seasonable I hope for that occasion and generally usefull for these times intended as a Preservative against the growing malady of this corrupt age Atheisin Being straitned by the time and your important businesse ensuing this copious Theam as a Camell passing through a needles eye was compendiated into a narrow compass If your Lordship doe look upon it as in it self it is too mean a present for your acceptation but if on the affectionate Heart wherewith it is tendred to your Patronage you may judg it a great one It 's sometimes as Noble to accept small things as to conferre great such as it is it prostrates it selfe at your feet beseeching an entertainment in finding whereof his Devotions shall bee enlarged for your blisse Who is MY LORD Your Lordships humble Orator and Servant William Sclater A SERMON Preached at the Assises holden for the County of Southampton at Winchester on Wednesday July 28 1652. REV. 20.11 12. And I saw a great white Throne and him that sate on it from whose face the Earth and the Heaven fled away and there was found no place for them And I saw the Dead small and great stand before God and the Books were opened and another Book was opened which is the Book of life and the Dead were judged out of those things which were written in the Books according to their works HONORABLE BELOVED I Cannot but esteem it as the great favour of Heaven that in the revolution of a few months the Divine Providence hath brought me again hither and called mee to this Publick service on the same occasion I having the happinesse to speak in such a praesence wherein not the pompe of any elaborate or quaint Humane Oratory but the power of solid and sacred Divinity will be best regarded of which whilest I rest perswaded I shall humbly crave your Devotions that the same Hand which gave this opportunity would adde also a successe to this businesse It were a facility had I a mind to build a large Portall to my narrow house to entertain your patience a while with a discourse of this Book of the Revelation wherein there are so many * Rev 5.7 sealed Mysteries almost as Words or Sentences so (a) Mihi tota Apocalypsis valde obscura videtur talis cujus explicatio citra periculum vix queat tentari fateor me hactenus in nullius scripti Biblici lectione minus proficere quà m in hoc obscuro vaticinio Grascrus abstruse Aenigma's as none but a Divine Oedipus can unriddle them Insomuch that some of the greatest and those too most sanctified Scholars have acknowledged that they had rather (b) D. Rainolds of Oxford Divis 4. against Hart. c. 8. learn than teach it However some others who to themselves have seemed as the sons of (c) Num. 13.33 Anak of tall Imaginations have yet proved in the issue but like (d) Luk. 19.3 Zacheus little in the stature of sound Judgment and whilst they have gone about to give other men eyes to see John's Visions more clearly they have been overtaken unawares by their own (e) Job 20.8 Dreams and many of them outlived the date of their weak yet bold and daring Interpretations I cannot but appland the modesty of Cajeian none of the meanest among the Schoolemen who after he had Paraphrased the Epistles and Acts of the Apostles professed thus Apocalypsin fateor me nescire exponere juxta sensum literalem Hee was posed about the Literall sense of this Scripture more meet for his Wonder than his Exposition And good reason for it consisting of many Prophesies of things to come and those too clothed with Allegories and clad in Metaphors 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to speak with (f) Sophocles in Antig. Nescia mens hominum fati sortisque futurae Virgil. Sophocles who could directly tell the sense till the event was seen that being the best Interpreter of dark praedictions Neverthelesse sith as it is in our English Proverb that Bones bring Meat to town that is Difficulties bring Comforts as in Sampson's Riddle Judg. 14.14 Out of the eater came forth meat and out of the strong came forth sweetnesse that of the Ancient being true Paseit apertis excrect obscurts as the Lord is pleased to delight us with the clearer so to exercise us with the obscurer parts of Holy Writ and as the Doctor of the Gentiles assures us Rom. 15.4 Whatsoever was written was written for our Learning there being likewise some rills and brooks for the Lambe to wade in as well as deeps for the Elephant to swim in Give me leave I beseech you sith not of curiosity to feed fancy but of a zealous disquisition to discover verity I attempt it to withdraw the Curtain and to set open the Windowes of this Text that so the (g) 2 Cor. 4 6. light of divine truth in a bright serenity may (h) 2 Per. 1 19. shine in upon your Minds and Hearts to illuminate the one and to inflame the other for the best advantage of the whole soul And I saw a great white throne c. Under which form of words we have me thinks according to St. John's Vision The Grand Assises held upon the Day of the last generall Judgment described in variety of circumstances which as the carving or enamelling of some curious Watch doe exceedingly illustrate and adorn the same And as in some solemne businesse of great importance there are usually some antecedaneous introductories to raise expectation and win the greater veneration thereto so here we have something observable by way of praeparation and something also by way of action or dispatch The Praeparation consists of the supposalls foregoing Men were dead and those dead men againe risen and brought out of the prison of the grave and set to the Bar Death and the Resurrection from Death praecede the Judgment I saw the dead great and small stand before God The matter of Action or Dispatch is the Judgment it self following this Death and Resurrection The dead were judged according to their works The carriage or managing of this Judgement is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 much what after the similitude of (i) Vt judicii species notior fieret Hominibus judicandi forma ex his quae inter Homines geruntur assumpta est Anselm Comment in Rom. 14. Humane Judicatures here upon earth save onely with this odds or difference That in this Grand Assises in my Text the Judges themselves must then stand forth before the God of all Judges even before the most dreadfull Tribunall of the onely Potentate the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords Regum timendorum in proprios greges Sen. tragoed Reges in ipsos Imperium est Jovis For howsoever it be the style of Magistrates in the Scripture to bee called Gods Psal 82.6 namely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in regard of the Dignity of their office yet though they be sons of the most High they must die like Men
they being as (k) Agapetus in Paraen ad Iustin Agapetus told Justinian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the substance or nature of their Bodies composed of the same brittle materialls with other men though as I said on the last like occasion they be Gods with Men yet are they but Men with God so that all subordinate thrones must then be cast down Dan. 7.9 all Commissions given up and a strict account bee taken both of themselves and of their stewardship even before Him who by Daniel who was the John of the Old as John was the Daniel of the New Testament is described under the title of The Ancient of Dayes sitting upon his throne Imperiall and Paramount whose garment was white as snow and the hair of his head like pure wool his throne was like the fiery flame and his wheels like burning fire A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him Thousand thousands ministred unto him and Ten thousand times Ten thousand stood before Him The Judgment was set and the Books were opened So Daniel Now this great Judicature is in this Text described after this manner The Division 1. By the Judicatory or Seat of Judgment with its Epithets or Adjuncts ver 11. I saw a throne and that a great and a white throne 2. By the Judge sitting on that throne who is God himself set forth under expressions of Majestick terror from whose face the Earth and the Heaven fled away and there was found no place for them 3. By the persons to be judged and that impartially The Dead small and great 4. The Arraignment of all those persons They stand before God 5. The Indictment The Books were opened 6. The Evidence The things written in those Books 7. The Sentence They were Judged 8. The Rule ordering that Sentence According to their Works 9. The means of the Discovery of all this to S. John and by him unto us and that was by revelation or speciall vision so himself acquaints us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I saw saith he twice this vision as sometime Pharaoh's dream Gen. 41.32 was doubled to shew the certainty and assurance of what he thus had seen I saw a great white Throne and I saw the dead great and small stand before God c. And these at least as to my weak observation they occurre are the proper and genuine parts of this Scripture the present measures of my Sermon and your Christian patience Each of them being so important as they are do so invite your attentions that I need not to stand courting your ears at all to obtain them And so I addresse my self to my businesse and that after this order First beginning with the Divinity and the explication of the Text and then proceeding unto the Morality or the effectuall application of the whole Please to favour me with your patience whilest I am by Gods blessing in the dispatch of my Sermon I shall be as contracted as this deep matter and your waighty affairs ensuing will give leave But before I come directly to the severall parts I must of necessity say a few words of the supposals foregoing this last and Grand Assises and those are Death and the Resurrection Men were Dead and those Dead men again risen for surely not deadmen as dead but as risen were presented to the Barre and there stood before God Wherefore the Doctrine of the Resurrection of the Dead and of eternall Judgement are conjoyned Heb. 6.2 I saw the Dead great and small stand before God Mors a Morsu saith (l) S. August l. 1. Hypagnost contr Pelag. circamed Austine No sooner had the serpent fastened the venome of his teeth on the Protaplasts or our first Parents and his temptation bit them but they bite the forbidden (m) Gen. 3.6 apple and death immediately bit them again And so in in Adam all dye saith the great (n) 1 Cor. 15.22 Apostle in as much as he was not Vnus but Vniversitas as the Schoolemen expresse it not considerable as a single man by himself alone but as a publique person representing the Universality of all mankinde the Nature whereof being contaminated in the first Fall that infection runs still as tainted bloud in the veins of Posterity to this day so that now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Damascen The whole sublunary Creature is become subject to mutation and as (o) Phil◠de Mundo Philo saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Generation succeedeth a dissolution Had man indeed stood in the honour of his first Creation and not blotted the eximious pulchritude and beauty of that (p) Gen. 1.26 Image in which he was first stamped he had needed as no Jesus to redeem his soul so no Aesculapius or Physician to cure his body He should have had temperamentum ad pondus as the Philosophers speak so equall a temperature in the exact symmetry of parts that no qualities in the Elements of which he is compounded should have contended for such a conquest as should have routed him into his grave For howsoever the Schoolemen more curious oft-times to raise doubts than judicious to assoyle them had a conceit that if the first Adam had never fallen yet the second Adam the Lord Christ had come in the flesh ad decus ornamentum generis humani for the Honour and ornament of the Humane nature yet that is but the play of some wanton wits it is not the plea of any solid judgement sith it disappoints at least misapprehends the proper end of Christs coming in the Flesh which was to suffer for and to (q) 1 Tim. 1.15 save sinners even such as by what Names or Titles soever they are distinguished above ground like to the severall Chessemen as they stand in the game under severall notions on the table yet being shuffled all together into one common bagge they have no distinction in the dust at all But in (r) Mat. 27.33 Golgotha as saith the Hebrew Proverb are skuls of all fizes as well great as small 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Agapetus for all have reason to say to Corruption Thou art my (s) Job 17.14 Father and to the Worms Thou art my Mother and my Sister some Great ones perhaps like Teeth may here dwell as in the mouth of Honour eat up or oppresse a man and his (t) Mic. 2.2 heritage as the Prophet speaks grinding the face of the poor or as Sapor King of Persia write Brother to the Sun and Moon or as the twelve Caesars divide the twelve moneths between them washing their steps in (u) Job 29.6 Butter housing themselves like snails in their golden shels and painting the earth as they passe with their silver slime and on the Theatre of this world act their parts so as they can blast with their breath thunder-strike with their frown and crush with their singer but the Interlude will end anon and then they must all get them along down to Death's tiring
who then shall set all their sins though never so secret in order (w) Psal 50.51 before their faces even then when they shall be drag'd from the prison of their graves shackled in the chains of guilt and so arraigned and set to the Barre of Justice to stand before God And so I passe from what I termed the Arraignment to that which in the order of Judicature is called the Indictment which here stands entred upon record The Books were opened I saw the Dead small and great stand before God and the Books were opened I hasten By these Books thus here and in Dan. 7.10 said to be opened we may not apprehend any (x) Si hic liber carnaliter cogitetur quis ejus magnitudinem aut longitudinem valeat aestimare c. S. August de Civ Dei c. 4. materiall Volumes presented before the Lord with a Catalogue of the Names or actions of all men to be Judged as if the Lord did stand in need of any such Information Loe saith the Prophet Psal 139.5 Thou O Lord hast beset me behind and before searched me and known my thoughts words and actions Psal 11.4 The Lords Throne is in Heaven his eyes behold his eye-lids try the children of men to the same purpose Job 34.21 (y) Hesiod lib 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Poet hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said an old Poet Philemon mentioned by (z) Iustin Martyr lib. de Mâ—narchia Dei Justin Martyr the Platonists therefore called him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the inspector of all things and some Criticks in the Greek tongue are of an apprehension that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying God is derived 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of a word which denoteth an Vniversall seeing or beholding of things This searcher of all mens hearts doth alone (a) Hooker l. 3. p. 82. Eccles Polit. Intuitively know who are his saith learned Hooker The Lord Christ knoweth all things saith Peter Job 21.17 2.25 to the same purpose are those many other Texts Jer. 17.10 23.24 1 King 8.39 Psal (b) Cor renes in occulto latitant significatur ergo Deum abscondita cogitationum nostrarum scire 7.9 Job 42.2 3. But these Books are only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ascribed to the Lord by way of dignation or gracious condescension God speaking after the manner of men that men might the better conceive of the things of God and the meaning of them is that all things thought or said or done by men stand all as it were upon record and are all exactly remembred by the Lord and brought likewise afresh unto the memories of all men Psal 50.21 Setting them all in order before their eyes so that Austin thinks thereby quaedam vis est intelligenda divina a certain power of God is understood by means or by virtue whereof all the deeds of men are in a wonderfull serenity recalled to the remembrance ut accuset vel excuset scientia conscientiam that according as they prove to be science may either accuse or else excuse conscience And they are all called Books in the plurall number not in respect of the mind or of the knowledge of God which is a most pure and simple act but in respect of the variety of the objects or diversity of the things therein inscribed And yet Divines both for order and distinction sake have given severall Titles to these my sticall and spirituall Books 1 The first is the Book of Nature or of Providence whereof Psal 139.16 In thy Book are all my members written 2 The second is of Gods Remembrance Mal. 3.16 Psal 56.8 3. The Book of Mans Conscience which is Volumen grande as one calleth it a large volume wherein all things are written by the style of Verity and for the amending of which Book all other Books were invented so (c) S. Ambros ad Psal 1. S. Ambrose What are these Books opened saith hee but Conscience Non atramento scripti sed vestigiis delictorum flagitiorum inquinamento not written with Inke but stamped with the Impression of black Sinnes and most ugly Offences 4. The Book of Life Phil. 4.3 Rev. 3.5 by which is understood Catalogus Savandorum the Catalogue of the Elect whom God in Christ hath chosen from all Eternity unto Salvation who though they now be unknown yet shall then be more manifestly declared 5. To which some adde fiftly the Books of the Scriptures the Two Testaments All of these Books shall be perhaps at that day brought forth bound up together in one volume which being unclasped shall discover all matters how they have been transacted managed and done in the body 1 Tim. 5.25 26. Some mens sins are open before-hand going before to Judgment and some men they follow after likewise also the good works of some are manifest before-hand and they that are otherwise cannot be hid that is some evil deeds are punished in this world to give notice that there is an eye of Providence that observes them here and some likewise are reserved for hereafter to shew that there is a Judgment to come The good works likewise of some follow them Rev. 14.13 that is the reward of their good works shall be imparted hereafter In summe The generall resolve in this matter is that by these Books opened are mainly meant the Consciences of all men the office of which is to (d) Rom. 2.14 15. accuse or to excuse according to the (e) Dr. Field l. 4. c. 33. of the Church privity that the soul hath to things good or ill known to none but to God and it self the Conscience being as it were Gods Register Book wherein all the sins of the Impenitent and Unregenerate or Castawayes with all their severall circumstances of aggravation are kept under their guilt uncancelled unstruck-out It 's true indeed that Actus transit but Reatus permanet the act of Sin was transient and momentany not so the guilt no that is written with a (f) Jer. 17.1 pen of Iron and with the point of a Diamond and graven as it were in characters indeleble upon the table of their heart Jer. 17.1 And this is the Act of Conscience to be its own Testimony yea a thousand witnesses against it self Hence was that saying of (g) Lactant. l. 6. c. 24. Lactantius Quid prodest non habere Conscium habenti Conscientiam It is a true word of the Apostle God is greater then our Conscience 1 Joh. 3.20 and surely none but He Yet under that great God the Supreme power on earth within a man is the Conscience In this Microcosme of Man saith a devout (h) B. H. Soliq 51. edit 1651. Divine there is a Court of Judicature erected wherein next under God the Conscience sits as the Chief Justice from which there is no appeal if that condemne us or our actions in vain shall all the world besides acquit us and if that clear us
us all about their cessation Quaest Wee are to enquire whether such like Visions or else immediate instincts or Enthusiasmes may be expected or will be afforded to ordinary Christians under these days of Gospel-dispensations Answ To which I answer that Howsoever we may not tie the Lord to his ordinary means for we know hee can work above yea without them as there was (t) Gen. 1.2 light before the Sun and Moon were made yet we have reasons many to perswade us that the Lord now deals not by Visions or Revelations extraordinary and whosoever doe pretend such directions it 's to be feared they are but vain delusive apparitions or dangerous and Satanicall impostures My reasons are these 1. Because the Lord hath now made perfect the (v) Gal. 6.16 Phil. 3.16 Rule of Faith and Life and given us an absolute Canon of Doctrine to which there may nothing be added nor from which the least Iota be detracted 2 Tim. 3.15 16. So that to instruct us in a matter of faith or morall practise Visions are all now unnecessary 2. For particular Events and accidents of the Church of God which were the usuall matter of Visions and Revelations he hath given us reason to think that he will no longer instruct his Church by that means extraordinary because the charge runs so precisely to adde nothing to the words of the Prophesie of St. John's Book under penalty of having addition made to our plagues Rev. 22.18 He would intimate in that charge that by that Prophesie hee hath fully instructed his Church in all things convenient for it to know unto the end of the world 3. Even then when was place for Visions and Revelations the Rule was to (w) Isa 8.20 Act. 17.11 examine all by the Word of God so that if any thing came under colour of Divine Revelation obtruded upon the Church of God that held not currant at that Touchstone it was as a probation in Gods permission of his people Deut. 13.13 So in it self and in the issue a fanaticall (x) Isa 66.4.2 Thess 2.11 delusion like to some Meteor or Comet fed onely by unwholesome exhalations which speedily vanish without heat or light it was no say of the true (y) Mal. 4.2 Rev. 12.1 Sun Christ Jesus in whose (z) Psal 36 9 light alone it is that the Saints of God doe see the solid light of the Truth Wherefore saith the Prophet Isa 8.20 To the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to this (*) Quae libeo legis non cominem us ca nec nosse debemus Hilar. Word it is because there is no light in them And yet those grand Impostors of Rome to this day boast of I know not what lumen Propheticum continued in their Church and for most of their paradoxes in the questions of Purgatory Prayer for the Dead Invocation of Saints c. when other arguments drawn from dark Allegoricall texts or Apocryphall books faile them at length they come to Visions and Apparitions of Soules that have appeared to the living and testified some their tortures some their deliverances by prayers and suffrages of the Living others pretending the lively voyee of the blessed Virgin from Heaven as that Benede me scripfisti Thoma applauding what Thomas had written of her at another time speaking through her image or statue in the Temple giving the Good morrow to St. Bernard who yet to confute the imposture gave answer that shee had forgotten St. Paul's rule It was not lawfull for a woman to speak in the (a) 1 Cor. 14.34 Church But I forbear to offend your patience with these vanities I only touched at them in my way the more to fasten on all Gods holy people truly such the persuasion to keep themselves praecisely to the written Word inspired by and joined with the Spirit of all truth Isa 59.21 even that sure Word 2 Pet. 1.19 as St. Peter that Word of Truth as St. Paul calls it 2 Tim. 2.15 Gal. 2.5 This of St. John was an Apostolicall Personall priviledge not to be drawn into common imitation or into ordinary expectation Hee being immediately acquainted of this secret of the manner of the last Judgment by Vision extraordinary It is not privilegium but pravilegium not a warrantable favour to be expected but a praesumptuous tempting of God to be avoyded if ordinary Christians with sleighting or omission of the Word written do for their direction expect Visions now after the prophesie of St. John's Book is finished And thus much if not too much of the means by which St. John first came to have to him revealed for the generall information of the Church of God this carriage of the Grand Assises It was by Vision so we read in the Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I saw And so I hasten to the sight it self or to what he did see and that is here described first to be the Judicatory or Seat of Judgement it self with its Epithets or Adjuncts I saw a throne and that a great and a white throne A Throne is a Seat of majesty and glory as when Solomon would be seen in his might ascends his royall (b) 1 King 10.19 20. throne supported by twelve Lyons the emblemes of power and of undaunted courage Now whether St. John saw any (c) Vid. Geyard e. 5 â—om 6. sect 58. created Seat visibly in some shining clouds in the which Christ shall come any materiall Throne or rather such a semblance of majesty presented to him is no point of curious disquisition under this expression of a Throne or of the Throne of his glory mentioned here and in St. Matthew ch 19.28 25.31 I apprehend is meant the (d) Dieteric In Festo Convers Pauli p. 180 181. glory the mighty power and justice of the Lord Christ in the manisestation of himself as the (e) 2 Tim. 4.1 Judge of Quick and Dead in his glorious appearing as St. Paul calls it Tit. 2.13 or in the praesence of his glory as St. Jude v. 24 It hath the Epithet of Great to denote his Majesty and of White to declare his Purity and the (f) Psal 51.4 Rom. 3.4 clearnesse of his just proceedings Venit Christus (g) S. August l. 3. c. 8. de Symb. ad Catech occulte judicandus veniet manifeste judieaturus 2 Thess 1.7 or thus Great to shew his Severity White to denote his Lenity even in the middest of that Severity and both these exercised when Actually upon his throne namely when Seated when the Judgment as Daniel speaks was (h) Dan. 7.10 set commonstrating thereby the wise deliberation observed in this finall Judicature I might speak to each of these and as the Disciples by (i) Luk. 6.1 rubbing of these eares come to the solid grain by discoursing on them find out the very (k) Psa 63.5 marrow and sweetnesse therein contained First for the severity of this Judge it 's to the
all other doom on earth is frivolous and ineffectuall O the agonies of a guilty bosome unacquitted within it self like Pashur it 's a (i) Jer. 20.4 Psal 73.19 terror to it self yea very Ethniques many experimenting sometimes the stroke but of Naturall Conscience were wont to set it forth by their Erinnes or Hellish Furies pursuing the flagitious with flaming firebrands tormenting with all extremity the noyse of a leaf (k) Lev. 26.36 shaken startles them being afraid alas where no feare is For Wickednesse saith Wisdome ch 17.11 condemned by her own witnesse is very timorous and being pressed with Conscience alwaies forecasteth grievous things that fear being nothing else but a betraying of the succours which Reason offereth Guiltinesse can never think it self secure if there were no Fiends to torment it like a Bosome-devil it would like trembling (l) Dan. 5.6 Belshazzar and as Cain the (m) Gen. 4.15 marked vagabond ever torture it self There is no peace saith my God to the wicked Isa 57.21 Aut si pax bello pax ea deterior yea the wicked are like the troubled Sea when it cannot rest whose waters cast up mire and dirt all the winds in the world from without cannot make a mountain shake but the imprisoned vapors that are within Truly spake one once All the world for a clear Conscience wonder we at the wish A wounded Spirit saith Solomon who can bear Prov. 18.14 On the other side again I say on the other side For we (n) Mar. 1.17 Fishers of men must have our Cork as well as our Lead our Cork to boye up penitent soules from finking in the mighty waters of Despair as well as our Lead to sink them into hell who persevere incorrigible O the tranquillity of a spotlesse breast when these Books are opened and the characters of guilt are found to bee expunged no sin at all (o) Psal 32.1 imputed to so blessed a soul Beloved Christians there is but one remedy of the forementioned malady but one principall Receipt to eat out or to fret away that canker which sin hath brought into the spirit or rather to wash away the spots which (p) Tit. 1.15 defile the Conscience and that is in Heb. 9.14 the blood of sprinkling even the precious blood of the Lamb (q) 1 Pet. 1.19 without spot even the blood of Jesus Christ which cleanseth from all sin 1 Joh. 1.7 even that blood which (r) Heb. 12.24 speaketh better things then the blood of Abel the one cryed to Heaven for Judgment but the Lord Christ's for Mercy one line or as it were but one red strake of his bloud drawn through that Book cleareth and acquitteth all Let such an one be arraigned let him be indicted yea perhaps by the grand Accuser of the Brethren Rev. 12.10 accused before God day and night yet bring him to the Test and the proofe will bee all According to the Evidence And so I proceed in order to the next particular which after the Indictment I styled the Evidence the things written in the Books The Dead were judged out of those things which were written in the Books In all regular or legall Judicatures before the Sentence there goes Conviction and that grounded upon some clear Evidence according to some rule of Law which directs and orders Justice in that respect Now that which directs the businesse in the Text is no other then the Word of God the observation or the violation of the commands whereof clears or charges the Conscience to receive the Sentence of Absolution or of Condemnation according to the Evidence Doe not thinke saith our Saviour the Judge in my Text that I will accuse you to the Father there is one that accuseth you even Moses in whom yee trust Joh 5.45 by Moes hee meanes the Writings of Moses ver 47. Again Joh. 12.48 Hee that rejecteth me and receiveth not my words hath one what judgeth him the Word that I have spoken the sam shall judge him at the last day Compare Jam. 2.12 and it is therefore said to be Organically or Instrumentally A discerner ef the thoughts and of the intents of the heart Heb. 4.12 Rom. 2.16 God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my Gospell that is in a generall acception of the Word according to the whole systeme of Doctrine preached by Christ his Prophets and Apostles epitomized into the Gospel The righteous shall be judged specially saith (s) Gerard. sect 70. ubi supra one according to the termes of the Gospel and bee absolved the wicked out of the Law collustrated by the light of the Gospel thereby being convinced of sin and infidelity and be condemned and indeed Divines are of opinion that there shall not bee in the last day any other norma or rule to order or to direct the Judgement then what is already passed before in the Ministry of the Word The Conscience is (t) Joh. 10.23 Matth. 18.18 bound or loosed Before as the Keyes are rightly applyed The Sentence of the Judge at the last day is not a new making of Salvation or Damnation but onely a solemne and publick testification propalation or definitive ratihabition of what was before passed in the particular Judgment by the Word or instantly after Death Heb. 9.27 Wherefore the last day is styled the Revelation namely publick of the righteous judgement of God that is of that particular righteous Judgement passed upon discussion between God and the Conscience before Rom. 2.5 thus we read the sentence of the word to be this Tribulation and anguish upon every soule of man that doth evill but glory honor and peace to every one that worketh good Rom. 2.9 10. 2 Thess 1.6 7. all which in the aequivalent is declared and more openly ratified in the Come yee Blessed and in the Goe yee Cursed at the last day each of these according to the Evidence out of what is written in the Bookes Upon this occasion I have read of one much retired and given to devotion who being asked what book he was most of all seen in and accustomed to read made answer That he read especially one and that was a book of three leaves a red lease a black lease and a white leafe in the red lease he read the Passion of Christ in the black lease the Punishment of the Damned and in the white lease the joyes of the Blessed by perusall and meditation of which three leaves he more profited then if he had evolved all the Philosophers in the world And thus at length we are come to the Judgment or Sentence-giving it self in the next words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Dead were judged This Doctrine of the Judgment to come was never more needfull to be preached then now among us upon whom the (v) 1 Cor. 10.11 ends of the world are come all the lees and dregs of former times seeming to be about to settle in this last and