we can account for, and then we fhall be prepared for Judgment, whenever it

3. It becomes thofe who must be judged, to judge themselves, and to take a frequent and impartial account of their own Lives and Actions. This is no more than every Steward does, who cafts up his Books, and adjufts his Accounts himfelf, before he prefents them to his Lord. The truth is, it is impoffible for any man, who knows he fhall be judged, not to be very folicitous to know what his Judgment fhall be; and this every man may in a great measure know, who impartially examines his own Confcience; for fo St. John tells us, If our heart, or Confcience, condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things: but if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence towards GOD, 1 John 3. 20, 21. So that if our Lives have been innocent and vir tuous, and fuch as a well-inform'd Confcience approves, this will give infinite Peace and Satiffaction to us, and fill us with Divine Joys, with a Plerophory of Hope and Affurance; but if we fhould not find things fo well, though upon fuch a ftrict Examination our Confciences fhould be very quarrelfome and uneafy, and threaten the Vengeance of God against us, yet it is much mord defirable to hear our Confciences chide and condemn us, than to hear our final Sentence from the mouth of our Judge, Go je curfed into everlafting fire prepared for the devil and bis angels: The Judgment of Confcience is not final; for Confcience is rather our Monitor than our Judge; it tells us what will be, if we do not take care to prevent it, not what certainly is, and fhall be;

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and therefore we have this advantage by the Rebukes and Cenfures of Confcience, to know what is amifs, and what we muft correct and amend.

Nay, a frequent Examination of our felves would keep a perpetual Watch and Guard upon our Lives: After our greatest care and caution, a great many things will be haftily done and faid, which we cannot reconcile with the Rules of Prudence, and Decency, and ftrict Virtue ; but he who frequently calls himself to an account, and obferves all these Defects, which it may be other men are never fenfible of, will attain an habitual Caution and Watchfulness, and improve into great Exactness of Converfation, and all the Graces and Beauties of Virtue: Some of the Philofophers thought it a very good Rule to call themselves to an account every Night for what they had done that day, which would make us reverence our felves and our own Consciences; but there is much more reason to do fo,when we remember that God obferves all our Actions, and will judge us for them: The Judgment of our Confciences, as I obferved to you before, is a Natural Prefage of God's Judgment; for there is no other reason why our Confciences fhould judge us, but that God will; and then the reafon is ve ry ftrong alfo, that if God will judge us, we cught to judge our felves; for this is the proper Office and Ministry of Confcience in fubordination to the Judgment of God.

II. Let us keep our Eye perpetually on a Future Judgment, for the direction and government of our Lives; for this will furnifh us with fuch

Principles of Action, as cannot be so well learnt any other way.

1. As first, it teaches us above all things to take care to approve our felves to God, which is the only Principle of true Religion, and univerfal Obedience; Nothing is an Act of Religion, but as it refpects God, and is referred wholly to him; to perform all the Acts of Worship, though with never fo great Pomp and Ceremony, and external Appearances of Devotion; to do never fo many good Actions, to be feen and to be prais'd by men, or to ferve fome Secular Intereft by it, is not Religion: But fome men, if they meet with what they expected, have their Reward, all that they deferve, and all that they proposed to themfelves: Their Religion is a Courtfhip to Men, not the Worship of God. And this Principle will reach but a little way, only to fome External and popular Acts, and is calculated only for the profperous Times of Religion, when it is in Fashion and Reputation, and will give men Credit, and raise their Fortunes in the World. But those who are Religious, and do good for God's fake, to approve themselves to him, have a steady and univerfal Principle of Righteousness, which is as certain and immutable as God is; and if God will certainly judge us, if we must receive our final Doom and Sentence from his mouth, I know not whom we are concerned to please, but him; I am fure none in oppofition to him. As for inftance; the Cenfures of the World are a great Temptation to moft men; when inftead of Praife and Honour, · an unfashionable Virtue meets with Infamy, and Reproach, and Publick Scorn: But St. Paul's

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Answer will fit all fuch Cafes; It is required in Stewards, that a Man be found faithful; but with me it is a very small thing, that I should be judged of you, or of Man's Judgment; --- be that judgeth me is the Lord, I Cor. 4.2, 3, 4. While we can approve our felves to God, that in fimplicity and godly fincerity we have our converfation in this world, the different Judgments of Men ought to be despised: Whatever Sentence they pronounce, can have no effect, for they are not our Judges, but must be judged themselves: And if we can appeal to God, who is our Judge, all the reft is but Pageantry and Childrens Sport, a Ludicrous Imitation of Judgment, which fometimes ends Comically enough, when their Parents or Mafters happen to fee them; the Judge and Jury are Whipt, and the Condemned Innocent efcapes: But what will it avail us, when we come before God's Tribunal, that we have been not only abfolved, but praised, admired, applauded by Men, who are incompetent, ignorant, or partial Judges?

So that if God be our Judge, we have nothing elfe to do, but to approve our felves to him; we have but one Mafter to please,and he more easily pleased too, than Men commonly are, who are never all of a Mind, and therefore can never all be pleased; and feldom continue long of the fame Mind, and therefore cannot always be pleased: OurSaviour himfelfexperienced this Inconftancy, when the loudeft Hofannahs in three or four days time were changed into Crucify him.

So little regard is there to be had to the good "or bad Opinion of Men; no Wife Man will be contented to ftand or fall by it; and whoever makes this the Principle of his Actions, can never

be a good man long: But he who approves himfelf to GOD, will like Religion never the worse for being reproached; will be contented with the private Applaufe of his own Confcience, to fhelter him against the moft outragious Obloquies; will take as great care of the frame and difpofition of his Mind, as of his outward Actions, because tho men cannot fee his Heart, God does; will be as devout in his Clofet as at Church; will faft without any external fhow and appearance of Fafting, and give Alms without the found of a Trumpet, with fuch fecrecy, as if it were poffible to conceal it from himself, that bis left hand fhall not know what his right hand does; for he is not concerned that men fhould know any thing of this, and nothing is fo fecret but God knows it, and his father which feeth in fecret, fhall reward him openly, 6. Matth. 1, &c.

2. As we must approve our felves to God who is our Judge, fo we muft fetch the Reasons and Motives of Obedience from a Future Judgment, for thofe Rewards God has promised to beftow at that day on good men, and thofe Punishments he will inflict upon the wicked: Thefe, as far as concerns Rewards and Punishments, are the only Gofpel-Motives of Obedience; I fay, as fas as concerns Rewards and Punishments,because there are other Gospel-Motives of Obedience, besides Rewards and Punishments; fuch as the great Love of God in giving his Son for us, the great Love of Chrift in giving himself a Sacrifice for us, which is a powerful Obligation on us to live to him who died for us: And the powerful Affiftances of the Holy Spirit to work in us both to will and

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