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A29934 The certainty of the future judgment asserted and proved in a sermon preached at St Michael's Crooked Lane, London, Octob. xxvi, 1684 / by Matth. Bryan ... Bryan, Matthew, d. 1699. 1685 (1685) Wing B5246; ESTC R19907 26,200 46

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ungrateful use of his patience and long-suffering But 't is such as the Wise man spake of and observ'd long ago Eccles 8.11 Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil and St Paul here intimates and sadly observes and bewails in this his passionate Expostulation Despisest thou the riches of his Goodness c. But hear O despising scoffing ungrateful man Hear what follows v. 5. After thy hardness and impenitent heart thou treasurest up unto thy self wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous Judgment of God who will render to every one according to his deeds For though the Lord is long suffering yet he will not be ever-suffering But the day of the Lord will come as St Peter observes ver 10. and it will come speedily as a Thief in the Night unlookt for and so surprize or as 't is worded 1 Thess 5.2 3. The day of the Lord so cometh as a Thief in the night for when they shall say Peace and safety then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a Woman with Child and they shall not escape Secondly This Doctrine of the certainty and severity and dreadfulness of the future Judgment may serve to awaken secure Sinners out of their sinful and dangerous security As there are some that Atheistically scoff at Religion so there are others that are sufficiently careless of it do not speak but act against it who live vicious lives and are led by their passions and appetites and are regardless of the World to come and stupidly and securely sinful They are perhaps more carnal and sensual than the former though not so Diabolical If there are any such here let me seriously ask them Sirs Do you believe the Bible to be true Do you believe the Articles of the Christian Faith that there is a God that made the World and governs it that you have immortal Spirits within you that are capable of endless happiness or misery that you must dye and come to Judgment appear before the Judgment-Seat of Christ who shall come from Heaven to judge the quick and the dead Do you believe all this You 'll readily answer Yes that we do God forbid we should be Unbelievers we can say our Creed as sincerely and devoutly as the best Can you so What! and live in such manifest contrariety and opposition to what you believe and the terms of salvation as if all this were false as if all were cheat and imposture as if the Gospel were a Fable or an idle Romance For God's sake Sirs be serious and consider and do not suffer your selves so tamely to be impos'd upon and baffled by your Spiritual Enemies those that hate you and will laugh at your folly and triumph over your misery Do not live the reverse of your Reason and Religion too and contradict your Faith and Perswasion and suffer your selves to be fool'd out of that eternal happiness which you say you hope for and lose the best and greatest interest which is more valuable than all the Treasures and instances of happiness in this World which you must shortly leave and dye from when nothing here below neither Riches nor Friends can help you but only an effectual saving interest in the Judge of the World 2 Thess 1.7 8. who will shortly be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that do not obey his Gospel O that I could make some secure Sinner here to tremble Ephes 5.14 and effectually warn him to flee from the wrath to come Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead and Christ shall give thee light Thirdly It exhorts us to Holiness And indeed this Doctrine is a powerful disswasive from Vice and perswasive to Vertue a disswasive from Vice because it will be certainly and severely punished a perswasive to Vertue because it will be certainly and amply rewarded I doubt not but there are some that are very indifferent as to the State of happiness in the other World for which they are not greatly concern'd but could be content to part with it provided they might not be miserable they could be content that their Bodies and Souls too should sleep eternally They could be content perhaps not to be rewarded in Heaven so that they might not be punished in Hell But know Christian that there is no medium here If we are not rewarded we shall certainly be punished if we are not happy we must be miserable If we do not go to Heaven we must to Hell If we have not the enjoyment of God we must have the company of Devils for ever So that holiness is indispensably necessary not only to intitle us to Heaven but to keep us out of Hell And there is no greater or more forcible Argument to perswade to holiness than this of Judgment to come This is the great Argument the Wise man useth to perswade both to negative and positive holiness Thus in the 11th of his Ecclesiastes ver 9. he does tacitly exhort to negative holiness i. e. he does by a sharp and keen but pleasant Irony disswade from Vice and youthful Lusts and sinful Pleasures Rejoice O young man in thy youth and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth and walk in the ways of thine heart and in the sight of thine eyes there follows a terrible But which is like the Damp to the Candle or the Death's Head to the Egyptian Feasts a Cooler to the heat of Lust and like Belshazzer's hand upon the Wall dasheth all that mirth and jollity But know thou that for all these things God will bring thee into Judgment And Chap. 12. ver 13. he exhorts to positive holiness not excluding negative i. e. to the practice of Vertue and doing good Fear God and keep his Commandments for this is the whole Duty of man And this he presseth by the same Argument the great Motive of Judgment to come ver 14. For God shall bring every work into Judgment with every secret thing whether it be good or whether it be evil This is the great beaten Argument that both the Prophets and Apostles are frequently upon and spreading before the eyes of men Most of the weighty Exhortations in Scripture like the Scales upon the Beam are fastned upon this therefore work walk run strive deny your selves be stedfast 1 Cor. 15. ult unmoveable always abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as you know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. 'T is the great Argument both to Active and Passive Obedience Saint Paul observes it to be so 2 Tim. 4.7 8. I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith Henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day