Serin. CXXVI. O f the Ter f ons mho are to be judged. i 5 5 feriour Courts, and one mindful of the high Tribunal of God, and with a juft Senfe of the Judgment of the Great Day, when all the Caufes which thou haft tried here upon Earth, will be reviewed and feverely fcan'd in that higherCourt, from which there can be no Appeal. It may be thou art rich and powerful, and one of thofe great Flies that can break through the Cobwebsof humaneLaws, and efcape the Judgment of them : Bit the Judgment of God will take fall: hold of thee, and in defpite of all thy Intereft, and Might, will take a fevere Revenge upon thee. As powerful as thou art, thou art but a Man, and God is infinitely too ftrong for thee, thou canft' not efcape out of his Hands. Thinkefi thou, 0Man l that that Jlialt efcape the7ardR- mentof God? fays the Apoftle looking upon it as a foolifh and abfurd Imagina- tion, for any Man to think, that he can by any Meansavoid the Judgment of God. So that fo long as we are Men, whatever elfe we are, we ought to Rand in Awe of the Judgment of the Great Day; becaufe, let our Rankand Condition be what it will, we are all equally obnoxious to that, and can upon no Account whatfoever plead any Privilegeand Exemption from it. II. The Confideration of this confounds all thofeDifferences and Diftin&ions of Men, which make fuck a Noife in this Worlds andwhatever they may fignify in this World, makes them very inconfìderableas to the other. Why then fhould Men be puff'd up, and look fo big upon account of any of thefe Things, when there is a Day not far off, and which will certainly, and, for ought we know, shortly overtake us, which will level Men in all thefe Refpe&s, and let them upon even Ground, before an impartial Bar where none of thefe Things will be had in any Confideration, and where the foolifh Pride and Arrogance of Men fhail be confounded 5 and thofe who were wont to lookdawnwith fo much Scorn up- on others, as fo infinitely below them, (hall find themfelves upon an equal Level with the pooreft and moft abjet} Pare of Mankind, and (hall be ready to fay with the wife Man, in the Wifdom of Solomon, Chap. 5, 8. What hath Pride profited us, or what hath Richer.with oar vaunting brought us? All thefeThings are page,d array as a Shadow, and as a Pofi that haaflethby. So that we ought to ufe well all thofe Advan- tages whichwe have above others in this World ; ifwe do not, theywill be of no tlfe and Benefit to us in the other. Riches profit not in theDay of Wrath. Ail thefe petty civil Differences and Difcriminations of high and low, rich and poor, honourable and bafe, they only hold in this World, and are in Vogue on this Side the Grave: but when we come into the other World, they will all ceafe and fignify nothing. There the powerful Oppreflor can do nothing to the Injury of the poore(l Man that ever lived in tl;hj,is World, and a5 little to his own Safety and Security. All that Power and Inter% which is now fo confiderable, and makes its Way everywhere,, and does what it pleafeth, will be ofnoLIfe and Significancy in the other World. The Great and theMighty, whenDeath bath once smelled them, and bound them over to the Judgment of the Great Day, their Glory and Strengthdeparts from them, and theyare then but like other Men. yob elegantly delcribes theStateof Men after Death, job3. r 7, i 8, 19. There the Wickedreafefrom troubling 5 and there the Wearybe at Refl. There thePrifoners refl together, they hear not theNolte ofthe Opprefr. TheSmall and theGreat are there, and the Servantis freefrom hes Maher. While we are upon the Stage of this World, we fuflain leverai Per- fons; one is a Prince and a great Man, another is a Captain and a mighty Man and whilft this Life tails, thefe Differences are confiderable : But when we re- tire and go off theStage, we (hall thenbe undrefs'd,tve (hall be (trip'd of all our Titles, and of all our Glory, and go out of the World as naked as we came in- to it. Death and Judgment level all Mankind, and when we come to appear before the Judgment Sear of Chrift, we {hall all (land upon equal Terms.. For God refpe&s not the Perfons of the Mighty in Judgment, he will (hew no Re- verence to the great Ones of this World, but will deal impartially and alike with all. Matth. 25. 32, You may there fee how the Judge himfelf reprefents the tItarverfality and Impartiality of his Dealings with Men in that Day: Before lair? Jbetfbe gathered all Nations, and he{hallfeparate themone from another, as a Shep- X 2 herd
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