least they may see that potentially this is the Accusation that lyeth against us and which we must be justified against For all Iustification implyeth an Actual or Potential Accusation He that is truly accused of final Impenitency or Unbelief or Rebellion hath no other Defence to make but must needs be condemned He that is falsly accused of such non-performance of the condition of Grace must deny the Accusation and plead his own personal Righteousness as against that Accusation and produce that Faith Repentance and sincere Obedience and Perseverance by which he fulfilled that Condition and so is Evangelically Righteous in himself and therefore hath part in the blood of Christ which is instead of a Legal righteousness to him in all things else as having procured him a pardon of all his sin and a right to everlasting glory And thus we must then be Justified by Christs satisfaction only against the accusation of being sinners in general and of deserveing Gods wrath for the Breach of the Law of works But we must be justified by our faith repentance and sincere Obedience it self against the accusation of being Impenitent Vnbelievers and Rebels against Christ and having not performed the Condition of the promise and so having no part in Christ and his Benefits So that in summ you see that the cause of the day will be to enquire whether being all known sinners we have accepted of Christ upon his terms and so have right in him and his benefits or not Whether they have forsaken this vain world for him and loved him so faithfully that they have manifested it in parting with these things at his Command And this is the meaning of Mat. 25. Where the enquiry is made to be whether they have fed and visited him in his members or not That is whether they have so far loved him as their Redeemer and God by him as that they have manifested this to his members according to Opportunity though it cost them the hazard or loss of all Seeing danger and labor and cost are fitter to express Love by then empty Complements and bare Professions Whether it be particularly enquired after or only taken for granted that men are sinners and have deserved Death according to the Law of works and that Christ hath satisfied by his death is all one as to the matter in hand seeing Gods enquiry is but the Discovery and Conviction of us But the last Question which must decide the Controversie will be whether we have performed the condition of the Gospel I have the rather also said all this to shew you in what sense these words are taken in the text that Every man shall be Judged according to what he hath done in the flesh whether it be good or bad Though every man be Judged worthy of Death for sinning yet every man shall not be Judged to dye for it and no man shall be Judged worthy of Life for his good works It is therefore according to the Gospel as the rule of judgement that this is meant They that have Repented and Believed and returned to true though imperfect Obedience shall be Iudged to everlasting Life according to these works not because these works Deserve it but because the free Gift in the Gospel through the blood of Christ doth make these things the condition of our possessing it They that have lived and dyed Impenitent Unbelievers and Rebels against Christ shall be judged to everlasting punishment because they have deserved it both by their sin in general against the Law and by these sins in special against the Gospel This is called the Merit of the Cause that is what is a mans due according to the true meaning of the Law Though the due may be by free gift And thus you see what will be the cavil of the Day and the matter to be enquired after and decided as to our Life or Death VIII THE next point in our method is to shew you What will be the Evidence of the Cause Answ. There is a five fold Evidence among men 1. When the fact is notorious 2. The knowledge of an unsuspected Competent Iudge 3. The parties Confession 4. Witness 5. Instruments and visible effects of the action All these Evidences will be at hand and any one of them sufficient for the conviction of the guilty person at that day 1. As the sins of all men so the Impenitency and Rebellion of the wicked was notorious or at least will be then For though some play the hypocrites and hide the matter from the world and themselves yet God shall open their hearts and former lives to themselves and to the view of all the world He shall set their sins in order before them so that it shall be utterly in vain to deny or excuse them If any men will then think to make their cause as good to God as they can now do to us that are not able to see their hearts they will be foully mistaken Now they can say they have as good hearts as the best then God will bring them out in the light and shew them to themselves and all the world whether they were good or bad Now they will face us down that they do truly Repent and they obey God as well as they can but God that knoweth the Deceivers will then undeceive them We cannot now make men acquainted with their own unsanctified hearts nor convince them that have not true Faith Repentance or Obedience but God will convince them of it They can find shifts and false answers to put off a Minister with but God will not so be shifted off Let us preach as plainly to them as we can and do all that ever we are able to acquaint them with the impenitency and unholyness of their own heart and the necessity of a new heart and life yet we cannot do it but they will Believe whether we will or not that the old heart will serve the turn But how easily will God make them know the contrary We plead with them in the dark for though we have the candle of the Gospel in our hands when we come to shew them their corruption yet they shut their eyes and are wilfully blind But God will open their eyes whether they will or not not by holy Illumination but by forced conviction and then he will plead with them as in the open light See here thy own unholy soul canst thou now say thou didst love me above all canst thou deny but thou didst love this world before me and serve thy flesh and lusts though I told thee if thou didst so thou shouldst dye Look upon thy own heart now and see whether it be a holy or an unholy heart a spiritual or a fleshly heart a heavenly or an earthly heart Look now upon all the course of thy life and see whether thou didst live to me or to the world and thy flesh Oh how easily will God convince men then of the very sins of their
he hath a grimmer face to shew you when temptations have conquered you and torments must succeed As those that write of Witches say he appeareth at first to them in some comely tempting shape till he have them fast tyed to him and then he beats them and affrights them and seldom appears to them but in some ugly hew Believe it poor sinners you do not hear or see the worst of him when you are merry about your sinful Pleasures and Rejoycing in your Hopes of the Commodities or Preferments of the world he hath another kind of Voice which you must hear and another face to shew you that will make you know a little better whom you had to do with You would be afraid now to meet him in the dark what will you be to live with him in everlasting darkness Then you will know who it was that you entertained and obeyed and plaid with in your sins 3. And as the Text tells us that it is a fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels So it telleth us that is An everlasting fire It had a beginning but it shall have no end If these wretches would have chosen the service of God they would have met with no difficulty or trouble but what would have had a speedy end Poverty and Injuries would have had an end scorns and abuses would have had an end fasting humiliation sorrow for sin watching and fighting against our spiritual enemies would all have had an end But to avoid these they chose that ease that pleasure which hath brought them to that torment which never will have end I have said so much of these things already in my Book called the Saints Rest that I will now say but this much It is one of the wonders of the world how men that do believe or think they do believe this word of Christ to be true that the wicked shall go into Everlasting fire can yet venture on sin so boldly and live in it so fearlessly or sleep quietly till they are out of this unspeakable Danger Only the Commonness of it and the known wickedness of mans heart doth make this less wonderful And were there nothing else to convince us that sinners are Mad and Dead as to spiritual things this were enough That ever the greatest pleasures or profits of the world or the most enticing baits that the Devil can offer them should once prevail with them to forget these endless things and draw them to reject an Everlasting Glory and cast themselves desperately into Everlasting fire Yea and all this under daily warnings and Instructions and when it s told them before hand by the God of Truth himself For the Lords sake Sirs and for your souls sakes if you care not what Ministers say or what such as I say yet will you soberly read now and then this 25. Chapter of Matthew and Regard what is told you by him that must be your Judge and now and then bethink your selves soberly whether these are matters for wise men to make light of and what it is to be Everlastingly in Heaven or in Hell fire 2. We have seen what is the Penalty contained in the sentence against the ungodly The next thing that the Text directs us to is the Cause or Reason of the Sentence vers. 42 For I was hungry and ye gave me no meat c. The Reason is not given expresly either for their sin against the Law of works that is Because they were sinners and not perfectly Innocent Nor yet from their unbelief which is the great sin against the Law of Grace But it is given from their not expressing their Faith and Love to Christ in works of mercy and self-denyal And why is this so 1. We must not suppose that these words of Christ do express the whole Judicial process in every point but the chief parts It is supposed that all men are convicted of being sinners against the perfect Law of the Creator and that they are guilty of Death for that sin and that there is no way but by Christ to obtain deliverance But because all this must be acknowledged by the righteous themselves as well as by the wicked therefore Christ doth not mention this but that only which is the turning point or cause in the Judgement For it is not all sinners that shall be finally Condemned but all Impenitent Unbelieving sinners who have Rebelled finally against their Redeemer 2. And the reason why Faith it self is not expressed is 1. Because it is clearly implyed and so is Love to Christ as Redeemer in that they should have Relieved Christ himself in his members that is as it s expressed Matth. 10.42 they should have received a Prophet in the name of a Prophet and a Disciple in the name of a Disciple All should be done for Christs sake which could not be unless they Believed in him and Loved hâ—m 2. Also because that the bare Act of Believing is not all that Christ requireth to a mans final Justification and Salvation But holy self-denying Obedience must be added And therefore this is given as the Reason of their Condemnation that they did not so obey We must observe also that Christ here putteth the special for the general that is one way of self denying Obedience and expression of Love instead of such Obedience in general For all men have not ability to relieve those in misery being perhaps some of them poor themselves But all have that Love and self-denyal which will some way express it self And all have hearts and a Disposition to do thus if they had ability without such a Disposition none can be saved It is the fond conceit of some that if they have any love to the godly or wish them well it is enough to prove them happy But Christ here purposely lets us know that whoever doth not Love him at so high a rate as that he can part with his substance or any thing in the world to those uses which he shall require them even to relieve his servants in want and sufferings for the masters sake that man is none of Christs Disciple nor will be owned by him at the last XI THE next point that we come to is to shew you the Properties of this Sentence at Judgement When man had broken the Law of his Creator at the first he was lyable to the Sentence of Death and God presently sate in Judgement on him and sentenced him to some part of the Punishment which he had deserved But upon the Interposition of the Son he forbore the rest resolving on a way that might tend to his Recovery And Death is due yet to every sinner for every sin which he commits till a pardon do acquit him But this Sentence which will pass on sinners at the last Judgement doth much differ from that which was passed on the first sin or which is Due according to the Law of worâ—s alone for 1. As to the Penalty called the Pain of
Immortal soul and thy comfortable appearance at the great day of Christ I have the thing which I intended and desired The Lord open thy Heart and accompany his Truth with the Blessing of his Spirit Amen A SERMON Of Judgement Preached at Pauls before the Honourable Lord Maior and Aldermen of the City London Dec. 17. 1654 2 Cor. 5.10 11. For we must all Appear before the Judgement Seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad Knowing therefore the terrors of the Lord we perswade men IT is not unlikely that some of those wits that are taken more with things New then with things Necessary will marvel that I choose so common a subject and tell me that they all know this already But I do it purposely upon these following Considerations 1. Because I well know that it is these common Truths that are the great and necessary things which mens everlasting happiness or misery doth most Depend upon You may be ignorant of many Controversies and Inferiour points without the danger of your souls but so you cannot of these Fundamentals 2. Because its apparent by the lives of men that few know these Common Truths savingly that think they know them 3. Because there are several degrees of knowing the same Truths and the best are imperfect in degree The principal growth in knowledge that we should look afâ—er is not to know more matters then we kneâ— before but to know that better and with a clearer light and firmer apprehension which we darkly and sleightly knew before You may more safely be without any knowledge at all of many lower Truths then without some further degree of the knowledge of those which you already know 4. Besides it is known by sad experience that many perish who know the Truth for want of the Consideration of it and making use of what they know and so their knowledge doth but condemn them We have as much need therefore to teach and help you to get these Truths which you know into your hearts and lives as to tell you more 5. And indeed it is the impression of these great and master-Truths wherein the vitals and essentials of Gods Image upon the soul of man doth consist And it is these Truths that are the very Instruments of the great works that are to be done upon the heart by the spirit and our selves In the right use of these it is that the Principal part of the skill and holy wisdom of a Christian doth consist and in the diligent and constant use of these lyeth the life and trade of Christianity There is nothing amiss in mens hearts or lives but it is for want of sound knowing and believing or well using these fundamentals 6. And moreover me thinks in this choice of my subject I may expect this advantage with the hearers that I may spare that labour that else would be necessary for the proof of my doctrine and that I may also have easier access to your hearts and have a fuller stroak at them and with less resistance If I came to tell you of any thing not Common I know not how far I might expect belief from you You might say these things are uncertain to us or all men are not of this mind But when every hearer confesseth the Truth of my Doctrine no man can deny it without denying Christianity it self I hope I may expect that your hearts should the sooner receive the Impression of this Doctrine and the sooner yield to the duties which it directs you to and the easier let go the sins which from so certain a truth shall be discovered The words of my text are the reason which the Apostle giveth both of his perswading other men to the fear of God and his care to approve to God his own heart and life They contain the Assertion and Description of the great Judgement and one use which he makes of it It assureth us that Judged we must be and who must be so Judged and by whom and about what and on what terms and to what end The meaning of the words so far as is necessary I shall give you briefly We all both we Apostles that Preach the Gospel and you that hear it must willing or unwilling there is no avoiding it Appear stand forth or make our appearance and there have our hearts and wayes laid open and appear as well as we Before the Iudgement seat of Christ i.e. before the redeemer of the world to be Judged by him as our Rightful Lord That every one even of all mankind which are were or shall be without exception May receive that is may receive his sentence adjudging him to his due and then may receive the execution of the sentence and may go away from the barr with that Reward or Punishment that is his due according to the Law by which he is Judged The things done in his body that is the due Reward of the works done in his body or as some copies read it The things proper to the body i.e. due to the man even body as well as soul According to what he hath done whether it be good or bad i e. This is the cause to be tried and Judged whether men have done well or ill whiles they were in the flesh and what is due to them according to their deeds Knowing therefore c. i.e. Being certain therefore that these things are so and that such a Terrible Judgement of Christ will come we perswade men to become Christians and live as such that they may then speed well when others shall shall be destroyed or as others Knowing the fear of the Lord that is the true Religion we perswade men Doct. 1. There will be a Judgement Doct. 2. Christ will be the Judge Doct. 3. All men shall there appear Doct. 4. Men shall be then Judged according to the works that they did in the flesh whether good or evil Doct. 5. The end of Judgement is that men may receive their final due by Sentence and Execution Doct. 6. The knowledge and consideration of the terrible Judgement of God should move us to perswade and men to be perswaded to careful preparation The ordinary method for the handling of this subject of Judgement should be this 1. To shew you what Judgement is in the General and what it doth contain and that is 1. The persons 2. The cause 3. The Actions 1. The parties are 1. the Accuser 2. the Defendant 3. Somtime Assistants 4. The Judge 2. The cause contains 1. the Accusation 2. the Defence 3. With the Evidence of both 4. and the Merit The Merit of the cause is as it agreeth with the Law and Equity 3. The Judicial Actions are I. Introductory 1. Citation 2. Compulsion if need be 3. Appearance of the Accused II. Of the Essence of Judgement 1. Debate by â— the Accuser 2. Defendant called the Disceptation of the
to particular acts much less take away its natural Freedom 6. And that till Habits attain an utter predominancy at least there is a Power remaining in the will to resist them and use means against them Though Eventually the perverse Inclination may hinder the use of it The three and twentieth Excuse I have heard from learned men that God doth determine all Actions Natural and Free as the first efficient Physical Immediate Cause or else nothing could Act. And then it was not long of me that I choose forbidden Objects but of him that irresistibly moved me thereto and whose Instrument I was Answ. This is a trick of that wisdom which is foolishness with God and to be deceived by vain Philosophy 1. The very principle it self is most likely to be false and those that tell you this to err Much more I think may be said against it then for it 2. I am sure it is either false or reconcileable with Gods Holiness and mans liberty and culpability so that its a mad thing to deceive your selves with such Philosophical uncertainties when the Truth which you oppose by it is infallibly certain That God is not the Author of sin but man himself who is justly condemned for it is undoubtedly true and would you obscure so clear a Truth by searching into points beyond humane reach if not unsound as you conclude them The four and twentieth Excuse But at least those learned Divines among us that doubt of this do yet say that the will is necessarily and infallibly Determined by the Practical Vnderstanding and that is as much unresistibly necessitated by Objects and therefore whatever act was done by my understanding or will was thus necessitated and I could not help it They say Liberty is but the Acting of the faculty agreeably to its nature And it was God as Creator that gave Adam his faculties and God by providential dispose that presented all Objects to him by which his understanding and so his will were unavoidably necessitated Answ. This is of the same nature with the former uncertain if not certainly false Were this true for ought we can see it would lay all the sin and misery of the world on God as the unresistable necessitating Cause which because we know infallibly to be false we have no reason to take such principles to be true which infer it The understanding doth not by a necessary efficiency Determine the will but morally or rather is regularly a Condition or necessary Antecedent without which it may not Determine it self Yea the will by commanding the sense and phantasie doth much to determine the understanding As the eye is not necessary to my going but to my going right so is not the Understandings Guidance necessary to my willing there the simple Apprehension may suffice but to my Right willing There are other wayes of Determining the will Or if the Understanding did Determine the will Efficiently and Necessarily it is not every act of the understanding that must do it If it be so when it saith This must be don saith it importunatly yet not when it only saith This may be done or you may venture on it which is the common part which it hath in sin I am not pleased that these curious Objections fall in the way nor do I delight to put them into vulgar heads but finding many young Schollars and others that have conversed with them assaulted with these Temptations I thought meet to give a touch and and but a touch to take them out of their way As Mr. Fenner hath done more fully in the Preface to his Hidden Manna on this last point to which I refer you I only add this The will of man in its very Dominion doth be are Gods Image It is a self Determining Power though it be byassed by Habits and needs a Guide As the Heart and Vital Spirits by which it acteth are to the rest of the Body so is It to the soul The Light of Nature hath taught all the world to carry the Guilt of every crime to the will of man and there to leave it Upon this all Laws and Judgements are grounded From Ignorance and Intellectual weakness men commonly fetch Excuses for their faults but from the Will they are Aggravated If we think it strange that mans will should be the first cause so much as of a sinful mode and cannot answer all occuring Objections It may suffice that we are certain the Holy Majesty is not the Author of sin and he is able to make all this as plain as the Sun and easily answer all these vain Excuses though we should be unable And if we be much ignorant of the frame and motions of our own souls and especially of that high self determining principle Free-Will the great spring of our Actions and the curious Engine by which God doth Sapientially Govern the world it is no wonder Considering that the soul can know it self but by Reflexion and God gave us a soul to use rather than to know it self and to know its qualities and operations rather then its Essence The five and twentieth Excuse No man can be saved nor avoid any sin nor believe in Christ but those whom God hath predestinated thereto I was under an irreversible Sentence before I was born therefore I do nothing but what I was predestinated to do if God decreed not to save me how could I help it Answ. 1. Gods Judgements are more plain but his Decrees or secret purposes are mysterious And to darken certainties by having recourse to points obscure is no part of Christian wisdom God told you your Duty in his word and on what terms you must be Judged to Life or Death Hither should you have recourse for direction and not to the unsearchable mysteries of his mind 2. God decreeth not to Condemn any but for sin Sin I say as the Cause of that Condemnation though not of his Decree 3. Gods Decrees are acts Immanent in himself and make no change on you and therefore do not necessitate you to sin any more then his fore-knowledge doth For both cause only a necessity of Consequence which is Logical as the Divines on both sides do Confess And therefore this no more caused you to sin then if there had been no such Degree And its a doubt whether that Decree be not negative A willing suspending of the Divine will as to evil or at most A purpose to permit it The six and twentieth Excuse If it be no more yet doth it make my perdition unavoidable For even Gods foreknowledge doth so For if he foreknow it all the world cannot hinder it from coming to pass Answ. Must God either be Ignorant of what you will do or else be the cause of it If you foreknow that the Sun will rise tomorrow that doth not cause it to rise If you foreknow that one man will murder another you are not the cause of it by foreknowing it So is it
here The seven and twentieth Excuse God might have hindred my Sin and Damnation if he would Answ. And will you wilfully sin and think to scape because God doth not hinder you The Prince that makes a Law against murder could lock you up and keep you from being a Murderer But are you excusable if he do not We are certain that God could have hindred all the sin and death and confusion and misery that is in the world And we are as certain that he doth not hinder it but by forbidding it and giving men means against it And we are certain that he is Just and Good and Wise in all and not bound to hinder it And what his Reasons are you may better know hereafter In the mean time you had been better have looked to your own Duty The eight and twentieth Excuse How could I be saved if Christ did not dye for me He dyed but for his Elect and none could be saved without his Death Answ. He did dye for you and for more than his Elect though he Absolutely purposed only their salvation Your sins crucified him and your debt lay upon him and he so far ransomed you that nothing but your wilful refusal of the benefits could have condemned you The nine and twentieth Excuse It was Adams sin that brought me into this Depravedness of will which I can neither cure nor could prevent Answ. 1. If Adam cast away his holiness he could no more convey that to us which he cast away then a Nobleman that is a Traytor can convey his lost Inheritance or Honours to his son 2. You perish not only for your Original sin but for Rejecting the Recovering mercy of the Redeemer you might have had Christ and Life in him for the Accepting The thirtieth Excuse God will require no more than â—e gives He gave me not Grace to Repent and Believe and without his gifts I could not have it Answ. 1. God will justly require more than he giveth that is The improvement of his Gâ—fts as Mat. 25. shews He gave Adam but a Power to persevere and not Actual perseverance Yet did he justly punish him for want of the Act even for not using by his own will the Power which he had given him 2. It is long of your self if God did not give you Grace to Believe It was because you wilfully refused some preparatory Grace Christ found you at a great distance from him and he gave you Grace sufficient to have brought you neerer to him than you were you had grace sufficient to have made you better than you were and restrained many sins and brought you to the means when you turned your back on them Though this were nâ—t sufficient to cause you to Believe it was sufficient to have brought you neerer to Believing and through your own wilfulness became not Effectual Even as Adam had sufficient grace to have stood which was not Effectual So that you had not only Christ offered to you if you would but Accept him but you had daily and precious helps and means to have cured your wills and caused you to Accept him for neglect of which and so for not believing and so for all your other sins you Justly perish The one and thirtieth Excuse Alas man is a worm a dry leaf Job 13.25 a silly foolish creature and therefore his Actions be not regardable nor deserve so great a punishment Answ. Though he be a worm and as nothing to God and foolish by sin yet is he naturally so noble a creature that the Image of God was on him Gen. 1.26 and 5.1 Jam. 3.9 and the world made his servants and Angels his attendants Heb. 1.14 so noble that Christ dyed for him God takes special care of him He is capable of knowing and enjoying God and heaven is not thought too good for him if he will obey And he that is capable of so great Good must be capable of as great Evil and his waies not to be so overlooked by that God that hath undertaken to be his Governor When it tendeth to Infidelity the Devil will teach you to Debase man even lower than God would do The two and thirtieth Excuse Sin is no Being and shall men be damned for that which is nothing Answ. 1. It is such a mode as deformeth Gods creature It is a moral Being It is a Relation of our actions and hearts to Gods will and Law 2. They that say sin is nothing say Pain and Loss is nothing too You shall therefore be paid with one nothing for another Make light of your misery and say It is nothing as you did of your sin 3. Will you take this for a good Excuse from your children or servants if they abuse you Or from a Thief or Murderer shall he escape by telling the Judge that his sin was Nothing Or rather have death which is nothing as the just Reward of it The three and thirtieth Excuse But sin is a Transient thing At least it doth God no harm and therefore why should he do us so much harm for it Answ. 1. It hurts not God because he is above hurt No thanks to you if he be out of your reach 2. You may Wrong him when you cannot Hurt him And the wrong deserves as much as you can beare If a Traytor endeavour the death of the Prince in vain his endeavour deserves death though he never hurt him You despise Gods Law and Authority you cause the Blaspheming of his name Rom. 2.24 He calls it A pressing him as a Cart is pressed with sheaves Amos 2.13 and a grieving of him 3. And you wrong his Image his Church the publike good and the souls of others The four and thirtieth Excuse But Gods nature is so Good and Merciful that sure he will not damn his own creature Answ. 1. A merciful Judge will hang a man for a fault against man By proportion then what is due for sin against God 2. All the death and calamity which you see in the world comes from the anger of this merciful God why then may not future misery come from it 3. God knoweth his own mercy better then you do and he hath told you how far it shall extend 4. He is infinitly merciful but it is to the Heirs of mercy Not to the final Rejecters of his mercy 5. Hath not God been merciful to thee in bearing with thee so long and offering thee Grace in the blood of Christ till thou didst wilfully reject it Thou wilt confess to thy everlasting wo that â—od was merciful Had he not been so merciful thou wouldst not have been so miserable for rejecting it The five and thirtieth Excuse I would not so Torment mine enemy my self Answ. No reason you should Is it all one to wrong you and to wrong the God of Heaven God is the only Judge of his own wrongs The six and thirtieth Excuse All men are sinners and I was but a sinner Answ. All were not Impenitent Unbelieving
before he justifie them against the charge of being sinners in general and he will first give men Faith Repentance and new Obedience before he will Justifie them against the charge of being Impenitent Infidels or Hypocrites and consequently unpardoned and doubly guilty of damnation This twofold righteousness he will first Give men and so constitute them Just before he will Declare it and Sentence them just 2. The Reason of the Sentence particularly Described is from their Faith and â—ove to Christ expressed in their Obedience self-denyal and forsaking all for him For I was hungry and ye fed me I was thirsty and ye gave me drink I was a stranger and ye took me in Naked and ye cloaâ—hed me I was sick and ye visited me I was in prison and ye came to me Verily I say unto you inasmuch as ye have done it to one of the least of these my Brethren ye have done it unto me Mat. 25.35 to 41. Here is 1. The causal conjunction for 2. And the Cause or Reason it self Concerning both which Observe 1. How it is that mans Obedience and self-denyal is The Reason and Cause of his Justification 2. Why it is that God will have the Reason or Cause thus Declared in the Sentence For the first observe that It s one thing to give a Reason of the Sentence and another thing to express the Cause of the Benefit Given us by the promise and Judged to us by the Sentence Mans Obedience was no proper Cause why God did in this life Give pardon of sin to us or a Right to glory much less of his Giving Christ to dye for us And therefore as to our Constitutive Justification at our Conversion we must not say or think that God doth Justifie us For or Because of any works of our Obedience Legal or Evangelical But when God hath so Justified us when he comes to give a Reason of his Sentence in Judgement he may and will fetch that Reason partly from our Obedience or our performance of the Conditions of the New Covenant For as in this life we had a Righteousness consisting in free pardon of all sin through the blood of Christ and a Righteousness consisting in our personal performance of the Conditions of the promise which giveth that pardon and continueth it to us so at Judgement we shall accordingly be justified And as our Evangelical personal Righteousness commonly called Inherent was at first only in our Faith and Repentance and Disposition to obey but afterward in our Actual sincere Obedience in which sense we are Constitutively Justified or made Righteous here by our works in James his sense Jam. 2.24 so accordingly a double Reason will be assigned of our sentential Justification One from our pardon by Christs blood and merits which will prove our Right to Impunity and to Glory The other from our own Faith and holy Obedience which will prove our Right to that pardon through Christ and to the free Gift of a Right to glory and so this last is to be pleaded in subordination to the former For Christ is become the Author of Eternal salvation to all them that Obey him Heb. 5 9. He therefore that will be saved must have a Christ to save him as the Author and an Obedience to that Christ as the Condition of that salvation and consequently both must be declared in the Judgement The Reason why the Judge doth mention our Good works rather then our Believing may be because those holy self-denying expressions of Faith and Love to Christ do contain or certainly imply Faith in them as the life of the tree is in the fruit but faith doth contain our works of Obedience but only as their cause These works also are a part of the personal Righteousness which is to be enquired after that is we shall not be judged righteous meerly because we have Believed but also because we have added to our Faith vertue and have improved our Talents and have loved Christ to the hazard of all or his sake For it is not only or principally for the goodness of the work considered in it self or the good that is done by it to the poor but it is as these works did express our Faith and Love to Christ by doing him the most costly and hazardous service that by Faith we could see Christ in a poor beggar or a prisoner and could love Christ in These better then our worldly goods or liberties which we must part with or hazard by the works that are here mentioned 2. The Reasons why Christ will so publikely Declare the personal righteousness of men to be the Reason or Cause of his Justifying sentence it is because It is the business of that day not only to glorifie Gods meer Love and Mercy but eminently to glorifie his Remunerative Justice and not only to express his love to the Elect as such but to express his love to them as Faithful and Obedient and such as have denyed all for Christ and Loved God above all And to shew his justice to the men and faithfulness in fulfilling all his promises and also his holinss in the high estimation of the holiness of his people I shall express this in the words of a Learned Divine Dr Twiss against Mr. Cotton pag. 40. Was there no more in Gods intention when he elected some then the manifestation of the riches of his glorious grace Did not God purpose also to manifest the Glory of his Remunerative Justice Is it not undenyable that God will bestow salvation on all his Elect of ripe years by way of reward and Crown of Righteousness which God the Righteous Judge will give 2 Tim. 4. 2 Thes. 1. It is great pitty this is not considered as usually it is not Especially for the momentous Consequence thereof in my Judgement So far he So much of the Sentence of Justification which shall be passed by Christ at Judgement upon the Righteous 2. We are next to consider of the Sentence of Condemnation which shall then by Christ be passed on the unrighteous Which is delivered to us by Christ Mat. 25. in the same order as the former This Sentence containeth 1. The Condemnation it self 2. The Reason or Cause of it The Condemnation expresseth the misery which they are judged to 1. Generally in the Denomination Cursed 2. Particularly by Description of their Cursed state To be cursed is to be a People destinated and adjudged to utter unhappiness to all kind of misery without remedy 2. Their Cursed condition is described in the next words Depart from me into Everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels 1. Depart From whom from the God that made them in his Image From the Redeemer that bought them by the price of his blood and offered to save them freely for all their unworthyness and many a time intreated them to Accept his offer that their souls might live From the Holy Ghost the Sanctifier and Comforter of the faithful who strove
cause 2. By the Judge â— Ex ploration 2. Sentence 3. To see to the Execution But because the Method is less suitable to your capacities and hath something humane I will reduce all to these following heads 1. I will shew what Judgement is 2. Who is the Judge and why 3. Who must be Judged 4. Who is the Accuser 5. How the citation constraint and appearance will be 6. What is the Law by which men shall be Judged 7. What will be the cause of the day what the Accusation and what must be the just Defence 8. What will be the Evidence 9. What are those frivolous insufficient excuses by which the unrighteous may think to escape 10. What will be the sentence who shall dye and shall live and what the Reward and Punishment is 11. What are the Properties of the Sentence 12. What and by whom the execution will be In these particular heads we contain the whole doctrine of this Judgement and in thiâ— more familiar method shall handle it 1. FOR the first Judgement as taken largely comprehendeth all the forementioned particulars As taken more strictly for the Act of the Judge it is the Tryal of a Controverted case In our case not these things following 1. Gods Judgement is not intended for any Discovery to himself of what he knows not already he knoweth already what all men are and what they have done and what is their due But it is to discover to others and to men themselves the ground of his sentence that so his Judgement may attain its end for the glorifying his grace on the Righteous and for the convincing the wicked of their sin and deâ—ert and to shew to all the world the Righteousness of the Judge and of his Sentence and Execution Rom. 3.4.26 and Rom. 2.2 2. It is not a Controversie therefore undecided in the mind of God that is there to be decided but onely one that is undecided as to the knowledge and mind of creatures 3. Yet is not this Judgement a bare Declaration but a Decision and so a Declaration thereupon the cause will be then put out of controversie and all further expectation of Decision be at an end and with the justified there will be no more Accusation and with the condemned no more hope for ever II. FOR the second thing who shall be the Judge I answer the Judge is God himself by Iesus Christ 1. Principally God as Creator 2. As also God as Redeemer the humane nature of Jesus Christ having a derived subordinate power God lost not his right to his creature either by mans fall or the Redemption by Christ but by the latter hath a new and further right but it is in and by Christ that God Judgeth For as meer Creator of innocent man God judgeth none but hath committed all Judgement to the Son who hath procured this right by the redeeming of fallen man John 5.22 But as the Son only doth it in the neerest sense so the Father as Creator doth it remotely and principally 1. In that the power of the Son is derived from the Father and so standeth in subordination to him as Fountain or Efficient 2. In that the Judgement of the Son as also his whole Mediatorship to bring men to God their maker as their ultimate end and recover them to him from whom they are faln and so as a means to that end the Judgement of the son is subordinate to the Father From hence you may see these following Truths worthy your consideration 1. That all men are Gods creatures and none are the workmanship of themselves or any other or else the Creator should not Judge them on that right 2. That Christ dyed for All and is the Redeemer of the world and a sacrifice for All or else he should not Judge them on that Right For he will not Judge wicked men as he will do the Devils as the meer enemies of his Redeemed ones but as being themselves his subjects in the world and being bought by him and therefore become his own who ought to have glorified him that bought them 2 Cor. 5.14 15. 2 Pet. 2.1 1 Cor. 6. â—9 20. 1 Ioh. 2.2 Heb. 2.9 1 Tim. 2.6 7. 3. Hence it appeareth that all men were under some Law of Grace and did partake of some of the Redeemers mercy Though the Gospel came not to all yet all had that mercy which could come from no other Fountain but his Blood and which should have brought them neerer to Christ then they were though it were not sufficient to bring them to believe and which should have led them to Repentance Rom. 2.4 For the neglecting of which they justly perish and not meerly for sinning against the Law that was given man in innocency Were that so Christ would not Judge them as Redeemer and that for the abuse or not-improvement of his Talents as he tels us he will do Mat. 25. per totum 4. If God will be the Judge then none can expect by any shifts or indirect means scape at that Day For how should it be 1. It is not possible that any should keep out of sight or hide their sin and the evil of their actions and so delude the Judge God will not be mocked now nor deceived then Gal. 6.7 they grossly deceive themselves that imagine any such thing God must be Omniscient and All-seeing or he cannot be God Should you hide your cause from men and from Devils and be ignorant of it your selves yet cannot you hide it from God Never did there a thought pass thy a heart or a word pass thy mouth which God was not acquainted with and as he knows them so he doth observe them He is not as Imperfect man taken up with other business so that he cannot mind All As easie is it with him to observe every Thought or Word or Action of thine as if he had but that one in the world to observe and as easie to observe each particular sinner as if he had not another creature to look after in the world He is a fool indeed that thinks now that God takes no notice of him Ezek. 8.12 and 9.9 or that thinketh then to escape in the croud He that found out one Guest that had not on a wedding Garment Mat. 22.12 will then find out every unholy soul and give him so sad a saluation as shall make him speechles Job 11.11 For he knoweth vain man he seeth wickedness also and will he not consider it 2. It is not possible that any should scape at that Day by any Tricks of with and false Reasoning in their own Defence God knoweth a sound Answer from an unsound and a Truth from a Lye Righteousness may be perverted here on earth by out-witting the Judge but so will it not be then To hope any of this is to hope that God will not be God It is in vain then for the unholy man to say he is holy or extenuate his sin To bring forth the