I SERMON I. Of the Neceffity and Nature of our Preparation for the Day of Judgment. [The First Sermon on this Text.] AMOS iv. 12. Therefore thus will I do unto thee O Ifrael and because I will do this unto thee, pres pare to meet thy God; O Ifrael. T HE Prophet, as the Em-Vol. II Evils; and from thence concludes with this Exortation, There fore thus will I do, &c. B The Vol. II. The Literal Sence runs thus. God is coming forth against thee as an Arm'd Man, or rather as a Mighty Host, His Fury is kindled against Thee, and He is Arm'd with all the Instruments of Destruction and Death; it behoves Thee therefore either to fummon up all thy Force and Courage, that thou may'st be able to sustain His Fury: Or if this be an Attempt too desperate to be thought on, prepare thy felf by Repentance and Submiffion to Attone it. This being the immediate Design of the Words, Commentators, according to the usual manner of interpreting the Old Testament, with reference to the DoEtrines of the New, have by an easy Allusion applied this to the Day of Judgment. As if the Prophet, when he fpake to the Jews in a Litteral, had at the same time spoken unto us in a Mystical Sence, after this manner. O you the Ifrael of GOD, you to whom GOD vouchsafed his Oracles, you to whom he vouchsafed the Prefence of his own Son in the Flesh, you whom the Son of GOD purchas'd by his own Blood, you whom he has invited by great and precious Promises, you whom he calls Day after Day, by the Voice of his Apostles and Prophets, by the Voice of repeated Pro : vidences, vidences, and by the Charms and Invi- Ser. I. tations of his own blessed Spirit; I denounce unto you, that He is coming forth out of his Place to Judge the World, that this Day will be a Day of Vengeance, a Day of Darkness, and of Glominess, a Day of Terror and Rebuke to all those who have rejected God, who have disobey'd his Voice, who have broken his Covenant; for He will call such to an Account for all their Evil Deeds, and hard Speeches, for all their Contempt of Mercy and Abuse of Grace; and that Day shall burn as an Oven, and the Wicked shall be as Stubble, in this only differing, that they and their Flame shall be Eternal, and they shall be Eternally senfible of the Pain: And because GOD will do this unto thee, therefore prepare to meet thy God O Ifrael, therefore prepare either to encounter and outbrave Almighty Wrath, and to endure and despise Eternal Pains: Or if thou thinkest thou canst not refift God in his Fury, nor be able to dwell with Everlasting Burnings, then prepare to Attone the one, and prevent the other, by Repentance and Submission. Vol. II. I. I shall Discourse of the Neceffity of our Preparation for the Day of Judgment. II. Of the Nature of such a Pre- III. I shall propound to you fome I. Of the Neceffity of this Preparation. St. Jerom gave it as a Rule for those of his Order to observe, that they should always have this Voice sounding in their Ears, Awake and come to Judoment. The Day of Judgment is a wonderful Day, a Day on which depends the Fate of the whole World, a Day wherein the Power, Justice, Goodness and Wisdom of GOD will be exalted in an unconceivable Height and Glory. If we consider the Nature of the Trial; the Secrets of all Hearts will be then reveal'd, not only the Works of Retirement and Darkness; but even every Design and Intention of the Heart stript of that Disguise it went abroad in; nay, the very Defires of the Soul of Man, which like Fire pent up, were stifled within the Inclofures of the Mind, and |