" condemn'd, for ever! And yet that is not all; for if there be any fharper Torments, "any fiercer Damnation affign'd to fome than "others, that fhall be my Portion: fince I "finn'd against the clearest Light, the strongest "Convictions of Confcience, and the highest "Expreffions of the Divine Love."

Tell me then, thou young and careless Sinner, whether thy finful Mirth is not Madness, when it is likely to iffue in weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of Teeth. Wo unto you that laugh now, ye shall mourn and weep. know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into Judgment.

For

Secondly, Here is the excellent Advice which is given by the Wife-Man, to restrain young People in their vain Purfuits: He recommends to them the serious Confideration of a Judgment to come. Know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into Judgment.

The Royal Preacher knew very well, that young People were apt to be daring and bold, and, against the Remonftrance of Reafon and Conscience, to rush into Sin; that they feldom enter into their own Breasts, to acquaint themfelves with the Plague of their own Hearts; and that for want of Confideration and Reflection, Experience and a folid Judgment, they would be backward to entertain any grave Advice, and be impatient of all Restraints. For the extravagant Mirth, in which they who are in the Bloom of Youth do often indulge themselves, does ufually put Reafon befides its guard; and then no wonder if they are drawn into Sin by every tempting Object. Now, I fay, the Wife-Man being very fenfible

of

of the danger young People were in, thought nothing more proper for their Confideration, than the Doctrine of a future Judgment. Know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into Judgment. This is an Article of Faith of the last Importance, and has fomething in it very folemn and aweful, and commands our ferious and reverent Attention: And certainly if ever we are serious, it's reasonable we should be fo, when we are hearing a Difcourfe upon the laft and general Judgment, that shall determine the everlasting State of all Mankind. Now concerning the future Judgment, there are several things that will afford us many profitable Reflections: As,

1. The Certainty of it.
2. The Extent of it.

3. The Impartiality with which it shall be administer'd.

4. The immediate Confequences thereof, both with regard to the Righteous and the Wicked. Which four things, if duly weigh'd, will give an effectual check to the Jollity and extravagant Mirth of young People.

1. Let us seriously confider the Certainty of a future Judgment, what Reasons there are to induce us to believe there will be a Day wherein God will judg the World; for unless Men are fully perfuaded of this, 'tis not likely to make any great Impreffion on their Confciences, or to have any confiderable influence on the Reformation of their Lives. Indeed if Men could look into Heaven or Hell, while they are in this World, and obferve the great difference there in the Condition and Circumstances of good and bad Spirits departed; if in this prefent State Men could difcern what a vast Gulph

16

is fix'd between the Souls that are in Prifon, and the Spirits that are in Paradife, Men would not need to have the Certainty of a future Judgment prov'd to 'em by a chain of Arguments; for then the matter would be evident to Senfe. But alas! the future State is invifible to us at prefent; and it must be Reafon or Revelation, or both, that can convince Men they shall hereafter give an account of themfelves to God.

I fhall therefore touch on a few Arguments, from which we may infer the Certainty of a future Judgment: And in all these Arguments I must take it for granted, that you believe the Being of a God, who poffeffes all imaginable Perfections;

Now we may reasonably conclude, that there will be a future Judgment, if we confider our relation to God, as Creatures to a Creator. God being our Creator, has an abfolute Right to govern us: And if we are under the Government of the Supreme Majesty, as we are certain he will govern us agreeably to the Perfections of his own Nature; fo we are sure that the Laws he'll govern us by, 'fhall be futed to the Faculties and Powers of our Natures. Since then God has endow'd us with Reason to judg of Right and Wrong, and has given us liberty of Choice, and fubjected us to a Law as the Rule of our Duty; I think 'tis evident, that we are accountable for our Actions: and if accountable, it may reasonably be expected, that he that made and governs us, will call us to an Account. I allow, if Men were under no Law, they could be guilty of no Tranfgreffions, and confequently would be exempted from giving any account of their Actions to

the

the Supreme Being. But fince 'tis granted, that Almighty God does govern the World after the best manner, futable to the Hopes and Fears of rational Creatures, which cannot be without the Affurance of Rewards and Punishments, agreeable to Mens Actions; 'tis highly reasonable to conclude, that Men, who have Rational Powers, and are under a Law, who have the liberty of Choice, and are dependent on Him that made them, will moft certainly be judg'd by him. If it be thought reasonable amongft Men, that all Inferiors fhould be accountable to thofe that are their Superiors, on whom they depend; there is a much stronger Reafon for us to believe, that all Mankind fhall give an account to the God that made them, and does govern them.

Again, if there is a natural and abfolute dif ference betwixt Good and Evil, antecedent to all positive Laws, whether Human or Divine; then 'tis reasonable to conclude, that the righteous Sovereign of the World will reward Vertue and punish Vice: unless we can fuppofe, that the Supreme Majefty will have less regard to his own Laws, than Men have to theirs. Indeed Mr. Hobbs, and fome of his Admirers, have affirm'd, that Vertue and Vice are arbitrary things; but certainly if Holiness, Justice, and Goodness, are effential and neceflary Perfections of the Divine Nature, then there must be a natural and eternal difference between Good and Evil. Some things in their own nature are intrinfecally good, others in their own nature are abfolutely evil; there is a real and effential difference betwixt adoring and blafpheming the God that made us, betwixt doing Justice to our Neighbour, and by Perfi

dioufnefs

diousness or Perjury depriving him of his Right: These things are fo clear, that they carry their own Evidence with them. And if any Perfons, thro a paffionate regard to their Lufts, or the ill reafoning of Atheistical Men, fhould be fo unhappy as to imagine that all Actions, in their own nature, are indifferent; that Vertue and Vice are arbitrary, and depend on the Pleafure and Caprice of Princes, and the establish'd Custom and Ufage of Nations; I would intreat fuch at prefent only to put these two things to themselves: one is, Whether they are not better pleas'd with themselves, when they do Acts of Justice and Charity, than when they are guilty of Rapine and Violence?

Again, I would ask the Man that is for confounding the natural, neceflary, and eternal Diftinctions of Good and Evil, whether he would be willing that all who live in the fame Kingdom with him should believe this? Whether he would perfuade his Wife, and Children, and Servants, to entertain fuch Principles as thefe, viz. That Adultery, Rapine and Murder, are as eligible as Chastity, Honesty, and Charity? Now if a Man would not have all People believe this, it gives one a very shreud Sufpicion, that he does not believe it himself: and had not fome Men publish'd these dangerous Principles, one would have thought it impoffible for reasonable Creatures to entertain an Opinion fo contrary to the Ends of Government, fo destructive to human Society, and fo difhonourable both to the natural and moral Perfections of the Deity.

To close this Head: If the Distinction betwixt Vertue and Vice is juftly founded, then

that