Future Judgment makes this necessary 3 dly Let us then consider how this matter may be reconciled that we are saved by Grace and justified by Faith in Christ and yet must be judged by our Works And this is very easily done for we shall be judged by our Works according to the Gracious Terms of the Gospel The Faith of Christ was never intended to give us a liberty in sinning or to excuse us from the necessity of a holy life and as far as the necessity of holiness is reconcilable with the Grace of the Gospel so far our being judged by our Works is reconcilable with our being saved by Grace upon the same Terms that the Gospel promises Pardon and Forgiveness we shall be pardoned at the Day of Judgment whatever the Gospel promises to reward shall be rewarded at the Day of Judgment and thus we are judged by Grace and by Works too This is easily understood by those who know any thing of the Gospel of Christ and therefore I shall at present but just mention it The Gospel of Christ promises Pardon of sin to true Penitents who are heartily sorry for their sins abhor themselves for them make restitution for the Injuries they have done to Men beg God's Pardon in the Name and Mediation of Christ and amend their Lives for Christ has made atonement and expiation for such Sinners and therefore at the Day of Judgment no Man shall be condemned for such sins as he has heartily repented of and reformed and this is to be judged by Grace as well as by our Works for the Law prescribes our Duty but promises no Pardon no not to Penitents this is owing to the Grace of God through the Merits and Mediation of Christ but though the Grace of the Gospel pardons true Penitents yet the same Gospel threatens eternal damnation against impenitent Sinners The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness and ungodliness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness To them who 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 And therefore impenient Sinners will be judged and condemned for their sins at the last Day by the Mediatour of the Covenant of Grace for the Gospel itself condemns them Thus the Grace of God that bringeth salvation and hath appeared unto all men teacheth us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly and righteously and godly in this present world And therefore without holiness no man shall see God Heaven is the Reward only of good Men who live in the Exercise of all Christian Graces and Vertues and therefore good Men must be judged must be rewarded according to their Works and yet this is Gospel-Grace too for such a glorious Reward as Heaven is above the Merit of the most perfect Vertue in this World The best Man cannot challenge such a Reward from the Justice of God and therefore it is owing to Gospel-Grace the wages of sin is death but eternal life is the gift of God not the merit and desert of our Works through our Lord Iesus Christ. Especially when we consider that this great and perfect Reward is bestowed upon a very imperfect Vertue the Obedience of the best Men is very defective stained and sullied with Human Weaknesses Indiscretions Follies Ignorances Mistakes indecent Surprizes of Passion or coldness and flatness of Devotion and too often interrupted with wilful and scandalous sins such as nothing but Grace can pardon and therefore much more nothing but Grace can reward and therefore good Men are judged by Grace and rewarded by Grace though according to their Works We are all Sinners we are all obnoxious to the Justice of God would he be extream to mark what is done amiss but since a perfect Vertue is not to be expected from Mankind in this lapsed state God is pleased to accept of sincerity instead of perfection and through the Merits of Christ and Faith in his Blood to account him a righteous Man who sincerely loves and fears him and obeys his Laws though with the Weaknesses and Infirmities incident to Humane Nature So that our being judged by our Works signifies no more but that we are distinguished by the Good or Evil we do into good or bad Men according to the favourable allowances of the Gospel and then bad Men receive the just desert of their sins and good Men receive those Rewards not which they have merited but which the Grace of God and the Merits of Christ have prepared and purchased for them This is a plain account how Christians may be judged by their Works and yet saved by Grace and by Faith in Christ and the righteousness and equity of the last Judgment seems to entitle Heathens themselves thô they have no Covenant Right to it to some degrees of this Grace for I cannot think that God in judging the World will deal more rigorously and severely with Heathens than he will with Christians that he will demand most where he has given least which is contrary to our Saviour's Rule of Judgment and therefore I cannot but hope that Christ in judging of their Works will make the same favourable allowances to them which the Gospel makes to those who do believe in Christ that is to say that he will allow of the Repentance of a Heathen if it were sincere and hearty and did reform his Life as well as of the Repentance of a Christian that he will overlook the same Defects and Imperfections in the good Actions of Heathens who lived vertuous Lives who worshipped the One true God and observed the natural Rules of Sobriety Justice and Righteousness that he will in the Actions of Christians That if any Heathen should be found equally vertuous with the meanest Christian who shall be finally saved that Heathen at least will not be damned and indeed would seem to have reason to complain of unequal usage if he should St. Paul tells us both with respect to Jews and Heathens as well as Christians That God will judge the secrets of men by Christ Iesus according to the Gospel And if the Gospel be the Rule of judging all Mens Actions they must be all equally judged with respect to the Good or Evil of their Actions and be judged as the Gospel judges I grant the Heathens had no promise of Pardon upon their Repentance but yet all Mankind believed so well of the Goodness and Mercy of God that they hoped for Pardon upon their Repentance thus we find the Ninivites did and they had it and indeed it was this perswasion that taught them to pray to God and to offer Sacrifices which had been insignificant things had they not been perswaded that God both could and would pardon sin when Sinners repent Nor have the Heathens any Covenant Title to Salvation and yet they were generally perswaded that good Men shall be rewarded and the
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-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
to them and how much less which have it sincerely preached The Justice of God I confess cannot be impeached upon this account for God was not wanting to any of them in what was necessary he made them reasonable and understanding Creatures gave them sufficient Natural Evidence of his own Being and Providence and the Natural Notices of Good and Evil and the Natural Expectations of Rewards and Punishments which St. Paul tells us is enough to render hem inexcusable That the invisible things of God from the creation of the world are known by the things that are seen even his eternal power and god-head so that they are without excuse 1 Rom. 20. and what is more than this is pure Grace which God may give or deny when and where he pleases Nor is the Goodness of God and Care of his Creatures to be blamed upon this score for in every Age he did what was wise and fit to be done for the several Ages of the World required different Dispensations of Grace and in the fulness of Time when the World was prepared for it he sent his Son But yet we must confess that God has done more for Iews than he did for Heathens and more for Christians than he did for either which is an Objection that troubles the Minds even of some good Men who do not thoroughly consider things and darkens and obscures their Notions of the Divine Goodness And when all the World is met together to Judgment it seems at first view to be a very plausible Objection that God has not dealt equally with them all especially when their eternal State depended on it and the want of those Means of Grace which God afforded others though he owed them to neither made no less a difference between them then Heaven and Hell This indeed is a very great Difficulty but I doubt not but the equal Justice of the last Judgment will answer it for otherwise I cannot imagine that God would summon all the World togther before his Tribunal if he did not intend to deal equally by all The last Judgment will not be over-ruled by Power and Soveraign Prerogative for that removes no Objections but onely silences them whereas God at the last Day will justifie himself as well as judge the World and therefore whatever difference and variety there has been in the external Administration of his Grace the final Judgment shall be very equal and he will appeal to Men and Angels for the Equality as well as Justice of it How God will bring all these Unevennesses of his Grace and Providence to an Equality is hard for us to say but yet we know there are some possible ways of doing it To make great Abatements and Allowances for invincible Ignorance and Mistake for the Faults and Miscarriages of Education for the Wickedness and Corruption of the Age wherein Men live and for want of the Means of Grace and Knowledge and to exact Improvements proportionable to our Receits and to those greater Advantages we enjoy and to encrease and lessen Rewards and Punishments by these Measures will bring Men pretty near an equal Level according to our Saviour's Rule That servant which knew his Lord's will and prepared not himself neither did according to his will shall be beaten with many stripes But he that knew not and did commit things worthy of stripes shall be beaten with few stripes For unto 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 47 48. So much are those Nominal Christians mistaken who are so far from thinking that God expects more from them then from ignorant Heathens that they hope to escape with those Vices for which they themselves think fit that Heathens should be damned No Beloved God will judge all the World together and that is a Demonstration to me that he will be very equal in his Justice and then he must demand more from Christians than from Heathens because we have received more 3. A General Judgment is most for the Glory of God in punishing bad Men and rewarding the good When a whole World of Sinners stand trembling before God's Tribunal and receive their final Doom and Sentence from his Mouth this is a more visible Triumph of his Justice then had they all silently dropt into Hell as they went out of this World and we had heared no more of them to Eternity The Wisdom of all Governments has taught them the Necessity of publick Executions and when God would make himself known in the World he executes some publick and visible Judgments which may command our Notice and Observance Thus he did when he spared Pharaoh from the destruction of those numerous Plagues he sent on AEgypt and reserved him for a more glorious Execution when he overthrew him and all his Host in the Red Sea Thus he did when he sent Fire from Heaven to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah and in numerous other instances These terrible Executions indeed are intended by God as publick Warnings to the World to teach Men to fear God and reverence his Power and Justice and prevent their own Ruin by a timely Repentance now this end they cannot serve in the other World when the Devil and his Angels and all bad Men are involved in the same Ruin and there are no Sinners left to take warning and to learn Righteousness by it but Saints and Angels are Spectators and Witnesses of the Vengeance and adore and praise the righteous Judge of the World and Devils and all wicked Men see and feel it too and tremble and flie before him are forced to confess his Power and Glory though with anguish and despair This is a glorious and visible Triumph over all his Enemies and all the Powers of Darkness And how glorious is God in his Saints when he publickly rewards their Faith and Patience their Obedience and Sufferings for his Name sake when in the sight of all the World he cloths them with pure Light and receives them into his Eternal Kingdom the Glory of God is the publick Manifestation of his Justice and Goodness and Power now there cannot be a more unquestionable Demonstration of the inflexible Justice of God then the final Destruction of the Devil and his Angels and all wicked Men there cannot be a more glorious Manifestation of the Goodness of God then in the final Rewards of Piety and Vertue and nothing can be more publick and visible than that which is done before all the World And this makes it reasonable for God to summon all the World before his Tribunal to make himself visibly glorious to all his Creatures God has been greatly dishonoured in the World some have denied his Being and Providence others have set up Rival and Opposite Gods and given his Worship to Devils to dead Men to Wood and Stone nay to the vilest and most contemptible Creatures others have framed very unworthy Notions of God and
the Prophets about this matter And though it cannot be denyed but that many Christians deceive themselves with the same vain hopes yet this is much more unpardonable in them because God has given a more undeniable proof of the evil of Sin and his irrecoverable displeasure against it then either Iews or Heathens had For can there be a more certain evidence of the evil of Sin than the Death of Christ He dyed for Sin and as the Apostle speaks condemned sin in the flesh 8 Rom. 3. Not only condemned Sin by his excellent Sermons wise Exhortations sharp Reproofs and terrible Threatnings while he lived in the Flesh but by dying in the Flesh by offering up his Body a Sacrifice for Sin Whatever Christ suffered was not upon his own Personal account but for Sin and therefore what he suffered was the just demerit of Sin or else he ought not to have suffered it in him God shews us what our Sins deserve Infamy Reproach and utmost Scorn and Contempt the Agonies of the Mind the Pain and Torments of the Body and Death it self it was Sin that was Crucified that was exposed to all this Shame and Suffering in the Person of our Saviour and therefore in his Sufferings we have a lively Image of the Evil and Deserts of Sin which is a more convincing and satisfactory Evidence then the fine and subtile Reasonings of Philosophy which some Men cannot understand and which none but purified Minds can feel And though God declared his great love to Sinners in giving his own Son to dye for them yet hereby also he expressed his irreconcileable hatred against Sin Sinners may be reconciled to God by the Death of Christ but Sin never can that is Condemned is Crucified in the Death of Christ. Christ expiated Sin and reconciles Sinners by killing and destroying Sin by putting it to shame and Death upon his own Cross And this is the Method of our reconciliation to God in Conformity to the Death of Christ we must be crucified with Christ must be planted into the likeness of his Death that is we must crucifie Sin in us we must crucifie the flesh with its affections and lusts we must die to sin the body of sin must be destroyed that we may no longer serve sin for he that is dead is freed from sin as St. Paul Argues 6 Rom. and in several other places And do we need any other proof of God's hatred of Sin than that he gave his own Son to be a Sacrifice for Sin that Christ could not expiate our Sins without undergoing that Infamy and Scorn and Pain and Death which is the desert of Sin that the Death and Destruction of Sin is represented in that very Sacrifice which expiates our Sins and must be acted over again in us in the real Crucifixion and Death of Sin before we can have any Interest in the Expiation of Christ's Death And can there be a more powerful Disswasive from Sin than this Thus it is a mighty encouragement to Repent of our Sins and forsake them to be assured of Pardon and Forgiveness if we do Now whatever Reasons Iews and Heathens had to hope for Pardon upon their Repentance it is certain they had not that assurance which the Death and Sacrifice of Christ gives us We have now an express Covenant of Grace and Pardon sealed with the Blood of Christ who is that lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world and God cannot condemn repenting Sinners without denying the purchase of Christ's Blood that precious Blood of infinite Price and Value that Blood which our great High Priest hath carried into the Holy of Holies and which there pleads the Pardon of penitent Sinners at the Throne of Grace God cannot deny himself cannot deny his own Covenant cannot deny his Sons Blood which speaketh better things then the blood of Abel cannot deny our great High Priest who appeareth in the presence of God for us who died for us and now liveth for ever to make intercession for us and he who wants greater security than this must tell us what greater security Sinners can have then the Oath and Covenant of God and the Blood and Intercession of Christ. When I consider this matter with what infinite Wisdom God has contrived the Redemption of Sinners to cure the degeneracy of our Natures and to raise us to a perfect Vertue to bind us faster to himself in those soft and charming Fetters of Love to spur us forward with all the Zeal and Impetus that Hope and Fear and Indignation and Love the Passions and Paroxysmes of a divine inflamed Love can give us it amazes me to think that any Christians should flatter themselves that Faith in Christ will save them without Works that there is less need for them to be so exact and circumspect in their Lives that sin is not so damning a thing now since Christ has made atonement for it and reconciled God to Sinners as it was before Had they no Saviour indeed it would concern them to be very good when they must merit for themselves had they not such a meritorious Sacrifice for Sin and such a powerful High-Priest it would be a very dangerous thing to commit sin but now Christ has Righteousness and Merit enough for us all and we need none of our own nothing but Faith to apply his Righteousness to us Christ has pulled out the Sting of Sin that it cannot greatly hurt it cannot kill a Believer though it may slightly wound him a 〈◊〉 and draw some Tears of Repentance from him and that heals all again This if any thing in the World is to turn the grace of God into lasciviousness to be wicked because God is good to sin because grace does abound whose damnation is just I beseech you for the love of Christ and for the Honour of his Undertaking of his Death and Intercession for us to consider this a little better Consider what the Gospel teaches us to believe of Christ and how absurd and contradictious it is to say that such a Faith will save us without holiness and purity of heart and life Do you not believe 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 Titus 14. And is it reasonable to think that our believing this will save us unless we be redeemed from all iniquity unless we be purified unless we be a people zealous of good works If Christ saves those who are not redeemed from all iniquity who are not purified who are not zealous of good works it is certain he must save those for whom he did not give himself or must save them contrary to his own intention of giving himself for them but however to believe that Christ gave himself for us to redeem us from all iniquity does not seem to be such a Faith if our Faith be true as will justifie us without being redeemed from all