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leave to ask you fome few questions, or rather feriously ask your felves fuch questions as thefe:

Why do I hope that God will not judge me? Am I not obnoxious to the Judgment of God? Am I not his Creature,and is he not my Sovereign Lord? And is he not then my Judge? And why fhould I expect that my Natural Lord and Judge will not judge me? Do not Parents judge their Children, and Masters their Servants, and Princes their Subjects, and all Superiors their Inferiors," and can I think that God alone, who is the Sovereign Lord of all, and from whom all inferior Power and Authority is derived, fhould not himfelf judge his Creatures? Has God renounced his Authority, or is the exercife of it too troublefome to him? Has he made us accountable Creatrues, but to give no account? Has he made us in Subjection to himfelf, to exercise no Authority over us? We had better fay, that God has made us all Sovereign, independent, unaccountable. Creatures, which is lefs abfurd than to fay, that God is our Sovereign Lord, but will not judge us, that is, will not exercife his Sovereign Authority.

All this feems to be felf-evident, and to carry its own proof and conviction with it; and there is but one Evasion that I know of, by the help of which men flatter themselves ftill into the Opinion, that God will not judge them, or at least, that it is not evident from the Light of Nature, that he will; and that is, that all this proves indeed, that God may judge us, if he pleafe, but not that he will: we are his Creatures,and obnoxious to his Power and Juftice, and this proves, that he

may

'may judge us if he please, but he is under no force, and therefore if he please also he may not judge us; and while this is poffible, Men who love their Sins, are apt to flatter themselves that God will not judge them.

Now this is no Objection to us Chriftians, who have a plain and exprefs Revelation of God's Will in this point, that he will judge the World, tho it is an additional fatisfaction to fee, that the nature and reafon of Things do fo well agree with Revelation; but however, at present I fhall fet afide Revelation, and confider whether what I have now difcourfed, do not as well prove, that God will, as that he may judge the world.

Now to prove this, I will only suppose one Principle, which I will thank no man to grant me; That what the reason and nature of things. proves ought to be done, that God will do; for though God is under no force and neceffity, yet his own Nature is a Rule and Law to him; what ought to done, every wife and good and juft Being will do, and therefore God will certainly do it, who is infinite Wisdom; and what the nature of Things require to be done, that is the prescription of his own Wisdom, for he made all things, and therefore by giving fuch natures to his Creatures, he has made a Law for himself, and fufficiently declared what he intends to do. Now let any man confider what I have already difcourfed, and tell me, whether a reasonable' Creature, who is a free Agent, and under the Power and Authority of a Superior, who prefcribes him the Laws and Rules of Action, ought not to be called to an account for his "Actions; whether a wife Father, or a wife Prince would

not

not do this; and whether it be not a great neglect and fault in the Superior, if it be not done? 1 I'm fure all Mankind would think fo; and then we must grant, that the ftate and condition of Human Nature proves, that God not only may, but will judge the World; unlefs we can fuppofe, that he will be guilty of fuch a neglect, as would be thought a great fault among men.

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There are fome things indeed, which we cannot know that God will do, without a Revelation; fuch free and arbitrary acts of Goodness,as he had no way obliged himself to, nor had given any natural notice of, fuch as is the whole Oeconomy of Man's Salvation by Jefus Chrift: but what either his own nature, or the nature of Things, which he has made, exacts from him, that we may be fure a wife and juft and good Being will do.

For though God is under no force and conftraint, yet he must because he will,act agreeably to his own Nature, and to the nature of things; and we may as well fay, that we are not fure that God will do what is Good, and Juft and Wife, because he is under no force to do it; as that he will not judge Mankind: For to judge the World is as effential to the Sovereignty of God, as to do what is wife and good is to his Wisdom and Goodness: And it is as abfurd to fay, that God is the Sovereign Lord of the World,but need not exercife his Sovereign Authority in governing or judging Mankind, as to fay, that God is infinite Wifdom and Goodnefs, but need never do what is wife or good: Such dormant and unactive Perfections are a contradiction to the very notion of a God, whofe Nature is a pure and fimple Act,

all

all Life and Energy; if he be good, he will do good; and if he be the Sovereign Lord and Judge of the World, he will Govern and Judge Mankind.

This is the firft natural Evidence of a Future Judgment, taken from the Frame and Condition of Human Nature, which I have infifted on much longer than I intended, for the more I think of it, the more plain and convincing it feems to be; for what imaginable reafon is there to question, whether God will judge Mankind, when he has made man juft fuch a Creature, as he must have made him, if he had intended to judge him; endowed him with Reafon and Understanding, and liberty of Choice, given him Laws and Rules of Action, and made him in fubjection to Himself, obnoxious to his own Power and Juftice; which are plain natural Indications, that God does intend to call him to an account?

SECT. II.

The effential Differences between Good and Evil, and the Natural Notions we have of GOD, prove a Future Judgment.

II.

'H E effential Differences between Good T and Evil, prove that Mankind ought to be judged; and this is fomewhat more than that God has made Man fuch a Creature as is by nature accountable, and may be judged: Just as much more as the difference is between may be and must be; for though, as I obferved before, this may be does very ftrongly infer a will be; that is, that God having made nian an accountable

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Creature, is a reasonable Prefumption, that he will judge him, and call him to an account; yet this is not fo direct and immediate a Proof that God will judge Mankind, as it is to fhew, that the effential difference of Good and Evil makes it neceffary, that Man fhould be judged, that he fhould be rewarded and punished according to his works.

I premife this to fhew you, what a new advance this makes towards the proof of a future Judgment; and now come to explain the force of this Argument:

That there is an effential difference between Good and Evil, (as unwilling as fome Men are to own it) is demonftrable to every Man's fenfe and experience, which is a more undeniable Proof, than fome nice and Metaphyfical Speculations; and that what is good ought to be rewarded, and what is evil ought to be punished, is acknowledged by the univerfal confent and practice of Mankind; and I think the neceffary and unavoidable confequence of this is, that good Men fhall be rewarded, and the wicked punished; that is, that Mankind fhall be judged according to their Works. This is in fhort the Argument; and if I can make good each part of it, I have no more to do, but to leave it to your ferious confideration.

I. That there is an effential difference between Good and Evil; that is, that there are fome things in their own natures very good for men, and other things which are very hurtful to them: And will any Man deny this? This is the Good. and Evil, which is in the Nature of Things, and fo immutably there, that all the Art and Power

of

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