preaching of the Gospel he turned Men from Darkness unto Light and from the Power of Satan unto God converted great part of the Heathen World silenced their Oracles and exposed their Gods and their Worship their Temples and their Altars to contempt This was a visible Judgment of the Prince of this World and have not bad Men reason to look about them when they see their Prince and Captain so miserably defeated If Christ have already begun to execute Judgment on the Prince of this World is not this a plain Fore-runner of the final Judgment when the Devil and his Angels and all bad Men shall be condemned to Eternal Fire This assurance we have that the Son of Man shall Judge the World that God hath raised him from the Dead and thereby confirmed that Testimony which he gave of himself advanced him to the right Hand of Power and has already given some sensible Proofs of his Power and Justice in the Overthrow of the Iewish Nation and the Devil's Kingdom I shall only farther observe that this sensible Proof we have that Christ shall Judge the World is a sensible Proof of a Future Judgment as certain as we are that Christ is risen from the Dead so certain we are of a Future Judgment which is an abundant Confirmation of all those other Arguments from Reason and Scripture that God will Judge the World CHAP. IV. The Manner and Circumstances of CHRIST's Appearance and the Awful Solemnities of Iudgement IV. LET us now consider the Manner and Circumstances of Christ's Appearance and the Awful Solemnities of Judgment I have upon several Occasions hinted at most of these things already but the Order of my Discourse requires that I should say something particularly though briefly to them Now our Saviour tells us 16 Matth. 27. That the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels 9 Luke 26. That the Son of man shall come in his own glory and in his Fathers's and of the holy angels That the Lord Iesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire taking vengeance on them â—hat know not God and obey not the gospel of our Lord Iesus Christ 2 Thess. 1.7 8. That the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God which shall awaken the dead and raise them out of their graves but the dead in Christ shall rise first then we which are alive that is whoever shall then be alive at Christ's coming to Judgment shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord 1 Thess. 4.16 17. That when the Son of man cometh in his glory and all his holy angels with him then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory And before him shall be gathered all nations and he shall separate them one from another as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats 25 Matth. 31 32. Or as it is described in St. Iohn's Visions 20 Revel 11 12 13. And I saw a white throne and him that sat on it from whose face the earth and heavens fled away and there was no place found for them And I saw the dead small and great stand before God and the books were opened and another book was opened which is the book of life and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works This gives us a general Prospect of the Order and Solemnity of the last Judgment which is very Pompous and Glorious and very Terrible there never was any thing like it all the Roman Triumphs in comparison with this were but like the Sports and Apish Imitations of Children let us then particularly but briefly consider the several parts of it Christ shall come in his own glory and in his Father's and of the holy angels In his own glory that must signifie the Glory of his Person that is the Glory of an Incarnate God His Body will be bright and glorious as the Sun so it was when he was transfigured before them on the Mount His face did shine like the sâ—â— and his raiment was white as the light 17 Matth. 2. And if there be any new degrees of Glory and Majesty we may be sure he will appear in it all when he comes to Judgment The Scripture assures us that Christ is now clothed with a glorious Body and that at the Resurrection he shall change our vile bodies that they may be like to his own most glorioâ—s body and he himself tells us At that day the righteous shall shine forth like the sun in the kingdom of their Father And if he bestows such Glory on his meanest Members how glorious will the Head be for St. Paul assures us that there are very different degrees of Glory There is one glory of the sun and another glory of the moon and another glory of the stars for one star differeth from another star in glory So also is the resurrection of the dead 1 Cor. 15.41 42. With what Glory then will our Lord appear when he comes to Judgment If the Righteous shall shine forth like the Sun how bright will the Sun of Righteousness himself be If meer Creatures shall appear so glorious what will the Glory of an Incarnate God be for he will not then appear as a glorious Creature but as a visible God as I observed before his Godhead will shine through his glorified Humanity as visibly as our Souls do through our Bodies and how glorious must that Body be in which the Deity appears a Glory which distinguishes a God from the most glorious Creatures But he must appear in the Glory of his Father also that is as I understand it with the Authority of an Universal Judge this is a great Glory for Authority and Power carries Reverence and Majesty with it whatever Mens personal Qualifications are though upon all other accounts they are much inferior to their Neighbours yet the Character of a Judge makes them Venerable especially to those who must be judged by them Authority is an invisible Character but yet gives a visible Majesty it is apt to impose upon our Judgments of Persons that we hardly think them the same Men when they are in Authority and out of it and
cannot deceive us for if we judge of our selves by the same Rule by which God will judge us every Man knows himself so well that he cannot mistake and when GOD and Conscience judge by the same Rule their Judgment must be the same but if we will alter our Rule of Judging if Conscience judge by one Rule and God by another then there is no wonder if their Judgments differ if GOD condemn those whose Consciences acquit them and absolve those whose Consciences or rather whose private Opinions and Fancies condemn them This is plain from the instances before us some Men justifie themselves in doing very wicked Actions but the reason is because they mistake the Nature of Things they call Good Evil and Evil Good and then their Consciences applaud and commend them for doing that which is very wicked but which they call good As our Saviour tells his Apostles The time cometh when every one that killeth you will think that he does God good service 16 Joh. 2. Others who know they are guilty of very great wickedness are yet very confident of their Salvation and full of assurance because they do not judge of themselves by the good or evil which they do but rely upon other marks and evidences for their Salvation Raptures Extasies Enthusiasms a presumptuous Faith in Christ an ineffectual sorrow for sin some arbitrary and fanciful signs of Election c. Now indeed these Mens Consciences do condemn them for they accuse them of great wickedness but they will not believe the Judgment of their own Consciences but judge of their final state by their own mistaken Fancies and Opinions and therefore according to the Apostle's Rule God will condemn these Men for their own Consciences condemn them though they will not believe the Judgment of their Consciences but justifie themselves in contradiction to it when Conscience condemns Other Men who are not condemned by their own Consciences that is who cannot charge themselves with any great guilt who are not conscious to themselves that they have lived in any known Sin or in the habitual neglect of any material and essential part of their Duty yet they strongly fancy that GOD will condemn them that they are under the Sentence of Reprobation that they have sinned against the Holy Ghost though what that Sin is they know not They want the testimony of the Spirit to assure them of their Election they have never felt the Spirit of Bondage and therefore they fear they have not the Spirit of Adoption that is they have never felt the Horrours and Agonies of guilty Sinners because by the Grace of GOD and the Blessing of a pious and vertuous Education they have always been preserved from those frightful sins which amaze the Conscience and therefore they fear it is but a false Peace they feel that God is not in this soft and calm Voice of Conscience because they have never heard nor seen the Thundrings and Lightnings from Mount Sinai Or though they maintain a great reverence for God and worship him with all humility of Soul and Body yet they do not feel those flights of Devotion those melting and languishing Passions which some good Men â—eel or if at any time they are transported beyond themselves and feel their Hearts all on fire with Love and Devotion these Fits are but short these Boylings and Fermentations go off and they return to a calm and even Temper and then they think they grow cold and that the Spirit of GOD hath forsaken them Now it is plain also that these Mens Consciences do not condemn them for they charge them with no such guilt as the Gospel of Christ will condemn them for but they are condemned only by false Opinions or by a misguided and disturbed Fancy In both these Cases Men absolve or condemn themselves not by the judgment and testimony of Conscience but by their mistaken Notions and Opinions and God is not concerned to confirm and ratifie such a Judgment The Sum is this When St. Iohn tells us That if our Conscience condemn us God will condemn us but if our Conscience do not condemn us neither will God condemn us he means by Conscience that Judgment which Men make of themselves by comparing their Lives and Actions with the Rule by which GOD will judge us for Conscience judges not by making new and arbitrary Rules of Judgment but by giving Testimony to our Lives and Actions The Judgment of Conscience is no more but this Whether we have obeyed or disobeyed the Laws of the Gospel whether we have done those things which the Gospel threatens to punish or which it promises to reward but when we judge our Actions by false Notions of Good and Evil contrary to the Gospel of our Saviour we judge by a false Rule and then our Judgment must be false and when we judge our selves not by the Nature of our Works as God will judge us and as Conscience judges but by Opinions and Fancies and some Arbitrary and Enthusiastick Marks and Signs this is not the Judgment of Conscience which judges only of our Works but the Judgment of private Opinions Conceits and Fancies and though God will judge us as Conscience judges yet he will not judge us as Opinion Fancy Enthusiasm or Melancholy judge us Thus we see how we may know what our Sentence shall be at the Day of Judgment Two sorts of Men may certainly know what their Sentence shall be and a third sort may know the great danger they are in if they will but listen to the Judgment of their own Consciences Men whose Consciences absolutely condemn them may certainly expect that God will condemn them For when their guilt is so notorious that they are forced to condemn themselves why should they think that a just and righteous Judge will not condemn them Those whose Consciences do not condemn them shall certainly be pardoned and rewarded by the Mercies of God those whose Consciences will neither condemn nor absolve them but do both by turns are in a very doubtful and hazardous state their Salvation as yet is very uncertain and it concerns them to work out their salvation with fear and trembling and to give all diligence to make their calling and election sure And should not this teach us to reverence the Judgment of Conscience as a Divine Sentence not to provoke our Consciences to condemn us to obey their Admonitions and to reform at their Rebukes and Censures What would Sinners think should they hear themselves condemned by God every time they commit a known and wilful sin And yet Conscience is the Tribunal of God judges for God and condemns us in God's Name and by his Authority and God will confirm and execute its Sentence and therefore Conscience is a very venerable Judge And ought we not diligently to hearken to that Judgment which Conscience passes on us This I am sure is of vast concernment both to bad and to good Men whether it
IMPRIMATUR G. Royse R. R. in Christo Patri ac Dom. Dom. Iohanni Archiep. Cantuar. Ã Sacris Domest Iuly 28th 1691. A Practical Discourse CONCERNING A Future Judgment By WILLIAM SHERLOCK D. D. Dean of St. Paul's Master of the Temple and Chaplain in Ordinary to Their Majesties LONDON Printed for W. Rogers at the Sun over-against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleet-street 1692. TO THE QUEEN'S MOST EXCELLENT MAjESTY May it please Your Majesty TO accept of this Treatise a small Part of which being Preached in Your Royal Chappel Your Majesty was pleased to Excuse the Printing of it then that it might wait for the Publication of the Whole which Your Majesty was given to understand I intended which I now humbly Present to Your Sacred Majesty rejoycing that I have so good an Occasion of Acknowledging Your Great and Vndeserved Favours to me and of professing with all the Sincerity that the Subject of this Treatise requires that I am Your MAjESTY'S Most Humble and most Obedient Subject and Servant William Sherlock The CONTENTS THE Introduction containing a Distribution of the Work Page 1 CHAP. I. The Proof of a Future Iudgment 3 Sect. I. That Man is by Nature an Accountable Creature 5 Sect. II. The Essential Differences between Good and Evil and the Natural Notions we have of God prove a Future Iudgment 19 Sect. III. The External Appearances of Providence prove a Future Iudgment 34 Sect. IV. The Natural Presages of Conscience prove a Future Iudgment and if there be a Future State there must be a Future Iudgment 89 Sect. V. The Scripture Proof of a Future Iudgement 106 Sect. VI. The Improvement of this Doctrine in some particular Inferences as 1. To live as it becomes those who shall certainly be judged 2. To keep our Eye upon a Future Iudgment for the Government of our Lives 123 Sect. VII Third Inference To refer all Iudgement to God 144 Sect. VIII Fourth Inference To refer all Difficulties to the Day of Iudgment 168 Sect. IX Fifth Inference To affect our Souls with a strong and vigorous and constant Sence of Iudgment 189 CHAP. II. Concerning the Time of Iudgment 208 Sect. I. Concerning a Particular Iudgment at the time of every Man's Death ibid. Sect. II. That the Day of Iudgment is appointed 233 Sect. III. The Day God has appointed is a General Day of Iudgment 255 Sect. IV. The Day of Iudgment is at the End of the World 278 CHAP. III. Who shall be our Iudge viz. The Man Christ Iesus 300 CHAP. IV. The Manner and Circumstances of Christ's Appearing and the Awful Soâ—emnities of Iudgment 336 CHAP. V. Who are to be judged viz. The World or all Mankind 360 CHAP. VI. For what we shall be judged 403 CHAP. VII Concerning the Righteousness of the Future Iudgement and the Rule whereby we shall be judged 439 Conclusion How to know what our Sentence will be at the last Iudgment with an Exhortation to Reverence our own Consciences 521 ERRATA PAge 154. l. 28. for froward r. forward p. 240. l. 18. r. that this is p. 279. l. 5. f. shall r. should p. 369. l. 26. f. Peâ—sions r. Persons p. 496. l. 30. f. undue to r. due unto A Practical Discourse CONCERNING A Future Judgment xvii ACTS xxxi Because he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained whereof he hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead The INTRODUCTION HAVING in a former Treatise discours'd largely concerning Death the next thing to be considered is Judgment for so the Apostle tells us After death the judgment And a very grave and serious Thought it is if ever Men will be serious for nothing can be of greater concernment to us than a Future Judgment which will determine our final state and condition to Eternity In treating on this Subject I shall observe this Method 1. Inquire what Assurance we have of a Future Judgment 2. The Time when this Judgment shall be God hath appointed a day for it 3. Who shall be our Judge God will judge the world but not immediately by himself but by that a man whom he hath ordained that is by Christ Jesus who is a Man and the Son of Man as well as the eternal Son of God 4. The publick and awful Solemnities of Judgment 5. The Persons who shall be judged The world or all Mankind 6. For what we shall be judged whatever we have done in this body whether it be good or bad 7. The Rule whereby we shall be judged and the Righteousness of the Judgement CHAP. I. The Proof of a Future Iudgment IN treating of Death there was no need to prove That all Men must die for this is too visible to be denied but Judgment is not seen nor can it be seen because it is not yet Could Men indeed look into the other World they would soon be convinced by the different state of good and bad Men there that God has appointed a Day for Judgment but that is an invisible State to us and the Thoughts of Judgment are so uneasie to bad Men now that they are very unwilling to believe it and this makes it necessary to lay the Foundation of all in the Proof of a Future Judgment Now there are two ways of proving this First By the Principles of Reason Secondly By Revelation By Reason we can prove that God will judge the World as that signifies that God will call all Men to an account for their Actions and that he will reward good Men and punish the Wicked in the next World This the Heathens themselves discovered by the Light of Nature they talked very much of the Internal Judges and of the Rewards and Punishments of good and bad Men after Death and therefore in this sence did believe a Future Judgment But yet the Revelation of the Gospel has given us a more plain and undeniable assurance of this and has discovered something more than the Light of Nature could discover The Light of Nature and Reason may satisfie us as it did the Heathens that God will reward good Men and punish the wicked in the next World but it could not tell us that God had appointed a general Day of Judgment wherein all the Dead shall rise again out of their Graves and re-assume their Bodies and be summoned to Judgment it could not tell us who shall be our Judge with what Glory and Majesty he shall appear and with what Pomp and awful and terrible Solemnities he shall judge us The World knew nothing of this before the Gospel was preached for it depends wholly upon the will and pleasure of God and therefore can be known only by Revelation I shall begin with the Proofs from Reason and shew you what Moral Evidence and Assurance we have that God will judge the World as that signifies that he will reward good Men and punish the wicked in the next World
self-evident Consequence that if God govern the World he will judge it that is reward every Man according to his Works for the principal Act of Government is to Judge and it is impossible he should be a wise and just Governour who does not judge The difference between the Providence of God or his present Government of the World and a Final Judgment is no more but this That they have different Ends and therefore must have different Rules and Measures but they are both God's judging the World and therefore if God begins his Judgment of Mankind in this World there is no reason to doubt buâ— he will finish and perfect his Judgment in the next if he judges Mankind now aâ— far as is proper to the state of this World it is a sufficient reason to believe that iâ— the next World he will exercise such act of Judgment as are proper for that State The great Ends of Providence in thiâ— World are the Preservation of Human Societies the Incouragement of Piety anâ— Vertue and the Discouragement of Vicâ— to keep Men under Discipline to lay Râ—â—straints upon their Lusts and Passions 〈◊〉 wean them from the love of this Worlâ— to exercise their Graces their Faith and Patience and Charity and by the different methods of Kindness and Severity as his own Wisdom judges best and fittest to reclaim the wicked and the wandering Prodigals and to advance good Men to greater degrees and perfections of Goodness the end of God's judging Mankind in the next World is to allot Men such Rewards and Punishments as are proportioned to their Works and Deserts to bestow Eternal Life on good Men and to execute the threatning of Eternal Death upon bad Men which is the Final Conclusion and Consummation of Judgment and if God judges all Men in this World as far as is necessary for this World it is reasonable to think that he will perfect his Judgment in the World to come Now it is plain he does the first as will appear from particulars He corrects the Miscarriages of Publick Government Publick Injustice and Oppression a Publick Contempt of God and of Religion and of all things sacred a General Corruption of Manners and an Inundation of Wickedness such Nations seldom escape long without a severe Scourge unless God makes use of them to scourge other Nations as wicked as themselves but a Righteous and Religious Nation which preserves Justice among Men and the Knowledge and Reverence and Worship of God is the Darling and Favourite of Providence and is blessed with all prosperous Successes both at Home and Abroad So the wise Man tells us That righteousness exalteth a nation but sin is the reproach of any people Thus it is apt to do of itself but the Divine Justice and Providence takes care that it shall do so for though every particular good Man is not rewarded nor every particular bad Man punished in this World yet God governs Kingdoms and Nations by a more equal and steady Justice for indeed publick Societies are the principal Objects of his Rewards and Punishments in this World because the good Government of Mankind depends so much upon it the Vertues or Vices of private Men have but a narrow influence and can do but little good or hurt but publick Government is a publick Good or Mischief and the Disorders of it are like an Eclipse of the Sun which brings Darkness upon the World and therefore such a very wicked Nation is seldom long unpunished or a righteous Nation oppressed And this is a visible Exercise of God's Judgment in this World in rewarding or punishing Kingdoms and Nations which are the great Wheels of Providence whereon the regular Motion and good Government of the World depends as I observed to you before that God governs the World by erecting Humane Governments and therefore is more especially concerned to govern them Thus in order to discourage Wickedness and to encourage true Piety and Vertue which is another End of Providence it is not necessary that God should reward every good Man or punish every bad Man in this World some few great Examples of such Rewards and Punishments are sufficient to this purpose especially if they are so many and so frequent that no bad Man can promise himself Impunity even in this Life nor any good Man have reason to despond or distrust Providence and as many Complaints as there are of the Prosperity of bad Men and the Sufferings of the good yet every Age and every Country nay almost every Village will furnish us with so many Examples of miserable Sinners and of the visible Rewards of Vertue as are abundantly enough to make all considering Men reverence the Divine Justice and Providence and therefore God exercises as great as frequent as visible Acts of Judgment as the State of this World requires Especially when we consider that this World is a State of Discipline a School of Vertue where we must learn to govern our Passions and Appetites to conquer vicious Habits and to live above the Body and the Pleasures of it to forgive Injuries to love Enemies to Suffer patiently to be contented with a Little to trust Providence to live by Faith and Hope of unseen Things now such a State as this will not admit of an exact Distribution of Rewards and Punishments Bad Men must not always be punished for their Sins because sometimes External Prosperity and a Sence of the Divine Goodness may work more kindly on them or if they be punished their Punishments must be rather Corrections than Acts of Justice that is they must not always bear proportion to their Deserts but to their Cure as a Father corrects his Child not so much to punish his Fault as to reform it And for the same reason good Men must not always be prosperous for they may need Adversity to exercise encrease and brighten their Vertues and to make them greater Examples to the World or if God sees fit to reward them it must be in such instances and such proportions as they can bear not always what they may deserve but what will be for their good Thus God governs the World with great Justice and Judgment as far as the State of this World requires and admits and what reason then is there to question whether God will judge Mankind in the World to come His Exercise of Justice and Judgment in this World proves that he is the Jâ—dge of the World not an idle and unconcerned Spectator of Humane Actions that he interests himself in the Affair of Mankind is solicitous to make all his Creatures happy is an Enemy to Wickedness and to wicked Men but the Friend Protector and Father of good Men and if God be the Judge of the World why should we think that he will not judge it nay if he actually execute Justice and Judgment in this World why should we think that he has reserved no Acts of Judgment for the next World which is a more
proper place for it and requires some different Acts of Judgment peculiar to that State If God reward good Men and punish wicked Men in this World why should we think that he has reserved no Rewards or Punishments for them in the next especially if we consider these two things I. That it is very evident that the Judgment of God in this World is not Final that is that the Blessings God bestows upon good Men in this World are not the onely Rewards he intends for them nor the present Evils and Calamities he brings upon bad Men their onely Punishments this is very plain and expresâ— in Scripture but I must not Appeal to Scripture now while I am arguing from Reason and therefore must consider what Natural Indications we have of this As 1. That good and bad Men live together intermixt in this World in the same Country the same Neighbourhood nay the same Family and therefore God does not intend finally to reward good Men or punish the wicked here for that requires a Separation of them the same place will not admit of perfect Happiness and perfect Misery which must be the effect of a Final Judgment for their very Neighbourhood will necessarily allay each other Unless God should make good Men other Creatures than they now are it would be impossible for them to see the perpetual Executions and the amazing Miseries of Sinners without disturbing their own Ease and Rest and then they could not be perfectly happy in this World As things now are the many Miseries and Calamities of Humane Life exercise the pitty and compassion of good Men and afflict them with a tender and painful sence of other Mens Sufferings and what would it then do were all wicked Men punished in this World according to their Deserts which would make this World the very Image and Picture of Hell a very unfit place for good Men to be happy in and if good Men were all perfectly rewarded in this World bad Men who live and converse among them could not be perfectly miserable for to live in a happy Place and among happy People is some allay of Misery at least it is not like being condemned to Eternal Night and Darkness to the Company of Devils and damned Spirits Besides this without a miraculous Providence good Men cannot live among the wicked but they must suffer from them nor bad Men live among the good but they must receive good from them and therefore neither of them can be perfectly happy or perfectly miserable while they live together Were there no more in it but this the very Wickedness of Men their Leudness Injustice Oppression Prophaneness Comtempt of God and Religion would be a perpetual Trouble and Vexation to the Good as the Soul of righteous Lot was grieved with the filthy Conversation of the Wicked and this makes a great a batement in their Happiness and yet it would not be a less Miracle to preserve all good Men from the Injuries of the wicked who live among them especially when they are the prevailing Numbers and have great Power to do Mischief then it was to preserve Daniel in the Lions Den from being devoured by those hungry and ravenous Beasts Nay it is impossible that God should punish all wicked Men in this World without involving some good Men in their Calamities and Sufferings when God punishes a wicked Nation with Plague or Famine or Sword when he fires a City and reduces all the Buildings of it to a Heap of Rubbish how is it possible but that good and bad Men who live together must suffer in such a Common Calamity there is reason enough why God should now sometimes permit â—â—is because even good Men may deserve such Corrections and he can easily recompense them other ways but this would be no reason if good Men were to receive their Final Rewards in this World for then they ought to be exempted from the Punishments of the wicked Thus how impossible is it for God to punish all bad Men here without punishing good Men in them Have not many good Men very wicked Relations for whom they have a very tender affection Parents or Brethren or Children or those who are nearer to them than all these and can they be contented to be Witnesses of their Sufferings This cannot be unless good Men in such cases could divest themselves of natural Affections which we see is not and cannot be done and if it could would be a greater Mischief to the World than the Sufferings of bad Men would do good to it And for the same reason bad Men cannot be perfectly miserable in this World while good Men live among them for unless God should forbid the exercise of some of the most excellent Vertues of the Christian Life and which are in themselves most beneficial to the World good Men will exercise great Charity and Goodness Forgiveness and Patience towards the wicked will relieve their Wants and pitty their Sufferings and be their Patrons and Advocates both with God and Men that is will do good to them and procure Blessings for them The Intercessions of good Men very often divert Judgments and obtain great Blessings for a very wicked Nation Sodom itself had escaped upon the Intercession of Abraham had there been Ten righteous Persons found in it And God very often spares a wicked Nation for the sake of good Men who live among them and must suffer by such Publick Judgements that is he spares bad Men to save the Righteous Thus God bestows many Temporal Blessings upon the Friends Relations and Posterity of good Men though they are wicked and this is part of the Reward of Piety and Vertue in this World and therefore all good Men cannot be rewarded and all wicked Men punished in this World because many good Men must be punished in the Punishments of the wicked and many wicked Men must escape nay must prosper in the World as a Reward of the good which is not considered by those who make the Impunity and Prosperity of some bad Men an argument against Providence when the very Prosperity of these bad Men is many times the Reward of Vertue and a design'd Favor and â—ndulgence to the good But what I have now said plainly proves that God's Judgment in this World is not Final because good and bad Men live together and it is absolutely necessary that they should be parted when God comes to render to every Man according to his Works as our Saviour declares that they shall be at the Final Judgment when the Sheep shall be placed on his right Hand and the Goats on the left 2. That God's Judgment in this World is not Final appears from this that all good Men are not rewarded nor all wicked Men punished in this World as they ought to be if God did not intend to Judge Men in the next World for what they have done in this That this is so I need not prove because we every day see
it and this is made a great Objection against Providence That many bad Men are prosperous and many good Men afflicted And a foolish Objection it is against Providence but a very good Argument for a Future Judgment When we have so many Arguments to prove that God does govern the World that he does even in this Life reward good Men and punish the wicked as much as is necessary for the good Government of the World it is very absurd to confute all this only by saying that he does not govern the World as we think he ought to govern it that is that he does not punish every bad Man nor reward every good Man in this Life Whoever would make good this Argument must prove that there is no other World after this wherein God can reward those good Men and punish those wicked Men whom he has not sufficiently rewarded or punished in this Life or he must prove that it is absolutely necessary to the ends of Government to reward every good Man and to punish every wicked Man in this World and not to defer their final Rewards and Punishments to the next for if it be granted that there is another World after this and that God if he sees fit may defer the final Rewards and Punishments of good and bad Men to the next World then this is no Objection at all against Providence But then instead of being an Objection against Providence it becomes a very strong Argument for a Future Judgment For if God does Govern and Judge the World and yet Justice is not equally and impartially administred to all Men but some good Men are greatly afflicted and some wicked Men are greatly prosperous it is little less than a Demonstration that there is some other Judgment to come besides what God exercises in this World for it is certain if God judge the World at all he will judge it righteously and will render to every Man according to his Works for Justice and Righteousness is essential to the Notion of a God and therefore since we see this is not always done in this World we must conclude that God's Judgment of Mankind does not end with this World but extends to a Future State that is that there is a Judgment to come after this Life when we shall be rewarded according to our Works 3. That the Judgment of God in this World is not Final appears from this that the Rewards and Punishments of this Life cannot be the final and proper Rewards and Punishments of good and bad Men External Prosperity and external Miseries and Sufferings are the only Rewards and Punishments we are capable of in this Life and therefore when God would visibly express his Kindness and Favour to good Men he makes them prosperous and when he would express his Anger and Displeasure against the wicked he punishes them with some Temporal Evils and this is all that can be done in this World except the peace and satisfaction or the guilty remorse of our own Consciences which God can heighten as he sees fit But now it is certain that external Prosperity is not the proper and peculiar Reward of Vertue nor external Sufferings the peculiar Punishment of Sin for if they were a just and righteous Judge could never permit bad Men to be prosperous nor good Men to be afflicted if Prosperity were due only to Vertue and Afflictions and Sufferings to Vice The promiscuous Distribution of the good and evil Things of this World both to good and to bad Men proves that Prosperity is not always good nor Adversity always evil that Prosperity is rather a present Encouragement then the proper Reward of Vertue and external Calamities rather a Curb and Restraint than the proper Punishment of Vice and therefore when God can serve the ends of his Providence by it he may make bad Men prosperous and afflict the good for this is not to transfer the necessary and peculiar Rewards of Vertue upon bad Men nor to inflict the peculiar Punishments of Sin upon good Men which cannot be done by a just and righteous Judge Now if the Happiness and Miseries of this Life be not the proper and peculiar and inseparable Rewards and Punishments of Vertue and Vice then there are some other Rewards and Punishments reserved for good and bad Men in the next World such Rewards as no bad Man shall share in and such Punishments as shall not be inflicted on any good Man that is besides the Providence and Judgement of God in this World God will Judge good and bad Men in the next and render to every Man according to his Works II. The Nature of the Divine Providence and Government and the Manner and Circumstances of its Administration in this World are a plain Indication of a Future Judgment The visible design of Providence is not to reward all good Men and to punish the wicked in this World for this is not done but to curb and restrain Wickedness and to encourage Piety and Vertue and therefore God gives us such Examples of his Justice as are sufficient to over-awe Mankind and make them fear his Power and Vengeance and such Examples of his Favour Kindness and Regard to good Men as may encourage them to be good and vertuous with the expectation of great Rewards But what does all this signifie unless it proves that God will punish bad Men and reward the good and if it proves this it must prove that God will do it in the next World for it is plain that he does not do it here And therefore if we will allow that God governs the World wisely we must confess that the Examples of God's Goodness and Justice in this World prove a Future Judgement for they are not so universal as to answer the ends of Justice in rewarding good Men and punishing the wicked in this World and unless they prove a Future Judgment they are not sufficient either to over-awe and restrain bad Men or to encourage the good for though the frequent Examples of God's Justice and Severity against Sin destroys Mens security in sinning for no bad Man can be sure that God will not punish him as he does a great many other bad Men yet we daily see they would venture this did not the present execution of Justice threaten them with the more terrible Judgement of the next World Thus if we consider the Providence of God as a Method of Discipline whereby he conquers Mens love to Sin and breaks the Habits of Vice or exercises and improves their Vertues this is a very unaccountable thing without a Future Judgement Why should God exercise so much Patience towards wicked Men and bare so long with them to conquer them by Methods of Kindness were it not in great Goodness to give them time for Repentance that they may escape Eternal Miseries Why should God exercise Men with such long and repeated Severities to conquer their Love to this World to teach them to govern
their Appetites and Passions and to make them good Men if there be no Reward for Vertue and Piety in the next World Why should he afflict good Men all their Lives whose Vertue deserves a more prosperous Fortune only to exercise their Faith and Patience and to advance them still to more Divine Perfections unless he intended to reward their present Sufferings and their eminent Vertue with a brighter and more glorious Crown There are many Passages of Providence which there can be no other account given of but that they are Methods of Discipline to conquer Mens love to Sin or to improve their Graces and Vertues And I am sure there can be no account given of this why God should with so much Patience and Forbearance expect the Repentance of some Sinners and exercise good Men with so much Severity to make them better unless the Providence of God in this World have a principal regard to the Rewards and Punishments of the next that is unless there be a Judgment to come to reward good Men and to punish the wicked This I hope is sufficient to make good this Consequence That if God govern the World at present he will judge it-hereafter SECT IV. The Natural Presages of Conscience prove a Future Iudgment and if there be a Future State there must be a Future Iudgment V. THe Natural Presages of Conscience are another good Argument or a Future Judgment that is all Men naturally expect to be judged to be rewarded or punished for the Good or Evil they do and this is a strong Natural Presumption that God will Judge the World This is an Argument of great moment and therefore deserves to be particularly explained to which purpose I shall I. shew you That it is so 2. That this is not an artificial Impression but the natural Sence of our own Minds And 3. That this does prove that God will Judge the World and render to every Man according to his Works I. That it is so that all Men have a natural Presage of Judgment there is indeed a very â—ormidable Objection against this That very few Men live as if they did expect to be judged But this is as good an Argument against Mens belief of the Gospel of Christ and the express Revelation of a Future Judgment as it is against the Natural Sence and Presages of Conscience for there are too many who profess to believe the Gospel but do not live as if they did believe a Judgment But I need not trouble myself about this because it is an Objection only to Atheists and Infidels if indeed it be an Objection to them Other bad Men who live as if they did not believe a Judgment yet feel in themselves that they do believe it and when they think of it they believe and tremble too as the Devils do though at other times they are over-powered by the World and the Flesh to act contrary to the Convictions of Conscience and the Fears of Judgment The Heathens themselves who had only the Light of Nature to direct them were very sensible of the private Judgement of their own Consciences which did either accuse them when they did ill and fill them with remorse and fear of Vengeance or excuse commend and applaud them when they did well and give them great and chearful Hopes of a Reward as St. Paul tells us 2 Rom. 14.15 and is frequently observed by the Heathen Philosophers Poets Orators and Historians as a thing universally acknowledged and indeed I know no Man at this day who denies it and therefore I need not prove it All Men feel this in themselves even Atheists and Infidels whenever they are serious and thoughtful when the Judgements of God overtake them or they see the near Approaches of Death and another World The greatest Power cannot defend Men from these Fears Princes and Politicians are equally exposed to them with meaner Subjects those whom no Humane Power can touch are over-awed by an invisible Justice II. Since this is universally acknowledged the onely question is To what Cause to attribute these Fears and Rebukes of Conscience The Atheist will by no means allow these Fears to be Natural but only the Effect of a Superstitious Education as they say the Belief of a God and the differences of Good and Evil are Men have been taught from their very Infancy that there is an invisible Power that governs the World which will reward good Men and punish the wicked and have been frighted with the Fairy Stories of Infernal Judges and Styx and Acheron or Hell-fire and this made such an Impression upon their tender Fancies as can never be wore out at least not without great Industry and Resolution of Mind and this they say makes weak Men conclude that they are Natural But this is a very absurd and ridiculous Account of the Matter as will appear if you consider by what Rules we are to judge what is Natural and what not for if these Presages of Conscience have all the marks and signs of being natural that we can have that any thing is natural we must either say that nothing is natural or that we cannot tell what is natural and what not or we must confess it great Perversness of Mind to deny that to be natural which has all the signs and Marks of being natural that any thing can have Now I. That is Natural which is universal or common to the whole Kind for we have no other way of knowing what the Natures of Things are but by observing what is common to all Creatures of the same Kind and Species for nothing is common to all Individuals but a common Nature and if what is universal and common to all Mankind is Natural these Censures and Rebukes of Conscience are Natural for they are common to all Men for though we should grant that some few Atheists had wholly conquered these Fears and never feel the Lashes and Rebukes of their own Consciences such few and rare Examples ought to be lookt on as the Corruption of Humane Nature not as the Measure and Standard of it for it is no news to say that Humane Nature may be corrupted that the very essential Principles of it may be depraved and in such cases we always judge and that with very good reason that what is most common and universal is Natural not what is as rare and as ominous as a monstrous Birth 2dly Especially when we consider that that is most Natural which is born and bred with us and is the Original State of Humane Nature for Nature is before Art and before the voluntary Corruptions and Degeneracy of Nature This Atheists see and confess and therefore attribute the Belief of a God and the Checks of Conscience and the Fears of Judgment to Education that these Principles were instilled into us from the beginning and grow up with us into confirmed and setled Prejudices and I readily grant that Education has a great stroke in forming our
enemy that sowed them is the devil as our Saviour tells such Men Ye are of your father the devil and his works ye do The Servants of the Housholder having informed their Master of what had happened ask him Whether they should go and gather up the Tares But he said Nay lest while ye gather up the tares ye root up also the wheat with them Let them both grow together till the harvest and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers Gather ye together first the tares and bind them into bundles to burn them but gather the wheat into my barn Which he thus expounds The harvest is the end of the world and the reapers are the angels for so our Saviour tells us he must come in the glory of his Father with his Angels who are the Ministers and Executioners of his Justice Aâ— therefore the tares are gathered and burn in the fire so shall it be in the end of the world The Son of man shall send forth his Angels and they shall gather out of hiâ— kingdom all things that offend and theâ— which do iniquity and shall cast them iâ— to a furnace of fire there shall be wailiâ—â— and gnashing of teeth Then shall the righteous shine forth like the Sun in the kingdom of their Father This we must confess was wisely considered by the Housholder not to destroy the Wheat with the Tares but rather suffer them both to grow up together till the Harvest then to pluck up the Wheat before it be ripe together with the Tares and this is as good a reason why God does not destroy all bad Men in this World because good and bad Men are intermixt and all bad Men cannot be destroyed here but good Men must suffer with them as I have already shewed you at large And therefore bad Men cannot be finally punished nor good Men finally rewarded till they are first parted for to root up the Tares here signifies the final Extirpation and Destruction of all bad Men not the casting bad Men out of the Communion of the Church nay not putting Hereticks to Death to which some apply these words which were it reconcileable with the other Laws and with the Genius and Spirit of Christianity as it is not would be as reconcileable with this Parable as the Execution of any other Malefactors is this may be done without destroying the Wheat nay in some cases the Wheat may be preserved by it for the Punishment and Execution of some bad Men is necessary to preserve the Innocent but when the Tares are more than the Wheat grow close together and are intangled in each other as the Interests of good and bad Men are intermixt and interwoven in this World there is great reason to spare the Tares for the sake of the Wheat But the Tares must not expect to escape thus always a wise Housholder in the time of Harvest will order the Reapers to separate between the Tares and the Wheat and then the Tares shall be burnt and the Wheat gathered into the Barn and thus Christ will separate between good and bad Men at the last Judgement and allot them very different Portions All this is very reasonable thus a wise Man will do and therefore this we must expect from the Wife and Just Judge of the World This Parable of the Wheat and Tares which grow together in the same Field represents the mixture of Believers and Infidels the Christian Church and the Men of this World here but the following Parable of the Net v. 47. which was cast into the sea and gathered of every kind represents the mixture of good and bad Men in the Communion of the Christian Church for thus our Saviour tells his Apostles that he would make them Fishers of Men and gave them a Figure of the success of their Ministry in that miraculous Draught of Fishes after they had toiled all the Night and had taken nothing 5 Luke 5.6 which he repeated again after his Resurrection from the Dead 21 Iohn 6 c. So that the Net signifies the Communion of the Christian Church which gathers both good and bad but when this Net is drawn to shore they gather the good into Vessels but cast the bad away that is at the end of the World the Angels shall not only separate between the Church and the World between Believers and Infidels but between good and bad Christians who live together in the same Communion in this World The Angels shall come forth and sever the wicked from among the just and shall cast them into the furnace of fire there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth Thus we see in these Parables our Saviour does not only prove that God will Judge the World but convinces us of the Necessity and Reasonableness of this by appealing to the common Rules of Prudence and Justice among Men Thus all wife and just Princes and Housholders will do destroy Traitors and Rebels revenge the abuse of their Favours call their Stewards to an account reward the Labour and Improvements of faithful Servants and punish the slothful and unprofitable separate the Wheat and Tares at Harvest though they grow up together in the same Field and separate between the good and bad Fish though caught in the same Net and therefore thus God will do who is not less Wise and Just and Holy than Men are And this gives Authority to all-the Arguments for a Future Judgment drawn from the Reason and Nature of Thingâ— thus our Saviour reasons and thus he has taught us to reason for the fundamental Principle on which all these Parables rest is this That whatever is manifestly just and wise and reasonable for Men to do that God will do If this be not true the Parables of our Saviour have his authority but have no reason though the nature of such Parables is an Appeal to the Reason of Mankind and if this be true then we may argue thus in other cases which are equally plain and obvious and are sounded upon the same Reason which gives a kind of Divine Authority to the plain and necessary Dictates of Reason in this matter and then I 'm sure I have furnished you with Reasons enough already for the Belief of a Future Judgment 3. The whole Christian Religion is founded on and adapted to the Belief of a Future Judgment and is a very unintelligible Institution without it and therefore this must be a first Principle to all who call themselves Christians if they understand the Religion they profess as to shew this particularly 1. The chief Promises and Threatnings of the Gospel relate to the other World Godliness indeed hath the promise of the life that now is as well as that which is to come but the Temporal Promises made to a holy and vertuous Life are such as worldly minded Men cannot much value they extend no farther than Food and Raiment to our daily Bread which is all our Saviour has taught us to
of our Saviour for any Temporal Inconvenience which attends it or to think that the best sence of the Christian Law which is most for the Ease and Comfort of this present Life This may serve for the Proof of a Future Judgment for if this will not prove it nothing will There are indeed another sort of Arguments to prove it but they principally relate to the Person of our Judge or who shall be our Judge viz. The Son of Man Christ Jesus who is God Incarnate and to which St. Paul refers 17 Acts 31. That God hath appointed a day wherein he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained whereof he hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead but I shall defer that till I come to speak of the Person of our Judge SECT VI. The Improvement of this Doctrine in some Practical Inferences as 1. To live as it becomes those who shall certainly be judged 2. To keep our Eye upon a Future Iudgment for the Government of our Lives HAving thus proved the Certainty of a Future Judgment both from Reason and Scripture before I proceed it is necessary to consider how we must improve this Belief for the Government of our Lives for that is the onely end of Faith and Knowledge and if we be never the better Men for our Faith we may as well be Infidels and this I shall do in these following Particulars I. To live as it becomes those who shall certainly be judged I suppose I need noâ— prove this Consequence That those who must be judged ought to live as those who must be judged for if Judgment be of any concernment to us I am sure it is of great concernment to prepare ourselves for Judgment And if we must be judged for Eternity Judgment is of as great concernment to us as Eternal Life and Death Nor is there any great difficulty to know how those Men ought to live who must be judged every Man knows this without a Teacher who will give himself leave to think A Steward a Factor a Labourer any Person who is liable to the Censure and Judgment of a Superiour who will call him to an Account knows what he is to do to prepare his Accounts and there is no greater Mistery in preparing ourselves for God's Judgment than for the Judgment of Men. But because all Men will not consider things as they ought though they be never so plain and obvious I shall briefly suggest some Rules to you which you must all acknowledge very reasonable at the first hearing and which if well observed would make us lift up our Heads in the Day of Judgment and expect it without Astonishment and Terrour 1. If we must be judged it becomes us to act with great Consideration and Advice Rafhness Precipitancy Inadvertency to do we know not what in a Heat and Impetus without considering whether it be good or evil right or wrong does not become those who must be judged To be judged is to be called to an account to give a reason for what we do and therefore we ought to consider what reason to give before we do it We must be judged by a Rule as you shall hear more hereafter and therefore we ought to live by Rule too which no Man can do who does not consider well what he does before he does it It will be no Plea at the Day of Judgment to say That we did not consider what we did that we lived without Care without Thought without Observation for this is not an allowable Plea for a reasonable Creature much less for one who knows he must be judged For why did you live without Thought without Consideration had you not the power of Thinking of Reasoning of Considering and did not God give these Powers and Faculties to you to direct and govern your Lives did he not make you reasonable Creatures that you might consider and live by Reason and is it any Excuse then for a reasonable Creature that he lived and acted without Reason and a wise Consideration of things This is the great Degeneracy of Humane Nature the abuse and corruption of those Natural Powers which God haâ—h given us the Source of all the Evils that are in this World and therefore can be no Excuse much less when we know that God will judge us and require a reason of our Actions for not to consider our own ways when we know God considers them and will require an account of them is a contempt of his Judgement for did we reverence our Judge we must consider and yet how many mad extravagant wicked Actions are there daily committed which those who do them never think why they do them nor what reasonable account they can give of them either to God or Man Some Men are very â—ond of what they call a Frolick that is to lay aside all Thought and Consideration and to give themsâ—lves up to the government of 〈◊〉 very sudden and unaccountable Fancy and the more wild and extravagant it is the more entertaining without any regard to Vertue or Vice to Decency and Honour the least thought of which is a Prophanation of these Bedlam Misteries they drink themselves drunk in a Frolick blaspheme GOD and his Son JESUS CRIST and his most holy Religion abuse Wives and Virgins murder innocent People and affront all they meet in a Frolick but it is ridiculous to imagine if we must be judged that such Frolicks as these shall be allowed in the Account or pass for Cyphers and empty Scenes of Life to signifie no more than they were intended for that because we choose at such a time to act without Reason and Consideration therefore GOD should demand no Reason nor Account of such Actions And yet a very great part of the World tho' they do not run into such outragious Frolicks as these are yet their Lives are little better than a train of incoherent and independent Fancies and Humours they live without Thought or any wise Design any extempore Project has them which starts up in their Minds or strikes their Fancies they scarce know what they have to do the next day nor how they spent the last But is this a Life for Men who are to be judged Others there are who give themselves up to the government of their Passions which are so vehement and impetuous and always in so much hast that they will neither hear Reason nor allow any time for it and then no wonder if they do such things as they can give no good account of when their Passion is over Others are more fixt and resolved in their way they have chose such a course of Life as they like best and they are resolved to pursue it and that nothing shall put them out of it and therefore they resolve against thinking too lest that should disturb them and give check to their Enjoyments they will neither lissen to their
own Consciences nor hearken to the Importunities of their Friends nor be perswaded to consider what the probable end of all their Actions will be both in this World and in the next These are all unthinking unconsidering Sinners but you will all confess that these Men do not live as if they were to be judged and therefore if we believe that we shall be judged none of us ought to live thus we ought to consider well before-hand what we do that we may be able to give a reasonable account of it when we have done it for if we must give a reason of our Actions when we have done them we ought to know a reason for them before we do them and therefore we must accustom our Minds to a grave and serious consideration of things to live by Reason not by Humour and Fancy not by the Impetus and Fury of Passion which is a very ill Counsellor much less to pursue our Lusts with an affected and resolved Ignorance and Blindness for all this will not prevent our being judged but will make us very unable to give a good account of ourselves when we are 2. As we must act with great Consideration so we must make it the standing Principle and Rule of our Lives never to do any thing but what we can give a good account of either what we know is our Duty or at least what we are satisfied is very lawful and innocent to be done for if we do those things which we cannot account for for which our own Minds condemn us how can we appear with any hope and confidence at the Tribunal of God When Men transgress a known Duty they are Self-condemned and God need not judge them but only execute the Sentence and Judgement of their own Conscience To believe that God will judge us and yet to venture upon such Actions for which our own Consciences condemn us and for which we know God will as certainly condemn us as our own Consciences do is folly and distraction since we must be judged our great care and concernment should be that when we are judged we may not be condemned and the most effectual way to prevent this is to do nothing which our Conscience condemns It is possible indeed that Men who sin wilfully against a known Duty may recover themselves by Repentance and obtain Mercy through the Merits and Mediation of Jesus Christ but it does not become any Man who believes a Judgement to sin that grace may abound these hopes very often deceive Men and will always do so till they come to this Resolution Never to violate a known Duty to provoke the Justice or to exercise the Patience and Forbearance of GOD. There is no other way to escape the Condemnation of the last Judgment but by a resolved Obedience to the Divine Laws and therefore if we believe we shall be judged nothing can be more necessary nor more becoming then to make this the constant Rule of our Actions Never to do any thing for which we know God will condemn us nothing but what can we account for and then we shall be prepared for Judgment whenever it comes 3. It becomes those who must be judged to judge themselves and to take a frequent and impartial account of their own Lives and Actions This is no more then every Steward does who casts up his Books and adjusts his Accounts himself before he presents them to his Lord. The truth is it is impossible for any Man who knows he shall be judged not to be very solicitous to know what his Judgment shall be and this every Man may in a great measure know who impartially examines his own Conscience for so St. Iohn tells us If our heart or conscience condemn us God is greater then our heart and knoweth all things but if our heart condemn us not then have we confidence towards GOD 1 John 3.20 21. So that if our Lives have been innocent and vertuous and such as a well-inform'd Conscience approves this will give infinite Peace and Satisfaction to us and fill us with Divine Joys with a Plerophory of Hope and Assurance but if we should not find things so well though upon such a strict Examination our Consciences should be very quarrelsome and uneasie and threaten the Vengeance of God against us yet it is much more desirable to hear our Consciences chide and condemn us than to hear our final Sentence from the mouth of our Judge Go ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels The Judgment of Conscience is not final for Conscience is rather our Monitor than our Judge it tells us what will be if we do not take care to prevent it not what certainly is and shall be and therefore we have this advantage by the Rebukes and Censures of Conscience to know what is amiss and what we must correct and amend Nay a frequent Examination of our selves would keep a perpetual Watch and Guard upon our Lives After our greatest care and caution a great many things will be hastily done and said which we cannot reconcile with the Rules of Prudence and Decency and strict Vertue but he who frequently calls himself to an account and observes all these Defects which it may be other Men are never sensible of will attain an habitual Caution and Watchfulness and improve into great Exactness of Conversation and all the Graces and Beauties of Vertue Some of the Philosophers thought it a very good Rule to call themselves to an account every night for what they had done that day which would make us reverence ourselves and our own Consciences but there is much more reason to do so when we remember that God observes all our Actions and will judge us for them The Judgment of our Consciences as I observed to you before is a Natural Presage of God's Judgment for there is no other reason why our Consciences should judge us but that God will and then the reason is very strong also that if God will judge us we ought to judge ourselves for this is the proper Office and Ministry of Conscience in subordination to the Judgment of God II. Let us keep our Eye perpetually on a Future Judgment for the Direction and Government of our Lives for this will furnish us with such Principles of Action as cannot be so well learnt any other way 1. As first it teaches us above all things to take care to approve ourselves to God which is the only Principle of true Religion and universal Obedience Nothing is an Act of Religion but as it respects God and is referred wholly to him to perform all the Acts of Worship though with never so great Pomp and Ceremony and external Appearances of Devotion to do never so many good Actions to be seen and to be praised by Men or to serve some Secular Interest by it is not Religion but such Men if they meet with what they expected have their Reward all that
the Gospel were never intended by our Saviour as the Rewards or Motives of our Obedience but only to eâ—courage and support us in our Pilgrimagâ— in this World that if we seek first tâ—â— kingdom of God and his righteousness 〈◊〉 we give up ourselves to the Obediencâ— of the Gospel and live upon the Hopes oâ— unseen Things and lay up Treasures iâ— Heaven all other things shall be added 〈◊〉 us God will provide what is needful for our passage through this World whateveâ— Difficulties and Discouragements we may meet with from Men. The design of the Gospel is to take ouâ— Hearts from this World to teach us noâ— to lay up for ourselves Treasures on Earth but in Heaven not to love this World nor the things that are in the World anâ— therefore it is impossible that Temporâ—â— Blessings should be a Gospel-Motive nothing in this World can be a Motive unless we love the World and therefore thiâ— can be no Motive of the Christian Religion which teaches us not to love the World unless the love of the World caâ— be a proper Motive and Argument to make us despise it and live above it And therefore I confess I have sometimes wished that there had been less stress laid upon the Temporal Rewards and Advantages of Vertue to perswade Men to Religion and upon the Temporal Evils and Miseries of Sin to discourage Men from it for this is not always true and if it were it is an Argument which will perswade no Men and if it did it cannot advance them to the heights and perfections of a Christian Vertue and therefore is no Gospel-Motive As for Instance Some Vertues are very healthful prolong our Lives and prevent a great many painful and mortal Diseases which the contrary Vices expose Men to such as Temperance and Chastity other Vertues are very proper Methods of Thriving in the World such as Diligence Prudence Justice others give us Reputation and Honour advance us to Rule and Empire and Publick Trusts Now this is sometimes true and sometimes not as the State of the World now is as I shewed you before that whatever natural Efficacy Vertue may have to make Men happy or Vice to make them miserable this may be in a great measure defeated by the external Circumstances of our Condition in this World and therefore this can never be a Motive that is it cannot be a reason why we should choose Vertue because it is not always a reason nay is as often a reason for Vice as for Vertue and if it be a good reason for one I cannot see why it should not be a good reason for the other for if it be a reason at all it is a reason for that side on which at present it is whether that be Vertue or Vice Indeed these Temporal Advantages of Vertue are not so much Reasons for Vertue as against Vice and that too only against such Vices or such Degrees and Instances of Vice as are destructive to Mens Health or Fortunes or Reputation however this Reason be it what it will will reach no farther than to such a degree of Vertue as will contribute to a happy and prosperous Life in this World and therefore will not raise us above this World will not teach us to despise Riches and Honours and Bodily Pleasures nay is not consistent with a mean Value and great Indifferency to present Things and therefore it cannot make us Christians and is a very improper Argument to perswade Men to be Christians it never made a Christian yet and never will do And therefore let us not think to conquer the Deceits and Flatteries of the World and the Flesh with such Arguments as these which have no strength â—n them which are more apt to make Men fond of this World then to conquer â—t But this is our victory which overâ—omes the world even our faith the hope â—nd fear of unseen Things or a Future â—udgment when God will eternally reward good Men and punish the wicked This is an Argument in all Times and in â—ll Conditions it will make us despise the World when it Smiles and Flatters and â—corn its Frowns Here are Hopes too big â—or this World and Fears too great and â—owerful for its Fears such Hopes as can â—upport us under the greatest Sufferings â—uch Fears as can imbitter all the sweets of Sin and therefore let us keep the Future â—udgment always in our eye let us fetch our Supports and Comforts from thence â—et us oppose these Hopes and Fears against all Temptations for here is our strength â—ll other Arguments are easily baffled but nothing can answer the Argument of Eternal Life and Death SECT VII Third Inference To refer all Iudgmenâ— to GOD. III. IF GOD will certainly Judge the World let us refer all Judgmeâ—â— to God or as St. Paul speaks Therefore judge nothing before the time until the Lord come who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will maâ—â— manifest the counsels of the hearts aâ—â— then shall every man have praise of God 1 Cor. 4.5 Nothing is more indecenâ— nor more dangerous than for Men whâ— must be judged themselves to take Godâ—â— Work out of his hands and to assume 〈◊〉 Praetorian Power to Judge Acquit anâ— Condemn whom they please without expecting the Judgment of God to Judge is God's Prerogative and he will Judge the World And what hast thou to do 〈◊〉 judge another man's servant to his owâ— master he shall stand or fall Why 〈◊〉 much hast to prevent the Judgment oâ— God by our rash ignorant uncharitable Judgments Judgment will come time enough for us all and therefore judge nothing before the time This is so common a Fault and does so much Mischief in the World and yet is so very unreasonable considering a Future Judgment that it will be of great use to Discourse it more particularly and if it be possible to Correct this Miscarriage which is one of the greatest Plagues of Humane Society It is very obvious to ask here What is the Fault of this Is there any living in the World without judging of Men and Things Must we not say that he is a very bad Man whom we see do very bad things Must we not distinguish between Vertue and Vice and between good and bad Men Must we not make good Men our Friends commend and imitate their Vertues and reject the Conversation of the wicked and beware of Knaves and Men of ill Principles and Designs And is it not necessary then to distinguish between good and bad Men that is to judge who are so Must we wholly refer the Punishment of Wickedness and the Rewards of Vertue to the Day of Judgement and because God will Judge the World must not Princes and Magistrates execute Justice and separate between the Pure and the Vile This is so very unreasonable so inconsistent with the wise Conduct and Government of our Lives and a prudent Care of ourselves so destructive to
Humane Societies gives such encouragement to Wickedness and so confounds the Distinction of Good and Evil that I need not tell any Man that this is not meant by referring all Judgment to God We must judge of Men and Things as far as is necessary to the prudent Government of our Lives and to the Preservation of Peace and Justice and good Order in the World this does not intrench upon a Future Judgment nor upon God's Prerogative of being the sole Judge of the World but is necessary in this present state of Things so necessary that neither Publick Societies nor private Persons can be safe without it but then we assume such a Judgment to ourselves as belongs only to God when we judge Mens Hearts and secret Thoughts and Intentions and when we pass Judgment on their final State First When we judge Mens Hearts and Thoughts and secret Intentions For the Heart of Man is known only to himself and to God who is the Searcher of Hearts and the Counsels of the Heart will never be made manifest till God comes to Judge the World Indeed no Man will pretend to know another Man's Heart and yet it is too plain in many cases that Men undertake to judge of Hearts And the great Fault in judging is that whether Men will own it or no yet they undertake to judge of Hearts Thus all those do who charge Men with more Guilt then is visible in their Actions for if we can discover any Guilt which is not visible in their Actions we must look into their Hearts and Thoughts and Intentions to find it Thus those do who charge Men with Guilt upon account of innocent and indifferent Actions which have no necessary good or evil in them but are as they are taken and as they were intended and those who can find any hurt in such Actions as have no intrinsick evil and mischief in them must find it in the Heart Especially those who judge and condemn Men for the most vertuous Actions for the most imitable Examples of Piety and Devotion and Charity and a severe and mortified Life and call this Affectation and Popularity and Pharisaism and charge them with carrying on some worldly and secular Designs under the Masque and Disguise of Religion Now I granâ— this may be done and sometimes it may be visible enough as it was in the Pharisees but to charge any Man with this without some plain and manifest Indication of it is to judge their Hearts when we know nothing of them Nay to charge Men with the utmost possible Guilt even of their bad Actions is to judge their Hearts for it is to say that they have done such a wicked Action with all the internal Wickedness of Heart and Mind which such an Action can be committed with which no Man can say without judging the Heart The same wicked Action may be the effect either of Ignorance or of Knowledge of Rashness and Surprize or of mature and deliberate Counsel of habitual Wickedness or of some accidental Temptation of our own free Choice or the Perswasions of Friends and the Inticements of our Companions and the Prevalency of Shame or Fear now this makes a vast difference in the Guilt and Sin and if the same Action may have different degrees of Guilt we must charge it with no more than what is visible unless we will undertake to judge the Secrets of Hearts Thus to charge a Man with acting against his Conscience when he himself declares a full satisfaction in what he does or to say that he only pretends Conscience when it is nothing but Humour or Pride and Popularity or Interest and Politicks is to judge Mens Hearts for these things are not to be known without knowing Mens Hearts There may be great Symptoms and strong Presumptions that some Men have no Conscience at all or no regard to it for those who in the general course of their Lives govern themselves by no Rule are ridiculous when they pretend Conscience in any thing but those who in their other Actions shew that they are Men of Conscience ought to be believed when they pretend Conscience unless there be manifest Evidence to the contrary All these things belong to the Judgement of God who will judge the Secrets of Mens Hearts by the Gospel of Christ but we are not concerned to judge of them for it serves no good end but does very great Mischief to the World All the Ends of Humane Government both in Church and State may be attained without this for Humane Governments do not pretend to judge Meâ—â— Thoughts and Hearts any otherwise than as they are declared in Words and Actions and some very plain and significant Circumstances which betray and speak their Intentions and Designs Humane Governments take notice only of what appears and this is sufficient to secure the external Purity of the Church and to preferve Justice and good Order in the State but the Mischief of judging Mens Thoughts and Hearts is chiefly seen in private Conversation How often does this dissolve the most intimate Friendships and beget mortal Quarrels that Men read each others Thoughts and Hearts in their Actions and very often read very false and directly contrary to the sence of the Original when an indiscreet Word or Action is interpreted a designed Affront anâ— a careless or forgetful Neglect is thoughâ— a Contempt when an intended Kindness miscarries and proves an Injury and is then thought to be intended so it is easily observed that meer Actions anger no Man and make no Quarrel for we caâ— easily bear with that from one whom we believe our Friend which we will not bear with from a Stranger or a supposed Enemy or Rival but when Men apprehend a thing ill intended then they take it ill that is they judge Mens Hearts and Intentions which they cannot see and which they often mistake and that makes the Quarrel Another Mischief of this judging is that many times the most exemplary Vertue is greatly discouraged and the most useful Men eclipsed and made unserviceable to the World when the most conspicuous Piety and Devotion and Charity is accused of Pride Ambition Popularity or some other base and low Design it makes such good Men afraid of appearing Good to avoid the suspicion of being Vain and Wicked it makes their Examples useless to the World for Men will be afraid to imitate them when they who set the Example get nothing but an ill Name by it It makes some Men think that all Religion is a Cheat and has nothing but this World at the bottom when the more zealous Men appear in doing good the more they are suspected of Hypocrisie and worldly Designs And thus on the other hand as we know Mankind are very partial in their Affections when tâ—ose who do very wicked Actions shall still be thought good Men and maintain their Reputation in the World as having the root of the matter in them though they are not without their
to hope they shall be saved in their Wickedness only because the Church will not damn them but reserves them to the Judgment of God and sends her charitable Wishes after them at least this can be no Encouragement when they are forewarned before hand of it which is the chief reason why I take notice of it at this time Upon the same Principle I am not ashamed to own I have always been averse to that Dispute about the Salvation of Heathens for this is to set in Judgement on three parts of the World and I am not the Judge of the World nor of any part of it and yet I know not what Character and Censures this plain Confession may bring upon me for some Men do as peremptorily Damn all the Heathen World as if it were an Article of their Creed and think all those Enemies to the Grace of Christ who do not but for my part I dare neither damn nor save them for I know nothing of the matter By what Rule God will Judge the Heathen World I cannot tell St. Paul tells us As many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law 2 Rom. 12. And there is the same reason as to the Gospel too that those who never heard of the Gospel shall be judged without the Gospel and who can tell what this signifies what mighty Allowances God may make for their invincible Ignorances and the unhappy Circumstances of their Education who can tell how little God will accept from those to whom he has given little I am sure our Saviour tells us To whomsoever much is given of him shall be much required and to whom men have committed much of him they will ask the more 12 Luke 48. Which by a parity of Reason supposes that where God has given little he requires little St. Paul seems to intimate a very favourable Judgment which such Men shall have and a vast difference that God makes between the times of Pagan Ignorance and the Light of the Gospel The times of this ignorance God winked at but now commandeth all men every-where to repent because he hath appointed a day c. 17 Acts 30 31. where God's winking at the Times of Ignorance must signifie that he is not so severe and curious an Observer of their Actions not so strict to mark what is amiss nor so rigorous in exacting punishment as he will be now They are in the hands of God and there we ought to leave them with this general perswasion That God will be very just and very merciful in judging them and this eases my mind of a great many troublesome thoughts I know not what pleasure other Men take in it but it is terrible to me when I consider what eternal Damnation is to think that so much the greatest part of the World who never had the Means and Opportunities of Salvation as we have shall be eternally damned I dare judge nothing but that great love I have for Mankind inclines me to hope better for them as far as the circumstances of their Condition will admit of a favourable Judgment and that strong perswasion I have of the Justice and Goodness of God inclines me to believe better of him for so I am apt to think that the merciful side of the question is most agreeable to the Divine Justice and Goodness Such another curious Question is that about the Salvation of Infants who diâ— before they know good or evil especially the Children of Heathen Parents now it is certain they have no Legal and Covenant Title to Salvation nor have they any thing of their own to answer for but that Original Guilt they contracted by their Birth now God has not told us how he will judge these Infants nor are we concerned to know The Infants of Christian Parents indeed have a Covenant-Title to Salvation for the promise is made to us and our children and to say That such Children dying after Baptism before they have committed any actual Sin shall certainly be saved is not an Act of Judgment but only a declaring the Vertue and Efficacy of Baptismal Grace and Regeneration that the Grace of Baptism will save those who do not afterwards forfeit this Grace by wilful Sins and therefore if the Children of Christian Parents have a Right to Baptism they have a Right to the Salvation of Baptism and if they die before they have forfeited this Right by their own Act they must be saved And to deny this is to deny the Vertue and Efficacy of Baptism to Salvation and that I am sure is to deny or to lessen the Gospel-Grace The sum is God is the Judge of the World and we must leave Men to the Judgment of God and judge nothing before the time nor disturb our thoughts with some curious Questions how God will judge the World we certainly know how we shall be judged even by the Gospel of our Saviour and therefore ought to take care to prepare our Accounts but how those shall be judged who never heard of the Gospel we know not and are not concerned to know but if we will be judging we ought to judge very charitably because as I observed before With what judgment we judge we shall be judged and with what measure we mete it shall be measured unto us again But before I dismiss this Argument I cannot but take notice of some great and visible Mischiefs of this judging Mens final State whether we damn or save them 1. As first for Damning especially when we damn them by whole-sale as the Church of Rome damns all Hereticks and as others with as much Charity damn all Papists and Malignants or whoever they are pleased to vote for Hereticks Now what the effect of this is is visible to all the World It destroys not only Christian Love and Charity but even common Humanity when Men have voted one another damned and believe God will damn those whom they have adjudged to Damnation then they are the Enemies of God and they think they do God good service to destroy them God hates them and therefore they think it a sin in them to love those whom God hates or to have any pitty or compassion for those whom God will damn And thus they burn Hereticks or cut their Throats or Confiscate their Estates and drive them out from among them and treat them with all the Barbarity and Indignities which a damning Zeal and Fury can invent All other Villanies may meet with some Pitty and Charity but Charity is Lukewarmness and want of Zeal in God's Cause there is no Fire burns so furiously nor so outragiously consumes as that which is kindled at God's Alter And thus the Christian Church is turned into a great Shambles and stained with the Blood of Humane nay of Christian Sacrifices though were they in the right that God would damn these Men whom they have damned why should
they think Patience and Forbearance a greater Fault in them then it is in God who beareth with much long suffering the vessels of wrath fitted for destruction Why are they so unmerciful as to hurry away these poor Wretches immediately to Hell when God is contented to let them live on to let the Tares and the Wheat grow up together till the Harvest Why do they envy them the short and perishing Contentments of this Life when they are to suffer an Eternity of Misery Methinks it should satisfie the most implacable Hatred to know that they must be miserable for ever though their Miseries should be adjourned for some few Years but if this be the Effect of damning Men you may guess that the Cause is not very good though an uncharitable Judgment will hurt no Body but themselves yet it is of dangerous consequence when such rash Judges will be as hasty Executioners too 2. Though the effects of saving Men and voting them to Heaven be not so Tragical as those of damning them yet this has its Mischiefs too when any Party of Men have voted themselves the only true Church wherein Salvation is to be had or the only Saints and Elect People of God then all who will be saved must herd with them and most Men think it enough to secure their Salvation to get into their Number Thus the Church of Rome frightens Men into her Communion by threatning Damnation against all who are out of that Church and this reconciles Men to all their Superstitions and Idolatries for fear of Damnation and encourages them in all manner of Looseness and Debauchery when they arâ— got into a Church which can save them and it has much the same effect when Men list themselves with any Party where they hope to be saved for Company while all the rest of Mankind even those who profess the Faith of Christ are no better then the World and the Ungodly and Reprobates who tho' they may have more Moral Vertues then some others yet have no Grace And the mischief of this encreases when Men are Sainted after death Had it not been for this Trick the Church of Rome had had very few Saints to Worship none but the Virgin Mary and the Apostles whom they might certainly conclude to be in Heaven but as for their other Saints who were the great Founders and Examples of their Superstition they are Saints of their own making just as the Heathens made their Gods and it is the Stories and Legends of these Saints which support the Superstition of the Church of Rome for who dares question the Examples of those who are canonized Saints in Heaven Hac arte Pollux vagus Hercules innixus arces attigit igneas And there are another sort of Men who are not behind-hand with them in this who have a great many more Saints than the Church of Rome though they don't pray to them who send great shoals to Heaven especially if they have been zealous for promoting a Party which hides all other Faults and sanctifies very doubtful Actions and how powerful must the Example of such Saints be to excite others to an imitation of their Vertues In a word when we pretend to send Men to Heaven we make them our Rules and Examples we hope to go to Heaven with all the Faults they had and those who knew them possibly knew a great many what they were eminent for we conclude were great Vertues and fit for our imitation tho' otherwise of a doubtful and suspicious Nature There is not a more dangerous thing than to make any Man our Rule and Example and yet that we necessarily do when we send him to Heaven for who would not think himself safe in imitating those whom he believes to be in Heaven And if we consider at what rate both the Church of Rome and others make Saints we must needs be sensible how infinitely dangerous this is to Mens Souls To conclude this Head Let us judge charitably of all Men and hope well according to the different reasons we have to hope but let us leave their final State to God neither peremptorily damn nor save them it is to be feared that Humane Judgment has sent many Men to Heaven who will never get thither and to be hoped that many Men shall meet with a more favourable Sentence in the next World than they do in this God is the Judge of the World and he will certainly judge us and there is no Inconvenience in staying till the Day of Judgement to see what Mens final Sentence shall be but very great Mischief in pronouncing a rash and hasty Judgment our selves SECT VIII Fourth Inference To refer all Difficulties to the Day of Iudgment IV. IF God will Judge the World let us refer all Difficulties to the Day of Judgment It must be confessed that there are very great Difficulties in Providence such as the wisest Men cannot understand and I can by no means say it is a Fault for Men to search into Providence and to be very inquisitive into the reasons of it for what can more become a reasonable Creature then to study the Works of God and what Works more worth our study then the Divine Providence and the wonderful Mysteries of God's governing the World But the Difficulty is to set Bounds to the Curiosity of Mankind to teach them to study Providence with the Modesty of Creatures and with the just Reverence which we owe to God whose Wisdom is infinite and unsearchable to be contented to discover what we can to admire and adore the Wisdom and Goodness and Justice of Providence in what is plain and there is enough plain to exercise our devout Meditations to be matter of our Praise and Thanksgivings anda sure foundation of our Trust in God And this wise and good Men are contented with but most Men take least notice of what is plain as if that were of no use and not worth notice but puzle their thoughts and lose themselves in those vast Depths and Abysses which no Humane Understanding can fathom To Correct this Miscarriage would do great service to Religion would give great peace and satisfaction to Mens minds and prevent a great many scandalous Disputes about the Divine Providence and therefore if I discourse this a little more at large then my present Argument requires I hope it will be no great Fault Now to set Bounds to our Curiosity and to make us Modest in our Inquiries into Providence I shall shew you I. How dangerous it is to search too narrowly into the Secrets of Providence II. How unreasonable it is to disturb our Minds with such Difficulties as we cannot answer III. That what cannot be known in this World it is time enough for us to know in the World to come IV. That we have all the reason in the World to believe that what we cannot know in this World will be made very plain and easie at the Day of Judgment I. As
Providence as seem very harsh and severe to us but this may suffice at present to make us modest in our Censures of Providence and not to perplex our Minds with such Difficulties as we cannot unriddle 2. Especially if we add That there is a plain and evident Reason why we cannot and never shall be able to understand a great many Difficulties of Providence in this World and therefore ought not to censure the Divine Providence because we cannot in all cases comprehend the reasons of it As for instance We are very ignorant of Men and therefore can never be able to give an account of GOD's Providence towards them we can in general justifie the Divine Providence both as to the Afflictions and Sufferings of good Men and the Prosperity of the wicked but when we descend to particulars we are at a loss why such a good Man is a great Sufferer and another good Man prosperous why such a bad Man reaps the just Rewards of his Villanies in this World while another Man equally bad escapes and prospers by his Wickedness We cannot know this because we do not sufficiently know Men. We may mistake those for good Men who are secret Hypocrites and carry on wicked Designs under a Masque of Religion and then when we complain that such a good Man suffers God may be very just in punishing an Hypocrite We know not what the secret Distempers of good Men are which may require a severe Remedy nor what good there may be even in bad Men which may make their Recovery hopeful and make it reasonable for God to spare Thus we know not how particular Mens Interests are interwoven with each other or with the Publick which may make it reasonable for God to spare or to punish them upon more accounts then their own for good Men may suffer in the Sufferings of the wicked and be blessed in their Prosperity The Sufferings of good Men and the Prosperity of the wicked may be of publick use to the World and it is very just and reasonable in the wise Governour of the World to make the Interests of private Men subordinate to a publick Good But when this is necessary we know not and therefore are very incompetent Judges of the Divine Providence Nay we see but a very little part of God's Providence towards particular Men but a Scene or two of their Lives or it may be but a little piece of a Scene and therefore it is impossible we should make a true Judgement of God's Providence towards them the Beauty of which consists in the proportion of Parts and adapting every thing to the end it serves The History of Iâ—seph taken altogether is a Demonstration of God's tender Care of him though there were some doleful Scenes of his Life the hard Usage he met with from his Brethren who sold him for a Slave into AEgypt and from a wicked Mistress there whose false Accusations condemned him to a Jaol from whence God raised him to Pharoah's Throne There are very few Men can make any Objection against the Divine Providence with respect to themselves because they know themselves and the several stages of their Lives what good and evil they have done and what they have deserved and what they have received from God which is a good Argument that we should find as little to except against the Providence of God to other Men also did we know them as perfectly as we know ourselves III. As for what cannot be known in this World it is time enough for us to know it in the World to come Indeed this knowledge is not fit for us in this World it is not fit we should know one another so perfectly as is necessary to vindicate every passage of God's Providence towards other Men for this would be to have a Casement into each others Breasts to understand all the Intrigues and Secrets of Families and were it put to our own choice I am apt to think we should rather be contented to be ignorant of a great many things than to be so well known our selves to all the World Nor is it fitting in this state that we should so perfectly understand all the Secrets of the Divine Counsel for what reason he afflicts or prospers private Men or publick Societies as is necessary to make a Judgment of the Divine Providence One great Mystery of Government is to conceal Counsels and this is the Glory of the Divine Providence by dark and misterious Methods to bring about glorious Designs to surprize the World with unexpected Blessings or unseen seen Evils to keep them in constant awe and dependence on himself And then of what use is it to us to be able to give a reason of every particular Passage of Providence we have nothing to do to sit in Judgment upon God and therefore if we know enough to be a steady Foundation of our Faith and Hope we know all that is needful in this Life God does not intend to gratifie our Curiosity or our Scepticism we must not perfectly know God in this World for we must live by Faith here which supposes an imperfect Knowledge but perfect Sight and Knowledge is the Reward and Happiness of Heaven It is the last Act which explains the whole Plot the rest is Amuzement and Surprize and therefore the proper time to understand the whole Mystery of Providence is when all is finished When God puts an end to this World he will think fit to display that infinite variety of Wisdom and Goodness which governed the World from the beginning to the end IV. And this we may expect to understand at the Day of Judgment for I know no other reason why God should in so solemn a manner Judge the World but to justifie the Wisdom and Justice and Goodness of his Providence to all his Creatures God does not thus publickly Judge the World to inquire into Mens Lives and Actions and Deserts which is the reason of Humane Judgments to convict Sinners by Witnesses and Evidences and to inform the Judge in Matters of Fact but God perfectly knows us all and every Man's Conscience is a Witness against himself that God might without any farther Solemnity adjudge every Man to his proper Place and Reward but he consults his own Glory in this and summons all his Creatures together that Men and Angels may understand and be Witnesses of his Mercy and Justice Now it is impossible God should justifie his Providence without expounding the Reasons of it and therefore then we may expect to understand the Case of the fallen Angels which now we know nothing of and all the Passages and various Scenes of Providence from the Fall of Adam till the end of the World then the State of Nations of Kingdoms of Churches and of private Men will be explained the Secrets of Hearts will be disclosed aâ—d the hidden Works of Darkness brought to light Let us then stay till this Day comeâ— when God will justifie his
Providence against all the Reproaches and evil Surmizes of Men for he will appear just when he judgeth and overcome when 〈◊〉 contendeth Let us not disturb our Heâ—â—â— with such Difficulties as we cannot understand now we know enough to believe that God is righteous in all his ways and holy in all his works enough to makâ— us devout Worshippers of God and tâ— enquire farther is a dangerous Curiosity like looking into the Ark of God SECT IX â—ifth Inference To affect our Souls with a strong and vigorous and constant Sence of Iudgment V. SInce it is certain that GOD will Judge the World let us endeavour by all means possible to affect our Souls with a strong and vigorous and constant Sence of Judgment The Belief of a Future Judgment is worth little when it ends in Speculation the use of it is to govern our Lives and to prepare us to give a good Account of ourselves to God since we know that he will demand an Account of us but a meer Belief that we shall be judged will not do this unless we affect our Souls with a Sence of Judgment The Experience of the World and our own Experience of ourselves does sufficiently prove this we all profess to believe a Future Judgment and most of us do heartily believe it and yet there are too many among us who give little reason to the World to think they believe it who commit those Sins every day for which they know God will damn them when they come to Judgment which one would think those who believe they shall be judged could never do so 〈◊〉 a meer Belief of a Future Judgment 〈◊〉 not govern Mens Lives but then 〈◊〉 very Men when they are awakened 〈◊〉 a Dread and Fear of Judgment feel 〈◊〉 Vertue and Power of it on their Hearâ— it makes them hate their Sins and 〈◊〉 themselves for them it makes them 〈◊〉 devout and importunate in their Pâ—â—â—ers very sincere and passionate in their Repentance very resolved to forsake all thâ—â—â— Sins and to live a new Life and thâ—â—â—fore if we would have the Belief of a Future Judgment make us good Men 〈◊〉 must not only believe it but affect oâ—â— Souls with a great Sence of it which iâ— true of all the other Arguments and Motives of Religion as well as of a Futurâ— Judgment The proper Enquiry then here is How we shall awaken and preserve such a poâ—erful Sence of Judgment in our Minds Now the only general Direction thâ—â— can be given is Frequently to Thinâ— and Meditate on a Future Judgment foâ— nothing can affect our Minds but ouâ— Thoughts which make the Object present and give us a near View of it 〈◊〉 it is in the Objects of Sence the Eye affects the Heart and excites and moveâ— the Affections more than all the Arguments in the World if we look stedfastly upon a terrible and frightful Object it will strike Terrour into us if upon a pleasant and beautiful Object it will excite Love and Delight if upon a miserable Object it will affect us with a tender Compassion to see Men in great Want and Misery will melt and open that Heart which was hardened and shut against all the Arguments and Motives to Charity and long and frequent Consideration will have much the same effect on us that Sight has Judgment is a terrible thing to bad Men and if they would but seriously think of it it would terrifie them if they would but imagine sometimes that they heard that last-Trumpet sound which will awaken all-Mankind and raise them out of their Graves and summon them to Iudgement that they saw the Son of Man descend from Heaven attended with his mighty Angels to execute Vengeance on all them who know not God and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Iesus Christ that they saw the Earth all in flames about them and Hell opening her Mouth wide to receive them that they saw the Books opened and those Sins recorded which they had forgot and the Secrets of their Hearts disclosed and that they heard that terrible Sentence Go ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels do yâ—â— think that any Man who believes all this and would suffer himself seriously to think of it could bear up against the Terrour of it or that with these Thoughts about him he could court a Strumpet or spend his Time in Revels and Excess or Blâ—spheme God and Ridicule Religion or Cheat his Neighbour or Oppress the Poor and Fatherless or Forswear himself Noâ— we see this cannot be as often as we see â— miserable Sinner whose awakened Conscience distracts him with all these Scenes and Images of Terrour So that serious Consideration would make a Future Judgment very effectual to govern our Lives but the great Difficulty of all is to bring Men to consider and yet one would think it impossible that a reasonable Creature should not consider that he must be judged But so it is and there is no disputing against Experience and yet it is so dangerous and fatal a Neglect that it concerns us to enquire into the Causes and Remedies of it for could we Cure this it would quickly Reform the World give a new Resurrection to Piety and Vertue and secure Men from the Danger and Terrours of a Future Judgement Now there are two apparent Causes of this 1. That the Thoughts of Judgment are very uneasie and troublesome and that makes Men afraid and averse to think of it And 2. that Judgment is out of sight and they have nothing to mind them of it and their Thoughts are so taken up with other matters that they forget it unless they happen to hear a Sermon about it or some accidental mention of it which when they return to their worldly Affairs and Business they quickly forget again 1 st Men are very apt to avoid all Thoughts of Judgment because they are very uneasie and troublesome they startle at the mention of it at least do not love to talk too long nor think too seriously of it for it awakens their Consciences and makes them think what a sad Account they have to give how many things they have done and daily do which they can never answer to God when he comes to Judgment and therefore they choose to live quietly without disturbing themselves with such terrifying Reflections and the amazing Thoughts of what is to come Now methinks it is no hard thing to convince thinking Men of the Danger and Folly of this and to reconcile them to the Thoughts of Judgment For 1. To drive these Thoughts out of our Minds though it may give us present ease yet it will not mend our Accounts nor prevent our being judged God will judge us whether we will think of being judged or not were no Men to be judged but those who think of it there were as much reason to stupifie our Consciences and never to think of Judgment as there is for sick Men to take
Opiates to sleep away their Pain and their Distemper together but this would be thought a very ill Remedy for their present Pain were they to sleep away their Lives and yet this is the Remedy these Men choose to sleep away their Souls to sleep away the Fears of Judgment till Judgment awakens them and their Fears never to sleep more 2. How frightful soever the Thoughts of Judgment are it will be infinitely more terrible to see and feel it And there is no way to avoid that terrible Condemnation but by thinking of it the Fear of Judgment if once it thoroughly possesses our Souls will conquer this World disarm all its Terrours discover its Cheats and Impostures wash off its Paint and Varnish pluck off its Vizard and Disguise it will teach us to fear God which is the beginning of Wisdom the Guide of Youth and the Counsellour of Age And would not any wise Man rather choose to preserve himself from Danger and Misery by fearing it then to live without Fear and to perish by his Security In this World Men love to know and see their Danger that they may avoid it how dismal soever the Prospect be and it is very unaccountable that Men should choose rather to be damned then to prevent it by a timely Foresight and a prudent Fear and Caution For 3. that Fear of Judgment which is necessary to govern our Lives and to prevent our final Condemnation is not so amazing and terrifying as these Men apprehend it it is not the Fear of a Man who is going to Execution but the Fear of Prudence Caution and Foresight which makes Men wise and circumspect but don't distract them We have as many Demonstrations of this as there are Men who govern their Lives under the Fear and Sence of a Future Judgment are there any Men in the World who live more chearfully than they who converse more pleasantly with their Friends and enjoy the Comforts of Life with greater innocence and freedom Do you find any Disturbance in their Looks any symptoms of an uneasie and frighted Imagination and yet these Men all this while live under the constant Awe and Fear of Judgement and therefore the Sence and Fear of Judgment is consistent with a constant Peace and Serenity of Mind That which distracts and terrifies Men is not the constant Awe and Sence of Judgment but the Condemnation of their own guilty Consciences which threaten the Judgments of God against them and when Men apprehend themselves a falling into Hell and fear their Case is hopeless and irrecoverable it is no wonder if the very Pains of Hell take hold of them and not being able to bear these Horrors they silence or stupifie their Consciences with the Noise and Business and Diversions and Pleasures of this Life and can never endure to entertain the least Thought of Judgment and imagine that all who do live a miserable life are as melancholy and disturbed as they are when they think of Judgment but this is a great mistake it is their Guilt which makes the Thoughts of Judgment so terrible and their not thinking of Judgment betrayed them to that Guilt and nothing but a constant Sence of Judgment can now expiate their Guilt and conquer their Fears by Repentance and a new Life and as terrible as this is for the present it is more desirable then to be damned But would Men accustom themselves betimes to the Thoughts of Judgment and govern their Lives under the sence of it Judgement would never be terrible to them no more then the Assize is to Men who have an Awe and Reverence for the Justice of their Country and obey its Laws Nay 4. when we govern our Lives under the Awe of a Future Judgment it is so far from being terrible that it fills us with great and joyful Hopes for when God judges the World he will reward good Men as well as punish the wicked and if the Fear of a Future Judgment makes us truly and sincerely good we shall long for the Day of Judgment as the Husband-man does for the Harvest this will be our great Support and Comfort under all the Calamities of Life and be a perpetual Spring of the most Sincere and Divine Joys This may satisfie us that there is no reason to be afraid to think of Judgment that to live under the constant sence of it as it is the only way to make us truly good Men so it will deliver us from all guilty Fears support us under all present Troubles and delight us with the hope and expectation of glorious Rewards 2 ly As for those who out of meer Carelesness and Inconsideration never think seriously about a Future Judgment who imploy all their Thoughts about present and sensible Objects but do not concern themselves about what is absent and unseen or think very seldom and very coldly and transiently of it it is a Wonder to me how Men need be put in mind of a matter of such vast concernment and importance to them as a Future Judgment is Does not the Happiness of your immortal Souls depend on it Is it possible to conquer the Temptations of this World to resist the Solicitations of the Flesh the Courtship of Riches and Honour those gilded Vanities of this Life without remembring that for all these things God will call us to Judgment Methinks Men should as soon venture themselves in a rocky and tempestuous Sea without Rudder or Pilot or Compass or Ballast or Anchor as to think to pass safe through this World without a constant Awe and Sence of a Future Judgment Such Men are very careless of their Souls and they must lose them for they will never get safe to Heaven they can never give a good account to God when he comes to Judgment who never think of any account they are to make But besides this as one would think that a Future Judgment is of that great moment that no Man who is at all concerned for his future Happiness could suffer it to go out of his Mind so there is little reason in this case to complain of want of Monitors for though we do not see the Judgment-Seat and all the awful Solemnities of Judgment and it is impossible we should for it is not yet yet there are a thousand things to put us in mind of it and if it be possible to us to forget a matter of such consequence without something to refresh our Memories and to renew the impression of it I shall briefly hint to you some things which occur every day and are very familliar Emblems of Judgment and desire you to unite the Thoughts of a Future Judgment to them that when you see the one you may think of the other which will be a kind of artificial Memory when you find the Notes and Characters of Judgment so frequently presented to you As to give you three or four familliar Instances of this which you may very easily multiply When you
are so busie and careful in keeping your Books and casting up your Accounts and ballancing your Gain and your Loss and observing how your Stock increases or decays can you forbear thinking that you have a greater and more concerning Account than this the Account of your Life and Actions which if you do not keep God does he has his Records of them and will produce his Books at the Day of Judgment and judge you out of them When you call your Servants or Stewards to an Account how they have improved or embezled your Goods whether they have hid their Talent in a Napkin or traded with it and gained five or ten Talents you should remember that you also are but God's Stewards and must give an Account of your Stewardship and either shall be Stewards no longer but be turned out of your Master's Service and punished for your Negligence or shall receive a Reward proportionable to your Diligence and Gain When we correct our Children or Servants for their Idleness Disobedience or any other Miscarriage or reward their Diligence and Vertue can we forget that we have a Father and a Master in Heaven who curiously observes all our Actions and will judge will reward and punish us according to our Works When we see at Harvest the Wheat gathered into the Barn and the Weeds neglected or burnt should it not mind us what a difference God will make between good and bad Men at the Day of Judgment that though they live intermixed in this World they shall be parted then good Men received into Heaven where God dwells and bad Men banished into outward Darkness where there is Weeping and Wailing and Gnashing of Teeth for evermore The awful Solemnities of Humane Judicatures the Judge sitting on the Bench the Malefactor arraigned at the Bar the Jury the Witnesses the Tryal Condemnation Sentence Execution are lively Emblems of a Future Judgment and methinks should mind Judge and Juries and Witnesses and Spectators of it I have mentioned these few Instances because they are common and familiar and Scripture-Representations of a Future Judgment and so often occur that if we would but as often think seriously of a Future Judgment we should soon attain an habitual Sence of it And possibly my applying them to this purpose now as little an Observation as it may seem may make you think of your great Account when you are casting up your Books or reckoning with your Workmen or taking an Account of your Stewards and Servants and if it should I shall have my end and you will find the benefit of it But there is one thing which is naturally apt to mind us of a Future Judgement and I am sure always ought to do so and is of very near and present concernment to us at this time and that is When the judgments of GOD are in the earth for then as the Prophet Isaiah tells us the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness 26 Isaiah 9. I have already observed to you that the Examples of a just and righteous Providence which governs this World are a good Proof of a Future Judgment for it is an argument that God does take notice of the Actions of Men and concerns himself in the Government of the World and then we have no reason to question whether he will judge the World And when God is actually executing Judgments on the World when he is a judging Kingdoms and Nations when he has unsheathed the Sword and made it drunk with Blood when the Desolations of flourishing Countries the Burning of Towns and Cities the lamentable Slaughter of infinite numbers of People do so loudly proclaim the Wrath and Displeasure of God those who han't a great and awful and terrible Sence of Judgment will never be awakened but by the sounding of the last Trumpet It is this that makes the Judgments of God so effectual to Reform the World not meerly the Fears of present Sufferings of those Temporal Evils and Calamities wherewith God punishes Sinners but that by these visible Tokens of God's Anger by the present sensible Effects of his Justice and Power Men are rouzed and alarm'd into a Consideration of future Vengeance We extreamly weaken the Argument from present and sensible Judgments when we urge it no further then to perswade Men to reform their Lives to remove those Judgments which are upon them this is an additional Argument to reform our Sins to save our Country from Ruin but those who will not reform their Sins to save their Souls will never part with them to save a Nation and therefore the true force of the Argument resolves itself into a Future Judgment God has begun to punish us already in this World for our Sins and unless we repent we must not hope to escape so these Temporal Sufferings are but a Summons to Judgment and it may be are intended to remove us presently into the other World to receive our Reward The Axe is now visibly laid to the root of the Tree and every Tree which bringeth not forth good Fruit is hewen down and cast into the Fire And the visible Execution of GOD's Judgments upon the World will certainly mind us of a Future Judgment and give us a feeling sence of it as it gives us a present and sensible View of God's Justice and Power and a nearer Prospect of it 1. It gives us a present and sensible View of God's Justice and Power And that though he be very good and merciful he is very righteous too and very severe in his Judgments that though he be gracious and merciful slow to anger and of great kindness yet he will not always spare but will awake to visit the heathen and will not be merciful to any wicked transgressors 59 Psal. 5. When we see what Desolations God makes in the Earth how his Judgments like a sudden and mighty Torrent overflow a secure and happy Country sweep away the Inhabitants of it or transplant them into foreign Nations to beg their Bread among Strangers when we see how he sounds an Alarum to War and sets Kingdom against Kingdom and every Man's Sword against his Brother when we observe with what an impartial Hand he strikes that there is no Country no People no Religion escapes that he makes Ambition and Covetuousness correct Superstition and Superstition chastise the Coldness and Formality the loose and licentious Lives of more Orthodox Christians I say when we see such things as these in the World shall we not fear and tremble before that just and righteous Judge Can we forget that GOD will judge the World in Righteousness when we see already such terrible Executions which are onely Preludiums to a Final Judgment 2. These present and visible Judgmenâ— give us a nearer Prospect of a Futurâ— Judgment and Judgment will more seâ—sibly affect us the nearer we see it Not that such Judgments as these prove that the Final Judgment is near at hand foâ— the Records and Histories of
former Agâ— give us an account of very terrible Judgâ—ments which God then executed upon the World and yet we see the Final Judgement is deferred and we know not hoâ— long it may be deferred still but though the general Judgment may be a great way off yet our particular Judgment may be very near God may quickly cut us off and put an end to our Account and when the Judgments of God are in the World we have reason to expect it at least so far as to be prepared for it Proxiâ—â—â—ardet Vcalagon when we see the Judgements of God sweep away so many Thousands round about us who not long since lived as secure and unconcerned for Danger as we do when we see the Clouds hover and rowl about the Heavens charged with Thunder and Tempest Who knows where the Storm will break next and who shall feel the Violence of it And therefore the Judgments of GOD which are in the Earth will give all considering Men such a present Sence of a Future Judgment as a threatning Sickness will do Present Judgments may suddenly cut us off and send us into the other World unprepared for a Final Judgement and there is no preparing for it there and then these present Judgments may prove Final to us So that those who live in such an Age as this will be utterly inexcusable if they forget their Account which they have such terrible Admonitions of let us make this use of present Judgments to awaken a more lively and vigorous Sence of a Future Judgment in us and that will make us good Men and secure our Eternal Happiness and is the best way to prevent any Publick Calamities of our Country which we may fear or to preserve ourselves from being involved in them CHAP. II. Concerning the Time of Iudgment SECT I. Concerning a Particular Iudgment at the Time of every Man's Death II. LET us now consider the Time of Judgment God hath appointed â— day wherein he will judge the world iâ— righteousness Now this plainly refers to that General Judgment when all Mankind shall be summoned before the Tribunal of CHRIST to be judged according to their Works But before I speak to this it will be necessary to take notice of what we commonly call a Particular Judgment which is supposed to pass upon all Men as soon as they go out of these Bodies The received Opinion is That when any Man dies he is immediately called to Judgment and receives his Final Sentence which is immediately executed on him that a bad Man is sentenced to Hell and sent immediately thither that a good Man is received into Heaven and enjoys the Beatifick Vision from the time of his going out of this Body But I must confess this has always appeared a great Difficulty to me we live in such an inquisitive Age as will not allow us to affirm what we cannot prove and indeed no honest Man ought to do so for it forfeits any Man's Authority and weakens the Credit of Religion when that which has no proof or at best is very uncertain is taught with as great assurance as that which is most certain and unquestionable in Religion and yet no wise Man will oppose and contradict a received Doctrine though he were satisfied it were a Mistake when there are no evil Consequences attend it For my part I must honestly profess that I neither dare affirm nor deny this Particular Judgment in the sence in which it is commonly understood for there are some Passages in Scripture which seem to look both ways and since I cannot decently avoid saying something of it I shall fairly represent to you what Intimations there are in Scripture about this matter for there is no other way of knowing this and I dare teach no more than what the Scripture teaches 1. Now in the first place thus much is very plain in Scripture that good Men when they die are translated to a place of Ease and Rest and Happiness and bad Men to a place of Misery and Punishment which I suppose is what Men mean by a Particular Judgment for this is a kind of Judgment tho' it be not performed with all the pompous Solemnities of Judgment to allot Men their different states of Life according as they have behaved themselves in this World The Parable of Dives and Lazarus is very express to this purpose 16 Luke 19 c. There was a certain rich man which was cloathed in purple and fine linnen and fared sumptuously every day And there was a certain begger named Lazarus which was laid at his gate full of sores And it came to pass that the begger died and was carried by the Angels into Abraham's bosom the rich man also died and was buried And in hell he lift up his eyes being in torment and seeth Abraham afar off and and Lazarus in his bosom That this relates to the state of good and bad Men immediately after Death is very evident especially from that Request which the rich Man made to Abraham to send Lazarus to his Father's House For saith he I have five brethren that he may testifie to them lest they also come into this place of torment Which shews that Lazarus was in Abraham's Bosom and Dives tormented in Hell or Hades while his Brethren were living and revelling on Earth and therefore this can't relate to a General Judgement but signifies that State they entred into as soon as they died and though what is generally said that we must not argue from Parables is very true as to particular Circumstances of the Story which are the Ornaments and Embellishments of Parables yet it is as true that we must argue from the principal Scope and Design of them and then we may certainly conclude from this Parable that good and bad Men as soon as they die are in a State of Happiness and Misery otherwise there is no Foundation for this Parable for why should one be sent from the Dead to inform the Living what Punishments bad Men suffer in the next World if they suffer nothing till the Day of Judgment which is not yet for in this case such a Messenger could not be an Eye witness of the Punishment of Sinners which is the only thing that is supposed to give such Authority to his Testimony I do not remember any other such express Text for the immediate Punishment of Sinners as soon as they go out of these Bodies and one such Text as this is enough but there are many Texts to prove that good Men when they die go immediately into a State of Happiness not only Lazarus was carried by the Angels into Abraham's Bosom but Christ promised the Thief upon the Cross that that day he should be with him in Paradise and St. Paul tells us That to be at home in the body is to be absent from the Lord but when they are absent from the body they shall be present with the Lord That is when they die when they
29. They knew it seems there was a time of Torment appointed for them but it was not yet and yet there was then some place of Confinement for them which is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Deep whatever that signifies whither they were unwilling to go and therefore when Christ cast them out of the Man whom they had long and furiously possessed they beg of him that he would not command them to go into the Deep 8. Luke 31. I shall only observe farther That the Devils are said to believe and tremble Now what is it they believe and what is it they tremble at but the last Judgment and that terrible Condemnation which they then expect and therefore they are not under it yet for Faith respects what is absent and future and Fear does not respect what we suffer at present but what we expect But these are great Mysteries which we cannot now understand but thus much we do understand that if these fallen and apostate Angels have not yet received their final Punishment but are only reserved in Chains of Darkness till the Judgment of the great Day there is less reason to think that wicked Men who are to be punished with the Devil and his Angels should immediately go to Hell as soon as they go out of these Bodies and therefore whatever is meant by those Flames wherein Dives was tormented it is not the last Fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels As for good Men those Expressions of Scripture of their going to Paradise especially of their going to Christ or being present with the Lord seem to bid very fair for their going directly to Heaven where Christ is but the Primitive Christians understood them otherwise that Paradise and Abraham's Bosom was a place of Ease and Happiness but not Heaven that no Man ascends into Heaven till after the Resurrection which Ireneus and Tertullian prove from the Example of Christ to which we must be conformed for Christ himself did not ascend into Heaven till after the Resurrection but as his Body rested in the Grave so his Soul went into the State of Souls departed and when he arose again then he ascended into Heaven and thus they say we must do also When we die our Souls shall live in those places which God has prepared for separate Souls and when we have re-assumed our Bodies we shall be admitted into the highest Heavens whither Christ is ascended and this seems very reasonable that we should not ascend into Heaven into the immediate Presence of God which signifies our perfect Reconciliation to him without our Bodies the want of which is an argument of our Apostasie and his Displeasure and all the Marks of his Displeasure ought to be removed before we appear in his immediate Presence But is not Christ in Heaven and how then can good Men be present with the Lord after Death if they do not immediately ascend into Heaven Now as for this they tell us That the Souls of just Men in Paradise have the sight and conversation of Angels and Archangels and the Vision or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of our Saviour which they think is what is meant by being present with the Lord though they did not affirm that no good Men did immediately ascend into Heaven when they died but expressly taught that all Martyrs did who died for the Name and Religion of Christ and this was the thing which made them in that Age so fond of Martyrdom that they thought all Martyrs ascended directly into Heaven And if they could have proved this as it is plain they believed it that Martyrs did immediately ascend into Heaven and that other Christians did not who would not have coveted to die a Martyr Thus I have very fairly and truly represented this Matter and that no Man who has not so carefully considered this may take Offence at it I shall 1. shew you how useful this Doctrine is at this time And 2. that it gives no discouragement to Vertue nor any encouragement to Vice 1 st As for the first we may consider In the first place That in such an Age as this wherein we have to deal with so many Atheists and Infidels we ought to take care to make Religion reasonable and intelligible for if we do not they expose it to Scorn and Ridicule and both harden themselves in their own Infidelity and corrupt others and therefore we must take care of representing any thing absurdly and inconsistently Now to say that Men who are already judged and either condemned or absolved and actually sent to Hell or to Heaven should be solemnly judged over again and condemned again to Hell or advanced to Heaven sounds oddly to such Men but if the Scripture does not expresly teach such a Doctrine we are at liberty not to teach it especially if we can give another Account of it which seems as agreeable to Scripture and more agreeable to the Reason and Understanding of Mankind 2. Some there are who observing that Mankind shall not be judged till the Day of Judgment conclude that there is no intermediate State but that the Soul sleeps with the Body till the Day of Judgment A very Foolish and Unphilosophical Opinion for we may as reasonably think that the Soul dies as that it sleeps in a state of Separation if the Soul be a spiritual Substance distinct from the Body it may live and act without it and it is as easie and reasonable to defend the Mortality of the Soul as its sleeping for if the Soul must sleep when it is separated from the Body it must sleep for ever if it never be re-united to the Body again that is it must live and die with the Body for such a sleep as this is not meerly an Image of Death but Death it self But from what I have now discoursed it appears that though there be a great distance between Death and Judgment yet the Soul does live and act is happy or miserable in the mean time 3. This Notion does very great Service also against Popery For 1. it gives an account of a middle State without Purgatory This has greatly imposed upon unlearned Men that the Advocates of Popery have proved from the Ancient Fathers that they owned a middle State which was neither Heaven nor Hell and then presently conclude that this must be Purgatory Now it is very true the Ancient Christians did own a middle State between Death and Judgment which was neither Heaven nor Hell but yet never dreamt of a Popish Purgatory they believed bad Men were in a State of Punishment as soon as they left these Bodies but not in Hell and that good Men were in a State of Rest and Happiness but not in Heaven but they never thought of a place of Torment to expiate the Temporal Punishment due to Sin when the Eternal Punishment is remitted which is the Popish Purgatory and the most barbarous Representation of the Christian Religion though the most profitable
too to the Church of Rome that ever was invented 2. This utterly overthrows the Worship of Saints in the Church of Rome at least of all Saints who were not Martyrs for Saint-worship is founded on this Belief that these Saints when they die are received into Heaven into the immediate Presence of God and therefore can there powerfully intercede for us but if these Saints are not yet received into Heaven nor shall be till the Resurrection which was the Faith of the Primitive Christians and seems very agreeable to the Doctrine of theGospel as I have now shewn you then there is an end of the Worship and Interâ—ession of Saints 2 dly This Doctrine neither discourages Vertue nor encourages Vice I cannot indeed say but that Heaven is a much happier place then Paradise and therefore it is more desirable for good Men when they die to go directly to Heaven then to Paradise but yet it is a sufficient encouragement to the exercise of the most perfect Vertues that as soon as we die we shall be carried by Angels into Abraham's Bosom or into Paradise a place of perfect Ease and Rest and as perfect Happiness as can be enjoyed out of Heaven such a Paradise where holy Souls dwell Patriarchs Prophets Apostles Martyrs and Confessors with Heaven at the end of it is a sufficient an abundant Reward for all the most difficult and laborious Services of this Life that Heaven is not yet is no greater Discouragement then that we shall not rise from the Dead till the Day of Judgment that we shall not have our Bodies again till they are awakened by the last Trumpet Bodies which will be bright and glorious as the Sun which will rise with eternal Youth and Strength and Beauty this is a much greater Happiness then to live either in Paradise or in Heaven without our Bodies but this we must stay for and so we may for Heaven and we may be very well contented to wait for Heaven and for the Resurrection of our Bodies in Paradise when we are as happy as Paradise can make us we may very patiently expect the full Completion of our Happiness in the Resurrection of our Bodies and our Admission into the highest Heavens to the immediate Throne and Presence of God Thus though Hell is a place of the most perfect Torment and Misery for it is the Fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels and therefore it is much more formidable for Sinners to drop immediately into Hell when they die then to suffer any other State of Punishment between Death and Judgment yet he is a very unreasonable Man who does not think the Day of Judgment time enough to be condemned to Hell and who does not think it Misery enough to fall under the Power of evil Spirits in the mean time If God thinks this Punishment enough methinks Sinners should and those who cannot fear Hell at the distance of the Day of Judgment will not fear Hell tho' it were no farther off than Death those who are not afraid of being tormented as Dives was when they go out of these Bodies will not fear Hell though we allow Hell to be a State of more perfect Misery I am sure Dives thought those Torments so great that they were sufficient to have made his Brethren true Penitents had they known what they must suffer for their Sins as soon as they die and those who will not allow that bad Men are immediately condemned to Hell as soon as they die yet must allow that they may be tormented as Dives was In short if wicked Men do not drop into Hell as soon as they die yet they shall be condemned to Hell at the Day of Judgment and in the intermediate State between Death and Judgment shall suffer all those unknown Miseries which are prepared for wicked Souls till the Day of Judgment and those who will not be perswaded by this will live and die in their Sins though you could convince them that they shall drop into Hell as soon as they die SECT II. That the Day of Iudgment is appointed HAving thus considered the State between Death and Judgment let us now more strictly consider the Time of Judgment and here are several things to be observed and explained I. That the Day of Judgment is appointed He hath appointed a day wherein he will judge the world II. That this is a General Day for the Judgment of the whole World III. That this Day of Judgment will be at the End of the World I. That the Day of Judgment is appointed He hath appointed a day wherein he will judge the world This is a matter of pure Revelation and can be known no other way for though we have great evidence from Reason that God will judge the World yet to appoint a Day is a free Act of God's Wisdom and Counsel and this must be learnt from Revelation and we cannot have a more express Revelation for any thing than we have for this for St. Paul tells us in plain words that God hath appointed a Day to Judge the World and our Saviour in express words several time refers to this Day as appointed and determined by God In that day many shal say unto me Lord Lord have we not prophesied in thy name which refers to some certain Day 7 Matth. 22. And the hour is coming in the which all that are in their graves shall hear his voice 5 John 28. And of that day and hour knoweth no man no not the angels of heaven but my Father only 24 Matth. 36. Which plainly signifies that the Day is determined and fixed because God knows when it shall be that is he knows when he has appointed it and if it were not appointed it had been no great wonder that neither Men nor Angels know it Now this Consideration that God hath appointed a Day wherein he will judge the World is not without its Use For 1 st This proves the Certainty of a Future Judgement that the Day of Judgement is appointed For we cannot think thaâ— God would appoint a Day to judge the World unless he absolutely resolved to judge it 2 ly This answers the Objection against a Future Judgment from the long Delays of it This St. Peter tells us would be a great Objection in the last Days or towards the end of the World 2 Pet. 3.3 4. Knowing this first that there shall come in the last days scoffers walking after their own lusts and saying Where is the promise of his coming for since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation That is consider how old the World now is and how long Mankind have been frightned with the Fears of Judgment many Ages and successive Generations have lived in expectation of it but it is not yet nor any more signs of it then when the World was first made and since it has been so long expected to no purpose it is time to despise
such vain and groundless Fears This ought to be plainly and fully stated for we live in the last Days and have many of these Scoffers already among us 1. But if GOD have appointed the Dâ—y of Judgment it is a very foolish Argument to say that he will not judge the World because he has not done it yet unless we could prove that the Day appointed for Judgment is already past God cannot be said to delay to judge the World wheâ— the time he has appointed for Judgment is not yet come for to delay doing any thing is not to do it in its proper season when it is time to do it or when we resolved and determined to do it and therefore no Man can say that God delays to judge the World unless he could tell whaâ— Day God in his own infinite Wisdom appointed for Judgment For 2. That God appoints a long Day for Judgment is no Argument that he will not judge us Thus it was in the Destruction of the Old World a great while before God brought that Universal Deluge on them but it came at last and swept them all away as St. Peter observes For this they willingly were ignorant of that by the word of God the heavens were of old and the earth standing out of the water and in the water whereby the world that then was being overflow'd with water perished This general Destruction of the Old World by Water is reason enough to believe God when he threatens to destroy it again by Fire For the heavens and the earth which are now by the same word are kept in store reserved unto fire against the day of judgement and perdition of ungodly men 5 6 7. It was a great while before God destroyed the Old World and though this second Destruction by Fire is deferred much longer it will come in its appointed time 3. For what seems a very long time to us is not so to God as the same Apostle tells us One day is with the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day God is not affected with the succession of Time nor its lingring delays and therefore is not in hast to judge the World before the World is ripe for Judgment and when that is he himself knows best For to appoint a Day to judge the World is a Work of great Wisdom and Counsel Before God judges the World it is fit for him to display all the various Scenes of Wisdom and Goodness and Power and Justice in the Government of the World to exercise great Patience towards Sinners and to make the utmost Experiments to reform them as St. Peter tells us The Lord is not slack concerâ—iâ—â— his promise as some men count slackness but is patient to us-ward not willing thâ— any should perish but that all should coâ—â— to repentance v. 9. 4. When God finally judges the Worlâ— he destroys this present Frame of Things as it follows in the next Verse The day 〈◊〉 the Lord will come 〈◊〉 a thief in the night in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with fervent heat and the earth also and the works that are therein shall 〈◊〉 burnt up Now it does not become â— wise and a good God to be hasty in dâ—stroying a World that he has made And therefore to reconcile God's dâ—stroying the World with his Essential Attributes of Wisdom and Goodness therâ— are two things necessary 1 st The incorrigible Wickedness of Mankind A wise Man will not immediately pull down a House he has builâ— till he discovers some irreparable decayâ— in it thus God justifies his Destructioâ— of the Old World from the Universal Corruption of Manners and the incurable Wickedness of it God saw the wickedneâ—â— of man that it was great upon the earth aâ—â— that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth and it grieved him at his heart And the Lord said I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth 6 Gen. 5 6 7. And this was the only reason that could be given to justifie so universal a Destruction of Mankind that they were universally wicked excepting one righteous Family which God preserved and it seems very probable that the general State of the World will be very wicked and corrupt before the final Destruction of the World by Fire for we can conceive no other reason why God should finally destroy this World but to put an end to the incurable Wickedness of Men. And this is the Account the Scripture gives us of it we find every-where a deplorable Description of the Wickedness of the last Days In the last days perillous times shall come For men that is the generality of Mankind shall be lovers of their ownselves covetous boasters proud blasphemers disobedient to parents unthankful unholy without natural affection truce-breakers false accusers incontinent fierce despisers of those that are good traytors heady high-minded lovers of pleasures more then lovers of God having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof 2 Tim. 3.1 2 3 4 5. Thus St. Iude tells us There shall be mockers iâ— the last times who should walk after their own ungodly lusts v. 18. And St. Peter as you heard that in the last Days there shall be Scoffers saying Where is the promise of his coming And our Saviour himself plainly intimates what an universal Decay there shall be of Piety and Faith when he comes to judge the World Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh shall he find faith on the earth 18 Luke 8. Atheism and Infidelity shall greatly prevail in the World before the Day of Judgement and by this as St. Iohn said long since We know that is the last time And this is one of the signs both of the Destruction of Ierusalem and of the Day of Judgment Then shall many be offended and shall betray one another and shall hate one another And many false prophets shall rise and shall deceive many And because iniquity shall abound the love of many shall wax cold But he that shall endure to the end the same shall be saved 24 Matth. 10 11 12 13. And therefore the Destruction of this World by Fire which is the Preparation to the final Judgment is represented as an immediate Vengeance on the wickedness of that Generation of Men who shall then be living on the Earth though at the same time the Dead shall be raised and all ungodly men involved in the same ruin The Lord Iesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Iesus Christ 2 Thess. 1.8 And 10 Hebr. 27. it is called a fiery indignation which shall devour the Adversaries So that one thing God has regard to in appointing the day of Judgment is
not to destroy the World till the wickedness of Mankind is grown incurable and past Remedy and till this is the state of the World how much wickedness soever there be in it it is too soon for a wise and good God to destroy the World he made But there seems 2. to be something more than this to justifie the final destruction of the World not only that the present race of Mankind is so universally corrupt that they deserve to be universally destroyed which was the case of the old World wherein there was but one Righteous Family but that Mankind is thus incurably wicked after all the wise Methods of God's Grace and Providence to reform the World for then it is time to put a final end to the state of this World and to the farther propagation of Mankind on it and to Summon all Men to Judgment to receive according to their Works This seems to be the reason why Noah's Flood did not put a final end to the World and why God did not at that time call all Mankind to Judgment because tho' the wickedness of that Generation of Men was so universal and so incurable that it justified their universal destruction yet God had new Methods of Grace and hidden Treasures of Wisdom in reserve for the reforming the World and therefore though he purged the Earth from its wicked Inhabitants he did not think fit to put an end to the race of Men but preserved Noah and his Sons in the Ark which was the only Righteous Family then living to propagate a new Generation of Men whom he would try with new Methods of Grace the last and most admirable and most effectual Method of Grace was reserved for the last Times the Mysterious Incarnation of the Son of God and the Power of Gospel-Grace And when this also shall have lost its effect when Atheism and Infidelity and all manner of Wickedness shall prevail when the Church it self shall be over-run with Heresies Schisms and a meer external form of Religion without the power of it when Men shall walk after their own Lusts when Faith shall fail Iniquity abound and the Loâ—â— of many wax cold then the end is at hand God has then tryed what Mankind will prove long enough and it is time to put a period to this World and to the race of Mankind and call them all to Judgment If what some learned Men teach be true that the Letters St. Iohn was commanded to write to the seven Churches of Asia were Prophetick of the seven different states of the Christian Church from the time of Christ till the end of the World we find that the very last state of the Church when Christ will spew her out of his mouth that is when he will put a final end to the Church on Earth is represented by the Church of Laodicea 3 Revel 14 c. And to the Angel of the Church of the Laodiceans write these things saith the Amen the faithful and true witness the beginning of the Creation of God I know thy works that thou art neither cold nor hot I would thou wert cold or hot so then because thou art Lukewarm and neither cold nor hot I will spew thee out of my mouth When a true Zeal and Concernment for the Faith and Practice of Christianity fails in the Church and Atheism and Infidelity and all manner of Wickedness prevails in the World these are â—resages of the near approach of a final Judgment Now if this be a fair and reasonable account of the destruction of the World and a Future Judgment we need not wonder that God has appointed so late a day for it seven or eight thousand Years is no long time for the duration of the World especially when we have had such a terrible Example of God's Justice and Vengeance in the destruction of the old World already We have reason to believe that this World should never have been destroyed but for the incurable wickedness of Mankind for nothing else can justifie the Wisdom and Goodness of God in destroying what he had made God could have judged and rewarded or punished particular Men without destroying the World but when Mankind is grown universally and incurably wicked it does not become God to suffer this Earth to be an eternal Nursery of Atheists and Rebels against the Majesty of Heaven and this makes it necessary for God to destroy it but then the Wisdom and Goodness of God requires that this should be done with great patience and long-suffering and after the disappointment of all the wise Methods of his Grace in reforming the World and then no Man can say that God has hitherto too long delayed the final Judgment some thousand years is no long tryal to save the World and Mankind whom he hath made from final destruction 1. And therefore let no Man laugh at a future Judgment and final destruction of this World as if it would never be because it is not yet God is in no hast to destroy the World but when he sees it ripe for Destruction that is the day he has appointed for Judgment Such Scoffers as these are certain fore-runners of that day and unless there be still a new Resurrection of true Faith and Piety which we hope for it cannot be far off how long soever such Men may think God delays yet their Iudgment lingreth not and their Damnation slumbereth not 2 Peter 2.3 Let us all remember what our Saviour tells us If that evil servant shall say in his heart my Lord delayeth his coming and shall begin to smite his fellow-servants and to eat and drink with the drunken the Lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him and in an hour that he is not ware of and shall cut him asunder and shall appoint him his portion with the Hypocrites there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth 24 Matth. 48. It is no Argument that Judgment is a great way off because Men are secure and can laugh at the thoughts of it for the more secure the World is the nearer it is to Judgment the very day that Judgment shall overtake them they shall least of all think of it as it must needs be when the World shall be so over-run with Atheism and Infidelity and therefore the day of Judgment is said to come like a thief in the night that is suddenly and by surprize when we are asleep and secure and least suspect it 1 Thess. 5.2 4. 2 Peter 3.10 As Christ threatens the Church of Sardis 3 Revel 3. If therefore thou shalt not watch I will come on thee as a thief and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee Thus 24 Matth. 37 c. Christ tells us that the day of Judgment or the coming of the Son of man is like the days of Noah For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking marrying and giving in marriage
until the day that Noah entred into the Ark and knew not until the flood came and took them all away so shall the coming of the Son of man be The like we have 17 Luke 26 27. to which he adds the destruction of Sodom Likewise also it was in the days of Lot they did eat they drank they bought they sold they planted they built but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all even thus it shall be in the day when the Son of man is revealed 28 29 30. 2. This exactly agrees with what I have now discoursed that God will not destroy the World till the wickedness of Mankind is almost universal and incurable for if this be true God cannot destroy the World till Men are secure and fearless of Judgment that is till they are such Atheists and Infidels so immerst in sensual Pleasures so given up to a Reprobate sense that they have no thoughts of God and another World nor any concernment for a future Judgment Till the generality of Mankind are come to this secure state they are not so hopeless nor so outragiously and irreâ—everably wicked as to provoke God to a final destruction of the World a sense of God and the fear of Judgment will restrain the wickedness of Mankind and make them more modest and cautious give check to their Vices alarm and awaken their Consciences whether they will or no while this sense and belief is preserved in the World there must be a great many good Men and a great many more who pretend to Piety and Vertue and though there may be here and there an Atheist among them this is not considerable this does not make the state of Mankind hopeless and desperate and does not come up to the description of those times when God will destroy and Judge the World And to observe this by the way this is the true account why the Judgments of God in this World either upon private Persons or publick Societies Kingdoms and Nations surprize Men when they are most secure and think least of Judgment when as the Prophet Ieremy speaks They cry peace peace when there is no peace 6 Jer. 14. I need not tell you that this is not to take us at an advantage as a weak Enemy sometimes does who wants strength and power to hurt us but upon a surprize for no sinner all the sinners of the World cannot resist God's Power though they had never so much warning to make their defence Nor is it that God takes so much pleasure in punishing us and in executing his Judgments upon the World that he will give us no warning of it that we may not prevent it by a timely Repentance and make our Peace with him for he is infinitely good and merciful he delights to do good and to shew mercy but Judgment is his strange work and he has sufficiently denounced his Judgments against incorrigible sinners if they would believe him and take warning by it But the reason why the Judgments of God so often surprize Men in their Security while they are asleep and dreaming of nothing but what is prosperous and happy of the return of Astroea and the Golden Age is because their sins which make them ripe for Judgment and will not suffer God to stay his hand any longer have made them also secure either they have sinned away all belief of God and his Providence and a future Judgment or have sinned away the sense of those particular sins which they are guilty of or to make themselves secure they have by the help of Enthusiasm and Superstition reconciled the hopes of Heaven and the sense of God's love and favour with the practice of the most provoking Impieties that is their love to sin has made them secure and then there is little hope that they will ever forsake their sins and this makes them very fit to be the Examples of God's Justice and Displeasure And the same account is to be given of the day of Judgment it will surprize Men as a Thief in the Night not because they never heard that God would Judge the World for God has sufficiently declared this and given us timely notice to prepare for it but Men will at that time have sinned away the belief of a God and of a Judgment to come or have laid this belief asleep with some intoxicating Superstitions and Formalities and this is so hopeless and irrecoverable a state that it makes it time forGod to Judge the World 3. And this may give some probable account both why the day of Judgment is deferred so long as some Men are apt to speak though God knows they have little reason to think it long considering what Account they are able to give and what Sentence they are like to receive and why the particular time of Judgment is concealed from us While the sense of Judgment continues in the World it must make a great many good Men and restrain the Wickedness and Impiety of bad Men and as you have heard God will not destroy the World while it is in an hopeful and recoverable state but the long delay of Judgment as Men are apt to call it wears off the sense and belief of it and then Men grow wicked without fear and restraint and then it is time for God to judge the World Thus if God fixes and determines the Day of Judgment upon the foresight of such a general Impiety as will deserve a final excision God cannot reveal this to the World For one would think it impossible did the World know this before-hand but the Age of Judgment should be the most Devout and Religious Age that ever had been from the beginning of the World and then that would not be a fit time to destroy the World and God could not fore-see it the properest time of Judgment It is abundantly sufficient that God gives us all reasonable Evidence and Assurance that he will Judge the World but there is no reason to tell us at what particular time he will judge the World nay it is not fitting that we should know it Had Men known some thousand Years ago how long the Day of Judgmenâ— should be deferred it had so much weakned the Argument of a Future Judgment by removing it a great way off that the World might much better have deserved to be destroyed at any other time than in likelihood it would do if Men certainly knew the time when the Day of Judgment comes and if the general belief of Judgment will not make us good Men it is not fit that we should certainly know the time of Judgment no more than that we should know the time of our Death or be converted by a sight of Heaven or Hell God reserves this as a Secret in his own Breast which neither Men nor Angels shall know which is the best way to make the belief of a Future Judgment effectual
upon all Ages of the World especially since that express revelation which the Gospel has made of it This Instruction our Saviour himself gives us that since we know not the Day of Judgment we should always watch and be ready prepared for it Watch therefore for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come But know this that if the good man of the house had known in what watch the thief would come he would have watched and would not have suffered his house to be broken up therefore be ye also ready for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh 24 Matth. 42 43 44. And if this was good Advice in our Saviour's days it more nearly concerns us on whom the end of the World is come 4. There is one thing more I shall observe from this Discourse not to be offended though you see Atheism and Infidelity prevail in the World and the true Christian Faith begin to fail and the love of many wax cold thus it must be towards the end of the World and if we now see the beginnings of it it is no great wonder This is indeed a great Temptation to Men who are governed by Examples to hear the first Principles of Religion called in Question and the great Fundamental Articles of our Faith made Matter of Dispute and Controversie nay the plainest Rules of Life ridiculed and exploded but if these things should not be the World would never come to an end God cannot destroy a believing and righteous Nation much less a righteous World a World of Believers and Saints And if it be our Portion to fall into the dregs of Time into these last days when there shall be Scoffers walking after their own ungodly Lusts let us consider that this is no more than was foretold thus it must be towards the end of the World and therefore this ought not to weaken the Credit of Religion no more than the fulfilling of Prophesies does let us remember how Sacred this Faith has been for 1600 Years how many Martyrs and Confessors it has had how God has preserved it against all the Powers and Opposition of the World how it has triumphed over Pagan Idolatries and which is more than that triumphed over the Lusts and Vices of the World in the Exemplary Self-denial Mortification and Divine and Heavenly Conversations of its Professors and this I think is such an Argument of its Divinity as may defend us against the Wit and Rallery and Impudence of professed Atheists and Debauchees who till of late have themselves been the scorn and derision of Mankind SECT III. The Day God has appointed is a General Day of Iudgment II. THIS Day God has appointed is a General Day of Judgment or a Day to Judge the whole World all Mankind shall be summoned before the Tribunal of Christ and be tried and condemned or acquitted in the general Assembly of Men and Angels What an amazing sight will this be to see all Mankind start out of their Graves and appear before their Judge to have one view of the whole Race of Men of all successive Generations from Adam to the end of the World Such an Assembly as never was before never will be till that day and never will be after it Could we look on as unconcerned Spectators at that day what an Entertainment would here be only to see all Mankind together all the Men of Name and Renown whose Fame is recorded in Story who have signalliz'd themselves in their several Ages by their Piety and Vertue and Wisdom and Valour or it may be by their Vices but this will be no time to gratifie our Curiosity when we all meet to receive our final Doom It more concerns us at present to draw another Scene of things and to imagine how differently Men will appear at the Day of Judgment from what they do in this World We shall see all Mankind together rise with their own Bodies just the same Men that they were but yet quantum mutatus ab illo they won't look altogether as they did there will be some change in their Countenance which will betray very different Passioâ—s and give a very different Air and Aspect to them We may easily imagine that Atheisâ—s and Infidels who have disputed very Subtilly and Philosophically against a God and Religion and broke many a 〈◊〉 Jest upon Heaven and Hell will be not a little amazed when they shall see all their Philosophy confuted and their Jests quite spoiled by the appearance of their Judge What surprize and astonishment will then be seen in the looks of secure Sinners who never thought of Judgment but reckoned themselves very safe by banishing the thoughts of it as if God would not Judge them unless they thoughâ— of being judged The brave and the bold Sinners who mocked at Fear especially at the Fear of God as a base and unmanly Passion will not be able to conceal their Fears then but even those mighty Hectors the great Disturbers of Mankind who carried Fear and Terrour in their Looks and made the World tremble before them will then stand trembling before their Judge and call to the rocks and mountains to fall on them and hide them from the wrath of the Lamb. On the other hand with what triumph will good Men lift up their Heads the poor the despised the persecuted the reproached the vilified Worshippers of the Crucified Jesus and the Disciples of the Cross their Sorrows will then flie away like the Shades of Night at the approach of the Sun their Tears will be dried up and we shall see nothing but secure Joy give Lustre and Brightness to their Looks We are extreamly imposed on by the present appearances of Things Vice looks gay and bold and fearless in this World and Vertue many times as mean and contemptible as Injustice and Oppression can make it that it would be of great use to us sometimes to remove the Scene from this World to the Day of Judgment when all Mankind shall appear together the greatest Appearance that ever was and therefore it is much more considerable how we shall appear then than how we appear in this World But the Enquiry here is why GOD judges all the World at once and summons all Mankind together to receive their final Sentence Now that God will do so is very plain why he does it he has not told us but whoever wisely considers this matter will discover great and excellent ends which may be served by such a publick Judgment and that may satisfie us that there is great reason why God should do it and these may be referred to two general Heads 1. With respect to God himself 2. With respect to Men both good and bad Men. I. With respect to God And this universal Judgment greatly tends to advance the Divine Name and Glory 1. As I hinted to you before this will justifie the Divine Providence and display all the various Wisdom and expound
and unriddle all the secret Mysteries of it when God comes to judge the World iâ— is to justifie himself as well as to judge Men for what St. Paul says is most properly applicable to the last Judgment Let God be true and every man a liar as it is written That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings and mightest overcome when thou art judged 3 Rom. 4. And St. Iude makes this one great end of the last Judgement The Lord shall come with ten thousands of his saints to execute judgment upon all to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him Jude 14 15. How many such hard Speeches do we daily hear against the Divine Providence and how hard are good Men who know but little of the matter put to it to answer the Cavils and Reproaches of Atheists and Infidels we can indeed say enough in general to vindicate the Divine Wisdom and Justice and Goodness but there are a thousand particular Cases which seem very hard which we can say nothing to because we know nothing of them But when all the World shall be summoned before God's Tribunal all the Ages and Generations of Men we shall then have a perfect History of Providence and that will expound the Reasons of Things which are now obscure when we shall hear how every particular Man every Age and Generation of Men every Country and Nation have behaved themselves and how God dealt with them what Talents they were entrusted with and what Account they give then all Mouths will be stopped and the whole World will become guilty before God 3 Rom. 19. Then we shall see an entire Chain of Providences and all the various and intricate Turnings of the Divine Wisdom in its different Forms and Administrations but still within the Sphere and Circle of Justice and Goodness How shall we then admire God when we shall see all these wonderful and curious Scenes unfolded when we shall observe the gradual and regular Advances of Goodness in the several Ages of the World proportioned to the Wants and Capacities of Men till it came to the full Maturity and Perfection of Gospel-Grace what a delightful Prospect will this be to good Men how will it enlarge their Knowledge encrease their Wonder inflame their Devotions How will it confound bad Men especially all the prophane Scoffers at God and his Providence how will this aggravate and encrease their Torments that they will be forced to admire and justifie God in their own Damnation which must turn all their rage and fury upon themselves This is reason enough why God should judge the World all together to justifie himself to all his Creatures and to make a glorious Discovery of all the Wonders and Mysteries of his Grace and Providence good Men see enough at present to admire and praise God but now as St. Paul tells us We know in part and we prophesie in part but when that which is perfect is come then that which is in part shall be done away When I was a child I spake as a child I understood as a child I thought as a child but when I became a man I put away childish things For now we see through a glass darkly but then face to face now I know in part but then shall I know even as also I am known 1 Cor. 13.9 10 11 12. The Divine Wisdom will never appear so glorious as at the Day of Judgment because it will never be so perfectly known as then when he shall come to be glorified in his saints and admired in all them that believe 2 Thess. 1.10 What good Man would not long to see that blessed Day which will perfect his Soul with the Knowledge and Love and Admiration of God and give him such clear raised and divine Thoughts and Passions as are fit for Heaven and the immediate Presence of God whither he is a going what wise Man will not reselve to be very good that at that Day he may see the Glory of God with out Terrour and Astonishment with all those Raptures and Extasies with which such new and bright Appearances of the Divine Wisdom will fill the Soul 2. God summons all Mankind together to Judgment that Men and Angels may be Witnesses of his equal and impartial Justice We are all equally God's Creatures the Rich and the Poor the Honourable and the Vile and the Prince and the Subject are alike to him and Justice requires that they should be alike that the just Judge of the World should respect no Man's Person in Judgment Now there is no such way to convince all the World that God is an equal and impartial that is a very just and righteous Judge as to judge all the World together for then they themselves may see whether God be partial or not But there is a great deal more I mean by this for the Providence of God in this World is very liable to the Charge of Partiality that he has not an equal Regard to all his Creatures I do not mean with reference to their Fortune and Station in this World that some are Rich others Poor some Princes and Nobles entrusted with great Powers others Subjects and exposed to the Wills and Lusts of Princes for this is more easily accounted for such different Ranks of Men being necessary to good Order and Government in the World but I mean with respect to their Souls and their eternal State that God has not taken equal care to Instruct all Mankind in their Duty to acquaint them with the Danger of Sin and the Rewards and Punishments of the next Life and the Certainty of a Future Judgment and this is too visible to be denied God suffered Mankind to fall into Idolatry and when they had corrupted their Natural Notions of Good and Evil sent no Prophet among them to Instruct them better and when after some Ages he called Abraham out of Vr of the Chaldees and having tried his Faith and Obedience entred into Covenant with him yet he confined his Covenant to his Posterity whom he chose for his peculiar People and took no visible care of the rest of the World and though this was a great Priviledge of Israel above the rest of Mankind yet the Mosaical Law was but a weak and imperfect Dispensation but a Childish Pedagogie and the Iewish Church but in the State of Servants or of an Heir under Age. And though God did at last send Christ into the World to make a perfect Revelation of his Will yet it was towards the end of the World and what a wonderful difference has this made between those who enjoy the Light of the Gospel and the rest of Mankind as if they had not all the same Maker or were not equally his Creatures and yet how little a part of the World is there still which have the Gospel preached
clothed him with their own Weaknesses and Passions made him either a Tyrant and a Devil or such a tame easie fond Being as Men may make bold with without danger others prophane his Name corrupt his Worship or neglect and despise it some think themselves too big to serve God others too little to be observed by him some ridicule his Laws others take no notice of them and there are very few who are sincere Worshippers of him and acknowledge and submit to his Authority and Power and when God has been so much dishonoured in the World I think it is very fit that when he judges the World he should vindicate his own Glory make it publick and visible and force all his Creatures to own and confess it and the most effectual way to do this is by summoning all Mankind before him and judging them according to their Works Thus we see what reason there is with respect to God why he should not judge Men singly and send them privately and silently to Heaven or Hell but appoint a general Day of Judgment II. There is great reason for this too with respect to Men both to good and to bad Men for this is part of the Reward of Vertue and of the Punishment of Vice Many good Men have been used with the utmost Contempt and Scorn if they cannot comply with their Company and do as their Neighbours do if they boggle at popular and fashionable Vices they are gazed on as so many Comets and Prodigies and would be contented to be gazed on were they as far out of the reach of danger too as those Meteors are some call them Fools others Knaves and Hypocrites and treat them accordingly and is it not fit that God should vindicate these Men who have suffered Infamy and Reproach for his sake that he should publickly own them applaud and reward their Vertue And what a glorious Vindication is this if we can but have patience to expect it what a little contemptible Scene is this World nay this little Corner of the World where we live for whether we be praised or reproached it is likely we are never heard of out of the Parish and Neighbourhood or City oâ— Kingdom where we live and can't we be contented to let a whole Parish or City or Kingdom despise us to be publickly owned by God in the General Assembly of Men and Angels Good Men do a great many good actions privately which few or none are conscious to but God and themselves and therefore they lose the Praise which is due to such secret Vertues in this World but our Saviour has promised that such Men shall have praise of God that if we Pray and Fast and give Alms in secret Our Fâ—ther which seeth in secret shall reward 〈◊〉 openly 6 Matth. And this is a great encouragement to the practice of the moâ—â— secret Vertues that we shall be openly towarded for them Good Men are many times great Sufferers in this World are not only reproached but persecuted lose their Estates their Liberties their Lives foâ— Christ's sake and though God has strictly forbid them to avenge themselves yet he will execute Vengeance on their Enemies and do it publickly and make them the Spectators and Witnesses of it On the other hand Wickedness is many times very glorious and triumphant in this World is so far from suffering Shame which is the just Reward of it that it is applauded and courted and the greatest Prodigies of Wickedness are adored for their prosperous Villanies but yet Shame is the just Reward of Sin and it must have it at one time or other and nothing can more effectually cast Shame and Contempt upon Sinners then a General Judgment when they shall be publickly arraigned and condemned in the great Assembly of Men and Angels This will confound the most glorious Sinner who never blushed before for though while bad Men are supported with Power or are the most numerous Party and can out Vote and out Laugh the rest of the World they can secure themselves against the sence of Shame yet when they appear before such a Judge and have their Villanies exposed to all the World when they are stript of their Riches and Honours and Power and see all their Admirers and Companions past Laughing and Flattery and themselves despised and scorned by God and his holy Saints and Angels and condemned to everlasting Miseries it will then be impossible for them any longer to glory in their Shame Confusion will then cover their Faces and it would be thought very mercifâ—l to be damned privately without seeing their Judge and being exposed to publick Scorn and Censure Thus there are a great many wicked things done privately and concealed from the Eyes of Men and many times gildeâ— over with a form and counterfeit appearance of Religion and such secret Villaiâ— not only escape publick Shame but 〈◊〉 thought very extraordinary Men and great Saints now it is very fitting that such Men also should have their Masquâ— and Disguise taken off and be exposed to the View of the World just as they are and this God will do in that Day wheâ— he will judge the Secrets of Mens Hearts and bring to light the hidden Works oâ— Darkness And then what will it avaâ—â— them to pass for Saints in this World when at the Day of Judgment they shalâ— be known and be doubly scorned botâ— for their Wickedness and for their Hypocrisie What a severe Aggravation will it be of the Condemnation of the Wicked to see good Men whom they despised and persecuted whose Lives they thought Folly and Madness now owned and rewarded by God as our Saviour speaks To see them come from the East and from the West from the North and from the South and sit down with Abraham Isaac and Iacob in the kingdom of God and themselves sâ—ut out This will be a confounding Sight at that Day and as little as such Men now value Heaven to see the bright and dazling Crowns of those blessed Saints will pierce their Souls and wound them to Eternity This justifies the Wisdom of God in appointing a general Day of Judgment to reward good Men and to condemn the wicked but there is one good natured Objection against this which respects good Men for there are few good Men but may have some very wicked Relations who yet are very dear to them and how can they bear to be Witnesses of their final Condemnation to hear that Sentence pronounced on them Go ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his angels We tremble at the thoughts of it now and one would think it should over-cast the Glory of that Day to such blessed Saints to see such a terrible Execution upon those who were so dear to them but this is such a Mistake as the Sadduces Objection against the Resurrection concerning the woman who had had seven husbands whose wife she should be of the seven at the resurrection for they
heavens and a new earth and the former shall not be remembred nor come into mind Which St. Peter understands in a literal sence not meerly of a more prosperous state of Things in this World And thus St. Iohn as the Conclusion of his Revelations immediately after his Account of the last Judgment gives us a Description of this new Heaven and new Earth 21 Rev. 1 c. And I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away and there was no more sea And I Iohn saw the holy city new Ierusalem coming down from God out of heaven prepared as a bride adorned for her husband And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying The tabernacle of God is with men and they shall be his people and God himself shall be with them and be their God And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes and there shall be no more death neither sorrow nor crying neither shall there be any more pain for the former things are passed away And the rest of that Book is spent in describing the Glory of the Great City the Holy Ierusalem the River of the Water of Life proceeding from the Throne of God and of the Lamb and the Tree of Life which bore twelve manner of Fruits These are great Mysteries which we cannot perfectly understand yet especially what St. Iohn says about the new Ierusalem's coming down from Heaven to take up its Seat and Habitation on this new Earth that there is the Throne of God and of the Lamb where God dwells and which he enlightens with his Presence and from whence he drives away Death and Sorrow and Pain which seems to signifie that as the old Heavens and old Earth are destroyed by Fire in Vengeance on its wicked Inhabitants so this new Heaven and new Earth which God makes after the Destruction of the old is the Seat of the Blessed after their Resurrection from the Dead which I confess I know not how to understand But this gives a plain account why the final Judgment when good Men shall receive their final Reward shall not be till the end of the World because this old World must be destroyed before GOD makes those new Heavens and new Earth The final Destruction of bad Men will begin with the Destruction of this old World and the Rewards and Happiness of good Men shall be consummated in the new World whatever that be where they shall dwell for ever in the immediate Presence of God and of the Lamb. Now that God defers the Day of Judgment to the end of the World May 1. convince us of God's great Patience and Long-suffering towards Sinners for he forbears their Execution as long as he can forbear destroying the World and that we may be sure is as long as Wisdom and Justice will permit To destroy a World is a Work of as great Wisdom and Counsel as to make one nay the Divine Goodness will easily justifie the making of a World at any time for no time is unfit to exercise such acts of Goodness as will justifie themselves but for God to destroy the World which he has made without great necessity for it reflects upon his Wisdom and Goodness in making it The wise Maker of the World can have no inclination to destroy it and though the Justice of Providence may require some more hasty Executions to maintain good Order and Government and to give check to Vice yet the final Destruction of the World requires all wise Delays and Sinners can expect no more of God than to defer their final Sentence as long as he can defer the end of the World It is great pitty that such Goodness and Patience should be so monstrously abused that Men should harden themselves in sin and conclude that God will not judge the World because he is so unwilling to destroy it but this will justifie the Severity of the last Judgment that it is not the Effect of a hasty and sudden Fury but of mature Counsel that God did not want Goodness to spare Sinners as long as Wisdom and Justice could spare them To be slow to execute Judgment is as essential to Goodness as it is to Justice at last to punish and to conclude that God will not punish at all because he is patient and delays to punish is to prove that God cannot be just because he is good 2. That God destroys the World when he judges it is an undeniable Proof of the Severity of the last Judgment for what a terrible Vengeance is that which fires the World and dissolves this present Frame of Nature this is a fiery indignation indeed to devour the Adversary 10 Heb. 27. when bad Men and wicked Spirits shall be encompassed with Flames and Smoke without any possibility to escape for whether can they flie out of a fired World when the heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with â—ervent heat the earth also and all that is therein shall be burnt up There are a great many brave Sinners who mock at Fear and harden themselves against Hell itself but if they can be serious but for some few Minutes let them imagine all the World on fire about them the Heavens covered with thick Darkness and the whole Earth but one Vulcano one AEtna or Vesuvius Vomiting up Rivers of Burning Sulphur and themselves plunged in the midst of it let them try how they can bear this Thought before they laugh at Hell for this will certainly be the State of Sinners at the Day of Judgment and should not this make us fear and tremble before that great and powerful Judge Who knoweth the power of his wrath who can live with devouring fire who can dwell with everlasting burnings What an irresistible Judge is he who can destroy the World and all Sinners with it the World that was their God and now will be their Funeral Pile according to the Fate of some Heathen Idolaters they shall be sacrificed to their own God and tormented in the Embraces of a burning Idol The Destruction of the World gives a terrible Pomp and Solemnity to the last Judgment it will astonish bad Men and break their stout Hearts to see the World in Flames it will convince them to purpose that God is come to judge them and that he is very severe and terrible in his Judgments Who can describe the Horrours and Agonies and Consternation of that Day Cast your thoughts back a little upon that terrible Day when you saw London on Fire when you saw your Houses and Treasure all vanish into Dust and Smoke What did you think then of the Power and Justice of God And yet this was no more than a little Boan-fire compared with the Universal Conflagration though you could not save your Houses and Furniture and Treasure from its Rage and Fury yet there was room left for your own Escape and if this were so amazing
in this he does not undertake to tell them when the Day of Judgment shall be for that he did not know but only tells them That there must come a falling away first and that man of sin be revealed the son of perdition who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God And this Man of Sin not being then revealed it was plain that the Day of Judgment could not so suddenly come as they expected And now we find by Story that it was some Ages after this before the Man of Sin was revealed After this St. Iohn wrote his Book of the Revelations and did we thoroughly understand that though we should not certainly know the precise time of Judgment yet we should know how many things are still to be done before the Day of Judgment for that contains an entire Prophesy of the Christian Church from the beginning of it to the end of the World And though I will not pretend to understand those Mysteries especially what is there called the thousand Years Reign of Christ upon the Earth which whatever it signifie seems to be before the end of the World and the final Judgment yet we certainly learn from thence that the Man of Sin must be destroyed before the last Judgment and if this be the Popish Hierarchy as I doubt not but it is it is plain this is not done yet and I wish his final Overthrow be so near as some learned Men think it is But I think there is another Prophesy of St. Paul himself which has not been accomplished yet which must receive its accomplishment before the Day of Judgment and we see no prospect of its present accomplishment I mean the Conversion of the Iews and the Re-union of them to the Christian Church This we have an account of in 11 Rom. which whatever some learned Men imagine I can by no means think has received its just accomplishment by those few Iews which were converted by the Preaching of the Apostles and the Destruction of Ierusalem for Verse 15. he tells us If the casting away of the Iews is the reconciling of the world that is if the Gospel was preached to the Gentiles upon the obstinate Infidelity of the Iews what shall the reconciling of them be but life from the dead That is the Conversion of the Iews shall be a new Life to the Gentile World a new Resurrection of Christianity among us But was ever any such thing done yet In Verse 25 26. he tells them For I would not brethren that ye should be ignorant of this mystery lest ye should be wise in your own conceits that blindness in part is happened to Israel until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in And so all Israel shall be saved as it is written There shall come out of Sion the deliverer and shall turn away ungodliness from Iacob Now has any such thing yet been done has all Israel or the generality of the Iews been converted to Christianity and yet the Apostle assures us this must be done by Vertue of God's Covenant with Abraham As concerning the gospel they are enemies for your sake God so ordered it that by their Infidelity the Gospel should be preached to the Gentile World yet as touching the election they are beloved for the fathers sake As the Posterity of Abraham Isaac and Iacob whom God chose as his peculiar People For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance God will never wholly reject the Posterity of Abraham whom he hath chose for his People but will still establish his Covenant with them and that God has now rejected them for their Infidelity is no argument that he will never own them again for so he had rejected the Gentiles for their Unbelief but now has received them again into his Church upon their Faith in Christ and thus he will again graft the Iews into his Church if they abide not still in their unbelief v. 30 31. which the Apostle prophesies they shall not For as ye in times past have not believed God yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief even so have these also now not believed that thro' your mercy they also may obtain mercy Now such a Conversion as this of the Iews I think has not been yet and therefore must be expected before the Day of Judgment and the end of the World which shews that the end of the World will not be yet and how long it may be deferred we cannot tell II. How long soever the end of the World and the Day of Judgment be delayed yet we have great reason immediately to prepare for it for indeed this Life is the only time we have to prepare for it Death puts an end to our account for Eternity for we shall be judged according to what we have done in the Body whether it be good or bad and the final Sentence shall pass on us according to that state which Death finds us in which seems to be the reason why our Saviour warns us always to be upon our watch As not knowing at what hour our Lord will come for whatever the intermediate State be how long soever it be between Death and Judgment yet our account is the same and to be surprized by Death before we are provided for it is the same thing as to be surprized by Judgment 24 Matth. 42 43 44. Watch therefore for ye know not at what hour your Lord doth come But know this that if the good man of the house had known in what watch the thief would come he would have watched and would not have suffered his house to be broken up Therefore be ye also ready for in such an hour as you think not the Son of man cometh Which if it concern all Christians must relate to the Hour of Death as well as to the Day of Judgment And therefore flatter not yourselves that Judgment is a great way off when you know not how near Death is which will finish your Account The State of bad Men is very miserable as you have already heard as soon as they go out of these Bodies and they are reserved for the terrible Judgment of the great Day and though the Day of Judgment is not yet is it not a terrible thing to be certainly reserved for it which how long soever it be delayed has an Eternity to follow III. But if the near approach of the end of the World and the Day of Judgment be considerable it is certain that is not far off neither the World has continued now some thousand Years and if the time of Christ and his Apostles were the last Days after sixteen hundred Years we must be pretty near the end of the last Days We have a nearer prospect of Eternity then those had who lived some thousand Years ago at least if they had known how long this World would have continued but though they might not think it would have continued so long we know now that
it cannot continue so much longer there are some Prophesies to be accomplished still but how soon they may be accomplished we know not no Man questions but that the World now grows to an end and therefore it is time for every Man to think of Eternity CHAP. III. Who shall be our Iudge viz. the Man CHRIST IESVS III. LET us now consider who shall be our Judge That man whom he hath ordained whereof he hath giveâ— assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead where are two things to be considered First The Person who is to Judge us Secondly What Assurance we have that He shall be our Judge First The Person who is to Judge us That man whom he hath ordained that is the Man CHRIST JESUS for thus both Christ and his Apostles assure us that God hath appointed him to be the Judge of the World The Father judgeth no man but hath committed all judgment to the Son 5 John 22. The Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels and then shall he reward every man according to his works 16 Matth. 27. Thus St. Peter assures Cornelius concerning Christ He commanded us to preach unto the people and to testifie that it is he which was ordained by God to be the judge of quick and dead 10 Acts 42. But there is no need to multiply Texts in so plain a Case it is of more concernment to inquire why Christ who is the Eternal Son of God and a God Incarnate when he is spoke of as Judge of the World is most usually described as a Man or the Son of Man thus He is that man whom God hath ordained and the Son of man nay Christ himself tells us For this reason God hath given him authority to execute judgment because he is the Son of man 5 John 27. Now the reason why our Saviour is described as a Man and the Son of Man when he comes to Judgment is because he shall visibly appear in Humane Nature to judge the World and therefore will be and will appear as much a Man as he did when he dwelt on Earth though he will appear also more like a God thus the Prophet Daniel describes it He saw in the night-visions and behold one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven and came to the ancient of days and they brought him near before him And there was given him dominion and glory and a kingdom that all people nations and languages should serve him his dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed 7 Dan. 13 14. It is the Son of Man who has this Glory and Kingdom given him and which he must administer as the Son of Man And this seems the true reason why our Saviour so often calls himself the Son of Man not as some imagine with respect to the mean Circumstances of his Appearance in the World for this Phrase The Son of Man no where in Scripture relates to such an external Meanness and Poverty as distinguishes one Man from another but it either signifies no more than a Man or it respects the common Weaknesses of Humane Nature and when this Name is applied to any particular Persons it is never used of mean Men but always of Princes or Prophets But by this Title of the Son of Man our Saviour gives us to understand that he is that Great and Extraordinary Person known by the name of The Son of Man in Daniel's Visions whom God hath ordained to be the Lord and Judge of the World But I shall not pass over this Argument thus but shall more particularly consider the great Wisdom of this how necessary congruous and fitting it is that the Son of Man should Judge the World which will suggest a great many useful Meditations to us Now I shall reduce what I have to say to these two Heads 1. That it is very fitting and necessary that the Saviour of Mankind should be their Judge also 2. And therefore that the Man Christ Jesus who is the Saviour of the World should Judge it I. That it is very fitting and necessary that the Saviour of Mankind should be their Judge also and that upon two Accounts 1. Because the Authority to Judge is essential to the Notion and Authority of a Saviour To save Sinners signifies to save them from their sins which is the true Interpretation of the Name Jesus 1 Matt. 20. And to save them from their Sins is to deliver them from the Punishment of Sin that is from the Wrath of God from the Curse of the Law from Death and Hell to raise them from the Dead and to bestow Immortal Life on them Now there are several Acts must concur to perfect this Salvation but the last concluding and finishing Act is Judgment And he only is a complete and perfect Saviour who has Authority to Judge to Pardon and to Reward God is a Holy and Pure Being and can never be reconciled to Sinners till they are renewed and sanctified which makes it necessary for the Saviour of the World to instruct Mankind in their Duty and by the Power of his Grace to change their Natures and make them Holy as God is since without holiness no man shall see God and therefore he must be a great Prophet and Preacher of Righteousness to turn men from darkness unto light and from the power of Satan unto God God is a very righteous Judge and has threatned Death against Sin and therefore the Saviour of Sinners must make Atonement and Expiation for Sin must deliver us from the curse of the law by being made a curse for us that is must be our Priest and our Sacrifice must die for our Sins and intercede for us with God but all this while a Sinner is not saved till he is finally acquitted and absolved till he is actually delivered from the Curse of the Law and possessed of Eternal Life and Glory all things else are only Preparatory Acts but the Final Judgment perfects our Salvation for he who finally Pardons and bestows Heaven on us is our Saviour Christ might have been our Prophet our Priest and our Sacrifice without being our Judge but he could not have been our Saviour without it and therefore after Christ's Resurrection from the Dead after he had preach'd the Gospel and died upon the Cross to expiate our Sins he tells his Disciples All power is given unto me both in heaven and in earth 28 Matth. And St. Peter tells the Sanhedrim Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins 5 Acts 31. So that he saves by Power he is our Saviour and our Prince and this Power is the Reward of his Obedience and Sufferings Therefore God hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name
That at the name of Iesus every knee should bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth and that every tongue should confess that Iesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father 2 Phil. 9 10 11. His Power to save is attributed to his Intercession or Mediatory Kingdom Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him seeing he ever liveth to make iâ—tercession for them 7 Heb. 25. And in like manner St. Paul attributes our Reconciliation to God to the Death of Christ but our Salvation to his Life that is to that Power he was invested with at his Resurrection from the Dead For if when we were enemies we were reconciled â—nto God by the death of his Son much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life That is actually delivered from the Wrath of God by the Power and Authority of a Living Saviour 5 Rom. 10. Upon the same account Christ is said to be delivered for our offences and to be raised again for our justification That is finally to Absolve and Justifie us at the Day of Judgment 4 Rom. 25. for we must observe that though Christ by his Death has made a general Atonement and Expiation for Sin and those Men are said at present to be justified who are in a justified State that is who are within the Terms of the Covenant for Justification who are such as Christ in his Gospel hâ—s promised to justifie yet properly speaking no Man is finally justified till he is finally acquitted and absolved at the Day of Judgment till he is judicially delivered from the Wrath of God threatned against Sin and actually sentenced to Life and Glory And if Christ cannot do this for us whatever other Benefits we receive by his Ministry and Death he is not a complete and perfect Saviour for he does not actually save us unless he have Power and Authority to Judge us that is finally to Absolve us from all our Sins and to bestow Heaven on us Which shews that the Saviour of Sinners must be their Judge because we are not actually saved till we are finally judged Moses was not a complete Saviour of Israel because tho' he brought them out of AEgypt yet he left them in the Wilderness but Ioshua was their Saviour and therein a Type of Christ who gave them Possession of the Promised Land 2. But besides the nature of the Thing that our Saviour must be our Judge that is must actually save us there is very great reason it should be so because this gives Authority and Efficacy to all the Methods of Salvation It will make Sinners afraid not to be saved by him when they know that he must Judge them As to shew this particularly It will give great Authority to his Laws and Counsels and great Credit to his Promises and Threatnings 1. It will give great Authority to his Laws and Counsels to remember that our Lawgiver will be our Judge that he who came into the World in Humane Nature to declare the Will of God to us shall come again to Judge us by that Gospel which he preached When God sends his Prophets to us there is great reason to reverence the Authority of God in them but much more when our Judge comes to preach to us himself for we may be sure he will not preach in vain the Laws he preached to us at his first coming shall be the Rule whereby he will Judge us at his second coming Especially when we consider that both our Prophet and our Judge is the Saviour of Mankind We may possibly flatter our selves that when God comes to Judgment he may relax somewhat of the Rigour and Severity of his Laws that he has reserved to himself a liberty of Dispensing with our Obedience to those Laws which by his Prophets he commanded us to Obey but we cannot think that our Saviour would lay any unnecessary Burden on us that he would require any thing of us under the Pain of Damnation but what he expects we should do that he will dispense with the Terms of the Gospel whicâ— are themselves a Dispensation with the Rigour of the Law for there must be an end of Dispensing somewhere unless Grace can dispense away all our Duty and dispense unreformed and impenitent Sinners into Heaven if this could be done there was no reason why the Saviour of the World should have preach'd at all or have given any Laws to Mankind if he would have no regard to them in judging the World but if the Judge of the World become a Preacher it concerns us diligently to hearken to him for whether we will obey his Laws or no we shall be judged by them 2. This gives great Credit to his Promises and Threatnings when they are made by our Judge himself who has Authority to execute them Has Christ promised Pardon of Sin to all true Penitents has he promised to raise our dead Bodies out of the Grave immortal and glorious to bestow a Crown and Kingdom on us then we may depend on it that he will do what he has promised for he who has promised is able also to perform He has Authority to forgive Sins to raise the Dead to receive all his Disciples into Heaven into the immediate Presence of God there to live and to rejoyce for ever and when he who came to save us and 〈◊〉 promised this great Salvation to us has Power to give it when he who has made these Promises has the disposal of Life and Glory and Heaven in his own hands this is a mighty Encouragement to us to be stedfast unmovable always abounding in the Work of the Lord for as much as we know that our labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. And have not all impenitent Sinners as much reason to expect that Christ will certainly execute that Vengeance on them which he has threatned that he will condemn them to Eternal Night and Darkness to Lakes of Fire and Brimstone where there is Weeping and Wailing and Gnashing of Teeth for evermore For he is the Judge of the World who has Power and Authority to do it and has declared that he will do it and then we have reason to take his word for it Men are apt to shelter themselves from the Terrors of the Law by the Merits and and Mediation and Mercies of a Saviour God indeed is very just and severe a consuming Fire and who can abide his comming But the Blessed Jesus is a merciful and compassionate Saviour He is so infinitely merciful but yet this merciful Saviour has threatned Everlasting Fire against incorrigible Sinners and he is our Judge too and if he will condemn us at the last Day what hope is there for us where shall we find another Saviour to deliver us It seems he is not all Mercy as Sinners are apt to flatter themselves No! he is a Judge and a terrible Judge and
both of the Quick and Dead takes away the Shame of the Cross Let who dare mock at it we do not blush to own our selves the Worshippers of the Crucified Jesus who suffered under Pontius Pilate was crucified dead and buried for him God raised from the Dead and hath made him both Lord and Christ we can read the History of his Arraignment and Condemnation without taking Offence at his Sufferings though a Christ crucified was to the Iews a stumbling-block and to the Greeks foolishness because by an Eye of Faith we now see him advanced to the right Hand of God clothed with Majesty and Power and expect shortly to see him come again in the Clouds of Heaven to Judge the World Thus the Primitive Christians defended themselves against the Reproaches of Jews and Heathens and thus we may to this day defend ourselves against the Scoffs of Atheists and Infidels for a Crucified Jesus will appear a very glorious Prince when he comes to Judge the World It is very fitting as you heard before that the Saviour of Mankind should be the Judge of the World and it made it reasonable for our Saviour to submit to such an ignominious Death for the Salvation of Mankind when the Ignominy of the Cross should be rewarded and done away by the Glory and Triumph of the last Judgment and therefore the Apostle tells us That for the joy that was set before him he endured the cross despised the shame and is set down on the right hand of God 12 Heb. 1 2. 2. It gives great advantage to the Future Judgment that the Son of Man shall Judge the World he who became Man that he might be the Saviour of Mankind for the very appearance of the Son of Man to Judge the World will convince all Men of the Justice Equity and Compassion of the last Judgment and then God will be glorified in judging the World when Men and Angels shall see and acknowledge the Justice and Equity of it Now 1. What could Mankind have desired more had they had the choice of their own Judge than to be judged by a Man by a just and good and compassionate Man It is a formidable thing to be judged by God who is a Pure and Holy Being and who so holy that he dares appear before his Tribunal He chargeth his angels with folly and the heavens are not clean in his sight But we are apt to expect a more favourable Judgment from a Man who has a kindness for Humane Nature who is sensible of the Follies Temptations and Infirmities of it who will not judge us as if we were Angels or unbodied Spirits but will remember that we are Men that we are the Race of Apostate Man that we have a corrupt Nature within a tempting World and a tempting Devil without If this then will satisfie us God has appointed a Man for our Judge one who is our Brother Flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone one who has suffered and has been tempted as we are who has lived in the midst of a wicked World and knows the Conversation of Mankind how easily Men are turned aside by Example and Perswasion and Interest by Fears and Flatteries and has a great Pitty for the Weaknesses of Men and will make all favourable Allowances for them Nay more than this we have not onely a Man but God-Man for our Judge a God personally united to Humane Nature All Mankind have a great perswasion of God's Goodness that the kindest and most compassionate Man in the World falls infinitely short of the Goodness of God but they are afraid of his Holiness and of his Justice that these Attributes will not suffer him to make sufficient Allowances for the Weakness of Humane Nature On the other hand tho' Men know enough to pitty each others Infirmities yet they are not always the most favourable â—udges to one another in reason they should be so that those who are exposed to the same Temptations themselves who feel the Weaknesses and Infirmities of Humane Nature should pitty those who are overcome by them but it is not always so and therefore we cannot always rely on it but when God becomes Man we have all the Goodness of God and all the tender Compassion of a Man in their utmost perfection that when God-Man is our Judge if either God or Man can help us we are safe no Man need be afraid of such a Judge who has not out-sinned the Mercies of a God and the tender Compassions of a Man and he who has must perish and the most merciful Man must vindicate the Justice of God in it Especially 2. when we remember that this Man is the Saviour of Mankind He who is our Judge became Man that he might be our Saviour and can we desire a more equal and favourable Judge then the Saviour of Mankind We may be sure he has all the Kindness for us that we can desire it was a mighty Love to Humane Nature which brought him from Heaven and clothed him with Flesh and Blood and exposed him to all the Miseries and Sufferings of this Life for our sakes and when he did and suffered all this for us can we suspect he will be a severe and unequal Judge that he who died for Sinners will condemn any Sinners whom he can save Has he then forgot his Agony and Bloody Sweat his Cross and Passion has he forgot that Love which brought him into the World and which nailed him to the Cross for the Salvation of Sinners We need not doubt but the Saviour of Mankind is more strongly inclined to save than to destroy than to destroy did I say far be it from the great Lover of Souls that he should have any inclination to destroy This is foreign to his Design this is against his Will this is a force upon his Nature and Government he is Incarnate and Embodied Love Mercy is the Temper and Complexion the Glory and Triumph of his Kingdom and therefore none shall eternally Perish but those whom Infinite and Incarnate Love cannot save For we must remember that he has now purchased us with his own Blood that he has an Interest in us that every Sinner he condemns he pronounces Sentence against himself he rejects what might have been and what he passionately desired should have been his own and therefore we may be certain he will condemn none whom according to the most favourable Construction of the Terms of the Gospel he can save I say we may be as certain of this as we are to allude to some Parables of our Saviour that a Man who has travelled into the Wilderness to find a lost Sheep will bring it Home upon his back rejoycing and not leave it to perish there when he has found it or that a Woman who sought diligently for her lost Groat and rejoyced at the finding of it will not immediately fling it away again or that a Father who has received his Prodigal Son
if an ordinary Judge of Assize be lookt on with so much Reverence and Awe what is the Glory and Majesty of an Universal Judge How will all the World fall and bow and tremble before him who with the Word of his Mouth can sentence them to Eternal Life or Death This is his Father's glory for he is the Natural Lord and Judge of the World and from him he receives this Authority to Judge the World The Father judgeth no man but hath committed all judgment to the Son That all men should honour the Son even as they honour the Father 5 John 22 23. To this Glory he is now advanced and we must now Obey and Reverence and Adore him as our Judge but it will give a visible Majesty to him when he thus comes in the Glory of his Father when the astonishing Glory of his Person is still made more Glorious and Majestick by the Authority of a Judge But his Retinue is very glorious also and adds to the Terror and Majesty of his Appearance for he shall come attended with Myriads of holy Angels bright and glorious Beings who incircle his Person and are the Witnesses and Ministers of his Justice We know a splended Retinue adds greatly to the Glory of a Prince or Judge a Multitude has something great and awful in it especially when this Multitude are all his Dependants Servants and Ministers and more still when every one of this Multitude are most excellent and glorious Creatures the Beauty and Perfection of the Creation whose single Glories we cannot now bear the sight of without great Apprehension and Amazement and what a mighty Prince is he who comes attended with the whole Host of Heaven who leave their heavenly Mansions to wait upon their Lord and to adorn his Triumphs But this glorious Retinue of Angels is not meerly for Pomp and State but they are the Ministers of his Justice and therefore are called his mighty Angels or the Angels of his Power 2 Thess. 1.8 And what a powerful Judge is he who has all the Powers of Heaven attending him to execute his Vengeance on Men and Devils This glorious Judge shall at the last Day come down from Heaven for thither he ascended after his Resurrection from the Dead and there he must continue till he comes to Judge the World but then the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God 2 Thess. 4.16 I see no reason why this should not be understood literally of an audible Voice and Shouting and an audible sound of the last Trumpet to summon all Mankind to Judgment for this makes the Appearance more solemn and awful and thus God descended on Mount Sinai when he gave the Law With thundrings and lightnings and the voice of a trumpet exceeding loud so that all the people that was in the camp trembled 19 Exod. 16. And if he gave the Law with the sound of a Trumpet why not Judge the World with it too This Shout is the shouting of the holy Angels begun by the Voice of the Archangel in their descent with Christ and signifies what such Shoutings do among Men either great Joy and Exultation or Alacrity and Courage thus Men shout for joy when any thing happens which highly pleases them thus Souldiers shout when the Signal is given for Battle Thus when our Lord shall say Come ye holy Angels go down with me to Judge the World they will shout for joy that that day is come which will put a final end to the Kingdom of Darkness when the Devil and his Angels and all wicked Men shall be cast into the Lake of Fire and good Men rewarded and crowned and received into the immediate Presence of God in Heaven For this is matter of Joy to all holy Angels to see the final Conquest of all the Enemies of CHRIST'S Kingdom to see the Triumphs of Justice to see all Impiety and Wickedness shamed condemned and punished and the World cleansed from the Pollutions of it to see their numbers encreased by the advancement of good Men into Heaven who will now be united to their Company and joyn with them in singing Halelujahs to Him that sitteth on the Throne and to the Lamb for if there be Joy in Heaven at the Repentance of one Sinner what Exultation and Acclamations will there be to see the whole number of GOD'S Elect raised again with glorious Bodies and receive that Kingdom which was prepared for them before the Foundations of the World When our Lord shall say Come ye holy Angels and be the Ministers of my Justice and execute my Vengeance upon a wicked World upon the Devil and all bad Men and gather together mine Elect from the four Corners of the Earth with what Shoutings will they receive their Commission with what Alacrity and Courage will they execute it for so our Saviour himself represents it that the Angels are not meerly Attendants of State but his Officers and Ministers whom he employs in Judging the World thus he expounds the Parable of the Tares 13 Mat. 41 42 43. He that soweth good seed is the Son of man The field is the world the good seed are the children of the kingdom but the tares are the children of the wicked one The enemy that sowed them iâ— the devil the harvest is the end of the world and the reapers are the angels As therefore the tares are gathered and burnt in the fire so shall it be in the end of the World The Son of man shall send forth his angels and they shall gather forth out of his kingdom all things that offeâ—â— and them which do iniquity and shall cast them into a furnace of fire there shall be â—â—iling and gnashing of teeth Then shall the righteous shine forth like the sun in the kingdom of their Father And thus he expounds the Parable of the Net that was cast into the sea and gathered of every kind Which when it was full they drew to shore and sat down and gathered the good into vessels and the bad they cast away So shall it be at the end of the world the angels shall come forth and sever the wicked from among the just and shall cast them into the furnace of fire there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth v. 47 48 49 50. What is meant by the trump of God with which Christ descends from Heaven is hard to say only thus much we know that it is such a Trumpet at the sound of which the Dead shall rise as St. Paul expresly tells us 1 Cor. 15.51 52. Behold I shew you a mystery We shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump for the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed And therefore this last Trump seems to be what our Saviour calls the Voice of the Son of
be made better by their Company as to escape the better with them but they should remember that the Tares and the Wheat grow together in the same Field but yet have a very different end the one is gathered into the Barn and the other is burnt and that good and bad Fish are taken in the same Net but they are separated at the Day of Judgment All our Separations now will avail us nothing unless we take care to be found in the Number of Christ's Sheep when we come to Judgment for if we be concealed Hypocrites and rotten and corrupt Members of a Sound and Orthodox and Pure Church though we have conversed with good Men all our lives here yet we must part Company at last the angels at that day will gather forth 〈◊〉 of Christ's kingdom and Church all things which offend and work iniquity The Judge being thus seated on his Throne and all Mankind before him the Books are opened which is another Circumstance to be considered in the last Judgment 20 Revel 12. And I saw the dead small and great stand before God and the books were opened and another book was opened which is the book of life and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works The like we have 7 Dâ—â— 10. This opening of the Books seems to be an Allusion to the Form of Process in Humane Judicatures for we cannot think that God keeps Books of Record in a literal sence as Men do for such Books are onely Helps to Memory and therefore God needs them not but this represents to us the exact and impartial Justice of the last Judgment for there are two sorts of Books which shall be opened and out of which we shall be judged 1. The Laws of God which are the Rule of our Actions by which we shall be judged 2. The Records of our Lives and Actions which contain the Matters of Fact or that for which we shall be judged I shall discourse more particularly of this hereafter and shall only observe at present that God is a curious Observer of all our Actions and keeps a faithful Record of them though we take little notice of our Sins ourselves and forget them presently and then think they are gone and past yet God remembers them and we shall find fair and fresh Records of them when we come to Judgment And how will it amaze and confound bad Men to see all the Sins of their Lives called to remembrance to see a black Catalogue of all their Impieties and Blasphemies Injustice and Oppression Uncleanness and Impurities to see an exact Counterpart of a most wicked and ungodly Life Nothing can blot our Sins out of God's Book but a sincere Repentance and Reformation of our Lives for then God has promised to blot out all our iniquities which is somewhat more then crossing the Account for when the Account is only crossed it is visible still but what is blotted-out don 't so much as appear it no longer stands upon Record it is forgot and shall never be alleadged against us there shall be no mention made of it at the Day of Judgment for St. Iohn tells us there is another Book shall be opened the Book of Life out of which good Men shall be judged which records their Faith and Patience and Charity and all the good they have done but none of their Sins which God has blotted out of his Remembrance and has promised to keep no Record of them And is not this a mighty encouragement to true Repentance that all our Sins shall be blotted out before the Day of Judgment that there shall be no mention no remembrance of them then Some very good Men have been guilty of very great Wickedness which it may be none but God and their own Consciences know and the best Men have so many Failings Weaknesses Miscarriages that should all the Sins of good Men be exposed to the View and Censure of Men and Angels at the Day of Judgment tho' they were finally absolved and acquitted yet it would cause great Shame and Confusion and overcast the Glory of that Day but their Sins are done away and forgot and they have washed their Garments and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb this is the only way to conceal your most secret Sins to blot them out of God's Book by Repentance for if they remain there upon Record how successful soever you may be in concealing them at present the Books will be opened at the Day of Judgment and then all the World will know them Thus in our Saviour's Account of the last Judgment none of the Sins which good Men ever committed are mentioned but only the Graces and Vertues for which they are rewarded nor is there any notice taken of any good Actions done by bad Men but only of their Sins 25 Mat. as God expresly declares it shall be 32 Ezek. 13 14 16. When I shall say to the righteous that he shall surely live if he trust to his own righteousness to the good he hath already done and commit iniquity all his righteousness shall not be remembred but for his iniquity that he hath committed he shall die for it Again when I say to the wicked Thou shalt surely die if he turn from his sin and doth that which is lawful and right None of his sins that he hath committed shall be mentioned unto him he hath done that which is lawful and right he shall surely live And now let us consider in what order Christ will Judge the World When he has separated between the Sheep and the Goats between good and bad Men he first calls good Men to Judgment and pronounces them blessed as we see 25 Matth. And this very much becomes the Person of our Judge who is the Saviour of the World and therefore to save is his proper Work and must take place of all Acts of Justice and Vengeance the Saviour of the World as I observed before must be our Judge that he may be a complete and perfect Saviour that he may finally acquit and reward us and therefore this is his first care to separate his Elect from the Company and to deliver them from the Destruction of the Ungodly This demonstrates to all the World that God takes more pleasure to save then to destroy this convinces Sinners that their Destruction is from themselves that they might have been saved as well as others for Christ came to save them and they see now that he would have done it would they have been saved by him in the Glory which is conferred on good Men they see what they have lost before they hear that terrible Sentence pronounced Go ye cursed into everlasting fire and this is a double Damnation to see the Happiness of good Men and to feel their own Misery for when we come to Judgment to lose Heaven will be thought a terrible Punishment though there were no Hell
and this Punishment bad Men have by being suffered to stand by and see the glorious Rewards of the Righteous But there is a further reason also for this that good Men when they are acquitted and absolved shall together with their Lord sit in Judgment on the wicked World 1 Cor. 6.2 3. Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world Know ye not that we shall judge angels How far this extends we know not but it seems such a thing there is as was universally believed in the Apostle's Days as appears from his Appeal to their own knowledge of it but if they must Judge the World it is reasonable to think that their own Judgment must be over first I shall name but one thing more which I have had several occasions to take notice of already and that is That at the last Judgment this Earth shall be destroyed with Fire as S. Peter expresly tells us The day of the Lord shall come like a thief in the night in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with fervent heat the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up 2 Pet. 3.10 This has been an old Tradition that the World shall be destroyed by Fire and some Men are very curious and inquisitive by what Natural Causes this may be done for they are not willing to allow that God either made or destroys the World by an immediate Power for the less they leave for God to do the less they are concerned about him but though it is hard to perswade some Men now that there was any need of a God to make the World which they think could make itself without him yet the last Judgment shall convince them that it is God that destroys it when they shall see the World fired by a flame streaming from his Throne as is not improbable by the Description of the Prophet Daniel A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him 7 Dan. 10. The only Question is Whether the World shall be fired at Christ's first appearance to Judgment or after the final Sentence pronounced against bad Men The first does not seem probable because Christ himself shall place his Throne in the Air and all Mankind shall be gathered before him to Judgment and a fired World is not a proper Scene for such an Appearance and the burning of the World seems to be an Act of Judgment and Vengeance as St. Paul tells us He shall descend from heaven in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God 2 Thess. 1.8 So that the Devil and bad Men shall first be condemned to Everlasting Fire and then their Punishment shall begin in a Fired World Thus I have given you a brief View of the Circumstances and Manner of Christ's Appearance and the Awful Solemnities of Judgment every part of which is for the Glory of our Lord for the Comfort of good Men and a Terrour to the wicked God grant we may so think of this Day before hand that we may not feel the Terrour and Astonishment of it when it comes CHAP. V. Who are to be Iudged viz. The World or all Mankind V. LET us consider who are to be judged and they are the World or all Mankind for I shall take no notice of the Judgment of the Devil and the Apostate Angels which we know no more of but only that they shall be judged that the angels which kept not their first estate but left their own habitation he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day Jude v. 6. Why their Judgment is deferred so long we cannot tell for it is plain that the Angels fell from their first Estate before Man and how long we know not for it was the Serpent that beguiled Eve but this we know that whatever their first Apostasie was they have a great deal more to answer for now and must expect a more terrible Condemnation All the Sin that is in the World is originally owing to the Temptation of the Devil who seduced our first Parents in Paradise and has ever since been the great Tempter to Wickedness and Apostasie from God and therefore he is in some degree entitled to all the Wickedness of Mankind And this is a good reason why the Devil and his Angels and all bad Men should be judged and condemned together those who tempt and those who are overcome by Temptations the Prince of Darkness and all his Subjects whether Angels or Men. Hell is the Fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels not for Men but when he has drawn Mankind into the Apostasie it is fit they should share in his Punishments too and when our Lord comes to Judge Men who have been seduced and corrupted by Evil Spirits there is no reason to think that wicked Spirits should escape who have seduced and tyrannized over Mankind But that which we are at present concerned in is the Judgment of Mankind That God hath appointed a Day wherein he will Judge the World or the whole Race of Men as St. Iohn represents it I saw the dead small and great stand before God 20 Revel 12. No Man who believes a Future Judgement makes any doubt of this but that all shall be judged For if any why not all We are all alike God's Creatures we are all equally accountable to him and though we have very different Talents yet we have all some Talent or other to improve for our Master's use And therefore I shall not go about to convince any Man that he is to be judged as well as the rest of Mankind but there are some Persons who are apt to forget this who have yet as much occasion to think of a Future Judgment as any other Men and therefore ought to be minded of it and they are those who are very Rich and Great or very Poor or in the Vigour and Gaiety of Youth 1 st Rich and Great Men Princes and Potentates Men of Honour and Fortune who are exalted above the common Level of Mankind These must all be judged as well as the meanest Men though they are not very apt to think of it great Power and great Riches make them reverenced and adored like so many little Deities in this World all Men court and flatter them and make a great distinction between them and those of a meaner Rank and Fortune and this is apt to swell their Minds they look down upon the rest of the World as very much below them and think they merit much when ever they look up to God for such great Men as they are to worship God and lift up their Eyes sometimes to Heaven they imagine is so great an Honour to God and Credit to Religion that a very little matter will be accepted from them they see Humane Judicatures very often have great respect for Mens persons in Judgment and they hope God will consider their
Quality too and deal with them like Princes or Nobles or Gentlemen as one unfortunate Gentleman expressed himself not many Years since at the Gallows and I fear therein spoke the secret Thoughts and Hopes of many others so that if these Men believe they shall be judged yet they perswade themselves that they shall not be judged like other Men that God will wink at their Faults and have respect to their Rank and Quality and excuse them from the strict Observation of those Laws which were made for meaner Persons I suppose you do not expect I should gravely and seriously confute such vain Conceits as these which few Men dare profess and own and defend though they secretly flatter themselves with such Hopes as is too visible in their lives but since Men are apt to think such things as they dare not speak it will be useful to suggest some wiser Thoughts to them which may prevent such Imaginations and bring the greatest Men living under the Awe and Terrour of the Future Judgment For what a vain Imagination is it That God will have regard to Earthly Greatness in judging the World For what is this World and all the Greatness and Glory of it to him who made it Great and small are but comparative Terms and nothing is great when compared with that which is greater Consider the Glory of our Judge as I have already represented it to you when he shall come attended with Myriads of Angels and then think what little creeping Worms you are to him We may observe in this World that every Rank and Degree of Men appears considerable to those below them but those above use them as Inferiours and are not afraid to Judge and Correct them for their Faults and is there not a much greater Distance between GOD and the greatest Emperour than there is between the greatest Emperour and a petty Constable Consider the Case of the Apostate Angels of the Devil himself who is the Prince of the Power of the Air and was a very glorious Spirit and if as great and glorious as he was God flung him down from Heaven for Sin and as powerful as he now is who is the God of this World will judge and condemn him at the last Day why should any Man think that his Power and Greatness which be it what it will can neither be compared to what the Devil was nor to what he is should excuse him from the Judgment of God And since you boast of your Power and Greatness who made you so who made you to differ from the meanest Beggar who advances Princes to the Throne and cloaths them with Glory and Majesty is not all power of God are they not his Ministers and Servants and is any Minister too great to be corrected by his Prince who made him so are not all Ministers accountable to their Lord and the greater their Trust and Power is have they not a greater account to give and is this a reason why they should give none why they should be exempted from Judgement and from giving an Account But it is a wonderful thing to me that any Man should glory in Power and Greatness or think himself too big to be judged by God or that God will have any regard to his Greatness in judging him for did he but reflect upon his own state and condition in this World it would convince him what a little inconsiderable Creature he is As great as any Man is he is exposed to every Accident to all the Changes and Vicissitudes of Fortune God can and very often does punish him in this World and then there is no reason to expect thaâ— he will not judge him in the next Pain and Sickness stand in no awe of his Greatness and Death is no more afraid of him than of a Beggar Those who are Gods 〈◊〉 earth must die like Men which is the Curse and Punishment of Sin and this puts an end to all their Greatness for after a little Funeral Pomp is over and they are laid in their Graves with a little more Ceremony than meaner Men they are forsaken of all their Guards and Retinue and Dependants and are left to be a Prey for Worms And is this the Creature too great to Reverence and Worship God and too big to be judged whom Wormâ— eat and Beggars walk over his Grave This is the weak and frail State of the greatest Men on Earth they go naked and unarmed into another World stripe of their Power and Fortunes of Riches and Honours which dazled the Eyes of Men here and when they are gone all Men speak their Minds freely of them judge tâ—eir Lives and Actions arraign their Memories and revenge their Injuries upon their Graves and when they are become little enough to be judged by Men surely they are not too big for God's Judgement Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the rich men and the chief captains and the mighty men as well as â—very bond-man and every free-man shall hide themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains and say to the rocks and mountains Fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb For the great day of his wrath is come and who shâ—ll be able to stand 6 Revel 15 16 17. Consider this ye Rich and Great Men who are so apt to forget God and a Future Judgment Riches profit not in the Dâ—y of Wrath they cannot bribe God as they do Men no power can prevail against the Almighty proud and swelling Titles are meer empty Bubles which burst and vanish into nothing in the next World Men ye are and ye shall die like Men and shall be judged like Men and have much more reason to think of Judgment then other Men have for ye have a greater Account to give and are in more danger of giving a very bad Accounâ— if you do not frequently and seriously think of Judgment What a mighty Trust and a mighty Temptation are Riches and Honour and Power How much good and how much hurt may such Men do in the World And what a formidable thing is it to give an account of all the Good that we might and ought to have done and have not and of all the Evil we have done by the abuse of those Blessings of Heaven which we were entrusted with to do good Honour and Power always carry some great Duties with them they are not meerly intended to set some Men above others to command the Cap and the Knee and external Respects but they are for the good Order and Government of the World to suppress and punish Wickedness and to protect and incourage Innocence and Vertue such Men are like the great Lights of Heaven to direct and cherish the World with their Light and Influence their Examples are visible and conspicuous and carry great Authority with them and if their Motions be irregular
and exorbitant it proves as fatal as for the Sun to forsake the Eclyptick and wander into unknown Regions of the Heaven which would confound Summer and Winter Night and Day and bring the utmost Disorder upon Humane Affairs When Princes and Great Men who should support Religion and punish Wickedness are the Patrons of Atheism Prophaneness and Immorality and give Countenance and Reputation to it by their Examples what Multitudes of Converts do they make How does it give the Reins to Mens ungoverned Lusts when the Restraints of Fear and Shame are gone How does it corrupt even vertuous and well-disposed Minds when it is a fashionable thing to be wicked when it qualifies them for Preferments and makes them fit for the best Company while Vertue and Modesty is the common Subject of Drollery and Ridicule when those who should Administer Justice to the World oppress the Poor and Fatherless and accept the Pensions of the Rich when they pervert Judgment for a Reward and enrich themselves with Bribes such an Abuse of Power will have a very heavy Account What a dreadful thing will it be when you come to Judgment to be persued with the Cries of Widows and Orphans of ruined Families and which is more dreadful yet with the Curses and Execrations of murdered Souls The like may be said of Riches which is but a Stewardship and we must give an account of it and if instead of improving a plentiful Fortune to do good to the World we spend it upon our Lusts and make ourselves Beasts if with the rich Man in the Gospel we fare deliciously every day and suffer the Poor and Miserable to starve at our Doors we must expect to hear what Abraham said to him Son remember thou hadst thy good things iâ— thy life-time and Lazarus his evil things therefore now thou art tormented and he is comforted To whom much is given of them shall be much required Our Account encreases as our Riches and Honour and Power does for the more opportunities we have of doing good the more is expected from us and the more we have experienced the Divine Bounty and Goodness the greater Returns we owe of Duty and Gratitude and therefore rich and great and powerful Men have more reason to think of Judgment then other Men because they have a greater Account to give and yet there is a greater reason than this too that nothing but the frequent and serious Thoughts of Judgment will enable them to make a good Account Our Saviour tells us how hard it is for a rich man to enter into heaven as hard as for a camel to go through the eye of a needle For how irresistible are the Temptations of Riches and Power which take off all the Restraints of Fear and Shame and furnish them with all the Instruments and Opportunities of gratifying their Lusts. How hard is it for Men to bear Greatness without Pride and Insolence to be Rich without being covetuous or luxurious to be devout Worshippers of GOD when they themselves are adored and flattered by Men there are very few Examples of Humility Piety and Devotion Temperance and Chastity in an exalted Fortune Prosperity is generally a greater Tryal of a steddy and confirmed Vertue than Adversity is for it scatters our Thoughts makes our Spirits aery and volatile gives new Charms to the World and kindles new Fires within it leads us through all the various Scenes of Pleasures and keeps up and tempts our Appetite with Varieties and fresh Delights and entertains us so much abroad that we can seldom retire into ourselves and converse with our own thoughts But would such Men seriously think of Judgment it would teach them another use of Riches and Power it would mind them that they are but Men as other Men are all alike to God and that they shall be judged alike that their Riches and Power which distinguishes them from other Men is not their own but they are entrusted with it by God not to domineer over their fellow-Creatures not to eat and drink and be drunken and to smite their fellow-servants but to relieve the Poor to defend the Injured and Oppressed to be Eyes to the Blind and Feet to the Lame a Father to the Fatherless and a Husband to the Widows this is the Honour God has conferred on them that he has made them his Ministers and Stewards Tutelar Angels and even Gods to Men and the way to be truly Great is to improve their Power and Riches to make themselves very useful to the World To have Power and Riches is not to be great but to do a great deal of good with them this sets them above other Men and will prepare glorious Rewards for them but iâ— Power and Riches make them only more wicked then their Neighbours all that they will get by it will be a hotter Hell 2 dly Those who are very poor and calamitous are very apt to forget a Future Judgment or to think themselves unconcerned in it they are too little for Judgment as the others were too great what should God judge them for whom he has intrusted with little or nothing but their Skins Who can spare no time to worship God for all the time they have is little enough to get Bread in who cannot be blamed if when they can get a little Drink they drink away Sorrow and forget their Wants and Miseries for some few Moments or if they pilfer and steal or lye to get Bread Necessity has no Law and makes such Actions innocent in them as are great Crimes in other Men By such kind of Excuses as these poor Men excuse away all concernment about Religion Religion is above them rich and happy People may be at leisure for it but they have enough to do to live the Church-door they like very well where devout and charitable People drop their Alms but the inside of the Church does not belong to them and they have nothing to do there And thus it is proportionably in less degrees of Poverty every Condition of Lâ—fe which may be called poor is apt to tempt Men to be careless of Relâ—gion and unmindful of a Future Judgment Now what is to be said to these Men Shall we prove that poor Men shall be judged as well as rich I doubt you would think me very impertinent should I attempt it for if all Mankind are to be judged the Poor must be judged too if they be Men. Are not poor Men able to give an account of their Actions and why then should they not be called to an account for them Are they not reasonable Creatures and able to understand and give a reason for what they do and why then should not God ask a reason of them If they have nothing to give an account of no account shall be demanded but if they have why should they not give an account of what they have be it more or less Poor Men shall give no account of Riches because they
have them not but this does not hinder but that they may give an account of their Poverty and those Graces which become a poor and low Fortune They shall not be examined about their Charity when they had nothing to give but they may for their Thankfulness to God and to their Benefactors They shall not be examined how they used their Riches which they had not but they may be how they bore their Poverty whether external Poverty has taught them true Poverty of Spirit Humility Modesty Patience in Want and Sufferings Contentment with a little Submission to the Will of God and a chearful Dependance on Providence for their daily Bread whether they have constantly prayed to God for the supply of their Wants as well as begged an Alms of Men and implored the Help and Assistance of the Rich these are Duties and Vertues which Poverty teaches and which poor Men ought to exercise and therefore which God may challenge from them and Judge them for It is a very wild Imagination to think that Poverty will excuse Mens Pride and Rudeness and Insolence unless it be a Vertue to be Proud when Men have no Temptation to it when they have nothing to be proud of Will Poverty excuse Sloth and Idleness when Men have nothing to live by but their Hands is that a Reason why they should not work When Men are able to work and get their own living is Poverty an excuse for begging and living idly upon the Charity and Industry of other Men when they work hard all day to get Bread for themselves and Families is this a reason to go to the Ale-house and spend it all at night to make themselves Beasts and leave their Wives and Children to starve ought not God and Men to judge them for this But above all things Poverty is the most unreasonable and senseless Excuse for Irreligion for neglecting the Worship of God For certainly if any thing will make us sensible how much we stand in need of God Poverty will Rich Men whose Coffers are full of Treasure who have Goods laid up for many Years are apt to forget God because they think they have no present need of Him they know how to live without him They have no occasion to beg their daily Bread of him who have enough to last their lives and to maintain their Posterity in Luxury when they are gone But methinks poor Men who have no Provisions before hand and know not where they shall have their Bread the next day should be very sensible that they live upon Providence that they have nothing else to trust to and would not any one reasonably expect that such Men would be very devout Worshippers of GOD would pray constantly and heartily to him to take them into his Care when they have nothing but the Providence of God to depend on One would think such Men should above all things take care to please God and to make him their Friend and Patron for if he cast them off they have no other Refuge that is a prophane irreligious Mind indeed whom Want and Distress will not drive to God But what would you have such poor Men do They han't time to spare for their Prayers unless they should spare it from eating or sleeping they must be up early at work and have not leisure for their Devotions as those have who live at ease But did they believe the Divine Prodence it would satisfie them that the time of Prayer is the best spent of any time in the day and contributes more to make a comfortable Provision for them then their hardest Labour for the Blessing of God is more then our Diligence and Labour he can succeed and prosper our Work he can raise up unexpected Friends to us and by some unseen Accident can change the whole Scene of our Lives for a more easie and prosperous Fortune However want of time for Prayer and Devotion is always a pretence and nothing but a pretence to excuse the Indevotion of our Minds a Man who loves and reverences God never wants time for Prayer whatever his state of Life be a poor labouring Man can't every Day spend an Hour at Church at his Prayers but if he have a Mind prepared and disposed for it he can fall upon his Knees and offer up a short Prayer to God as soon as he rises which takes up very little time and though he cannot be long upon his Knees yet he can raise up his Heart to Heaven in short and pious Ejaculations no business can hinder a devout Mind from this and therefore no business can excuse the not doing it and this will be accepted by God when we have no time for more Solemn Prayer So that you see Religion is the Business and ought to be the Care of poor Men as well as of the rich there are Graces and Vertues for them to exercise proper for their state of Life and therefore they shall be judged as well as the Rich and ought frequently to think of a Future Judgment and to live under the constant awe and sence of it The constant sence of a Future Judgement is very necessary for all Mankind to govern their Lives and to prepare their Accounts but besides this it is of the greatest use to poor Men of any other for it will in a great measure help to cure their Poverty or to make it easie In ordinary cases a Man who lives under a constant sence of Judgment cannot be poor to extremity for the sence of Judgment will make him diligent and industrious and honest and frugal and temperate and a devout Worshipper of God which are all thriving Vertues and will not suffer a Man to be miserably poor The diligent hand maketh rich and when it does not make Rich it at least prevents Poverty inflexible Honesty gives a Man Reputation in the World brings him into Business and Employment and that is a way to thrive Frugality and Temperance save what is got and encrease the Store and Reverence and Devotion for God brings down Blessings on them gives success to their honest Labours and we know it is the Blessing of God which maketh Rich. The Experience of the World as well as the Reason of the Thing proves this The miserable Poor are generally the most corrupt and profligate part of Mankind the very Reproach of Humane Nature and if you make any curious Observations about it you will generally find that it is not their Poverty which makes them wicked but their Wickedness makes them poor you shall very rarely see an honest industrious sober pious Man but makes a very good shift to live comfortably in the World unless the Times prove very hard that there is but little Work and Provisions dear or that his Family encreases so quick upon him that he has a great charge of Children before any of them are capable of working for their living and in this case such industrious Men seldom want Friends
it become a Wise and Holy God to grant Indulgence to Vice Are Adulteries Fornications Drunkenness Gluttony Prophaneness Irreligion no Sins when committed by Young Men Can any one give a reason why these Sins should damn a Man of Forty or Fifty and be indulged in one of Twenty Does it become the Wise and Holy Governour of the World to contribute so much to the debauching Mankind as to indulge their youthful Lusts to suffer their render Minds to be corrupted with the love and practise of Vice to be prepossessed and prejudiced against the Severities of a Holy Life when Men by indulging their Lusts are grown fond of this World and of bodily Pleasures when are they likely to grow wise when will they think it time to submit to God's Government and to obey his Laws How seldom is it seen that Men who contract Habits of Wickedness in their Youth ever get a perfect mastery of them or prove seriously Religious and those who do with what infinite difficulty do they do it So that should God give liberty to Men to be as wicked as they please while they are young it would be to little purpose to give Laws to riper Years the Seeds of Vertue or Vice are sown in tender Minds and grow up with them and are very difficulty rooted out if God intends we should worship and obey him when we are Men he must lay early Restraints upon us and fashion our Minds betimes And that is a reason why he should judge Youth and Antidote them against the flattering Temptations of this Life with the Hopes and Fears of another World If you think it hard that God should judge you for the Lewdness and Extravagancies of Youth consider whether it would not be much harder to suffer you to be corrupted when you are young and to damn you for continuing wicked when you are old The fears of Judgment may restrain and govern your youthful Passions and season you with the Principles of an early Piety which will grow up into confirmed Habits of Vertue which will direct and govern your Lives in this World and carry you safe to Heaven but if Young Men might sin securely without fear of Judgment in all likelihood tâ—ey would sin on till they were old enough to be damned 3. I must add this also that there is as little reason to expect that Young Men should be excused from being judged and from giving an account of their Actions as that any other Men whatsoever should be excused every Age has its peculiar Temptations and Difficulties and if this were a reason why they should not be judged no Men must be judged But Youth before it is corrupted and grown ungovernable has the fewest Temptations and the greatest Restraints and Preservatives of any Age and therefore is the least excusable Youth indeed is rash and giddy and inconsiderate but then it is or ought to be under the Direction and Government of Parents Masters and Tutors it is a great Misfortune to them when they are not and a great and fatal Miscarriage in Parents and Masters when they neglect the prudent Government of them But this is the Provision God has made for their Government and therefore has implanted in them a natural Awe and Reverence for their Parents and Superiours which makes their Counsels and Examples sacred which is a mighty advantge above what those Men have who have no Body to govern them and have no Government of themselves Their Reason indeed is weak but it is not corrupted as a great many others have corrupted their Reason by Principles of Atheism and Irreligion they have a Natural Sence of God and a Natural Awe and Reverence for his Justice and Providence and a Natural Belief of another World especially if any care has been taken to instruct them in the Principles of Christianity and this gives them a great Dread and Horror of Sin which they believe will bring the Judgments of God upon them in this World and in the next They have little Experience of the World and a great Curiosity to tast the Pleasures of it but they are not yet acquainted with the sinful Pleasures of it they have not contracted a Fondness for them and the Fear of God will more easily check and restrain a Curiosity then conquer a Habit and therefore they have a more easie Task to keep themselves innocent then old Sinners have to conquer their vicious Habits who must pluck out a right Eye and cut off a right Hand to enter into Heaven And the Natural Modesty of Youth is a mighty Restraint which makes them blush at the Thoughts of any Wickedness and so afraid of a Discovery when they think of committing it that it deprives them of the Opportunities of committing it and while Men retain their natural Modesty a thousand thoughts give check to them and a thousand Accidents disappoint them but when they have sinned away their Reputation and their Shame with it when they are hardened against Reproach and Infamy or have lost all sence of the difference between Good and Evil they have nothing to stop them till they come to Hell This is the Original State of Youth which was made for Piety and Vertue and all Men must acknowledge that they are in a much nearer disposition for it than old Sinners there is almost as much difficulty at first to debauch an innocent Mind as there is to reclaim an old Sinner to make the one conquer Shame as there is to make the other blush And why then should we think that Young Men shall not be judged by God for breaking through all these Restraints when it is as hard a thing for them to be bad as it is for others to be good why should they hope to escape in those Sins for which oâ—hers shall be judged and condemned This is sufficient to convince Young Men that God will judge them as well as others As young as they are they know when they do their Duty and when they transgress it and therefore may be called to an account for it It never becomes a holy God nor the wise Governour of the World to indulge Men in Sin and as little to indulge Young Men as any others for if he should indulge them in contracting vicious Habits when they are young he has less reason to judge and condemn them for it when they are old And indeed Young Men have least reason to expecâ— such an Indulgence for whatever their Temptations are it is much easier for them to keep themselves innocent then it is for other Men to conquer the Habits of Vice 2. Let me now perswade Young Men frequently to think of a Future Judgment There is great reason for this Exhortation because they are very apt to forget it and yet they have very great occasion for it 1. They are very apt to forget it Their Spirits are gay and brisk and they meet with such variety of Entertainments as will not admit of
such melancholy Thoughts as a Future Judgment they are so lately come into the World and are big it may be with such great designs of advancing their Fortunes in it that they cannot think of going out of it very quickly again they look upon Judgment as they do upon the other World as a great way off and therefore it is not of a present concernment but may be thought of time enough some Years hence These are all very foolish Reasonings but yet these or such like Fallacies serve to impose upon Young Men or whatever their pretence be Experience tells us that it is true in Fact that they think very little of a Judgment to come It is easie enough to shew that these are no Reasons why they should not think frequently of a Future Judgment How gay and pleasant soever they be and whatever their designs are for this World the thoughts of Judgment will not allay nor interrupt their Pleasures while they preserve their Innocence nothing can make the thoughts of Judgment uneasie to them unless they resolve to take such Liberties and persue such Designs as they are afraid to be called to an account for and the reason why they should think of Judgement is to prevent this for if once they distract their Minds with Guilt the thoughts of Judgment will ever after be very uneasie to them and they must never think of it if they can help it The best way is to accustom our Minds to the thoughts of Judgment while we are innocent before we begin to be afraid to think of Judgment and that will preserve our Innocence and then the thoughts of Judgement will never interrupt our Pleasures But if we cast off the thoughts of Judgement in Youth which is the surest Guard and Preservative we have we shall by degrees cast off the belief of it too When we lay aside the thoughts of Judgment to take the greater Liberties to walk in the ways of our hearts and in the sight of our eyes we contract such Guilt as makes us afraid of Judgment and very willing to believe that we shall never be judged and then we shall easily find some little argument or other to perswade us that there is no Judgment that either there is no God or that he takes no notice of Humane Actions The thoughts of Judgment are never uneasie and troublesome till Men have scared and terrified their Consciences with Guilt and therefore the certain way never to have the thoughts of Judgment troublesome is to begin betimes to make it familliar to us and if we do so the thoughts of it will not prove melancholy and then we shall have no reason to lay them aside And it is a great Mistake to imagine that there is no need to think of Judgement but when it is near that we may securely lay aside the thoughts of it when it is at a distance for neither its being near nor its being at distance is any reason either to think or not to think of Judgment but the true reason is to govern our Lives under the sence of a Future Account and that is a good reason equally good whether Judgment be nigh at hand or a great way off For if we must give an account of what we do at seventeen or twenty Years old and of what we do at fifty or sixty there is the same reason to think of Judgment and to govern our Lives under the sence of it when we are but twenty as when we are threescore Years old 2. Young Men have great and constant occasion for the thoughts of Judgement and that is a good reason why they should think frequently and seriously of it What but this can reduce that giddy Age within Bounds and make them live by Rule But if they would consider that they must be judged by Rule by the Laws of the Everlasting Gospel this would do it This would convince them that they are not their own Masters that they are not at liberty to live as they list and to pursue every wild and roving Fancy they may indeed do this if they please but they shall be judged for it if they do What but this can cool the Heats of Youth and conquer all the Charms of Flesh and Sence But know saith the wise man that for all these things God will call thee to judgment And a Man who is afraid of Judgment who is afraid of Lakes of Fire and Brimstone who has the terrible prospect of eternal Miseries before him will have no great Appetite to the choicest Sensualities He will freez in the Embraces of the most beloved Mistress and will tremble in the midst of his Cups as Belâ—shazzar did when he saw the Hand-writing upon the Wall For who can bear the thoughts of being miserable for ever Who with these thoughts about him can relish such fatal Pleasures Pleasures which will cost him his Soul short and dying and vanishing Pleasures which will end in eternal Pain who would not be contented to endure the pain of denying an Appetite of subduing a domineering Passion of plucking out a right Eye and cutting off a right Hand rather than to be miserable for ever And when it is so impossible for Young Men to resist these flattering Temptations without a present and awful Sence of Judgment can any thing more concern them then frequently to repeat these Thoughts and to possess their Imaginations with the lasting Impressions and Images of it that it may be always at hand and ready for use But this is necessary for all Men as well as those who are young whoever takes care of his Soul ought to keep his Eye upon a Future Judgment I grant it is so but there are some peculiar Advantages which Young Men will reap by this if they begin this Practise betimes 1 st For this will preserve their Innocence and Vertue and prevent the Terrours and Agonies of a late Repentance All the kindness the Thoughts of Judgement can do to old Sinners is to put a stop to them and to bring them to Repentance and this is a very great kindness if it makes them true Penitents because it will save their Souls And this is that which most Sinners desire to enjoy the Pleasures of Sin as long as they can and to repent before they die and thus they think they adjust all Interests gratifie the Flesh and save their Souls at last But if these Men ever prove true Penitents they become very sensible of their Mistake They wish then when it is too late that they had remembred their Creator in the days of their youth that they had preserved themselves from the Pollutions of Flesh and Sence they feel by sad Experience what an evil and a bitter thing it is to sin against God How amazing the Shame how sharp the Sorrow of Repentance is It is a very melancholy and disconsolate Work when Men draw near their end to look back upon a vicious and profligate Life
to have their whole Lives to unlive again to abhor themselves for what they have done and to look forward with trembling into the other World for such late Penitents generally carry the Marks of their Repentance in Shame and Sorrow to the Grave with them All this Young Men may prevent if they will but think of Judgment in their Youth and govern their Lives under a sence of it This will make them remember their Creator in the days of their youth and consecrate their tender Age to his Service it will preserve them from youthful Lusts from all enormous Crimes and give them the humble Assurance and Confidence of dutiful Children in their Addresses to God when they draw near a conclusion of their Lives they review their past Victories over the World and the Flesh with the securest Triumphs The little Follies and Indiscretions and Miscarriages which the best Men are subject to will keep them humble and teach them to trust only in the Merits and Intercession of Christ but when they have made it the whole business of their Lives to please God though with the common Weaknesses and Infirmities of Humane Nature they feel great Peace of Mind and assurance of the Love of God and the nearer their Work is to an end the more securely they triumph What a happy State shall we think this when Death and Judgment are in view to feel so sweâ—â—â— Calm in our Breasts to have so joyful a Prospect before us And who would not think of Judgment when he is young that the hope and expectation of it may be the Comfort and Support of Age that then he may review his past Life not to undo what he has done but to tast the Pleasures and to reap the Rewards of it in present Peace of Mind and great Hopes 2 ly There is another Advantage which Young Men may make of the early thoughts of Judgment which old Sinners have lost and can never retrieve by all their Repentance viz. To make great Advances and Attainments in Piety and Vertue which will greatly augment their Reward Men who sin on till old Age though they prove true Penitents at last can never recover this for their time is past and their youthful Strength and Vigour spent and the Scene of Action over they can never re-call thirty or forty Years past in which if they had improved their time well they might have done great Service to God and to Religion and great good to Men but those who are beginning their Lives if they start right at first and pursue an even and steady Course of Piety and Vertâ—â— if they keep the Future Judgment and the next World always in their Eye what Improvements will they make what rich Treasures and glorious Rewards may they expect from that Righteous Judge who will render to every Man according to his Works The most that a Penitent can expect after a long Life spent in Wickedness and Folly is to get to Heaven and it is infinite Mercy in God to accept of such Penitents but the bright and dazling Crowns are reserved for those who have spent their Lives well and glorified God on Earth and finished the Work he gave them to do such Men will triumph at the Conclusion of their Race and Warfare as St. Paul did I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith henceforth is laid up for me a crown of righteousness I know this will not affect those Men now who love their Sins and desire to keep them as long as they can they will be very well satisfied if they can but get to Heaven at last how mean soever their Station be there for they are not so desirous to go to Heaven as to escape Hell and if they can but keep out of Hell it is all they hope for but Men must have a greater Spirit a more Divine and Generous Temper of Soul before they can get to Heaven If ever they prove true Penitents the loss of so many opportunities of doing Good and the loss of any degrees of Glory they might have had will both shame and afflict them I am sure the greater Rewards we expect in the other World the greater degrees of Glory and Happiness the greater will our Joy and Triumph be Are not Men in this World as fond of Happiness as they are afraid of Misery Does not a great Mind despise little things and aim at what is great And is there not as much reason to aim at the highest Happiness we are capable of in the next World as well as in this This is the noble Prize I would propoâ—e to Young Men You are now beginning your Race your Day is but in its Dawn if you rise with the Sun and work hard all day and spend your whole Lives in God's Service what a great deal of work will you do and what a proportionably great Reward will you have This you will do if you make the Thoughts of Judgment familiar to you this will keep a constant Guard upon your Actions this will excite and quicken your Industry this will make you stedfast unmoveable always abounding in the work of the Lord as knowing that your labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. CHAP. VI. For what we shall be Iudged VI. LET us now enquire What we are to be judged for And the general Answer to this is very plain That we must all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body according to what he hath done whether it be good or bad 2 Cor. 5.10 That is we shall be judged for all the Good and Evil we have done This is obvious to all Men and acknowledged by all who believe a Judgement and it may be thought impertinent to prove that we shall be judged for such or such particular Crimes when it is universally confessed that we shall be judged for all But as I observed under the former Head though all Men who believe a Future Judgment profess also to believe that all Men shall be judged yet some Men are very apt to forget it and to flatter themselves that they shall escape better than others so it is here Though Men will in general acknowledge that we must give an account of whatever we have done in the Body yet there are a great many things which in themselves are very great Crimes and yet many Men think there is no account to be given of them I shall not instance in particular Sins though a great many such there are which few Men take any great notice of but shall confine myself to what is of a more General Nature for Particulars would be endless I. First then we must remember we shall be judged for our Ignorance which some Men are so far from suspecting that they take Sanctuary in their Ignorance to Skreen them from the Judgment of GOD. If they can but keep out the Light they
think they are safe to stumble and fall in the Dark is a Misfortune not a Fault and will rather move Pitty and Compassion than provoke Revenge This makes some Men so regardless of Knowledge they think God will judge them for no more than they know and all the good they are like to get by Knowledge is to encrease and aggravate their Account I shall not enter into that Dispute now which is nothing to our present Purpoâ—e How far and in what Cases Ignorance will Excuse though I think it is very plain in general that as far as Ignorance itself is excusable so far Ignorance will excuse But my business at present is to shew That commonly Ignorance itself is a great Crime and when it is so if Men shall not be judged for the Sins which they ignorantly commit yet they shall be judged and condemned for their Ignorance as well as â—or their Sins against Knowledge For is not Man a reasonable Creature And is not a reasonable Creature as much bound to know his Duty as he is to practise it Has God given us Reason to be the Guide and Director of our Lives and is it not a great Crime not to attend to it not to improve and cultivate it Have we Eyes in our Heads and is it any Excuse to us that we shut them and lose our Way Is it any Excuse to us not to know God and our Duty to him when God has made us reasonable Creatures who may know their Maker if they please and understand the difference between Good and Evil I am sure St. Paul by this Argument proves that the Heathens were inexcusable because God had implanted such Natural Notions of himself on their Minds and had given them so many external and visible Demonstrations of his Power and Providence in making and governing the World 1 Rom. 19 20. Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them for God hath shewed it unto them For the invisible things of God from the creation of the world are daily seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternal power and godhead so that they are without excuse The Heathens did greatly err both in the Knowledge and Worship of God they were convinced by the Natural Sense of their Minds and by the Works of Creation that there is a God and therefore they are said to know God 21 v. And by the same way they might have known that God who made the World is not like to gold and silver or the works of mens hands to images made like to corruptible man or to birds and four footed beasts and creeping things and therefore though they were really ignorant of the Nature of God and had entertained very gross Imaginations of the Deity yet they were without Excuse because God is to be known by Reason and Nature and therefore a reasonable Creature who lives in a World which has the visible Marks of Infinite Wisdom and Power on it can never be excused for not knowing God that is to say nothing will excuse our Ignorance of that which we may know and which we ought to know But if the Heathens were so inexcusable for their Ignorance of God who had no other Helps but the Light of Nature and the visible Works of God to be sure Ignorance must be a great Crime in those who live where the Gospel is preached and may read the Word of God themselves if they please and learn their Duty from it God knows a great many very ignorant People there are among us who know little more of God than the Heathens did who sit in Darkness and in the Valley of the Shadow of Death in the very Regions of Light when the day spring from on high hath visited us to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death and to guide our feet into the ways of peace Will it not be an impudent thing for such Men to plead Ignorance at the Day of Judgment who would not look into the Bible nor attend Publick Instructions to learn their Duty who had the Means and Opportunities of Knowledge but would not use them who took a great deal of pains to be Ignorant and to keep out of the Way of Knowledge which so often crossed them that they had much ado to escape it Whatever may be pleaded in excuse of the Ignorance of Heathens there can be no Excuse for Christians who have the most perfect Revelation of the Will of God and will not look into it this is a great Contempt of God it is in effect to say to God Depart from us for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways 21 Job 14. And it is hard to say which is the most provoking Sin to despise the Knowledge of God or to break his Laws Not to think it worth our while to know the Will of God or through the power of Temptation to transgress their Duty And this is the Danger we are in if we neglect or reject the Knowledge of the Gospel our Ignorance will be our greatest Crime it will be so far from excusing our Wickedness that it will aggravate it for we chuse to be ignorant that we may be wicked and therefore it concerns us diligently to read and study the Scriptures and to attend upon the Publick Ministry of the Word and the Private Instructions and Directions of our Spiritual Guides for since Christ came from Heaven to declare the Will of God and has put the Holy Scriptures into our Hands which are a perfect Rule of Faith and Manners and furnished us with all the advantages to encrease in Knowledge it is as dangerous a thing to be wilfully ignorant of the Gospel as it is to disobey it II. As Men shall be judged for their Ignorance so they shall be judged for their Infidelity This is so plain in Scripture that it needs little Proof our Saviour expresly tells us He that believeth on him that is on the Son of God whom God sent into the world that the world through him might be saved is not condemned but he that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God And this is the condemnation that light is come into the world and men loved darkness rather then light because their deeds were evil 3 John 17 18 19. This our Saviour frequently inculcates on the Iews that unless they believe on him they must die and perish in their Sins and we know the Iews were rejected by God for their Infidelity their Temple and City and Nation destroyed by the Romans and they dispersed and scattered among all Nations to this day And our Saviour after his Resurrection when he gave Commission to his Apostles to go into all the World and to preach the Gospel to every Creature universally pronounces He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned
prays to God Cleanse thou me from secret faults 19 Psal. 12. There is no reason to think it should be otherwise since our most secret Sins are visible to God All things are naked and open unto the eyâ—s of him with whom we have to do 4 Heb. 13. And when God knows our most secret Sins why should he not judge us for them Humane Judicatures will punish those Sins which are most secretly committed when they happen to be discovered for the Sin is never the less nor does it less deserve to be punished for being secret and therefore though such Sins may escape the Judgement of Men by being concealed they cannot escape God's Judgment who sees and knows them I grant that to commit Sin openly in the Face of the Sun argues greater Impudence in sinning does more publick Dishonour to God and gives greater Scandal to the World but secret Sins put as great a Contempt on God as open Impieties do for it is a plain Proof that such Sinners have a greater Reverence for Men than they have for God though they profess to believe that God is present every-where and sees all they do yet they securely commit the greatest Villanies under his Eye when no body else sees them which they durst not commit in the presence of the meanest Man This is a very unaccountable thing and one would imagine that such Men did not believe that God sees what they do in secret and yet they do believe it and we all know it is so It may be there are few Men but are guilty of some private Sins at sometime or other which nothing could have perswaded them to have committed publickly and yet when any Man is tempted by Secresie and and Retirement though he drives away the Thoughts of God as much as he can while he is in pursute of his Lusts and wicked Designs when he comes to himself and has time to think his Conscience speaks Terrour to him and puts him in mind that God sees him though Men do not But consider I beseech you if God will judge us for all our most secret Sins how little it will avail us to conceal our Sins from Men We may indeed by this means escape present Shame and Punishment but eternal Shame eternal Torment will be our Portion and are we more afraid of being reproached by Men then of being reproached by God and by our own Consciences then of being exposed to Shame in the General Assembly of Men and Angels when God shall bring to light all the hidden Works of Darkness are we more afraid of some Punishments in our Bodies or Estates which Humane Laws and Judicatures can inflict on us than we are of Hell where the Worm dieth not and the Fire is not quenched I am very sensible what it is that deceives Men in this matter and if you will but reflect upon yourselves you will find what I say to be true You do believe that God sees your most secret Sins and will judge and condemn you for them and you are more afraid of Hell then of all present Shame and Punishment and yet you will venture upon those Sins under the Eye of God which the Presence of a Man at least of such Men as will discover your Sin and Shame and punish you for it would have kept you from What is the meaning of this to be more afraid of God than of Men and yet to stand in more awe of Man than of God The Account of this which looks like a Mystery I think is very plain Men dare not commit those Sins publickly which they will venture on in private because if Men see their Wickedness they immediately forfeit their Reputation and get such a Blot and Stain on their Names which all the Tears of Repentance cannot wash out again for they know the World is ill-natured and every single Miscarriage which comes to be known leaves an indelible Character of Infamy on them and they are not willing to forfeit their Reputation which is so necessary to the Comforts of Life for ever And besides this if the Sins they commit be such as are punishable by Human Laws if they be known all their Repentance how sincere soever it be will not deliver them from Punishment and though they love their Sins very well they will not venture the punishment of them But now though God abhors all Sin more than the best Men do and Hell be a more terrible Punishment then any thing in this World yet God may be atoned and reconciled by Repentance Repentance will restore them to the Favour of God and hide and cover their Sins and blot them out of their account and reconcile them to their own Consciences and prevent their final Punishment in the next World and this they resolve upon repent they will and Repentance will secure them both from the future Shame and Punishment of Sin and therefore their onely care is to conceal their Shame from Men and to escape present Punishment And this is the reason why they dare commit those Sins in secret though they know God sees them which they dare not commit in the view of the World This makes the Presence and the Eye of God so ineffectual to restrain Mens Lusts that they hope after all their secret Villanies to be friends again with God but do not expect should the World discover their Wickedness that it would spare them or ever think well of them more This looks like a very notable Contrivance to preserve our Reputation in the World by Secresie and to regain the Favour of God by Repentance But the Devil is too cunning for Sinners for if the Awe and Reverence for God and the fear of a Future Judgment will not preserve Men from secret Sins their other hopes will deceive them such Mens Shame will not be long concealed and their Repentance will soon grow impossible When Men think to out-wit God his Justice and Providence is concerned for their discovery Almost as many Sinners as we see hanged or pilloried or whipt so many Demonstrations there are that Men cannot conceal their Sins or can never be sure they shall for all these Malefactors study Secresie and Concealment as much as they can and yet are at one time or other discovered and suffer that publick Shame and Punishment they deserve There are a thousand Accidents which betray the greatest Privacies a thousand Circumstances which make Men suspected and that makes them watched and curiously observed they cannot always use that Caution that is required or the Partners and Instruments of their Sins are discovered and then they betray one another Nay many Sins without great caution will betray themselves let Men be never so secret in their Lust it will be known to all the World when they begin to rot with it when the Marks of their Sin grow visible and can be hid no longer Nay Men who sin very cautiously and secretly at first in time grow more bold
have peace with God through our Lord Iesus Christ. By grace you are saved tbrough faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God not of works least any man should boast Not by works of righteousness which we have done but by grace hath he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost But then it is as plain on the other hand that God will render to every man according to his deeds that we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ to receive the things done in the body according to what we have done whether it be good or bad That Christ will condemn all wicked Christians whatever their Faith be Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven Many will say to me in that day Lord Lord have we not prophesied in thy name and in thy name cast out devils and in thy name done many wonderful works and then will I profess unto them I never knew you depart from me ye that work iniquity What shall we say then to this matter both these Propositions must be allowed to be undoubtedly true We are justified by Faith we are saved by Grace without the Works of the Law and we shall be judged according to our works and shall receive what we have done in this body whether good or evil That is we are justified by faith justified freely by God's grace through the redemption which is in Christ Iesus and through faith in his blood and yet shall be condemned at the last Judgment if we live wickedly This is a matter of very great consequence to be plainly stated because a great many Christians encourage themselves in sin with vain hopes and eternally perish by a presumptuous Faith and Reliance on Christ. I. Now in the first place that whatever mistakes or misapprehensions Men may have about the nature of Faith and Justification may not endanger their Souls by encouraging them in sin I observe that we must reconcile the Doctrine of Justification by Faith without Works to our being judged by our Works not expound away the Doctrine of our being judged according to our Works to reconcile it to our Notions of Justification by Faith And there are manifest Reasons for this 1. Because it is as expresly taught in Scripture that we shall be judged by our Works as it is that we are justified by Faith and therefore we must not oppose our Justification by Faith to our being judged by our Works for that is not to expound Scripture but to confute one Scripture Doctrine by another to prove that we shall not be judged by our Works though the Scripture says we shall because the Scripture also teaches that we are justified by Faith without Works Now if it be allowable to reject any Scripture Doctrine or to confute one Doctrine by â—â—other we may with as good reason 〈◊〉 them both by each other and belâ—â—â—â— neither for if they can't be reconciled but we must deny one our being judged by our Works does as plainly prove that we are not justified by Faith without Works as Justification by Faith proves that we shall not be judged by our Works We must distinguish between expounding and reconciling Scripture and confuting it and therefore whatever we believe about Justification by Faith we must still confess we shall be judged by our Works For 2. There is great reason to expound Justification by Faith by our being judged by Works because when we are told in Scripture That God will render to us according to our deeds that every man must receive the things done in his body according to what he hath done whether it be good or bad These are plain proper expressions without any Figure or Metaphor in them and therefore are capable of no other sence than what the words at first view signifie We shall receive what we have done if we have done good we shall be rewarded if we have done evil we shall be punished good Men shall be received into Heaven and all wicked Men even wicked Believers as well as wicked Infidels shall 〈◊〉 cast into Hell this every Child understands to be the meaning of these Words and no other sence can be made of them and therefore since this is so plainly and so frequently taught in Scripture whatever we believe else we must believe this if we believe the Scripture But now when we read of being justified by Faith without Works every word is capable of very different sences and we know is expounded very differently by learned Men according to the different Hypothesis they intend to serve by it and then we must confess it is not so certain what is meant by Justification by Faith without Works as what is meant by being judged according to our Works at least so much must be allowed that we must prefer that sence of Justification by Faith which agrees with our being judged by our Works before any other interpretation which contradicts or overthrows this plain sence of a Future Judgment As for instance Some by justifying understand making just and righteous that to justifie the ungodly is to make a wicked Man good by the power and efficacy of Faith but then to justifie the ungodly without the Works of the Law or to make a wicked Man good without good Works does not found very well and therefore others more reasonably and more agreeably to Scripture understand justifying in a forensick sence for absolving acquitting declaring and accounting Men just and righteous and treating them as such that is imputing righteousness to them though in a strict and proper sence they are not inherently righteous And then this forensick Justification may either signifie our being justified at Baptism when by the profession of our Faith we are incorporated by Baptism into Christ's Church and are made the Members of his Mystical Body and have all our sins washed away in his Blood and come pure and innocent out of the laver of Regeneration and thus the most ungodly Sinners are justified by Faith in Baptism without Works or any antecedent righteousness of their own or else this Justification may be extended to the Future Judgment that at the last Day of Account we shall be justified acquitted absolved rewarded by Faith without Works but this does not agree very well with our being judged and receiving according to our Works the Scripture expresly teaches that we are justified by Faith without Works and that we shall be judged by our Works but never saith we shall be judged by our Faith which seems to make a great difference between being justified and being judged for if we are justified without Works and judged by our Works justified by Faith without Works but not judged not acquitted and rewarded by Faith without Works to be justified and to be judged cannot signifie the same
wicked punisht in the next World and their Consciences did either condemn or absolve terrifie or comfort them as ours do us which are very vain hopes if there be no Reward for them thô they should observe the Laws of Vertue St. Peter tells us what he had learnt from the Case of Cornelius a Roman Centurion but a devout Worshipper of God and one who gave much Alms Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons but in every nation be that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted of him What does St. Peter mean that God will accept Heathens who are perfectly innocent and righteous and never committed any sin He knew very well there were no such Men in the World much less among the Heathens and therefore he must mean that God will accept of all honest sincere Worshippers of him though guilty of many human Frailties of what Nation soever they be It is true no Man's sins shall be forgiven nor his Vertue rewarded but for the sake of Christ who is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world for there is no other Name given unto Men whereby they can be saved but only the Name of Christ but if all who shall be saved from the beginning to the end of the World shall be saved by Christ as it is certain they must be if there be no other Name whereby Men can be saved it is to be hoped that many thousands will be saved by Christ at the Day of Judgment who never had any explicite Knowledge or Faith in him for though I grant God promised a Saviour to Man immediately after the Fall and renewed this Promise to Abraham and afterwards to David and prefigured him in the Types and Sacrifices of the Law yet Repentance and Forgiveness of Sins was never publickly preached in his Name till he gave that Commission to the Apostles after his Resurrection from the Dead And now little the Jews understood of the Nature or Office of their Messias is very plain from the ignorance of Christ's own Disciples and Apostles who expected that he should be a Temporal Prince and Saviour and understood so little of his being a Sacrifice for Sin or of their being saved through Faith in his Blood that St. Peter himself could not with any patience hear of his dying and when he was put to Death his Disciples thought all their great hopes and expectations from him utterly disappointed till they saw him again after he was risen from the dead So that those good Men even among the Jews who lived before Christ's appearing in the World though they had the Promises of the Messias yet do not seem to have had any explicite knowledge what kind of Saviour the Messias was to be nor by what means he should save us though the Types and Figures and Promises of the Law seem very plain to us now since Christ expounded them to his Disciples and they to us and therefore they could not be saved by such a Faith in Christ's Blood as is now required from us for they did not know that he was to save us by the merit and expiation of his death and if those good Men might be saved by the Blood of Christ who had no knowledge of his dying for our sins and therefore no explicite Faith in his Blood why not those also who had never heard of Christ if they lived so as to be capable of Salvation For that Promise of a Saviour made to Adam immediately after his Fall That the seed of the woman should break the serpent's head was in him made to all Mankind who descend from his Loyns And though Christ has not been preached to all Ages nor to all parts of the World yet he is the Judge of all Men and he judges as Mediator between GOD and Man as I observed before and therefore judges all Mankind not by the Rules of strict and rigorous Justice for that is not the Office of the Mediator but by the mercy and equity of the Gospel This makes a very fair representation of the equal Justice Righteousness and Mercy of the last Judgment that no Man shall perish meerly for the misfortune of his Birth that he lived before Christ was preached to the World or in such Countries where Christ was never preached but though the Gospel was never preached to him yet he shall be judged by Gospel Grace and if he were a true Penitent and a sincere Worshipper of God shall have liberty to plead his Repentance and the sincerity of his Obedience at the Tribunal of Christ when he comes to Judgment which will be so undeniable a Justification of the Righteousness of the Last Judgment that were there no other reason for it it would mightily incline any Man who thinks honourably of God to believe it And this will teach all Christians what I am sure some have great need to be taught that the benefit they receive by the Knowledge and Faith of Christ is not to be saved upon easier terms than the rest of the World for it will appear at the Day of Judgment that a great deal more is expected from them than from ignorant Heathens but the true benefit of having the Gospel preached to them is that they are more perfectly instructed in the Will of God and the means of Salvation have more express Revelations of the Rewards and Punishments of the next Life have more express Promises of Pardon and Forgiveness are delivered from the Cheats and Impostures of evil Spirits and have the powerful assistances of the Divine Grace that is all the Helps Advantages Encouragements and Obligations to improve in Christian Graces and Vertues to avoid the threatned Miseries and to obtain the Glorious Rewards of the next Life this is an inestimable advantage which we Christians enjoy above Jews or Heathens which if we improve well we cannot fail of being happy for ever we may by diligence and caution make our Calling and Election sure these great advantages the Heathen World wanted and therefore were overrun with Idolatry and all manner of Wickedness and seldom saw any great Examples of Vertue to shame them or teach them better This is a great difference God has put between us and the Heathen World and we need not envy them as favourable a Judgment as we hope to have our selves for certainly they want it more and therefore it becomes the righteous and merciful Judge of the World to give it them Thus we see in general by what Rule we shall be judged and the Righteousness of such a Judgment but there are some things which though they have been briefly mentioned before deserve a more particular consideration As 1. Though we shall be judged for all the Good or Evil we have done yet our Saviour in describing the Process of the Last Judgment makes no mention of any thing but Acts of Charity 25 Mat. 34 c. When he shall have separated the sheep from the goats
whom he hath ordained whereof he hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead 17 Acts 30 31. While Men were ignorant of the other World or had only some uncertain Reports of it mixed with fabulous Stories to increase and nourish Superstition their wickedness was very pitiable and shall meet with a more favourable Judgment but we can now pretend Ignorance no longer and therefore now God commands us to repent Upon this Principle it is that our Saviour upbraided those cities wherein most of his mighty works were done because they repented not Woe unto thee Chorazin woe unto thee Bethsaida for if the mighty works which have been done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes but I say unto you it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of Iudgment than for you And thou Capernaum who art exalted unto heaven shalt be brought down to hell for if the mighty works which have been done in thee had been done in Sodom it would have remained until this day but I say unto you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for thee 11 Mat. 20 21 22 23. Those mighty Works our Saviour wrought in these Cities were such powerful Convictions as rendred their Infidelity inexcusable and that aggravated their Condemnation And for the same reason our Saviour threatens that unbelieving Generation who saw all his mighty Works and heard his admirable Wisdom which was so much beyond whatever was seen or heard before The men of Niniveh shall rise in judgment against this generation and shall condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Ionas and behold a greater than Ionas is here The Queen of the South shall rise up in the judgment with this generation and shall condemn it for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon and behold a greater than Solomon is here 12 Luke 41 42. The greater the Preacher is the greater Works he does and the greater Evidence he gives of his Divine Authority still the guilt and condemnation proportionably increases and then the Infidelity of those who live in a Christian Nation and the Wickedness of professed Believers who have so much greater certainty of the Rewards and Punishments of the next World than either Chorazin or Bethsaida or Capernaum then had exceeds them all and their Punishments will proportionably exceed Thus the Gospel has fully acquainted us with the whole Dispensation of Grace in the Redemption of the World by our Lord Jesus Christ That God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life 3 John 16. That Christ gave himself for us to redeem us from all iniquity and to purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works 2 Tit. 14. That he has made atonement for our sins by his Blood That herein God hath commended his love towards us that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us that when we were yet enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his son 5 Rom. 8.10 And we know the grace of our Lord Iesus Christ that though he was rich yet for our sakes he became poor that we through his poverty might be rich 2 Cor. 8 9. Here is a new Scene of Grace and Love opened which the World was unacquainted with before which presents us with new Arguments and lays new Obligations on us to serve God Arguments and Obligations so endearing so powerful that one would think Human Nature could not resist them could not get loose from them If we will not reverence the Authority of God yet how can we resist his Love If it be not enough to entitle God to our Service that he made us shall we deny his Purchase too When he has bought us with a price the inestimable Blood of his own Son Ought not the love of Christ to constrain us Could he do any thing more for us than redeem us from Death and Hell Could he redeem us at a dearer rate than with his own Blood When he could get nothing by it but the pleasure and satisfaction of making us happy and the glory of being the Saviour of Sinners It is a reproach to Humane Nature to think that such Love as this should not convert the World and subdue Mankind to the Obedience of God It is plain this gives God a greater Right to us than meer Creation and therefore gives every sin of Christians a double guilt if Heathens sinned against their Maker Christians sin against their Maker and their Saviour too And to sin against Love against suffering redeeming forgiving saving Love is a very different thing from sinning against Authority We may call it folly or madness to disobey our Soveraign Lord who can and will punish our Disobedience but to abuse to affront to grieve Love is not the sin of Men though too many Men are guilty of it but of a diabolical Nature I have nothing to say of it but that it is the greatest provocation in the World and all Men think so and thus much worse the sins of Christians are than the sins of Heathens But the Love of God and the Grace of Christ are not the only motives and arguments which our Redemption by the Death of Christ furnishes us with but there are a great many other and such powerful ones as must greatly aggravate our guilt to sin against them There is not a greater preservation against sin than to have a just sense of the Evil of it and a thorough Conviction of God's irreconcileable hatred and displeasure against it and that he will certainly punish it Now indeed Nature does in some measure teach this the Reason of Mankind condemns it Modesty preserves us from some sins Natural Aversions from others till both the Modesty and Aversions of Nature are conquered by a Custom of sinning but then on the other hand the inclinations of Flesh and Blood very strongly tempt us to some sins which are very grateful to Flesh and Blood and to other sins to gain opportunities to gratifie those inclâ—â—ations and when Men taste the sweets of sin and find the present advantages of it this bribes their Reason to speak more favourably of it and to attribute the shame and aversions of Nature to Education and Popular mistakes Thus though men have a natural Sense of God's displeasure against sin and natural Conscience threatens the Judgments of God against sinners yet the experience of the World tells us that most Men flatter themselves that God may be appeased and reconciled to them without forsaking their sins not only the Heathens but even Iews themselves thought this might be done by their sacrifices and the other external rites and ceremonies of their Religion as appears from the frequent complaints of
him may securely hope and rejoyce in God for whatever other defects the pure Eyes of God may see in him they are all within the Grace and Mercy of the Gospel and therefore cannot hinder either his Pardon or his Reward Thus we see that when Conscience absolutely condemns or when without any doubt or hesitancy it commends acquits and absolves its Sentence is a Divine Oracle and assures us what our Judgment shall be at the last Day if we be then found in such a state But there is a middle state between these two which deserves to be considered when Men are neither so wicked as to be absolutely condemned by their own Consciences nor so good as to be acquitted and absolved which is an uncertain state between hope and fear This is the case of those Men who have been guilty of very great sins which they had lived in many years and though they are very sensible of their past wickedness and heartily sorry for their sins and seriously resolved by the Grace of God to forsake them yet they are not satisfied of the sincerity of their Repentance because they have not with all their Sorrow and Resolutions conquered their Inclinations to sin nor broken the habits of it but are guilty of frequent Relapses and fall into the commission of the same sins again and then repent and resolve again and as time wears off their sorrow for their last Offence their old inclinations revive and a new Temptation conquers again Now such men's Consciences neither absolutely condemn nor absolutely acquit them for the Event is doubtful they are not Conquerors yet and it is uncertain whether ever they will Conquer and therefore their Consciences cannot yet speak Peace to them and yet they are not perfect Slaves and Captives to Sin but contend for their liberty and therefore their Consciences do not absolutely condemn them but as they prevail or yield so their hopes or fears encrease And this also is the case of those Men who if they commit no notorious wickedness yet do very little good nothing that their Consciences can commend them for who worship God rather in compliance with the Custom of the Place they live in than from a vital sence and reverence of God and therefore are not for any Works of Supererogation a little will content them and they are glad of any excuse to lessen that little and all Men who pretend to greater Devotion they suspect of Hypocrisie and some Secular Interests As for Charity though they must own Charity to be a Vertue yet when any particular Act of Charity is pressed on them they never want Arguments to prove either that it is not Charity or that they are not concerned in it whatever kindnesses they do for others are extorted by great importunity and done very thriftily just as Men do what they have no mind nor inclination â—o Now these Men commonly are pretty quiet and secure unless something extraordinary awaken them for they do nothing greatly to terrifie their Consciences nor any thing to please them and therefore their Consciences neither absolve nor condemn Such Men don't well know what to think of themselves nor do they much think of these matters if they be gay and in good humour all is very well if any cross accident disturbs them and makes them thoughtful and fall out with this World or works upon a Melancholly Constitution then they are over-run with black and dismal Thoughts and all the Ministers in the Neighbour-hood are sent for to answer Cases of Conscience and to speak such Comfort to them as their own Consciences cannot and will not speak Now this case our Apostle took no notice of for indeed nothing is to be said to it such Men cannot know by the Judgment of their own Consciences what Judgment God will pass on them because their Consciences pass no certain Judgment on them but when Conscience does give Judgment of us when it absolutely acquits or absolutely condemns us we may depend on it that God will judge us as our Consciences do There are some Objections against this which are easily answered from that plain state of the case which I have now given As to name some There are a great many very bad Men who go on in their sins without any checks and rebukes of their own Consciences much more without being condemned by them and will not God condemn these Men because their own Consciences do not condemn them Yes no doubt but he will for he will condemn all bad Men whether their own Consciences at present condemn them or not But by not condemning the Apostle means acquitting and absolving which these Mens Consciences do not though they do not condemn they do not commend nor absolve neither that is they pass no Judgment at all but are seared and stupified by Atheism or a long Custom in sinning When Conscience does judge and does not condemn God will not condemn neither but there is a great difference between not judging and not condemning and therefore notwithstanding what the Apostle says God may condemn when Conscience does not judge though he will not condemn when a judging Conscience does not condemn And the difference between these two between not judging and not condemning is very evident for it is often seen that Men whose Consciences have given them no disturbance for many years in a course of sin that is have never judged them yet whenever their Consciences are awakened as they are sometimes by severe Providences or at least by the approach of Death then they condemn them and fill them with Terrour and Amazement There are other bad Men who do very wicked things and yet their Consciences are so far from condemning them that they commend and applaud them Nay we know there have been those whose Consciences have indulged them in all manner of wickedness and flatter'd them into an Opinion of their being great Saints and dear to God all the while and will not God condemn these Men because their Consciences do not condemn them but promise them not only Impunity but great Rewards Thus on the other hand many very good Men who to all appearance have lived very innocent and vertuous Lives fall under great Disorders of Mind and not only condemn but pass a final irreversible Sentence upon themselves that they are not only at present in a state of Damnation but that it is impossible for them ever to get out of it and that they must be certainly damned now will God condemn these good Men because their Consciences condemn them I have put these two Cases together because the same Answer will serve both This is not the Judgment of Conscience which St. Iohn speaks of but the Judgment of Opinion and mistaken Notions in Religion or of Melancholly and a distempered fancy The Judgment of Conscience is that Judgment which we pass on our selves from comparing our Lives with the Rule whereby we shall be judged and this Judgment
condemn or absolve Bad Men indeed are very much afraid of their own Consciences because they reprove and condemn them and threaten them with Hell-fire and therefore they fly from their Consciences will not hear them and will not suffer them to speak but what do they get by this but to drop securely and quietly into Hell and then Conscience will speak and never be silent more If they will not hear their Consciences now they must hear their Judge at the last Day Though Conscience be never so severe in its reproofs and censures they are the reproofs of a Friend the Judgment of Conscience is only to warn us of the Judgment of God to warn us to fly from the Wrath to come and would Men hearken to their own Consciences it would give check to them and reform their Lives if we would patiently hear Conscience threaten us with Hell-fire it would be the most effectual means to prevent our falling into it But what is the Joy and Triumph of a good Conscience which speaks Peace to us and gives us a secure hope in God which gives us the joyful prospect of Eternal Rewads of a Crown and a Kingdom of those Rivers of Pleasures which are at God's right hand When with St. Paul we can say I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith henceforth is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which God the righteous Iudge will give me at that day 2 Tim. 4.7 8. This is a happy state indeed a plerophory and full assurance of hope which makes good Men impatiently long for the Day of Judgment to be put into the possession of so great a happiness and there is no way to have this but from the Testimony of our own Consciences The Holy Spirit indeed does give Testimony to good Men and fill them with joys unspeakable and full of glory but then the spirit beareth witness with our spirits that we are the sons of God 8 Rom. 16. Unless our Consciences give testimony to us the Holy Spirit never does all pretences to the Testimony of the Spirit without this are cheats and delusions and Conscience will never give this testimony to us without a tried and experienced Vertue till the Flesh be subdued to the Spirit till our Minds are refined and purified and our Conversations adorned with all Divine and Heavenly Graces Every new conquest we gain over this World every new degree of strength and vigour in serving God our increase in Charity and all good Works will add new degrees to our hope our Consciences will give the more ample testimony to us and that gives us greater confidence towards God which will make us joyfully expect that blessed hope and glorious appearance of the great God and our Saviour Iesus Christ. The END BOOKS Published by the Reverend Dr. SHERLOCK Dean of St. Paul's Master of the Temple and Chaplain in Ordinary to Their Majesties AN Answer to a Discourse Entituled Papists Protesting against Protestant Popery Second Edition 4 o An Answer to the Amicable Accommodation of the Differences between the Representer and the Answerer 4 o A Sermon at the Funeral of the Reverend Benjamin Calamy D. D. 4 o A Vindication of some Protestant Principles of Church-Unity and Catholick-Communion from the Charge of Agreement with the Church of Rome 4 o A Preservative against Popery Being some plain Directions to unlearned Protestants how to Dispute with Romish Priests First Part. Fifth Edition 4 o A Second Part of the Preservative against Popery Second Edition 4 o A Vindication of Both Parts of the Preservative against Popery in Answeâ— to the Cavils of Lewis Sabran Jesuit 4 o A Discourse concerning the Nature Unity and Communion of the Catholick Church First Part. 4 o A Sermon Preached before the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of the City of London on Sunday Novemb. 4. 1688. 4 o A Vindication of the Doctrine of the Holy and Ever-Blessed Trinity and the Incarnation of the Son of God Occasioned by the Brief Notes on the Creed of St. Athanasius and the Brief History of the Unitarians or Soâ—iâ—ians and containing an Answer to both The Second Edition 4 o The Case of the Allegiance due to Soveraign Powers stated and resolved according to Scripture and Reason and the Principles of the Church of England with a more particular Respect to the Oath lately enjoyned of Allegiaâ—ce to their present Majesties King William and Queen Mary Sixth Edition 4 o A Vindication of the Case of Allegiance due to Soveraign Powers In Reply to an Answer to a late Pamphlet Entituled Obedience and Submission to the present Government demonstrated from Bishop Overal ' s Convocation-â—ook with a Postscript in Answer to Dr. Sherlock ' s Case of Allegiance 4 o A Practical Discourse concerning Death The Fifth Edition 8 o A Practical Discourse concerning a Future Judgment 8 o Printed for W. Rogers Books lately Printed for Will. Rogers A Sermon Preached at White-Hall before the Queen on the Monthly-Fast-Day September 16th 1691. 4 o A Persuasive to Frequent Communion in the Holy Sacrament of the Lord's Supper The Eighth Edition 12 o Both by the most Reverend Father in God John Lord Archbishop of Canterbury A Sermon Preached on the 28th of Iune at St. Andrew's Holbourn By the Right Reverend Father in God Iohn Lord Bishop of Norwich 4 o A Sermon Preached on the 28th of Iune at St. Mary it Bow on Sunday the fifth of Iuly 1691 at the Consecration of the Most Reverend Father in God Iohn Lord Archbishop of Yoâ—k and the Right Reverend Fathers in God Iohn Lord Bishop of Norwich Richard Lord Bishop of Peterborough and Edward Lord Bishop of Gloucester By Ioshua Clark Chaplain to the Right Reverend Father In God the Bishop of Norwich 4 o The Necessity of Serious Consideration and Speedy Repentance as the only way to be safe both living and dying By Clement Elis Rector of Kirkby in Nottingham-shire 8 o Reflections upon two Books one Entituled The Case of Allegiance to a King in Possession The other An Answer to Dr. Sherlock ' s Case of Allegiance to Soveraign Powers in Possession on those parts especially wherein the Author endeavours to shew his Opinion to be agreeable to the Laws of this Land In a Letter to a Friend 4 o In the Press The Folly of Atheism demonstrated to the Capacity of the most unlearned Reader By Clement Elis Rector of Kirkby in Notting-hamshire 8 o 9 Heb. 27. 1 Tim. 6.3 Practical Discourse of Death Ch. 2. Sect. 1. 2 Pet. 3.5 6. 22 Matth. 30. 49 Ier. 18. 25 Iob. 6. 80 Psal. 17. 146 Psal. 3. 2 Ezek. 1. 3 Phil. â—2â— 13 Mat. 43. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â— Rom. 1. 3 Rom. 20 21 22 24 25. 4 Rom. 5 Rom. 1. 2 Eph. 8 9. 3 Tit. 5. 2 Rom. 6. 2 Cor. 5.10 7 Mat. 21.22 23. 1 Rom. 18. 2 Rom. 8 9. 2 Titus 11 12. 6 Ron 23. 10 Act. 34 35. 2 Cor. 8.12 2 Cor. 5.14 Nimquam vir magnus sine Divino afflatu 119 Psalm 5 10 14 18 19 27 28 34 35 36 37. 51 Psal. 10 12. P. 415. 2 Tit. 13.