Ser. 181. 1. To make us afraid of leffer fins, as well as greater, because thofe alfo, as well as thefe, will come into judgment; and we should not efteem any thing little, which God fhall think fit to take into confideration, and to bring upon the stage at the great day.

2. The consideration of this should likewise deter us from fecret fins. We are apt to think, that if we can but fin in fecret, and hide what we do from the eyes of men, we are fecure and fafe enough: But alas! our great danger is not from men, but God; not now, but hereafter. We are now very folicitous to conceal our wickedness, that we may avoid shame, and escape punishment from men: but God will one day produce all our fecret fins, and bring them forth into the light, for all our studious concealment of them now. Now we are afraid of the eye of men, and therefore chufe fe crecy, that we may commit our fins privately and un, feen. Vain man! the day is at hand, when all thy fe cret leudness and fraud will be brought upon the publick ftage of the world, and be matter of publick infamy to thee, and an everlasting reproach that can never be wiped off; and though thou now covereft thy tranfgref fion as Adam, and hideft thine iniquity in thy bofom; yet the time is coming, when all thy fecret wickedness fhall be expofed to the view of angels and men; and then, finner, what wilt thou do, when thou fhalt ap pear before this all-feeing Judge? none of thine arts of concealment will then ftand thee in ftead. Canft thou hide thy fins from his eye, so that he cannot fearch them out? or thy felf from his wrath? If thou canst not, what matters it to have any fecret from others, when all is known to thy Judge?

3. This fhould likewife difpofe us to great fincerity in all our words and actions, and make us always to Speak as we think, to perform what we promife and profefs, and in all things to be what we would feem to be, fince there is a day coming when the fecrets of all hearts fhall be difclofed, and every mafk of hypocrify and diffimulation fhall be plucked off, and our most clofe and cunning defigns fhall be brought into the open light. In that great day of revelation, nothing will be matter of comfort and rejoicing to us, but the teftimony

of

of our confciences, that in all fimplicity, and godly fincerity, we have had our converfation in the world.

4. This fhould make us faithfully to improve all the talents and opportunities which God affords to us; because we are but stewards, and must give an account of them. We are apt to covet great wealth, and to afpire after great places and power; but do we confider what it is that we fo eagerly defire and purfue? All this will but bring upon us the burden of a greater and heavier account, if we do not improve these talents and advantages to the end for which they were given, to relieve the wants of the poor and miferable, and to serve the great ends of religion and virtue; and if we fail herein, a dreadful account will be exacted of us, and we shall wish that we had been the poorest and meaneft, the most ignorant and unlearned perfons in the world.

5. This fhould reftrain us from uncharitable cenfures of others. Thou art therefore inexcufable, O man, whofoever thou art that judgeft another: for thinkeft thou, that thou shalt efcape the judgment of God? as the Apostle reafons, Rom. ii. 1.

6. This may help to fupport us under the unjust cenfures and reproaches of men. If we be innocent, God will one day bring forth our righteoufnefs as the light, and our judgment as the noon-day. With me, faith St. Paul, 1 Cor. iv. 3. it is a very small thing that I bould be judged of you, or of man's judgment. He that judgeth me is the Lord. It is defirable to approve ourselves and our actions to men: but if we cannot, it is a great fatisfaction to approve them to our own confciences, and to God who is greater than our hearts, and knows all things.

Lastly, This will teach us not to measure our condition by the good opinion which others have of us, but by the law of God, which will be the standard and measure of our judgment. He will confider every thing exactly, and weigh all the circumftances of our cafe, and make all the allowances that equity requires. Men can but judge according to appearance: but the judgment of God will be according to truth; therefore we fhould above all labour to be accepted of him in that day.

SER

SERMON CLXXXII.

Of the fentence to be paffed at the day of judgment.

2 COR. v. 10.

For we must all appear before the judgment-feat of Chrift, that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.

The fifth fermon on this text.

Proceed to the fourth and laft propofition contained in the text, viz. that at the day of judgment,

nature and quality of their actions done in this world, whether good or evil. The reward of happiness or mifery, which men fhall be sentenced to at that day, Thall bear a proportion to the good or evil which they have done in this life.

In the profecution of this argument, I shall enquire into thefe two things.

First, What proportion the rewards of the next world fhall bear to the actions of men in this life.

Secondly, The grounds and reafons of it. And then make fome application of this truth to the confciences of men.

First, What proportion the rewards of the next world fhall bear to the actions of men in this life. I mean, whether the rewards of the next life fhall only be proportioned to the kind and quality of our actions confidered in general, as good or evil; that is, that good men fhall be rewarded with everlafting glory and hap pinefs, and wicked men with eternal punishment and torment or whether the degrees of thefe rewards fhall likewife bear a proportion to the degrees of the good or evil of our actions, fo that a more eminent degree of piety and holiness

holinefs fhall have a proportionable fhare of glory and happiness; and greater and more hainous fins fhall be loaded with greater and heavier punishments.

I. It is clear, and out of all controverfy, that men fhall be rewarded according to the quality and kind of their actions; good shall be rewarded to the good, and evil to the evil. And this is the constant tenor of the Bible. Pfal. i. 6. The Lord knoweth the way of the righteous; that is, doth approve it, and will reward it; but the way of the ungodly fhall perish; which is of the fame importance with the expreflion in the verfe before, the wicked fhall not fund in the judgment. Ifa. iii. 10. 11. Say ye to the righteous, it shall be well with them, for they fhall eat of the fruit of their doings. Woe unto the wicked, for it fhall be ill with him, for the reward of his hands fhall be given him; which, if it be meant of the rewards and punishments of this life, is much more conftantly and univerfally true of the other. Mat. xvi.“ 27. The Son of Man fhall come in the glory of his Father, with his angels with him, and shall reward every man according to his works. Rev. xxii. 12. Behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me, to render to every man according as his work fhall be; that is, whether good or evil. Rom. vi. 23. The wages of fin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life: that is, to those who have their fruit unto holiness, as he had faid immediately before. Hither likewife belong those innumerable texts, in which glory, and happiness, and eternal life, are promifed to thofe who live foberly, righteously, and godly in this prefent world; and wickednefs and difobedience are threatened with dreadful and eternal punishment. But I fhall only take notice of two or three of the most remarkable of them. Mat. xiii. 40. 41. 42. The Son of Man fhall fend forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity, and fhall caft them into a furnace of fire, there fhall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then fhall the righteous fhine forth as the fun in the kingdom of their Father. But this is moft fully reprefented in that particular defcription, which our Lord himself makes of the process of that day, Mat. xxv. 34. where the fentence that shall be paffed on the righteous is this, Come, VOL. VIII. L

ye

ye bleed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you before the foundation of the world. And on the wicked, ver. 41. Depart from me, ye curfed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. And ver. 46. And thefe, fpeaking of the wicked, shall go away into. everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal. John. v. 28. 29. The hour is coming, in which all that are in their graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth, they that have done good, unto the refurrection of life and they that have done evil, unto the refurrection of damnation. Rom. ii. 6. 7. 8. 9. fpeaking of the revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who, fays the Apostle, hall render to every man according to his works; to them, who by patient continuance in well-doing, feek for glory, and honour, and immortality, eternal life: but to them that are contentious, and obey not the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation, and, wrath, tribulation. and anguifb, upon every foul of man that doth evil.

II. That the rewards and recompences of the next world fhall likewife bear a proportion to the degrees of good or evil which we have done in this life, though it hath been controverted, feems alfo to be fufficiently clear from fcripture. And to this purpofe, I fhall,

1. Produce fuch texts as will fully prove it. And, 2. Anfwer the grounds of the contrary opinion. 1. The fcripture doth plainly affert, that the rewards of the next life will bear a proportion, not only to the kind and quality of our actions, but to the degree of them; that good men fhall receive a reward proportionable to the degree of their holiness and obedience, of their fervice and fufferings for God; and that the torments of the wicked fhall be greater or lefs, according to the degree and aggravation of their fins.

(1.) As for good men; that the reward, that shall be bestowed upon them, fhall bear a proportion to the degree of their fervice and fufferings for God. This feems to be intimated in thofe metaphorical expreflions ufed by the prophet Daniel, Chap. xii. 3. They that be wife, fhall fhine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness, as the ftars for ever and ever. Which is much the fame with what St. Paul. exprefly affirms, concerning the different glory of the