and defires no more. To be leaft in the kingdom of God, is next to being fhut out of it. It is not to be expected that God fhould bestow heaven and happiness upon those who are so indifferent about it, as to desire heaven for no other reason, but because they would not go to hell. Men must not think to drive so near and hard a bargain, in fo defirable and advantageous a purchase.

And then, on the other hand, it is matter of great terror to great finners. The wages of every fin is death, eternal death; and every degree of hell and damnation is dreadful: But there are fins more heinous in themselves, and fome that are attended with heavier aggravations in fome perfons; these do inflame hell, and heat that furnace feven times hotter. There are fome moderate finners in comparison; these fhall have a moderate doom, and a cooler hell; but there are others who are extravagant and enormous finners, that drink up iniquity, as the ox drinks up water; that let themselves loofe to commit all wickednefs with greedinefs; fuch as fin above the common rate of men, with full confent, and upon deliberation, with great defign and contrivance, in despite of the cleareft convictions, of the best counfels and reproofs; these make hafte to ruin, and take hell by violence. Now, fuch mighty tranfgreffors fhall be mightily tormented; they fhall not be punished at the common rate of finners, their confciences will breed more and fharper ftings, and wilder furies to torment them, and they shall fink into a deeper mifery.

More particularly, this concerns us Chriftians, who continue impenitent, and live in our fins, notwithstanding the clear revelation of the gospel, and the wrath of God revealed from heaven, against all ungodlinefs and unrighteoufnefs of men; notwithstanding life and immortality fo clearly brought to light by the gofpel. How shall we efcape, if we neglect fo great falvation? What condemnation will be heavy enough for thofe, who wilfully refuse to be faved? This is the condemnation, fays our Saviour, that light is come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light. All the fins which we now commit, are infinitely aggravated above the fins of thousands in the world, who never enjoyed that light, and thofe advan

tages

tages and opportunities which we have done. The ignorance of thefe God winked at, but now he expects, he commands all men every where to repent; becaufe he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteoufnefs. What ftripes do we deferve, who have known our master's will, but have not prepared ourselves to do according to it? All that light and knowledge which we have, all thofe counsels and instructions which we have read and heard out of God's word, will inflame our account, and heighten our condemnation, and the very means of our falvation will be the faddeft aggravation of our ruin. What our Saviour faid of the impenitent and unbelieving Jews, holds as well concerning impenitent Chriftians; that it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon, for Sodom and Gomorrah, in the day of judgment, than for them. But, beloved, I hope better things of you, and things that accompany falvation. Let us but remember, and seriously confider, that we must all appear before the judgment-feat of Chrift, to receive the things done in the body, according to what we have done, whether good or evil; and this will certainly have a mighty awe and influence upon our lives, and all the actions of them. Now, the God of peace, &c.

SERMON

133

The uncertainty of the day of judgment, conLidered and improved.

MARK Xiii. 32, 33.

But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. Take ye heed, watch and pray; for ye know not when the time is.

T

HESE words are spoken by our Saviour of the day of judgment; for though, in this chapter, as likewife in the xxiv. of St Matthew, and the xxi. of St Luke, which are parallel to it, our Saviour difcourfeth very particularly and largely concerning the eminent appearance of his power and justice in the deftruction of Jerufalem, which may perhaps fometimes in fcripture be called his coming; yet it is plain likewise, that he difcourseth there concerning his coming to judgment at the end of the world. For we find, in the xxiv. of St Matthew, that, after our Saviour had foretold his dif ciples of the utter ruin of Jerufalem, they came afterwards to him, to enquire more particularly about it; verfe 3. And as he fat upon the mount of Olives, the dif ciples came unto him privately, faying, Tell us, when fhall these things be? and what shall be the fign of thy coming, and of the end of the world? Where there are two feveral queftions, to which our Saviour returns a diftinct answer. The firft, when those things he had been fpeaking of before fhould be? that is, the things which related to the deftruction of Jerufalem, for of that only he had been speaking before. The other queftion was, concerning the fign of his coming, and of the end of the world.

VOL. VIII.

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The

The reafon of their joining these two queftions together, feems to be this, (as is very probable from many texts of the New Teftament) viz. that the Apostles did think (and our Saviour permitted them for a long time to remain under this mistake) that the end of the world, and the general judgment, would be prefently after the deftruction of Jerufalem.

Now, to this fecond question of theirs, concerning the end of the world, and our Saviour's coming to judgment, he gives an answer in the latter part of that chapter, verfe 29. But immediately after the tribulation of those days, the fun fhall be darkened, and the moon fhall not give her light; and then fhall appear the fign of the Son of Man in heaven. Not that the general judgment of the world was immediately to follow the deftruction of Jerufalem; for there were many other things to intervene, as is manifeft From St Luke, chap. xxi. 24. That the Jews fhould be led captive into all nations, and Ferufalem should be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles were fulfilled. And though these things be expreffed in a few words, yet they comprehend a long tract of time; for the captivity of the Jews hath continued for above 1600 years, and is not yet at an end. And then, after the ac complishment of these things, it follows, that there shall be figns in the fun and the moon, and then they fhall fee the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. And then he tells them, in conclufion, that these things fhould begin to come to pafs, that is, fome of them fhould happen before the end of that generation; and fo they did, for the deftruction of Jerufalem was about forty years after. But when the end of all should be, that is, when the day of judgment would happen, he could not tell them the precife time, verfe 36. But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no not the angels of heaven, but the Father only; and it is added in St Mark, Neither the Son.

Now, by that day and hour, is meant that famous and terrible time of the general judgment of the world; which St Peter calls, by way of eminency, the day of the Lord, 2 Peter iii. 10. The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; that is, it will furprize men fuddenly

and

and unexpectedly, because no man can tell when it will be ; it will steal upon the world, as a thief does into a houfe by night. But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. Take ye heed, watch and pray; for ye know not when the time is.

Having thus cleared all difficulties, concerning the ge neral meaning of the text, that it is to be understood of the day of judgment, and not, as fome learned men have thought, of the deftruction of Jerufalem; I fhall now confider the words more particularly, and they contain in them these two things:

First, The uncertainty of the day of judgment, as to us, and all other creatnres. But of that day and hour knoweth no män, no not the angels of heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.

Secondly, That the confideration of the uncertainty of the time, fhould make us very careful to be always prepared for it. Take ye heed, watch and prays for ye know not when the time is. I fhall fpeak as briefly as I can to

both thefe.

First, Our Saviour here declares the uncertainty of the time, as to us, and all creatures, when the general judgment shall be. And, to exprefs this the more emphatically, he tells us,

1. That God only knows it. Of that day and hour, &'deis oïder, ei uù i Пarng, none knows, but the Father. For, though we tranflate it no man, yet, in the Greek, it is more general, none knows but the Father, that is, God only. For the word, Father, is several times, in the New Teftament, not ufed perfonally, in way of diftinction from the Son, and the Holy Ghoft; but fignifies, the Deity, the Father being Fons & principium deitatis," the foun"tain and principle of the Deity."

Of that day and hour; the word ex is not here to be taken ftrictly for the measure of time, commonly called an hour; this were to make our Saviour's expreffion very flat, after he had denied that the day is known, to deny that they know the hour; for, if they do not know the day, much less the hour. Now, in these kind of speeches, the expreffion ought to rife, and that which is moft em phatical,

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