offered us in the least degree answerable to those contumelious usages which the HOLY JESUS was exposed to Are any of our calamities comparable to those bitter pains which he endured upon the Cross Or is there any sorrow can so deeply affect our soul as that unconceivable anguish of his did which made him cry out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me but yet notwithstanding the infinite weight of his afflictions the piercing violence of his pain we find not the least syllable of complaint proceed from him against this proceeding of his Father towards him no word of reproach or resentment against his most barbarous and implacable Enemies Let us therefore look unto JESUS under these circumstances and then we cannot but be sensible how ill it becomes us who pretend to be his Disciples and call our selves by his name to be so angry and impatient under those light afflictions we are called to 2. Our Saviours Sufferings have this farther influence to engage us in imitation of his Patience because the perfect innocency of his life had merited none of those things He knew no sin neither was guile found in his mouth He was holy harmless undefiled and separate from sinners And therefore might justly have claimed exemption from those miseries he under-went and have withdrawn his shoulders from bearing the heavy burden which it pleased his Father to lay on him If he therefore when he might have avoided those calamities that befel him when he could have called for more than twelve Legions of Angels to rescue him from his danger chose rather to submit to all those indignities he foresaw would be heaped upon him in obedience to his heavenly Father how much rather ought we without repining quietly to sit down under the afflicting hand of God we who can suffer nothing in this World so grievous which we have not deserved we whose sins do every day provoke Gods indignation against us What rational Plea can we have why God should not use the most severe chastisements upon us And certainly if God spared not his own Son but gave him up to those calamities he had not deserved we have all the reason in the World to submit to him notwithstanding any trouble he brings upon us and to take up the confession of the penitent Thief upon the Cross We indeed suffer justly for we receive the due reward of our deeds but the HOLY JESUS had done nothing amiss 3. A further Argument which the consideration of our Saviours Sufferings suggests to us to engage us to a like patient submission to the will of God may be taken from the end and design of his Sufferings which was the greatest design of goodness and love to us that could be undertaken and therefore ought to engage us to a suitable return of obedience and love to him though it were to die for his sake as he did for ours and to suffer the most severe Trials that it shall please him to appoint us to undergo When all mankind like Sheep had gone astray when they had all sinned and come short of the glory of God and made themselves liable to the utmost severity of his anger and justice when we were dead in trespasses and sins and were in no capacity to help our selves or contrive our own recovery then it pleased the Son of God out of his tender compassion and inimitable love to mankind to come down from heaven the habitation of Glory to take upon him our flesh to submit to all the miseries and sorrows of humane life and lastly to suffer the most painful and ignominious death of the Cross to redeem us from the bondage and dominion of sin and from the dreadful effects of it and to make us capable of life and salvation Blessed Lord what was man that thou shouldst be so mindful of him what is the Son of man that thou shouldst so regard him as to debase thy self in such a manner and to submit to all the vilest indignities and most unsupportable pains to rescue him from that misery which by his own wilful and unreasonable choice he had brought upon himself O the inestimable riches of love which the HOLY JESUS expressed towards us in these his sufferings and now what shall we render for all his goodness is there any thing which we can be unwilling to do for the sake of him who hath done and suffered so much for us We see then that the obligation of our Saviours example to engage us to follow him in the patient suffering those calamities that befal us is very plain and evident because his Sufferings were undertaken for our sake and benefit and he requires this testimony of our love and gratitude for so unspeakable mercy towards us that we also should take up our Cross chearfully and follow him wheresoever we are called to it 4. The consideration of our Saviours Sufferings and Death are a further Argument to a like Patience under and submission to the will of God because they are a strong evidence of that future reward that is prepared for those who continue faithful to the end and run with patience the Christian Race set before them Our Saviour while he was yet alive promised many Blessings and Rewards to his Disciples and Followers most of which were to have their accomplishment in another life in the mean time he foretold them that in this World they should have tribulation and that they must be always ready to forsake Father and Mother Wife and Children Brethren and Sisters yea and their own lives also if they would be his Disciples However that there was a certain reward laid up for them in Heaven which they should not fail to partake of if they continued stedfast in this Faith and finished their course with patience Now our Saviour could give no greater evidence of the truth of those promises he made to them and of the sincerity of his intentions in pressing this duty of Patience under Sufferings than that he himself was willing to go before them in this so painful and laborious an enterprize and to endure the worst of those evils which he foretold should befal them in prospect of the joy set before him which he promised they should partake of Had he not undoubted assurance of the truth of those things he spake to his Disciples he would not doubtless have exposed himself to so many hazards for affirming them but the assurance he had was strong and convincing such as he knew he could not be mistaken in And therefore in John xvij 2. he speaks of his own power which he was to receive upon account of his sufferings with the same assurance as though it had been already accomplished Thou hast given him power over all flesh that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him This our Saviour spake before his Passion which argued a mighty confidence he had that he should receive this reward of his humiliation and
we would preserve our innocency and integrity amidst so many and dangerous temptations We have need of patience if we would deny our selves all those irregular gratifications to which the Devil the World and our own hearts Lust are apt to entice and invite us and therefore the consideration of our Saviours example of Patience under Sufferings may still be very useful to us though we be not called to suffer Persecution for his names sake And then for Persecution it self though it be a case very seldom happens yet such is the condition of Christianity that every one that undertakes the profession of it must at least in preparation of soul be ready to lay down his life rather than renounce it Now in order to confirm our constancy and resolution in our Holy Calling notwithstanding any temptations we meet with in the World notwithstanding any afflictions or calamities that may befal us the Apostle recommends this as a most effectual means to look unto Jesus the author and finisher of our Faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God In which words the blessed JESUS is represented unto us under a two-fold Character each of which affords very proper and suitable Arguments to ingage us in imitation of him 1. We are to look unto him as the Author of our Faith This is in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is a Military term signifying a Captain and Leader one who hath gone before us with bravery and resolution and hath commanded us to follow his steps This is further explained in the following part of the Verse who for the joy set before him endured the Cross despising the shame If we look unto Jesus under this Character the Apostles Argument is very piain and convincing that since the Author and Captain of our Salvation did not refuse himself to undergo the most unsupportable calamities of this life and to suffer a painful and most ignominious death in prospect of that exceeding great reward which he saw prepared for him neither ought we who pretend to be his Disciples and Souldiers refuse to follow him in the same track that we may partake with him in the same joy Especially if we consider 2. That he is not onely the Captain of our Faith but the finisher and perfecter of it This is in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is the Rewarder of our Faith This is further exprest in the latter clause of the Verse where the Apostle declaring the issue and event of our Saviours sufferings tells us he is set down on the right hand of the throne of God Which words express these two things 1. That our Saviour hath himself received the full Reward of his humiliation and sufferings being set down at the right hand of God 2. And which is consequent from that that he is now endued with sufficient authority and power abundantly to reward those who suffer with him and after his example I shall begin with the first of these Characters and shall consider our Saviour as Author and Captain of our Faith the great Pattern and Example of Patience who for the joy set before him endured the Cross despising the shame And to shew the force of the Apostles Argument 1. I shall first consider the sufferings themselves which our Saviour underwent expressed here by two comprehensive words the CROSS and the SHAME 2. The manner of his enduring them 3. I shall endeavour to shew the influence of his Example to engage us to follow and imitate him To begin with his Sufferings themselves Though the Cross and the Shame here spoken of do principally refer to the great and unparallel'd instance of our Saviours Sufferings which was the consummation of all the rest even his painful and ignominious Death yet I conceive they may not unfitly be extended to the whole History of them from his Birth unto that very time If therefore we take a short view of our Saviours whole life and actions we shall easily discern that the prophecy was throughly fulfilled wherein he is represented as a man of sorrow and acquainted with grief Not to mention the meanness of his Birth the poverty of his condition the early Persecution raised against him by Herod nor those other accidents that befel him in his younger years Not to mention these things I shall confine my discourse to those instances of Suffering which befel him after he began to shew himself to Israel and by signs and wonders to declare himself to be the Son of God the true Messias that according to the Prophets was to come into the World And I shall represent them under these two heads answerable to those in the Text the great ignominy and reproach which was cast upon his person through the whole course of his Ministry and then the bitter and painful circumstances that went before and accompanied his Death and Passion And first if we consider the quality of our Saviours person that he was the true Messias so long foretold by the Prophets and at that very time expected by the Jews if we consider the great and undeniable proof that he gave of these things viz. the fulfilling all the prophecies that spake of him so punctually and so particularly his delivering such a doctrine to them that carried with it all the evidence of a divine authority his doing such mighty works among them which by their own confession no man could do unless God were with him his healing the sick and curing diseases and casting out Devils giving eyes to the blind restoring the lame raising the dead all which could be the effect of no lesser cause than the Almighty power of God attesting the truth of what he spake and the authority of his mission He that considers these things might reasonably expect that so divine a person at his first appearance should have been entertained with the greatest demonstration of joy and triumph and doubtless had the Jews themselves been demanded before-hand what honour was fit to be given to their long looked for Messias when he came they could not have contrived any ways of respect suitable to their great apprehensions of him they would have thought no kind of homage too great to be paid to the person whom God had sent to them so immediately and upon so advantageous a message But behold on the contrary when this Prince and Saviour did at length appear in the fulness of time though there was no testimony wanting to confirm him to be the very CHRIST yet because he came not with outward pomp and splendor had none of the gilded Pageantries of the World to attend him in his appearance this prejudice alone was sufficient with them to over-ballance the strongest demonstration that could possibly be given Is not this the Carpenters Son they thought sufficient confutation of all the mighty things he spake and did So that in stead
may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus The Judgment therefore here and elsewhere so frequently forbidden cannot be meant of the Judgment of authority in matter either Civil or Ecclesiastical 2. Neither are we forbidden all kind of judgment of the persons of men from their outward and visible practices though we have no superiority over them we are still allowed the judgment of discretion to distinguish between man and man to know whom to avoid and whom to associate our selves with and it is a great part of Christian prudence so to do The actions of many men are so plain and notorious that they are not capable of a mild and easie interpretation and should we stay till publick authority had set a mark upon such persons before we provide for our own innocence and security by forsaking their acquaintance and conversation we may in time grow partakers in their iniquity and be defiled by them Bad Company and Example do insensibly prevail upon our minds and betray us into evil and unless we were allowed to make a judgment of some persons from the actions we see we could have no reason to stand upon our guard or beware of them Nay further Christian Charity it self which obligeth us against all rash and malicious censures of other men doth in many cases not onely allow but exact of us to make a judgment of and be jealous over them that we be able to afford to them seasonable reproof and admonition before they are confirmed in a habit of sin And to this kind of Judgment if it be exercised with true charity and moderation out of a zealous concern for the soul of our offending Brother there is a reward annexed S. James v. 19. Brethren if any of you do err from the truth and one convert him let him know that he that converteth a sinner from the evil of his way shall save a soul from death and hide a multitude of sins Now we should be excluded both from this duty and blessing if it were not Iawful to judge of men in some measure by what we hear and see 3. We are not forbidden to judge and pass censure upon our selves For this is elsewhere made our duty and prescribed to us as a great means to escape the Judgment of God For this S. Paul tells us 1 Cor. xi 31. If we would judge our selves we should not be judged And the reason is plain For would men find leisure seriously to examine their own lives and actions and to judge impartially of them they would not then so freely indulge themselves in those practices to which they know the judgement of God is due They would think themselves obliged in all times and places to a more strict and circumspect walking with God and when they have through inadvertency and neglect yielded to temptation by a due examination and judging of themselves they would be convinced of the necessity of an hearty and sincere repentance before they go hence and be no more seen The power of Conscience was given us by God for that end that we might be enabled to judge of the good and evil of our actions and be thereby more vigorously engaged to continue in well-doing and eschew evil upon a prospect of a future and more dreadful judgment that would otherwise ensue When therefore S. Paul tells us verse 3. that he judged not his own self This is not to be understood as though he made no judgment at all of his own life and actions and particularly of his discharge of his Apostolick Office mentioned in the former Verses but that he was not finally to rely upon his own judgment but that although he knew nothing of himself as he declares Verse 4. yet he was not thereby justified in as much as he was afterward to be judged by the supreme Judge of all the Earth who knew better how he had behaved himself and would judge more impartially than he himself could and then immediately subjoins the prohibition of the Text Therefore judge nothing before the time until the Lord come These things therefore being excepted from the general prohibition the sin which is here forbidden is the uncharitable practice of censuring and condemning other men without any probable or just grounds when men take occasion from little circumstances and appearances to judge the person of their Neighbour and the inward thoughts and inclinations of his heart When they take up an ill opinion of him from every idle report and stick not to spread and divulge the same to his prejudice When they take all occasions to lessen and detract from the good he doth and aggravate the evil This unchristian practice is capable of many degrees and aggravations which I shall not insist on particularly I shall onely take notice in general that whoever will consider calmly with himself how he would have his Neighbour deal with him in the like matter with what candour and simplicity he would have him judge of the outward circumstances of his life how loth he would be to have the worst interpretation made of all his words and actions and how willing he would have others be to admit his excuses if not to take away yet at least to lessen and alleviate the guilt of any miscarriages such a one cannot but understand what those degrees of uncharitable judgment are which are here forbidden I proceed therefore to the second thing propounded to shew the great unreasonableness of this practice and this will appear from these three considerations 1. From the baseness of its original 2. From the greatness of the injury done to the person we censure unjustly 3. From the mischief which redounds to the Publick by uncharitable judgment of one another 1. For the original of this practice of censuring and reviling one another I think it may ordinarily be resolved into one of these three Principles 1. Secret pride and over-valuing our selves Men who are destitute of real worth and yet have a mighty opinion of themselves have no other means to buoy up themselves in that conceit but to pick faults in the life and actions of other men And this I doubt is the humour of too many pretenders to the strictness of Religion who if they declare a great abhorrence of some particular fault of their Neighbours which is contrary to their own natural inclination or present interest are apt vainly to please themselves with the opinion of their own righteousness and to vaunt it in the language of the Pharisee Luke xviii 10. God I thank thee that I am not as other men are Extortioners Vnjust Adulterers or even as this Publican Now the unreasonable folly of this method of proceeding no man can be ignorant of that considers the nature and genius of true Religion that it doth not consist in the abstinence from some particular sins which I may apprehend others to be guilty of but in an universal obedience to all the commands of God And therefore what
conclusion and could such an Argumentation deceive we could have little encouragement to believe any thing upon the testimony of our Faculties Again If this were the effect of some early revelation made to men when they were yet few in number and retained in the dispersion of Nations and still preserved notwithstanding the gross ignorance they fell into as to other matters This must be a great evidence of the clearness and evidence of that revelation at first and must consequently much confirm us in the belief of it And indeed it is not improbable that the rational Evidences of this Truth of a Judgment to come might have been confirmed to the first Ages of the World by some divine revelations which were communicated to all and thence derived and propagated through all the several Religions and Superstitions which afterward were entertained by the Heathen World It is not to be doubted but that Noah understood this Truth and would not fail to instruct his Family which were all humane souls that were left alive in so necessary a matter which might have so great influence upon them to keep them in obedience to God who had so lately delivered them from so universal a destruction Nay there is still extant the remainder of a Prophecy concerning a Judgment to come much ancienter than the Flood This we find cited by Saint Jude 14. And Enoch also the seventh from Adam prophesied saying Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his Saints to execute judgment upon all and to convince all that are ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him And this leads me to the last and most undeniable evidence of this truth 4. The particular revelation of it in holy Scripture but the testimonies of this Truth that there is a Judgment to come are so frequent in the Writings of the Evangelists and Apostles that it were altogether needless to recite them to you Every one that hath heard of the Gospel must understand that is one chief Article of our Christian Profession Nothing more plainly revealed nothing more frequently inculcated than that we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ I proceed therefore to the second thing proposed The Method of proceeding at that day Every one shall receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad That the good or evil of mens actions in this life is the rule and measure according to which they shall be judged at the great day that they who have done good shall receive the good they have done and they who have done evil shall receive according to that likewise is a Truth so fully and plainly taught in holy Scripture that one would think men could not easily mistake or deceive themselves in this matter For 1. It is very plain that no other way of proceeding can be agreeable to the Purity and Justice of the Divine Nature The righteous God loveth righteousness and his countenance will behold the the thing that is just and he is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity The righteous therefore and they onely can be capable of reward from him when he cometh to judge the Earth and the wicked and unrighteous and they only must be the objects of his wrath and vengeance To do otherwise than so and to invert this method would be a contradiction to all the divine Attributes and to all the Methods whereby God hath made himself known to the Sons of men And therefore the Author of the Book of Wisdom saith thus to the Almighty Wisd xij 15. For as much as thou art righteous thy self thou orderest all things righteously thinking it not agreeable to thy power to condemn him who hath not deserved to be punished To which we may also add That it is not agreeable to his Purity and Justice to reward the unrighteous and disobedient And therefore we may observe That in all the methods of Gods dealings with the Sons of men he hath all along declared the greatest abhorrence of sin and wickedness and the greatest severity against those that continued in the commission of it It was Sin onely that brought Misery and Death into the World For by one mans disobedience sin entered into the World and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned And when God was pleased out of his infinite mercy and compassion to contrive the way of our recovery and to send his Son into the World for our Redemption he would not admit us to terms of Peace and Reconciliation without the greatest demonstration of his justice and severity against sin and that in the Sufferings of his onely begotten Son For he was made sin for us who know no sin he bore our griefs and carried our sorrows he was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities by his stripes we are healed Now we are not to persuade our selves that our Saviours sufferings in our stead can be available to us or free us from the punishment of our sins while we continue in them For he bare our sins in his own body on the tree for no other end but that we being dead to sin might live unto righteousness that so being saved from our sins here we might be saved from the Wages of them hereafter And therefore Saint Paul tells us that the grace of God hath appeared to all men to bring salvation no otherwise than by teaching us to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live righteously soberly and godly in this present World Thus if we consider the nature of God and his dealings with Mankind we cannot but expect that when he cometh to judge the World he will judge according to righteousness They who have done good shall be rewarded by him and they who have done evil shall receive a due recompence of their evil deeds 2. This is further evident from the several promises and threatnings in Scripture which are all along made use of as Arguments to persuade us to the practice of righteousness and true holiness and to discourage and dissuade us from sin and wickedness which it were in vain to do if the promises of the Gospel can be due to any but upon condition of their obedience or if the Wrath to come could be avoided any otherwise than by forsaking those sins to which it is threatned Thus Saint Paul argues from the promises of the Gospel 2 Cor. vij 1. Having therefore these promises dearly beloved let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God Thus again S. Peter i. 4. tells That by the Gospel there are given unto us great and pretious promises that by these ye may be partakers of the Divine Nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through Lust and besides this giving all
diligence add to your Faith Vertue and to Vertue Knowledge and to Knowledge Temperance and to Temperance Patience and to Patience Godliness and to Godliness Brotherly Kindness and to Brotherly Kindness Charity For so an entrance shall be ministred unto you effectually into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Now these and the like Exhortations would be of no force at all to persuade us if these promises could be attained without the performance of these conditions In a word in all the descriptions of a Judgment to come there is nothing plainer than this that I now plead for that God will reward every one according to what he hath done I shall mention but two places more Rom. ij 6. God will render to every man according to his deeds to them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honour and immortality eternal life But unto them that are contentious and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doth evil of the Jew first and also of the Gentiles For there is no respect of persons with God The other place is Mat. xxv where our Saviour having given us a large description of those good Works which shall then be rewarded and having there represented the vanity of those mens excuses who had not wrought them he concludes with this sentence these shall go away into everlasting punishment and the righteous into life eternal There remains onely to draw some inferences from what hath been said that may be of use to us for the government of our lives 1. If there be a Judgment to come wherein men shall receive rewards and punishments according to their actions whether good or bad it is easie then to understand how much those men deceive themselves who hope to be saved by vertue of any absolute and inconditionate decree For if God have from eternity fore-ordained such and such particular persons to eternal life and others to eternal damnation without any consideration of their actions whether good or bad then certainly God cannot proceed in judgment according to the method before described nor could the promises and threatnings of the Gospel have any force of persuasion to engage men in the practice of Vertue or to discourage them from Sin and Wickedness In vain would the Apostle here make use of the terrours of the Lord to persuade men if God have before determined that such a certain number of them shall not escape the wrath to come whatsoever diligence they use on their parts On the contrary the promises of the Gospel cannot have any reasonable force to engage men to obedience if once they knew and believed that their future state was from everlasting unalterably fixed so that they could not fall short of it by any neglect Nay upon this supposition all the various methods of persuasion which God uses in Scripture to bring men to repentance and a better life prove nothing else but illusion and hypocrisie For that God should so often by his holy Prophets and Apostles invite and exhort and beseech all men that they would turn from their evil ways and live when in the mean time he hath excluded many myriads of men from any possibility of salvation by an absolute and irresistible decree which no endeavour of theirs can revoke or cancel this way of proceeding cannot by any means consist with that truth and sincerity and goodness which is inseparable from the divine nature We must therefore conclude that if there be a Judgment to come when all men shall receive rewards and punishments according to what they have done then certainly no man shall ever be excluded from those rewards but by his own fault nor yet any man obtain the same but by a due diligence in working out his salvation and performing those conditions upon which they are promised 2. From what hath been said concerning the method of Gods proceeding at the Judgment of the last Day we may also observe that those men do extreamly mistake the conditions of salvation who talk of being saved by Faith as it is distinguished from good works and obedience who take so much pains to cry down the value of our good works as though they had little or no influence in the justification or salvation of a Christian For surely if we shall be judged according to what we have done Faith alone cannot be the whole condition required on our parts in order to our salvation It is true indeed glorious things are spoken of Faith in holy Scripture but these things must not be understood of a bare assent to the truth of the Gospel which is the proper importance of that word Faith but of such a Faith as is a principle of life and action such a Faith as hath influence upon the whole course of our lives and is not contradicted by our practice and conversation a Faith that worketh by love and is fruitful of good works and obedience Thus it is not to be considered as a single Vertue and separate from the rest but as being the fruitful parent of all other Christian Vertues and including them in it For if we understand Faith in a more strict sense as distinct from an holy conversation it is no more than the Devils themselves may pretend to and yet this is so far from being any relief to them that it is the great aggravation of their misery To know and be assured of the glorious things revealed in the Gospel and to know withal that they themselves are finally excluded from the benefit of them this doubtless is a mighty aggravation of their horrour and we may well conclude as S. James doth that they believe and tremble nay that this belief doth make them tremble 3. If we shall be judged according to what we have done in the body it then follows that all that is to be done by us in the great work of our Salvation must be performed in our life time whilest we are in the body Now must we give all diligence to make our calling and election sure and not leave any thing to be done after our death either by our selves or others This I observe in opposition to that Doctrine of the Church of Rome which supposes that some sins are expiated after death and purged away by the fire of Purgatory and by the Prayers and Sacrifices of those that are left alive But this is not onely a vain and groundless opinion but certainly doth much tend to the hindrance of Piety and lessening mens care of their future state As the Tree falleth so it lieth As a man goeth out of this World such will be his future state and he will be judged according to what he was when he left the body according to what he had done in the body 4. If it be thus certain that we must all appear before the Judgment seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body this certainly ought to awaken our diligence in the business of our Salvation that to day while it is called to day we break off our sins by a sincere and hearty repentance that knowing the terrours of the Lord we pass the time of our so journing here in fear For surely did men seriously consider that there is a day coming when all the hidden works of darkness shall be made manifest when the secrets of all mens hearts shall be revealed when all the close impieties which had passed here undiscerned should be laid open before God and all the World they would not now so fondly flatter themselves with hopes of secresie or impunity Did men seriously reflect upon the terribleness of that great day when God shall appear with ten thousand of his Saints to take vengeance on them that have not feared his name did they often think upon that dreadful sentence which will then be pronounced against all impenitent sinners Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels this certainly if any thing would put a check to the bold impiety of this Age. Men would not then dare so openly to defie Heaven and blaspheme the Majesty of the great God who will at that day appear so terrible nor would they continue by their hardness and impenitent hearts to treasure up to themselves wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous Judgment of God On the contrary as the terrours of that day ought to make us sensible of our danger if we continue in disobedience so the glorious reward which shall at that day be given to those that have lived obediently to the will of God ought to be a most effectual motive to persuade us thereunto For what greater encouragement to our duty than the consideration of those great and glorious things which God hath prepared for them that love him Who would not willingly forsake all the flattering joys and transitory pleasures of this life that he may secure to himself such an inheritance incorruptible undefiled that fadeth not away which God the righteous Judge shall give him at that day Or who would not despise all the sufferings of this life which may possibly attend him in the practice of his duty when he remembers that these light afflictions which endure but for a moment work out for him a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory Now the great God grant us all his grace that we may have the judgment of the last day always present to our minds that denying all ungodliness and worldly lusts we may live soberly righteously and godly in this present world looking for that blessed hope and glorious appearance of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ that when we come to stand before that great Tribunal we may be presented pure and unblamable in his sight and that not for any merits of our own but through the mediation of our blessed Saviour To whom with the Father and Eternal Spirit be ascribed as is most due all power praise thanksgiving and obedience for evermore FINIS