Vengeance in the Sanction, often escape the Execution; the Offenders being either too cunning to be difcover'd, or too powerful to be punish'd: Therefore, that Men may be fenfible of the Vanity of relying upon Force or Fraud, that they may not fanfy they can either overreach, or mafter Juftice; God has declar'd, that he will at laft take the Matter into his own Hands; that he will correct the Irregularities, and fupply the Défects of human Judicature; that he will judge the World in Righteousness, and take an exact Review of the Actions of Men. And in order to the paffing this full and final Account, the Apoftle tells us, We must all appear, &c. From the Words I fhall endeavour in the first place,

I. To prove the Certainty of a Judg

ment to come.

11. I fhall defcribe the Solemnity and the Terror of it.

111. I fhall fhew the Impartiality of the Sentence, And,

IV. The Reason of the Appointment.

L. Ifhall briefly prove the Certainty, &c.

1. From the general Confent of the World. There is fcarce any Religious Truth, excepting the Being of a God, in which Mankind have more univerfally agreed than about a future Judgment: This was acknowledg'd by Jews and Gentiles, by Greeks and Barbarians; and fcarce any but the Sadducees and Epicureans question'd it. This we may learn from Jofephus, from Plato, and Tully: And Justin Martyr tells the Heathens, "That this Doctrine of ❝ an Account to be pass'd after this Life "was no politick Device, contriv'd to "keep the ignorant Multitude in Awe; "no chimerical Fancy peculiar to their "Poets, though they were their firft "Divines; no, 'twas maintain'd by their

"most

"most eminent Philofophers, by Men of "the stricteft, and most inquifitive Rea"foning". Tertullian proves the fame Thing not only from the Writings of the Heathens, but from their familiar Expreffions and Converfation*. " And the "Soul (fays he) though fhe is opprefs'd

with the Burthen of the Flesh, byafs'd "by an unfortunate Education, difabled "by vicious Habits, and debauch'd by "a falfe Religion; yet when the recol"lects herself, when fhe fhakes off her

Lethargy, aud recovers into fome lu❝cid Intervals of Thinking and Sobriety, "then the owns the Unity of the Di"vine Nature, appeals to God as a Judge, "and declares her Expectations of Retri"bution from him". This Acknowledgment the Father calls the Teftimony of one who is naturally a Christian When St. Paul told the Athenians, that God had appointed a Day in which he would judge the World in Righteouf nefs; though fome of them laugh'd at

* Apolog.

B 3

the

the Resurrection as a new and incredible Doctrine, yet they had nothing to fay against a Day of Judgment. The general Belief of this Truth is that which eftablishes the Authority of Confcience; this makes its Tribunal fo confiderable, and gives Force and Majefty to all its Cenfures: For why should the Thoughts of Men naturally accufe or excuse one another, by reflecting upon the Law written in their Hearts? Why should the Consciousness of an unreasonable and wicked Action make a Man uneafy when none knows it but himself? Why fhould this happen, if his Mind did not ftrongly fuggeft, that God will bring every fecret Thing into Judgment, whether it be good or bad? And when a Man's Guilt is of a heinous and extraordinary Nature, the Lafhes of Confcience are proportionably fevere; it breaks through the ftrongest Guards, makes its Way into the clofeft Retirements, and ftrikes without Regard to Perfons with an impartial and inexorable Justice. In fuch cafes no Power can over-awe

it, no Pleasure can charm it, no Business can divert it. This made Tiberius pine away with Anguish in the midst of Empire, and confefs that he thought himself as miferable as the Gods could make him. The difmal Expectation of a future Account pursues the Wicked whereever they go, fills their Minds with Images of Horror, wakes them from frightful Dreams, and makes them a Kind of Apparition to themselves: This makes the Murtherer turn his own Accufer; he chufes rather to fall into the Hands of Justice than lye under his own, and flies to an Execution as a Refuge from his Confcience, If it be demanded, why those that have fuch dreadful Apprehenfions of the other World should make fo much Hafte thither, which is only to torment themselves before their Time: To this I anfwer, That when Men lye under fuch inexpreffible Agonies their Minds are too much diforder'd to reafon from fedate Principles and Chains of Difcourfe; they act by uneven and furious Impulfes, by Starts