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SERMON XI.

Judgment.

HEBREWS ix. 27.

It is appointed unto men once to die: but after this the judgment.

THE second proposition in my text conveys terror into the first. Judgment to come makes death terrible. I own, it is natural to love life. The Creator, it should seem, hath supplied the want of satisfactory pleasures in the world by giving us, I know not what, attachment to it. But when reason rises out of nature, when the good and evil of life are weighed, evil seems to out-weigh good, and we can hardly help exclaiming with the wise man, the day of death is better than the day of one's birth! I hate life because of the work that is wrought under the sun! Eccl. vii. 1. and ii. 17.

But to go from a bed of infirmity to a tribunal of justice; to look through the languors of a mortal malady to torments that have no end; and, after we have heard this sentence, Return to destruction ye children of men, Psal. xc. 3. to hear this other, Give an ancount of thy stewardship, Luke xvi. 2. these are just causes for intelligent beings to fear death.

Let us, however, acknowledge, although this fear is just, yet it may be excessive; and, though it be madness to resist the thought, yet it would be weakness to be overwhelmed with it. I would prove this to-day, while in this point of light I endeavour to exhibit to your view the judgment that follows death.

We will not divert your attention from the chief design. We will only hint, that the proposition in the text is incidental, and not immediately connected with the principal subject, which the apostle was discussing. His design was to shew the pre-eminence of the sacrifice of the cross over all those of the levitical economy. One article, which argues the superiority of the first, is, that it was offered but once, whereas the Jewish sacrifices were reiterated. Christ doth not offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with the blood of other sacrifices: but once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. For, as it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this the judgment; so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many.

Nor will we detain you longer by inquiring whether St. Paul speaks here of the particular judgment that each man undergoes immediately after death, or of that general judgment day, of which scripture says, God hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness, Acts xvii. 31. Whatever difference there may seem to be between these two hypotheses, it is easy to harmonize them. The general judgment will be a confirmation, and a con

summation of each particular judgment, and we ought to consider both as different parts of one whole.

Once more I repeat it, we will not divert your attention from the principal design of this discourse. I am going first, not to allege arguments in proof of a judgment to come, I suppose them known to you, and that I am not preaching to novices: But I am going to assist you to carry them further than you usually do, and so to guard you against scepticism and infidelity, the pest of our days, and the infamy of our age. In a second article we will inquire, what will be the destiny of this assembly in that great day, in which God will declare the doom of all mankind. We discuss this question, not to indulge a vain curiosity: but to derive practical inferences, and particularly to moderate the excessive fear, that an object so very terrible produceth in some minds, and at the same time to trouble the extravagant security, in which some sleep, in spite of sounds so proper to awake them.

I. We have three directions to give you. The first regards the argument for judgment taken from the disorders of society. The second regards that which is taken from conscience. The third, that which is taken from revelation.

1. Our first direction regards the argument taken from the disorders of society. Do not confine your attention to those disorders which strike the senses, astonish reason, and subvert faith itself. Reflect on other irregularities, which, although they are less shocking to sense, and seemingly of much less con

sequence, are yet no less deserving the attention of the Judge of the whole earth, and require no less than the first, a future judgment.

I grant, those notorious disorders, which human laws cannot repress, afford proof of a future judgment. A tyrant executes on a gibbet a poor unhappy man, whom the pain of hunger, and the frightful apprehension of sudden death, forced to break open an house. Here, if you will, disorder is punished, and society is satisfied. But who shall satisfy the just vengeance of society on this mad tyrant? This very tyrant, at the head of a hundred thousand thieves, ravages the whole world; he pillages on the right and on the left; he violates the most sacred rights, the most solemn treaties, he knows neither religion nor good faith. Go, see, follow his steps, countries desolated, plains covered with the bodies of the dead, palaces reduced to ashes, and people run mad with despair. Inquire for the author of all these miseries. Will you find him, think you, confined in a dark dungeon, or expiring on a wheel? Lo! he sits on a throne, in a superb royal palace; nature and art contribute to his pleasures; a circle of courtiers minister to his passions, and erect altars to him, whose equals in iniquity, yea, if I may be allowed to say so, whose inferiors in vice have justly suffered the most infamous punishments. And where is divine justice all this time? what is it doing? I answer with my text, After death comes judgment. So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty, James i. 12.

But, though the argument taken from the disorders of society is full and clear, when it is properly proposed, yet such examples as we have just mentioned do not exhaust it. It may be extended a great deal further, and we may add thousands of disorders, which every day are seen in society, against which men can make no laws, and which cannot be redressed until the great day of judgment, when God will give clear evidence of all.

Have human laws ever been made against hypocrites? see that man artfully covering himself with the veil of religion, that hypocrite, who excels in his art! behold his eyes, what seraphical looks they roll towards heaven! observe his features, made up, if I may venture to say so, of those of Moses, Ezra, Daniel, and Nehemiah! see his vivacity, or his flaming zeal shall I call it? to maintain the doctrines of religion, to forge thunderbolts, and to pour out anathemas against heretics! Not one grain of religion, not the least shadow of piety in all his whole conversation. It is a party-spirit, or a sordid interest, or a barbarous disposition to revenge, which animates him, and produces all his pretended piety. And yet I hear every body exclaim, He is a miracle of religion! he is a pillar of the church! I see altars every where erecting to this man; panegyrists, I see, are composing his encomium; flowers are gathering to be strewed over his tomb. And the justice of God, what is it doing? My text tells you, After death comes judgment.

Have human laws ever been made against the ungrateful? While I was in prosperity, I studied to

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