with the Mammon of Unrighteousness and ventured all his Hope in this Vessel And now he findeth the Wisdom of that Choice in a rich Return God made him so wise a Merchant as to sell all for this Pearl of greatest Price and therefore now he shall find the Gain As there is no other true Happiness but God in Glory so is there nothing more sutable and welcome to the true Believer O how welcome will the Face of that God be whom he loved sought longed and waited for How welcome will that Kingdom be which he lived in hope of which he parted with all for and suffered for in the Flesh How glad will he be to see the blessed Face of his Redeemer who by his manifold Grace hath brought him unto this I leave the believing Soul to think of it and to make it the daily matter of his delightful Meditation what an unconceivable Joy in one Moment will this Sentence of Christ will fill his Soul with Undoubtedly it is now quite past our Comprehension though our imperfect Forethoughts of it may well make our Lives a continual Feast Were it but our Justification from the Accusations of Satan who would have us condemned either as Sinners in general or as impenitent unbelieving Rebels against him that redeemed us in special it would lift up the Heads of the Saints in that Day After all the Fears of our own Hearts and the slanderous Accusations of Satan and the World That we were either impenitent Infidels or Hypocrites Christ will then justify us and pronounce us righteous So much for the Condition to which they are judged 2. The Reason or Cause of this Justification of the Saints is given us both 1. In a general Denomination and 2. In a particular Description 1. In general it is because they were righteous as is evident Mat. 25. 6. The Righteous shall go into Life everlasting And indeed it is the Business of every just Judg to justify the Righteous and condemn the Unrighteous And shall not the Judg of all the Earth judg righteously Gen. 18. 25. God makes Men righteous before he judges them so and judgeth them righteous because they are so He that abominateth that Man who saith to the Righteous Thou art wicked or to the Wicked Thou art righteous who justifieth the Wicked and condemneth the Righteous will certainly never do so himself Indeed he will justify them that are Sinners but not against the Accusation that they are Sinners but against the Accusation that they are guilty of Punishment for Sin but that is because he first made them just and so justifiable by pardoning their Sin through the Blood of Christ And it 's true also that he will justify those that were wicked but not those that are wicked but Judgment findeth them as Death leaveth them and he will not take them for wicked that are sanctified and cleansed of their former Wickedness So that Christ will first pardon them before he justify them against the Charge of being Sinners in general and he will first give Men Faith Repentance and new Obedience before he will justify them against the Charge of being Impenitent Infidels or Hypocrites and consequently â—mpardoned and doubly guilty of Damnation This twofold Righteousness he will first give Men and so constiture them just before he will declare it and sentence them just 2. The Reason of the Sentence particularly described is from their Faith and Love to Christ expressed in their Obedience Self-denial and forsaking all for him For I was hungry and ye fed me I was thirsty and ye gave me daink I was a Stranger and ye took me in naked and ye clothed 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 Conjuction for 2. And the Cause or Reason it self Concerning both which observe 1. How it is that Man's Obedience and Self-denial 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 Man's 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 die for us And therefore as to our constitutive Justification at our Conversion we must not say or think that God doth justify 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 Judgment 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 Judgment 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 James 2. 24. so accordingly a double Reason will be assigned of our sentential Justification one from our Pardon by Christ's 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 To 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 Judgment The Reason why the Judg doth mention our good Works rather than 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 The 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 for his
neglect and abuse of this they shall be judged and not meerly for sinning against the Law that was given us in pure Innocency so that Christ as Redeemer shall judg them as well as others though they had but one Talent yet must they give an account of that to the Redeemer from whom they received it But if any be unsatisfied in this let them remember that as God hath left the State of such more dark to us and the Terms on which he will judg them so doth it much more concern us to look to the Terms of our own Judgment Obj. But how shall Insants be judged by the Gospel that were uncapable of it Answ For ought I find in Scripture they stand or fall with their Parents and on the same Terms but I leave each to their own Thoughts VII For the seventh Head What will be the Cause of the Day to be enquâ—ed after what the Accusation and what the Defence Answ This may be gathered from what was last said The great Cause of the Day will be to enquire and determine who shall die and who shall live who ought to go to Heaven and who to Hell for ever according to the Law by which they must then be judged 1. As there is a twofold Law by which they must be judged so will there then be a twofold Accusation The first will be that they were Sinners and so having violated the Law of God they deserve everlasting Death according to that Law If no Defence could be made this one Accusation would condemn all the World for it is most certain that all are Sinners and as certain that all Sin deserveth Death The only Defence against this Accusation â—ieth in this Plea confessing the Charge we must plead that Christ hath satisfied for Sins and upon that Consideration God hath forgiven us and therefore being forgiven we ought not to be punished To prove this we must shew the Pardon under God's Hand in the Gospel But because this pardoning doning Act of the Gospel doth forgive none but those that repent and believe and so return to God and to sincere Obedience for the time to come therefore the next Accusation will be that we did not perform these Conditions of Forgiveness and therefore being Vnbelievers Impenitent and Rebels against the Redeemer we have no right to Pardon but by the Sentence of the Gospel are liable to a greater Punishment for this Contempt of Christ and Grace This Accusation is either true or false where it is true God and Conscience who speak the Truth may well be said to be the Accusers Where it is false it can be only the Work of Satan the malicious Adversary who as we may see in Job's Case will not stick to bring a false Accusation If any think that the Accuser will not do so vain a Work at least they may see that potentially this is the Accusation that lieth against us and which we must be justified against For all Justification implieth 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 Evangilically 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 Sins and a Right to everlasting Glory And thus we must then be justified by Christ's Satisfaction only against the Accusation of being Sinners in general and of deserving God's 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 sum 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 sed 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 Labour and Cost are fitter to express Love by than empty Compliments 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 God's Enquiry is but the Discovery and Conviction of us But the last Question which must decide the Controversy 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 die 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 Judgment that this is meant They that have repented and believed and returned to true though imperfect Obedience shall be judged 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 died 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 the Law and by these Sins in special against the Gospel This is called the Merit of the Cause that is what is a Man's 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 Cause 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 fivefold Evidence among Men. 1. When the Fact is notorious 2. The Knowledg of an unsuspected competent Judg.
be transacted by Words as we do now but by clear Discoveries by the infinite Light and that if God should not discover to them their Sins he would not discover the Riches of his Grace in the Pardon of all these Sins even then they must be humbled in themselves that they may be glorified and for ever cry Not unto us Lord but unto thy Name be the Glory IV. For the fourth Particular Who will be the Accuser Answ 1. Satan is called in Scripture the Accuser of the Prethren Revel 12. 10. and we find in Joh 1. and other Places that now he doth practise it even before God and therefore we judg it probable that he will do so then But we would determine of nothing that Scripture hath not clearly determined 2. Conscience will be an Accuser though especially of the Wicked yet in some sense of the Righteâ—us for it will tell the Truth to all and therefore so far as Men are faulty it will tell them of their Faults The Wicked it will accuse of unpardoned Sin and of Sin unrepented of the Godly only of Sin repented of and pardoned It will be a Glass wherein every Man may see the Face of his Heart and former Life Rom. 1. 15. 3. The Judg himself will be the principal Accuser for it is he that is wronged and he that prosecutes the Cause and will do Justice on the Wicked God judgeth even the Righteous themselves to be Sinners or else they could not be pardoned Sinners But he judgeth the Wicked to be impenitent unbelieving unconverted Sinners Remember what I said before that it is not a verbal Accusation but an opening of the Truth of the Cause to the view of our selves and others that God will then perform Nor can any think it unworthy of God to be Mens Accuser by such a Disclosure it being no Dishonour to the purest Light to reveal a Dunghil or to the greatest Prince to accuse a Traitor Nor is it unmeet that God should be both Accuser and Judg seeing he is both absolute Lord and perfectly Just and so far beyond all suspition of Injustice His Law also doth virtually accuse Joh. 5. 45. but of this by it self V. For the fifth Particular How will the Sinners be called to the Bar Answ God will not stand to send them a Citation nor require them to make their voluntary Appearance but willing or unwilling he will bring them in 1. Before each Man's particular Judgment he sendeth Death to call away his Soul a surly Serjeant that will have no Nay How dear soever this World may be to Men and how loth soever they are to depart away they must and come before the Lord that made them Death will not be bribed Every Man that was set in the Vineyard in the Morning of their Lives must be called out at Evening to receive according to what he hath done then must the naked Soul alone appear before its Judg and be accountable for all that was done in the Body and be sent before till the final Judgment to remain in Happiness or Misery till the Body be raised again and joined to it In this Appearance of the Soul before God it seemeth by Scripture that there is some Ministry of Angels for Luke 16. 22. it is said that the Angels carried Lazarus that is his Soul into Abraham's Bosom What local Motion there is or Situation of Souls is no fit Matter for the Enquiry of Mortals and what it is in this that the Angels will do we cannot clearly understand as yet but most certain it is that as soon as ever the Soul is out of the Body it comes to its account before the God of Spirits 2. At the end of the World the Bodies of all Men shall be raised from the Earth and joined again to their Souls and the Soul and Body shall be judged to their endless State and this is the great and general Judgment where all Men shall at once appear The same Power of God that made Men of nothing will as easily then new-make them by a Resurrection by which he will add much more Perfection even to the Wicked in their Naturals which will make them capable of the greater Misery even they shall have immortal and incorruptible Bodies which may be the Subjects of immortal Wo 1 Cor. 15. 53. John 5. 28 29. Of this Resurrection and our Appearance at Judgment the Angels will be someway the Ministers as they shall come with Christ to Judgment so they shall sound his Trumpet 1 Thess 4. 16. and they shall gather the Wicked out of God's Kingdom and they shall gather the Tares to burn them Matth. 13. 39 40 41. in the End of the World the Angels shall come forth and sever the Wicked from among the Just and shall cast them into the Furnace of Fire Matth. 17. 49 50. VI. For the sixth Particular What Law is it that Men shall be judged by Answ That which was given them to live by God's Law is but the Sign of his Will to teach us what shall be due from us and to us before we fell he gave us such a Law as was sutable to our Perfection when we had sinned and turned from him as we ceased not to be his Creatures nor he to be our Lord so he destroyed not his Law nor discharged or absolved us from the Duty of our Obedience But because we stood condemned by that Law and could not be justified by it having once transgressed it he was pleased to make a Law of Grace even a new a remedying Law by which we might be saved from the deserved Punishment of the Old So we shall be tried at Judgment upon both these Laws but ultimately upon the last The first Law commanded perfect Obedience and threatned Death to us if ever we disobeyed the second Law finding us under the Guilt of Sin against the first doth command us to repent and believe in Christ and so return to God by him and promiseth us pardon of all our Sins upon that Condition and also if we persevere everlasting Glory So that in Judgment though it must be first evinced that we are Sinners and have deserved Death according to the Law of pure Nature yet that is not the Upshot of the Judgment For the Enquiry will be next whether we have accepted the Remedy and so obeyed the Law of Grace and performed its Condition for Pardon and Salvation and upon this our Life or Death will depend It is both these Laws that condemn the Wicked but it is only the Law of Grace that justifieth the Righteous Obj. But how shall Heathens be judged by the Law of Grace that never did receive it Answ The express Gospel some of them had not and therefore shall not directly be judged by it but much of the Redeemer's Mercy they did enjoy which should have led them to repent and seek out after Recovery from their Misery and to come nearer Christ and for the
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 Man 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 Unholiness 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 â—idst so thou shouldst die Look upon thy own Heart now and see whether it be an 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 O how easily will God convince Men then of the very Sins of their Thoughts and in their secret Closeâ—s when they thought that no Witness could have disclosed them Therefore it 's said that the Books shall be opened and the Dead judged out of the Books Rev. 20. 12. Dan. 7. 10. The second Evidence will be the Knowledg of the Judg. If the Sinner would not be convinced yet it is sufficient that the Judg knoweth the Cause God needeth no farther Witness he saw thee committing Adultery in secret Lying Stealing Forswearing in secret If thou do not know thine own Heart to be unholy 't is enough that God knoweth it If you have the Face to say Lord when did we see thee hungry c. Mat. 25. 44. yet God will make good the Charge against thee and there needeth no more Testimony than his own Can foolish Sinners think to lie hid or escape at that Day that will now sin wilfully before their Judg that know every Day that their Judg is looking on them while they forget him and give up themselves to the World and yet go on even under his Eye as if to his Face they dared him to punish them 3. The third Evidence will be the Sinners Confession God will force their own Consciences to witness against them and their own Tongues to confess the Accusation If they do at first excuse it he will leave them speechless yea and condemning themselves before they have done O what a difference between their Language now and then Now we cannot tell them of their Sin and Misery but they either tell us of our own Faults or bid us look to our selves or deny or excuse their Fault or make light of it but then their own Tongues shall confess them and cry out of the wilful Folly that they committed and lay a heavier Charge upon them than we can now do Now if we tell them that we are afraid they are unregenerate and lest their Hearts are not truly set upon God they will tell us they hope to be saved with such Hearts as they have But tâ—en O how they will confess the Folly and Falseness of their own Hearts You may see a little of their Case even in despairing Sinners on Earth how far they are from denying or excusing their Sins Judas cries out I have sinned in betraying innocent Blood Mat. 27. 4. out of their own Mouth shall they be judged That very Tongue that now excuseth their Sin will in their Torments be their great Accuser For God will have it so to be 4. The fourth Evidence will be the Witness of others O how many thousand Witnesses might there be produced were there need to convince the guilty Soul at that Day 1. All the Ministers of Christ that ever preached to them or warned them will be sufficient Witnesses against them we must needs testify that we preached to them the Truth of the Gospel and they would not believe it We preached to them the Goodness of God yet they set not their Hearts upon him we shewed them their Sin and they were not humbled we told them of the danger of an unregenerate State and they did not regard us we acquainted them with the absolute Necessity of Holiness but they made light of all we let them know the Deceitfulness of their Hearts and the need of a close and faithful Examination but they would not bestow an Hour in such a Work nor scarce once be afraid of being mistaken and miscarrying We let them know the Vanity of this World and yet they would not forsake it no not for Christ and the Hopes of Glory we told them of the everlasting Felicity they might attain but they would not set themselves to seek it What we shall think of it then the Lord knows but surely it seemeth now to us a matter of very sad Consideration that we must be brought in as Witnesses against the Souls of our Neighbours and Friends in the Flesh Those whom we now unfeignedly love and would do any thing that we were able to do for their good whose Welfare is dearer to us than all worldly Enjoyments Alas that we must be forced to testify to their Faces for
of every Crime to the Will of Man and there to leave it Upon this all Laws and Judgments 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 Man's Will should be the first Cause so much as of a sinful Mode and answer all occurring 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 Reflection and God gave us a Soul to use rather than to know it self and to know its Qualities and Operations rather than 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 and therefore I do nothing but what I was predestinated to do and if God decreed not to save me how could I help it Answ 1. God's Judgments 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 is the Cause of that Condemnation though not of his Decree 3. God's Decrees are Acts Immanent in himself and make no change on you and therefore do not necessitate you to sin any more than his Fore-knowledg 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 than if there had been no such Decree And it 's 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 God's Fore knowledg 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 to morrow 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 escape 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 hindered all the Sin and Death and Confusion and Misery that is in the Word 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 die for me He died but for his Elect and none could be saved without his Death Answ He did die 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 Adam's 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 than a Nobleman that is a Traitor 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 〈◊〉 gives He gave me not Grace to repeat and believe 〈◊〉 without his Gift I could not have it Answ 1. God will justly require more than he giveth that is the improvement of his Gifts as Mat. 25. shews He gave Adam but a Power to persevert and not actual Perseverance Yet did he justly punish him for want of the Act even for not using by his own Wll 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 nearer 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 tho this were not sufficient to cause you to believe it was sufficient to have brought you nearer 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 Mâ—â— is a Worn 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 〈◊〉 by Sin yet he is naturally so noble a Creatur◠〈◊〉 â—â—age of God was on him Gen. 12. 26. 〈◊〉 1. James 3. 9. and the World made his Servâ—â—◠〈◊〉 Angels his Attenâ—ants Heb. 1. 14. so noble 〈◊〉 Christ died for him God takes special care of him he is capable of knowing and enjoying God 〈◊〉 Heaven is not thought too good for him if he will â—ey And he that is capable of so great Good must 〈◊〉 capable of as great Evil and his Ways not to be so â—â—erlooked by that God that hath undertaken to be
rather that godly Christians might the better understand how to deal with these vain Excuses when they meet with them which will be daily if they deal with Men in this sad Condition X. We have done with that part of the Judgment which consisteth in the Exploration or Trial of the Cause we now come to that which is the Conclusion and Consummation of all and that is to shew you what the Sentence will be and on whom And for this we must go strait to the Word of God for our Light it being impossible for any Man to have any particular Knowledg of it if Christ had not there revealed it unto us Indeed almost all the World do acknowledg a Life after this where it shall go well with the Good and ill with the bad But who shall be then accounted righteous and who unrighteous and on what Terms and Grounds by whom they shall be judged and to what Condition they know not The Sentence in Judgment will be 1. Either on those that never had Means to know Christ 2. Or on those that had 1. For the former as it less concerneth us to enquire of their Case so it is more obscurely revealed to us in the Scripture It is certain that they shall be judged according to their Use of the Means which they had Rom. 2. 11 12 13 14 15 16. and the Talents which they received Mat. 25. But that it ever falleth out that he that hath but the one Talent of natural Helps doth improve it to Salvation or that ever they who knew not Christ are justified and saved without that Knowledg being at Age and Use of Reason I find not in the Scriptures I find indeed that as many as have sinned without Law shall also perish without Law and as many as have sinned in the Law shall be judged by the Law Rom. 2. 12. but not that any are justified by the Works of Nature such as are here said to be without Law I find also that They have the Work of the Law written in their Hearts their Conscience also bearing witness and their Thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another in the Day when God shall jude the Secrets of Men by Jesus Christ according to the Gospel Rom. 2. 15 16. And I believe it is a just Excuse and not an unjust which is here meant But it will be but an Excuse so far as they were guiltless and that will be but in tanto and not in toto in part only and so not a full Justification A Heathen's Conscience may excuse him from those Sins which he was never guilty of but not from all But no more of them 2. The Case of those that have had the Gospel is more plainly opened to us in God's Word Their Sentence is opened in many Places of Scripture but most fully in Matth. 25. whence we will now collect it There we find that Jesus Christ the Redeemer as King of the World shall sit in Judgment on all Men at the last and shall separate them one from another as a Shepherd divideth the Sheep from the Goats and so shall pass the final Sentence This Sentence is twofold according to the different Condition of them that are judged To them on the right Hand there is a Sentence of Justification and Adjudication to everlasting Glory To them on the left Hand there is a Sentence of Condemnation to everlasting Punishment The Sentence on each of these containeth both the State which they are judged to and the Reason or Cause of the Judgment to that State For as God will not judg any to Life or Death without just Cause so he will publish this Cause in his Sentence as it is the manner of Judges to do If you say Christ will not use a Voice let it satisfy that though we know not the manner yet if he do it but by mental Discovery as he shews Men what shall everlastingly befal them so he will shew them why it shall so befal them 1. The Sentence on them on the right Hand will contain 1. Their Justification and Adjudication to Blessedness and that both as generally denominated and as particularly determined and described 2. And the Cause of this Judgment 1. In general they shall be pronounced Blessed Satan would have had them cursed and miserable the Law did curse them to Misery many a fearful Though hath possessed their own Breasts lest they should prove at last accursed and miserable but now they hear the contrary from their Judg. All the Promises in the Gospel could not perfectly overcome those their Fears all the comfortable Words of the Ministers of the Gospel could not perfectly subdue them all the tender Mercies of God in Christ did not perfectly subdue them but now they are vanquished all for ever He that once had heard his Redeemer in Judgment call him blessed will never fear being cursed more For he that Christ blesseth shall be blessed indeed The Description of their Blessedness followeth Come inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the Foundation of the World And also they are called Blessed of the Father Here is the Fountain of their Blessedness the Father and the State of their Blessedness in being the Father's for I suppose they are called the Blessed of are Father both because the Father blesseth them that is makes them Happy and because these blessed Ones are the Father 's own And so Christ will publish it to the World in Judgment that he came to glorify the Father and will proclaim him the principal Efficient and ultimate End of his Work of Redemption and the Blessedness of his Saints and that himself is as Mediator but the Way to the Father It is the Father that prepared the Kingdom for them and from the Foundation of the World prepared it both for them as chosen ones and for them as future Believers and righteous Ones It is called a Kingdom partly in respect to God the King in whose Glory we shall partake in our Places and partly metapherically from the Dignity of our Condition For so it is that our selves are said to be made Kings Rev. 1. 6. and 5. 1. 1 Pet. 2. 9. and not that we are properly Kings for then we must have Subjects who must be governed by us Thus we see their Blessedness in the Fountain End and State of Dignity As to the receptive Act on their Part it is expressed by two Words one signifying their first Entrance on it Come the other their Possession Inherit That is possess it as given by the Father and Redeemed by the Son and hold it in this Tenure for ever The true Believer was convinced in this Life that indeed there was no true Blessedness but this Enjoyment of God in the Kingdom of Heaven The Lord revealed this to his Heart by his Word and Spirit And therefore he contemned the seeming Happiness on Earth and laid up for himself a Treasure in Heaven and made him Friends
see then that it is not meerly for want of good Preachers that Men make light of Christ and Salvation the first News of such a thing as the Pardon of Sin and the Hopes of Glory and the Danger of everlasting Misery would turn the Hearts of Men within them if they were as tractable in spiritual Matters as in temporal But alas it is far otherwise It must not seem any strange thing nor must it too much discourage the Preachers of the Gospel if when they have said all that they can devise to say to win the Hearts of Men to Christ the most do still slight him and while they bow the Knee to him and honour him with their Lips do yet set so light by him in their Hearts as to prefer every fleshly Pleasure or Commodity before him It will be thus with many let us be glad that it is not thus with all Vse 3. But for closer Application Seeing this is the great condemning Sin before we enquire after it into the Hearts of our Hearers it beseems us to begin at home and see that we who are Preachers of the Gospel be not guilty of it our selves The Lord forbid that they that have undertaken the sacred Office of revealing the Excellencies of Christ to the World should make light of him themselves and slight that Salvation which they do daily preach The Lord knows we are all of us so low in our Estimation of Christ and do this great Work so negligently that we have cause to be ashamed of our best Sermons but should this Sin prevail in us we were the most miserable of all Men. Brethren I love not Censoriousness yet dare not befriend so vile a Sin in my self or others under pretence of avoiding it especially when there is so great Necessity that it should be healed first in them that make it their Work to heal it in others O that there were no cause to complain that Christ and Salvation are made light of by the Preachers of it But 1. Do not the negligent Studies of some speak it out 2. Doth not their dead and drowsy Preaching declare it Do not they make light of the Doctrine they preach that do it as if they were half asleep and feel not what they speak themselves 3. Doth not the Carelesness of some Mens private Endeavours discover it What do they for Souls how slightly do they reprove Sin how little do they when they are out of the Pulpit for the saving of Mens Souls 4. Doth not the continued Neglect of those things wherein the Interest of Christ consisteth discover it 1. The Churches Purity and Reformation 2. It s Unity 5. Doth not the covetous and worldly Lives of too many discover it losing Advantages for Mens Souls for a little Gain to themselves and most of this is because Men are Preachers before they are Christians and tell Men of that which they never felt themselves Of all Men on Earth there are few that are in so sad a Condition as such Ministers and if indeed they do believe that Scripture which they preach methinks it should be terrible to them in their studying and preaching it Vse 4. Beloved Hearers the Office that God hath called us to is by declaring the Glory of his Grace to help under Christ to the saving of Mens Souls I hope you think not that I come hither to Day on any other Errand The Lord knows I had not set a Foot out of Doors but in hope to succeed in this Work for your Souls I have considered and often considered what is the matter that so many thousands should perish when God hath done so much for their Salvation and I find this that is mentioned in my Text is the Cause It is one of the Wonders of the World that when God hathso loved the World as to send his Son aud Christ hath made a Satisfaction by his Death sufficient for them all and offereth the Benefits of it so freely to them even without Money or Price that yet the most of the World should perish yea the most of those that are thus called by his Word Why here is the Reason when Christ hath done all this Men make light of it God hath shewed that he is not unwilling and Christ hath shewed that he is not unwilling that Men should be restored to God's Favour and be saved but Men are actually unwilling themselves God takes not pleasure in the Death of Sinners but rather that they return and live Ezek. 33. 11. But Men take such pleasure in Sin that they will die before they will return The Lord Jesus was content to be their Physician and hath provided them a sufficient Plaister of his own Blood but if Men make light of it and will not apply it what wonder if they perish after all This Scripture giveth us the Reason of their Perdition This sad Experience tells us the most of the World is guilty of It is a most lamentable thing to see how most Men do spend their Care their Time their Pains for known Vanities while God and Glory are cast aside That he who is all should seem to them as nothing and that which is nothing should seem to them as good as all that God should set Mankind in such a Race where Heaven or Hell is their certain End and that they should sit down and loiter or run after the childish Toys of the World and so much forget the Prize that they should run for Were it but possible for one of us to see the whole of this Business as the All-seeing God doth to see at one View both Heaven and Hell which Men are so near and see what most Men in the World are minding and what they are doing every Day it would be the saddest sight that could be imagined O how should we marvel at their Madness and lament their Self-delusion O poor distracted World what is it that you run after and what is it that you neglect If God had never told them what they were sent into the Word to do or whither they were going or what was before them in another World then they had been excusable but he hath told them over and over till they were weary of it Had he left it doubtful there had been some excuse but it is his sealed Word and they profess to believe it and would take it ill of us if we should question whether they do believe it or not Beloved I come not to accuse any of you particularly of this Crime but seeing it is the commonest Cause of Mens Destruction I suppose you will judg it the fittest Matter for our Enquiry and deserving our greatest Care for the Cure To which end I shall 1. Endeavour the Conviction of the Guilty 2. Shall give them such Considerations as may tend to humble and reform them 3. I shall conclude with such Direction as may help them that are willing to escape the destroying Power of this Sin And