XIII. SER M. thou caftedft them down into Deftruction. How are they brought into Defolution as in a Moment? they are utterly confumed with Terrors; it was this only that reconciled his Mind to the Justice, and Goodness, and Wisdom of God in his prefent Administration of Things. And it is indeed impoffible to account for this contrarious Distribution of Good and Evil against the common Laws of Equity, if we look no farther than this present Life: And therefore no Conclufion can be more certain in reason than this, that there must be a future Judgment, by which all Things will be fet right, and the Equity and Wisdom of God clearly vindicated in rendring a righteous Retribution to good and bad Men; according to that Speech of Abraham to the rich Man Luke 16.25.in the Parable, Son, remember that thou in thy Lifetime receivedft thy good Things, and likewife Lazarus evil Things; but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. This Paffage, methinks, fhould ftartle every rich Man who makes no other Ufe of his Wealth, than to indulge his Pleasures; for they will prove dear Pleasures to him, if they are to be purchased at the Expence of Pain and Mifery without End, when this SER M. short Life is past. This Cafe is so very clear and evident to Reason, that every unprejudiced Man who believes that there is a God and a Providence, cannot avoid believing likewife that there. must be a Distribution of Rewards and Punishments in a future State, in order to folve all the unequal Appearances of Things at present, and set all Things ftraight and right in the End. For if the Lot of many wicked Men is better than the Lot of many good Men in this present Life, which is frequently the Cafe, and there is to be no Time of Retribution hereafter, it will follow that the Condition of those wicked Men will upon the whole be better than the Condition of thofe good Men; and it will be impoffible to reconcile thofe Things with the Notion of a God governing the World with a wife, and juft, and good Providence. Then David's Objection will be unanswerable at the 13th Verfe. Verily I have cleanfed my Heart in vain, and washed my Hands in Innocency; which yet at the 22d Verse he pronounces to be a most stupid one, fo foolish was I, and ignorant, I was as a Beaft before thee. XIII. SERM. We must therefore of Neceffity, either turn direct Atheists, and lay there is no God, and no Providence, or else must allow that there will be certainly a Day of Judgment, and a State of Retribution after this Life. And this Doctrine is supported by the common Notions and Apprehenfions of Mankind in all Ages, and is evidently to be read in the Heathen Mythology. Their Elyfian Fields where departed Souls live in Eafe and Pleafure; their Orcus and Acheron, and Tartarus, Places of inceffant Labours and Pains, their infernal Furies that torment the Wicked, their fevere Judges of Hell, Minos, and Rhadamantus, as much they have been embellished by the Fictions of the Poets, are yet plain Proofs that the Heathens believed a Diftribution of Rewards and Punishments in another World, according to Men's Behaviour in this. For all Fictions of that kind would immediately have been exploded, unless they were grounded upon fome common and received Notions. But in the Writings of the Heathen Philofophers, we meet with Notices yet more plain, and freer from Fable. I fhall men XIII. tion only two. Plato in his 7th Epiftle SER M. fays, We must give Credit to the antient and Sacred Sentences which declare that our Souls are immortal, and that they have Judges, by whole Decrees the greatest Rewards and Punishments are to be diftributed, according to their Deferts, as foon as they are separated from the Body. And Cicero at the End of his Book of old Age, fpeaking of his own Death, breaks out into this Rapture, O the glorious Day, when I shall go to that divine Affembly of Spirits, leaving behind me this troublesome and polluted World, and where among others, I shall meet my dear Friend Cato, who was inferior to no Man in Goodnefs and Virtue. In which Paffage, tho' a future Judgment be not explicitly mentioned, yet it is strongly implied in the Certainty of a future State; for Cicero could never be fo weak as to think that the Felicity he was prefaging, could be feized at pleasure, but must be dealt out by the fupreme Judge as the Reward of his Virtue. This may, fuffice to prove the Certainty of a future Judgment from clear Authorities of holy Writ, and from the Nature of God's Government of the World by his Providence, as alfo from the SentiDd 2 ments SER M. ments of the wifeft and most virtuous XIII. Heathens. And I hope that this laft, at leaft, may have fome Weight with our modern Infidels and Scepticks. I come now to the 2d general Head, which is to fhew what is the true and only Way of preparing our felves for this great and tremendous Day of Judgment. And this lies within a very little Compafs; for if we are to judge from the holy Scriptures, the true and only Preparation is a good and virtuous Life according to that Law which every Man was put under. The Heathen World must be judged by the Law of Nature only, or the natural Notions of moral Good and Evil which are common to every Man who makes a right Use of his Reason. St. Paul is very clear and explicite in this Point in the 2d of Rom. 12. 13. where he fays, that the Gentiles having not the Law, the revealed and written Law, are a Law unto themselves; which fhew the Work of the Law written in their Hearts, their Confciences also bearing Witness, and their Thoughts the mean time accufing or else excufing one another. And there |