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oppreffion, and profanity, without any marks of diftinction, but what their wickednefs puts upon them: profane, unholy and unfaithful church-men, purfued with the curfes of the ruined people, from their graves to the judgment-feat, and charged with the blood of fouls, to whom they gave no faithful warning: mighty men flanding trembling before the Judge, unable to recover their wonted boldness, to out-wit him with their fubtilities, or defend themfelves by their ftrength: delicate women caft forth of their graves, as abominable branches, drogged to the tribunal, to answer for their ungodly lives: the ignorant, fuddenly taught in the law, to their coft; and the learned declared, before the world, fools and laborious triflers; the athieft convinced, the hypocrite unmasked; and the profane, at long-run, turned ferious about his eternal ftate: fecret murders, adulteries, thefts, cheats, and other works of darkness, which fcorned all human fearch, difcovered and laid open before the world, with their moft minute circumstances: no regard had to the rich, no pity fhewn to the poor: the fcales of the world turned; oppreffed and defpifed piety fet on high; and profperous wickedness at laft brought low: all, not found in Christ, arraigned, convicted, and condemned without refpect of perfons, and driven from the tribunal to the pit; while these found in him, at that day, being abfolved before the world, go with him into heaven. Nay, but thou canst not fo efcape. Thyfelf, whofoever thou art, not being in Chrift, muft bear a part in this tragical and frightful action.

Sinner, that fame Lord Chrift, whom thou now despiseft, whom thou woundest through the fides of his meffengers, and before whom thou dost prefer thy lufts, will be thy Judge. And a neglected Saviour will be a fevere Judge. O! what mountain, what rock wilt thou get to fall on thee, and hide thee from the face of him that fitteth on the throne? Thou haft now a rock within thee, a heart of adamant, so that thou canst count the darts of the word as ftubble, and laugh at the fhaking of the fpear: but that rock will rent, at the fight of the Judge; that hard heart will then break, and thou fhalt weep and wail, when weeping and wailing will be to no purpose. Death's bands will fall off; the grave will vomit thee out; and the mountains fhall fkip from thee; and the rocks refufe to grind thee to powder. How will these curfed eyes abide the fight of the Judge! behold he cometh! where is the profane fwearers, who tore his wounds? The wretched worldling, now abandoned of his god? The formal hypocrite, who kissed him, and betrayed him? The defpifer of the gospel, who sent him away in his meffengers groaning, profaned his ordinances, and trampled under foot his precious blood? O murderer, the flain man is thy Judge: there is he whom thou didst so maltreat; behold the neglected Lamb of God appearing as a lion against thee. How will thine heart endure the darts of his fiery looks! that rocky heart

now

now kept out against him, fhall then be blown up: that face, which refufeth to blush now, fhall then gather blackness: arrows of wrath fhall pierce, where arrows of conviction cannot enter now. What wilt thou answer him, when be rifeth up, and chargeth thee with thy unbelief and impenitency? Wilt thou fay, thou waft not warned? Conscience within thee will give thee the lie: the fecret groans and weariness of thofe, who warned thee, will witnefs the contrary. If a child or a fool did tell you, that your house were on fire, you would immediately run to quench it; but, in matters of eternal concern, men will first fill their hearts with prejudices against the meffengers, and then caft their meffage behind their backs. But thefe filly fhifts and pretences will not avail, in the day of the Lord. How will these curfed ears, now deaf to the call of the gofpel, inviting finners to come to Chrift, hear the fearful fentence, Depart from me, ye curfed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels? No fleepy hearer fhall be there: no man's heart will then wander: their hearts and eyes will then be fixed on their mifery, which they will not now believe. O that we knew in this our day, the things that belong to our peace.

Laftly, Be exhorted to believe this great truth; and believe it fo as you may prepare for the judgment betimes. Set up a fecret tribunal in your own breafts, and often call yourselves to an account there. Make the Judge your friend in time, by clofing with him in the offer of the gofpel; and give all diligence, that ye may be found in Chrift, at that day. Caft, off the works of darkness, and live, as believing you are, at all times, and in all places, under the eye of your Judge, who will bring every work into judgment, with every fecret thing. Be fruitful in good works, knowing that as ye fow, ye fhall reap. Study piety towards God, righteoufnefs and charity towards men. Lay up in ftore plenty of works of charity and mercy, towards them who are in diftrefs, especially fuch as are of the houshold of faith, that they may be produced that day as evidences, that ye belong to Chrift. Shut not up your bowels of mercy, now, towards the needy; left ye, then, find no mercy. Take heed, that in all your works, ye be fingle and fincere; aiming, in them all, at the glory of your Lord, a teftimony of your love to him, and obedience to his command. Leave it to hypocrites, who have their reward, to proclaim every man his own good.efs, and to found a trumpet, when they do their alms. It is a bafe and unchriftian spirit, which cannot have fatisfaction in a good work, unless it be expofed to the view of others: it is utterly unworthy of one, who believes that the last trumpet fhall call together the whole world; before whom the Judge himself fhall publifh works truly good, how fecretly foever they were done. Live in a believing expectation of the coming of the Lord. Let your loins be always girt, and your lamps burning: fo when he comes, whether in the last day of your life, or in the last day of the world, ye

thall

fhall be able to fay with joy, Lo, this is our God, and we have waited for him.

HE ADV.

The Kingdom of HEAVEN.

MATTH. XXV. 34.

Then fhall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come ye bleed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

HA

AVING from this portion of fcripture, which the text is a part of, difcourfed of the general judgment; and being to speak of the everlafting happiness of the faints, and the everlasting misery of the wicked, from the refpective fentences to be pronounced upon them, in the great day; I fhall take them in the order wherein they ly before us; the rather that, a fentence is first paft upon the righteous, fo the execution thereof is first begun, though poffibly the other may be fully executed before it be compleated.

The words of the text contain the joyful fentence itself, together with an hiftorical introduction thereto, which gives us an account of the Judge pronouncing the fentence; the King, Jefus Chrift: the parties on whom it is given, them on his right hand: and the time when, then, as foon as the trial is over. Of thefe I have spoken already. It is the fentence itfelf we are now to confider, Come ye bleffed of my Father, &c. Stand a-back, O ye profane goats; have away all unregenerate fouls, not united to Jefus Chrift: this is not for you. Come, O ye faints, brought out of your natural flate, into the ftate of grace; behold here the ftate of glory awaiting you. Here is glory let down to us in words and fyllables; a lookingglafs, in which you may fee your everlafting happiness; a scheme (or draught) of Chrift's Father's houfe, wherein there are many manfians.

This glorious fentence bears two things. (1.) The compleat happiness to which the faints are adjudged, the kingdom. (2.) Their folema admiffion to it, Come ye bleffed of my Father, inherit, &c. First, Their compleat happiness is a kingdom. A kingdom is the top of worldly felicity; there is nothing on earth greater than a king dom: therefore the hidden weight of glory in heaven is held forth to us under that notion. But it is not an ordinary kingdom, it is the kingdom; the kingdom of heaven, furpaffing all the kingdoms of the earth in glory, honour, profit and pleafure, infinitely more than they do in thefe excel the low and inglorious condition of a beggar

in rags and on a dunghill. Secondly, There is a folemn admiffion of the faints unto this their kingdom, Come ye, inherit the kingdom. In the view of angels, men and devils, they are invetted with royalty, and folemnly inaugurated before the whole world, by Jefus Christ the heir of all things, who hath all power in heaven, and in earth. Their right to the kingdom is folemnly recognized and owned! They are admitted to it, as undoubted heirs of the kingdom, to poffefs it by inheritance or lot, as the word properly fignifies; becaufe of old, inheritances were difigned by lot, as Canaan to Ifrael, God's firft-born, as they are called, Exod. iv. 22. And becaufe this kingdom is the Father's kingdom, therefore they are openly acknowledged in their admiffion to it, to be the blessed of, Chri's Father: the which bleffing was given them long before this fentence, but is now folemnly recognized and confirmed to them by the Mediator, in his Father's n me. It is obfervable, he fays. not, Ye bleffed of the Father, but Ye bleffed of my Father; to fhew us, that all bleffings are derived upon us from the Father, the fountain of bleffing, as he is the God and Father of our Lord Jefus Chrift, through whom we are bleffed, Eph. i. 3. And finally, they are admitted to this kingdom, as that which was prepared for them from the foundation of the world, in God's eternal purpose, before they, or any of them were; that all the world may fee eternal life to be the free gift of God.

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The Saints fhall be made compleatly happy in the Poffeffion of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Two things I fhall here inquire into, (1.) The nature of this kingdom. (2) The admiffion of the faints thereto. And then I fhall make fome practical improvement of the whole.

- FIRST, As to the nature of the kingdom of heaven, our knowledge of it is very imperfect; for "eye hath not feen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things "which God hath prepared for them that love him." 1 Cor. ii. 9. As, by familiar refemblances, parents inftruct their little children, concerning things, of which otherwife they can have no tolerable notion: fo our gracious God, in contemplation of our weaknefs, is pleafed to reprefent to us heaven's happinefs, under fimilitudes taken from earthly things, glorious in the eyes of men; fi ce naked difcoveries of the heavenly glory, divefted of earth y refemblances, would be too bright for our weak eyes, and in them we would but. lofe ourselves.' Wherefore now, one can but peak as a child of thefe things, which the day will fully discover.

The flate of glory is reprefented under the notion of a kingdom; a kingdom among men, being that in which the greatest number of

earth

earthly good things doth concenter. Now every faint fhall, as a king, inherit a kingdom. All Chrift's fubjects fhall be kings, each one with his crown upon his head: not that the great King shall divest himself of his royalty, but he will make all his children partakers of his kingdom.

I. The faints fhall have kingly power and authority given them. Our Lord gives not empty titles to his favourites; he makes them kings indeed. The dominion of the faints will be a dominion far exceeding that of the greatest monarch ever was on earth. They will be absolute masters over fin, that sometime had dominion over them. They will have a compleat rule over their own spirits; an entire management of all their affections and inclinations, which now create them fo much moleftation: the turbulent root of corrupt affections fhall be for ever expelled out of that kingdom, and never be able any more to give them the leaft difturbance. They fhall have power over the nations, the ungodly of all nations, and fall rule them with a rod of iron, Rev ii 26, 27. The whole world of the wicked fhall be broken before them: Satan fhall be bruised under their feet, Rom. xvi. 20. He fhall never be able to faften a temptation on them any more: but he will be judged by them: and in their fight, caft with the reprobate crew into the lake of fire and brimftone. So fhall the rule over their oppreffors. Having fought the good fight, and got the victory, Chrift will entertain them as Joshua did his captains, caufing them come near, and put their feet on the necks of kings, Joth. x. 24.

II. They fhall have the enfigns of royalty. For a throne, Chrift will grant them to fit with him on his throne, Rev. iii. 12. They will be advanced to the highest honour and dignity they are capable of; and, in the enjoyment of it, they will have an eternal undisturbed repofe, after all the toffings they meet with in the world, in their way to the throne. For a crown, they shall receive a crown of glory, that fadeth not away, 1 Pet. v. 4. Not a crown of flowers, as fubjects being conquerors, or victors, fometimes have got: fuch a crown quickly fades, but their crown never fadeth. Not a crown of gold, fuch as earthly kings do wear: even a crown of gold is often flained, and at beft can never make them happy who wear it. But it fhall be a crown of glory. A crown of glory is a crown of life, (Rev. ii. 10.) that life which knows no end: a crown which death can never make to fall off one's head. It must be an abiding crown; for it is a crown of righteousness, 2 Tim. iv. 8. It was purchased for them by Chrift's righteousness, which is imputed to them; they are qualified for it by inherent righteoufnefs; God's righteoufuefs or faithfulness fecures is to them. They fhall have a fceptre, a rod of iron, (Rev. ii. 27.) terrible to all the wicked world. And a fword too, a two-edged fword in their hand, to execute vengeance upon the hea then, and punishment upon the people, Pfal. cxlix 6, 7. They all have royal apparel. The royal robes in this kingdom are white robes,

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