THE Last Judgement: OR A DISCOURSE Showing the reasonableness of the Belief of such a thing.  
Delivered in a SERMON, At the ASSIZES held for the County of DENBIGH, on the 18th of April, Anno 1682.  
By JOHN OLIVER, Chaplain to the Right Worshipful Sir Thomas Delves of Dodington in Cheshire, Baronet, and sometime Student of Clare-Hall in Cambridge.  
LONDON, Printed for John Minshull, and to be sold at his Shop in Bridge-street in Chester, and Ric. Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Churchyard, 1682.   

To the Right Worshipful JOSHVA EDISBURY, Esq High Sheriff For the County of DENBIGH.  
SIR,  
THis Sermon came abroad at last to testify the grateful sense I have of the many favours received from yourself, and some other Members of that Audience, in which it was delivered. And since it is made thus public, it can't in justice be entitled to any other Person than yourself, the first occasion of its being: There were several Arguments that might have dissuaded any man in my Circumstances from a Work of this kind (of which the unripeness of my years, and a natural aversion to be knownin such a quarrelsome Age, where the plainnest things are become matter of Controversy, were none of the least.) And yet I reckoned, that the Request of those worthy Persons, who were pleased to set such extraordinary marks of their Favour, upon one who was perfectly a Stranger to them, could not be denied without a secret reproach of Ingratitude. I have therefore been so hardy, as to expose it a second time, and do lay it down with all submission at your Feet, beseeching you to receive it with as much Candour, as 'tis offered with Modesty by  
Your Most humble, and most obliged Servant, JOHN OLIVER.   

A SERMON Preached at the AS SIZES held for the County of DENBIGH. April 18. 1682.  2 Cor. 5. and former part of the 10th Verse. 
For we must all appear before the Judgement Seat of Christ.  
I Don't know any one Article of our Christian Faith, that can possibly have a more universal influence on the Lives and Actions of all men, than that which concerns a Judgement to come: And I know no time so proper to mind you of that General Assize, in which all men shall be summoned to give Account of their do as the present occasion. For as nothing can be of greater Force for the Government of our whole time, so nothing can more immediately conduce to regulate the particular Actions of this, than a firm Belief, that whatever passes from us here, will be entered into the most lasting and unalterable Registers, be laid up among the Archieves of Heaven, and must as certainly be reviewed another day, and at another Bar of the most exact and impartial Justice.  
In my Defence of this great Principle, I shall endeavour to make out these 3 things.  

1. That the belief of a Judgement to come is suitable to those common Notions which are imprinted on our minds: And that every sober Person by reflecting on his own frame, must unavoidably fall under this persuasion.  
2. That the Belief of a Judgement to come, is agreeable to that Notion men have concerning the Being and Providence of a God.  
3. That this Doctrine is infinitely certain upon the grounds of Scripture, and especially the Gospel, whose great Privilege it is to have brought Life and Immortality to Light.   
I begin with the first of these.  
Viz. 1. That the Belief of a Judgement to come is suitable to those common Notions which are imprinted on our minds, and that every sober Person by reflecting on his own Frame, must unavoidably fall under this Persuasion.  
We can't imagine, that the great Author of our Being should leave any Impressions upon man, the most excellent piece of his workmanship here below, which should stand for a cipher: Nothing could be a greater impeaching of his Wisdom, than to have put such things into our Constitution, as could be of no use or advantage to us: If there be therefore any such Principles stamped upon us, as will naturally enforce the Belief of another Judgement: And if these Principles can proceed from nothing else but the Finger of the Almighty, this will be one fair Evidence, that such a thing must certainly be.  
And that there are such Principles stamped upon our minds, as will naturally enforce the Belief of another Judgement, is plain from the universal Consent of men in all times and places about it.  
For this Doctrine of a Judgement to come, has found a general entertainment in the World: Not only amongst the Greeks and Romans, those People, by whom Learning and Arts, Policy and Government were improved to a considerable degree: But also amongst the rude and barbarous Nations, where nothing of this kind can be assigned as the grounds of it: There being little of Policy or Religion, or Learning or good Manners to be there met with. Whatever there was to difference these last from the more civilised part of Mankind, yet in this they all agreed; the Being of a God, a future State, the distribution of Rewards and Punishments according to the Actions of men in this Life.  
It must be granted, indeed, that the apprehensions the Heathens had of another Life were dark and cloudy: The Rewards they imagined to be laid up for good men, were mostly adapted to the gratifying of the sensual Part, and the Punishments to be inflicted on evil men, were such as they thought most suitable to the Crimes here committed.  
They tell us, that when good men have passed their Trials, they are immediately conveyed into some Paradysial place, some flowery Fields and Gardens, always flourishing and delightful, where they meet with such innocent enjoyments, as they took most pleasure in while here on Earth: Which (by the way) is a secret reflection on the lose pretender to Christianity, who resolves to spend all his days in riot and excess, in filthiness and debauchery, and yet hopes in the end to be possessed of those spiritual Pleasures above, which are nothing akin to the Pleasures he met with here, and if enjoyed, could be no more satisfaction to him, than it would be to a Swine to have his Sty built of Cedar, his Bed perfumed, and his Meat served him in Plate.  
As for the wicked, they tell us, the Portion of such is to be cast into black and dismal Prisons, to be tormented by Haggs and Furies, and to meet with such other Punishments, as the nature and weight of their Crimes deserved.  
And however, this Account be infinitely short of what the Scripture affords, concerning the different Conditions of men in another World, yet it argues a strong persuasion even amongst Infidels of a future State, and that such a thing was acknowledged by them, though the Nature and Circumstances of it could not be made out, without the assistance of a supernatural Light.  
If it be said, that there is no such universal consent as is here pretended, because some few Persons Atheistically inclined, have now and then disowned the Opinion; it's easily answered, that two or three such Instances can be no prejudice to the General Judgement of most men, both learned and unlearned: That it has been their Interest, there should be no such thing as a Judgement to come, and therefore they have racked their Brains to find out Arguments against it: That the impurity of their Lives has sullied their Reasons, and debauched their understandings, and rendered them as uncapable of judging what belongs to the humane Nature, as a man born blind is to read a Lecture about Colours, or a Person with a distempered Palate to distinguish meats.  
But now to what Cause shall we assign this universal Agreement? How comes it about, that the most distant People of the World, that live under different Models of Government, and distinct Rites of Worship; that have peculiar Customs and Manners, and Inclinations, should all join in this, that there is an Account to be given in another World, of all our Actions done in this? Besides, how comes this Principle to stand so fixed and unshaken, considering the infinite changes which almost every thing else has undergone, and the many attempts which have been made to alter this by a sort of men, that would confound the Distinction betwixt Virtue and Vice here, that there might be no such thing as either Heaven or Hell hereafter? We see daily, that other Opinions rise and fall, according as the grounds they are built upon appear stronger or weaker; and sometimes they have more, sometimes fewer Defendants to own and countenance them: But this Doctrine of a Judgement to come, as it is of equal Antiquity, and has the same extent with Mankind, so is it constantly the same: Tract of Time, and revolution of Ages, and deeper insight into the nature of things; the several changes that have happened in the Laws, the Religions, the Customs of any People, have not been able to abate any thing of its Authority, but still as the World grows older and more changeable, this grows more strong, vigorous and constant.  
It must then have some cause like itself, it must be resolved into some such impressions as are common to Mankind, which every man carries about him, and from which he may argue himself into a belief of it.  
I am easily induced to think, that as the main Body of the Heathen Theology, was but the old Traditional Religion corrupted by a long and tedious descent, (as all things are apt to lose of their native Purity the farther they go) so this Account of a future Judgement amongst the Heathens might be a branch of it, mixed with the fancies and inventions of men, till the first Patriarchal Creed became a mere Poetical Story. But yet I think it will be hard to persuade any man that a Doctrine of this kind, so opposite to men's worldly Interests, so apt to control their Lusts and Passions, should spread so far, and prevail so generally, were there not some more early impression left upon us, to make room in our understandings for it, some natural notions, that amidst all vicissitudes of the World would be sure to uphold the truth of it: I instance in these three.  

1. That apprehension which all men have concerning good and evil.  
2. That secret joy which good men find upon the doing any virtuous act: And that confidence they have when they suffer upon the score of Piety and Religion.  
3. Those horrible Fears and Confusions, which bad men find upon the doing an ill act.   
These are natural to us as men, and fair Evidences of what I have undertaken to make out.  
1. That apprehension which all men have concerning good and evil, argues a future Judgement.  
That some actions are Virtuous and Honourable, and the contrary base and vicious, and that Antecedently to any humane Law or positive Custom for the making them so, is the common voice of mankind: To be innocent in our Conversations, grateful to our Benefactors, upright in our Deal, true to our Vows and Promises, Oaths and Contracts, these are such things, as would be excellent and approved of all, though there were no humane Laws to enjoin and encourage the practice of them: And on the other hand the opposite Vices are so deformed and ugly, that should all the Lawgivers on earth conspire to change the Scene, to make Virtue Vice, and Evil Good, the undertaking would be as strange as unsuccesful: Such attempts could never obtain their end, unless they could mould the man over again, and infuse into him quite different Principles, from what he has already.  
And though men are so far willing to comply with their temporal Interests, as to contradict in the Practic, what they are content to own in the Speculative; yet there are not many arrived to that pitch of Profaneness, but would appear in the World under another Character, than what they really deserve: Which argues at least in the worst of men a secret allowance, that Virtue has something in it more suitable to the honour of the humane Nature, and that Vice has that intrinsic ugliness in it, that we blush at and are ashamed to own.  
Now the goodness of every Action consisting in a conformity to its proper Rule, and the badness of any Act in a deflection from it: It will follow, that there is a Rule stamped upon the mind of every man, according to which he judges one Act good, and another evil; and that Judgement about good and evil being one and the same in all Parts of the World, the Rule must be so too, and consequently, have the same Author which our very Being has, the alwise God: This is that Rule the Roman Orator styled, Non scripta lex sed nata, a Law not written on Tables of Stone or Brass, but engraven on the Heart and Conscience of man, agreeable to St. Paul's Character of the Gentiles, which having not the Law, are a Law to themselves, 
Rom. 2.14, 15.  and do show the work of the Law written in their Hearts, their Consciences also bearing Witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or excusing one another.  
'Twill also follow, that the great Author of this Law must have reserved some Rewards and Punishments to secure men's obedience to it: It being below the wisdom of any temporal Prince, to send his Statutes and Decrees abroad without such Motives to enforce their observance: And if these Rewards and Punishments are not immediately dispensed (as I shall after show) there must be another time set apart for that work of Justice.  
2. That secret joy, which good men find upon the doing a virtuous Act, is a kind of earnest and anticipation of a future Reward; and that confidence they have when they suffer upon the Score of Piety and Religion, argues an expectation of it. Let the good man reflect upon the frame of his mind, when he has been doing his duty, and he'll find every thing there calm and peaceable.  
There is something within him, that whispers the soft Eulogies, of a well done good and faithful Servant, and entitles him to the Approbation of his great Master.  
Besides, when he suffers upon the account of doing well, what is it, that bears up his Spirit, but an assurance, that he suffers in a good Cause, and a reasonable hope, that he shall be rewarded for it? This was the true Foundation of that undaunted Courage, with which the first Christians outbraved the Malice of their bloodiest Persecutors. This was it that made so many Champions for Religion, both before and under the Law, of whose Sufferings the Author to the Hebrews gives us this Catalogue: 
Heb. 11.36, 37, 38.  They had Trials of cruel Mockings and Scourge, yea, moreover of Bonds and Imprisonments: They were Stoned, they were Sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the Sword; they wandered about in Sheepskins and Goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented; (of whom the World was not worthy) the wandered in Deserts and Mountains, in Dens and Caves of the Earth: And under all these the great encouragement was the Recompense of the Reward. 
V 26.   
But perhaps these are Instances, that won't be allowed me here, and the Courage of these men will be resolved, not into any natural expectance of a future Reward, but into some special Promise and supernatural Revelation: If so, there are memorable Examples of this kind to be found, even amongst Heathens themselves.  
To instance in one for all, the excellent Socrates, who suffered upon a fundamental Point, 
Plato in Phaed.  the Unity of God; with how much bravery of Spirit did he demean himself, and what admirable Discourses dropped from him during his Imprisonment? And lastly, with how much boldness did he look the ghastly Messenger in the face? And what was his support? 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: He encouraged himself in hopes of going into another World, where he should meet with better Company than any was upon Earth: And though his assurances of it were none of the best, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, yet they were such as bore up all that load, that was charged upon them.  
But then,  
3. What Account can be given of that great uneasiness of mind, which waits upon the Commission of a gross sin especially, though never so private? How comes the man to be so strangely altered on the sudden? His Colour changes, his Blood retires, his Spirits flag, his Tongue falters, his Joints tremble, his Pulse grows uncertain, fear, astonishment, and despair hang upon his Brow: And all this is but the outward Scene and Representation of what's acted within: There's a Court of Judicature erected, the guilty Person's arrested by his own thoughts, and summoned to the Bar: Arraigned, Convicted, Condemned, and only Reprieved for a more solemn Trial at the great day: Though he walk abroad, he's but a more enlarged sort of Prisoner, the Guards of Conscience attend him in all places, and 'tis as impossible for him to make his escape from them as to flee from himself: And now what's the meaning of all this? Only the man's bound over to some other Tribunal to answer for those Actions which the Temporal L●●ts here take no notice of  
If it be said, that these fears are only the Fruits of bad education, and some unsound Principles instilled into our tender Age; How comes it about, that those Persons, who pretend t●●● he greatest share of knowledge, who dare undertake to argue down the Belief of a God and Providence, and a future State, have not been able by all their endeavours to raze out these Notions, and to conquer the fears arising from them? We see it's an ordinary thing for men upon due Experience, and better Information, to throw off those Opinions, which were forced upon them in their Infancy. But this of a Judgement to come, sticks closer to a man than his skin; the Atheist himself cannot be rid on't, though he tries all ways to baffle his Conscience, and extinguish his natural Sentiments about it: And (if we may believe the credible Reports of former times) no men in the World have been more assaulted with the fears of another Life, than they who pretend to render that and every thing else in Religion, the Subjects of their Mirth and Drollery. This was the case of Epicurus, who when he had banished (as he thought) a Providence out of the World, yet he could not by all his Arguments banish a Conscience out of himself; that was resolved to keep home, and to punish the Offender for his other bold and impious undertake.  
But perhaps the fear, that waits upon the Commission of some Acts, relates only to temporal Punishments, and the Sword of the Secular Power: It may be, that's it which puts the man out of order; if so, how comes it about, that such Acts of Impiety as are not punishable in an● Civil Court, and such as are done with that secrecy, as not to fall under public Cognizance should have the same effect? Or whence it is, that those Persons which are too big for the Law, should be as much tormented with the fears of this kind, as any that are within the verge of it? Kings and Emperors have been under this Discipline, if there be any truth in Sacred or Profane Authors. This was the case of Belshazzar even in the height of his jollity, 
Dan. 5.3, 6.  while the Hand was writing his doom upon the Wall, his Conscience was reading over the Indictment within; and then no wonder if his Countenance was changed, and his Thoughts troubled him; if his Joints were loosed, and his Knees smote against each other. Thus it fared likewise with the Roman Governor, while St. Paul reasoned of Righteousness, Temperance, 
Act. 24.25.  and Judgement to come: was it strange that Foelix should tremble at the latter part of the Sermon, who knew himself so defective in all the rest? After the Historian had taken notice of that odd Epistle, 
Tacit. Annal. lib. 6. Quid scribam vobis Patres Conscripti, aut quomodo scribam, aut quid omnino non scribam hoc tempore, dii me deaeque pejus perdant, quam quotidie perire sentio, si scio ubi de hàc re plura.  Tiberius the Emperor wrote to the Senate; He adds by way of remark, that if the Breasts of Tyrants could be looked into, there would be found there, Laniatus & Ictus, the wounds of a disordered Spirit.  
And the Author of the Lives of the Caesars, 
Satton. in vitâ Calig. Parag. 5.  in his account of Caligula could observe, that he who was so great a Contemner of the Divine Power, was glad upon every thunderclap to take Sanctuary under his Bed: His Courage then failed him, when the Arrows of the Almighty went abroad: And the sense of his guilt made him apt to think, that himself was the Person that was aimed at: 'Twere needless to reckon up more Examples of this kind, since we have reason enough to believe, that there has not been one Atheist in the World, but one tin e or other has been assaulted by that clamorous thing within; and especially at the approaches of his dying hour, when his Conscience has set all his sins in order before him, and put him in mind of that Wise, Powerful, and Just God, before whom he is summoned to appear.  
It has been well observed, that the hopes and fears, I am now speaking of, are not to be found in any other Creature here below besides man. The Brutes have no sad presages, no encouraging assurances of another Life, because wholly unconcerned in the Retributions of it: Man is the only thing in this lower World that's affected with them, and there is no man, that's free from them: Which is a strong Evidence to me, that the Author of our Being has left these impressions upon us, and that on purpose to guide us by them to the knowledge of a future State.  
For it cannot be, that a God of infinite Wisdom should put any thing into our frame, which should stand for nothing: Or that a God of infinite Goodness should fix any Principles there, that were perfect Cheats and Delusions, which he must have done, if there be nothing in another World to verify those hopes and fears, which all men whatsoever are liable to in this.  
To conclude this Argument. Seeing this Doctrine has been universally received by men in all Ages, and in all parts of the World; and whatever hath so, may well be thought to have some Foundation at least in the very nature of man: Seeing there are such Notions there, as will dispose any man in the right use of his Faculties, to the belief of an after-reckoning: Seeing these can't in reason be imagined to have any other Cause, than what our Being has, the Maker of all things: since it could not consist with his Wisdom or Goodness, to leave us under the Conduct of any vain, useless, or delusory Principles, it must follow, that these are certain Intimations of a Judgement to come, engraven upon the mind of every man, that the very Heathens might have some notice of it, and be left inexcusable, if their Lives and Actions were not governed according to the belief of it.  
2. My second Argument for the proof of a future Judgement, is drawn from the Notion of a God and Providence.  
He that has but so much Religion left him, as to own the first Articles of his Creed, may be able with very little Logic, to argue himself into a Belief of this great Truth.  
God being the Fountain of all possible Perfections, these things must be included in the Notion of him: Infinite Knowledge: Exact Justice: Irresistible Power: To which if we add the usual Methods of his Providence, relating to good and evil men in this Life, we shall then have a full demonstration of this Principle, that there is another time to be expected, when all men shall receive according to their do.  
1. As to his Knowledge, we are sure it can't be other than infinite: Any thing less than that would be so far from being a Perfection, that it would be a real blemish, and disparagement to the Divine Nature: And if infinite, then (as to what concerns our present enquiry) it must extend to the Persons of all men, from the beginning to the end of the World; and to all the Actions of all men, not only such as are more open and public, but such also as are more secret and reserved. Whatever Arts are made use of by us to conceal our faults from the Knowledge of man, 'tis impossible, that they should have the same effect upon God, whose allseeing Eye pierceth through the fairest Veils and closest Disguises of Hypocrisy: From which it will follow, that all those Acts of sin, which scape the Censure of the Magistrate, because either not within his Sphere (as all internal acts of the mind) or done with that secrecy, that there's no Evidence of them, must unavoidably fall under the notice and observation of God.  
2. As to his Justice: We can't frame such a notion of an infinite Justice, as to think, that it will either justify the Wicked, or condemn the Righteous. Shall not the Judge of all the Earth do right? was a Question, that carried its own Answer along with it, and would as soon have been resolved by a sober Heathen, as a Patriarch.  
We can't think, that the great Lawgiver should be so much of Epicurus' mind, as never to cast an eye upon his Creatures below, or if he did, be only an idle spectator of what's done here. We can't think, that he should have no concern for those Laws he has given us, or look down with as much favour on them that defy his Authority, and trample upon his Commands, as on them that are careful to preserve a due regard to both. Rewards and Punishments are the usual Sanctions of all Laws: And then sure those that proceed from the highest Authority in the World, and are of greatest consequence to the Peace and Welfare of mankind (as the Laws of God certainly are) must have the strongest Motives to bind them upon us: The offer of the greatest Reward to the Obedient; and the threatening of the severest Penalty to the flubborn; that Religion may be our Interest as well as Duty, and Vice the contradiction of both. And we may be further assured, that such Rewards and Punishments will one time or other be apportioned to the Actions of all men, seeing they are in the hands of the most exact Justice to dispense them. 'Twere below an infinite Wisdom, to make Laws without such enforcements, and repugnant to his Justice, not to execute them.  
3. As to his Power: If that be equal with his Knowledge and Justice, as certainly it is, can he want Methods to reward the Righteous, or punish the Wicked? Whatever strength there is in the Creatures, 'tis but a Derivation from him as the Fountain, and 'tis under his Government, as all other things, and directed to such ends as he thinks fit. The Angels are but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Spirits that minister to his Will as well as our wants, and all inferior Being's can have no more honourable an employment, than to be sent on his Errand; and if these are at his beck, he can't want either Instruments of Wrath to avenge himself on the Wicked, or ways of mercy for the recompense of the good.  
But now if we consider the usual Course of his Providence, we can't say, that Rewards and Punishments are exactly suited to men's actions here: Temporal Happiness is not always the Portion of those that reverence a Deity, nor are Temporal Judgements the certain Fate of such as contemn it: 'Tis true, there have been in all Ages some extraordinary instances of a Divine Vengeance pursuing the Wicked, and as remarkable Examples of the worldly success and prosperity of good men, God having been pleased by these ways, to give sufficient Testimony of an over ruling Providence in all the Centuries of the World And you perhaps these Instances are but rare, to wha●●ight be produced to the contrary. How often do we see Meekness oppressed, and Innocence slandered, and Virtue trampled in the dust, while Pride, Ambition and Tyranny have been lifted up to the highest Pinnacles of Honour? As if Satan had cleared his pretended Claim to all the Kingdoms of the Earth, and the Glory of all sublunary things, and none were to be advanced there but his own Favourites. How often do we see the unjust and the fraudulent to rise upon the Ruins of the honest plaindealing man, as if that famous Maxim, which has done more mischief in the World, than any other Position besides, concerning Dominion being founded in Grace, were perfectly turned the other way, and wickedness were the only support of a good Title? Good men are no more exempt from the common miseries of humane Life, than they are from death itself, the close of all: Nay there are some Cases, wherein these are the only Sufferers, witness the Primitive times, when to be Atheist or Idolater, a worshipper of false Gods, or none at all, was Protection enough against the force of the Laws, but to be a Christian was such a Crime, as all the murdering Engines Hell could invent, or the malice of a persecuting Age could set on work, were not severe enough to punish.  
These are some of the Objections that puzzled the Heathens, and upon this score the Belief of a Providence suffered so much in the World, some utterly denying it, others allowing it under various Reflections, though the wisest of them inclined to the safest side: And no wonder, since the Royal Prophet himself was offended at it. After he had observed, that the Proud, the Violent, the Atheist and the Blasphemer were the thriving men, he was just reeling into Infidelity: 
Ps. 73.13, 14.  Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency, for all the day long have I been plagued, and chastened every morning.  
But whatever impressions the uncertainty of God's Proceed here might make upon the Spirits of some men, 'tis an undeniable Evidence of a Judgement to come: For if there be a Supreme Power presiding over all things, and that Power be furnished with infinite Knowledge, and so in a condition to observe the Actions of all men good and bad, with infinite Justice, and so resolved to render to all according to their do, with infinite strength, and so fitted for the Execution of that Justice, it must follow, that Virtue will certainly be rewarded, and Vice as certainly punished; and if that be not exactly done here, 'twill also follow, that there is another time appointed to review the Lives and Actions of all men, and to give them an answerable Recompense; to vindicate the Honour of God's Justice and Providence, and to make all men see, that to be Religious, was to be wise; to be Atheistical and Profane, the greatest madness in the World.  
If it be said, that Virtue is its own Reward, and Vice its own Punishment, in respect of that Peace of Conscience which follows the one, and that stinging remorse which attends the other, and consequently that there is no need of a future reckoning for the Vindication of Divine Providence: I answer, That notwithstanding these moral advantages or disadvantages ensuing upon men's actions, there is some Physical good and evil to be expected from all Lawgivers, without which they could not be just: Would it be a sufficient discharge of a Governor's Duty, to let the blackest Crimes go unpunished, because the Actors of them have been already tormented by some revengeful guilt? Or to suffer his best Subjects to lie under the most unjust Oppressions, because they feel within themselves the happy Testimonies of their own innocence? Besides, what reward is there to him, who offers his Life a Sacrifice for his Religion, supposing no future State? Is the pleasure of Martyrdom so great, to outweigh the pain of it? Is there any thing so desirable in Racks and Prisons, the Cross and the Flames, to make a sober man quit all his Interests in the pursuit of? If we had only hopes in this Life, were not we Christians of all men the most miserable? And what Punishment is there to him, who has by a constant Custom of sinning, so baffled his Conscience, that like 〈◊〉 disobliged Friend it grows weary of rebuking him, and suffers him to follow his own Inclinations without any check? Add to this, that the satisfaction arising from doing good, and the regret which follows the contrary, are not sufficient Motives to keep men within due bounds, and therefore could never be intended by the great Lawgiver, as the whole of that Recompense which good and bad men are to expect from him: Were there no other inducements here below, to secure Obedience to humane Laws, and to preserve a due Reverence to the Authors of them, Princes would be but the more glittering pieces of State-Pageantry, and their Laws as empty as the Breath that uttered them: No man would think himself any farther obliged to obey, than than Obedience could be reconciled to his Interest; Nor would the Divine Laws speed much better: These would be slighted as much as the other, notwithstanding the greater Majesty of their Author, whensoever men's worldly Advantages might tempt them to it: There must be therefore some greater incitement to Virtue, than Peace of mind, and some stronger discouragement to Vice than the disquiet of it: There must be a far more exceeding weight of glory to draw down the Balance against all the hardships good men meet with upon the score of Religion: And some more intolerable load of misery to keep bad men in awe, and innocent, though against their wills. And if these are not dispensed here, there must be another day for that work, a day, wherein we must all appear before the Judgement Seat of Christ; which brings me to the last thing, viz.  
3. That this Doctrine is infinitely certain upon the grounds of Scripture, and especially, the Gospel, whose great Privilege it is, to have brought Life and Immortality to Light: This is the great Instrument of our Belief; moral Arguments may make it reasonable, this makes it our duty to assent, and turns humane Persuasion into Divine Faith: Here we shall find the solemn Assize of the great Day painted to the Life, and all necessary Circumstances relating to it punctually set down. Time and Place, indeed, God has reserved as secrets to himself, because not so fit for us to be acquainted with, and so has barred us out from all nice and curious speculations about them, but every thing else is allowed us.  
Would you know the Preparations leading to that great appearance of Men and Angels? They are infinitely beyond all Pomp and Ceremony on Earth: For the Sun shall be darkened, 
Mitth. 24.29.  and the Moon shall not give her Light, and the Stars shall fall from Heaven, and the Powers of the Heavens shall be shaken: And the Angels shall be sent abroad, 
V 31.  with the great noise of a Trumpet, to summon all men to their last Reckoning.  
Would you know the Person of the Judge? 'Tis that Son of man, to whom the Father has committed all Judgement: A Person of that Wisdom, 
Act. 17.31.  that he sees into the Merits of every Cause; of that Justice, that he can't determine wrongfully; and of that Authority, that from his Sentence there lies no appeal.  
Would you know the Persons that are to appear before him? They are the Quick and Dead, all that shall be found alive upon Earth at his coming, and all that shall be cloistered up in the dark Regions of the Grave: At the great Goal-delivery, 
Rev. 20.13.  the Sea shall render up the dead that are in it, and Death and Hell shall bring their Prisoners to the Bar, that they may all receive according to their do.  
Would you know the Proceed of that Court? They'll be according to Law, the natural Law written in our Hearts, and those Positive Laws, the Scripture has superadded to them.  
Would you know the Evidence to be produced upon every man? 
Rev. 20.12.  'Tis the Testimony of Conscience, which keeps a perfect Diurnal of our several Actions, from the beginning to the end of our days: An Evidence, we have no reason to except against, because part of ourselves, and so will never give in a wrong or partial Information: An Evidence, the Judge will never question, because 'tis his Minister in every one of us, one part of whose Office it is to keep a true Record of all our do.  
Would you know the Conclusion of all? The Righteous shall go into Life Eternal, 
Mat. 25 46.  where they can't fail of the most ravishing Delights, being possessed of him, in whose presence are Joys, and at whose right hand are Pleasures, and that for evermore: The wicked shall go into a place of Torment provided for the Devil and his Angels, where the Atheist will meet with late and sad assurances of a Divine Power and Justice; the Blasphemer will find what it is to affront the Author of his Being; the Profane and Dissolute will see, what an unhappy choice they made, when they left the rugged ways of Virtue, and pitched upon the broad Paths of Sin, pleasant indeed to the Eye, and easy to the Traveller, but ending at last in a Precipice of unavoidable ruin.  
Knowing therefore the Terrors of the Lord, let me persuade all that hear me this day, so to live, that they may be thought worthy to escape them: Whether Persons in Authority, that they remembering whose Ministers they are, and to whom they are accountable for that Power entrusted to them, may be careful to employ it to the Punishment of Wickedness and Vice, and to the maintenance of true Religion and Virtue: Or other subordinate Persons, that they having always before their Eyes the great Account, may endeavour to live in a due Reverence to the Majesty on High, and a quiet subjection to his Vicegerent on Earth, and in common honesty among themselves.  
In a word, that we may all of us, both in Church and State act suitable to the Rules of our holy Profession, to the many weighty Obligations our Religion has laid upon us, and especially to the Belief of this great Article of a Judgement to come, that so we may finish our Course with joy, and then receive the Fruit of our do, even a Crown of Glory.  
God of his infinite mercy grant, for his Son's sake Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom with the Father and the blessed Spirit be all Honour and Glory, World without end.  
FINIS.