tremble before that great and powerful Judge 2 Who knoweth the power of his wrath? who can live with devouring fire? who can dwell with everlasting burnings.

What an irrefiftible Judge is he who can deflroy the world, and all Sinners with it! The world, that was their God, and now will be their Funeral Pile; according to the Fate of fome Heathen Idolaters, they fhall be facrificed to their own God, and tormented in the Embraces of a Burning Idol.

The Deftruction of the world gives a terrible Pomp and Solemnity to the Laft Judgment: It will aftonifh bad men, and break their ftout Hearts, to fee the world in Flames; it will conyince them to purpose, that God is come to judge them, and that he is very fevere and terrible in his Judgments: Who can defcribe the Horrors, and Agonies, and Confternation of that Day Caft your Thoughts back a little upon that Terrible Day, when you faw London on fire; when you faw your Houfes and Treafure all vanish into Duft and Smoke: What did you think then of the Power and Juftice of God? And yet this was no more than a little Bonefire, compared with the Univerfal Conflagration: Though you could not fave your Houfes, and Furniture, and Treafure from its Rage and Fury, yet there was room left for your own Efcape; and if this were fo amazing a Sight, as all of you who faw it, cannot but confefs it was, what will it be to fee the whole world on fire, and your felves encompaffed in the Flames of it! To fee all thofe tempting Objects, all

the

the Inftruments of your Pleasures, all the Riches and Glory of the world, which were the Fuel of your Lufts, now turned into a devouring Fire to torment you, to expiate thofe Flames they kindled in your Souls, by fenfible and material Flames! who would make this world his Portion and Inheritance, who confiders the end of it? It looks charmingly indeed at prefent, it invites and careffes, and lays Baits and Snares for us; but if we will have the world for our Portion, it must be our Portion too at the Day of Judgment: And confider how you fhall like its Courtship, when it incircles you with Flames, and Smoak, and Darkness! Those who chufe the world for their Portion, can never remove out of it, and therefore must be contented to share Fortunes with it, to fmile when it fimiles, and to burn when it burns.

With what Triumph will good men at that day, fee themselves out of the reach of a burning world! They betimes made their escape out of this world, as foreseeing its approaching Ruin; they were not of the world while they lived in it, but difintangled their Affections from this world, while their Bodies were confined be low: And fuch Divine Souls, whofe Converfation was in Heaven, as foon as they get loofe from thefe Bodies, afcend far above this Sphere of Corruption, out of danger either of being tempted, or being hurt by this world.

With what triumph will they behold God erect a new world for them to inhabit; create new Heaven and a new Earth, where he

will place his Throne and Tabernacle,and dwell among them, and be their God!

What bad man can hear these things without Terror and Amazement? What good man does not long for this happy day, for this Marriage of. the Lamb? when the new Jerufalem shall come down from God out of Heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband, 21. Revel. 2.

3. That the Day of Judgment is at the end of the world, proves that this Judgment is final and irreversible, because this prefent ftate of things is come to an end; and as this puts a final conclusion to this world, fo to all accounts relating to it: This world is a changeable Scene, but the next world is eternal; and therefore as good and bad men are disposed of in the next world, they must continue for ever. This world will be deftroy'd, and therefore bad men can never return into it again, to act over a new part, and to correct the Sins and Follies of their former lives, as Origen conceived they should, after a long time of Punishment, when the fleshly Principle is thoroughly fubdued by the Torments they have fuffered: Which Opinion, how much mercy and good nature foever there may be in it, has not the leaft countenance from Scripture, nor any foundation that I know of in Reafon; when the world where they lived, and where they finned, is at an end, I think there is an end alfo of their acting any new part in it.

And

And that new World, where good Men fhall dwell in the immediate Prefence of God, fhall laft for ever; there is no Death, no Pain, no Crying, for there can be no Sin there; there is no Devil, no World to tempt, and nothing within to be tempted; they enter clean and pure into that Holy Place, and the immediate Sight and Prefence of God will Eternally keep them fo. Had we no pofitive Revelation of the Eternity of Rewards and Punishments, it were yet reasonable to conclude, that if the Day of Judgment put an end to this World, without putting an end to good or bad Men, but only tranflating them to a new State of Happiness or Mifery, that their Happiness or Mifery muft laft as long as that new State does, and their Sentence can never be reversed without a new Day of Judgment: And therefore if this be the laft and final Judgment, good and bad Men must then enter upon an unalterable and eternal State of Happiness or Mifery; and this is the moft comfortable and moft terrible Confideration of all.

How will the Souls of good Men rejoyce in God their Saviour, when they fhall fee themfelves poffeft of an eternal and unchangeable Happiness! when this mutable Scene is vanifhed, and they have an abiding City, whofe Builder and Maker is God; when they can look forward to Eternity without fearing Death, or any Change or Diminution of their Happiness, which may increafe to Eternity, and be always new and fresh, but can never admit of any interruption or allay.

But

But I will not pretend to defcribe the Confufion, the Diftraction, the raging Despair of those wretched Sinners, who fhall be condemned to Everlasting Fire; who fee an end of all their Happiness, and but the beginning of their Miseries in a fired World: Our Thoughts cannot reach this now; we have no Paffions yet big enough for fuch a Mifery; Eternal Torment! Bleffed JESU, have Mercy upon us! And let the present fear and dread of it preserve us from ever knowing what it means.

If you fhould ask me, When the end of the World, and the Day of Judgment will come? I muft confefs to you, I do not know; for our Saviour has before told us, Of that Day and Hour knoweth no Man, not the Angels in Heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. That we are not concerned to know when this shall be, nay, that God has very wife Reasons to conceal this from us, I have fhewed you before: I fhall now add, 1. That it is not likely to be yet. 2. That how long foever it be delayed, we have great reafon at present to provide for it. Efpecially, 3. when we are fure that the time now haftens, after fo long an expectation of it.

I. That it is not likely to be yet: In St. Paul's time fome Chriftians were in great apprehenfion, that the Day of Judgment was near, and it seems were in a terrible Fright about it: But the Apoftle thought fit to correct this Mistake, and that with some earnestness, as if it were a Mistake of ill Consequence: And

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