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XVI.

just were immediately feparated, the one in- SER M. to Heaven, the other into Hell; why should Chrift come with fo much Solemnity at the Day of Judgment, to justify or condemn those that have been juftified or condemned already, and fo long before? What Room should there be for a future Judgment? What Occafion to do what is already done? To judge a thing already judged? Is there any Error in the former Sentence, that the Cause fhould be reheard? Or have those who are condemned any other Judge, to whom they may appeal? Thefe Suppofitions are all abfurd, and confute themselves.

But further the very Account that our Saviour gives us of the Proceedings of that Day intimates that the Sentence which shall then be paffed, will not be paffed upon any Man before. In that Day (faith he) many will fay unto me, Lord, Lord, have we not prophefied in thy Name? And in thy Name caft out Devils, and in thy Name done many wonderful Works? And then will I profefs unto them, I never knew you; depart from me, ye that work Iniquity, Mat. vii. 22, 23. And again in that Description of the Day of Judgment recorded in the twenty fifth of St. Matthew we are told that the Wicked fhall ex

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XVIII.

poftulate with their Judge in hopes of Mercy. When he lays to their Charge, their neglecting and flighting him, their Want of Charity and Compaffion to him, when in Anguish or Diftrefs; They fhall anfwer him and fay, Lord, when faw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a Stranger, or fick, or in Prison, and did not minifter unto thee? Now these Pleas muft undoubtedly be put in, in hopes of moving the Judge to lighten their Doom: And if fo; it is plain that their Doom is still to be paffed, and confequently that it is not pronounced upon them at the Time of their Death, or at any Time before the Day of Judgment.

This I apprehend is fufficient to convince us that it is a Mistake to imagine that a particular Judgment is immediately to pass upon every Man at his Death: And being fatisfied in this, we fhall be the better able to discover the other Mistake, which indeed is only a Confequence of the former: viz. That the Souls of good Men are immediately received into the Joys of Heaven, and the Souls of the Bad immediately thrown down into the Torments of Hell, as foon as they are got into the other World. Were it indeed true that Men were judged as foon as they die; it

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XVIII.

would then follow that they should be alfo SER M.
rewarded or punished as their Deeds have
deferved Because when Sentence is paffed,
the Execution of it must follow. But now
we have seen that no Judgment will be paf-
fed until the Day of Judgment: And there-
fore it will follow that no one till then can
be admitted into Heaven or caft into Hell.
And indeed were good Men in Heaven, or
bad Men in Hell as foon as they depart; it
is ftrange that the one or the other should be
afterwards brought from thence, only to be
judged and fent thither again. It should
feem one would think too late to enquire in-
to the Justice of thofe Torments which the
Damned perhaps have already born fome
thousands of Years; or into the Right of the
Just to that Happiness and Blifs, which they
have already been in Poffeffion of for as long
a Duration.

But further, the Punishment to which the
Wicked shall be condemned at the Day of
Judgment is the everlasting Fire prepared for
the Devil and his Angels, Mat. xxv. 41.
which is another Proof that the Punishment
which the Wicked fhall then undergo, is
what none fhall fuffer before. For it is not
at all likely that wicked Men,

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though the

Servants

XIV.

4.

GERM. Servants of the Devil, fhould be caft into Hell Fire before the Devil himself, for whom it is prepared. And it is plain from the Scriptures that even the Devil will not be thrown into thofe everlafting Torments till the Day of Judgment. I know there is a Paffage in the fecond Epiftle of St. Peter Chap. ii. and another in the fingle Epistle of St. Jude ver. 6. which fome have imagined to imply that the Devils are already there. But neither of those Places affirm that the Devils are already punished; but exprefly fay that they are referved unto Judgment as in St. Peter, or referved unto the Judgment of the great Day, as it is expreffed in St. Jude. If then they are only reServed unto Judgment, then is their Sentence no more paffed on them as yet, than upon a Prifoner kept in Chains till the Affizes. They may tremble with the Dread of what they know they are to fuffer; but they are not yet affected with the Pain, That this is true, we have their own Teftimony, if it may be taken, in a Question which fome of them put to our Saviour. What have we to do with thee, Jefu, thou Son of God? Art thou come bither to torment us before the Time? Mat. viii. 29. which fhewed that they were

not,

XIV.

not, while our Saviour was on Earth, and SER M. ftill hoped that they should not be foon thrown into Torments, For they befought him (St. Luke tells us) that he would not command them to go out into the Deep, Luke 2. 31. or, as it is in the Original, into the Abyfs or bottomless Pit, which is the Place which another Scripture tells us, they shall be cast into hereafter, Rev. xx. 3.

The two Places of St. Peter and St, Jude I just now mentioned, if rightly tranflated, are fufficient to clear up this Matter to us. As we read them in our English Testaments indeed they are a little difficult. God Spared not the Angels that finned, but caft them down to Hell (faith our Tranflation) and delivered them into Chains of Darkness, to be reServed unto Judgment. But now here is a plain Mifinterpretation of that Word in the Greek, which we render cafting down into Hell For in the Original it is faid, that they were caft down into Tartarus, *i. e. into the Air, or the Place about the Clouds, between Heaven and Earth: Which being rightly understood, and the other Members of the Text rightly difpofed, the whole Verse will

* Taglagwaas. See Whitby in 2 Pet. ii. 4.

run

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