The Seventh ENTERTAINMENT.

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Of JUDGMENT.

The Importance of the Caufe to be tried at the great Tribunal.

We must all appear before the JudgmentSeat of Chrift, 2 Cor. v. 10.

OF

Fall the Truths of Chriftian Religion, none is more terrifying than that which is laid before us in thefe Words of St. Paul. Holy Job could never think of it without Trembling, What shall I do, fays he, when the Lord fhall come to judge? Or when he shall demand an Account of me, what shall I answer for myself? St. Jerome was no lefs fenfibly affected with it, as himfelf relates; nor could he ever think of it, but he found himfelf feiz'd with Terror, and the Impreffion funk so deep, that no Bufinefs could remove it from his Thoughts; for whatever he was doing, he imagined he heard the laft Trumpet founding in his Ears, Rife ye Dead, and come to Judgment. Many other Saints have lived under the fame continual Apprehenfions of it; particular

ly

ly St. Arfenius, who in his laft Sickness declared to thofe that were about him, that fince his Retirement into the Defart, he had not paffed one Day without Fear.

And truly 'tis no Wonder that Men, who gave themselves Leifure to think, and look'd farther than the prefent World, fhould be terrify'd with the Profpect of a Day which was to decide their eternal Lot: A Day, attended with all the Circumstances proper to strike Terror into any Heart that will but confider them with due Attention: For the Saints were not content to allow them a general View, or paffing Glance; but, in order to imprint the Ideas of them deeply on their Minds, they ruminated diftinctly and leisurely upon every Circumftance relating to it. They confider'd the infinite Holiness, Wifdom, Power, and Majefty of the Judge, before whom they were to appear. They confider'd the Exactness of the Scrutiny to be made of every Thought, Word, and Action of their whole Lives; the large Difference between God's Judgments, and those of Men, the weighty Importance of the Caufe, which when once decided would admit of no Appeal; and finally, the Severity and Rigour of the Law, by which it was to be tried.

By these Confiderations often repeated, and thoroughly, digefted, they kept them

felves in the Difpofition prescribed by St. -Paul of working their Salvation in Fear and Trembling. And if all Chriftians would but follow their Method in this one Point, the Face of Chriftendom would foon be changed, and Men would not let loose the Reins to all finful Liberties, as if no Account were to be given hereafter. This certainly would be the Fruit of a frequent and ferious Confideration of the fevere Judgment which every Man must undergo immediately after his Death. Since therefore I have now already gone through all the principal Confiderations relating to Death, the Order of my Subject now calls upon me to speak of this Judgment; which containing feveral Truths of great Concern, I will now begin with the weighty Importance of the Cause that is to be decided in it, which fhall be the whole Subject of this Entertainment.

When a Criminal under Confinement expects to be tried for his Life, if his Cafe admits of any Hope, he fails not to use all Endeavours poffible to prepare himself fo, that Sentence of Death may not be pronounced upon him: He makes all the Interest he can, confults the ableft Lawyers, ftudies all his Anfwers to the Indictment that will be brought against him, and, in a Tom. I. word,

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word, fpares no Pains or Coft to make a good Defence.

Now if any one should ask a Perfon under these Circumstances, what Reason he has to be thus concern'd? why he gives himself fo much Trouble? or to what Purpose he throws away fo much Money? why he will not rather fet his Heart at reft, and study to divert himself? If any one, I say, should put these Questions to him, his Anfwer would doubtlefs be, that he has Reafon enough to be concern'd, and not fit idle, when his Life is at stake. And without all Difpute the Answer would be too rational and fatisfactory to leave Room for any further Reply.

Yet after all, what is this precious Treafure call'd Life, on which Men fet fo high a Value, and feek to preserve at any Rate? Holy Job gives this Account of it: Man born of a Woman lives a fhort Time, and is fill'd with many Miferies. He comes forth as a Flower, and is bruifed into Duft. He flies away as a Shadow, and never remains in the fame State. And St James, to exprefs the Shortnefs of it, calls it a Vapour, that appears for a little Time, and then vanishes away.

This is the valuable Treasure we are fo fond of, and which Nature has fo ftrong

an

an Inclination to preferve, and Fear to lofe, that no Business relating to this World is of equal Moment with that wherein Life is concern'd. And hence it is that the Cafe of a poer Criminal expecting to be brought to his Trial, to receive his final Doom, is by all efteem'd a Concern of fo high a Nature, that nothing can be done too much to prevent a Mifcarriage; and the Terror of it affects not only the Party concern'd, I mean the Criminal himself, but all that have any Tie, whether of Blood or Friendfhip with him, are interested, and folicitous for his Deliverance from the Danger that threatens him.

Now if a Caufe of Life and Death in this World be justly esteem'd a Business of fo great a Concern, tho' all that can be loft upon the Iffue of it be no more than a fhort and miferable Life, who can find Words to exprefs, or Ideas to conceive the weighty Importance of a Caufe, wherein the Soul's eternal and unchangeable Doom is to be determined. For the Thing, that is at stake in this Trial, is not, alas! the fmall Remainder of a few Months or Years, the poor Comfort of a perishable Life, or the uncertain Enjoyment of a temporal Eftate, but the Intereft and final Sentence of Eternity. Heaven and Hell are the Reward F 2

and