it 's easily answer'd that two or three such Instances can be no prejudice to the General Judgment of most men both learned and unlearned That it has been their Interest there should be no such thing as a Judgment to come and therefore they have rack'd their Brains to find out Arguments against it That the impurity of their Lives has sullied their Reasons and debauch'd their understandings and rendred them as uncapable of judging what belongs to the humane Nature as a man born blind is to read a Lecture about Colours or a Person with a distemper'd Palate to distinguish meats But now to what Cause shall we assign this universal Agreement How comes it about that the most distant People of the World that live under different Models of Government and distinct Rites of Worship that have peculiar Customs and Manners and Inclinations should all joyn in this that there is an Account to be given in another World of all our Actions done in this Besides how comes this Principle to stand so fix'd and unshaken considering the infinite changes which almost every thing else has undergone and the many attempts which have been made to alter this by a sort of men that would confound the Distinction betwixt Vertue and Vice here that there might be no such thing as either Heaven or Hell hereafter We see daily that other Opinions rise and fall according as the grounds they are built upon appear stronger or weaker and sometimes they have more sometimes fewer Defendants to own and countenance them But this Doctrine of a Judgment to come as it is of equal Antiquity and has the same extent with Mankind so is it constantly the same Tract of Time and revolution of Ages and deeper insight into the nature of things the several changes that have happened in the Laws the Religions the Customs of any People have not been able to abate any thing of its Authority but still as the World grows older and more changeable this grows more strong vigorous and constant It must then have some cause like it self it must be resolv'd into some such impressions as are common to Mankind which every man carries about him and from which he may argue himself into a belief of it I am easily induc'd to think that as the main Body of the Heathen Theology was but the old Traditional Religion corrupted by a long and tedious descent as all things are apt to lose of their native Purity the farther they go so this Account of a future Judgment amongst the Heathens might be a branch of it mixt with the fancies and inventions of men till the first Patriarchal Creed became a meer Poetical Story But yet I think it will be hard to perswade any man that a Doctrine of this kind so opposite to mens worldly Interests so apt to controul their Lusts and Passions should spread so far and prevail so generally were there not some more early impression left upon us to make room in our understandings for it some natural notions that amidst all vicissitudes of the World would be sure to uphold the truth of it I instance in these three 1. That apprehension which all men have concerning good and evil 2. That secret joy which good men find upon the doing any vertuous act And that confidence they have when they suffer upon the score of Piety and Religion 3. Those horrible Fears and Confusions which bad men find upon the doing an ill act These are natural to us as men and fair Evidences of what I have undertook to make out 1. That apprehension which all men have concerning good and evil argues a future Judgment That some actions are Vertuous and Honourable and the contrary base and vitious and that Antecedently to any humane Law or positive Custom for the making them so is the common voice of mankind To be innocent in our Conversations grateful to our Benefactors upright in our Dealings true to our Vows and Promises Oaths and Contracts these are such things as would be excellent and approved of all though there were no humane Laws to enjoyn and encourage the practice of them And on the other hand the opposite Vices are so deform'd and ugly that should all the Law-givers on earth conspire to change the Scene to make Vertue Vice and Evil Good the undertaking would be as strange as unsuccesful Such attempts could never obtain their end unless they could mould the man over again and infuse into him quite different Principles from what he has already And though men are so far willing to comply with their temporal Interests as to contradict in the Practick what they are content to own in the Speculative yet there are not many arrived to that pitch of Prophaneness but would appear in the World under another Character than what they really deserve Which argues at least in the worst of men a secret allowance that Virtue has something in it more suitable to the honour of the humane Nature and that Vice has that intrinsick ugliness in it that we blush at and are asham'd to own Now the goodness of every Action consisting in a conformity to its proper Rule and the badness of any Act in a deflection from it It will follow that there is a Rule stamp'd upon the mind of every man according to which he judges one Act good and another evil and that Judgment about good and evil being one and the same in all Parts of the World the Rule must be so too and consequently have the same Author which our very Being has the all-wise God This is that Rule the Roman Orator styl'd Non scripta lex sed nata a Law not written on Tables of Stone or Brass but engraven on the Heart and Conscience of man agreeable to St. Paul's Character of the Gentiles which having not the Law are a Law to themselves Rom. 2.14 15. and do shew the work of the Law written in their Hearts their Consciences also bearing Witness and their thoughts the mean while accusing or excusing one another 'T will also follow that the great Author of this Law must have reserv'd some Rewards and Punishments to secure mens obedience to it It being below the wisdom of any temporal Prince to send his Statutes and Decrees abroad without such Motives to enforce their observance And if these Rewards and Punishments are not immediately dispens'd as I shall after shew there must be another time set apart for that work of Justice 2. That secret joy which good men find upon the doing a vertuous Act is a kind of earnest and anticipation of a future Reward and that considence they have when they suffer upon the Score of Piety and Religion argues an expectation of it Let the good man reflect upon the frame of his mind when he has been doing his duty and hee 'l find every thing there calm and peaceable There is something within him that whispers the soft Eulogies of a well done good and
THE Last Judgment OR A DISCOURSE Shewing the reasonableness of the Belief of such a thing Deliver'd in a SERMON At the ASSIZES held for the County of DENBIGH on the 18th of April Anno 1682. By JOHN OLIVER Chaplain to the Right Worshipful Sir Thomas Delves of Dodington in Cheshire Baronet and sometime Student of Clare-Hall in Cambridge LONDON Printed for John Minshull and to be sold at his Shop in Bridge-street in Chester and Ric. Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1682. To the Right Worshipful JOSHVA EDISBVRY Esq High Sheriff For the County of DENBIGH SIR THis Sermon came abroad at last to testifie the grateful sense I have of the many favours received from your self and some other Members of that Audience in which it was deliver'd And since it is made thus publick it can't in justice be entitled to any other Person than your self the first occasion of its being There were several Arguments that might have disswaded any man in my Circumstances from a Work of this kind of which the unripeness of my years and a natural aversion to be knownin such a quarrelsome Age where the plainnest things are become matter of Controversie were none of the least And yet I reckon'd that the Request of those worthy Persons who were pleas'd to set such extraordinary marks of their Favour upon one who was perfectly a Stranger to them could not be denyed without a secret reproach of Ingratitude I have therefore been so hardy as to expose it a second time and do lay it down with all submission at your Feet beseeching you to receive it with as much Candor as 't is offer'd with Modesty by Your Most humble and most obliged Servant JOHN OLIVER A SERMON Preach'd at the AS SIZES held for the County of DENBIGH April 18. 1682. 2 Cor. 5. and former part of the 10th Verse For we must all appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ. I Don't know any one Article of our Christian Faith that can possibly have a more universal influence on the Lives and Actions of all men than that which concerns a Judgment to come And I know no time so proper to mind you of that General Assize in which all men shall be summon'd to give Account of their doings as the present occasion For as nothing can be of greater Force for the Government of our whole time so nothing can more immediately conduce to regulate the particular Actions of this than a firm Belief that whatever passes from us here will be entred into the most lasting and unalterable Registers be laid up among the Archieves of Heaven and must as certainly be review'd another day and at another Bar of the most exact and impartial Justice In my Defence of this great Principle I shall endeavour to make out these 3 things 1. That the belief of a Judgment to come is suitable to those common Notions which are imprinted on our minds And that every sober Person by reflecting on his own frame must unavoidably fall under this perswasion 2. That the Belief of a Judgment to come is agreeable to that Notion men have concerning the Being and Providence of a God 3. That this Doctrine is infinitely certain upon the grounds of Scripture and especially the Gospel whose great Priviledge it is to have brought Life and Immortality to Light I begin with the first of these Viz. 1. That the Belief of a Judgment to come is suitable to those common Notions which are imprinted on our minds and that every sober Person by reflecting on his own Frame must unavoidably fall under this Perswasion We cann't imagine that the great Author of our Being should leave any Impressions upon man the most excellent piece of his workmanship here below which should stand for a Cypher Nothing could be a greater impeaching of his Wisdom than to have put such things into our Constitution as could be of no use or advantage to us If there be therefore any such Principles stamp'd upon us as will naturally enforce the Belief of another Judgment And if these Principles can proceed from nothing else but the Finger of the Almighty this will be one fair Evidence that such a thing must certainly be And that there are such Principles stamp'd upon our minds as will naturally enforce the Belief of another Judgment is plain from the universal Consent of men in all times and places about it For this Doctrine of a Judgment to come has found a general entertainment in the World Not only amongst the Greeks and Romans those People by whom Learning and Arts Policy and Government were improv'd to a considerable degree But also amongst the rude and barbarous Nations where nothing of this kind can be assign'd as the grounds of it There being little of Policy or Religion or Learning or good Manners to be there met with Whatever there was to difference these last from the more civiliz'd part of Mankind yet in this they all agreed the Being of a God a future State the distribution of Rewards and Punishments according to the Actions of men in this Life It must be granted indeed that the apprehensions the Heathens had of another Life were dark and cloudy The Rewards they imagin'd to be laid up for good men were mostly adapted to the gratifying of the sensual Part and the Punishments to be inflicted on evil men were such as they thought most suitable to the Crimes here committed They tell us that when good men have pass'd their Tryals they are immediately convey'd into some Paradysial place some flowry Fields and Gardens always flourishing and delightful where they meet with such innocent enjoyments as they took most pleasure in while here on Earth Which by the way is a secret reflection on the loose pretender to Christianity who resolves to spend all his dayes in riot and excess in filthiness and debauchery and yet hopes in the end to be possess'd of those spiritual Pleasures above which are nothing akin to the Pleasures he met with here and if enjoy'd could be no more satisfaction to him than it would be to a Swine to have his Stye built of Cedar his Bed perfum'd and his Meat serv'd him in Plate As for the wicked they tell us the Portion of such is to be cast into black and dismal Prisons to be tormented by Haggs and Furies and to meet with such other Punishments as the nature and weight of their Crimes deserved And however this Account be infinitely short of what the Scripture affords concerning the different Conditions of men in another World yet it argues a strong perswasion even amongst Infidels of a future State and that such a thing was acknowledg'd by them though the Nature and Circumstances of it could not be made out without the assistance of a supernatural Light If it be said that there is no such universal consent as is here pretended because some few Persons Atheistically inclin'd have now and then disown'd the Opinion
faithful Servant and entitles him to the Approbation of his great Master Besides when he suffers upon the account of doing well what is it that bears up his Spirit but an assurance that he suffers in a good Cause and a reasonable hope that he shall be rewarded for it This was the true Foundation of that undaunted Courage with which the first Christians outbrav'd the Malice of their bloodiest Persecutors This was it that made so many Champions for Religion both before and under the Law of whose Sufferings the Author to the Hebrews gives us this Catalogue Heb. 11.36 37 38. They had Tryals of cruel Mockings and Scourgings yea moreover of Bonds and Imprisonments They were Stoned they were Sawn asunder were tempted were slain with the Sword they wandred about in Sheep-skins and Goat-skins being destitute afflicted tormented of whom the World was not worthy the wandred in Desarts and Mountains in Dens and Caves of the Earth And under all these the great encouragement was the Recompence of the Reward V. 26. But perhaps these are Instances that won't be allow'd me here and the Courage of these men will be resolv'd not into any natural expectance of a future Reward but into some special Promise and supernatural Revelation If so there are memorable Examples of this kind to be found even amongst Heathens themselves To instance in one for all the excellent Socrates who suffer'd upon a fundamental Point Plato in Phaed. the Unity of God with how much bravery of Spirit did he demean himself and what admirable Discourses dropp'd from him during his Imprisonment And lastly with how much boldness did he look the ghastly Messenger in the face And what was his support 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He encourag'd himself in hopes of going into another World where he should meet with better Company than any was upon Earth And though his assurances of it were none of the best 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet they were such as bore up all that load that was charg'd upon them But then 3. What Account can be given of that great uneasiness of mind which waits upon the Commission of a gross sin especially though never so private How comes the man to be so strangely alter'd on the sudden His Colour changes his Blood retires his Spirits flagg his Tongue falters his Joynts tremble his Pulse grows uncertain fear astonishment and despair hang upon his Brow And all this is but the outward Scene and Representation of what 's acted within There 's a Court of Judicature erected the guilty Person 's arrested by his own thoughts and summon'd to the Bar Arraign'd Convicted Condemn'd and only Repriev'd for a more solemn Trial at the great day Though he walk abroad hee 's but a more enlarged sort of Prisoner the Guards of Conscience attend him in all places and 't is as impossible for him to make his escape from them as to flee from himself And now what 's the meaning of all this Only the man 's bound over to some other Tribunal to answer for those Actions which the Temporal Lâ—â—ts here take no notice of If it be said that these fears are only the Fruits of bad education and some unsound Principles instill'd into our tender Age How comes it about that those Persons who pretend tâ—â—â— he greatest share of knowledg who dare undertake to argue down the Belief of a God and Providence and a future State have not been able by all their endeavours to raze out these Notions and to conquer the fears arising from them We see it 's an ordinary thing for men upon due Experience and better Information to throw off those Opinions which were forc'd upon them in their Infancy But this of a Judgment to come sticks closer to a man than his skin the Atheist himself cannot be rid on 't though he tries all wayes to baffle his Conscience and extinguish his natural Sentiments about it And if we may believe the credible Reports of former times no men in the World have been more assaulted with the fears of another Life than they who pretend to render that and every thing else in Religion the Subjects of their Mirth and Drollery This was the case of Epicurus who when he had banish'd as he thought a Providence out of the World yet he could not by all his Arguments banish a Conscience out of himself that was resolv'd to keep home and to punish the Offender for his other bold and impious undertakings But perhaps the fear that waits upon the Commission of some Acts relates only to temporal Punishments and the Sword of the Secular Power It may be that 's it which puts the man out of order if so how comes it about that such Acts of Impiety as are not punishable in anâ— Civil Court and such as are done with that secrecy as not to fall under publick Cognizance should have the same effect Or whence it is that those Persons which are too big for the Law should be as much tormented with the fears of this kind as any that are within the verge of it Kings and Emperors have been under this Discipline if there be any truth in Sacred or Prophane Authors This was the case of Belshazzar even in the height of his jollity Dan. 5.3 6. while the Hand was writing his doom upon the Wall his Conscience was reading over the Indictment within and then no wonder if his Countenance was changed and his Thoughts troubled him if his Joynts were loos'd and his Knees smote against each other Thus it far'd likewise with the Roman Governour while St. Paul reason'd of Righteousness Temperance Act. 24.25 and Judgment to come was it strange that Foelix should tremble at the latter part of the Sermon who knew himself so defective in all the rest After the Historian had taken notice of that odd Epistle Tacit. Annal. lib. 6. Quid scribam vobis Patres Conscripti aut quomodo scribam aut quid omnino non scribam hoc tempore dii me deaeque pejus perdant quam quotidie perire sentio si scio ubi de hà c re plura Tiberius the Emperor wrote to the Senate He adds by way of remark that if the Breasts of Tyrants could be look'd into there would be found there Laniatus Ictus the wounds of a disorder'd Spirit And the Author of the Lives of the Caesars Satton in vitâ Calig Parag. 5. in his account of Caligula could observe that he who was so great a Contemner of the Divine Power was glad upon every thunderclap to take Sanctuary under his Bed His Courage then fail'd him when the Arrows of the Almighty went abroad And the sense of his guilt made him apt to think that himself was the Person that was aim'd at 'T were needless to reckon up more Examples of this kind since we have reason enough to believe that there has not been one Atheist in the World but one tin e or other has
been assaulted by that clamorous thing within and especially at the approaches of his dying hour when his Conscience has set all his sins in order before him and put him in mind of that Wise Powerful and Just God before whom he is summon'd to appear It has been well observed that the hopes and fears I am now speaking of are not to be found in any other Creature here below besides man The Brutes have no sad presages no encouraging assurances of another Life because wholly unconcern'd in the Retributions of it Man is the only thing in this lower World that 's affected with them and there is no man that 's free from them Which is a strong Evidence to me that the Author of our Being has left these impressions upon us and that on purpose to guide us by them to the knowledge of a future State For it cannot be that a God of infinite Wisdom should put any thing into our frame which should stand for nothing Or that a God of infinite Goodness should fix any Principles there that were perfect Cheats and Delusions which he must have done if there be nothing in another World to verifie those hopes and fears which all men whatsoever are lyable to in this To conclude this Argument Seeing this Doctrine has been universally receiv'd by men in all Ages and in all parts of the World and whatever hath so may well be thought to have some Foundation at least in the very nature of man Seeing there are such Notions there as will dispose any man in the right use of his Faculties to the belief of an after-reckoning Seeing these cann't in reason be imagin'd to have any other Cause than what our Being has the Maker of all things since it could not consist with his Wisdom or Goodness to leave us under the Conduct of any vain useless or delusory Principles it must follow that these are certain Intimations of a Judgment to come engraven upon the mind of every man that the very Heathens might have some notice of it and be left inexcusable if their Lives and Actions were not govern'd according to the belief of it 2. My second Argument for the proof of a future Judgment is drawn from the Notion of a God and Providence He that has but so much Religion left him as to own the first Articles of his Creed may be able with very little Logick to argue himself into a Belief of this great Truth God being the Fountain of all possible Perfections these things must be included in the Notion of him Infinite Knowledge Exact Justice Irresistible Power To which if we add the usual Methods of his Providence relating to good and evil men in this Life we shall then have a full demonstration of this Principle that there is another time to be expected when all men shall receive according to their doings 1. As to his Knowledge we are sure it cann't be other than infinite Any thing less than that would be so far from being a Perfection that it would be a real blemish and disparagement to the Divine Nature And if infinite then as to what concerns our present enquiry it must extend to the Persons of all men from the beginning to the end of the World and to all the Actions of all men not only such as are more open and publick but such also as are more secret and reserv'd Whatever Arts are made use of by us to conceal our faults from the Knowledg of man 't is impossible that they should have the same effect upon God whose all-seeing Eye pierceth through the fairest Veils and closest Disguises of Hypocrisie From which it will follow that all those Acts of sin which scape the Censure of the Magistrate because either not within his Sphere as all internal acts of the mind or done with that secrecy that there 's no Evidence of them must unavoidably fall under the notice and observation of God 2. As to his Justice We cann't frame such a notion of an infinite Justice as to think that it will either justifie the Wicked or condemn the Righteous Shall not the Judge of all the Earth do right was a Question that carried its own Answer along with it and would as soon have been resolv'd by a sober Heathen as a Patriarch We cann't think that the great Law-giver should be so much of Epicurus's mind as never to cast an eye upon his Creatures below or if he did be only an idle spectator of what 's done here We cann't think that he should have no concern for those Laws he has given us or look down with as much favour on them that defie his Authority and trample upon his Commands as on them that are careful to preserve a due regard to both Rewards and Punishments are the usual Sanctions of all Laws And then sure those that proceed from the highest Authority in the World and are of greatest consequence to the Peace and Welfare of mankind as the Laws of God certainly are must have the strongest Motives to bind them upon us The offer of the greatest Reward to the Obedient and the threatning of the severest Penalty to the flubborn that Religion may be our Interest as well as Duty and Vice the contradiction of both And we may be further assur'd that such Rewards and Punishments will one time or other be apportion'd to the Actions of all men seeing they are in the hands of the most exact Justice to dispense them 'T were below an infinite Wisdom to make Laws without such enforcements and repugnant to his Justice not to execute them 3. As to his Power If that be equal with his Knowledg and Justice as certainly it is can he want Methods to reward the Righteous or punish the Wicked Whatever strength there is in the Creatures 't is but a Derivation from him as the Fountain and 't is under his Government as all other things and directed to such ends as he thinks fit The Angels are but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Spirits that minister to his Will as well as our wants and all inferior Beings can have no more honourable an employment than to be sent on his Errand and if these are at his beck he cann't want either Instruments of Wrath to avenge himself on the Wicked or wayes of mercy for the recompence of the good But now if we consider the usual Course of his Providence we cann't say that Rewards and Punishments are exactly suited to mens actions here Temporal Happiness is not always the Portion of those that reverence a Deity nor are Temporal Judgments the certain Fate of such as contemn it 'T is true there have been in all Ages some extraordinary instances of a Divine Vengeance pursuing the Wicked and as remarkable Examples of the worldly success and prosperity of good men God having been pleas'd by these wayes to give sufficient Testimony of an over ruling Providence in all the Centuries of the World And you perhaps these