to be punished 2 Pet. 2. 9. And Jude saith for them is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever Jude 13. The punishment of the ungodly it is reserved till the day of Judgement which will be the time of their Resurrection Observe first The wicked must be punished Secondly The time of their punishment is not now but at the day of Judgement Thirdly This day of Judgement must be the same with the Resurrection of the Dead at the end of this World As therefore the Tares are gathered and burned in the fire so shall it be in the end of this World The Son of Man shall send forth his Angels and they shall gather out of his Kingdom all things that offend and them that do iniquity and shall cast them into a Furnace of fire there shall be weeping and gnashing of Teeth Mat. 13. 40 41. There shall then be a Resurrection of the Dead both of the just and unjust Fourthly The Soveraignty of the Lord Jesus over all Creatures doth plainly foreshew a Resurrection of the bad as well as of the good Indeed the unjust shall not arise by vertue of any relation they stand in to the Lord Jesus as the Saints shall but yet because all are delivered into his hand and he made Soveraign Lord over them therefore by an Act of his Soveraign Power they that are ungodly shall arise this is Christs own Argument The Father judgeth no man saith he but hath committed all Judgment unto the Son that is Count him and fall before him as their Soveraign Lord even as they honour the Father and he hath given him authority to execute Judgement also because he is the Son of Man And then he adds Marvel not at this for the hower is coming that all that are in their graves shall hear his Voyce and shall come forth they that have done good to the Resurrection of life and they that have done evill to the Resurrection of damnation Joh. 5. 22 23 27 28 29. From hence also Paul argueth saying For this cause he both dyed rose and revived that he might be Lord both of the dead and living And then adds We must all stand before the Judgement Seat of Christ. Rom. 14. 9. 10. Pray mind these words Jesus Christ by his Death and Resurrection did not onely purchase Grace and Remission of sins for his Elect with their Eternal Glory but did thereby also obtain of the Father to be Lord and Head over all things whether they be things in Heaven or things on Earth or things under the Earth All Power saith he in Heaven and in Earth is given unto me and I have the Keys of Hell and of Death Mat. 28. 18. Rev 1. 18. So that all things I say whether they be visible or invisible whether they be Thrones or Dominions or Principalities or Powers all things were created by him and for him Col. 1. 16. This being thus at the Name of Jesus every knee must bow and every Tongue confess that he is Soveraign Lord to the glory of God the Father Phil. 2. 9 10 11. Now that this may be done He hath his Resolutions upon a Judgement-day in which he to shew himself his People his Way and Word in their Glory will have all his Enemies raised out of their Graves and brought before him where he will sit upon them in the Throne of his Gloâ—y and will shew them then who is the onely Potentate the King of Kings and Lord of Lords Mat. 25. 31 32. 1 Tim. 6. 14 15. Beloved He comes with ten thousand of his Saints to execute Judgement upon all and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed and of all their wicked speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him Jude 14 15. Fifthly The great preparation that God hath made for the Judgement of the wicked doth clearly demonstrate their rising forth out of their Graves First He hath appointed the day of their rising Secondly He hath appointed their Judge to judge them Thirdly He hath Recorded all their acts and doings against that day Fourthly He hath also already appointed the Witnesses to come in against them Fifthly The Instruments of death and misery are already prepared for them For the first he hath appointed the day of their rising which day John calleth the time of the dead that they should be judged Which time Paul saith is a time fixed he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the World c. This time and day Christ brings down to an houre saying The hour is coming when all that are in their Graves shall hear his Voyce and shall come forth c. Revel 11. 18. Acts 17. 30 31. Joh. 5. 28 29. Secondly As he hath appointed the day so he hath appointed the Judge He hath appointed a day in which he will judge the World in Righteousness by that Man whom he hath ordained of which he hath given assurance to all men in that he hath raised him from the Dead This Man is Jesus Christ for it is He that is ordained of God to be the Judge of the Quick and the Dead Acts 17. 30 31. Acts 10. 40 41 42. Thirdly All their deeds and works to a word and thought and every one already Recorded and Inrolled in the Books of the Laws of Heaven against that day The sin of Judah is written with a pen of Iron and with the point of a Diamond upon the Tables of their heart And again saith God Write it in a Table and note it in a Book that it may be for the time to come even for ever and ever that this is a rebellious House c. Jer. 17. 1. Isa. 30. 8 9. Fourthly God hath prepared his Witnesses against this day James 5. 1. Job 20. 27. Mat. 24. 14. Rom. 2. 14 15. Malac. 3. 5. Fifthly The Instruments of Death and Eternal misery are all already prepared He hath prepared for them the Instruments of Death he hath ordained his Arrows against the face of persecutors Psal. 7. 11 12 13. Psal. 21. 12. Hell is of old prepared he hath made it deep and large the fire the everlasting fire is also now of a long time prepared the heavy weights of Gods Curse are also ready and their damnation now of a long time slumbereth not Isa. 30 33. Mat. 25. 41. Deut. 29. 19 30. 2 Pet. 2 3. But now I say how rediculous a business would all this be if these things should be all prepared of the onely wise God and there should be none to be judged or if he that is ordained Judge should not either through want of power or will Command these Rebels and force them before his Judgement-Seat Glad indeed would the sinners be if these things might be true Glad I say at very heart if they might be in their secret places of darkness and the Grave for ever but it must not be the day of their rising is set
and life and all But behold we are raised in power in that power that all these things are as far below us as a Grashopper is below a Gyant at the first appearance of us the World will tremble Job 38. 17. Judges 16. 3. Behold the Gates of death and the bars of the Grave are now carried away on our shoulders as Sampson carried away the Gates of the City Death quaketh and destruction falleth down dead at our feet What then can stand before us We shall then carry that Grace Majesty Terrour and commanding power in our souls that our countenances shall be like Lightning compare Luke 20. 36. with Mat. 28. 2 3. For this mortall must put on immortality and this corruptible must put on incorruption So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption and this mortall shall have put on immortality then shall be brought to passe that saying which is written Death is swallowed up of Victory 1 Cor. 15. 53 54. Fourthly It is raised a spiritual Body This is the last particular and is indeed the reason of the other three it is an incorruptible Body because it is a spiritual one it is a glorious Body because it is a spiritual one it doth rise in power because it is a spiritual Body When the Body is buried or sown in the Earth it is a Body corruptible dishonourable weak and natural but when it ariseth it doth rise incorruptible glorious powerfully and Spiritual So that so far as incorruption is above corruption glory above dishonour powerfull above weakness and spiritual above naturall So great an alteration will there be in our Body when raised again And yet it is this Body and not another this in nature though changed into a far more glorious State A thousand times further then if a Hoggard was changed to be an Emperour Mark It is sown a natural Body a very fit word for though there dwell never so much of the Spirit and Grace of God in it while it liveth yet so soon as the Soul is separate from it so soon also doth the Spirit of God separate from it and so will continue while the day of its rising be come Therefore it is laid into the Earth a meer Lump of Man's Nature It is sown a Natural Body But now at the day when the Heavens shall be no more as Job saith Job 14. 12. Then the Trump shall sound even the Trump of God and in a moment the Dead shall be raised incorruptible glorious and spiritual 1 Cor. 15. 52. 1 Thes. 24. 16 17. So that I say the Body when it ariseth will be so swallowed up of life and immortality that it will be as if it had lost its own Humane Nature though in truth the same substantial real Nature is every whit there still 'T is the same it that riseth that was sown it is sown it is raised it is sown it is raised saith the Apostle You know that things which are candied by the Art of the Apothecary they are so swallow'd up with the sweetness and vertue of that in which it is candied that they are now as though they had no other Nature than that in which they are boiled When yet in truth the thing candied doth still retain its own proper Nature and Essence though by vertue of its being candied it loseth its former sourness bitterness stinking smell or the like Just thus at the last day it will be with our Bodies We shall be so candied by being swallow'd up of Life as before is shewed That we shall be as if we were all Spirit when in truth it is but this Body that is swallowed up of Life And it must needs be that our Nature still remain otherwise it cannot be Us that shâ—ll be in Heaven but something besides Us. Let us lose our proper Humane Nature and we lose absolutely our Being so are annihalated into nothing Wherefore it the same it that is sown a Natural Body it shall rise a Spiritual Body But again as I said concerning Things that are candied our Body when thus risen it shall lose all that sourness and stinck that now by reason of sinne and infirmity cleaveth to it neither shall its lumpishness or unweildiness be any impediment to its acting after the manner of Angels Christ hath shewed us what our Body at our Resurrection shall be by shewing of us in his Word what his Body was at and after his Resurrection We read that his Body after he was risen from the Dead though it yet retained the very same Flesh and Bones that did hang upon the Cross yet how Angelical was it at all times upon all occasions He could come in to his Disciples with that very Body when the Doors were shut upon them He could at pleasure to their amazement appear in the twinckling of an Eye in the midst of them He could be visible and invisible as he pleased when he sat at meat with them In a word he could pass and re-pass ascend and descend in that Body with far more pleasure and ease than the Bird by the Art of her Wing Luk 24. 38 39 40 41. Joh. 20. 24 25. Luk. 24. 31 32 50 51. Joh. 20. 19 26. Act. 1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11. Mark 16. 19. Eph. 4. 7 8 9. Now I say as we have in this World born the Image of our first Father so at that Day we shall have the Image of Jesus Christ and be as he is As is the Earthly such are they that are Earthly and as is the Heavenly such are they that are Heavenly and as we have been the Image of the Earthly we shall at our Resurrection bear the Image of the Heavenly It is so in part now but shall so be in perfection then 1 Cor. 15. 48 49. To mount up to Heaven and to descend again at pleasure shall with us in that Day be ordinary If there were Ten Thousand Bars of Iron or Walls of Brass to separate between us and our pleasure and desire at that Day they should as easily be pierced by us as is the Cobweb or Air by the Beams of the Sun And the Reason is Because to the Spirit wherewith we shall be unconceiveably filled at that Day nothing is unpossible Mat. 10. 27. And the working of it at that Day shall be in that nature and measure as to swallow up all impossibilities He shall change our vile Body and fashion it like unto his glorious Body Now mark according to the working whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself Phil. 3. 21. As who should say I know that there are many things that in this World hinder us from having our Bodies like the Body of Christ but when God shall raise us from the Dead because he will then have our Body like the Body of his Son He will stretch forth such a power to work upon and in our Body that he will remove all impossibilities and hinderances
for me this is the man that overcame the flatteries and threats allurements and inticings of a whole World for me behold â—iâ— he is an Israelite indeed the top man in his Generation none like him in all the Earth It is said that when King Ahasuerus had understanding of how good service Mordeeai the Jew had done to and for him he commanded that the royall Apparel and the Crown with the Horse that the King did ride on should be given to him and that he should with that Crown Apparel and Horse be had through the City in the presence of all his Nobles and that Proclamation should be made before him thus shall it be done to the man whom the King delighteth to honour Esth. 6. 9 10 11. Ahasuerus in this was a Type to hold forth to the Children of God how kindly he will take all their labour and service of love and how he will honour and dignifie the same as Christ saith Let your loins be girded about and your lights burning and you your selves like unto men that wait for their Lord when he will return from the Wedding that when he cometh and knocketh ye may open to him immediately blessed are those servants whom their Lord when he cometh shall find watching Verily I say unto you that he shall gird himself and shall make them sit down to meat and shall come forth and serve them Luke 12. 35 36 37. The meaning is that those souls that shall make it their business to honour the Lord Jesus Christ in the day of their temptation he will make it his business to honour and glotifie them in the day of his glorification Verily I say unto you that he will make them sit down to meat and shall come forth and serve them if any man will serve me saith he him will my Father honour Joh. 12. 26. Job 1. 8. Joh. 1. 47. Mark 14. 9. Rev. 3 4. Rev. 14. 12. 3 4 5. It hath bin Gods way in this World to proclaim the acts and doing of his Saints in his Word before all in this World and he will do it in that which is to come Thirdly Another thing that shall be yet added to the glory of the Saints in the Kingdom of their Saviour at his coming is they shall every one of them then have his Throne and place of degree on Christs right hand and on his left in his glorious Kingdom according to the relation they stand in to Christ as the members of his Body for as Christ will have a special eye on us and a tender and affectionate heart to recompence to the full every good thing that any man doth for his name in this World so also he will have as great regard that there be to every member of his body the place and state that is comely for every such member When the Mother of Zebedees Children petitioned our Saviour that he would grant to her that her two Sons might fit the one on his right hand and the other on his left in his Kingdom though he did not grant to her the request for her Children yet he affirmed that there would be places of degrees and honour in Heaven saying To sit on my right hand and on my left is not mine to give but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father See Mat. 20. 20 21 22 23. In the Temple there were Chambers bigger and lesser higher and lower more inward and more outward which Chambers were types of the Mansions that our Lord when he went away told us he went to prepare for us In my Fathers House are many mansions if it were not so I would have told you I go to prepare a place for you c. Joh 14. 1 2 3. The foot here shall not have the place prepared for the eye nor yet the hand that which is prepared for the ear but every one shall have his own place in the Body of Christ and the glory also prepared for such a relation order as it is comely in Earth so much more in the Kingdom of the God of Order in Heaven where all things shall be done in their utmost perfections Here shall Euoch Noah Abraham Moses Joshuah David with the Prophets have every one his place according to the degree of old Testament Saints As God said to Daniel Go thy way till the end be for thou shalt rest and stand in the lot at the end of the days Dan. 12. 13. And here also shall Peter Paul Timothy and all other the Church-Officers have their place and Heavenly state according as God hath set them in the Church in the New Testament As Paul saith of the Deacons They that use the Office of a Deacon well they purchase to themselves a good degree and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ. 1 Tim. 3. 13. And so of all other Saints be they here of what Ranck Quality or place in the Church soever they shall have every one his state his Heavenly State according as he standeth in the Body As he saith seeing those members that are most feeble are necessary to them shall be given more abundant honour 1 Cor. 12. 22 23. Of this Heavenly Order in the Kingdom of Christ when his Saints are risen from the dead was Solomon a notable Type in his Family and among his Servants and Officers who kept such exactness in the famous order in which he had placed all about him that it did amaze and confound beholders For when the Queen of Sheba had seen the wisdom of Solomon and the House which he built and the meat of his Table the sitting of his Servants and the attendance of his Ministers and their Apparel his Cup-bearers also and their Apparel and the ascent by which he went up into the House of the Lord there was no more spirit in her 2 Chron. 9. 3 4. Glorious things are spoken of thee O thou City of God Having gone thus far I shall now come to the second part of the Text to wit that there shall be a Resurrection of the wicked There shall be a Resurrection of the dead both of the Just and unjust For as the Just go before the unjust in Name and Dignity and Honour so they shall in the last day go before them in the Resurrection Now then when the Saints have thus risen out of their Graves given up their accounts received their glory and are set upon the Thrones for there are set Thrones of Judgement the Thrones of the House of David Psal. 122. 5. When I say they are all of them in their royall Apparel with Crowns of glory every one presenting the Person of a King then come the unjust out of their Graves to receive their Judgment for what they have done in the body As Paul saith We must all appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ that every one both Saints and sinner may receive the things done in the body whether it be
good or whether it be bad But now because I would prove by the words whatever I would have others receive for a truth therefore I shall in few particulars prove the Resurrection of the wicked First then it is evident that the wicked shall rise from the very termes and names that the raised shall then go under which is the very same names that they did go under when they lived in this World They are called the Heathen the Nations the World the wicked and those that do iniquity they are called Men Women Sodom Sidon Bethsaida Capernaum and Tire The Men of Ninive shall rise up in Judgment the Queen of the South shall rise up in the Judgment and it shall be more tolerable for Sodom in the day of Judgment then for other sinners that have resisted more light The Heavens and the Earth that now are are kept in store reserved unto fire against the day of Judgement and perdition of ungodly men 2 Pet. 3. 7. Mat. 12. 41 42. Mat. 11. 21 22 23 24. Luk. 10. 12 13 14. Joel 3. 12 13 14. Mat. 25. 32. Jud. 14. 15. Now these Termes or Names are not given to the spirits of the wicked onely but to them as consisting of Body and Soul Further Christ tells his adversaries when they had apprehended him and shamefully intreated him that yet they should see him sit on the right hand of power and coming in the Clouds of Heaven as John also doth testifie saying Behold he cometh with Clouds and every Eye shall see him and they also that pierced him and all the kinreds of the Earth shall wail because of him Mat. 26. 64. Revel 1. 7. Now none of these sayings are yet fulfilled neither shall they untill his second coming for though the Jews did many of them see him when he did hang upon the Cross yet then he was not coming in the Clouds of Heaven neither did then all kinreds of the Earth wail because of him No this is reserved till he comes to judge the World for then shall the ungodly be so put to it that gladly they would creep into the most invincible Rock or Mountain under Heaven to hide themselves from his Face and the Majesty of his Heavenly presence Rev. 6. 14 15 16 17. There shall therefore that this may be brought to passe be a Resurrection of the dead both of the just and unjust For though an opinion of no Resurrection may now lull men asleep in security and impiety yet the Lord when he comes will rouse them and cause them to awake not onely out of their security but out of their Graves to their doom that they may receive for their errour the recompence that is meet Secondly The Body of the ungodly must at the last arise out of the Grave because that Body and their Soul while they lived in the World were Co-partners in their lusts and wickedness God is a God of knowledge and by him actions are weighed 1 Sam. 2 3. Eccles. 12. 14. He will therefore bring every work into Judgement with every secret thing And as he will bring into Judgement every work so will he also the worker thereof Revel 20. 12 13 14. even the Dead small and great It is not in God to lay the punishment where the fault is not neither to punish a part of the damned for the whole With righteousness shall be judge the World and the People with Equity shall not the Judge of all the Earth do right Psal. 98. 9. Gen. 18. 25. As therefore the Body was Copartner with the Soul in sinning so shall every man receive the things done in his Body according to what he hath done Wherefore he saith in another place Behold I come quickly and my Reward is with me to give every man according as his work shall be Rev. 22. 12. There shall therefore be a Resurrection of the Dead both of the just and unjust 3. The body of the wicked must rise again because as the whole man of the just also that is the Vessel of mercy glory so the whole man of the unjust is the Vessel of wrath and destruction There are saith Paul in a great House not onely Vessels of Gold and of Silver but also of Wood and of Earth and some to Honour and some to dishonour Now as he sheweth us these Vessels to honour they are good men and the vessels to dishonour are the bad 2 Tim. 2. 20 21. Now as these vessels to dishonour are called the vessels of wrath so it is said that God with much long suffering doth suffer them to be fitted to destruction Rom. 9. 22. how they are thus fitted he also further sheweth where he saith They do after their hardness and impenitent heart treasure up wrath against the day of wrath and the Revelation of the righteous Judgement of God Rom. 2. 5. Which treasures of wickedness James saith it is treasured up against the last dayes which is the time of Judgement and observe it He saith that then it shall eat their flesh as it were fire Jam. 5. 12. 3. Now then their Bodies being the vessels of the wrath of God and again seeing with this wrath they must be possessed at the last day that their flesh must with it be eaten it is evident that their body must rise again out of their Graves and before the Judgement Seat appear for it is from thence that each of them must go with his full load to their long and eternal home where their Worm dieth not and their fire is not quenched Mark 9. 47 48. Fourthly The severity of the hand of God towards his Children with his forbearance of his enemies doth clearly bespeak a Resurrection of the ungodly that they may receive the reward for their wickedness which they have committed in this World We know that while the eyes of the wicked start out with fatness the godly are plagued all the day long and chastned every morning Psal. 73. 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14. Wherefore it is evident that the place and time of the punishment of the ungodly it is another World If Judgement begin at the House of God what will the end of them be that obey not the Gospel of God and if the Righteous scarcely be saved where shall the ungodly and sinner appear 1 Pet. 4. 17 18. Alas poor Creatures they now plot against the Righteous and gnash upon them with their teeth but the Lord laugheth at them for he seeth their day is coming for as he saith the wicked is reserved or let alone in his wickedness to the day of destruction and shall then be brought forth to the day of wrath Psal. 37. 12 13. though in the mean time he may go to his Grave in his banner and rest within his Tomb. As Peter saith again Job 21. 29 30 31 32. the Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation but to reserve the unjust to the day of Judgement
loathsom condition The ungodly at their death are like the Thistle-seed but at their rising they will be like the Thistle grown more noysom offensive and provoking to rejection abundance Then such dishonour shame and contempt will appear in them that neither God nor Christ Saints nor Angels will so much as once regard them or vouchsafe one to come near them He beholdeth the wicked a far off because in the day of Grace they would not come to hand and be saved therefore now they shall all as thorns be thrust away as with fences of Iron 2. Sam. 23. 6 7. Their rising is called the Resurrection of the unjust and so they at that day will appear and will more stink in the nostrils of God and all the Heavenly Hosts then if they had the most irksome Plague-soars in the World running on them If a man at his Birth be counted as one cast forth to the loathing of his person how loathsom and irksom dishonourable and contemptible will those be that shall arise Godless Christless Spiritless and Graceless when the Trumpet sounds to their Judgement they coming out of their Graves far more loathsom and filthy then if they should ascend out of the most filthy hole on Earth Thirdly As the Just shall arise in power so the wicked and unjust in weakness and astonishment Sin and guilt bringeth weakness and faintness in this life how much more when both with all their power and force like a Gyant fasten on them as God saith Can thy hands be strong and can thy heart indure in the day that I shall deal with thee Eccless 22. 14. Now will the gastly Jaws of despair gape upon thee and now will condemnings of Conscience like Thunder-claps continually batter against thy weary Spirit It is the Godly that have boldness in the day of Judgement but the wicked will be like the Chaffe which the Wind driveth away 1 John 4. 17. Psal. 1. 4. O the fear and the heart-aking that will seiz them in their rising the frightful thoughts that then will fill their throbbing hearts Now must that Soul that hath been in Hell-fire among the Devils possess the body again Possess it I say with the hot scalding stink of Hell upon it They shall not be able to lift up the head for ever pangs shall take hold on them all their hands shall faint and every mans heart shall melt They shall be amazed one at another their faces shall be as flames Isa. 13. 6 7 8. Every thing they see hear or think of shall tend to their discomfort They must needs be weak whom God hath left whom guilt hath seized and whom death is swallowing up for ever Fourthly As the Just shall arise spiritual Bodies so the unjust shall arise onely as meer and naked lumps of sinful nature not having the least help from God to bear them up under this condition Wherefore so soon as ever they are risen out of their Graves they will feel a continual sinking under every remembrance of every sin and thoughts of Judgement in their rising they fall fall I say from thenceforth and for ever And for this Reason the Dungeon into which they fall is called bottomless Rev. 20. 1. Because as there will be no end of their misery so there will be no stay or prop to bare them up in it Onely as I said before they shall not now as afore be separate Body from Soul but both together be bound in the cords of sin and iniquity in which they shall now tremble as Theeves and Murderers c. as they go before the Judge to hear what he will say unto them Now when the wicked are thus raised out of their Graves they shall together with all the Angels of darkness their fellow Prisoners be brought up being shackled in their sins to the place of Judgement where there shall fit upon them Jesus Christ the King of Kings and Lord of Lords the Lord chief Judge of things in Heaven and things in Earth and things under the Earth On whose right hand and left shall fit all the Princes and Heavenly Nobles the Saints and Prophets the Apostles and Witnesses of Jesus every one in his Kingly Attire upon the Throne of his Glory Joel 3. 11 12 13 14. Then shall be fulfilled that which is written As for these my enemies that would not that I should reign over them bring them before me to slay them Luk. 19. 27. When every one is thus set in his proper place the Judge on his Throne with his Attendants and the prisoners coming up to Judgement forthwith there shall issue forth a mighty fire and tempest from before the Throne which shall compass it round about Which fire shall be as Bars and bounds to the wicked to keep them at a certain distance from the Heavenly Majesty As David saith Psal. 50. 3. Our God will come and not keep silence a fire shall devour before him and it shall be very tempestuous round about him And again Dan. 7. 9. His Throne was like the fiery flame and his Wheels like burning fire A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him c. This Preparation being made to wit the Judge with his Attendance on the Throne the Bar for the Prisoners and the Rebels all standing with gastly Jaws to look for what comes after Presently the Books are brought forth to wit the Books both of Death and Life And every one of them opened before the sinners now to be judged and condemned For after that he had said before Dan. 7. 10. A fiery stream issued and came â—orth from before him he adds thousands thousands ministred to him and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him the Judgement was set and the Books was opened And again I saw a great white Throne and him that sate upon it from whose face the Earth and the Heaven fled away and there was found no more place for them and I saw the dead small and great stand before God and the Books were opened and another Book were opened which is the Book of Life And the Dead were Judged out of the things that were written in the Books according to their works Rev. 20. 11 12. He doth not say the Book was opened as of one but the Books as of many And indeed they are more than one two or three out of which the Dead shall in the Judgement be proceeded against First then there is the Book of the Creatures to be opened Secondly The Book of Gods Remembrance Thirdly The Book of the Law And fourthly The Book of Life For by every one of these that is out of what is written in them shall the World of the ungodly be judged And the Books were opened First The Book of the Creatures shall be opened and that first it concerns mans nature and next as it relates to all other Creatures First he will shew in what the principles if nature were as they were Gods Creation
one year two years ten yea twenty and twenty years and all to try thee Yea now also will he bring to thy view how many times he warned rebuked threatned and chastised thee for thy wickedness how many awakening Providences and Judgements he continually laid before thy face yea how many a time thou didst like Balaam run upon the point of the Sword of Justice and how he gave back as being loath to kill thee Numb 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33. Now also again shall be brought before thee and all men how many struglings God had with thy heart on thy sick Bed to do thee good yea and at such times how many Vowes Promises Ingagements and Resolutions thou madest before God to turn if he would release thee from thy affliction and take off his Rod from thy back Mar. 5. 1 2 3 4 5. and yet how thou didst like the man possessed break and snap in twain all these Chains of Iron with which thou hadst bound thy Soul and that for a very lust and sin Here also will be opened before thee how often thou hast sinned against thy light and knowledge how often thou hast laid violent hands on thy own Conscience how often thou hast laboured to put out that light that hath stood in thy way to hinder thee from sinning against thy Soul Ah Lord what a condition will the Christless Soul be in at this day How will every one of these things afflict the damned Soul they will pierce like Arrows and bite like Serpents and sting like an Adder With what shame will that man stand before the Judgement Seat of Christ who must have all things he hath done against God to provoke the Eyes of his Glory to jealousie laid open before the whole Host of the Heavenly train It would make a man blush to have his Pockets searched for things that are stolen in the midst of a Market especially if he stand upon his Reputation and Honour But thou must have thy heart searched the bottom of thy heart searched and that I say before thy Neighbour whom thou hast wronged and before the Devills whom thou hast served yea before God whom thou hast despised and before the Angels those holy and delicate Creatures whose holy and chast Faces will scarce forbear blushing while God is making thee Vomit up all thou hast swallowed for God shall bring it out of thy belly Job 20. 12 13 14 15. For as for God to forget iniquity is one of the chief heads of the Covenant of Grace and is an Argument of the highest nature to beget and to continue Consolation in the godly so the remembrance of Iniquity by the Lord it is one of the heaviest loads and Judgements that can befall any poor Creature Lord saith the Prophet remember not against us former iniquities And again if thou Lord shouldest mark iniquity O Lord who shall stand Psal. 130. 3. And the Reason is because that which the Lord forgetteth is forgiven for ever but that which he remembreth it is charged for ever and nothing can take it away Heb. 8. 12. Rom. 4. 6 7 8. Though thou wash thee with nitre and take thee much Soap yet thine iniquity is marked before me saith the Lord God Jer. 2 22. The third Book that will at this day be opened and out of which God will judge the World it is the Book of the Law or ten words given forth on the Mount Sinai But this Book will more specially concern those that have received it or that have had knowledge thereof Every one shall not be judged by this Book as there delivered though they shall be judged by the works of it which are written in their hearts Rom. 2. 14. As many as have sinned without Law shall perish without Law and they that have sinned in the Law shall be judged by the Law Rom. 2. 12. That is the Heathens that never knew the Law as delivered on Sinai they shall be judged by the Law as it was written in mans heart in his Creation which is comprised within the Book of the Creatures but those that have knowledge of the Law as delivered on Sinai they shall be judged by the Law as there given Now then this Book when it is opened at the day of Judgement it will to those to whom it especially relates be a most terrible Law far surpassing the two afore-mentioned This Law as I may so say it is the chief and most pure Resemblance of the Justice and holiness of the Heavenly Majesty and doth hold forth to all men the sharpness and keenness of his wrath ' above the other two that I have before mentioned I say both because it hath been delivered more plain and open both as to the duty injoyned and the sin prohibited and therefore must of necessity fall with the more violence upon the head of all that shall be found within the compass of it This Law it hath in it to be opened at this day these two general heads First A discovery of the evill of sin that is so against plain light and truth And Secondly A discovery of the vanity of all things that will at this day be brought by sinners for their help and plea at the Judgement Alas who can but imagine that the poor World at the day of their Arraignment should muster up all that ever they can think of as Arguments to shelter them from the execution of that fierce wrath that then with sinking Souls they will see prepared for them As to the first of these the Apostle tells us that the Law was added that the offence might abounâ— or be discovered what it is As he saith again I had not known sin but by the Law Rom. 5. 20. Rom. 7. 7. Rom. 7. 13. Thus it is in this life and thus it will be in the day of Judgement that is those that see sin and that in its abounding nature and in its exceeding sinfulness they must see it by the Law for that is indeed the Glass by which God discovereth sin Jam. 1. 22 23 24 25. And the filthy spots of leprosie that is in the Soul Now those that have not the happiness to see their sin by the Law in this life while there is a Fountain of Grace to wash in and be clean they must have the misery to see it at the Judgement when nothing is left but misery and pain as the punishment for the same At which day those little Titles of this holy Law that now men so easily look over and sin against with ease they will every one of them appear with such dread and with such flaming Justice against every offence committed that if Heaven and Earth it self should step in to shelter the sinner from the Justice and wrath due to sin it would turn them up by the Roots It is easier for Heaven and Earth to passe away then for one tittle of the Law to fail Luke 16. 17. If there