by thy words thou shalt be condemned. By which faying, our Saviour defignedly confutes an opinion, too current among many, that mens words fignify little, and that no account will be taken of them at the day of judgment; that God will not be fo fevere as to make them matter of charge and accufation, and to punish us for them in the other world; and therefore to obviate this mistake, he purposely adds, for by thy words thou shalt be juftified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned. And therefore men must not think, that all their leud and filthy talk, all their rafh oaths and imprecations, all their atheistical difcourfe, and prophane jefts upon religion and the holy fcriptures, all their calumnies and flanders of good men, all their officious lies to ferve a prefent turn and occafion, will pass for nothing at the judgment of the great day. No, the judge himself hath exprefly told us, that of all fuch words men fhall give an account in the day of judgment. And St. Jude tells us, out of an ancient prophecy of Enoch, that the Lord shall come with ten thousands of his faints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly, not only of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, but likewife of all their hard fpeeches which ungodly finners have spoken against him.

Our most fecret thoughts and actions alfo, as well as our open and publick deeds, shall then be brought upon the ftage, Ecclef. xii. 14. For God will bring every work into judgment, with every fecret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil. Rom. ii. 16. In the day when God fhall judge the fecrets of men by Jefus Chrift according to my gospel. And this likewife is the meaning of that proverbial speech fo often used by our Saviour, there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known. There is nothing fo fecret, which fhall not be disclosed and made manifeft in that great day of revelation, and be laid open in the face of the whole world; efpecially the cunning, diffimulation, and hypocrify of men with God and men. Men are apt to think themselves fafe enough, if they can but escape the eye of men, and commit their fins fecretly, and in the dark. But this is either direct atheism, or downright folly; becaufe the eye of God is continually upon

a

us, and the darkness hideth not from him, but the night Shineth as the day; the darkness and the light are both like to him. And if we be always under the infpection of our judge, if all that we think, and fay, and do, be open and naked to the eye of him, πρὸς ὃν ἡμῖν ὁ λίγα, 8 to whom we must give an account, what will it profit us to diffemble before men, and to conceal any of our actions from them? nay, if we could hide them from ourselves, (as we cannot our wilful and deliberate fins) yet that would be of no advantage to us, because God is greater than our hearts, and knows all things.

And then likewife we must be accountable to God for all the neglects and omiffions of our duty, as well as for the pofitive commiffion of fin, and that in proporti on to the advantages and opportunities we have had of doing more and greater good. So our Saviour tells us, that unto whonfoever much is given, of him much shall be required, Luke xii. 48. Many are apt to think, that if they do but abftain from notorious and fcandalous vices, if they do no body harm, though they do not ferve God fo fervently and conftantly as others do, though they feldom think of him and pray to him, though they have no manner of activity or concernment to do good, either to the bodies or fouls of men; yet that this negative virtue will ferve their turn at the day of judgment. But the matter is quite otherwife, as our Saviour hath most exprefly declared. A good tree, faith he, will bring forth good fruit. And by the parable of the foolifh virgins, who for want of oil in their lamps were fhut out of the kingdom of God, he declares to us the dangerous ftate of those who flumber away their lives in a drowfy inactivity, and are not careful either to keep alive grace in their hearts, or to thew forth the light of good works in their converfation. And in the parable of the talents, Matth xxv. he paffeth a mott fevere fentence upon that flothful fervant, who hid his Lord's talent in a napkin, and buried it in the earth, without making any manner of improvement of it; ver. 30. Caft ye the unprofitable fervant into utter darkness, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And in the fame chapter, where our Saviour reprefents to us the proceedings of the great day, the charge there drawn up against them, confifts of fins

of

of omiffion, and grofs neglects to do the good which they had the ability and opportunity to do, ver. 41. 42. 43. &c. Depart from me, ye curfed, into everlafting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry, and ye gave me no meat; thirsty, and ye gave me no drink; a ftranger, and ye took me not in; naked, and ye cloathed me not; fick and in prifon, and ye vifited me not. Not that fins of commiffion fhall then be paft by, and left out of the account; it is taken for granted, that they fhall be reckoned for in the first place: but the wifdom of our Saviour chufeth to inftance in thofe fins, which many hope they shall not be called to account for, the omiffions and neglects of their duty, that he might hereby root out of the minds of men effectually that falfe opinion, which they are fo apt to entertain concerning fuch fins, as if they were of a very light and venial nature.

II. This is evident likewife from reafon; because all the actions of reasonable creatures, as fuch, are under the regulation and government of law, by which, as by a rule, every thing that we do is to be measured. And we have all the reason that can be to expect, that he who gave us this law, will look to the observance of it, and take an account of all breaches and tranfgreffions of it, fo as to reward those that keep it, and to punish the bold tranfgreffors of it; and if this were not fo, the law would want its proper fanction and enforcement, and had been given to no purpose.

And this law of God reacheth all our actions, inward and outward, religious and civil, fecret and open, pofitive and negative, with all the circumftances of commendation or aggravation that belong to them. And as this law is the rule of all human actions now, and by which we ought to live in this world; fo it will be the rule by which we and all our actions fhall be examined and judged in the next. The judgment of God will be of the fame extent with his law.

And thus I have, as briefly as I could, illuftrated and confirmed the truth of this propofition, that all the actions which men have done in this life, fhall come to ac count in the next, and they shall be judged for them.

And if fo, then certainly no confideration that can be prefented to the mind of man, ought in reafon to be

more

more powerful to beget in us a strict care and conscience of all our thoughts, words and actions, than this, that after a little while, when a few days or years are over, all that we ever did in this world, shall be strictly examined and looked into, and be approved or condemned by the impartial judgment of God. And therefore, if we have any grain of true wifdom in us, any love tọ ourselves, any sense of our great and everlasting intereft, that great day of account fhould always be before us, and present to our minds, and we should govern every action of our lives with a ferious and awful regard to it. And if we be conscious to ourselves, that there is any way of wickedness in us, that we have been grosly culpable in the violation of any known law of God, or in the neglect of any part of our duty, how can we without dread think of coming to fo fevere an account, and falling under so heavy a sentence, as will then be pronounced upon the workers of iniquity?

Indeed, if we could do any thing now, of which we were to give no account hereafter, and which would not be taken into confideration at the great day, we then might be fecure and careless as to fuch actions: but when nothing we do is exempted from the judgment of God, when we are affured beyond all doubt, that he will one day take cognizance of every thought, word and action; how circumfpect should we be, what manner of perfons we are in all holy converfation and godlinefs! How nearly does it concern us to take heed to our ways, left at any time we offend: to keep our hearts with all diligence, and to jet a watch to the door of our lips! that we may not think or speak any thing in the fight or hearing of our judge, by which we may incur his cenfure and condemnation. This is the confideration which the wife man propofes to us, as of all other the most likely to awe men to the careful obedience and obfervance of God's laws. Fear God, and keep his commandments; for God will bring every work into judgment, and every fecret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.

Can we be negligent of our lives and actions, when we confider that all the paffages of our lives are upon record, and that there is a molt exact regifter kept of

them,

them, written in indelible characters with a pen of iron, and the point of a diamond? as that expreffion is, Jer. xvii. 1. I remember all their wickedness, and their doings are before me, fays God, Hof. vii. 2. and chap. viii. 7. The Lord hath fworn by the excellency of Jacob, furely I will not forget any of their works. We fin, and forget that we have finned; but God chargeth himself with the rememberance of all our evil doings, and they can never flip out of his mind.

Did men feriously believe these things, and were they affected with them as they ought, they could not but have a wonderful effect upon their lives, to make us more watchful over our ways, and to tread every ftep of our lives more warily. We could not commit iniquity with fo much greediness and pleasure, and rush into fin, as the horse rufbeth into battle, without any fear or confideration, were we verily perfuaded, that every evil action that we do in this life, will be matter of charge and accufation in the day of judgment.

Therefore when we are doing any thing, we fhould ask ourselves, will not this alfo come into judgment? when we are engaged in any wicked defign, or vicious courfe, we should confider, with what face will this act of violence and oppreffion, of fraud and cozenage, of filthy leudness and brutish intemperance, appear at the great day? How will it look, when God fhall arife to judgment? When we are carelefs and remifs, flight and fuperficial in the fervice of God and the duties of his worship, we should remember that God takes notice of all this, and we must give an account to him for the manner, as well as the matter of our actions.

If the actions of our lives were tranfient, and the confequence of them were over fo foon as they are done, and no memorial of them would remain hereafter; if they would die with us, and never rife up in judgment against us; we needed not to take fuch heed to them: But we do all things for eternity, and every action of this life will have a good or bad influence upon our everlasting state.

More particularly, the confideration of this fhould have an influence upon us, more especially to these purpofes: