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book_n	according_a	open_v	work_n	3,235	5	5.8581	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66401	Sermons and discourses on several occasions by William Wake ...; Sermons. Selections	Wake, William, 1657-1737.	1690 (1690)	Wing W271; ESTC R17962	210,099	546

Justice and Continence had by the help of one Simon a Magician gain'd the Affections of Drusilla the Wife of Azis King of the Emisseni and lived in a state of Adultery with her Now this being the Case of Felix 't is plain that the Subject of St. Paul's Discourse was to remonstrate to him his Injustice and Intemperance and let him freely know That however he might carry it out by his Power and Authority now yet there was a time coming a future Day of Judgment when he should be called to a severe Account for all his Wickedness This was indeed an Address becoming the zeal of an Apostle and the Spirit of St. Paul And too plainly shews how little we have left in us of that Primitive warmth which inflamed this Holy Man by our different management on the like Occasions There can hardly be imagined any greater discouragement to such a freedom than what our Apostle here labour'd under To touch an Vnjust Governor in the point of his Violence and Injustice a lustful Adulterer in the business of his Incontinence this one would think should have been a pretty bold undertaking for any One But for Saint Paul a Prisoner one that was to appear as a Criminal before him for him instead of flattering this great Man as his Adversary Tertullus had done Verse 2. Instead of Applauding the great quietness which the people enjoy'd under his government and the very worthy deeds that had been done by his providence to call him to repent of his Rapine and Cruelty of his Intemperance and Adultery and this too in the presence of that very Woman whom he much loved and for whose sake he had done so many vile things this was an Honest freedom and plainness becoming an Apostolical Age but which I fear in these days of ours would be censur'd as rudeness and indiscretion any thing rather than a commendable Zeal for the Glory of God and the Salvation of Souls But alas St. Paul had not learnt that tender Application that is now a-days made to Great Persons He had no Interest of his own to pursue and therefore did not address himself after the manner of those who are more afraid of offending Men than of displeasing God and of disparaging their Character He knew the Doctrine to be seasonable to Felix and that if he pleased to make a good use of it it might be profitable too And he never stood to consider whether Felix would like it or no or whether it might not perhaps provoke him to run to any Extremities against him for his freedom In short He had an Vnjust Adulterous Man to preach to and he knew nothing so fit to reason of before him as of Righteousness Temperance and the Judgment to come And had we but the same honest Courage and Indifference that he had we should speak not only with the same freedom that he did but by the Grace of God with the same efficacy too And poor and despicable as we are thought by many yet in the power of that Divine Truth which we are sent to preach to the World make the greatest Sinners tremble to think That for all these things God will bring them to judgment And that this is the Case is the first thing I am to shew I st That the Doctrine of a Judgment to come is so highly reasonable that the greatest Infidel cannot but acknowledge the probability of it In pursuance of which Point it is not my Design to shew what Grounds the Holy Scriptures give us for the belief of a future Judgment which we all of us every day profess as an Article of our Faith and therefore cannot be supposed any of us to doubt of it What else do we meet with almost throughout the New Testament but Exhortations to live well upon this Ground That God has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness Acts xvii 31 That we must all stand before the Judgment-seat of Christ Rom. xiv 10 That we must All appear before the Judgment-seat of Christ Every one to receive the things done in his Body according to what he hath done whether it be Good or Evil 2 Cor. v. 10 What Revelation has there ever been more clearly made I do not say than this That there shall be a final Judgment but of the manner and Circumstances of it How the Trumpets shall sound and the dead arise and those that are alive be changed How the just shall be caught up into the air and the sinners lie groveling below in vain crying out to the Mountains to fall upon them and to the Hills to cover them How the Judgment shall be set and the Books open'd and every man judged out of the things contained in those Books according to his works Then shall the Son of Man come in his Glory and sit down upon the Throne of his Glory And before him shall be gathered all Nations and he shall separate them the one from the other as a Shepherd divideth his Sheep from the Goats and he shall set his Sheep on his right hand and the Goats on his left And he shall say to them on his right hand Come ye Blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the World But to those on the left Depart from me ye Cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels And these shall go away into Everlasting Punishment but the Righteous into Life Eternal In a word So particular is the Account which we here find of all the Circumstances of this great Audit that I scarce know any thing left unrevealed to us but only the Day and Hour when this Judgment shall be And which indeed God has in Mercy kept up from us that so we might always live in Apprehension of that which we can never tell how soon it may arrive But this is not that which my Text leads me to consider And indeed however it may be useful enough to call upon the most faithful Christians to think sometimes on this future Judgment yet it would certainly be a very needless undertaking to reason with such Persons concerning it and use any long Arguments to convince them of the futurity of it That which I have now to do is of a quite different nature 'T is to offer such Reasons for the belief of a Judgment to come as may convince the Greatest Infidel of the probability of it And shew them that whether they will believe us in other things or no yet here at least they cannot with any reason doubt of the Truth of our Doctrine but must resolve to become Good Men if they will not be persuaded to become Faithful Christians And indeed in this Sceptical Age in which we now live it may not for ought I know be altogether unseasonable to argue sometimes with Men upon their own Principles To shew them that Religion is not a