the Scales against the Globe of the Earth The assurance of a righteous Cause and a righteous Judg will preserve an inward and joyful tranquillity of Soul in the midst of all the Storms of Reproach and Scandalous Imputations like the calmness of a Haven when the Sea is tempestuous without And this will fortify Believers to bear with an invincible courage all the violence that is offered to them for their fidelity to God All the wrongs and injuries they endure shall be redrest with infinite advantage The extreamest Evils to which they are exposed for Christ are like the Chariots of Fire sent from God not to consume but conduct Elias in triumph into the highest Heaven God will give them present Support inward Consolations and a future Crown There is an appointed day when oppressed Innocence shall obtain the noblest Victory and disgraced Godliness the most publick and highest Honour The Faith of sincere Christians shall be found to praise and glory They may suffer under the tyranny of Time but shall reign in the Kingdom of Eternity The belief of this when firmly radicated in the heart is so powerful as to make them glory in the sharpest Tribulations and joyfully triumph over Satan with his perverted malignant World Cantando rumpitur Anguis But alas the Sin and a great part of the trouble of the Saints arises from their weakness of Faith and not patient waiting for the Day of the Lord. When heavy Persecutions and great Distresses are continued by the restless Adversaries they are apt through impatience and instability of mind to be full of sorrowful Complaints that God delayes their particular Deliverance And as sometimes the Clock out-runs the motion of the Sun that is the true measure of Time so their hasty desires prevent the eternal Counsel of his Will that has determined the period of the Miseries of his People and of the Prosperity of the Wicked in the fittest time And that he suspends his glorious Coming to judg the World in Righteousness discourageth weaker Christians and makes them ready to faint in the day of Adversity But the Lord is not slack in performing his Promise as Men count slackness There is not the least reason to question his Fidelity and Power or to suspect his Love and Remembrance of his People And as the Stars of Heaven enlighten the Earth but the Candles on Earth cannot enlighten the Heavens so the Wisdom of God's Counsel and Providence should direct us patiently to expect his appointed time but our glimmering reason cannot direct him 4. The serious belief of future Judgment is the most effectual restraint from secret Sins Men are apt to encourage themselves in evil upon the account of secrecy 't is the usual tinder of Temptations If solitude and silence if the darkness of the night or any disguises may conceal their Wickedness from humane Eyes they are bold and secure as to God The Psalmist declares what is the inward principle that acts them what is the language of their hearts All the workers of Iniquity boast themselves they say The Lord shall not see neither shall the God of Jacob regard it But O the brutish folly of Men to think that because they do not see God that he does not see them As if one should shut his Eyes in the face of the Sun and do some foul abominable thing thinking himself to be unseen because he sees no person How vain is the impure diligence of the Adulterer the crafty diligence of the Deceiver the sollicitous diligence of other Sinners to hide things from the Judge of all Shall not God search it out for he knows the very secrets of the heart What a confounding discovery will be made of secret Wickedness at the last day Here obscurity is the mask of Shame that conceals it from the World Or if only Children and Fools that are not capable to judg of the indecency and turpitude of Actions be Spectators Men are not touch'd with shame for foul things But then their Wickedness shall be displayed before God the holy Angels and Saints The actual belief of this would deprive Satan of one of his greatest Advantages and be a blessed Preservative from many Sins that allure the consent by the temptation of secrecy A considering Christian will reject them with indignation saying with Joseph How can I do this great Wickedness and sin against God The Sins undiscovered and unpunish'd by temporal Tribunals shall then receive a just recompence 5. The remembrance of that strict Judgment is the most natural and powerful remedy against sensual Temptations that so easily insinuate and engage the hearts of Men. S. Peter reckoning up the Heathen Sins Lasciviousness Lusts excess of Wine Revellings and abominable Idolatries tells the Christians that the Gentiles thought it strange that they did not run with them to the same excess of riot As the Disciples when our Saviour walkt upon the Waters thought he had been a Spirit judging that no real Body could tread on them without sinking thus Men are apt to think it impossible to restrain their carnal appetites when allured by pleasing objects But the belief of the Terrors of the Lord will damp the sensual affections when most strongly enclin'd to forbidden things and extinguish delight in Sin for delight and fear are inconsistent Therefore the wise Preacher gives this Counsel Rejoice O young Man in thy youth and let thy heart chear thee in the days of thy youth and walk in the ways of thy heart and sight of thine eyes but know thou for all these things God will bring thee to Judgment This will change the apprehensions of the mind and alter the taste of the appetite and make the most enticing and irresistible Lusts the objects of our greatest detestation 6. The consideration that the Son of God clothed with our nature shall judg the World affords strong Consolation to his People and is a motive of great terror to the Wicked How comfortable is it to his People that he who loved them above his Life and was their Redeemer on the Cross shal be their Judg on the Throne He is the same Jesus Christ yesterday to day and for ever the same indulgent Saviour in the exaltation of his Glory as when under sufferings reproach and shame He is described in that glorious Appearance by the conjunct Titles of his Majesty and Power The Great god and of his Compassion and Mercy Our Saviour to signify his Ability and Affection to make them happy When he comes with a heavenly Train of Angels to Judgment he will be as tender of his Servants as when he suffered for them in his humble state He that paid their Debt and seal'd their Pardon with his own Blood will certainly publish the Acquittance How is it possible he should condemn those for whom he died and who appear with the impressions of his reconciling Blood upon them How reviving is it that Christ whose Glory was
the last Day the Righteousness of God's Proceedings shall be universally manifest and magnified 'T is therefore called the Day of the Revelation of the Righteous Judgment of God Now in order to this the Scripture informs us that all the Works of Men shall be brought in to Judgment even every secret thing whether good or evil And the Apostle saith That we must all appear before the Judgment-Seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his Body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad All Sins whether secret or openly visible shall be accounted for Those Sins that have been acted in the most secret Retirement so that no eye of Man could take cognizance of them Nay the Sins of the thoughts and affections of which Satan could not accuse Men when the inward Fire of Lust or Malice is not discovered by the least smoke or sparkles by no expressions all those shall be brought to Judgment God will judg the Secrets of Men by Jesus Christ. The sins of Omission of our Duty that are so numerous from carelesness and diversions from slothfulness and delays and that now so little affect us for we are more sensible of what we do than of what we have not done the guilt of all these shall then be heavily charged on the Conscience of the Sinner The neglect of improving all the Means Advantages and Opportunities of doing or receiving Good will be a great part of that Judgment The Lord called his Servants to an account for the Talent committed to their trust and required profit in proportion to their number and worth All sins of Commission in Youth and Age whether gross Sensuality as Lasciviousness Lusts excess of Wine Revellings Banquetings and abominable Idolatries and all excess of Riot shall be accounted for to him who is ready to judg the quick and the dead or acts of unrighteous-to others He that doth wrong shall receive according to the wrong he has done And sins of a lesser guilt for which the most are not touch'd with grief or shame shall then be produc'd in Judgment All the sins of our words so easily committed and not so easily observed shall then be called to a heavy remembrance The Judg himself tells us I say unto you that every idle word that Men shall speak they shall give account thereof in the Day of Judgment And if vain words the Signs and immediate Effects of a vain Mind shall sadly encrease our Accounts how much more all the contentious fierce and revengeful words the detracting false contumelious and injurious words the impure filthy and contagious words the prophane blasphemous and impious words that flow from the evil Treasure of the Heart O their dreadful number and oppressing weight And all the Aggravations and Circumstances of Mens Sins that raise their Guilt to such fearful heights shall be enumerated in order to Judgment For thus 't was foretold Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his Saints to execute Judgment upon all and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly Deeds which they have ungodly committed and all their hard Speeches which ungodly Sinners have spoken against him And all the good Works of the Saints shall then be remembred even to the least work of Piety the giving of two Mites to the Treasury of the Temple and the least work of Charity the giving a cup of cold Water to a Disciple upon the account of his Relation unto Christ. All their secret Graces and Duties shall then be rewarded The manner of this Judicial Evidence is set forth to us in Scripture by the opening the Books congruously to proceedings in humane Judgment wherein the Information and Charge is produc'd from Writings for the conviction of the Accused Thus it was represented to St. John in a Vision I saw the Dead small and great stand before God and the Books were opened and the Dead were judged out of the things that were written in the Books according to their Works 1. The Books of the Law and Gospel shall then be open'd in all the Injunctions and Prohibitions and our Lives compar'd with them Our Saviour told the Jews Do not think that I will accuse you to my Father there is one that accuseth you even Moses in whom you trust not the Person but the Law of Moses And he denounced against those that reject the Gospel the Word that I have spoken the same shall judg them in the last Day The Law is the exact Transcript of God's Sacred Will the natural and immutable Rule of Righteousness 't is pure forbids all Sin and enjoyns universal Holiness 't is Spiritual requires not only a conformity in Words and Actions but inward sanctity in mind and heart for the Soul is the principal part of Man entirely open to God's Eye the Maker and Judg of it And the most enlightned Saints have but an imperfect knowledg of it here This made Holy David after his meditation upon its purity and perfection to cry out in an Agony Who can understand his Errors cleanse thou me from secret sins This when opend in its spiritual and comprehensive Nature by a wise and zealous Preacher darts a Light into the Conscience and discovers many secret Sins that like so many Serpents were still and quiet in the dark but upon the suddain breaking in of the Light fly upon the Sinner and torment him with their mortal Stings But when the Law-giver himself shall expound the Law in its full extent and perfection with respect to all the Duties it commands and Sins it forbids how guilty will Men appear how unable to answer one Article of a thousand charg'd upon them 2. The Omniscience of God will give most convincing Evidence of all our Works All things are naked and open to his Eyes with whom we have to do in Judgment The Psalmist declares the infinite perspicacity of his sight The Darkness hides not from thee but the Night shines as the Day As his Light and transcendent Brightness is invisible to us so our thickest darkness is visible to him We cannot see things in the Night because it hinders the reception of the Rays that insinuate into the Eye and causes sight but the Eyes of our Judg are like a flame of Fire dispelling all darkness From his Throne in Heaven his piercing Eye sees through all the concealments of Mens Sins Thou hast set our Iniquities before thee and our secret Sins in the Light of thy Countenance He discovered the Sacrilege of Achan the Lie of Gehazi the Deceit of Ananias Saul's disobedience in sparing the Amalekites devoted to destruction had the colourable pretence of Piety and as a Sacrifice was laid on the Altar And David's Murder of Uriah was imputed to the chance of War as a sufficient excuse But tho' they might have deceived others they could not
let us lay wait for Blood let us swallow them up quick as the Grave will then like enraged Furies fly upon one another In all Sins of Combination the inferior Instruments will accuse their Directors for their pernicious Counsel and the Directors will accuse the Instruments for their wicked Compliance And all the Holy Servants of God who by their Instructions Counsels Admonitions Examples have endeavoured to make the World better especially those who by their Place and Relation were more concerned and more zealously compassionately urged and perswaded those under their Care to reform their Lives and save their Souls will give a heavy Testimony against them Indeed the very presence of the Saints will upbraid the Wicked for their resisting all the warming melting Intreaties all the grave and serious Reproofs all the tender earnest Expostulations that were ineffectual by the hardness of their Hearts Briefly the Scripture attributes to the Signs and Circumstances of Mens sins a vocal Evidence against them Thus the Prophet speaking of the House built by Rapine and Extortion The Stones of the Wall cry and the Beams answer them and with concurrent testimony accuse the unrighteous Builder And St. James declares That the Wages of the Hireling kept back by fraud cry against the Oppressor And the rust of Gold and Silver treasured up is a Witness against the Covetous And this by the recognition of Conscience will be a Memorial against them hereafter To what the Scripture speaks of this kinde of Evidence of Mens sins I shall add a useful Representation fram'd by a Heathen to signify that wickedness how secretly soever committed shall be brought to light in Judgment He tells us that the Soul of a very guilty Wretch was after Death arraigned before one of the severe Judges below And at his Tryal because his atrocious Crimes were done in secret he stood upon his defence denying all The Judg commanded his Lamp to be produc'd that was an Eye Witness of his Wickedness The Lamp appear'd and being demanded what it knew of him answered with a sigh Would I had been conscious of nothing for even now the remembrance of his Villanies makes me tremble I wish my Light had been extinguish'd that the Oil that maintained had quench'd it But I burnt with disdain and cast about some Sparks to fire his impure Bed and was grieved that my little Flame was so weak as not to consume it I said within my self If the Sun saw these Villanies it would be eclips'd and leave the World in Darkness But I now perceive why I was constrain'd to give Light to him that being a secret Spy of his Uncleanness his Thefts and Cruelties I might reveal them But we that are enlightned by Faith and know that God is Omnipresent and that what-ever Sin is done tho' in the deepest and darkest recess is manifest to him have no need of Lucian's Lamp to make our Judg to be feared by us 3. The impartiality of the Sentence will make the Justice of God conspicuous before the whole World This consists in two things 1. There will be no distinction of Persons 2. There will be a distinction of Causes in that Judgment and according to their Nature the Sentence will pass upon all 1. There will be no distinction of Persons In Humane Courts the Judges sometimes extend and amplify sometimes contract or smother the Evidence and are more rigorous or favourable in their Sentence as they are byast towards the Persons before them But the Righteous Judg of the World is uncapable of being inclin'd to favour or severity upon such base Motives This is frequently declared in Scripture to possess us with his Fear If ye call upon the Father who without respect of Persons judges according to every Man's Work pass the time of your sojourning here in fear No spiritual Priviledges upon which Men are so apt to presume viz. that they are Members of the Reformed Church that they are enrich'd with excellent Gifts that they enjoy the Ordinances in their purest Administration will availe them without real Holiness in their hearts and lives The being united to Societies of the most glorious Profession of strictest Purity and sublime Devotion does no more prove one to be a real Saint than the being of an eminent Company of Merchants proves one to be a rich Citizen Those that bow the Knee and not the Heart in faithful Reverence that give the empty title of Lord to Christ without the tribute of Obedience will be rejected by him Many shall say at the Day of Judgment Lord Lord we have prophesied in thy Name and done many wonderous works Then will the Judg say I know you not Depart from me ye workers of Iniquity No degrees of Civil Greatness will be of any moment and advantage in that day St. John testifies I saw the Dead small and great stand before God in an equal Line to receive their Trial. Kings shall then be devested of their Imperial Titles of their Crowns and Scepters and their Robes of State and only be accompanied with their Works Of this we have an undoubted Proof in that they are no more exempted from the common Law of dying than the meanest Slave Death that rugged Officer arrests them without Ceremony and summons them to appear before that Tribunal The Royal Purple could not protect Herod from being devoured by Worms The Apostle speaks indefinitely in the forecited place He that does wrong shall receive for the wrong he has done and there is no respect of Persons No circumstantial Accidents can derive true worth or truly debase Persons but inherent Qualities and the Actions that flow from them and accordingly the High and Holy God will accept or disapprove them What St. Paul observes of the saving Grace of the Gospel being indifferently offer'd to all is applicable in this case He tells us There is neither Greek nor Jew Barbarian nor Scythian Bond nor Free that are prefer'd or excluded upon a Carnal account but that all may equally partake of Spiritual Blessings Thus the difference of Nations will be no Priviledg or Prejudice to any in the Day of Judgment The most rude and contemptible shall have as fair and equal a Trial as the most polite and civiliz'd The ignorant Barbarians as the Learned Grecians that so much boasted of their vain Excellencies above them The Negroes in Africa as the People of Europe for they have the same Relation to God their Maker and as truly bear the impression of God stamped upon the Humane Nature in the Creation and therefore common to the whole species of Mankind An Image may be fashion'd in Ebony as well as in Ivory Briefly all Men are equally subject to his Laws and shall be equally accountable for their Actions The Rich and the Poor shall then meet together without dâ—stinction before God the Marker and Judg of them all 2. There shall be a distinction of Causes and every Man be
the eternal Law of God Otherwise considered in it self it were no more faulty to murder a Parent than to kill a Fly nor to rob a Travellor than to chase a Deer But the Conscience of the most profligate wretch would startle at such an Assertion The disposition and admirable order of the World in its various parts and the vicissitude of Seasons declare to the obsering Mind that a most wise good and powerful God governs and preserves all things by his vigorous Influence And can it be that the Divine Providence so visibly wise and good in regulating the course of Nature should be defective towards Man the most noble part of the World And can it be extended to humane affairs if there be no other than the present state wherein the Righteous are afflicted and the Wicked prosper where Sins of the deepest stain and the lowdest cry are unpunish'd and the sublime and truly heroick Vertues are unrewarded nay where Vice receives the natural reward of Vertue Honour and Felicity and Vertue the just wages of Vice Disgrace and Sufferings 'T is necessary therefore that there be a future state and a righteous distribution of rewards according to the good and evil of Men's Actions here The Heathens disguised this terrible Truth under the Fictions of the Infernal Judges Minos and Rhadamanthus and Eacus And the Furies and Vultures and fiery Lake which they thought tormented the Wicked in the next World discover what apprehensions they had of the desert of Sin and the punishment that certainly attended it The Guilty would fain be freed from the terrours of it and strangle Conscience that is bound over to give Testimony in the Day of Judgment that they may sin without scruples But tho Fear be a troublesom and involuntary Passion they cannot totally extinguish the internal sense and presages of future Judgment but as the motions of Courage came upon Sampson at times so Conscience awakened by sharp Afflictions by sudden Dangers and the approaches of Death makes a sad deduction of past Sins and sorecasts cruel things It cites the Offender before the enlightened Tribunal of Heaven scourges with remorse and makes him feel even here the strokes of Hell Tho' the Sin be secret and the guilty Person powerful not within the cognizance or reach of humane Justice yet Conscience has a Rack within and causes pain and anxiety by fearful expectations of Judgment to come And Divine Revelation is most express in declaring this great Truth The Light of Faith is more clear and certain from the infallible Word of God than the Light of Reason Before the Flood Enoch in the early Age of the World foretold it Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his Saints to execute Judgment upon all Solomon under the Law repeats this Doctrine that every secret thing shall be brought into Judgment whether good or evil And God himself speaks in the sublimest stile of Majesty and swears by himself for our firmer belief As I live saith the Lord every Knee shall bow to me and every Tongue confess to God the glory of his Justice From whence the Apostle infers so then every one of us shall give an account to God for himself In the Gospel we have distinctly described the Person of the Judge the glorious Attendants of his Coming and the manner of his proceedings in that Day Now the many Predictions in Scripture so visibly accomplish'd in the Person of Jesus Christ and by him give infallible assurance that all his Promises and Threatnings are equally certain and shall be fulfilled As sure as our Saviour is come in his humble state and has accomplish'd the Prophecies of his Sufferings he will come in his Glory to judg the World 2. That the belief of eternal Judgment may be powerful in our hearts and lives it must be actuated by frequent and serious thoughts Faith gives life and efficacy to our notions of eternal things and Consideration makes our Faith effectual As the natural Life is preserved by the activity of the vital Principles the Circulation of the Blood the drawing of the Breath the motion of the Pulse so the spiritual Life is maintained by the exercise of Grace The carnal Affections dare not appear before Reason and Conscience when awakened by the serious believing Consideration of eternal Judgment The Evangelists relate that when our Saviour was asleep in the Ship a sudden Tempest arose that was likely to over-set it in the Sea but awakened by the cry of his Disciples Lord save us we perish he presently rebuked the Wind and a Calm ensued Thus whilst the habit of Faith is asleep in the Soul there will be great danger from the concurrent violence of Temptations and Corruptions but when 't is awakened by lively and powerful thoughts it does Miracles in subduing the strongest Lusts. 'T is monstrous and beyond all belief did not sensible experience make it evident that notwithstanding the minds of Men are convinc'd of the certainty of the Divine Judgment and the Recompenses that immediatly follow yet their Wills remain unconverted and their Affections cold and unactive in their preparations for it That such numbers who have so much Christianity as to believe that an irrevocable Doom will pass upon the Wicked and so little Christianity that they cannot justly hope to escape from it yet are so careless of their Duty nay joyful in their sinful courses as if Judgment were a dreadless thing What is the cause of this prodigious security 'T is the neglect of considering that we must all appear before the Judgment-Seat of Christ to receive according to the things done in the body whether good or evil Their senses and faculties are so imployed abroad in the World they have neither leisure nor desire to think seriously of it Their hearts are so ravisht with dreams of sensuality and engaged in terrene affairs that they are very averse from exercising their minds upon such displeasing objects I have read of an excellent Preacher that in a Sermon described the last Judgment in all its Terrors with such ardent expressions and those animated with such an affecting Voice such an inflamed Countenance and Action that his Hearers broke forth into passionate Crys as if the Judg himself had been present to pass the final Sentence upon them In the heighth of their Commotion the Preacher bid them stop their tears and passions for he had one thing more to add the most afflicting and astonishing Consideration of all the rest That within less than a quarter of an hour the memory and regard of that which so transported them would vanish and their affections return to carnal objects in their usual manner The neglect of Consideration makes even the Doctrin of Judgment to come to be without efficacy 'T is necessary therefore that the belief of this be so firmly seated in the Heart as its Throne that it may comānd the thoughts to be very attentive
to it and may have Regal power over our wills and affections that our lives may be ordered according to its Rules 2. The Consideration of Eternal Judgment will vindicate the Proceedings of Divine Providence and the honour of God's governing this World from the imputations of Unrighteousness God is provoked every day yet spares the Wicked and heaps an abundance of Favours on them His Patience and Goodness they prophanely abuse and become more obdurate and inflexible They are apt to blaspheme the Excellency of his Nature in their Hearts thinking that he is ignorant or careless impotent or unjust They implicitly deny his Providence and Judgment that he does not observe their Sins and will not require an account for them Or else they interpret his Permission to be an Approbation of their Sins These things hast thou done and I kept silence thou thoughtest I was such an one as thy self Thus the Heathens transplanted the Vices of Earth to Heaven and represented their Gods to be sensual jealous furious as Men and accordingly expected an easy Absolution for their Sins Or else the distance of Judgment to come so hardens them that they hear God's Thunder with less fear than Boys do their Squibs and Crackers Because Sentence against an evil Work is not speedily executed therefore the hearts of the Sons of Men are fully set in them to do evil But how desperate is the madness of Sinners God now seems to wink at their Sins but hath appointed a day of Accounts He suffers them to live in prosperity but they are reserved to the day of Judgment to be punish'd and possibly sooner for sometimes they are cut off by visible vengeance to convince the World that the supream Judg does not bear the Sword in vain But tho 't is delayed for a time yet he declares that their Sins are laid up in store with him and sealed up among his Treasures To him belongs Vengeance and Recompence He is a mild Judge now and his Clemency suspends their Punishment but Justice will not forget it He threatens the secure Sinner I will reprove thee and set thy Sins in order before thine eyes How will the scornful obstinate Sinner change complexion tremble when an Army of Sins more terrible than so many Furies shall be ranged in Battel and with fiery Darts wound his naked Soul How will the stubborn Atheist that pleases himself with vain imaginations of the Eternity of the World and the Mortality of the Soul be confounded when he feels the truth of Scripture-threatnings to his eternal sorrow then all their Ralleries will be turn'd into Lamentations 'T is not for want of power that God spares the Wicked but because they are alwayes in his hands and he can make them as miserable as they are sinful when he pleases 'T is not through the neglect of Justice but for most wise and holy Reasons as shall appear in the last day when a decisive irreversible Judgment shall be propronounc'd and immediately ininflicted upon them before the World When an Actor at Athens spoke with Admiration of Riches as the most valuable Acquisition and of the Felicity of Rich Men the People were in an Uproar at the immorality of the Speech and were ready to chase him from the Stage But the Poet himself appeared and desired them to stop their Fury till they saw the Catastrophe the wretched end of that sordid Miser Thus we are apt to accuse the ways of God when the Wicked flourish but we should stop our tumultuous thoughts for their end will absolve Divine Providence from all undue reflections upon the account of their temporal happiness And the sound belief of this will rectify all mistaking apprehensions and clear all perplexing appearances about the Sufferings of the Righteous here Indeed if we consider the holiest Men as they are Sinners their Afflictions are so far from blemishing the Justice of God that they are the signs of his Mercy for all is a Favour on this side Hell to those that deserve it David an excellent Saint acknowledges the righteousness of God's Judgments with respect to himself But when the Saints suffer for a righteous Cause and as the Psalmist expresses it for thy sake are we killed all the day long and are counted as Sheep for the slaughter there is not a visible correspondency between the Providence of God in his governing the World and the unchangeable Rules of Justice that those who do evil should suffer evil and those who do well should be happy As the Apostle speaks to the persecuted Christians It is a righteous thing with God to recompence Tribulation to them that trouble you and to you who are troubled rest with us Now there is a day coming when the Persecutors shall be punish'd and the Saints be rewarded for all their Sufferings and the distribution of Recompences shall be in the presence of the World for the glory of Divine Justice For the distinction that is made between Men at Death is private and particular and not sufficient for the honour of God's Government But at the last Day all Men that have lived in several successions of Ages shall appear and Justice have a solemn Process and Triumph before Angels and Men. As some excellent Piece that is to be expos'd to publick view is covered with a Traverse to prevent the disturbance in the working and the discovery of the Work till brought to such perfection as will surprise with wonder those that see it So God is pleased to cover his proceedings for a time but in the last day there will be such a Revelation of the righteous Judgment of God that those who now doubt or complain of his Justice shall admire and adore it 3. The belief of this Doctrine as it vindicates Divine Providence so 't is powerful to comfort the Saints under Persecutions for Righteousness sake especially when Innocence is wounded with slanderous Darts and Calumnies are joyned with Cruelties representing them as worthy of publick hatred It was one of the Subtile Artifices of Julian the Apostate to mingle the Images of the Heathen Gods with those of the Emperours that the doing reverence as the Christians were commanded to all together might imply a dereliction and renouncing of their Religion and their Simplicity seem Impiety or if jealous of slipping from their profession they refused to do it they might seem to deny the expressions of honour due to their Emperours and be reputed to suffer not as Christian Martyrs but as Rebels But the believing Consideration of God's righteous Judgment will make them despise the Censures Reproaches of malicious Adversaries With me saith the Apostle it is a very small thing that I should be judged by Man's Judgment he that judgeth me is the Lord. The severest Censure was of no more weight compar'd with the approbation of God than the lightest Feather that flies in the Air put in
their consummate degrees Our Obedience supposing it perfect is of no desert When we have done all we are unprofitable Servants but his Obedience was infinitely meritorious by the union of the Deity with his humane Nature and is the foundation of the excellent Reward Not that his Merits derive a value to our Works to make them worthy of eternal Glory as some noble Mineral infused into Water that is in it self without taste or efficacy gives it a medicinal tincture and virtue for this is impossible since the infinite Dignity of his Person and his most perfect habitual and actual Holiness that are the fountains and reasons of his Merits are incommunicable to our persons and works For this would render us equal to our Saviour and our works to be divine as his But the active and passive Righteousness of Christ is so satisfactory and meritorious that God is pleased graciously to reward with the Crown of Life the mean services of those who are by a lively and purifying Faith united to him 2. Sincere Obedience that is an uniform and entire respect to all the Commands of God will alone be accepted in that day for his Authority runs through all and binds them on the Conscience David had this Testimony from God himself that he was a Man after his own heart that fulfilled all his Will And St. John refers the decision of our state to this If our hearts condemn us of any allowed Sin of omission or commission much more God will who is greater than our hearts and knows all things But if the illuminated tender Conscience condemns us not of insincerity we have confidence towards God that he will spare and accept us notwithstanding our frailties and give free and safe access into his presence The lives of many are chequer'd with a stran◠disparity they are restrain 〈…〉 some Sins of apparent odiousness but indulgent to others they are strict in some duties but loose and slack in others as if they hop'd by way of commutation to be accepted of God to expiate their Delinquencies in one kind by supererrogating in another Some are painted Pharisees in the duties of the first Table very exact in the formalities of outward Devotions but gross Publicans in the duties of the second careless of Justice and Equity and Charity to Men Others are in appearance strictly moral in the discharge of their duties to Men and negligent of their obligations to God But partial obedience can never endure the trial of Conscience much less of God For what is the weak light of our minds to the pure eyes of his Glory It will make us liable to inward rebuke now and to open confusion at the last St. Paul's rejoycing was from the Testimony of his Conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity he had his conversation in the World and as he expresses it in another place it was his daily exercise to have a Conscience void of offence towards God and towards Men. Tho our conquest of Sin be not compleat yet our resolution and endeavours must be to mortify it in every kind Tho' our obedience has not the perfection of degrees we must be equally regarding the Divine Law If there be any secret-favoured Sin either of omission or commission it will render our Petitions unacceptable at the Throne of Grace and our Persons at the Throne of Judgment If I regard Iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear my Prayer The Law requires the performance of our Duty without abatement or denounceth the penalty without allay or mitigation the Gospel has not relax'd the strictness of the Law as 't is the Rule of Life but as it was the condition of obtaining Life Sincere obedience is accepted by that gracious Covenant where the Legal Perfection is wanting but that is indispensibly required of all I may illustrate this by a passage of Alexander the Great who being desirous to learn Geometry applied himself to a skilful Instructer in it But his warlike disposition made him more capable to conquer than to measure the Earth so that tired with the first Propositions he desir'd his Master to make the Scheme more clear and plain and easy to him To whom the Master replied that the Theorems of that Science were equally difficult to all and requir'd the same attention of mind to understand them Thus the Gospel of Mercy requires of all sincere Sanctification and serious endeavours to perfect Holiness in the Fear of God and without this none shall be exempted from Condemnation To the sincerity of Obedience I shall add a more restrained Notion of it as respecting Religion The duties of Piety consist of an outward and inward part and the one without the other is but as a Carcass without a quickning Soul Now there will be an exquisit Anatomy of the Heart in that Judgment a discovery of all the Principles and Motives by which Men were acted and then he that is a Saint inwardly in the Spirit who with pure aims and holy affections hath served God shall have praise of him And those who have us'd God to injoy the World that have assumed pretences of Piety for secular ends shall be reproved This will be a cause of wonder in that day that many who are highly esteemed by Men as excellent Saints shall be an abomination to God That in the broad way to Hell thousands go thither is sad beyond expression but not strange at all but that in the path of Heaven any should descend to Hell is astonishing That those who live without God in the World in the prophane neglect of his Worship in a dissolute disorderly course should fall under Condemnation is believed of all but that those who have appeared zealous in Religion shall be at last rejected is contrary to universal expectation And not only the gross Hypocrite that deceives others but he that deceives himself by the external practice of holy Duties without correspondent lively Affections that prayes with that coldness as if he had no desire to be heard and hears with that carelesness as if he had no desire to be sanctified by the Word and is conversant in other parts of divine service in that slight manner as if he had no design to be saved shall by a convincing upbraiding Light see his Wickedness in dishonouring that God whom he pretended to worship and neglecting his Soul When the Upright as pure Gold shall be more radiant by the Fire the Insincere like reprobate Silver shall not endure that severe trial 3. The frequent discussion of Conscience and reviewing our ways is necessary in order to our comfortable appearing before our Judg. This is a duty of constant revolution for while we are in flesh the best Saints notwithstanding all their vigilance and diligence are overtaken by surprisal and sometimes overborn by strong temptations and 't is more necessary to beg for daily pardon than for our daily bread Under the Law if any one had by
He will not only reign in our hearts but be honoured with our lips and in our conversations We usurp the title of Christians unless we adhere to our Duty in despite of all opposition The temptations that usually withdraw Men from confessing and glorifying Christ are such as work upon the passions of Fear and Shame And the consisideration of the last Judgment will fortify us against both 1. Sometimes Religion exposes the Professors of it to the loss of all temporal enjoyments and of Life it self And when the Honour of our Saviour requires such a Service of us when that Confirmation is necessary to recommend Divine Truth to the belief affections of others when our chearful and couragious Example in suffering would animate those that are fearful to constancy of Confession then from Cowardise to withdraw our Testimony is to betray him again When our Duty is attended with extream Dangers then the sincerity and perfection of our Love to Christ is brought to the strictest trial As true Carbuncles are discovered in the night for the darkness redoubles their splendor so the fidelity of Christians is evident in Persecutions that enflame and excite their Zeal to magnify the Name of Christ unto the Judgment of the World There is no Fear in Love but perfect Love casts out Fear But Fearfulness hinders the expressing acts of Love to Christ and betrays to Apostacy For as every Passion is a Perturbation so especially Carnal Fear that blinds and disturbs the mind and hinders the serious consideration of the reasons of our Duty and those motives to persevere in it that are the fountains of our strength From hence the timerous are often treacherous and Faith lies buried under the cold pale Ashes of Fear Now the irregularity of this Passion is best cured by directing it to the most powerful Object As the Rod of Moses swallowed up the Rods of the Magicians so a stronger Fear will subdue that which is in a weaker degree Our Saviour therefore threatens those that for the fear of Men who can but kill the Body dare not own and defend his Truth and Cause that he will renounce them before his Father in the great Day the immediate consequence of which will be the destruction of Body and Soul in Hell If Earthly Potentates had a Jurisdiction over Heaven if Men were to be tried by their Laws at the last Day if their Power extended to Eternity they might exact unlimited Obedience to their Wills but Conscience is a more desirable Friend and terrible Enemy than Caesar and all temporal Tribunals are subordinate and accountable to the Supream and Eternal there is one Lawgiver and Judg who is able to save and to destroy for ever It is the worst Perdition to secure our selves by the neglect of our Duty when we ought to perish for the Glory of our Saviour He that saves his Life shall lose it 2. Shame wounds deeper the Breasts of some than Violence Zedekiah would rather expose his Kingdom and Life to the fury of the Chaldean Armies than be himself exposed as an object of derision by surrendring it And Satan who understands the temper of Mens spirits suits his temptations accordingly The Purity and Holiness of Religion exprest in the actions of the Saints is by the scurrilous Reslections and bitter Sarcasms of prophane Persons made contemptible This is as foolish and malicious as if a slave should reproach the Son of a King that he was like his Father in his Countenance and actions for by how much the resemblance of God's Holiness appears with more evidence and eminence in their lives their divine relation is more certainly and justly to be acknowledged Yet how many are ashamed of this Glory And Zeal to vindicate the Honour of Religion is traduc'd and vilified either as the effect of designing Faction or of the indiscretion and rashness of a weak Judgment and strong Passions In every Age the faithful Servants of God are by scornful titles despised We are accounted saith the Apostle the off-scouring of the World But a generous Christian looks upon disgrace for the sake of Christ as his honour The Apostles rejoyced that they were accounted worthy to suffer shame for his Name 'T is said of the Baptist he was not that Light but came to bear witness to that Light intimating as if that were the next degree of dignity to it And our Saviour speaking of the Proofs of his divine Mission reckons up the Witnesses of such dignity that 't is not possible for sacred Ambition to aspire to higher Honour than to be in Conjunction with them they are John the Baptist his Miracles his Father and the Scriptures Let us appeal then from the light depraved Fancies of carnal Men to the wise and faithful Judgment and Authority of the Son of God He will at the last Day in the presence of his Father and all the Court of Heaven give an incomparable Crown to all that have despised Shame for his sake But those vile Spirits whose Courage of Straw is quell'd by vain opinion and the reproaches of Fools and have deserted the Cause of Christ shall then be clothed with Confusion for this we are assured by our Judge that whosoever shall be ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation of him also shall the Son of Man be ashamed when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy Angels If the unnatural Brothers were astonish'd when the Governor of Egypt told them I am Joseph whom ye sold how much more will false Christians when the Lord of Glory shal tell them I am Jesus whom for base shame ye denied How will it confound those abject Wretches to be a spectacle of abhorrence and scorn before that Universal Glorious Confluence They would chuse rather to be covered under the ruins of the World If we value and desire the approbation of the King of Angels if we fear a final rejection from him to obtain the one and avoid the other we must entirely adhere to his Interest without any respect to the eyes and esteem of the perverse deceived World 6. A cordial beneficent Love to the Saints is a requisit qualification of our Acceptance in the Day of Judgment Then shall the King say to them on his right hand Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the World For I was an hungry and ye gave me meat I was thirsty and ye gave me drink I was a stranger and ye took me in naked and ye clothed me I was sick and ye visited me I was in Prison and ye came unto me The union and endearments betwixt Christ and his People are mutual and reflexive as they are extreamly tender of his Glory so he is concern'd in all that is done to them And tho the perfection of Love consists more in the affection of the heart than
in outward offices yet our Saviour most congruously produces in Judgment the conspicuous effects of Love to them the supplying their wants allaying their sorrows owning them when obscured and deprest by afflictions and injuriously treated by others This love of service that is directed and exercised towards the Saints for the Image of God shining in them because they are the Children of God and Members of Christ and therefore extended to all in whom the reason of that Love appears shall be gloriously rewarded For he interprets what is done upon his Account to those who are his own by so many dear titles as done to himself And what is more becoming his excellent Goodness than to reward his works of Mercy with saving Mercy But those who when Christ presents himself to them in his poor distressed Members and solicits their assistance to protect them from injuries to refresh their sorrows to support them in their exigencies those that have ability but want affection to do them good and incompassionately neglect the suffering Saints shall be sentenc'd to be tormented with the Apostate Angels for ever What indignity is it to the Son of God that those for whom he shed his Divine Blood should be in less value and regard with many than the Dogs and Horses maintained for their pleasure And if those on the left hand shall be condemned to eternal Fire for the coldness of their Love how terrible will the Judgment bet of those that from the heat of their enmity outragiously persecute the Servants of Christ for his sake in their Persons Estates Reputations that with a worse than barbarous inhumanity seek their ruine Is there any Sin of a more mortal guilt The infernal Furnace is seven-fold heated for the punishing such wickedness To conclude this Argument let us observe the Command of our Saviour To watch and pray always that we may be counted worthy to stand before the Son of Man These are Duties of universal influence into our Lives the one prevents carelesness the other vain confidence in our selves and the consideration of Judgment to come is the greatest motive to them and the first principle of Holiness This should work more powerfully in us considering the Day of Death is equivalent to the Day of Judgment to every person for then a particular Sentence decisive and irrevocable passes that shall be publish'd at the last Day Methinks the terrors of the Lord should engage our Souls and Senses to a continual preparation for his Coming 'T is represented so as to affect the Eye and keep it vigilant Behold the Lord comes with ten thousand of his Saints to execute Judgment upon all Behold he comes in the Clouds and every Eye shall see him And to call the Ear and make it attentive The Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with the voice of the Arch-Angel and with the Trump of God How circumspect should we be in all our ways since every action shall be reviewed by our Judg. St. Peter strongly infers from the dissolution of the World as a most cogent Argument that we should be exactly and universally holy seeing then all these things shall be dissolved what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy Conversation and Godliness But the consideration of the eternal Judgment immediately succeeding the destruction of the World O how powerful should it be upon Conscience and the Affections to regulate the whole course of our Lives with a final respect to God's Tribunal In short That which we read of the success of the Apostle's preaching to the Athenians upon the present subject the Immortality of the Soul comprised in the Resurrection of the Body and the future Judgment is the same in all times and places And when they heard of the Resurrection of the Dead some mocked and others said We will hear thee again of this matter and others believed There are three differences of the Hearers of this Doctrine of so great importance some deride it as an extravagant fancy some believe it and yield up themselves entirely in obedience to it others do not absolutely reject it as the first nor accept it as the second but have a Conjecture or slight superficial Opinion of it or a speculative Assent as to a history of things that do not concern them and defer the serious consideration and applying of it to themselves And of this third sort O Grief are the most of those who are Christians in name They delay till Death the solemn reflecting upon the final Judgment and the inevitable Consequence of it a blessed or miserable estate for ever And whereas the Apostle who had infallible assurance of God's Love did with an holy severity and self-denial abstain from all Carnal Complacencies that might hazard the never-fading Crown I keep under my Body and bring it into subjection lest by any means when I have preached to others I should be a Cast-away Yet the most live and die in a secure state without preparation to appear before the Presence of his Glory FINIS Some Books printed for Brabazon Aylmer in Cornhill THe Harmony of the Divine Attributes in the Contrivance and Accomplishment of Man's Redemption by the Lord Jesus Christ. Or Discourses wherein is shewed how the Wisdom Mercy Justice Holiness Power and Truth of God are glorified in that Great and Blessed Work By William Bates D. D. in Quarto Considerations of the Existence of God And of the Immortality of the Soul with the Recompences of the Future state To which is now added The Divinity of the Christian Religion proved by the evidence of Reason and Divine Revelation for the Cure of Infidelity the Hectick Evil of the Times By William Bates D. D. in Octavo The Soveraign and final Happiness of Man with the effectual means to obtain it Also the Joys of Heaven and Torments of Hell are discoursed of By William Bates D. D. in Octavo Several Sermons upon Death and Eternal Judgment By William Bates D. D. in Octavo A Funeral Sermon preached upon the Death of the Reverend and Excellent Divine Dr. Thomas Manton who deceased October 18. 1677. By William Bates D. D. To which is now added the last Publick Sermon Dr. Manton preached in Octavo One hundred and ninety Sermons on the whole 119th Psalm By the late Reverend and Learned Divine Thomas Manton D. D. in Folio Twenty select Sermons upon choice Subjects preached by Thomas Manton D. D. in Quarto Eighteen Sermons on the 2d Chapter of the 2d Epistle to the Thessalonians containing the Description Rise Growth and Fall of Antichrist With divers Cautions and Arguments to establish Christians against the Apostacy of the Chnrch of Rome By Tho. Manton D. D. in Octavo The Gospel-Method of God's saving Sinners by Jesus Christ practically explained in XII Propositions Or a Discourse of the New Covenant By the late Learned Dr. Abraham Clifford To which is prefixed a Preface by Dr. Manton and Mr. Richard Baxter in