SERM. in heaven all our treasure becometh there; and where our XXXI. treasure is, there (if we apprehend and believe rightly, there naturally) our hearts will be alfo: if they be not, it 2 Cor. v. 6. is a fign we take him not for our best treasure. We do in our bodies fojourn from the Lord, as St. Paul faith; but in our fpirits we may and should be ever present, ever converfant with him; contemplating him with an eye of faith, fastening our love upon him, repofing our confidence in him, directing our prayers and thanksgivings to him; meditating upon his good laws, his gracious promises, his holy life, and his merciful performances for us. We should not, by fixing our hearts and defires upon earthly things, (upon the vain delights, the fordid interefts, the fallacious and empty glories, the finful enjoyments here,) nor by a dull and careless neglect of heavenly things, avert, eftrange, or feparate ourselves wholly from him. No, furfum corda, let us, unloofing our hearts from these things, and with them foaring upward, follow and adhere to our Lord; fo fhall we anticipate that bleffed future ftate, fo fhall we affure to ourselves the poffeffion of heaven, fo here enjoying our Lord in affection, we fhall hereafter obtain a perfect fruition of his glorious and blissful prefence; the which God of his mercy by his grace vouchfafe us, through the fame our ever bleffed Saviour; to whom be for ever all glory and praise. Amen. O God the King of glory, who haft exalted thine own Son Jefus Chrift with great triumph unto thy kingdom in heaven; we beseech thee leave us not comfortless, but fend thine Holy Ghoft to comfort us, and exalt us to the fame place, whither our Saviour Chrift is gone before; who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghoft, one God, world without end. Amen. From thence he thall come to judge the Quick and the Dead. SERMON XXXII. THE REASONABLENESS AND EQUITY OF A ECCLES. iii. 17. I said in my heart, God fhall judge the righteous and the wicked. THESE words are the refult of a serious contemplation SERM. upon the state of human affairs and common occurrences XXXII. in this world: the Royal Philofopher having, as he telleth Ecclef. i. us, given his heart to feek and fearch out by wisdom con- 13. cerning all things that were done under heaven; what was the proper nature, what the juft price of each thing; what real benefit or folid comfort each did afford; how every perfon did fare in the purfuit and fuccefs of his defigns; did, after full examination and careful balancing all things refolve upon fuch conclufions as these : 8. That no kind of undertaking here did in effect yield any Ecclef. i. confiderable profit or complete fatisfaction, but all in the iffue did prove vain and vexatious. 11. ix. 11. That no man from his care and industry, in any course Ecclef. ii. of life, could promise himself any certain fuccess, or reap xi. 6. anfwerable reward. 13. Ecclef. ii. SERM. That although between wisdom and folly (or between XXXII. goodness and wickedness) there is fome intrinfic difference Ecclef. ii. of worth, (one excelling the other, as light doth excel darknefs,) yet, as to external advantages, and as to final event here, there is no great odds difcernible; for that events 15. vii. 15. (profperous and adverfe) did appear to fall out, not acix. 1, 11. cording to the qualifications or to the practices of men, but indifferently, according to the fwinge of time and chance; and for that death and oblivion alike do feize upon all; fo that apparently, in that respect, a man hath no preeminence over a beaft. 16. iii. 19. Ecclef. ii. 24. iii. 12. That in common life nothing doth appear better, than v. 18. viii. for a man, with the best advantage he can, to enjoy ordinary fenfible delights and comforts, which his condition doth afford. 15. xi. 10. Ecclef. iv. Ecclef. iii. 11. viii. 17. xi. 5. Ecclef. xi. That in regard to the present things here, life were not defirable to any man, the inconveniences and troubles thereof outweighing its benefits; fo that even the wisest, greatest, and happiest persons (fuch as he himself was) had cause to hate life, and all their labour which they had taken under the fun. That the mind and affection of God toward men are very reserved; the course of Providence very abftruse, the reason of events unfearchable to the wit or ftudy of men; so that we can hardly from appearances here defcry any confpicuous marks of God's favour or his displeasure. From these observations, as from fo many arguments, he doth both here and otherwhere in feveral places of this Book infer, that there fhall be a divine judgment, v. 8. viii. paffing upon all men, both righteous and wicked; whereby 12. vii. 18. these seeming incongruities in the providential administra 9. xii. 14. tion of things shall be salved; and in regard whereto our present opinions of things may be rectified: this he interpofeth here; I faid in my heart, (that is, by the confideration of things I was perfuaded,) that God fhall judge the righteous and the wicked: this he ever now and then toucheth, as incident to his meditations: this he in the close of all proposeth as the grand inducement to piety, Ecclef. xii. and obedience to God's commandments; For God fhall bring every work into judgment, with every fecret thing, SERM. whether it be good, or whether it be evil. This judgment he expreffeth indefinitely, fo as not to determine the kind or time thereof; and as to the abfolute force of his words, it may fignify the decree of God, to reward or punish men here in this life, according to their deserts, the which in holy Scripture is commonly ftyled God's judgment; but the force of his arguments (or at least of fome of them) plainly doth infer a future judgment after death; and fo therefore I fhall take his fense to be, grounding thereon this obfervation, That from a wife confideration of human affairs, and obvious events here, we may collect the reasonablenefs, the equity, the expediency, the moral or prudential neceffity of a future judgment, according to which men fhall receive due recompenfes, answerable to their demeanour in this life: this obfervation it fhall be my endeavour by God's help to declare, and prove by arguments deduced from the reafon and nature of things. First then, I fay, it is reasonable and equal, that there fhould be a future judgment: this will appear upon many accounts. XXXII. 1. Seeing all men come hither without any knowledge or choice, having their life, as it were, obtruded on them; and seeing ordinarily (according to the general complaints of men) the pains of this life do overbalance its pleafures; fo that it feemeth, in regard to what men find here, a punishment to be borna; it seemeth also thence Ecclef. iv. equal, that men fhould be put into a capacity, upon their 3, 4. ii. 17. good behaviour in this troublesome state, of a better state xv. 10. hereafter, in compenfation for what they endure here; &c. otherwise God might feem not to have dealt fairly with his creatures; and we might have some colour to expoftulate, with Job; Wherefore is light given to him that is in Job iii. 20, mifery, and life to the bitter in foul? Why died I not from • Vitam non mehercule quifquam accepiffet, nifi daretur infciis. Sen. ad Marc. 22. Nemini contigit impune nasci. Ibid. 15. Job iii. 3. Jer. xx. 14, 21. SERM. the womb? why did I not give up the ghoft when I came XXXII. out of the belly? 2. Seeing man is endued with a free choice and power over his actions, and thence by a good or bad use thereof is capable of deferving well or ill, it is just that a respective difference be made, according to due estimation; and that men answerably should be proceeded with Job iv. 8. either here or hereafter, reaping the fruits of what they voluntarily did fow. There is a natural relation between Jer. xxxii. merits and rewards, which must come under taxation, and find effect, otherwise there would be no fuch thing as juftice and injuftice in the world. Prov. xxii. 8. 19. 3. Seeing there is a natural fubordination of man to God, as of a creature to his maker, as of a subject or fervant to his lord, as of a client or dependent to his patron, protector, and benefactor, whence correspondent obligations do refult; it is just that men fhould be accountable for the performance, and for the violation or neglect of them; fo as accordingly either to receive approbation, or to be obliged to render fatisfaction; refpectively, as they have done right, and payed refpect to God, or as they have offered to wrong and dishonour him; otherwise those relations would feem vain and idle. 4. Seeing alfo there are natural relations of men to one another, and frequent tranfactions between them, founding several duties of humanity and juftice; the which may be observed or tranfgreffed; fo that fome men shall do, and others fuffer much injury, without any poffible redress from otherwhere, it is fit that a reference of fuch cases should be made to the common Patron of right, and that by him they fhould be fo decided, that due amends should be made to one party, and fit correction inflicted 2 Theff. i. on the other; according to that of St. Paul; It is a righteous thing with God to recompenfe tribulation to them that trouble you; and to you who are troubled reft with us, in the revelation of our Lord Jefus. 6, 7. 5. Whereas also there are many fecret good actions, many inward good difpofitions, good wishes, and good purposes, unto which here no honour, no profit, no plea |