think they are safe to stumble and fall in the Dark is a Misfortune not a Fault and will rather move Pitty and Compassion than provoke Revenge This makes some Men so regardless of Knowledge they think God will judge them for no more than they know and all the good they are like to get by Knowledge is to encrease and aggravate their Account I shall not enter into that Dispute now which is nothing to our present Purpoâ—e How far and in what Cases Ignorance will Excuse though I think it is very plain in general that as far as Ignorance itself is excusable so far Ignorance will excuse But my business at present is to shew That commonly Ignorance itself is a great Crime and when it is so if Men shall not be judged for the Sins which they ignorantly commit yet they shall be judged and condemned for their Ignorance as well as â—or their Sins against Knowledge For is not Man a reasonable Creature And is not a reasonable Creature as much bound to know his Duty as he is to practise it Has God given us Reason to be the Guide and Director of our Lives and is it not a great Crime not to attend to it not to improve and cultivate it Have we Eyes in our Heads and is it any Excuse to us that we shut them and lose our Way Is it any Excuse to us not to know God and our Duty to him when God has made us reasonable Creatures who may know their Maker if they please and understand the difference between Good and Evil I am sure St. Paul by this Argument proves that the Heathens were inexcusable because God had implanted such Natural Notions of himself on their Minds and had given them so many external and visible Demonstrations of his Power and Providence in making and governing the World 1 Rom. 19 20. Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them for God hath shewed it unto them For the invisible things of God from the creation of the world are daily seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternal power and godhead so that they are without excuse The Heathens did greatly err both in the Knowledge and Worship of God they were convinced by the Natural Sense of their Minds and by the Works of Creation that there is a God and therefore they are said to know God 21 v. And by the same way they might have known that God who made the World is not like to gold and silver or the works of mens hands to images made like to corruptible man or to birds and four footed beasts and creeping things and therefore though they were really ignorant of the Nature of God and had entertained very gross Imaginations of the Deity yet they were without Excuse because God is to be known by Reason and Nature and therefore a reasonable Creature who lives in a World which has the visible Marks of Infinite Wisdom and Power on it can never be excused for not knowing God that is to say nothing will excuse our Ignorance of that which we may know and which we ought to know But if the Heathens were so inexcusable for their Ignorance of God who had no other Helps but the Light of Nature and the visible Works of God to be sure Ignorance must be a great Crime in those who live where the Gospel is preached and may read the Word of God themselves if they please and learn their Duty from it God knows a great many very ignorant People there are among us who know little more of God than the Heathens did who sit in Darkness and in the Valley of the Shadow of Death in the very Regions of Light when the day spring from on high hath visited us to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death and to guide our feet into the ways of peace Will it not be an impudent thing for such Men to plead Ignorance at the Day of Judgment who would not look into the Bible nor attend Publick Instructions to learn their Duty who had the Means and Opportunities of Knowledge but would not use them who took a great deal of pains to be Ignorant and to keep out of the Way of Knowledge which so often crossed them that they had much ado to escape it Whatever may be pleaded in excuse of the Ignorance of Heathens there can be no Excuse for Christians who have the most perfect Revelation of the Will of God and will not look into it this is a great Contempt of God it is in effect to say to God Depart from us for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways 21 Job 14. And it is hard to say which is the most provoking Sin to despise the Knowledge of God or to break his Laws Not to think it worth our while to know the Will of God or through the power of Temptation to transgress their Duty And this is the Danger we are in if we neglect or reject the Knowledge of the Gospel our Ignorance will be our greatest Crime it will be so far from excusing our Wickedness that it will aggravate it for we chuse to be ignorant that we may be wicked and therefore it concerns us diligently to read and study the Scriptures and to attend upon the Publick Ministry of the Word and the Private Instructions and Directions of our Spiritual Guides for since Christ came from Heaven to declare the Will of God and has put the Holy Scriptures into our Hands which are a perfect Rule of Faith and Manners and furnished us with all the advantages to encrease in Knowledge it is as dangerous a thing to be wilfully ignorant of the Gospel as it is to disobey it II. As Men shall be judged for their Ignorance so they shall be judged for their Infidelity This is so plain in Scripture that it needs little Proof our Saviour expresly tells us He that believeth on him that is on the Son of God whom God sent into the world that the world through him might be saved is not condemned but he that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God And this is the condemnation that light is come into the world and men loved darkness rather then light because their deeds were evil 3 John 17 18 19. This our Saviour frequently inculcates on the Iews that unless they believe on him they must die and perish in their Sins and we know the Iews were rejected by God for their Infidelity their Temple and City and Nation destroyed by the Romans and they dispersed and scattered among all Nations to this day And our Saviour after his Resurrection when he gave Commission to his Apostles to go into all the World and to preach the Gospel to every Creature universally pronounces He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned
to all those other Arguments which I have already urged for the proof of a Future Judgement As to shew this in a few words 1. This proves a natural Sence in all Men that they are accountable Creatures and shall be called to an Account for their Actions For unless Men were sensible of this why should their Consciences acquit or condemn them Why should they judge themselves but in relation to some higher Tribunal which will certainly judge them especially when the Consciences of bad Men do not only condemn but threaten them and the Consciences of good Men do not only acquit and absolve but promise a Reward for they can neither punish nor reward themselves 2. This proves the natural Sence we have of the essential difference between good and evil and that what is good deserves a Reward and what is evil deserves Punishment because good Men expect a Reward for the good they do and bad Men fear Punishment when they have done evil which shews a natural Sence of the just merits and deserts both of Good and Evil and that they shall receive their just Rewards 3. This proves also that natural Sence Mankind have that God is the Supream and Soveraign Lord and Judge of the World and will judge Mankind for there is no other Tribunal which all Mankind can be accountable too the common Sence of Humane Nature must respect the Universal Lord and Judge of the World who has a Natural Right to Govern and to Judge Mankind he who made us imprinted this sence upon our Minds for what is natural is owing only to the Author of Nature and therefore these natural Hopes and Fears can only relate to the Government and Judgment of our Maker and Natural Lord and then they must prove that God will judge us that he will reward or punish us according to our Works Nay 4ly This proves that Natural Sence Men have of a just Providence which governs this World at present for tho' these natural Hopes and Fears do not give Men any assurance that they shall be rewarded or punished in this World as they deserve yet a good Conscience especially some great and eminent Vertues give good Men great hopes in God and a secure trust and dependance on his Providence even in this Life and a great sence of Guilt makes Men afraid of present Vengeance though God may think fit to delay the Punishment of bad Men till the next World yet a guilty Conscience never thinks itself safe here So that if there be any force in these Arguments the Accountableness of Humane Nature the essential Differences of Good and Evil the Natural Notions of God's Dominion and Soveraignty and that just Providence which governs the World at present to prove a Future Judgmenâ— they all receive strength and confirmation from the natural Hopes and Fears of good and bad Men which are a natural Presage of Judgment And this is a fifth Argument of a Future State The natural Presages of Conscience 6ly To add no more the removing Mankind out of this World into the next proves the necessity of a Future Judgement If Mankind after death subsist in another State they must be judged and therefore Judgment is as certain as a Life after death which I must take for granted in this Argument the reason I believe of this is not obvious at the first proposal but it will be plain if you consider but some few things 1. That when we go into the next World we must remove into a State of Happiness or Misery I do not mean that when we go into the next World good Men shall be certainly happy and the wicked miserable for that is to beg the thing in question and to take that for granted which is to be proved but 〈◊〉 we live in the next World it is certain we must be happy or miserable there for every thing that lives is so in proportion to the capacities of its Nature 2. That our State and Condition in the next World must have relation to our Behaviour and Deserts in this When God first makes Man he puts him into such a State as is fitted to his Nature for when he has done neither Good nor Evil it is not what he deserves but what God sees him fit for that must allot him his Rank and Station but when Man is removed out of one State of Life into another his Behaviour in the first State must be taken into consideration when God allots him a second for though his State of Life is changed the Person is the same and his Deserts are the same and if he deserved ill in this World he cannot deserve well in the next and if he deserved well in this World he ought to be well used in the next Some Philosophers who believed that the Souls of Men did pre-exist in a former State before they came into these Bodies thought this a very good account of the different Fortunes of Mens Birth Education Condition and Circumstances of Life that they were proportioned to their Merits and Deserts in that former State and were this true that the Soâ—â—s of Men did live in a former State before they came into these Bodies this might be a very fair and reasonable account of it for when Men have deserved well or ill whether they are continued in the same State or translated into some other the Justice of the Divine Providence in allotting their State and Condition of Life must have respect to their former Deserts before Creatures have deserved well or ill their Condition must be allotted by thâ— Divine Wisdom and Goodness with respect to the capacities of their Natures when they have deserved well or ill their Condition must be allotted by Justice with respect to their Deserts this is so plain that it will admit of no Dispute III. And then it necessarily follows that God must Judge Mankind in the 〈◊〉 World must reward or punish Men according to their Works that is musâ— put them into such a State of Happinesâ— or Misery as they have deserved anâ— have made themselves fit for those wâ—â— have obeyed God and purified and refined their Natures by the Habits of Graâ—â— and Vertue are fit Objects of his Goodness and have made themselves capablâ— of a Divine Happiness of seeing God and dwelling in his Presence but those who have debased their Natures with the love of this World and have defiled their Souls with impure Lusts deserve to be banished from God's Presence as Rebels and apostate Creatures and having made themselves uncapable of Divine Joys must suffer the Miseries of damned Spirits So that if we will but allow that God allots Men their Condition in the next World as he does in this and that in allotting their Condition in the next World he has any regard to their Behaviour and Deserts in this as Wisdom and Justice requires he should and this proves a Future Judgment or that God will reward and punish Men according
Providence against all the Reproaches and evil Surmizes of Men for he will appear just when he judgeth and overcome when 〈◊〉 contendeth Let us not disturb our Heâ—â—â— with such Difficulties as we cannot understand now we know enough to believe that God is righteous in all his ways and holy in all his works enough to makâ— us devout Worshippers of God and tâ— enquire farther is a dangerous Curiosity like looking into the Ark of God SECT IX â—ifth Inference To affect our Souls with a strong and vigorous and constant Sence of Iudgment V. SInce it is certain that GOD will Judge the World let us endeavour by all means possible to affect our Souls with a strong and vigorous and constant Sence of Judgment The Belief of a Future Judgment is worth little when it ends in Speculation the use of it is to govern our Lives and to prepare us to give a good Account of ourselves to God since we know that he will demand an Account of us but a meer Belief that we shall be judged will not do this unless we affect our Souls with a Sence of Judgment The Experience of the World and our own Experience of ourselves does sufficiently prove this we all profess to believe a Future Judgment and most of us do heartily believe it and yet there are too many among us who give little reason to the World to think they believe it who commit those Sins every day for which they know God will damn them when they come to Judgment which one would think those who believe they shall be judged could never do so 〈◊〉 a meer Belief of a Future Judgment 〈◊〉 not govern Mens Lives but then 〈◊〉 very Men when they are awakened 〈◊〉 a Dread and Fear of Judgment feel 〈◊〉 Vertue and Power of it on their Hearâ— it makes them hate their Sins and 〈◊〉 themselves for them it makes them 〈◊〉 devout and importunate in their Pâ—â—â—ers very sincere and passionate in their Repentance very resolved to forsake all thâ—â—â— Sins and to live a new Life and thâ—â—â—fore if we would have the Belief of a Future Judgment make us good Men 〈◊〉 must not only believe it but affect oâ—â— Souls with a great Sence of it which iâ— true of all the other Arguments and Motives of Religion as well as of a Futurâ— Judgment The proper Enquiry then here is How we shall awaken and preserve such a poâ—erful Sence of Judgment in our Minds Now the only general Direction thâ—â— can be given is Frequently to Thinâ— and Meditate on a Future Judgment foâ— nothing can affect our Minds but ouâ— Thoughts which make the Object present and give us a near View of it 〈◊〉 it is in the Objects of Sence the Eye affects the Heart and excites and moveâ— the Affections more than all the Arguments in the World if we look stedfastly upon a terrible and frightful Object it will strike Terrour into us if upon a pleasant and beautiful Object it will excite Love and Delight if upon a miserable Object it will affect us with a tender Compassion to see Men in great Want and Misery will melt and open that Heart which was hardened and shut against all the Arguments and Motives to Charity and long and frequent Consideration will have much the same effect on us that Sight has Judgment is a terrible thing to bad Men and if they would but seriously think of it it would terrifie them if they would but imagine sometimes that they heard that last-Trumpet sound which will awaken all-Mankind and raise them out of their Graves and summon them to Iudgement that they saw the Son of Man descend from Heaven attended with his mighty Angels to execute Vengeance on all them who know not God and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Iesus Christ that they saw the Earth all in flames about them and Hell opening her Mouth wide to receive them that they saw the Books opened and those Sins recorded which they had forgot and the Secrets of their Hearts disclosed and that they heard that terrible Sentence Go ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels do yâ—â— think that any Man who believes all this and would suffer himself seriously to think of it could bear up against the Terrour of it or that with these Thoughts about him he could court a Strumpet or spend his Time in Revels and Excess or Blâ—spheme God and Ridicule Religion or Cheat his Neighbour or Oppress the Poor and Fatherless or Forswear himself Noâ— we see this cannot be as often as we see â— miserable Sinner whose awakened Conscience distracts him with all these Scenes and Images of Terrour So that serious Consideration would make a Future Judgment very effectual to govern our Lives but the great Difficulty of all is to bring Men to consider and yet one would think it impossible that a reasonable Creature should not consider that he must be judged But so it is and there is no disputing against Experience and yet it is so dangerous and fatal a Neglect that it concerns us to enquire into the Causes and Remedies of it for could we Cure this it would quickly Reform the World give a new Resurrection to Piety and Vertue and secure Men from the Danger and Terrours of a Future Judgement Now there are two apparent Causes of this 1. That the Thoughts of Judgment are very uneasie and troublesome and that makes Men afraid and averse to think of it And 2. that Judgment is out of sight and they have nothing to mind them of it and their Thoughts are so taken up with other matters that they forget it unless they happen to hear a Sermon about it or some accidental mention of it which when they return to their worldly Affairs and Business they quickly forget again 1 st Men are very apt to avoid all Thoughts of Judgment because they are very uneasie and troublesome they startle at the mention of it at least do not love to talk too long nor think too seriously of it for it awakens their Consciences and makes them think what a sad Account they have to give how many things they have done and daily do which they can never answer to God when he comes to Judgment and therefore they choose to live quietly without disturbing themselves with such terrifying Reflections and the amazing Thoughts of what is to come Now methinks it is no hard thing to convince thinking Men of the Danger and Folly of this and to reconcile them to the Thoughts of Judgment For 1. To drive these Thoughts out of our Minds though it may give us present ease yet it will not mend our Accounts nor prevent our being judged God will judge us whether we will think of being judged or not were no Men to be judged but those who think of it there were as much reason to stupifie our Consciences and never to think of Judgment as there is for sick Men to take
and Forgiveness and loving Enemies leaving Vengeance to God who is the just Judge of the World For vengeance is mine I will repay it saith the Lord which supposes that Vengeance is due to Sin though Christ requires his Disciples to leave it to publick Magistrates or to God who is the Judge of the World As for those Sins which are not so properly the Objects either of publick or private Revenge as doing no direct and immediate injury to any but those who commit them such as Gluttony Drunkenness Prodigality Sloth Idleness a vagrant useless fantastical Life and the like besides some gentle Restraints which publick Laws lay on them they have this punishment that they make Men contemptible and infamous neglected and disregarded as a Reproach to Humane Nature and useless Members of the Common-wealth and such publick Infamy is a very great punishment for it is one of the worst Ingredients in all Publick Punishments This I think shews what the sence of Mankind is about the desert of Sin that Punishment is its just due and they have given very ample testimonies also to the merits of Vertue for though there are no Laws to reward a private Vertue as there are to punish Vice yet publick Honours by the consent of Mankind are thought the just Rewards of an eminent Vertue This has procured the favour of the People and advanced such deserving Men to the highest places of Trust and Dignity in the Commonwealth when such Men are advanced it is with a publick Applause as due to them no Man envies their Greatness or grudges to come behind them whereas publick Honours are thought misplaced on bad Men and set so ill-favouredly on them as exposes them to publick Scorn and Envy Let us then sum up this Argument and consider the just Consequence of it There is an essential difference between Vertue and Vice and according to the sence of all Mankind Vertue deserves to be rewarded and Wickedness punished and can we think then that if God governs the World he will not judge Mankind that he will not reward the Good and punish the Wicked Has he implanted a Natural Principle of Revenge and Justice in Men and taught them to erect publick Courts of Justice for the punishment of Vice and will he not punish it himself Has he given such a natural grace and beauty to Vertue as attracts to itself the love the praise the admiration the rewards of Men and will he himself have no regard for it Has he made Vice infamous and contemptible and will he cast no shame no reproach on it Would not the very Order of Nature complain of this should the God of Nature have no regard to it For we must observe that according to the general sence of Mankind Vertue and Vice deserve to be rewarded and punished not only by Men but by God too this is the foundation of that terrible Objection against Providence that good Men are many times great Sufferers in this World and the wicked very prosperous which supposes that if God govern the World he must punish bad Men and reward the good because the nature of Things require it and he cannot be a just Governour if he do not either Men ought never more to make this Objection against Providence or they must allow that if there be a God he will judge the World And indeed there is much more reason to expect this from God then from Men especially since the Administration of Justice among Men is so corrupt imperfect or defective that neither Vertue nor Vice will ever have their just Rewards unless he take it into his own hands And this brings me to a third branch of this Argument for a Future Judgment III. That the Natural Notions we have of God prove that he will judge the World All Men who believe a God acknowledge him to be the Soveraign Lord of all the World infinitely wise holy good and just now it seems impossible to me though we had no Revelation of his Will what he would do that such a Being as this should not judge the World As to consider this matter particularly but very briefly 1. If he be the Soveraign Lord of the World then he has Power and Authority to judge nay there is no other Being has Power and Authority to judge the World but himself that if he will not judge the World the World can never be judged And yet as I have already proved the essential differences of Good and Evil necessarily require that Man should be judged that good Men should bâ— rewarded and the wicked punished and if there must be a Judgment then God who is the Soveraign Lord and the only Judge of the World must judge Mankind If Judgment be necessary as the nature of Things prove and as the general consent and unbyassed reason of Mankind agree it is if we cannot hence conclude that God will judge the World I am sure we can never know any thing certainly of God by Reason for there is nothing which Reason concludes more expresly and positively than this 2. As for the other Attributes and Perfections of the Divine Nature such as Wisdom Holiness Goodness Justice if God be the Soveraign Lord of the World we must consider them as the Attributes of a Soveraign it is the Wisdom the Holiness the Goodness the Justice of a Soveraign Lord and therefore the proper exercise of these Attributes in God consists in the exercise of a Soveraign Authority and Power that is in governing and judging Mankind wisely holily with Goodness and Justice and this certainly proves that God as Soveraign Lord does govern and judge the World for he cannot exercise his Wisdom or Holiness or Goodness or Justice as Soveraign if he exercise no Acts of Soveraignty He cannot judge wisely holily or righteously if he do not judge at all and therefore though he be wise and holy and jâ—st and good yet he is not a wise and holy and just and good Soveraign for as Soveraign he exercises none of these Attributes if he does not judge the World if he do not reward good Men nor punish the wicked which the Wisdom the Holiness the Goodness of a Soveraign requires And therefore if the Natural Notion all Mankind have of God joyns his Soveraignty with his other Attributes as it must do unless we can divide God from himself that he is not only a wise and holy and just and good Being but that he is a wise and holy and just and good Soveraign Lord of the World we must confess that God does govern the World and display all these Attributes and Perfections in the Government of it I might add a great deal more upon this Argument but this is so very plain and demonstrative that there is no need of it SECT III. The External Appearances of Providence prove a Future Iudgment III. AS the Natural Notions we have of GOD proves that he will judge the World so the External
Appearances of Providence prove that God does judge the World at present and that he will judge it hereafter For the Providence of God does very often make such a remarkable difference between good and bad Men in this World as is sufficient to satisfie us that God does govern and judge Mankind at present and yet the present Administrations of Providence do not always make a sufficient distinction between good and bad Men in this World good Men being very often afflicted and bad Men prospeaous which gives us a reasonable expectation of a more just and righteous Tribunal in the World to come where Rewards and Punishments shall be more equally dispensed But to discourse this more particularly I observe that the external Appearances of Providence prove that God does govern and judge the World at present as much as is necessary to the ends of Government in this World I confess did it appear that God took no care of the Government of the World at present I should very much question whether he would judge the World hereafter but when there are plain and evident proofs that a wise and just Providence does govern the World that God makes such a difference at present between good and bad Men as the good Government of this World requires this is a sufficient reason to expect a more exact impartial universal Judgment of good and bad Men in the next World To state this matter plainly and to make a very sensible Argument of it I shall 1. shew you what evidence we have of a Divine Justice and Providence which governs the World at present 2. The Force of this Consequence from the Providence of God in this World to a Judgment in the next I. What evidence we have of a Divine Justice and Providence which governs the World and I shall begin 1. With that Divine Justice which is interwoven in the Nature of Things for if God have no contrived the Nature of Things that Wickedness is a punishment to itself and wicked Men a Plague and Scourge to each other it is a plain demonstration that when God made Man he intended to govern him too since he has annexed such natural Rewards of Punishments to a vertuous or vicious Life I am sure this is as good an Argument for a Providence as the wise Contrivance of Things is for God's making the World We think it very absurd to say that the World was made by Chance or without a wise Creator when there is such admirable Art and Curiosity in the Make of the meanest Creature as the wisest Philosophers are not able to understand much less to imitate And if all Humane Art and Philosophy cannot make a Flie nor so much as understand the make of it how can we possibly imagine that such a World as this which consists of such infinite variety of Creatures and every Creature made up of so many natural Wonders and all so admirably fitted to each other as to make up an uniform regular and beautiful World should own any other Author but an infinitely wise and perfect Being who has all Power and all possible Ideas of Usefulness and Beauty that is to say since there are such apparent Characters and Impressions of an excellent and unsearchable Wisdom in the Frame of the World a wise Being must be the Maker of it and is it not as good an Argument That if Humane Nature be so contrived that Man who is a free Agent shall be happy or miserable as he is good or bad that God made him to be governed and therefore intended to govern him nay did more than intend it for he contrived his Nature so as to govern itself for though he has made him a free Agent yet he has left nothing at his liberty but whether he will be happy or miserable the one he must be and he may indeed choose which he will but there could not be a greater natural Restraint upon a free Agent than to make Happiness or Misery the reward of his Choice especially since Nature teaches all Mankind to love themselves and to be happy if they can That this is so is so evident to our very Senses that it is a good Subject to declaim on but needs no proof What is there that can make any Man miserable in this World which is not the natural and necessary effect of some Sin or other Will irregular and furious Passions make a Man miserable a confounding Shame distracting and terrifying Fears raging Anger Malice Revenge great Perplexity Solicitude Anxiety of Thoughts if the pain and torment of Mind is Misery these Passions must make Men miserable Now all these are the passions of a sinful Mind Sin is the Parent and the Nurse of them a vertuous Man who always takes care to do his Duty and what becomes him knows not what Shame means if he be slandered reproacht and vilified he may blush a little to be thought a bad Man but his own Conscience does not reproach him nothing is truly infamous but what is wicked and therefore Shame can never disturb an innocent and vertuous Mind Good Men may be afraid of some Temporal Evils and Calamities but it is Sin which distracts Men with guilty Fears which are so unsupportable to Humane Nature nay when our wordly Fears are excessive and tormenting they are raised and aggravated by some Vice or other either by too great a passion and fondness for this World or a distrust of the Divine Providence and Protection which is the true Cause also of that Thoughtfulness Anxiety and Solicitude which the love of Riches and the fear of loosing such uncertain Treasures create A raging Anger Malice Revenge is owing to Self-love Pride Covetuousness Injustice and such other Vices as make Men injurious to each other and impatient of Injuries Man had been a Stranger to all these troublesome tormenting Passions had he continued Innocent and whoever would enjoy Peace and Contentment and Satisfaction of Mind quiet and easie and chearful Passions must root out those Vices which make such a Ferment and raise such unnatural Tempests in our Breasts Is Pain and Sickness Poverty and Disgrace an Untimely or Infamous Death a great punishment to Men these would be the punishments of some kinds and degrees of Sin though neither God nor Men should judge Sinners Drunkenness and Gluttony and Lust will destroy our Health and afflict us with tormenting Diseases and shorten our Lives and wast our Estates and make us infamous If you want a proof of this go visit the Hospitals and the Goals see the miserable Spectacles of Rottenness and Poverty there and inquire into the causes of them and how many Martyrs and Confessors there are to Intemperance and Lust or some other destructive Vice inquire into the Decays of Noble and Flourishing Families how goodly Lordships and Mannors come so often to change their Masters what makes Riches such uncertain and mutable things look into the Streets and see what Crowds of miserable
good way to do this but suppose this fail in some instances or cannot perfectly accomplish what God intended will he give over here and use no other more effectual methods to supply those defects Notwithstanding all these natural Rewards of Vertue good Men while they live intermixed with the wicked may be oppressed by them and made as miserable as all external Calamities and Sufferings can make them and are in great danger oâ— being so unless a watchful Providence secure them the practise and exercise of Vertue will make Men happy both in Soul and Body where the natural effects of Vertue are not hindred and interrupted by external Violence but where they are a good Man though he cannot be called miserable yet may be far enough from being happy nay would truly be miserable notwithstanding his Vertue had he noâ— the assurance of the Divine Protection at present and of glorious Rewards hereafter which support his Spirit and make him happy in the most afflicted Fortune The good Government of our Appetites and Passions will make our Minds chearful and easie Contentment will sweeten a low Fortune and Patience will make our Sufferings light but these would be impracticable Vertues without a firm Trust in God and the expectation of future Rewards for to be greatly oppressed with present Sufferings without the support of greater Hopes will break the most vertuous Mind and make it sink and faint Sobriety and Temperance is the best method to preserve our Health and prolong our Lives but yet good Men may have very weak and distempered Bodies and may inherit the Diseases of their Parents though not their Vices or what care so ever they take to preserve their Lives yet they may be ravished from them Frugality and Diligence and Charity and such thriving Vertues may raise an Estate and Oppression and Injustice may take it away and how glorious soever Vertue be in itself it may be eclipsed and darkened by Envy and Calumny or reproached by a prevailing Faction of Triumphant Sinners and thus Vertue may be deprived of all its natural Rewards if God does not interpose by his Providence for its defence or reserve some more certain Rewards for it in the World to come Thus Sin in its own nature is very destructive as you have heard to the peace and pleasure of the Mind to the health of the Body to our Estates and Fortunes and Reputation in the World but yet some Sinners may feel very little of this a great and lasting Prosperity will so qualifie the natural Malignity of Sin as to make such Men very unsensible of it Pride and Ambition and Covetuousness have little trouble but great pleasure in them when they are gratified with prosperous Successes with a daily Increase of Riches and Honours Envy and Hatred and Revenge are pleasing Passions when Men have their Enemies at their feet and can trample on them at pleasure Though Intemperance and Lust and Prodigality may ruin an Estate Fraud Injustice and Oppression may get one and as hurtful as some Vices are to our Health a cautious Sinner and such there are in the World may be very wicked without injuring his Health or shortning his Life and as infamous as Sin is this may be so concealed and palliated by external Honours that the Sinner shall not feel it nor bad Men see it nor good Men dare take notice of it So that these natural Rewards and Punishments which God has entailed on Vertue and Vice may either wholly or in a great measure be defeated by the great external Calamities of good Men and by the great Prosperity of the wicked and therefore if it be God's Will that good Men shall be happy and the wicked miserable as these natural Rewards and Punishments prove that it is unless he will suffer himself to be defeated in the very end for which he made Man which we can never suppose of so infinitely wise and powerful a Being he must at least in all such cases interpose by his Providence for the protection of good Men and the punishment of the wicked in this World and reserve their final Rewards and Punishments for the World to come Had Man preserved his Innocence and kept his Original State in Paradise Vertue would then have been a reward unto itself and have furnished us with all the internal Principles of Happiness as Paradise did with all the external Provisions and Delights of Nature but since we are thrust into this World where good Men live among the bad exposed to all the accidents of Mortality and injuries of Men though these natural Rewards and Punishments are a great Instrument of Providence still yet it is necessary God should take good Men into his more particular care in this World and translate them to some more perfect State of Happiness since as the World now is it is impossible a Divine Vertue should receive its compleat Reward and Recompense here fo that it seems as demonstrable to me that God governs this World at present and will judge us in the next as that he has made an essential difference between Vertue and Vice and entailed natural Rewards and Punishments on them which are of no use but for the Government of the World and as things now are cannot in many instances attain that end without a Providence in this World and a Judgment in the next 6. These natural Rewards and Punishments of Vertue and Vice are a natural Proof and Evidence of the future Rewards and Punishments of good and bad Men or of a Future Judgment and the reason of it is plain because Piety and Vertue is a happy nature and Sin and Vice a miserable Nature and therefore at one time or other Vertue must make Men happy and Vice miserable Nature will act like itself and produce its proper Effects unless it be hindred by some external Force and whenever that Force is removed it will return to itself again Though the Nature of Piety and Vertue be such as to make a reasonable Creature happy yet we know what it is that either abates or in a great measure destroys the Happiness of good Men in this State they live here in earthly Bodies which have strong sensual appetites and passions and they feel all the pains and pleasures of the Body which makes many acts of Vertue difficult and uneasie in resisting the impressions of Sense and denying the gratification of the Flesh this World is the Empire of Sense every thing in it courts and flatters our Senses and draws off our Minds from the spiritual Delights of Vertue and Religion which are the proper and natural delights of a reasonable Spirit and at best extreamly dull the spiritual sensation and relish of the Soul and make the delights of Religion faint and languid which must proportionably abate our spiritual Pleasures These mortal Bodies want a great many necessaries and conveniences of Life the care of which employs most of our Thoughts and Time and though our
Secular Affairs will furnish us with frequent opportunities of exercising great and excellent Vertues yet the World is apt to gain too much upon us by our constant Conversation with it and as Flesh and Sense prevails so the Spirit loses and if this does not defile the Soul with worldly Lusts yet it takes us off very much from the frequent and vigorous acts of a Divine Life which is the true Happiness of a reasonable Soul But then these mortal Bodies are exposed to great Wants and Sufferings bad Men are injurious and Meekness and Patience and such tame and gentle Vertues incourage their Injuries nay true Piety and Religion itself may be the cause and reason of our Sufferings and when the Body suffers the Soul suffers with it and this stifles the present pleasures and satisfactions of Vertue and nothing can support the Spirits of good Men under such Sufferings but the future expectations of great Rewards So that in this State Vertue alone is not a sufficient reward to itself for either its pleasures are but faint and languid or its sufferings over-ballance its pleasures But yet if we will but suppose a good Man removed into such a State where Vertue and Piety will have its free unrestrained undisturbed Exercise and can produce its natural Effects without any hindrance and interruption then it is demonstrable that Piety and Vertue must make Men happy and this secures the Happiness of good Men when ever they remove out of these Bodies and out of this World When these Bodies and this World can no longer tempt or disturb us with its Pains or Pleasures when the Care and Business of this World can no longer divert and employ our Thoughts when Bad Men can no longer injure us when our Souls are set at liberty to exercise all their Rational Powers when we remove into a World of Spirits and converse only with Spiritual Objects which will as strongly affect our Minds as the things of this World do our Senses then Vertue will and must be a Reward unto itself then the Pleasures of Wisdom and Knowledge and Divine Passions will be ravishing and transporting Thus on the other hand the Nature of Vice is such as to make a reasonable Creature miserable but yet a great Prosperity in this World and a confluence of all sensual Enjoyments may at present palliate and dissemble or suspend these malignant Influences of a vicious Nature may make Men unsensible of the want of true Rational and Divine Pleasures or of the pain and disturbance of sinful Passions may bind up our Reason and Conscience and give such an empire and predominancy to Sense that we can neither understand nor relish any other Pleasures but those of the Body and think ourselves compleatly happy while we have these but if we will suppose such Men stript of Flesh and Sense thrust out of these Bodies and out of this World and there is an end of their sensual Happiness and a sensualized Soul is capable of no other and when all other Objects are removed and such sinful and distempered Minds are brought acquainted with themselves when the Vertue of these Opiates is spent and the Soul recovers its sense again then every vicious Passion proves a Fury then Guilt and Shame and Fear and Despair and raging Remorse act their several Tragedies in such a miserable Soul This is the true Nature of sinful and disordered Passions and thus they must do when they act like themselves and thus they will do when they are let loose upon us in the other World So that the natural Rewards and Punishments of Vertue and Vice that Vertue in its own nature is the Life the Happiness Vice the Death and Misery of a reasonable Soul do necessarily prove that if good and bad Men remove out of this World of Sense into a World of Spirits Piety and Vertue must make Men happy and Vice miserable and we may take it for granted that God will reward a happy and punish a miserable Nature 7. These natural Rewards and Punishments of Vertue and Vice are a great Instrument of Providence as they are a most effectual Antidote and Remedy against Superstition which corrupts the Manners of Men and debauches the World By Superstition I mean all those hypocritical Arts of appeasing God and procuring his Favour without obeying his Laws or reforming our Sins infinite such Superstitions have been invented by Heathens by Iews by Christians themselves especially by the Church of Rome which abounds with them Now these Superstitions do not only spoil all Religion but corrupt Mens Lives and give them great security and impudence in sinning which overturns the good Government of the World For while Men perswade themselves that they may live as they list and commit what Villanies they please and yet escape the Wrath and Vengeance nay obtain the Favour of God both in this World and in the next it sets them free from all Laws and Government and leaves no restraint on them but what the Laws of Men and the Rods and Axes of Princes lay on them But when Men consider that God has so contrived the nature of things that Vertue must make Men happy and Vice miserable they cannot imagine that God can be reconciled to wicked Men unless they think that he will alter the nature of Vertue and Vice for them the Rewards and Punishments the Happiness and Misery of good and bad Men are not now arbitrary things at the disposal of God's arbitrary will and pleasure but God must new make Man again to make good Men miserable and bad Men happy they may as well expect ease in a Fit of the Gout or Stone or Health in the Paroxysms of a Feavor as that a wicked and corrupt Nature should receive the Rewards of Religion and Vertue This is the first Evidence we have of a Divine Providence which governs the World that Divine Justice which is interwoven in the nature of things which has annexed such natural Rewards and Punishments to Vertue and Vice and thereby marked them out for the proper Objects of God's Favour or Vengeance II. Another Evidence of God's Providence and Government is the Institution of Humane Governments for the Punishment of Wickedness and the Rewards of Vertue it is very plain in Scripture that Humane Power and Authority is ordained by God I need only direct you to 13 Rom. for the proof of it though indeed the nature of the thing proves itself if we allow that God made the World for he has made Man such a creature that Humane Government is absolutely necessary and to make Humane Government necessary is a natural Institution of it Man is a sociable Creature who cannot live alone but must unite into Societies and the experience of Mankind proves that Societies cannot be preserved without Civil Government to maintain the Rights and to restrain the Violences and Injuries of Men that if God had not by any direct and immediate Institution set up any
proper place for it and requires some different Acts of Judgment peculiar to that State If God reward good Men and punish wicked Men in this World why should we think that he has reserved no Rewards or Punishments for them in the next especially if we consider these two things I. That it is very evident that the Judgment of God in this World is not Final that is that the Blessings God bestows upon good Men in this World are not the onely Rewards he intends for them nor the present Evils and Calamities he brings upon bad Men their onely Punishments this is very plain and expresâ— in Scripture but I must not Appeal to Scripture now while I am arguing from Reason and therefore must consider what Natural Indications we have of this As 1. That good and bad Men live together intermixt in this World in the same Country the same Neighbourhood nay the same Family and therefore God does not intend finally to reward good Men or punish the wicked here for that requires a Separation of them the same place will not admit of perfect Happiness and perfect Misery which must be the effect of a Final Judgment for their very Neighbourhood will necessarily allay each other Unless God should make good Men other Creatures than they now are it would be impossible for them to see the perpetual Executions and the amazing Miseries of Sinners without disturbing their own Ease and Rest and then they could not be perfectly happy in this World As things now are the many Miseries and Calamities of Humane Life exercise the pitty and compassion of good Men and afflict them with a tender and painful sence of other Mens Sufferings and what would it then do were all wicked Men punished in this World according to their Deserts which would make this World the very Image and Picture of Hell a very unfit place for good Men to be happy in and if good Men were all perfectly rewarded in this World bad Men who live and converse among them could not be perfectly miserable for to live in a happy Place and among happy People is some allay of Misery at least it is not like being condemned to Eternal Night and Darkness to the Company of Devils and damned Spirits Besides this without a miraculous Providence good Men cannot live among the wicked but they must suffer from them nor bad Men live among the good but they must receive good from them and therefore neither of them can be perfectly happy or perfectly miserable while they live together Were there no more in it but this the very Wickedness of Men their Leudness Injustice Oppression Prophaneness Comtempt of God and Religion would be a perpetual Trouble and Vexation to the Good as the Soul of righteous Lot was grieved with the filthy Conversation of the Wicked and this makes a great a batement in their Happiness and yet it would not be a less Miracle to preserve all good Men from the Injuries of the wicked who live among them especially when they are the prevailing Numbers and have great Power to do Mischief then it was to preserve Daniel in the Lions Den from being devoured by those hungry and ravenous Beasts Nay it is impossible that God should punish all wicked Men in this World without involving some good Men in their Calamities and Sufferings when God punishes a wicked Nation with Plague or Famine or Sword when he fires a City and reduces all the Buildings of it to a Heap of Rubbish how is it possible but that good and bad Men who live together must suffer in such a Common Calamity there is reason enough why God should now sometimes permit â—â—is because even good Men may deserve such Corrections and he can easily recompense them other ways but this would be no reason if good Men were to receive their Final Rewards in this World for then they ought to be exempted from the Punishments of the wicked Thus how impossible is it for God to punish all bad Men here without punishing good Men in them Have not many good Men very wicked Relations for whom they have a very tender affection Parents or Brethren or Children or those who are nearer to them than all these and can they be contented to be Witnesses of their Sufferings This cannot be unless good Men in such cases could divest themselves of natural Affections which we see is not and cannot be done and if it could would be a greater Mischief to the World than the Sufferings of bad Men would do good to it And for the same reason bad Men cannot be perfectly miserable in this World while good Men live among them for unless God should forbid the exercise of some of the most excellent Vertues of the Christian Life and which are in themselves most beneficial to the World good Men will exercise great Charity and Goodness Forgiveness and Patience towards the wicked will relieve their Wants and pitty their Sufferings and be their Patrons and Advocates both with God and Men that is will do good to them and procure Blessings for them The Intercessions of good Men very often divert Judgments and obtain great Blessings for a very wicked Nation Sodom itself had escaped upon the Intercession of Abraham had there been Ten righteous Persons found in it And God very often spares a wicked Nation for the sake of good Men who live among them and must suffer by such Publick Judgements that is he spares bad Men to save the Righteous Thus God bestows many Temporal Blessings upon the Friends Relations and Posterity of good Men though they are wicked and this is part of the Reward of Piety and Vertue in this World and therefore all good Men cannot be rewarded and all wicked Men punished in this World because many good Men must be punished in the Punishments of the wicked and many wicked Men must escape nay must prosper in the World as a Reward of the good which is not considered by those who make the Impunity and Prosperity of some bad Men an argument against Providence when the very Prosperity of these bad Men is many times the Reward of Vertue and a design'd Favor and â—ndulgence to the good But what I have now said plainly proves that God's Judgment in this World is not Final because good and bad Men live together and it is absolutely necessary that they should be parted when God comes to render to every Man according to his Works as our Saviour declares that they shall be at the Final Judgment when the Sheep shall be placed on his right Hand and the Goats on the left 2. That God's Judgment in this World is not Final appears from this that all good Men are not rewarded nor all wicked Men punished in this World as they ought to be if God did not intend to Judge Men in the next World for what they have done in this That this is so I need not prove because we every day see
their Appetites and Passions and to make them good Men if there be no Reward for Vertue and Piety in the next World Why should he afflict good Men all their Lives whose Vertue deserves a more prosperous Fortune only to exercise their Faith and Patience and to advance them still to more Divine Perfections unless he intended to reward their present Sufferings and their eminent Vertue with a brighter and more glorious Crown There are many Passages of Providence which there can be no other account given of but that they are Methods of Discipline to conquer Mens love to Sin or to improve their Graces and Vertues And I am sure there can be no account given of this why God should with so much Patience and Forbearance expect the Repentance of some Sinners and exercise good Men with so much Severity to make them better unless the Providence of God in this World have a principal regard to the Rewards and Punishments of the next that is unless there be a Judgment to come to reward good Men and to punish the wicked This I hope is sufficient to make good this Consequence That if God govern the World at present he will judge it-hereafter SECT IV. The Natural Presages of Conscience prove a Future Iudgment and if there be a Future State there must be a Future Iudgment V. THe Natural Presages of Conscience are another good Argument or a Future Judgment that is all Men naturally expect to be judged to be rewarded or punished for the Good or Evil they do and this is a strong Natural Presumption that God will Judge the World This is an Argument of great moment and therefore deserves to be particularly explained to which purpose I shall I. shew you That it is so 2. That this is not an artificial Impression but the natural Sence of our own Minds And 3. That this does prove that God will Judge the World and render to every Man according to his Works I. That it is so that all Men have a natural Presage of Judgment there is indeed a very â—ormidable Objection against this That very few Men live as if they did expect to be judged But this is as good an Argument against Mens belief of the Gospel of Christ and the express Revelation of a Future Judgment as it is against the Natural Sence and Presages of Conscience for there are too many who profess to believe the Gospel but do not live as if they did believe a Judgment But I need not trouble myself about this because it is an Objection only to Atheists and Infidels if indeed it be an Objection to them Other bad Men who live as if they did not believe a Judgment yet feel in themselves that they do believe it and when they think of it they believe and tremble too as the Devils do though at other times they are over-powered by the World and the Flesh to act contrary to the Convictions of Conscience and the Fears of Judgment The Heathens themselves who had only the Light of Nature to direct them were very sensible of the private Judgement of their own Consciences which did either accuse them when they did ill and fill them with remorse and fear of Vengeance or excuse commend and applaud them when they did well and give them great and chearful Hopes of a Reward as St. Paul tells us 2 Rom. 14.15 and is frequently observed by the Heathen Philosophers Poets Orators and Historians as a thing universally acknowledged and indeed I know no Man at this day who denies it and therefore I need not prove it All Men feel this in themselves even Atheists and Infidels whenever they are serious and thoughtful when the Judgements of God overtake them or they see the near Approaches of Death and another World The greatest Power cannot defend Men from these Fears Princes and Politicians are equally exposed to them with meaner Subjects those whom no Humane Power can touch are over-awed by an invisible Justice II. Since this is universally acknowledged the onely question is To what Cause to attribute these Fears and Rebukes of Conscience The Atheist will by no means allow these Fears to be Natural but only the Effect of a Superstitious Education as they say the Belief of a God and the differences of Good and Evil are Men have been taught from their very Infancy that there is an invisible Power that governs the World which will reward good Men and punish the wicked and have been frighted with the Fairy Stories of Infernal Judges and Styx and Acheron or Hell-fire and this made such an Impression upon their tender Fancies as can never be wore out at least not without great Industry and Resolution of Mind and this they say makes weak Men conclude that they are Natural But this is a very absurd and ridiculous Account of the Matter as will appear if you consider by what Rules we are to judge what is Natural and what not for if these Presages of Conscience have all the marks and signs of being natural that we can have that any thing is natural we must either say that nothing is natural or that we cannot tell what is natural and what not or we must confess it great Perversness of Mind to deny that to be natural which has all the signs and Marks of being natural that any thing can have Now I. That is Natural which is universal or common to the whole Kind for we have no other way of knowing what the Natures of Things are but by observing what is common to all Creatures of the same Kind and Species for nothing is common to all Individuals but a common Nature and if what is universal and common to all Mankind is Natural these Censures and Rebukes of Conscience are Natural for they are common to all Men for though we should grant that some few Atheists had wholly conquered these Fears and never feel the Lashes and Rebukes of their own Consciences such few and rare Examples ought to be lookt on as the Corruption of Humane Nature not as the Measure and Standard of it for it is no news to say that Humane Nature may be corrupted that the very essential Principles of it may be depraved and in such cases we always judge and that with very good reason that what is most common and universal is Natural not what is as rare and as ominous as a monstrous Birth 2dly Especially when we consider that that is most Natural which is born and bred with us and is the Original State of Humane Nature for Nature is before Art and before the voluntary Corruptions and Degeneracy of Nature This Atheists see and confess and therefore attribute the Belief of a God and the Checks of Conscience and the Fears of Judgment to Education that these Principles were instilled into us from the beginning and grow up with us into confirmed and setled Prejudices and I readily grant that Education has a great stroke in forming our
Notions and in awakening and cultivating our Natural Reason for though we are born with a Power and Faculty of Reason and our Minds are so framed as to understand and assent to such Truths when they are proposed to us to know and acknowledge prime and original Principles at first view as the eye discerns Light and distinguishes Colours yet we are not born with the exercise of Reason but it must be put into Act and formed by Education but this I say that it is an argument how natural these Notions are to our Minds that they are the first Principles all Mankind assent to without difficulty or dispute and such Principles as when Men grow up they find lie even and easie in their Minds they are the first things which Atheists themselves did naturally believe and that they do not believe them now is the effect of great Industry and Violence It is a piece of Art to be an Atheist which they are a great while a learning which very few Men though well disposed to it can ever learn but to believe a God and to fear and reverence his invisible Power and Justice is not Art but Nature and therefore common to all Mankind and the first thing they learn to believe 3dly Another Mark of what is Natural is that it is absolutely inseparable from Nature or at least not without extream Difficulty and Violence and this proves the Hopes and Fears of good and bad Men to be very natural For how impossible it is to conquer these Fears I appeal to your own Sence and Experience as many bad Men as there are who would be very glad to get rid of these Fears and to laugh them out of the World there are but very few that can do it Some Men indeed stifle their Consciences and lay them asleep by the various Arts of Superstition whereby they hope to appease God and to keep their Sins still or by the deceitful Vows and Promises of Repenting before they die or by perpetual Business and Entertainments which imploy their Thoughts and keep off all melancholy Reflections or by such perpetual Debaucheries as stupifie their Minds and make them insensible now these Mens Fears are silenced for a while but not conquer'd whatever makes them reflect upon themselves and consider their own state awakens their Fears again and makes them more out-ragious and tormenting than ever The Atheist is certainly so far in the right that there is no way to get rid of these Fears but by banishing the Belief of a God and of another World out of their Minds but few Men can do this and Atheists themselves when they have impudently enough derided the Superstition of the rest of the World and think they can answer all the Arguments for the being of a God and a Future State yet cannot wholly deliver their Minds from these Fears they ever and anon recur upon them and after all their pretended Assurance and Confidence they are very jealous what may be and many times some cross Accidents and Events or the approach of Death opens their eyes and makes them acknowledge a God and tremble at the thoughts of Judgment which they had so long despised This is a certain proof that these Fears are not owing to Education but spring from Nature for the Mistakes of Education may be rectified by Reason and Experience especially when they are such troublesome Mistakes that Mankind are desirous to get rid of them no such Mistakes could ever hold out long against Reason and Interest whatever is a Mistake may be confuted by Reason and when it is Mens Interest to discover the Mistake this will make them very sagacious in their Enquiries and very ready to see their Mistake that had the Fears of bad Men been the effect only of Idle Tales and Traditionary Fables it is impossible they should have withstood all the Wit and Reason of Philosophical Atheists that such Men with all their Arguments should not be able to make themselves absolutely secure much less to make many Converts though every Age and Nation has been filled with Men whose lives have disposed them to be Atheists These are the general Marks and Signs of what is Natural that which is universal and common to all Mankind that which is the first and original sence of Humane Nature and that which is so deeply fixt in our Minds that no Art or Industry can wholly root it out and all this proves that these Presages of Conscience the Hope 's good Men have of a Reward and the Fear of Punishment and Vengeance which haunts bad Men are the natural Sence of Mens Minds 3dly Let us now consider the force of this Argument how these Hopes and Fears of good and bad Men are Natural Presages of a Future Judgment 1. Now in the first place I think I may lay it down as a certain Principle That Nature or the Natural Sence of our own Minds does not deceive us for if we should say it may there is an end of all Certainty we must be Scepticks in every thing if we cannot believe the Natural Impressions upon our Minds for I know not then why we should believe our external Senses what we see or hear or feel if Man was made by God who is Eternal Truth the natural Sence of our Minds must be as true and certain as our Bodily Senses are for though the Deductions of Reason are not always so necessary and certain because Men may reason wrong yet if the first Principles of Reason and the immediate Sence of our Minds which are common to Humane Nature should misguide us this were the fault not of Reasoning and Discourse but of Nature itself and therefore must be charged upon the Author of Nature and certainly there cannot be so ill a contrived Creature made as Man is who is pursued with the Fears of Justice and Vengeance when he does ill and flattered with the promising Hopes of great Rewards when he does well if there be no Future Judgment to reward good Men and to punish the wicked 2. For secondly these Natural Hopes and Fears of good and bad Men immediately respect the Judgment of God not of Men and concern the Rewards and Punishments of the other World more than of this Let bad Men be never so powerful and prosperous though they fear no hurt from Men nor any change and alteration of their Fortune yet the sence of Guilt distracts and terrifies them with the Fears of an Unseen and Almighty Vengeance and though good Men suffer very hard things from the World and have no prospect of better Usage here yet their Consciences speak Peace to them and support them with great Hopes and therefore unless these Natural Hopes and Fears deceive us good Men shall certainly be rewarded by God and bad Men punished either in this World or in the next or in both 3. We may consider farther that these Hopes and Fears of good and bad Men give a Natural Confirmation
pray for and therefore it teaches us Having Food and Raiment there-with to be content But who could be contented with such a scanâ—y Provision while he sees the greater Prosperity of bad Men who dissolve in Ease and Luxury were there not a happy state reserved for them in the next World Where is the Man who would not comply with the Devil's Temptation to fall down and Worship him for all the Kingdoms of the World and the Glory of them were he not to lose a brighter and a richer Crown for it Some times indeed God does bless good Men with great Plenty and Honour but he has no where promised to do so in the Gospel of Christ sometimes he does it not so much to reward good Men for Temporal things are not the proper Rewards of Piety and Vertue as to serve the ends of his Providence in the World he takes care of good Men to supply their wants and necessities here which is all that a perfect Vertue requires but he rewards them hereafter and yet this is not absolutely promised neither for our Saviour teaches us to take up his Cross to expect Sufferings and Persecutions for his Name sake and then we must be contented to want Food and Raiment to part with Houses and Lands and Life itself for his sake and our condition may be so afflicted and calamitous here that it may force us to say as S. Paul does If in this life only we had hope we were of all men the most miserable And who would be the Disciple of Chriâ—â— upon these Terms to suffer so much for him in this World and to gain nothing by it in the next Thus on the other hand there is a terrible Vengeance threatned against wicked Men in the next World Lakes of fire and brimstone blackness of darkness the worm that never dieth and the fire that never goeth out but the Gospel threatens no Temporal Punishments against Sin Bad Men are very often punished in this World when the Wisdom of the Divine Providence sees fit and they very often escape too and are much more prosperous than good Men are here that there is no Threatning in the Gospel to restrain the Impieties of Men but only the Fears of the other World and a Future Judgement and if you take away these you destroy the Gospel of our Saviour 2. Many of our Saviour's Laws are founded on the supposition of a Future Judgment and are extreamly unreasonable if there be no Rewards or Punishments after this Life that if we will but allow him the ordinary Prudence of a Lawgiver a Future Judgment must be the Foundation of his Religion If there were no other Life after this the only Rule of our Actions would be to live as long and to enjoy as much of this World as we can But Christian Religion in many cases will not allow of this and therefore is no Religion for this World were there not another World to follow To begin with the Enjoyments of this World How many Restraints does the Christian Religion lay on us to lessen the Pleasures and Satisfactions of this Life It teaches us a great Indifferency to all the things of this World but how unreasonable is that if this World be our only place of Happiness For who can be indifferent whether he be happy or not It commands us to mortifie our sensual Appetites to crucifie the Flesh with its Affections and Lusts to live above the Pleasures of the Body to pluck out our right Eyes and to cut off our right Hands but what reason can there be to deny our selves any of these Enjoyments as far as is consistent with preserving our Health and prolonging our Lives if we have no expectations after Death nay if Men are contented to live a short and a merry Life what hurt is there in it if death puts an end to them It forbids us to lay up for ourselves Treasures on Earth which were a strange Command were there not greater Treasures to be expected in Heaven It forbids earthly Pride and Ambition an affectation of Secular Honours and Power but why must we submit to Meanness and Contempt in this World if this be the only Scene of Action we shall ever be concerned in for a mean and base Spirit is no Vertue and for the same reason it can be no Vertue to be contented with a low Fortune to be patient under Sufferings which if they will never be rewarded is to be patiently miserable and that is Stupidity and Folly but to have our Conversation in Heaven to live upon the hopes of unseen Things is Madness and Distraction if there be no Heaven no unseen Things for us The Laws of our Saviour require us in some cases to sacrifice the dearest Interests we have in this World and Life itself for his sake which is a sensless and unreasonable Command if he does not intend to bestow a better Life on us If there were no other Life after this no wise Man would forfeit more for any Religion than it is worth in this World and that would reach but a little way in Suffering Nor is our Saviour so unreasonable as to require it upon these Terms but tells us plainly Whosoever will save his life shall lose it and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul 16 Mat. 25 26. The Reasons of most of the Evangelical Commands must be fetched wholly from the other World and a Future Judgement and therefore we should have had the same Evidence for a Judgment to come that we have for the Christian Religion tho' there had been no such express mention made of a Future Judgment I cannot but observe here the true Reason of the Corruption of Christian Morals which are as much corrupted as the Christian Faith is That in expounding the Laws of our Saviour some Men have no other regard but to fit them to the ease and the conveniences of this Life and therefore reject any Interpretation of them which is severe to Flesh and Blood or will hazard their Ease and Fortunes in this World It is sufficient to Confute any Law of our Saviour or to Interpret it away to shew that there are great Temporal Inconveniences in it that to observe such Laws in such a sence would be very injurious to Mens present Interests and deprive them of many Pleasures and Advantages of Life It were easie to give many Instances of this but it shall suffice at present to confess that considering the State of this World and the Propensities and Inclinations of Humane Nature some Laws of our Saviour are very unreasonable were there not a Future Judgment to reward the Severities and Sufferings which good Men must undergo in observing of them and therefore we must have a care of rejecting any plain and express Law
such matters as we can give no account of there may be plain Reasons assigned why no account can be given of them in this World 1. As for the first it is easie to give many Instances of it There are many things which Mankind greatly complain of and for which they think themselves very hardly used by God which upon a true Estimate of things considering the corrupt State of Humane Nature are greatly for the Happiness of the World and though they were inflicted as Punishments by God yet have an excellent temperament of Wisdom and Goodness This I have formerly shewed you as to that Sentence of Death which God pronounced against Mankind after the Fall of our first Parents Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return and as to his shortning the Lives of Men after the Flood and I shall now give another Instance in that Curse God pronounced upon the Earth for the Sin of Man to which we owe most of that Pain and Toyl and Labour which is under the Sun and most of the Miseries and Calamities of Humane Life and if in this also the Wisdom and Goodness as well as the Justice and Severity of God appears I hope it will convince us how reasonable it is to be modest in our Censures of Providence and to conclude that God is equally wise and good in those things which we do not understand The Justice of this is very evident for when Man who was the Lord of the Creation had rebelled against God it was very just for God to punish him and the most proper Punishment which he could inflict on him next to his own Mortality was to Curse those Creatures which were made for his use and delight as God told Adam when he had eaten the forbidden Fruit Because thou hast hearkened to the voice of thy wife and eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee saying Thou shalt not eat of it cursed is the ground for thy sake in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee and thou shalt eat the herb of the field In the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread until thou return to the ground for out of it wast thou taken for dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return 3 Gen. 17. For I need not tell you this Curse upon the Ground was no punishment to the Ground which was sensible of no hurt but to Man who was to live upon it it defaced the Beauty and Glory of the Creation and entailed a toilsome and painful Life on him it made his Food less wholsome and more hard to come by and whereas all Creatures before were in perfect subjection to Man according to the grand Character of the Creation Have dâ—minion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air and over every living thing that moveth on the earth 1 Gen. 28. Now we find by experience that they have cast off this Yoke and very often revenge the Quarrel of their Maker upon apostate Man Thus Man fell from the Glory and Happiness of his Nature and yet if we wisely consider things we shall find excellent Wisdom and Goodness even in this Curse For Man having corrupted himself the best State he could be put into was an industrious and laborious Life to force him to work hard to get his living and to earn his Bread with the sweat of his Brows which was the necessary and immediate Effect of God's cursing the Ground that whereas before the Earth would have supplied Man with all things for his Necessity and Delight without his care and labour now it would not yield its Increase of itself but brought forth Briars and Thorns And as difficult a State as this is it was very fit for fallen Man 1. A laborious Life is of great use to subdue the fleshly Principle and to prevent the opportunities and occasions and temptations to Sin The experience of the World tells us that nothing more corrupts Mens Manners than Idleness the Flesh grows rampant with Sloth and Luxury and Time it self is so uneasie and troublesome when we have nothing to do that Men rather chuse to be wicked then to be idle and therefore God who foresaw the Degeneracy of Mankind by the Fall hath provided work for us that with the sweat of our Brow we must eat our Bread 2. This does not only imploy the Bodies but the Minds of Men Puts them upon the study of Philosophy and the invention of Arts and Sciences upon observing the Works of Nature and Dependence of Causes and Effects to observe the Motions of the Heaven the Sun and Moon and Planets thereby to know the Seasons of the Year and to fix the time of their return it is this Necessity to which we owe the most useful Discoveries in Nature which is not only very beneficial to the World but a very delightful Entertainment and the most natural Ornament and Perfection of our Minds 3. The Necessities of Humane Life are the foundation of Humane Societies and make Men combine together for mutual Help and Comfort for though Man is a sociable Creature and delighted with Humane Conversation yet in this degenerate State nothing is a greater endearment than our mutual Dependence upon each other that we cannot live single and apart because we want a great many things which the Skill and Labour of other Men must supply us with Now this obliges us to the exercise of all friendly and sociable Vertues brings us under Government without which Humane Societies cannot subsist and this lays great Restraints upon the Lusts of Men and by a strict Discipline trains them up to the practice of Moral Vertues which is a good means to correct the Degeneracy of Humane Nature it inspires us with Principles of Love and Humanity of Justice and Charity and softens and polishes our Natures by the mutual Endearments of Conversation it makes us Friends to Mankind gives us a sence of Injuries and an Abhorrence of them and which is more then this it gives publick Countenance and Encouragement to Religion for Publick Government must encourage Religion because Religion is its greatest Defence and Support and this makes some Men sincerely Religious and Devout and forces some external signs of Honour from those who have little sence or reverence of a Deity which though it does no good to them is for the advantage of the World So that this Curse in the necessary Consequences of it is the greatest Blessing to Mankind which is an abundant Justification of the Wisdom and Goodness of God in it A more easie State of Life did better become a State of Innocence but since the Fall such an easie careless unconcerned Life would have sunk him lower into Sensuality and made his Recovery more desperate and hopeless It were easie to give many Instances of this nature to justifie the Divine Wisdom and Goodness in such passages of
Opiates to sleep away their Pain and their Distemper together but this would be thought a very ill Remedy for their present Pain were they to sleep away their Lives and yet this is the Remedy these Men choose to sleep away their Souls to sleep away the Fears of Judgment till Judgment awakens them and their Fears never to sleep more 2. How frightful soever the Thoughts of Judgment are it will be infinitely more terrible to see and feel it And there is no way to avoid that terrible Condemnation but by thinking of it the Fear of Judgment if once it thoroughly possesses our Souls will conquer this World disarm all its Terrours discover its Cheats and Impostures wash off its Paint and Varnish pluck off its Vizard and Disguise it will teach us to fear God which is the beginning of Wisdom the Guide of Youth and the Counsellour of Age And would not any wise Man rather choose to preserve himself from Danger and Misery by fearing it then to live without Fear and to perish by his Security In this World Men love to know and see their Danger that they may avoid it how dismal soever the Prospect be and it is very unaccountable that Men should choose rather to be damned then to prevent it by a timely Foresight and a prudent Fear and Caution For 3. that Fear of Judgment which is necessary to govern our Lives and to prevent our final Condemnation is not so amazing and terrifying as these Men apprehend it it is not the Fear of a Man who is going to Execution but the Fear of Prudence Caution and Foresight which makes Men wise and circumspect but don't distract them We have as many Demonstrations of this as there are Men who govern their Lives under the Fear and Sence of a Future Judgment are there any Men in the World who live more chearfully than they who converse more pleasantly with their Friends and enjoy the Comforts of Life with greater innocence and freedom Do you find any Disturbance in their Looks any symptoms of an uneasie and frighted Imagination and yet these Men all this while live under the constant Awe and Fear of Judgement and therefore the Sence and Fear of Judgment is consistent with a constant Peace and Serenity of Mind That which distracts and terrifies Men is not the constant Awe and Sence of Judgment but the Condemnation of their own guilty Consciences which threaten the Judgments of God against them and when Men apprehend themselves a falling into Hell and fear their Case is hopeless and irrecoverable it is no wonder if the very Pains of Hell take hold of them and not being able to bear these Horrors they silence or stupifie their Consciences with the Noise and Business and Diversions and Pleasures of this Life and can never endure to entertain the least Thought of Judgment and imagine that all who do live a miserable life are as melancholy and disturbed as they are when they think of Judgment but this is a great mistake it is their Guilt which makes the Thoughts of Judgment so terrible and their not thinking of Judgment betrayed them to that Guilt and nothing but a constant Sence of Judgment can now expiate their Guilt and conquer their Fears by Repentance and a new Life and as terrible as this is for the present it is more desirable then to be damned But would Men accustom themselves betimes to the Thoughts of Judgment and govern their Lives under the sence of it Judgement would never be terrible to them no more then the Assize is to Men who have an Awe and Reverence for the Justice of their Country and obey its Laws Nay 4. when we govern our Lives under the Awe of a Future Judgment it is so far from being terrible that it fills us with great and joyful Hopes for when God judges the World he will reward good Men as well as punish the wicked and if the Fear of a Future Judgment makes us truly and sincerely good we shall long for the Day of Judgment as the Husband-man does for the Harvest this will be our great Support and Comfort under all the Calamities of Life and be a perpetual Spring of the most Sincere and Divine Joys This may satisfie us that there is no reason to be afraid to think of Judgment that to live under the constant sence of it as it is the only way to make us truly good Men so it will deliver us from all guilty Fears support us under all present Troubles and delight us with the hope and expectation of glorious Rewards 2 ly As for those who out of meer Carelesness and Inconsideration never think seriously about a Future Judgment who imploy all their Thoughts about present and sensible Objects but do not concern themselves about what is absent and unseen or think very seldom and very coldly and transiently of it it is a Wonder to me how Men need be put in mind of a matter of such vast concernment and importance to them as a Future Judgment is Does not the Happiness of your immortal Souls depend on it Is it possible to conquer the Temptations of this World to resist the Solicitations of the Flesh the Courtship of Riches and Honour those gilded Vanities of this Life without remembring that for all these things God will call us to Judgment Methinks Men should as soon venture themselves in a rocky and tempestuous Sea without Rudder or Pilot or Compass or Ballast or Anchor as to think to pass safe through this World without a constant Awe and Sence of a Future Judgment Such Men are very careless of their Souls and they must lose them for they will never get safe to Heaven they can never give a good account to God when he comes to Judgment who never think of any account they are to make But besides this as one would think that a Future Judgment is of that great moment that no Man who is at all concerned for his future Happiness could suffer it to go out of his Mind so there is little reason in this case to complain of want of Monitors for though we do not see the Judgment-Seat and all the awful Solemnities of Judgment and it is impossible we should for it is not yet yet there are a thousand things to put us in mind of it and if it be possible to us to forget a matter of such consequence without something to refresh our Memories and to renew the impression of it I shall briefly hint to you some things which occur every day and are very familliar Emblems of Judgment and desire you to unite the Thoughts of a Future Judgment to them that when you see the one you may think of the other which will be a kind of artificial Memory when you find the Notes and Characters of Judgment so frequently presented to you As to give you three or four familliar Instances of this which you may very easily multiply When you
are so busie and careful in keeping your Books and casting up your Accounts and ballancing your Gain and your Loss and observing how your Stock increases or decays can you forbear thinking that you have a greater and more concerning Account than this the Account of your Life and Actions which if you do not keep God does he has his Records of them and will produce his Books at the Day of Judgment and judge you out of them When you call your Servants or Stewards to an Account how they have improved or embezled your Goods whether they have hid their Talent in a Napkin or traded with it and gained five or ten Talents you should remember that you also are but God's Stewards and must give an Account of your Stewardship and either shall be Stewards no longer but be turned out of your Master's Service and punished for your Negligence or shall receive a Reward proportionable to your Diligence and Gain When we correct our Children or Servants for their Idleness Disobedience or any other Miscarriage or reward their Diligence and Vertue can we forget that we have a Father and a Master in Heaven who curiously observes all our Actions and will judge will reward and punish us according to our Works When we see at Harvest the Wheat gathered into the Barn and the Weeds neglected or burnt should it not mind us what a difference God will make between good and bad Men at the Day of Judgment that though they live intermixed in this World they shall be parted then good Men received into Heaven where God dwells and bad Men banished into outward Darkness where there is Weeping and Wailing and Gnashing of Teeth for evermore The awful Solemnities of Humane Judicatures the Judge sitting on the Bench the Malefactor arraigned at the Bar the Jury the Witnesses the Tryal Condemnation Sentence Execution are lively Emblems of a Future Judgment and methinks should mind Judge and Juries and Witnesses and Spectators of it I have mentioned these few Instances because they are common and familiar and Scripture-Representations of a Future Judgment and so often occur that if we would but as often think seriously of a Future Judgment we should soon attain an habitual Sence of it And possibly my applying them to this purpose now as little an Observation as it may seem may make you think of your great Account when you are casting up your Books or reckoning with your Workmen or taking an Account of your Stewards and Servants and if it should I shall have my end and you will find the benefit of it But there is one thing which is naturally apt to mind us of a Future Judgement and I am sure always ought to do so and is of very near and present concernment to us at this time and that is When the judgments of GOD are in the earth for then as the Prophet Isaiah tells us the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness 26 Isaiah 9. I have already observed to you that the Examples of a just and righteous Providence which governs this World are a good Proof of a Future Judgment for it is an argument that God does take notice of the Actions of Men and concerns himself in the Government of the World and then we have no reason to question whether he will judge the World And when God is actually executing Judgments on the World when he is a judging Kingdoms and Nations when he has unsheathed the Sword and made it drunk with Blood when the Desolations of flourishing Countries the Burning of Towns and Cities the lamentable Slaughter of infinite numbers of People do so loudly proclaim the Wrath and Displeasure of God those who han't a great and awful and terrible Sence of Judgment will never be awakened but by the sounding of the last Trumpet It is this that makes the Judgments of God so effectual to Reform the World not meerly the Fears of present Sufferings of those Temporal Evils and Calamities wherewith God punishes Sinners but that by these visible Tokens of God's Anger by the present sensible Effects of his Justice and Power Men are rouzed and alarm'd into a Consideration of future Vengeance We extreamly weaken the Argument from present and sensible Judgments when we urge it no further then to perswade Men to reform their Lives to remove those Judgments which are upon them this is an additional Argument to reform our Sins to save our Country from Ruin but those who will not reform their Sins to save their Souls will never part with them to save a Nation and therefore the true force of the Argument resolves itself into a Future Judgment God has begun to punish us already in this World for our Sins and unless we repent we must not hope to escape so these Temporal Sufferings are but a Summons to Judgment and it may be are intended to remove us presently into the other World to receive our Reward The Axe is now visibly laid to the root of the Tree and every Tree which bringeth not forth good Fruit is hewen down and cast into the Fire And the visible Execution of GOD's Judgments upon the World will certainly mind us of a Future Judgment and give us a feeling sence of it as it gives us a present and sensible View of God's Justice and Power and a nearer Prospect of it 1. It gives us a present and sensible View of God's Justice and Power And that though he be very good and merciful he is very righteous too and very severe in his Judgments that though he be gracious and merciful slow to anger and of great kindness yet he will not always spare but will awake to visit the heathen and will not be merciful to any wicked transgressors 59 Psal. 5. When we see what Desolations God makes in the Earth how his Judgments like a sudden and mighty Torrent overflow a secure and happy Country sweep away the Inhabitants of it or transplant them into foreign Nations to beg their Bread among Strangers when we see how he sounds an Alarum to War and sets Kingdom against Kingdom and every Man's Sword against his Brother when we observe with what an impartial Hand he strikes that there is no Country no People no Religion escapes that he makes Ambition and Covetuousness correct Superstition and Superstition chastise the Coldness and Formality the loose and licentious Lives of more Orthodox Christians I say when we see such things as these in the World shall we not fear and tremble before that just and righteous Judge Can we forget that GOD will judge the World in Righteousness when we see already such terrible Executions which are onely Preludiums to a Final Judgment 2. These present and visible Judgmenâ— give us a nearer Prospect of a Futurâ— Judgment and Judgment will more seâ—sibly affect us the nearer we see it Not that such Judgments as these prove that the Final Judgment is near at hand foâ— the Records and Histories of
former Agâ— give us an account of very terrible Judgâ—ments which God then executed upon the World and yet we see the Final Judgement is deferred and we know not hoâ— long it may be deferred still but though the general Judgment may be a great way off yet our particular Judgment may be very near God may quickly cut us off and put an end to our Account and when the Judgments of God are in the World we have reason to expect it at least so far as to be prepared for it Proxiâ—â—â—ardet Vcalagon when we see the Judgements of God sweep away so many Thousands round about us who not long since lived as secure and unconcerned for Danger as we do when we see the Clouds hover and rowl about the Heavens charged with Thunder and Tempest Who knows where the Storm will break next and who shall feel the Violence of it And therefore the Judgments of GOD which are in the Earth will give all considering Men such a present Sence of a Future Judgment as a threatning Sickness will do Present Judgments may suddenly cut us off and send us into the other World unprepared for a Final Judgement and there is no preparing for it there and then these present Judgments may prove Final to us So that those who live in such an Age as this will be utterly inexcusable if they forget their Account which they have such terrible Admonitions of let us make this use of present Judgments to awaken a more lively and vigorous Sence of a Future Judgment in us and that will make us good Men and secure our Eternal Happiness and is the best way to prevent any Publick Calamities of our Country which we may fear or to preserve ourselves from being involved in them CHAP. II. Concerning the Time of Iudgment SECT I. Concerning a Particular Iudgment at the Time of every Man's Death II. LET us now consider the Time of Judgment God hath appointed â— day wherein he will judge the world iâ— righteousness Now this plainly refers to that General Judgment when all Mankind shall be summoned before the Tribunal of CHRIST to be judged according to their Works But before I speak to this it will be necessary to take notice of what we commonly call a Particular Judgment which is supposed to pass upon all Men as soon as they go out of these Bodies The received Opinion is That when any Man dies he is immediately called to Judgment and receives his Final Sentence which is immediately executed on him that a bad Man is sentenced to Hell and sent immediately thither that a good Man is received into Heaven and enjoys the Beatifick Vision from the time of his going out of this Body But I must confess this has always appeared a great Difficulty to me we live in such an inquisitive Age as will not allow us to affirm what we cannot prove and indeed no honest Man ought to do so for it forfeits any Man's Authority and weakens the Credit of Religion when that which has no proof or at best is very uncertain is taught with as great assurance as that which is most certain and unquestionable in Religion and yet no wise Man will oppose and contradict a received Doctrine though he were satisfied it were a Mistake when there are no evil Consequences attend it For my part I must honestly profess that I neither dare affirm nor deny this Particular Judgment in the sence in which it is commonly understood for there are some Passages in Scripture which seem to look both ways and since I cannot decently avoid saying something of it I shall fairly represent to you what Intimations there are in Scripture about this matter for there is no other way of knowing this and I dare teach no more than what the Scripture teaches 1. Now in the first place thus much is very plain in Scripture that good Men when they die are translated to a place of Ease and Rest and Happiness and bad Men to a place of Misery and Punishment which I suppose is what Men mean by a Particular Judgment for this is a kind of Judgment tho' it be not performed with all the pompous Solemnities of Judgment to allot Men their different states of Life according as they have behaved themselves in this World The Parable of Dives and Lazarus is very express to this purpose 16 Luke 19 c. There was a certain rich man which was cloathed in purple and fine linnen and fared sumptuously every day And there was a certain begger named Lazarus which was laid at his gate full of sores And it came to pass that the begger died and was carried by the Angels into Abraham's bosom the rich man also died and was buried And in hell he lift up his eyes being in torment and seeth Abraham afar off and and Lazarus in his bosom That this relates to the state of good and bad Men immediately after Death is very evident especially from that Request which the rich Man made to Abraham to send Lazarus to his Father's House For saith he I have five brethren that he may testifie to them lest they also come into this place of torment Which shews that Lazarus was in Abraham's Bosom and Dives tormented in Hell or Hades while his Brethren were living and revelling on Earth and therefore this can't relate to a General Judgement but signifies that State they entred into as soon as they died and though what is generally said that we must not argue from Parables is very true as to particular Circumstances of the Story which are the Ornaments and Embellishments of Parables yet it is as true that we must argue from the principal Scope and Design of them and then we may certainly conclude from this Parable that good and bad Men as soon as they die are in a State of Happiness and Misery otherwise there is no Foundation for this Parable for why should one be sent from the Dead to inform the Living what Punishments bad Men suffer in the next World if they suffer nothing till the Day of Judgment which is not yet for in this case such a Messenger could not be an Eye witness of the Punishment of Sinners which is the only thing that is supposed to give such Authority to his Testimony I do not remember any other such express Text for the immediate Punishment of Sinners as soon as they go out of these Bodies and one such Text as this is enough but there are many Texts to prove that good Men when they die go immediately into a State of Happiness not only Lazarus was carried by the Angels into Abraham's Bosom but Christ promised the Thief upon the Cross that that day he should be with him in Paradise and St. Paul tells us That to be at home in the body is to be absent from the Lord but when they are absent from the body they shall be present with the Lord That is when they die when they
until the day that Noah entred into the Ark and knew not until the flood came and took them all away so shall the coming of the Son of man be The like we have 17 Luke 26 27. to which he adds the destruction of Sodom Likewise also it was in the days of Lot they did eat they drank they bought they sold they planted they built but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all even thus it shall be in the day when the Son of man is revealed 28 29 30. 2. This exactly agrees with what I have now discoursed that God will not destroy the World till the wickedness of Mankind is almost universal and incurable for if this be true God cannot destroy the World till Men are secure and fearless of Judgment that is till they are such Atheists and Infidels so immerst in sensual Pleasures so given up to a Reprobate sense that they have no thoughts of God and another World nor any concernment for a future Judgment Till the generality of Mankind are come to this secure state they are not so hopeless nor so outragiously and irreâ—everably wicked as to provoke God to a final destruction of the World a sense of God and the fear of Judgment will restrain the wickedness of Mankind and make them more modest and cautious give check to their Vices alarm and awaken their Consciences whether they will or no while this sense and belief is preserved in the World there must be a great many good Men and a great many more who pretend to Piety and Vertue and though there may be here and there an Atheist among them this is not considerable this does not make the state of Mankind hopeless and desperate and does not come up to the description of those times when God will destroy and Judge the World And to observe this by the way this is the true account why the Judgments of God in this World either upon private Persons or publick Societies Kingdoms and Nations surprize Men when they are most secure and think least of Judgment when as the Prophet Ieremy speaks They cry peace peace when there is no peace 6 Jer. 14. I need not tell you that this is not to take us at an advantage as a weak Enemy sometimes does who wants strength and power to hurt us but upon a surprize for no sinner all the sinners of the World cannot resist God's Power though they had never so much warning to make their defence Nor is it that God takes so much pleasure in punishing us and in executing his Judgments upon the World that he will give us no warning of it that we may not prevent it by a timely Repentance and make our Peace with him for he is infinitely good and merciful he delights to do good and to shew mercy but Judgment is his strange work and he has sufficiently denounced his Judgments against incorrigible sinners if they would believe him and take warning by it But the reason why the Judgments of God so often surprize Men in their Security while they are asleep and dreaming of nothing but what is prosperous and happy of the return of Astroea and the Golden Age is because their sins which make them ripe for Judgment and will not suffer God to stay his hand any longer have made them also secure either they have sinned away all belief of God and his Providence and a future Judgment or have sinned away the sense of those particular sins which they are guilty of or to make themselves secure they have by the help of Enthusiasm and Superstition reconciled the hopes of Heaven and the sense of God's love and favour with the practice of the most provoking Impieties that is their love to sin has made them secure and then there is little hope that they will ever forsake their sins and this makes them very fit to be the Examples of God's Justice and Displeasure And the same account is to be given of the day of Judgment it will surprize Men as a Thief in the Night not because they never heard that God would Judge the World for God has sufficiently declared this and given us timely notice to prepare for it but Men will at that time have sinned away the belief of a God and of a Judgment to come or have laid this belief asleep with some intoxicating Superstitions and Formalities and this is so hopeless and irrecoverable a state that it makes it time forGod to Judge the World 3. And this may give some probable account both why the day of Judgment is deferred so long as some Men are apt to speak though God knows they have little reason to think it long considering what Account they are able to give and what Sentence they are like to receive and why the particular time of Judgment is concealed from us While the sense of Judgment continues in the World it must make a great many good Men and restrain the Wickedness and Impiety of bad Men and as you have heard God will not destroy the World while it is in an hopeful and recoverable state but the long delay of Judgment as Men are apt to call it wears off the sense and belief of it and then Men grow wicked without fear and restraint and then it is time for God to judge the World Thus if God fixes and determines the Day of Judgment upon the foresight of such a general Impiety as will deserve a final excision God cannot reveal this to the World For one would think it impossible did the World know this before-hand but the Age of Judgment should be the most Devout and Religious Age that ever had been from the beginning of the World and then that would not be a fit time to destroy the World and God could not fore-see it the properest time of Judgment It is abundantly sufficient that God gives us all reasonable Evidence and Assurance that he will Judge the World but there is no reason to tell us at what particular time he will judge the World nay it is not fitting that we should know it Had Men known some thousand Years ago how long the Day of Judgmenâ— should be deferred it had so much weakned the Argument of a Future Judgment by removing it a great way off that the World might much better have deserved to be destroyed at any other time than in likelihood it would do if Men certainly knew the time when the Day of Judgment comes and if the general belief of Judgment will not make us good Men it is not fit that we should certainly know the time of Judgment no more than that we should know the time of our Death or be converted by a sight of Heaven or Hell God reserves this as a Secret in his own Breast which neither Men nor Angels shall know which is the best way to make the belief of a Future Judgment effectual
clothed him with their own Weaknesses and Passions made him either a Tyrant and a Devil or such a tame easie fond Being as Men may make bold with without danger others prophane his Name corrupt his Worship or neglect and despise it some think themselves too big to serve God others too little to be observed by him some ridicule his Laws others take no notice of them and there are very few who are sincere Worshippers of him and acknowledge and submit to his Authority and Power and when God has been so much dishonoured in the World I think it is very fit that when he judges the World he should vindicate his own Glory make it publick and visible and force all his Creatures to own and confess it and the most effectual way to do this is by summoning all Mankind before him and judging them according to their Works Thus we see what reason there is with respect to God why he should not judge Men singly and send them privately and silently to Heaven or Hell but appoint a general Day of Judgment II. There is great reason for this too with respect to Men both to good and to bad Men for this is part of the Reward of Vertue and of the Punishment of Vice Many good Men have been used with the utmost Contempt and Scorn if they cannot comply with their Company and do as their Neighbours do if they boggle at popular and fashionable Vices they are gazed on as so many Comets and Prodigies and would be contented to be gazed on were they as far out of the reach of danger too as those Meteors are some call them Fools others Knaves and Hypocrites and treat them accordingly and is it not fit that God should vindicate these Men who have suffered Infamy and Reproach for his sake that he should publickly own them applaud and reward their Vertue And what a glorious Vindication is this if we can but have patience to expect it what a little contemptible Scene is this World nay this little Corner of the World where we live for whether we be praised or reproached it is likely we are never heard of out of the Parish and Neighbourhood or City oâ— Kingdom where we live and can't we be contented to let a whole Parish or City or Kingdom despise us to be publickly owned by God in the General Assembly of Men and Angels Good Men do a great many good actions privately which few or none are conscious to but God and themselves and therefore they lose the Praise which is due to such secret Vertues in this World but our Saviour has promised that such Men shall have praise of God that if we Pray and Fast and give Alms in secret Our Fâ—ther which seeth in secret shall reward 〈◊〉 openly 6 Matth. And this is a great encouragement to the practice of the moâ—â— secret Vertues that we shall be openly towarded for them Good Men are many times great Sufferers in this World are not only reproached but persecuted lose their Estates their Liberties their Lives foâ— Christ's sake and though God has strictly forbid them to avenge themselves yet he will execute Vengeance on their Enemies and do it publickly and make them the Spectators and Witnesses of it On the other hand Wickedness is many times very glorious and triumphant in this World is so far from suffering Shame which is the just Reward of it that it is applauded and courted and the greatest Prodigies of Wickedness are adored for their prosperous Villanies but yet Shame is the just Reward of Sin and it must have it at one time or other and nothing can more effectually cast Shame and Contempt upon Sinners then a General Judgment when they shall be publickly arraigned and condemned in the great Assembly of Men and Angels This will confound the most glorious Sinner who never blushed before for though while bad Men are supported with Power or are the most numerous Party and can out Vote and out Laugh the rest of the World they can secure themselves against the sence of Shame yet when they appear before such a Judge and have their Villanies exposed to all the World when they are stript of their Riches and Honours and Power and see all their Admirers and Companions past Laughing and Flattery and themselves despised and scorned by God and his holy Saints and Angels and condemned to everlasting Miseries it will then be impossible for them any longer to glory in their Shame Confusion will then cover their Faces and it would be thought very mercifâ—l to be damned privately without seeing their Judge and being exposed to publick Scorn and Censure Thus there are a great many wicked things done privately and concealed from the Eyes of Men and many times gildeâ— over with a form and counterfeit appearance of Religion and such secret Villaiâ— not only escape publick Shame but 〈◊〉 thought very extraordinary Men and great Saints now it is very fitting that such Men also should have their Masquâ— and Disguise taken off and be exposed to the View of the World just as they are and this God will do in that Day wheâ— he will judge the Secrets of Mens Hearts and bring to light the hidden Works oâ— Darkness And then what will it avaâ—â— them to pass for Saints in this World when at the Day of Judgment they shalâ— be known and be doubly scorned botâ— for their Wickedness and for their Hypocrisie What a severe Aggravation will it be of the Condemnation of the Wicked to see good Men whom they despised and persecuted whose Lives they thought Folly and Madness now owned and rewarded by God as our Saviour speaks To see them come from the East and from the West from the North and from the South and sit down with Abraham Isaac and Iacob in the kingdom of God and themselves sâ—ut out This will be a confounding Sight at that Day and as little as such Men now value Heaven to see the bright and dazling Crowns of those blessed Saints will pierce their Souls and wound them to Eternity This justifies the Wisdom of God in appointing a general Day of Judgment to reward good Men and to condemn the wicked but there is one good natured Objection against this which respects good Men for there are few good Men but may have some very wicked Relations who yet are very dear to them and how can they bear to be Witnesses of their final Condemnation to hear that Sentence pronounced on them Go ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his angels We tremble at the thoughts of it now and one would think it should over-cast the Glory of that Day to such blessed Saints to see such a terrible Execution upon those who were so dear to them but this is such a Mistake as the Sadduces Objection against the Resurrection concerning the woman who had had seven husbands whose wife she should be of the seven at the resurrection for they
heavens and a new earth and the former shall not be remembred nor come into mind Which St. Peter understands in a literal sence not meerly of a more prosperous state of Things in this World And thus St. Iohn as the Conclusion of his Revelations immediately after his Account of the last Judgment gives us a Description of this new Heaven and new Earth 21 Rev. 1 c. And I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away and there was no more sea And I Iohn saw the holy city new Ierusalem coming down from God out of heaven prepared as a bride adorned for her husband And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying The tabernacle of God is with men and they shall be his people and God himself shall be with them and be their God And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes and there shall be no more death neither sorrow nor crying neither shall there be any more pain for the former things are passed away And the rest of that Book is spent in describing the Glory of the Great City the Holy Ierusalem the River of the Water of Life proceeding from the Throne of God and of the Lamb and the Tree of Life which bore twelve manner of Fruits These are great Mysteries which we cannot perfectly understand yet especially what St. Iohn says about the new Ierusalem's coming down from Heaven to take up its Seat and Habitation on this new Earth that there is the Throne of God and of the Lamb where God dwells and which he enlightens with his Presence and from whence he drives away Death and Sorrow and Pain which seems to signifie that as the old Heavens and old Earth are destroyed by Fire in Vengeance on its wicked Inhabitants so this new Heaven and new Earth which God makes after the Destruction of the old is the Seat of the Blessed after their Resurrection from the Dead which I confess I know not how to understand But this gives a plain account why the final Judgment when good Men shall receive their final Reward shall not be till the end of the World because this old World must be destroyed before GOD makes those new Heavens and new Earth The final Destruction of bad Men will begin with the Destruction of this old World and the Rewards and Happiness of good Men shall be consummated in the new World whatever that be where they shall dwell for ever in the immediate Presence of God and of the Lamb. Now that God defers the Day of Judgment to the end of the World May 1. convince us of God's great Patience and Long-suffering towards Sinners for he forbears their Execution as long as he can forbear destroying the World and that we may be sure is as long as Wisdom and Justice will permit To destroy a World is a Work of as great Wisdom and Counsel as to make one nay the Divine Goodness will easily justifie the making of a World at any time for no time is unfit to exercise such acts of Goodness as will justifie themselves but for God to destroy the World which he has made without great necessity for it reflects upon his Wisdom and Goodness in making it The wise Maker of the World can have no inclination to destroy it and though the Justice of Providence may require some more hasty Executions to maintain good Order and Government and to give check to Vice yet the final Destruction of the World requires all wise Delays and Sinners can expect no more of God than to defer their final Sentence as long as he can defer the end of the World It is great pitty that such Goodness and Patience should be so monstrously abused that Men should harden themselves in sin and conclude that God will not judge the World because he is so unwilling to destroy it but this will justifie the Severity of the last Judgment that it is not the Effect of a hasty and sudden Fury but of mature Counsel that God did not want Goodness to spare Sinners as long as Wisdom and Justice could spare them To be slow to execute Judgment is as essential to Goodness as it is to Justice at last to punish and to conclude that God will not punish at all because he is patient and delays to punish is to prove that God cannot be just because he is good 2. That God destroys the World when he judges it is an undeniable Proof of the Severity of the last Judgment for what a terrible Vengeance is that which fires the World and dissolves this present Frame of Nature this is a fiery indignation indeed to devour the Adversary 10 Heb. 27. when bad Men and wicked Spirits shall be encompassed with Flames and Smoke without any possibility to escape for whether can they flie out of a fired World when the heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with â—ervent heat the earth also and all that is therein shall be burnt up There are a great many brave Sinners who mock at Fear and harden themselves against Hell itself but if they can be serious but for some few Minutes let them imagine all the World on fire about them the Heavens covered with thick Darkness and the whole Earth but one Vulcano one AEtna or Vesuvius Vomiting up Rivers of Burning Sulphur and themselves plunged in the midst of it let them try how they can bear this Thought before they laugh at Hell for this will certainly be the State of Sinners at the Day of Judgment and should not this make us fear and tremble before that great and powerful Judge Who knoweth the power of his wrath who can live with devouring fire who can dwell with everlasting burnings What an irresistible Judge is he who can destroy the World and all Sinners with it the World that was their God and now will be their Funeral Pile according to the Fate of some Heathen Idolaters they shall be sacrificed to their own God and tormented in the Embraces of a burning Idol The Destruction of the World gives a terrible Pomp and Solemnity to the last Judgment it will astonish bad Men and break their stout Hearts to see the World in Flames it will convince them to purpose that God is come to judge them and that he is very severe and terrible in his Judgments Who can describe the Horrours and Agonies and Consternation of that Day Cast your thoughts back a little upon that terrible Day when you saw London on Fire when you saw your Houses and Treasure all vanish into Dust and Smoke What did you think then of the Power and Justice of God And yet this was no more than a little Boan-fire compared with the Universal Conflagration though you could not save your Houses and Furniture and Treasure from its Rage and Fury yet there was room left for your own Escape and if this were so amazing
be made better by their Company as to escape the better with them but they should remember that the Tares and the Wheat grow together in the same Field but yet have a very different end the one is gathered into the Barn and the other is burnt and that good and bad Fish are taken in the same Net but they are separated at the Day of Judgment All our Separations now will avail us nothing unless we take care to be found in the Number of Christ's Sheep when we come to Judgment for if we be concealed Hypocrites and rotten and corrupt Members of a Sound and Orthodox and Pure Church though we have conversed with good Men all our lives here yet we must part Company at last the angels at that day will gather forth 〈◊〉 of Christ's kingdom and Church all things which offend and work iniquity The Judge being thus seated on his Throne and all Mankind before him the Books are opened which is another Circumstance to be considered in the last Judgment 20 Revel 12. And I saw the dead small and great stand before God and the books were opened and another book was opened which is the book of life and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works The like we have 7 Dâ—â— 10. This opening of the Books seems to be an Allusion to the Form of Process in Humane Judicatures for we cannot think that God keeps Books of Record in a literal sence as Men do for such Books are onely Helps to Memory and therefore God needs them not but this represents to us the exact and impartial Justice of the last Judgment for there are two sorts of Books which shall be opened and out of which we shall be judged 1. The Laws of God which are the Rule of our Actions by which we shall be judged 2. The Records of our Lives and Actions which contain the Matters of Fact or that for which we shall be judged I shall discourse more particularly of this hereafter and shall only observe at present that God is a curious Observer of all our Actions and keeps a faithful Record of them though we take little notice of our Sins ourselves and forget them presently and then think they are gone and past yet God remembers them and we shall find fair and fresh Records of them when we come to Judgment And how will it amaze and confound bad Men to see all the Sins of their Lives called to remembrance to see a black Catalogue of all their Impieties and Blasphemies Injustice and Oppression Uncleanness and Impurities to see an exact Counterpart of a most wicked and ungodly Life Nothing can blot our Sins out of God's Book but a sincere Repentance and Reformation of our Lives for then God has promised to blot out all our iniquities which is somewhat more then crossing the Account for when the Account is only crossed it is visible still but what is blotted-out don 't so much as appear it no longer stands upon Record it is forgot and shall never be alleadged against us there shall be no mention made of it at the Day of Judgment for St. Iohn tells us there is another Book shall be opened the Book of Life out of which good Men shall be judged which records their Faith and Patience and Charity and all the good they have done but none of their Sins which God has blotted out of his Remembrance and has promised to keep no Record of them And is not this a mighty encouragement to true Repentance that all our Sins shall be blotted out before the Day of Judgment that there shall be no mention no remembrance of them then Some very good Men have been guilty of very great Wickedness which it may be none but God and their own Consciences know and the best Men have so many Failings Weaknesses Miscarriages that should all the Sins of good Men be exposed to the View and Censure of Men and Angels at the Day of Judgment tho' they were finally absolved and acquitted yet it would cause great Shame and Confusion and overcast the Glory of that Day but their Sins are done away and forgot and they have washed their Garments and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb this is the only way to conceal your most secret Sins to blot them out of God's Book by Repentance for if they remain there upon Record how successful soever you may be in concealing them at present the Books will be opened at the Day of Judgment and then all the World will know them Thus in our Saviour's Account of the last Judgment none of the Sins which good Men ever committed are mentioned but only the Graces and Vertues for which they are rewarded nor is there any notice taken of any good Actions done by bad Men but only of their Sins 25 Mat. as God expresly declares it shall be 32 Ezek. 13 14 16. When I shall say to the righteous that he shall surely live if he trust to his own righteousness to the good he hath already done and commit iniquity all his righteousness shall not be remembred but for his iniquity that he hath committed he shall die for it Again when I say to the wicked Thou shalt surely die if he turn from his sin and doth that which is lawful and right None of his sins that he hath committed shall be mentioned unto him he hath done that which is lawful and right he shall surely live And now let us consider in what order Christ will Judge the World When he has separated between the Sheep and the Goats between good and bad Men he first calls good Men to Judgment and pronounces them blessed as we see 25 Matth. And this very much becomes the Person of our Judge who is the Saviour of the World and therefore to save is his proper Work and must take place of all Acts of Justice and Vengeance the Saviour of the World as I observed before must be our Judge that he may be a complete and perfect Saviour that he may finally acquit and reward us and therefore this is his first care to separate his Elect from the Company and to deliver them from the Destruction of the Ungodly This demonstrates to all the World that God takes more pleasure to save then to destroy this convinces Sinners that their Destruction is from themselves that they might have been saved as well as others for Christ came to save them and they see now that he would have done it would they have been saved by him in the Glory which is conferred on good Men they see what they have lost before they hear that terrible Sentence pronounced Go ye cursed into everlasting fire and this is a double Damnation to see the Happiness of good Men and to feel their own Misery for when we come to Judgment to lose Heaven will be thought a terrible Punishment though there were no Hell
for every one who knows them is ready to help them and therefore poor Men ought to think of a Future Judgment not only to save their Souls but to teach them to live in the World to deliver them from the extream pressures of Want And this is a double Obligation upon poor Men to think frequently of a Future Judgment that it is necessary to provide a comfortable Substance for them in this World and to save their Souls in the next But whether this remove their Poverty or no it will support them under it make them patient and contented with their Portion here if they govern their Lives under the sence of a Future Judgement it will support them under the Meanness and Calamities of their present Fortune with better Hopes they will then contemplate Lazarus in Abraham's Bosom and comfort themselves with the happy Change of their Condition as soon as they remove into the other World there they shall hunger no more nor thirst any more their Wants and Sufferings in this World if they bare them well shall be greatly rewarded and tho' they grovel in the Dust here and are Worms and no Men they shall then shine forth like the Sun in the Kingdom of their Father it is a miserable condition indeed to remove from a Dung-hill to Hell but a Dung-hill is a Palace if it will advance us to Heaven nothing but these things can make extream Poverty tolerable but such Hopes as these will make the poorest Man rich and happy 3 dly None have more reason to be put in mind of a Future Judgment than Young Men for none are more apt to forget it As Solomon intimates in his Counsel to Young Men 11 Eccl. 9. Rejoyce 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 in the sight of thine eyes But know that for all these things GOD will bring thee to judgment But to make this Discourse as useful as I can I shall 1. Perswade Young Men to possess themselves with a serious and hearty Belief that they shall be judged 2. Perswade them frequently and seriously to think of a Future Judgment 1. Let me perswade Young Men to possess their Minds with a serious and hearty Belief that they shall be judged For though they dare not own that they have the least hope of escaping the Judgement of God more than other Men yet there is reason to suspect that they flatter themselves that their Age will excuse their Crimes that God will take little notice of the Folly and Giddiness of Youth but will wink at it as he did at the Times of Ignorance For though Young Men commonly think themselves the wisest part of Mankind and despite the Experience and Counsels of Age yet they are contented to plead their Ignorance and Folly their Rashness and Giddiness when they hope to escape Judgment by it They are but lately come into the World and every thing is new and surprizing to them they admire before they understand and are tempted by meer Curiosity to tast forbidden Pleasures Sense is very strong and vigorous in them and Reason is weak their Passions eager and vehement and yet soft and tender to every Impression they are led by Examples and there are more bad then good Examples in the World and the Examples of the most are most prevalent especially when they tempt them to Ease and Softness and Luxury which are great Temptations to Youth without Examples And can we think that God won't make great Allowances for such a weak and deceivable State of Humane Nature This is the fairest Plea that can be made for Youth why God should indulge their Extravagancies and not exact so strict and severe an Account from them as from those of riper Years But if we consider this over again we shall find as great reason why God should judge Youth as why he should judge any other Age of Men 1. For first Young Men are accountable for their Actions as well as the Old they understand the difference between Good and Evil they know that there is a God whose Creatures they are and whom they ought to Worship and Obey and this as I observed before makes Man an accountable Creature and that makes it fit for God to call him to an account and if this be a good Argument to prove that Mankind shall be judged it proves that all Men must be judged who are capable of giving an account and then Young Men must be judged as well as the Old Unless we will allow that Reason and Understanding makes Men liable to be judged I would desire to know at what Age God must begin to judge Men No doubt but every Age will find something or other to plead for its Exemption from Judgment as well as Youth of which more anon But if Reason makes Men the Subjects of Laws and Government then we must begin to be obnoxious to Judgment with the beginnings of Reason and our Account will encrease as our Reason does that is as far as our Reason extends we must give an account what our Reason and Understanding does not reach we shall give no account of This is very just that the degrees of our Knowledge when it bears proportion to our Age should lessen or encrease our Account but it is reasonable too that Men should give an account of their Actions proportionable to their Knowledge and this indeed will make a difference in the Account of young and older Men though it will not wholly excuse Young Men from giving an Account This may excuse a great many Follies Indiscretions and Mistakes of Youth but it can excuse no known and wilful Sin There is a certain Age indeed before Humane Laws will take cognizance of the Actions of Children as not looking on them as reasonable Agents they must be governed by the Rod and kept under Discipline but have not Understanding enough to govern themselves by Laws but Humane Laws will Judge and Punish those who hope to plead their Youth as an Exemption from the Judgment of God But why should Young Men expect that God will not judge them for those Crimes for which Men will judge and condemn and execute them too This is either unjust in Men or very just in God before they flatter themselves that God will excuse the Lewdness and Extravagancies and Frenzies of their Youth let them try whether this Plea will pass in Humane Courts and not think it unreasonable that God should judge and punish Youth when the Wisdom of all Nations has thought it just and reasonable 2. Consider farther whether you can think it fitting that God should suffer Young Men to live as they list without judging them for it that he should lay the Reins on their Necks and let them indulge their Lusts and Appetites and take their fill of sensual Pleasures and commit all manner of Villanies without restraint For can
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
16 Mark 16. And therefore St. Peter tells the Iews Neither is there salvation in any other for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved 4 Acts 12. And if there be no other Name whereby Men must be saved Infidelity must damn us Would some Men in our days seriously consider this they would not think themselves so secure in their Infidelity nor take so much pains to make themselves Infidels for if after all their pains to disbelieve the Gospel it should prove true at last they must be damned for disbelieving it If Christ came into the World to save Sinners and there is no other Name under Heaven whereby Sinners can be saved those who will not believe on his Name must eternally perish As if there were but one Physician in the World who could cure such a mortal Distemper those who labour under this Distemper and will not go to this Physician for their Cure must necessarily die by their neglect their Infidelity in that case would kill them what reasons soever they could pretend for their Infidelity by neglecting the only means of their Recovery But besides this Infidelity is a very great Crime when we have sufficient Reasons and Motives of Faith for this destroys all Commerce and Intercourse if I may so speak between GOD and Men If Men may be allowed to disbelieve a Revelation which has all the Evidence and Proof that any Revelation can have it makes it impossible for God to reveal his Will to the World at least to give us such a standing Revelation as may be a certain Rule of Faith to all Ages And besides this Infidelity is not owing to want of Evidence but to an evil Temper of Mind which is prepossessed with such vicious Lusts and Passions as will not suffer Men to believe thus our Saviour tells us That men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil and tells the Pharisees How can ye believe who receive honour one of another and seek not that honour which cometh of God So that Infidelity is more in Mens wills than in their understandings and therefore is as punishable as any other Vice and though such Infidels will pretend to Reason for their Infidelity and despise and laugh at the easie Credulity of the rest of the World they may have a great force and byaâ—s upon their understandings for all that and would they be honest and sincere they themselves must be sensible of it however God who sees their hearts sees that it is so and it is reason enough to By-standers to suspect it is so when they observe that the more vertuously Men are inclined the more readily they embrace the Gospel and the more firmly they believe it whereas Infidels commonly make little pretence to Sobriety or Vertue but are Men of this World who design no more than to please themselves in the enjoyment of it and when Mens understandings in other matters are equally good it is very reasonably suspicious that it is only their different Inclinations and Passions which make them judge so differently of things If this be the Case as our Saviour assures us it is and as our own Reason and our Observation of Mankind may give us sufficient cause to suspect all Men must grant that it is as fit Men should be judg'd for their Infidelity as for any other Vice And this is reason enough to make Men afraid of Infidelity for if they may be damned for being Infidels they have no reason to be secure in their Infidelity Infidels themselves must confess that if there be sufficient reason to believe the Gospel they deserve to be punished for their Unbelief and if it should prove true at last it will be too late to dispute it in the other World whether God had given them sufficient Evidence of it That great Number of Believers who were as wise and cautious Men as themselves will convince them that there was Evidence enough for wise thinking Men to believe the Gospel And when they shall be ashamed to plead want of Evidence for their Unbelief what Excuse will they find for their Infidelity This may convince Infidels themselves that their Infidelity is no security to them for whether they will believe Heaven and Hell or not if there be an Heaven they shall lose it and if there be an Hell they shall fall into it for their Infidelity and deservedly too if their Infidelity be caused by the fault of their Wills not by a want of Evidence and therefore no Man can be secure in his Infidelity till he be secure that his Infidelity is not wilful that there is no corrupt nor vicious affection which byasses and perverts his Judgment and there is but one way of trying this that I know of and I am pretty confident it would cure all the Infidelity in the World Let Men renounce all their sinful Lusts and Vices which make them infamous to the World let them obey the Laws of the Gospel which are for the good of Humane Societies for the good of their Families which are the Ornament and Perfection of Humane Nature whether the Gospel be true or not and then if they can disbelieve the Gospel it is not because their Deeds are evil not because they have some Lust or other to serve by their Infidelity and this would make their Infidelity very excusable but I know not of such an Infidel as this in the World It is apparent and visible that the Infidels of our Days promise themselves security in their Vices from their Infidelity they laugh at Heaven and Hell because they will not be at the pains to go to Heaven and are afraid of Hell Whatever Wit and Reason they pretend to all Mankind see which way their Inclinations lead them and if they do not see it themselves nor suspect that this may be the cause of their Infidelity whatever Wit they may have they have no Sense III. We shall be judged also for not improving those Talents we are entrusted with that is for not doing Good in the World This many Men are apt to forget To squander away and wast their Master's Goods to do that which is evil this they think they must give an account of but if they do no hurt they are not much concerned what good they do But our Saviour in the Parable of the Talents informs us better that we must give an account of our Improvements for he who received but one Talent went and digged in the Earth and hid his Lord's Money and when his Lord came to reckon with him he said Lord I knew that thou art an hard man reaping where thou hast not sown and gathering where thou hast not strawed And I was afraid and went and hid thy talent in the earth lo there thou hast what is thine But his Lord answered and said unto him Thou wicked servant thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not and gather where I
have peace with God through our Lord Iesus Christ. By grace you are saved tbrough faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God not of works least any man should boast Not by works of righteousness which we have done but by grace hath he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost But then it is as plain on the other hand that God will render to every man according to his deeds that we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ to receive the things done in the body according to what we have done whether it be good or bad That Christ will condemn all wicked Christians whatever their Faith be Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven Many will say to me in that day Lord Lord have we not prophesied in thy name and in thy name cast out devils and in thy name done many wonderful works and then will I profess unto them I never knew you depart from me ye that work iniquity What shall we say then to this matter both these Propositions must be allowed to be undoubtedly true We are justified by Faith we are saved by Grace without the Works of the Law and we shall be judged according to our works and shall receive what we have done in this body whether good or evil That is we are justified by faith justified freely by God's grace through the redemption which is in Christ Iesus and through faith in his blood and yet shall be condemned at the last Judgment if we live wickedly This is a matter of very great consequence to be plainly stated because a great many Christians encourage themselves in sin with vain hopes and eternally perish by a presumptuous Faith and Reliance on Christ. I. Now in the first place that whatever mistakes or misapprehensions Men may have about the nature of Faith and Justification may not endanger their Souls by encouraging them in sin I observe that we must reconcile the Doctrine of Justification by Faith without Works to our being judged by our Works not expound away the Doctrine of our being judged according to our Works to reconcile it to our Notions of Justification by Faith And there are manifest Reasons for this 1. Because it is as expresly taught in Scripture that we shall be judged by our Works as it is that we are justified by Faith and therefore we must not oppose our Justification by Faith to our being judged by our Works for that is not to expound Scripture but to confute one Scripture Doctrine by another to prove that we shall not be judged by our Works though the Scripture says we shall because the Scripture also teaches that we are justified by Faith without Works Now if it be allowable to reject any Scripture Doctrine or to confute one Doctrine by â—â—other we may with as good reason 〈◊〉 them both by each other and belâ—â—â—â— neither for if they can't be reconciled but we must deny one our being judged by our Works does as plainly prove that we are not justified by Faith without Works as Justification by Faith proves that we shall not be judged by our Works We must distinguish between expounding and reconciling Scripture and confuting it and therefore whatever we believe about Justification by Faith we must still confess we shall be judged by our Works For 2. There is great reason to expound Justification by Faith by our being judged by Works because when we are told in Scripture That God will render to us according to our deeds that every man must receive the things done in his body according to what he hath done whether it be good or bad These are plain proper expressions without any Figure or Metaphor in them and therefore are capable of no other sence than what the words at first view signifie We shall receive what we have done if we have done good we shall be rewarded if we have done evil we shall be punished good Men shall be received into Heaven and all wicked Men even wicked Believers as well as wicked Infidels shall 〈◊〉 cast into Hell this every Child understands to be the meaning of these Words and no other sence can be made of them and therefore since this is so plainly and so frequently taught in Scripture whatever we believe else we must believe this if we believe the Scripture But now when we read of being justified by Faith without Works every word is capable of very different sences and we know is expounded very differently by learned Men according to the different Hypothesis they intend to serve by it and then we must confess it is not so certain what is meant by Justification by Faith without Works as what is meant by being judged according to our Works at least so much must be allowed that we must prefer that sence of Justification by Faith which agrees with our being judged by our Works before any other interpretation which contradicts or overthrows this plain sence of a Future Judgment As for instance Some by justifying understand making just and righteous that to justifie the ungodly is to make a wicked Man good by the power and efficacy of Faith but then to justifie the ungodly without the Works of the Law or to make a wicked Man good without good Works does not found very well and therefore others more reasonably and more agreeably to Scripture understand justifying in a forensick sence for absolving acquitting declaring and accounting Men just and righteous and treating them as such that is imputing righteousness to them though in a strict and proper sence they are not inherently righteous And then this forensick Justification may either signifie our being justified at Baptism when by the profession of our Faith we are incorporated by Baptism into Christ's Church and are made the Members of his Mystical Body and have all our sins washed away in his Blood and come pure and innocent out of the laver of Regeneration and thus the most ungodly Sinners are justified by Faith in Baptism without Works or any antecedent righteousness of their own or else this Justification may be extended to the Future Judgment that at the last Day of Account we shall be justified acquitted absolved rewarded by Faith without Works but this does not agree very well with our being judged and receiving according to our Works the Scripture expresly teaches that we are justified by Faith without Works and that we shall be judged by our Works but never saith we shall be judged by our Faith which seems to make a great difference between being justified and being judged for if we are justified without Works and judged by our Works justified by Faith without Works but not judged not acquitted and rewarded by Faith without Works to be justified and to be judged cannot signifie the same
thing Thus when we are said to be justified by Faith some by Faith understand such a firm and steadfast belief of the whole Gospel of all that concerns the Person and Mediation of Christ the Expiation of his Blood his Resurrection from the Dead and Intercession for us in Heaven his Laws his Promises and Threatnings as renews and sanctifies our Nature governs our Lives conquers the World subdues the Flesh to the Spirit and makes us truly Divine and God-like Creatures the Sons of God not meerly by external relation but by a participation of his Nature Now this Notion of justifying Faith that we shall be justified by a living working Faith is very reconcilable with being judged by our Works for if we cannot be justified by Faith without Works if no Faith can justifie but that which is fruitful in all good Works then we may be judged by our Works since Holiness is essential to a justifying Faith Others by justifying Faith understand a reliance and recumbency on Christ for Salvation a receiving and embracing Christ and rowling their Souls on him as they are pleased to express it which when taken out of Metaphor can signifie no more than to hope and trust in Christ that he will save them and to be willing to be saved by him without any Works and Righteousness of their own Now if the bare Act of relying on Christ would justifie and save Men I cannot see how such Believers should be judged by their Works though Infidels may But this Antinomian Conceit of justifying Faith is not so plain and certain as it is that we shall be judged by our Works Not to dispute the Point now these Men may be mistaken in their Notion of justifying Faith but there can be no dispute made what the meaning is of being judged according to our Works Thus when we are said to be justified by Faith in opposition to Justification by Works it is matter of Controversie what is meant by Works Some think that when Works are rejected as contributing nothing to our Justification the Apostle means only the Works of the Ceremonial Law such as Circumcision and Sacrifices Washings and Purifications the Observation of New Moons and Sabbaths c. for this was the great Dispute St. Paul had with the Iews whether the Observation of the Mosaical Law were necessary to the Justification of Christians and in this sence the Apostle with good reason asserts our Justification by Faith without Works We are now justified by the Faith of Christ not by the Rites and Ceremonies of the Mosaical Law Others and with very good reason too not only reject the Works of the Ceremonial Law but also of the Moral Law from the Justification of Sinners not as if Sinners could be justified without good Works but that they are not justified by them that is that no Man is justified by the Merit of his own Works but by the Merit and Expiation of the Death of Christ. But though no Man is justified or saved for the Merit of his Works yet he may be judged according to his Works Though no Man shall be saved by the Merit of his good Works yet no Man shall be saved without good Works and wicked Men shall be damned for their evil Works which leaves room enough for our being judged according to our Works So that though we be not justified by Works but by Faith as St. Paul tells us yet we must be judged by our Works wicked Men shall be condemned for their Wickedness and none but good Men shall be justified and saved by the Merits of Christ and who are wicked and who are righteous shall at the Last Day be judged by their Works And indeed this is plainly confessed by those who contend most zealously foâ— Justification by Faith alone which makes this a very needless and impertinent Controversie as appears from their way of reconciling St. Paul and St. Iames. St. Paul tells us we are justified by Faith without the Works of the Law St. Iames tells us That by works a man is justified and not by faith only 2 Jam. 14. To reconcile these two great Apostles they tell us That the Man is justified by Faiâ—h and his Faith is justified by Works Now whether this be the true way of reconciling St. Paul and St. Iames I shall not at present dispute but it grants all that I desire that notwithstanding our being justified by Faith we shall be judged by our Works for whether a Man or his Faith be judged and justified by Works I think is the same thing for if the Man must be justified by Faith and his Faith justified by Works I doubt the Man cannot be justified without Works unless he can be jâ—stified by an unjustified Faith Before Fâ—ith can justifie the Man it must be justified itself and Faith must be justified by Works and what this differs from judging a Believer by his Works I cannot tell So that as many Disputes as there are about Justification by Faith we ought firmly to believe that we shall be judged by our Works for most of the Notions of Justification by Faith in opposition to our Justification by Works are very reconcilable with this Doctrine of being judged by our Works and those that are not are not so plain and certain as it is that we shall be judged by our Works 3. However since this is so plainly expressed in Scripture that there is no avoiding it nor any other possible sence to be made of it whatever our Notions of Justification be it is much the safest way to believe and expect that we shall be judged according to our Works that if we live wickedly we shall certainly be condemned at that Day and though we shall be acquitted and finally absolved by the Mercies of God and the Merits of Christ yet not without Holiness not without good Works not without partaking of the Divine Nature and being conformed to Christ our Head To entertain any other hopes will undo us for ever for we shall be very ill prepared to give an account of our Lives and Actions when our Lord comes to call us to an Account if we can possess our selves with such Notions of Justification as deliver us from the Fears of Judgment if we can perswade our selves that we shall not be judged according to our Works but by the Merits of Christ that we shall not receive the things done in the Body whether good or evil but shall receive the purchase of Christ's Obedience and Righteousness without regard to our own These are the dangerous Conclusions which some Men draw from their mistaken Notions of Justification and this is the great danger of such mistakes While Men acknowledge the Grace of God and the Merits of Christ in the Justification of Sinners and believe that they shall be judged according to their Works whatever other Disputes there may be there is no danger in them but if Men by some uncertain Reasonings can perswade themselves
whom he hath ordained whereof he hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead 17 Acts 30 31. While Men were ignorant of the other World or had only some uncertain Reports of it mixed with fabulous Stories to increase and nourish Superstition their wickedness was very pitiable and shall meet with a more favourable Judgment but we can now pretend Ignorance no longer and therefore now God commands us to repent Upon this Principle it is that our Saviour upbraided those cities wherein most of his mighty works were done because they repented not Woe unto thee Chorazin woe unto thee Bethsaida for if the mighty works which have been done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes but I say unto you it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of Iudgment than for you And thou Capernaum who art exalted unto heaven shalt be brought down to hell for if the mighty works which have been done in thee had been done in Sodom it would have remained until this day but I say unto you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for thee 11 Mat. 20 21 22 23. Those mighty Works our Saviour wrought in these Cities were such powerful Convictions as rendred their Infidelity inexcusable and that aggravated their Condemnation And for the same reason our Saviour threatens that unbelieving Generation who saw all his mighty Works and heard his admirable Wisdom which was so much beyond whatever was seen or heard before The men of Niniveh shall rise in judgment against this generation and shall condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Ionas and behold a greater than Ionas is here The Queen of the South shall rise up in the judgment with this generation and shall condemn it for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon and behold a greater than Solomon is here 12 Luke 41 42. The greater the Preacher is the greater Works he does and the greater Evidence he gives of his Divine Authority still the guilt and condemnation proportionably increases and then the Infidelity of those who live in a Christian Nation and the Wickedness of professed Believers who have so much greater certainty of the Rewards and Punishments of the next World than either Chorazin or Bethsaida or Capernaum then had exceeds them all and their Punishments will proportionably exceed Thus the Gospel has fully acquainted us with the whole Dispensation of Grace in the Redemption of the World by our Lord Jesus Christ That God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life 3 John 16. That Christ gave himself for us to redeem us from all iniquity and to purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works 2 Tit. 14. That he has made atonement for our sins by his Blood That herein God hath commended his love towards us that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us that when we were yet enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his son 5 Rom. 8.10 And we know the grace of our Lord Iesus Christ that though he was rich yet for our sakes he became poor that we through his poverty might be rich 2 Cor. 8 9. Here is a new Scene of Grace and Love opened which the World was unacquainted with before which presents us with new Arguments and lays new Obligations on us to serve God Arguments and Obligations so endearing so powerful that one would think Human Nature could not resist them could not get loose from them If we will not reverence the Authority of God yet how can we resist his Love If it be not enough to entitle God to our Service that he made us shall we deny his Purchase too When he has bought us with a price the inestimable Blood of his own Son Ought not the love of Christ to constrain us Could he do any thing more for us than redeem us from Death and Hell Could he redeem us at a dearer rate than with his own Blood When he could get nothing by it but the pleasure and satisfaction of making us happy and the glory of being the Saviour of Sinners It is a reproach to Humane Nature to think that such Love as this should not convert the World and subdue Mankind to the Obedience of God It is plain this gives God a greater Right to us than meer Creation and therefore gives every sin of Christians a double guilt if Heathens sinned against their Maker Christians sin against their Maker and their Saviour too And to sin against Love against suffering redeeming forgiving saving Love is a very different thing from sinning against Authority We may call it folly or madness to disobey our Soveraign Lord who can and will punish our Disobedience but to abuse to affront to grieve Love is not the sin of Men though too many Men are guilty of it but of a diabolical Nature I have nothing to say of it but that it is the greatest provocation in the World and all Men think so and thus much worse the sins of Christians are than the sins of Heathens But the Love of God and the Grace of Christ are not the only motives and arguments which our Redemption by the Death of Christ furnishes us with but there are a great many other and such powerful ones as must greatly aggravate our guilt to sin against them There is not a greater preservation against sin than to have a just sense of the Evil of it and a thorough Conviction of God's irreconcileable hatred and displeasure against it and that he will certainly punish it Now indeed Nature does in some measure teach this the Reason of Mankind condemns it Modesty preserves us from some sins Natural Aversions from others till both the Modesty and Aversions of Nature are conquered by a Custom of sinning but then on the other hand the inclinations of Flesh and Blood very strongly tempt us to some sins which are very grateful to Flesh and Blood and to other sins to gain opportunities to gratifie those inclâ—â—ations and when Men taste the sweets of sin and find the present advantages of it this bribes their Reason to speak more favourably of it and to attribute the shame and aversions of Nature to Education and Popular mistakes Thus though men have a natural Sense of God's displeasure against sin and natural Conscience threatens the Judgments of God against sinners yet the experience of the World tells us that most Men flatter themselves that God may be appeased and reconciled to them without forsaking their sins not only the Heathens but even Iews themselves thought this might be done by their sacrifices and the other external rites and ceremonies of their Religion as appears from the frequent complaints of
for the first How dangerous such curious Inquiries into Providence are this is plain in the evil Effects of it 1. For first this either makes Men Atheists or at least is made a pretence to justifie Atheism The Natural Notion all Men have of God is That he is an infinitely Wise and Good and Just and Powerful Being now when Men observe such things either in the Make or Frame of the World or in the Conduct and Government of it as they cannot reconcile with the Notions they have of Wisdom and Justice and Goodness they presently conclude that there is no God or that he is nothing to them that he neither made nor governs the World This indeed is a very rash and hasty Conclusion to deny the Being of God because we cannot find out God to Perfection when we must confess that it is impossible for a finite Understanding to comprehend all the reasons of an infinite Mind but thus it must be when Men wont be contented to be ignorant of any thing nor permit God to do what they can't understand but will have a reason of every thing God does or will not allow him to be God A modest Inquirer sees enough in the Works of Creation and Providence to satisfie him that the World was made and is governed by a wise Being but those who think themselves wise enough to make and govern a World a great deal better then this World is made and governed or are upon other accounts averse to the Belief of a God and have a mind to quarrel with him take no notice of what is wise and good and proves God to be infinitely Wise and infinitely Good tho' they cannot open their eyes without seeing a thousand such instances of Wisdom and Goodness but imploy the little Wit they have to find Faults and account every thing they can't understand a Fault This is such irreverence to God such Presumption and Arrogance and such Impiety that they seem to be Atheists first and then to quarrel with God's Works to find out some Pretence to deny his Being it is certain whoever indulges himself in this has in a great measure lost his Reverence for God and Atheism is a natural consequence and just punishment of that and such a terrible punishment it is as should make us afraid of being over-curious in matters so far above us 2. If this does not make us Atheists yet it is apt to give us very wrong Notions concerning God which is a very great Evil next to Atheism itself This we know tempted some Men to assert two Principles or two Gods a good and a bad God for when they observed such a mixture of Good and Evil in the Nature of Things they thought it impossible that a good God should be the Author of so much Evil as is in the World and because they could not answer this Difficulty nor give an account how a good God should make and govern the World and yet there be so much Evil and Wickedness in it they concluded that there was a bad God who was the Author of all the Evil in the World and a good God of all the Good But this starts a much more unaccountable Difficulty how a good and a bad God should agree together in making and governing the World for can any thing be more opposite to each other than essential Good and essential Evil They can never agree and therefore they must be either equal in power or must destroy each other if they be equal neither of them are Omnipotent for two Omnipotents is a Contradiction and then neither one nor both could make the World which is a Work of Omnipotence At least since it is impossible they should agree togther to make a World as impossible as that essential Goodness should consent to any thing that is evil or essential Evil consent to any thing that is good they must necessarily hinder each other in making the World if their power were equal and then the World had never been made But I shall not trouble you with the Confutation of this but only point you to the Source and Origine of this Mischief which in its Consequence overthrows all Religion Others to ease themselves of these Difficulties of reconciling all the Passages of Providence to God's Wisdom and Justice set them both aside and resolve all into God's Arbitrary and Soveraign Will and Pleasure who makes himself and the advancement of his own Glory his sole end They lay it down indeed as an agreed Principle That all that God does is wise and good and just but we must not examine this by Humane Rules and Measures of Goodness and Justice for God is an Absolute Soveraign and unaccountable to his Creatures his Will is the Rule of Justice and he wills what is most for his own Glory he magnifies his Goodness and Grace in a free and arbitrary Kindness to some of his Creatures and magnifies his Justice in as free and arbitrary Severities to others he makes some Creatures to be the Objects of his Love and others to be the Objects of his Vengeance and Displeasure and thus they cut the Knot which they can't untie But this is a greater Difficulty then all the rest to a considering Man who would much rather chuse to give no account of the Divine Providence then to give so ill an account of the Nature of God Arbitrary Will and Power is the very worst Notion we can have of God it destroys our Love to him and our Hope and Confidence in him unless we can fancy him as partial to us as we are to ourselves it turns Religion into a superstitious Dread of God or Hypocritical Flatteries destroys the Notions of Good and Evil or all regard to them while we think God takes no notice of them himself This may satisfie us how dangerous it is to be too inquisitive into the Misteries of Providence which God hath thought fit to conceal from us which should make us careful to keep our distance and humbly to reverence and adore God and trust his Wisdom beyond our own Understanding of things and in order to Cure this Curiosity consider II. How unreasonable it is to disturb our Minds with such Difficulties of Providence as we cannot answer or to draw any such Conclusions from it as shall either shake our Faith as to the Being or Providence of God or corrupt our Notions of Him and there are two things which may satisfie any Man in this 1 st That there are a great many things which are called Difficulties which may be very fairly accounted for and therefore the difficulty is not in the things but owing to our want of Understanding which is reason enough to presume that thus it may be in other cases too since as Mens Knowledge increases so the Difficulties of Providence lessen which should make us never quarrel at Providence but bewail our own Ignorance and grow modest under a sence of it 2 dly That in