Christ Nay Our blessed Lord and Saviour hath at once sanctified and strengthened this argument by his own using it when he forbids us to beat our fellow-servants and not to eat Matth. 24.49 and drink with the drunken lest the Lord of the House come in an hour that we think not of and give us our portion with hypocrites in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone Five things considerable about the last judgement All which will yet appear more clear if we consider these five things which set out the nature of this judgement so as may render it more vigorously quickning men to the performance of their duties and more effectually restraining them from the violation of Gods sacred Lawes 1 The Impartiality of it as to persons Rom. 14.10 it will teach all persons wee must all stand saith the Apostle before the Judgement Seat of Christ the reverend age the blooming youth the eloquent Oratour the blunt Peasant rich Dives poor Lazarus the new fresh varnish'd Lady as well as she that sits grinding at the Mill. Heb. 9.27 As 't is appointed for all men once to die so for all that die to come to judgement no prerogative can procure exemption from his jurisdiction who is to be Judge of quick and dead and that is good Logick with Saint Peter Acts 10.24 Because that without respect of persons he judgeth every man according to his works therefore we should passe the time of our our sojourning here in fear 2 The Exactnesse of it as to all manner of offences Matth. 5.25 1 Of Omission where Christ gives us a pattern of the last judgement the Sentence is past onely for negatives for omitting the duties they should have done Thou hast not cloathed not visited not fed therefore Go ye cursed If he who gives not cloathes to the naked nor food to the hungry nor lodging to them that want be punish'd with such whips what scorpions shall be provided for them who strip the poor of their clothes turn them out of their own houses pull the bread out of their throats if not to visit and comfort those that are imprisoned for Christs cause be a sin what is it to cast the innocent into prison to feed them with the bread and water of affliction 2. Of Commission 1 King 22.27 Whether they be open and notorious or private and secret for God shall bring every mans work to judgement Eccles 12.14 1 Tim. 5.24 with every secret thing Some mens sins are open before-hand going before to judgement and some men they follow after Open profanenesse runs to the Bar of Justice before-hand and waits for the sinner Sly Hypocrisie and dissembled sins these follow after The murders thefts rapes burglaries of the prisoner at the bar they go before to judgment the passion injustice bribery of a Judg the partiality of a Juror the perjury of a witnesse these follow after unto judgement We must be brought to an account not only for the outward acts and grosser commitments of sin but for the first risings of the heart it 's secreter tendencies inclinations to sin for that sin which is conceived in the heart though never produced nor acted by the hand Matth. 5.22 I need not trouble you for this further then that one Text But I say unto you whosoever is angry with his brother without cause shall be in danger of judgement and whosoever shall say unto his brother Racha shall be in danger of the Councell and whosoever shall say Thou fool shall bee in danger of hell fire where we may see that if we go no further then the Pharisees we shall come to judgement for actuall murder and adultery we must give an account of all our works thus far the divinity of a Pharisee will lead us But is this all no not onely he that kils his brother but he who is angry with him rashly unadvisedly shall be liable to a future account and brought to judgement in another world for it Not that all anger binds over to judgement 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad textum pertinere ex eo comprobatū dari potest quod iram quae à Christo prohibetur pulchrè determinat limitat ne omni justâ etiam irâ ac zelo interdictum sibi esse Christiani existimant Sol. Glas Philo. sac lib. 1. tract 2. but this rash unadvised anger Over and above the usuall interpretation which the Pharisees put upon this text our Saviour shews there be three other things beside actuall murder whereby this cōmandment is violated to each of which he affixes a severall punishment proportionable to the nature and quality of the offence The first way by which the sixth commandment is broken even by him who doth not actually kill his brother is by rash and unadvised anger which is then rash and unadvised when it hath no good cause nor ground to warrant it and when it exceeds its bounds either in the degrees or continuance of it And to this rash andunadvised anger though it never went further then the brest which bred it he assignes a sutable punishment it makes a man guilty of judgement 2 But he that sayes Racha which is a second way whereby this commandment may be broken without actuall murder 1. Either from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vacuum mente optbus ingenio 2. Or from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 conspuere making it an interjection of disdaining and abhorring Linwood provinciall Constit and suffers the anger conceived in his heart to break forth at his mouth though with some moderation that shall give any contumelious language in calling his brother a vaine and empty fellow a fool ideot or beggar or shall by any significant gestures or carriages expresse the disdaine rancour and indignation of his heart shall be in danger of the councell But he that shall say Thou fool which is the third way that is whose anger breaks out by some speciall and remarkeable kind of reproach and vents his passion not only in contumelious language but in virulent and bitter raylings shall be guilty of hell fire You have seen the three severall sorts of sin whereby the sixth Commandment is broken as well as by the actuall shedding of the blood of man now cast your eyes upon the three sorts of punishment which are here threatned to these three degrees of sin and you wil find then rise in degrees as the sins do in guilt The first to wit rash anger shall bee in danger of judgement where by judgement is meant that Court of Judgement which sate almost in every Town Dr Reynolds praelect in Apoc. Practicall catech and in matters criminall of inferiour nature had power of life and death who punish'd the offender with beheading But he that saith Racha shall be in danger of the Councell which meanes the great Councell the Sanhedrim consisting of seventy one persons who had cognizance of the greater and
judgement as they are in themselves so they are in our apprehension too twins yet so prodigiously are they coupled that when we have brought forth one we have small hopes of being delivered from the other The Heathens who had but one eye that of nature and that film'd over with superstitious and carnall thoughts Quaesitor Minos Vrnam movet saw distinctly this truth That there was a Judge below the Poet knew and that the Heathen generally did he like wee have cleer evidence in that the Apostle makes that the ground of his Argument to restrain the people from sin Because a Acts 17.31 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 diphil comicus Vide hic de re Euseb de Prepar Evangelic l. 11o. c. 35.36 Idem l. 12. c. 6. 52. cap. in fine God had appointed a day wherein he will judge the world in Righteousnesse which had not nature suggested the truth of it might have been as easily rejected as urged Balthasars sinews refuse to bear the luggage of his carcasse when the wall turned Preacher and reproved his vanity Felix himselfe when Paul discours'd of Judgement though in the presence of his sweetest Drusilla could not secure his limbs from the shiverings of an Ague It was much that a prisoner should so soon tremble his Judge and that hee should quake at the mention of Judgment from his mouth on whose head he was ready to passe present sentence Look back to Adam the First Man the Second Sinner who had no sooner sinn'd but trembles and flies from the presence of that God with whom but now he talk'd face to face Look on Cain who when he began to bee a Fratricide left off in this point to be an Heretick and by the basenesse of his manners rectified his Judgement Glassius Philo. sacra pag. 60. Gen. 4.8 if that be true which is cited out of the Jerusalem Targum which runs thus Caine and Abel went out into the field to talk and Cain said There is no Judge nor Judgement nor life to come no reward for the good nor punishment for the wicked for if there were why I pray thee should thy offering be accepted mine rejected But Abel answered There is a Judge and judgement and life to come a reward for the good and punishment for the wicked because my works were done in integrity they were accepted thine in hypocrisie and therefore rejected And whilst they were thus wrangling about the point Caine smote his brother Abel and kill'd him Flagitium flagellum sicut acus filues But no sooner had he made a passage for his Brothers Soul but he made a Scourge for His owne he is now forced to recant his error and with anguish and sorrow pine under that Judgement which even now hee denyed whilst the earth greedily drinks in his brothers blood he sees Hell wide open gaping for his owne whilst his Butcherly hands are hiding his brothers carcasse his distracted looks manifest his own guilt Thus you see that God hath implanted in the hearts of all men Haret lateri lathalis arundo an expectation of a future Judgement which thought oft-times by ryot and excess they desire to obliterate yet it sticks deeper imprest in the soule then letters ingraven in pillars of Marble A sinner may I deny not in his jovialitie Prov. 14.13 seem to smother all thoughts of future account yet in the midst of laughter his heart is heavy and whilst his face smiles his heart bleeds for do but track the guilty person to his chamber where while he ruminates upon his acted villany see how hee starts and and shunts at the wagging of every feather Each friend that visits him is suspected for a Sergeant and hee fears to be betrayed by his own members his rowling eye his shaking hand and bloodlesse cheek whispers his guilt and if others were as suspicious as hee is conscious of his sin his stammering broken distracted language would soon discover him See him in his bed The silent night which befriends others with rest and sleep affects him with nothing but horror and amazement the gloomy darknesse that invites others to a sweet slumber presents him onely with the blacknesse and foulnesse of his fault How oft hee shifts his weary sides without rest or ease and if he be befriended with a small parcell of sleep good God! what tongue can express the strange imaginations of his mind the horror and astonishment into which a dreame casts him 'T is futuri judicii pra judicium Tert. This is the distressed estate of a sinner what said I is this his estate alas this doth but point at it Sinfull man while he makes God his enemy is afraid of every thing Sadeel in 32. Psal their hearts are like the troubled sea now at present they seem to enjoy a pleasant calme not a wrinkle of sorrow sits upon their brow and they goe on in their sinfull pleasures with full sailes yet by and by the wind begins to blow a storm ariseth the waters rage themselves are overwhelmed in the gulph of despair they reel to and fro and staggar like a drunken man and are even at their wits end It was so with Caligula * Qui Deos tantopere contemneres ad minima tonitrua conivere caput advolvere ad majora proripere se electo sub lectumque condere solebat Sueton. Calig §. 51. who though in the height of his pride he durst contest with God yet durst he by no means behold the lightning but must stand beholding to the courtesie of a cave or an oven to secure him from the messengers of Heaven who but now durst defie God himselfe he that thought to speak as loud as the Almighty is struck dumb trembling and quaking at a clap of thunder What are all these distractions of thoughts and tortures of our spirits but infallible symptomes of an innate principle carrying over our assent to this conclusion That there is a judgement to come That there shall be such a day of account 't is I hope made cleer that there should be such a day let a few words shew you the equity That Gods justice may be without blemish in punishing the wicked who frolick it here and rewarding the godly who drink deep of distresse If the righteous had onely hope in this life 1 Cor. 15.19 they were of all men the most miserable As it is with the Church so it is with her members she is a Lilly but yet among the thorns these are Jewels but trampled under foot If you look for a Saint small hopes of finding him couch'd in a bed of down no the Stockes the Den Psal 105.18 Dan. 3.21 Dan. 6.16 the Oven is a more likely place to find a Joseph a Daniel or a nest of stiff kneed Jews that will not bow to an Idoll the man of this world you may find 't is likely with Davids Image at ease upon his pillow 1 Sam.
bring every work Eccles 12. ult to judgment with every secret thing whether it be good or whether it be evill What the design of some men is Catech. Racov. in charging the morall Law with imperfections and vacuities which were fill'd up as they pretend by these Additions of our Saviour is sufficiently evident and that the consequences of this position with them are no lesse then the utter evacuating and nulling the meritorious passion of our blessed Lord. For others who solemnly professe to abhorr such impious conclusions and aim at nothing in the use of such language but the bringing men up to a higher degree of holinesse and perfection then the Pharisees prest upon the Jews I wish they would consider whether the same end might not be as well attained by charging the Pharisees with misinterpretation of the Law as by charging the Law it self with imperfections and vacuities And if so whether were not more sutable to Christian charity to say no more to forbear those expressions Master Jean's Treatise of the appearance of evill in expressions p. 28. which smell so strongly of the Polonian-infected aire rather then to grieve and give just occasion of offence to such who are as conscienciously solicitous to preserve the truth so exemplarily zealous Antequam nasceretur Arius innocenter quaedam minus cautè loquuti sunt Patres quae non possunt perversorum hominum calumniam declinare Hierom. Apol. 2. cont Ruff. Ante errorum â—eresâ—â—n originem nondum satis illustratâ patefactâ rei veritate quaedam scriptis suis asperserint Patres quae cum orthodoxae fidei regulâ minimè consemiant Dion Petav. in Epiphan Daille treatise of the right use of the Fathers p. 80. to carry men up to the highest degrees of holinesse in conscience and conversation An honest and grave Matron would blush to be found in the dresse and harnesse of an harlot and those who would be accounted orthodox should not contend for such expressions as carry with them but an appearance of evill for though they may be used by us perhaps in a good sense and so used by the Ancients yet being abused by wicked men to broach their heresies under they carry a shrewd shew of evill and render others jealous and suspicious of our soundnesse In points not controverted the Fathers speak oftentimes more uncircumspectly then they would in a businesse that is under dispute and I am apt to believe that if those Fathers who are pretended to have maintained this doctrine of the vacuities of Moses Law and the additions thereunto by Christ how farre and how fully they do it let others judge but if they had but fore-seen those sad and dismall conclusions which some desperate wretches have deduced thence in derogation to the satisfaction made by Christ they themselves would have done execution upon those papers which are pretended to have conveyed it to the Christian World But I have been too long in this point 3. The un-appealablenesse from this judgement he is the supreme Judge to him all appeals are made but none from him Acts 25.10 Paul made his appeale from Festus Court to Caesars Throne 't is the priviledge of this Nation that we have a Chancery to appeal to by such who are cast by the Rigour of the Common-Law The Countesse of Arundel made her bold appeal against King Richard the third Life of Richard the 3 d. to the Tribunal of him that was above The woman in the story who appealed from King Philip sleeping to King Philip waking had some ground for what she did but we have none such for our appeal Non temere è triclinio abscessit nisi distentus madens interdiu in juredicendo nonnunquam obdormisceret vixque ab advocatis de industriaÌ„ vocem augentibus exitaretur Sueton. in vita Claud. 33. 'T is not with him as it was wont to be with Claudius the Emperour who never used to rise from dinner but with a full panch and well whitled and was wont to sleep so soundly on the Bench that the Lawyers who pleaded before him though they purposely strained their voices and bawled could hardly awake him a posture very much mis-becoming a Judge But the Judge of Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps he is unlimited in power and untainted in point of Judicature he admits of no superiour 't is at his Judgement Seat that that we must stand or fall 4 The un-repealablenesse of this judgment it can never be revers'd It is appointed for all men once to die and after death to judgment * Qualem te invenit Deus cum vocat talempariter judicat Cypr. de mort after death comes judgment and after judgment nothing but the continuation of happinesse or misery as death leaves us judgement finds us and as judgement leaves us we must remain for ever This present age is the †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greg. Nazianzen Oratio 15 season of mercy that to come is the time of justice when the Sentence is past and the door is shut thou mayest cry and call and plead thine ancient acquaintance but thou shalt hear nothing but that comfortlesse language I know you not Go ye cursed God's Sentence is firmer then the decrees of the Medes and Persians which can never be revers'd 5. And beyond all this which ye have heard The nearnesse of this judgement 't is at hand Behold the Judge standeth at the door 't is a desperate degree of boldnesse to be cutting of purses while the Judge is on the bench this is to sin in defyance of Justice next to him who sins as Ahaz did when hee was under judgement those who sin while judgement is at their heels are most desperately guilty 't is a strange boldnesse in a Scholer to set himselfe to play when his Master is taking out the rod and for a sinner to go on in his evill ways when God hath bent his bow and fitted his arrows upon the string and prepared the instruments of death is either blockish stupidity or daring presumption Oh but say the scoffers in Peter 2 Epist 3.4 where is the promise of his coming This hath been long talk'd of but 't is not yet come nor is there any likelihood of it for all things remaine as they were but what sayes the Apostle to this Objection God is not slack as men count slacknesse a thousand yeers is with him but as one day though it be much to us yet 't is nothing to his eternity 't is but a day Behold hee 'l come quickly hee 'l come suddenly as a whirlewind as lightning in a moment in the twinkling of an eye in an hour we little dream of What if he should rend the heavens and come downe draw the curtaines and do execution when thou art in the heat of thy lust as in Zimri and Cosbies case what if that day overtake thee when thy heart is overcharged with surfetting
words make strongly for the last judgement As I live saith the Lord 't is an oath peculiar to God himself Have I purposed and shall not I bring it to passe have I sworne and shall it not stand Shall not I who punish perjury in others fulfill mine own oath doubtlesse I will Every knee shall bow Those knees which bowed to him in mockage shall now do him homage and those feeble sinnews shall tremble before him on the throne whom in a contumelious manner they scraped to on the Crosse Every tongue shall confesse Every reviling tongue shal confesse him to be God whom once they thought the worst of men and upon constraint acknowledge him their Judge whom they lately executed as a guilty Malefactor The Apostle Jude in the 14 and 15 verses of his Epistle hath another Testimony to the same purpose And Enoch also the seventh from Adam prophesied of these saying Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of Saints to execute judgement upon all c. 'T is hard to say Vtrumque vitium est omnibus credere nulli tutiùs hoc crimen est illud honestiùs Sen. Rawliegh histor lib. 1o. part 1. cap. 5. §. 6. Vid. Bez. which is worst to believe every one or no body they are both faults only with this difference the former is more ingenuous the later is more secure That this testimony is true there will be more will averre And who this Enoch was is not so hard to ghesse as what was his prophesie That it was an unwritten prophesie calculated onely for that Nation and delivered over from hand to hand is not improbable we find that he prophesied that he spake it but that it was written we do not read Enoch no question was a faithfull Preacher in his time and strove by a floud of divine Rhetorick to beat down those sins which nothing could stop but a floud of water and amongst other of his divine sayings this might be one by the care of the faithfull continuing to succeeding ages Secondly It might be written either by himselfe or some other yet not by divine inspiration nor never reduced into the Canon and such it may be was the Book of Jasher the upright if a very learned man mistake not Junius in loc for the word rendred Book signifies either a Catalogue of books or else it signifies publick records containing acts and proceedings in a Court of Judicature or Ecclesiasticall concerning Church-government or historicall concerning events and occurrences in the State of all which sorts there were severall lodged up in the Ark which never came to light which might be lost without any detriment to the Canon and of this sort might be this of Enoch Thirdly We are not to reckon all those books lost whose names we find mentioned in Scripture but not the books that bear those names as those of Nathan the Seer and Gad the Seer with those which Samuel himselfe wrote Manent libri tacentur nomina Junius make up the two Books of Samuel the books remaine though their names be supprest or changed so have I often seen smaller streams emptying themselves into the vaster Channel lose their own and assume the name of the greater current and so this of Enoch as others may remaine in holy Writ though being annexed with greater works it hath lost its name And it moves not much though we find not the very words if we find that which is equivalent which is sufficient to prove the citations out of the Old Testament true as you saw made clear in the former quotation Thus having proved Enoch to be bonum legalem hominem a man of credit and repute in his country let us hear his evidence Behold the Lord cometh c. where we have two things 1 the Judge and then 2 the Judgement it selfe The Judge set forth by his title and his train 1 His title 't is the Lord and for his traine ther 's the quality or nature of them Saints and the number of them ten thousand of Saints and for the judgement 't is to convince all the ungodly of all their hard speeches and evill works and all this with an ecce Behold ut de presenti loquitur as if it were within his kenn Enoch the seventh from Adam through the perspective of faith saw the day of judgement even at his heels we are some thousands of years nearer then he and can that be far from us Verstegan in his tract of the ancient English tongue p. 192. which so nearly bordered upon him Had Enoch been silent his very name had proclaimed a judgment to come In the old Teutoniâ—â— language the ancient speech of this Nation E signifies Law or Equity and Noch signifies yet once again or to come so that his very name imports a time to come where shall be the administration of justice according to right 2 Tim. 4.8 Paul when he came downe from the third heaven brought with him the certaine newes of a Judge that should come to crown him at that great day and not him onely but all those that shall love his appearing * Causab in annal Baron exer 2. c. 11. 1 Tim. 3. ult 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now there is a double appearance of Christ the first called by the Ancients 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the unridling of that great mystery God manifested in the flesh the second that is here mentioned by the Apostle 2 Thes 1.6 7. When the Son of man shall come in the clouds and every eye shal see him or to use his own words in that most accurate and dreadfull expression When the Lord Jesus Christ 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 Jesus Christ c. Not to be injurious to your patience in a businesse so obvious our Saviour the best of preachers hath laid down this truth in the parable of tares and in plain terms Matth. 25.31 2 Thus have you heard the testimony of Nature Naturae naturantis Naturae naturatae now lend an ear to nature her selfe Nor is this word far from thee that thou shouldest ask Who will bring it unto me only unrivet the secret Cabine of thy brest and thou shalt find this doctrine legible Whence else arise those secret twinges girds of thy conscience which like an under-officer bind thee over to the great Assize whence else that horror in thy dejected soule for sin committed which anticipates thy finall doom and executes thee before thou art condemned whence else those renting spasmes and tearing convulsions in his brest whose sin is so secret that none can know it whose person is so eminent that none can punish him Every mans secret thoughts bode and fore-speak a judgement to come whenâ—â— conscience tels him that sinne went before Culpam paena premit comes Hor. Carm. lib. 4. Od. 4. Sin and
19.13 1 Sam. 24.1 Act. 7.59 but David himselfe in some cave at Engedi If you look for a Stephen you 'l hardly see him through the showre of stones which in a horrid and detestable charity the Jews threw to make his tomb and to bury him before dead Act. 12.4 Mat. 14.3 Look you for a Peter a Baptist examine the prison the not unlikely place to find an honest downright preacher Look you for a Paul you may know him by the wales of his back imprinted by the sturdy hand of some cruell Bedle. 2 Cor. 11.23 24. Mat. 27.31 To conclude Look you for a Jesus a Saviour no so likely place to find him as between two theeves numbred amongst the transgressors groaning under the heavy pressures and bloody agonies of the Cross And if this be all the reward that is in Gods service Exod. 5.2 Job 21.15 Mat. 13.30 Mat. 25.32 33 Luk. 16.25 Numb 23.10 Heb. 4.9 Jer. 5.28 29. Jer. 12.1 3. men would be ready to ask with Pharaoh Who is this Lord that I should serve him and with those contemptuous ones in Job What profit is there in serving the Almighty On the other side should the tares overlook the wheat here and hereafter be sheafed up into the barn should the Goats enjoy their pleasure here and hereafter feed with the Lamb should Dives injoy his lusts here and rest hereafter in Abrahams bosom men would readily invert Balaams wish O that my life might he like the wickeds and my latter end like his But God hath prepared a rest for the Godly and fitted the wicked for the day of slaughter Dives may be their witnesse they cannot have their pleasure here and hereafter both That God suffers wicked men to ride on the backs of the righteous and makes them groan under their burdens is an act of that wisdome and providence which we must admire but not dispute But that he disposes his kingdome to the poor in spirit when the wicked shall be shut out with dogs and swine complies with and salves that Justice of his where at Good men rejoyce and bad tremble But I leave this point to be applyed together with the next and descend to the consideration of the words in their Relative sense The Lord is ready to come to judgment therefore O ye rich men do not ye oppresse the poor O ye poor men do not ye repine and grumble at the rich Whence this The consideration of Christs neer approach to judgement Proposition should awe the hearts of men Demonstrated by testimony of 1. Heathen and mould their conversations into a dutifull obedience to all Gods Commandments For the evidencing of which truth 1. If you consult with them who saw only by the dim eye of Nature they are able to tell you That nothing hath a greater influence upon mens lives for their mendment Nulla res magis prodcrit quam cogitatio mortalitatis Sen. de Ira l. 30. cap. 42. Julius Poll. Harpoc then the serious and frequent meditation of their death The Athenians had a law that no man was to be questioned during the time of his office which law they kept sacred and inviolable but no sooner was his office expired but there was as it were a Committee of Acounts to whom they were to be exactly answerable for all their miscarriages in the precedent year The Romanes had the like for their Consuls and Darius Polib Histo de cons Rom. lib. 6. Dan. 6.2 a custome not much unlike for the Princes of his Provinces an excellent meanes doubtlesse to keep them to their duty when they knew they were to undergo so speedy and so exact a scrutiny If you look higher to those who had their eyes cleered with Spirituall eye-salve 2 Fathers Sic quotidic vivamus quasi die illa judicandi simus Hierom in 24 Matth. they look upon this as the most effectuall means to bridle their unruly passions It was this which St. Jerome found of good use for the crucifying the flesh with the affections and lusts in himselfe and therefore prescribes it as a speciall remedy to others that whether they eat or drink Sive editis c. Surgite mortui venite ad judicinum Id. ib. or whatsoever they did they should still conceive that they heard the last Trumpet blowing and the Arch-Angel crying Arise ye dead and come to Judgement Chrysostome expounding that Text Rom. 13.11 Now is the high time to awake out of sleep c. .i. saith he Paraeus in loc The Resurrection is at hand and the last Judgement is at hand the day approaches therefore let 's awake out of sleep and cast off the works of darknesse How genuinely the text is interpreted let others censure sure I am that his sense is very apposite to our present purpose that the sense of that day should quicken us to our duties And * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom. in Psal 7. Basil the Great thus in many places of the Scripture there is mention made of the last and great Judgement which is a consideration most necessary and most effectuall for the preservation of Piety in the hearts and lives of those that beleeve the Gospel of Jesus Christ The Apostles have not a more effectuall argument to keep men to the imbracement of the faith 3 Apostles and practice of holinesse then by minding them of Christ's coming to judgement 1 Thes 5.1.6 Let us watch and bee sober for the day of the Lord cometh as a thiefe in the night 2 Pet. 3.10 11. The day of the Lord will come as a thiefe in the night in which the Elements shall melt with fervent heat c. therefore what manner of persons ought you to be in all holy conversation and godlinesse Seeing beloved ye look for such things be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace 1 Pet. 4.7 without spot and blamelesse The end of all things is at hand Phil. 4.5 be ye therefore sober and watch unto prayer Let your moderation be known unto all men the Lord is at hand and as if there were nothing by which he could more effectually obtest them the Apostle beseeches them by the coming of Christ 2 Thes 2.1 and by their gathering together to him And when he is closing up his first Epistle to the Corinthians Chap. 16.22 as if he were most firmly to clench in that great duty of our love to Christ which he had been long hammering at he concludes If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema accursed How accursed Why Maran-atha The Lord cometh and though we cannot now expresse how heavily he shall be accursed yet he shall then feel it It was the heaviest kind of all their cursings and execrations Pessimum Anathematis genus Vid. Bez. Piscat 4. Christ himselfe when the sinner was left off and given up as an incorrigible person to the coming of
them from the storm which is your duty but briers and thornes to tear and spile them how great is such injustice Men account themselves lesse injuriously rifled in a wood Dan. histor in the life of King John then in a place where they presume of safety and grieve not so much when they are cheated by a Shark as when they are injured by a Judge An unjust Judge is the greatest plague a Commonwealth is capable of he turnes justice into gall Amos 6.12 and righteousnesse into hemlock he makes a man's physick his poison and what then can cure him Master of the Hospitall of Jerusalem to King John But he that is an unjust Judg to others is just against and doth excution upon himself he puts himselfe out of commission and cancels that authority by which he sits for as he said once to the King So long as you will observe justice you may be a King Dan. bist p. 168. but when you once violate it you cease to be a King So say I so long as you do justice you are a Judge when you pervert judgement you cease to be a Judge The second Branch of your duty to men is Love mercy You must do justice when necessity cals for it but you must love mercy Mercy is the choice attribute which God delights to exercise when he comes to judgment he comes slowly but chearfully to shew mercy when God is coming to punish Israel Isai 7.20 't is said that he will shave with a razor that is hired as if it were a work which he came so unwillingly to that he kept no tools by him to work withall but was faine to hire them God strikes but with his finger Non debet dispensator crudelis esse ubi pater-familias misericors est but he saves with his arme He gives his wrath by weight but without weight his mercy Be ye therefore mercifull as your heavenly Father is mercifull you may possibly meet with some whose youth or ignorance or hopefulnesse of amendment may render them the objects of your mercy without prejudice to the Commonwealth in such cases be tender of drawing bloud Chap. 2.13 't is a precious thing Let mercy rejoyce against judgement and remember that of our Apostle that he shall have judgment without mercy who will shew no mercy 2. As to God-ward Ribera in locum your duty is to walk humbly with your God Solicitum esse ad ambulandum to make it your businesse and your care to walk humbly with your God in your own persons in your families in your places offices 1 In your own persons Gen. 30.39 Vita Judicis est censura eaque perpetua ad hanc convertimur ad hanc dirigimur rectè facere faciendo docent Plus exemplo quam peccato nocent Inferiours live more by the eye then by the ear and are guided by example much rather then by command they are like Jacob's sheep which produce fruit like to that they look upon speckled and ring-straked The people look upon the life of the Judge as the best commentary upon the Law they will hardly believe the meaning of the Law is to punish swearing or Sabbath-breaking or the like sins whil'st they see the Judge practice that himselfe which he forbids in others Every good Judge and 't is true too of every good Minister Magistrate Father Master must be exemplary in goodnesse Judges 7.17 and be able to say in reference to good things as Gideon did in another case As you see me do so do ye They should teach those who are under their power to do good by doing it themselves first let it not be in the reformation of manners Drant on Eccles 11.1 as 't is in the flaying of a beast where the matter sticks most when it comes to the head let not that proverb be made good in you that they who hold the best farmes pay the least rent that they who are the greatest men should be the worst Christians that they whom Gods speciall favours ingage to be more eminently good should be below others in piety and holinesse 2. Josh 24.15 In your Families It becomes you to say as Josuah did Psal 101.6 7. I and my house will serve the Lord and as David did He that worketh deceit shall not dwell in my house He that telleth lies shall not tarry in my sight But mine eyes shall be upon the faithfull of the Land that he may dwell with me he that walketh in a perfect way he shall serve me A riotous and disorderly servant causeth if not his Masters piety yet his prudence to be called in question And this your pious care should reach not only to those meniall servants which attend your persons but also to those Ministers and Vnder-officers whose service you use in the dispatch of publick businesse As it hath been said that they who work the greatest mischiefs are oftentimes the men that can best repair them so it may not seldome be seen that those who come to redresse the grievances of the Countrey are the men that work them I have heard some men complaine that the fees and bribes wherwith Mistris Expedition hath been courted have amounted to more then the whole portion which the Lady Justice hath brought along with her 3. In your places and offices improving all your power to the encouragement of vertue the suppressing of vice and the advancement of the interest of Jesus Christ from whom you have received your power and to whom you must give up an account of the discharge of your office The rivers which receive their rise from the sea they return their waters back again into the lap of the Ocean Your power and authority is derived to you from Christ and should be imployed by you and improved to all possible advancement of the glory of Christ My Lords We willingly pay your Lordships all that respect and reverence which is due to your Persons and places we acknowledge you and submit to you as Gods but withall we beseech you remember too that you are but men and must die like other men and after death Psal 82.6 7. you must come to judgement as well as others there is a Judge coming even at the very door whose Person whose Power whose Train is greater then yours where the Judge and the poorest prisoner at the Bar must stand upon even terms and receive according to their work 2. Next to you the Gentlemen of the long robe whose Persons and profession I am obliged to honour as one who in the blackest and darkest times of England's trouble have found not only shelter and protection but warmth and life under the wings of your profession The Law of England is the happinesse of the People of England against which no man hath yet spurned but to his own prejudice The profession of the Law of England is ancient and honourable and necessary against which
more notorious crimes and punisht the offender with stoning a death more grievous then that of bebeading But he that saith Thou fool shall be in danger of Hell fire ignis Gehennae a Metaphor taken from the fire in the place called the valley of Gehinnom which was a place neer Jerusalem where the Idolatrous in an accursed imitation of the barbarous practice of some of their neighbour nations were wont to sacrifice their children unto Moloch which was say some by making them passe through the fire till they were dead Others That they were put into the belly of a brazen Image shaped proportionally to the limbs of a man in which being heated extreamely hot they were burnt and scortch'd to death which way soever it was the torment was most exquisite and their lamentations most intolerable wherewith least their parents the sacrificers should be moved and affected the Trumpets did continually sound and they made otherwise a piteous dinne that the skreeks and groans of the tortured children might not be be heard whence the place was called Tophet from a wordt hat signifies a Timbrell or a Trumpet and the torments that these poor creatures suffered were chosen out as the fittest resemblance to set out the pains of hell by The summe of all is that as he who actually murders a man is subject here to be punished by the laws of men so shall he that sins against the law of God in any of these forementioned ways be subject to the judgement of God at that great day he that is angry with his brother unadvisedly shall be without repentance cast into hel he that expresseth that rancour of his mind by some disdainfull gesture or contemptuous speech Regula peccatis quae poenas irroget aquas Hor. scr l. 1. sat 3. Dr Reynolds praelect in Apoc. p. 269. shall bee cast into hell into greater torments but he that shall ad any speciall kind of reproach or bitter rayling shall be cast into torments inexpressable such as were the torments of those who were sacrificed unto Moloch All our sins you see must come to judgment thoughts and words as well as actions they shall bee all the evil ones rewarded with stripes though the last with more But what must we then give an account for our words also Mat 12.36 Yes for every idle word we must give an account But by the way by idle word we are not to understand every jesting pleasant speech for al such is not idle no more then all that is serious is profitable Nor are we to think every witty jeer 1 King 18.27 or biting sarcasm an idle word Elijah jeered the priests of Baal and Solomon the riotous young person Eccles 11.9 but those are idle words which neither savour of wisdom or holinesse be they spoken in jest and earnest Verbum oticsum est quod infructuosum est Greg. de Cur. pastor par 3. adm 15. otiosum verbum est quod ratione justae necessitatis et intentione piae utilitatis caret 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Basil in Ps 7. De peccatis cogitationum nemo poenam putitur Ulpian in digest Bishop of Carlile's speech in Parliament 1 Hen. 4. Trussell Conatus consilia cogitationes justissimè castigat vindicta divina Polib Non decet solùm manus innocentes sed oculos animosque puros habere That 's an idle word saith Tertullian which tends neither to the instruction or edification of the hearer And another that 's an idle word which is needlesse and unprofitable and if we must give so strict and solemn account for every idle word how much more for every false and deceitfull word for every scurrilous and rotten word for every envious and malicious word for every slandering and disgracefull word for every hereticall and blasphemous word But is this all shall our works and words alone bee weighed in the strict ballance of divine Justice Shall the Proverb bear us out that Thought is free the Lawyer lays it down as a ruled case That no man is punisht for thinking But the Lawyer saw only with his own spectacles and lookd not beyond his own consistory in humanes judicatories 't is true we punish not thoughts till backt with consent some outward expression or execution But in Gods judgment 't is otherwise He who is the seacher of the hearts and tryer of the reines may justly punish the inward motions and waiward Counsels of the same As the Oracle answered Glaucus in another case idem est tentare Deum facere in Gods account it is all one to intend and act a villany Christ the best expositor of the Law himself made mightily convinceth the Pharisees of mis-interpreting the Law and proves that not only the outward Act but the inward risings of the heart are sinfull not he only who kills but he that is angry with his Brother unadvisedly breaketh the Commandments not only he that lies with a woman but he that lusts after her is liable to judgement The pure and holy Law of God requireth truth and holinesse in the inward parts as well as a bare forbearance of the outward act 'T is not enough that our hand be cleer from bloud unlesse our hearts be free from malice and our tongues from reproach There may be a guilty eye a guilty hand us well as unlawfull imbraces For Christ in that place blames not the Law as too narrow Non legem culpat sed interpretandi modum as not reaching to forbid evill words or thoughts but quarrells at the false interpretation of the Pharisees who corruptly straitned and so marrd the text The Commandments of God as they are sincerely pure Psa 19. so are they also exceeding broad reaching to the dividing between the marrow and the bones betwixt the intentions and secret thoughts of the heart The Law is compared to the Sun from the lustre of whose rayes the most secret closets lie not hid 't is therefore call'd a spiritual Law Lex Dei dicitur spiritualis ratione 1 Originis 2 Impletionis 3 Finis 4 Obligationis by the Apostle and so 't is in four respects first in regard of its Originall proceeding from a spirit 2. In regard of the power of fulfilling of it all the strength of Nature cannot fulfill it it must be from the renewing of the spirit 3. In regard of its end which is to bring us to God the Father of spirits 4. Which belongs hither in regard of its obliging power because it doth not only restrain the outward act of wickednesse but the first motions of the heart the first tendencies and inclinations of the thoughts to evil God even in his Law set bounds to our thoughts the transgression of that law implies guilt and guilt doth but pave the way to judgement which Christ the righteous judg will execute as wel for hard thoughts Jude ver 14. as for ungodly deeds Will you heare the conclusion of the whole matter God shall