such melancholy Thoughts as a Future Judgment they are so lately come into the World and are big it may be with such great designs of advancing their Fortunes in it that they cannot think of going out of it very quickly again they look upon Judgment as they do upon the other World as a great way off and therefore it is not of a present concernment but may be thought of time enough some Years hence These are all very foolish Reasonings but yet these or such like Fallacies serve to impose upon Young Men or whatever their pretence be Experience tells us that it is true in Fact that they think very little of a Judgment to come It is easie enough to shew that these are no Reasons why they should not think frequently of a Future Judgment How gay and pleasant soever they be and whatever their designs are for this World the thoughts of Judgment will not allay nor interrupt their Pleasures while they preserve their Innocence nothing can make the thoughts of Judgment uneasie to them unless they resolve to take such Liberties and persue such Designs as they are afraid to be called to an account for and the reason why they should think of Judgement is to prevent this for if once they distract their Minds with Guilt the thoughts of Judgment will ever after be very uneasie to them and they must never think of it if they can help it The best way is to accustom our Minds to the thoughts of Judgment while we are innocent before we begin to be afraid to think of Judgment and that will preserve our Innocence and then the thoughts of Judgement will never interrupt our Pleasures But if we cast off the thoughts of Judgement in Youth which is the surest Guard and Preservative we have we shall by degrees cast off the belief of it too When we lay aside the thoughts of Judgment to take the greater Liberties to walk in the ways of our hearts and in the sight of our eyes we contract such Guilt as makes us afraid of Judgment and very willing to believe that we shall never be judged and then we shall easily find some little argument or other to perswade us that there is no Judgment that either there is no God or that he takes no notice of Humane Actions The thoughts of Judgment are never uneasie and troublesome till Men have scared and terrified their Consciences with Guilt and therefore the certain way never to have the thoughts of Judgment troublesome is to begin betimes to make it familliar to us and if we do so the thoughts of it will not prove melancholy and then we shall have no reason to lay them aside And it is a great Mistake to imagine that there is no need to think of Judgement but when it is near that we may securely lay aside the thoughts of it when it is at a distance for neither its being near nor its being at distance is any reason either to think or not to think of Judgment but the true reason is to govern our Lives under the sence of a Future Account and that is a good reason equally good whether Judgment be nigh at hand or a great way off For if we must give an account of what we do at seventeen or twenty Years old and of what we do at fifty or sixty there is the same reason to think of Judgment and to govern our Lives under the sence of it when we are but twenty as when we are threescore Years old 2. Young Men have great and constant occasion for the thoughts of Judgement and that is a good reason why they should think frequently and seriously of it What but this can reduce that giddy Age within Bounds and make them live by Rule But if they would consider that they must be judged by Rule by the Laws of the Everlasting Gospel this would do it This would convince them that they are not their own Masters that they are not at liberty to live as they list and to pursue every wild and roving Fancy they may indeed do this if they please but they shall be judged for it if they do What but this can cool the Heats of Youth and conquer all the Charms of Flesh and Sence But know saith the wise man that for all these things God will call thee to judgment And a Man who is afraid of Judgment who is afraid of Lakes of Fire and Brimstone who has the terrible prospect of eternal Miseries before him will have no great Appetite to the choicest Sensualities He will freez in the Embraces of the most beloved Mistress and will tremble in the midst of his Cups as Belâ—shazzar did when he saw the Hand-writing upon the Wall For who can bear the thoughts of being miserable for ever Who with these thoughts about him can relish such fatal Pleasures Pleasures which will cost him his Soul short and dying and vanishing Pleasures which will end in eternal Pain who would not be contented to endure the pain of denying an Appetite of subduing a domineering Passion of plucking out a right Eye and cutting off a right Hand rather than to be miserable for ever And when it is so impossible for Young Men to resist these flattering Temptations without a present and awful Sence of Judgment can any thing more concern them then frequently to repeat these Thoughts and to possess their Imaginations with the lasting Impressions and Images of it that it may be always at hand and ready for use But this is necessary for all Men as well as those who are young whoever takes care of his Soul ought to keep his Eye upon a Future Judgment I grant it is so but there are some peculiar Advantages which Young Men will reap by this if they begin this Practise betimes 1 st For this will preserve their Innocence and Vertue and prevent the Terrours and Agonies of a late Repentance All the kindness the Thoughts of Judgement can do to old Sinners is to put a stop to them and to bring them to Repentance and this is a very great kindness if it makes them true Penitents because it will save their Souls And this is that which most Sinners desire to enjoy the Pleasures of Sin as long as they can and to repent before they die and thus they think they adjust all Interests gratifie the Flesh and save their Souls at last But if these Men ever prove true Penitents they become very sensible of their Mistake They wish then when it is too late that they had remembred their Creator in the days of their youth that they had preserved themselves from the Pollutions of Flesh and Sence they feel by sad Experience what an evil and a bitter thing it is to sin against God How amazing the Shame how sharp the Sorrow of Repentance is It is a very melancholy and disconsolate Work when Men draw near their end to look back upon a vicious and profligate Life
is the sum of the Law and the Prophets The universal Rule of Moral Justice and Goodness which is to do that which is for the natural good of Mankind whatever our sense and experience tells us is naturally good and beneficial to ourselves which would be a very imperfect Rule if there were not an inseparable connexion between Moral and Natural Good The not observing this is the true reason why some Men can form no Notion at all of Moral Good or Evil but think Vertue and Vice to be meer arbitrary Notions which have no foundation in the Nature of Things as indeed they can have none but only this that Vertue is to love and choose and do that which has a natural good in it which is good to ourselves or others that Vice is to love and choose and do that which has some natural evil in it or which is hurtful to ourselves or others as for instance Charity which is one of the most excellent Vertues of the Christian Life consists in doing every thing which is for the good of Men in feeding the Hungry clothing the Naked relieving the Injured and Oppressed the Fatherless and the Widdow in directing advising assisting comforting Men in difficulties and distress in forgiving Injuries concealing Faults judging charitably and in all such other acts of Goodness as are greatly for the benefit of Mankind whereas the contrary Vice does all the contrary Evils and Mischiefs to the great hurt and injury of Men and whoever considers this must confess that Moral Good and Evil is as real a thing as Natural Good and Evil is and I suppose no Man who has his senses about him will deny that there is such a thing as Natural Good and Evil as for instance Pain and Pleasure and then his same senses will in abundance of instances tell him the essential difference between Moral Good and Evil On the other hand the true and onely reason why Men so vastly differ in their Notions of Moral Good and Evil is because in many instances they are not agreed what Natural Good and Evil is some Men call nothing good or evil but what is good or evil to their Bodies such as Pain and Pleasure and the Causes and Instruments of them Health and Sickness Riches and Poverty and the like others think and with much greater reason that we should take our Souls into the account too that whatever is for the ease and pleasure of our Minds whatever adorns and perfects a reasonable Nature is a Natural Good to Men as Wisdom and Knowledge and regular and well-govern'd Appetites and Passions do and therefore these are the foundation of Moral Vertues too but whatever debases our Natures and is a reproach to the reason and understanding of a Man whatever thrusts him down into the rank of brute Creatures and either disturbs his ease or changes the pleasures of a Man for those of a Beast are great Natural Evils too if the perfection and happiness of Humane Nature be a Natural Good and therefore to choose and to act such things is morally evil This is enough to shew what Moral Good and Evil is that it has a necessary relation to Natural Good and Evil and it were easie here to prove were it not too long a Digression that all the Laws of the Gospel do either command what is for the good and happiness of Mankind of every private Man and of publick Communities or forbid such things as are hurtful and prejudicial to them but my present Design will not suffer me to straggle so far out of the way II. The second branch of this Argument is That according to the â—eneral sence of Mankind what is good ouâ—ht to be rewarded and what is wicked ought to be punished For the proof of this I shall appeal in the first place to all Civilized Nations who live under Laws and Government for there is no such Nation but thinks fit to restrain Wickedness by a publick Vengeance on those who commit it indeed their Laws and Punishments are not always the same nor do they all punish the same Crimes nor with the same Punishments but all of them punish such Crimes as they think injurious to the Publick which is the principal concernment of Civil Government and inflict such Penalties on them as they judge proportioned to such Crimes or sufficient to restrain the commission of them some Capital some Pecuniary Mulcts Confiscation of Goods loss of Honour Corporal Punishments Imprisonment Banishment or some publick Marks of perpetual Infamy which is a certain argument that the Wisdom of all Nations thinks it fit that Wickedness should be punished that those who do Evil should suffer evil and indeed all Mankind is so sensible of this that there is not a greater Reproach to any Government then the Impunity of Vice nor a greater Glory to it than the strict and equal Administration of Justice Where publick Justice fails as it does in a great many instances we must next appeal to private Revenge to understand what the sence of Mankind is about the desert of Sin for there is not a more natural nor more eager Passion in Humane Nature all Men naturally desire to return the Injury they suffer upon the heads of those who do it and account it no Injury but a great act of Justice to do so In many Nations some private Injuries have been left to private Revenge and the Jewish Law itself permitted a Retaliation of Injuries an Eye for an Eye and a Tooth for a Tooth though it did not permit the injured Person to take this Revenge himself but made the publick Magistrate the Judge of it It may be you will wonder I should appeal to the impatient thirst and appetite of Revenge to prove the sence of Mankind that Sin ought to be punished when private Revenge itself is a great Evil and forbid by the Gospel of our Saviour but for all that Revenge is a natural Passion and speaks the furious rage and language of Nature that Sin ought to be punished It is that Passion in us which ministers to punitive Justice as a natural tenderness and compassion does to Charity and therefore the passion itself is not sinful though the irregular exercise of it is it is implanted in all Mankind as the love of Justice is but all Men must not execute Revenge no more than every Man can administer Justice where every Man is a Minister of Justice he may execute his Revenge too that is where there are no publick Laws and Government but when we are incorporated into Civil Societies private Revenge is superseded by publick Justice and to revenge ourselves is an Offence against the State but this publick Justice is executing Revenge still tho' without that partiality and passion which Men betray in their own cause and tho' our Saviour forbids private Revenge it is not because Sin does not deserve to be punished but to teach us those great Christian Vertues of Patience
it become a Wise and Holy God to grant Indulgence to Vice Are Adulteries Fornications Drunkenness Gluttony Prophaneness Irreligion no Sins when committed by Young Men Can any one give a reason why these Sins should damn a Man of Forty or Fifty and be indulged in one of Twenty Does it become the Wise and Holy Governour of the World to contribute so much to the debauching Mankind as to indulge their youthful Lusts to suffer their render Minds to be corrupted with the love and practise of Vice to be prepossessed and prejudiced against the Severities of a Holy Life when Men by indulging their Lusts are grown fond of this World and of bodily Pleasures when are they likely to grow wise when will they think it time to submit to God's Government and to obey his Laws How seldom is it seen that Men who contract Habits of Wickedness in their Youth ever get a perfect mastery of them or prove seriously Religious and those who do with what infinite difficulty do they do it So that should God give liberty to Men to be as wicked as they please while they are young it would be to little purpose to give Laws to riper Years the Seeds of Vertue or Vice are sown in tender Minds and grow up with them and are very difficulty rooted out if God intends we should worship and obey him when we are Men he must lay early Restraints upon us and fashion our Minds betimes And that is a reason why he should judge Youth and Antidote them against the flattering Temptations of this Life with the Hopes and Fears of another World If you think it hard that God should judge you for the Lewdness and Extravagancies of Youth consider whether it would not be much harder to suffer you to be corrupted when you are young and to damn you for continuing wicked when you are old The fears of Judgment may restrain and govern your youthful Passions and season you with the Principles of an early Piety which will grow up into confirmed Habits of Vertue which will direct and govern your Lives in this World and carry you safe to Heaven but if Young Men might sin securely without fear of Judgment in all likelihood tâ—ey would sin on till they were old enough to be damned 3. I must add this also that there is as little reason to expect that Young Men should be excused from being judged and from giving an account of their Actions as that any other Men whatsoever should be excused every Age has its peculiar Temptations and Difficulties and if this were a reason why they should not be judged no Men must be judged But Youth before it is corrupted and grown ungovernable has the fewest Temptations and the greatest Restraints and Preservatives of any Age and therefore is the least excusable Youth indeed is rash and giddy and inconsiderate but then it is or ought to be under the Direction and Government of Parents Masters and Tutors it is a great Misfortune to them when they are not and a great and fatal Miscarriage in Parents and Masters when they neglect the prudent Government of them But this is the Provision God has made for their Government and therefore has implanted in them a natural Awe and Reverence for their Parents and Superiours which makes their Counsels and Examples sacred which is a mighty advantge above what those Men have who have no Body to govern them and have no Government of themselves Their Reason indeed is weak but it is not corrupted as a great many others have corrupted their Reason by Principles of Atheism and Irreligion they have a Natural Sence of God and a Natural Awe and Reverence for his Justice and Providence and a Natural Belief of another World especially if any care has been taken to instruct them in the Principles of Christianity and this gives them a great Dread and Horror of Sin which they believe will bring the Judgments of God upon them in this World and in the next They have little Experience of the World and a great Curiosity to tast the Pleasures of it but they are not yet acquainted with the sinful Pleasures of it they have not contracted a Fondness for them and the Fear of God will more easily check and restrain a Curiosity then conquer a Habit and therefore they have a more easie Task to keep themselves innocent then old Sinners have to conquer their vicious Habits who must pluck out a right Eye and cut off a right Hand to enter into Heaven And the Natural Modesty of Youth is a mighty Restraint which makes them blush at the Thoughts of any Wickedness and so afraid of a Discovery when they think of committing it that it deprives them of the Opportunities of committing it and while Men retain their natural Modesty a thousand thoughts give check to them and a thousand Accidents disappoint them but when they have sinned away their Reputation and their Shame with it when they are hardened against Reproach and Infamy or have lost all sence of the difference between Good and Evil they have nothing to stop them till they come to Hell This is the Original State of Youth which was made for Piety and Vertue and all Men must acknowledge that they are in a much nearer disposition for it than old Sinners there is almost as much difficulty at first to debauch an innocent Mind as there is to reclaim an old Sinner to make the one conquer Shame as there is to make the other blush And why then should we think that Young Men shall not be judged by God for breaking through all these Restraints when it is as hard a thing for them to be bad as it is for others to be good why should they hope to escape in those Sins for which oâ—hers shall be judged and condemned This is sufficient to convince Young Men that God will judge them as well as others As young as they are they know when they do their Duty and when they transgress it and therefore may be called to an account for it It never becomes a holy God nor the wise Governour of the World to indulge Men in Sin and as little to indulge Young Men as any others for if he should indulge them in contracting vicious Habits when they are young he has less reason to judge and condemn them for it when they are old And indeed Young Men have least reason to expecâ— such an Indulgence for whatever their Temptations are it is much easier for them to keep themselves innocent then it is for other Men to conquer the Habits of Vice 2. Let me now perswade Young Men frequently to think of a Future Judgment There is great reason for this Exhortation because they are very apt to forget it and yet they have very great occasion for it 1. They are very apt to forget it Their Spirits are gay and brisk and they meet with such variety of Entertainments as will not admit of
to have their whole Lives to unlive again to abhor themselves for what they have done and to look forward with trembling into the other World for such late Penitents generally carry the Marks of their Repentance in Shame and Sorrow to the Grave with them All this Young Men may prevent if they will but think of Judgment in their Youth and govern their Lives under a sence of it This will make them remember their Creator in the days of their youth and consecrate their tender Age to his Service it will preserve them from youthful Lusts from all enormous Crimes and give them the humble Assurance and Confidence of dutiful Children in their Addresses to God when they draw near a conclusion of their Lives they review their past Victories over the World and the Flesh with the securest Triumphs The little Follies and Indiscretions and Miscarriages which the best Men are subject to will keep them humble and teach them to trust only in the Merits and Intercession of Christ but when they have made it the whole business of their Lives to please God though with the common Weaknesses and Infirmities of Humane Nature they feel great Peace of Mind and assurance of the Love of God and the nearer their Work is to an end the more securely they triumph What a happy State shall we think this when Death and Judgment are in view to feel so sweâ—â—â— Calm in our Breasts to have so joyful a Prospect before us And who would not think of Judgment when he is young that the hope and expectation of it may be the Comfort and Support of Age that then he may review his past Life not to undo what he has done but to tast the Pleasures and to reap the Rewards of it in present Peace of Mind and great Hopes 2 ly There is another Advantage which Young Men may make of the early thoughts of Judgment which old Sinners have lost and can never retrieve by all their Repentance viz. To make great Advances and Attainments in Piety and Vertue which will greatly augment their Reward Men who sin on till old Age though they prove true Penitents at last can never recover this for their time is past and their youthful Strength and Vigour spent and the Scene of Action over they can never re-call thirty or forty Years past in which if they had improved their time well they might have done great Service to God and to Religion and great good to Men but those who are beginning their Lives if they start right at first and pursue an even and steady Course of Piety and Vertâ—â— if they keep the Future Judgment and the next World always in their Eye what Improvements will they make what rich Treasures and glorious Rewards may they expect from that Righteous Judge who will render to every Man according to his Works The most that a Penitent can expect after a long Life spent in Wickedness and Folly is to get to Heaven and it is infinite Mercy in God to accept of such Penitents but the bright and dazling Crowns are reserved for those who have spent their Lives well and glorified God on Earth and finished the Work he gave them to do such Men will triumph at the Conclusion of their Race and Warfare as St. Paul did I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith henceforth is laid up for me a crown of righteousness I know this will not affect those Men now who love their Sins and desire to keep them as long as they can they will be very well satisfied if they can but get to Heaven at last how mean soever their Station be there for they are not so desirous to go to Heaven as to escape Hell and if they can but keep out of Hell it is all they hope for but Men must have a greater Spirit a more Divine and Generous Temper of Soul before they can get to Heaven If ever they prove true Penitents the loss of so many opportunities of doing Good and the loss of any degrees of Glory they might have had will both shame and afflict them I am sure the greater Rewards we expect in the other World the greater degrees of Glory and Happiness the greater will our Joy and Triumph be Are not Men in this World as fond of Happiness as they are afraid of Misery Does not a great Mind despise little things and aim at what is great And is there not as much reason to aim at the highest Happiness we are capable of in the next World as well as in this This is the noble Prize I would propoâ—e to Young Men You are now beginning your Race your Day is but in its Dawn if you rise with the Sun and work hard all day and spend your whole Lives in God's Service what a great deal of work will you do and what a proportionably great Reward will you have This you will do if you make the Thoughts of Judgment familiar to you this will keep a constant Guard upon your Actions this will excite and quicken your Industry this will make you stedfast unmoveable always abounding in the work of the Lord as knowing that your labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. CHAP. VI. For what we shall be Iudged VI. LET us now enquire What we are to be judged for And the general Answer to this is very plain That we must all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body according to what he hath done whether it be good or bad 2 Cor. 5.10 That is we shall be judged for all the Good and Evil we have done This is obvious to all Men and acknowledged by all who believe a Judgement and it may be thought impertinent to prove that we shall be judged for such or such particular Crimes when it is universally confessed that we shall be judged for all But as I observed under the former Head though all Men who believe a Future Judgment profess also to believe that all Men shall be judged yet some Men are very apt to forget it and to flatter themselves that they shall escape better than others so it is here Though Men will in general acknowledge that we must give an account of whatever we have done in the Body yet there are a great many things which in themselves are very great Crimes and yet many Men think there is no account to be given of them I shall not instance in particular Sins though a great many such there are which few Men take any great notice of but shall confine myself to what is of a more General Nature for Particulars would be endless I. First then we must remember we shall be judged for our Ignorance which some Men are so far from suspecting that they take Sanctuary in their Ignorance to Skreen them from the Judgment of GOD. If they can but keep out the Light they