I

10.

and never broke out, all these fhall be Ser. I. reveal'd that Day. We must all appear ~ before the Fudgment Seat of Chrift, that e- 2 Cor. v. very one may receive the things done in his Body,according to that he hath done, whither it be good or bad. Therefore judge nothing before the Time, untill the Lord come, who both will bring to Light the hidden things of Darkness, 1 Cor. ir. and will make manifeft the Counfels of the 5. Hearts. After a long Time the Lord of thofe Servants cometh, and reckoneth with Matt xxv. them. Are you ready therefore to give an Account of thofe Talents that have been committed to your Charge? Or have you forgot the Doom that was paft upon the Wicked and flothful Servant, and Matt. xxv. think it is all one whither you are prepar'd or not?

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If we look upon the Sentence; 'tis irreversible, immutable, 'tis like that fatal Gulf in the Gospel, that divides the two Luk.xviii. Kingdoms of Light and Darkness, it can 26. never be past, it can never be remov❜d. Whatever we shall be the next Moment after this Fatal Sentence, that we shall be for ever: For as all Things within the Dominion and Empire of Time, are fubject continually to Change and Alteration; fo all Things within the Dominion and Empire of Eternity, are fix'd and immutable. I must work the Works

1

1

4.

10.

Vol. II. of him that sent me while it is Day: the Night cometh when no Man can work. WhatJohn ix. foever thy Hand findeth to do, do it with thy Ecclef. ix. Might, for there is no Work nor Device, nor Knowledge, nor Wisdom in the Grave whither thou goeft. Perhaps too this is what is meant for us to understand by that of St. Paul to the Hebrews, where it Heb, xii. is faid of Efau that, He found no Place of Repentance, tho' he fought it carefully with Tears. From all this put together, it is easy to infer that, Now is the accepted Time, now is the Day of Salvation, in which we are to wash us, and make us clean, to away the Evil of our Doings, to cease to do Evil, and learn to do well.

2 Cor. vi.

2,

Ifa. i. 16.

If we laftly confider the Matter of this Sentence; 'tis not concerning our Name and Reputation, 'tis not concerning a part of our Property, or an easy Reftraint of Temporal Liberty; but 'tis concerning our Souls and Bodies, 'tis a Decree about our All at once. All our Poffeffions, and All our Expectations, All our prefent Enjoyments, and All our future Hopes, are unalterably determin'd by this one Decree, and we are adjudged in a Moment, either to a Remedilefs State of Endless Mifery, or to a Secure Poffeffion of Endless Happiness. For thefe fhall go away into Everlasting Punish46. ment, but the Righteous into Life Eternal.

Matt.xxv.

Can

Can any Man that has a Rational Ser. I, Soul, can any Man that has a Sence of his own Intereft, can any Man that has a Tenderness for himself, a Value for his Life, confider thefe Things, and not immediately refolve that this Day ought to be prepar'd for, all the Days of this fhort Life, and that we fhould never fuffer it to be long out of our Thoughts? When God arifeth to shake terribly the Earth, but by a Temporal Judgment, fhall the Prophet then call upon us, to prepare to meet our God, And do we need no Preparation to meet him at that final Judgment, and the Diffolution of all Things? When Jonah proclaim'd in Nineveh, Yet forty Days, and Nineveh Jonah ii, fball be overthrown, it made fuch an Im- 5, preffion both on King and People, that they proclam'd a Faft, and put on Sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the leaft of them. The King also arofe from his Throne, and laid his Robe from him, and cover'd him with Sackcloth, and fat in Afbes: And not fo only, but also they cried mightily to God, and turn'd every one from his Evil Way, and from the Violence that was in their Hands. GOD has proclaim'd not against Nineveh only, but France, Spain, England, &c. and every City of Sinners a Day of Judgment, a Day of B 4 fierce

Vol. II. fierce Wrath und Indignation against all Ungodliness and Unrighteousness of Men, Rom. i. who hold the Truth in Unrighteoufness. He

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has denounc'd this by his Prophets under the Old Testament, by his Son and his Apostles in the New, and by his Minifters from Age to Age; and fhou'd Nineveh tremble at the Apprehenfion of Temporal Evils, and fhall we be infenble of Eternal ones? Shall Nineveh be wrought upon by the Preaching of Jonah, and fhall we be unaffected with the Preaching of the Son of God, and all his Holy Apoftles and Prophets? With what Paffion, what Anxiety, what Fear, what Solicitude does it become us all to entertain the Belief and Confideration of a final Judgment? No Oracle of GOD, no Voice of Prophets is more true than this, That God has appointed a Day wherein he will judge the World in Righteoufnefs. And No Peftilence that walketh in Darkness, nor Destruction that wafteth at Noon-Day; no destroying invading Sword, which leaves that Land like a defolate Wilderness behind it, which it found like the Garden of Eden before it; no Evil that Fear it felf can Fancy, that Man or GOD himself can denounce, carries fuch dreadful Horrour, such astonishnishing Thunder and Tempest in it, as

that

Matt.xxv.

41.

that laft Sentence, Depart from me, ye Ser. I. Curfed, into Everlasting Fire prepar'd for m the Devil and his Angels. And fhall not we think it fit to lay this Day to Heart? Shall not we fee it reasonable to endeavour to Escape that Day of Vengeance, and to be counted worthy to stand? Shall not we think it neceffary to labour to appease that Fury, that we can't refift, that we can't efcape, that we can't fuftain? Shall not we think it necessary fo to prepare our felves to meet our God in Judgment, that we may have Confidence 1 John ii. at his Appearing? And how this may be done is what I now come to fhow you.

II. This Preparation doth confist,

If, In Self-Examination.

2dly, In Repentance.

3dly, In Faith in our Lord Jefus Chrift. 4thly, In frequent Reflections on this Day,

ift then, This Preparation must confift of Self-Examination, this is made up of two Parts.

1. You are to Examine your selves, concerning your Faith about a Judgment

to come,

2. You are to Examine your fitness to appear in that Great Day of Judg1. Exa

ment..

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