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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
work_n	evil_a	good_a	tree_n	33,809	5	11.7409	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27038	A sermon of iudgement preached at Pauls before the Honourable Lord Maior and aldermen of the city of London, Dec. 17, 1654 and now enlarged / Rich. Baxter.	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1655 (1655)	Wing B1408; ESTC R13294	85,241	312

Rebellious sinners and therefore all are not unpardoned condemned sinners All did not live after the flesh and refuse to the last to be converted as you did God will teach you better to difference between sinners and sinners The seven and thirtieth Excuse But if Christ have satisfied for my sins and dyed for me then how can I justly suffer for the same sins will God punish one sin twice Answ. 1. Christ suffered for man in the Nature of man but not in your person nor you in him It was not you that provided the price but God himself Christ was not mans Delegate in satisfying and therefore received not his Instructions from us nor did it on our terms but his own It was not the same thing which the Law threatned that Christ underwent for that was the Damnation of the sinner himself and not the suffering of another for him it cannot therefore be yours but on Christs own terms He dyed for thy sin but with this intent that for all that if thou Refuse him thou shalt dye thy self It is therefore no wrong to thee to dye for it was not thou that dyedst before And Christ will take it for no wrong to him For he will Judge thee to that Death It is for refusing a Christ that dyed for thee that thou must perish for ever The eight and thirtieth Excuse But I did not Refuse Christ I believed a●d trusted in him to the l●st and Repented of my sins though I sometime was overtaken with them Answ. Had this been True thy sin would not have condemned thee But there is no mocking God He will shew thee then thy naked heart and convince thousands that thought they Believed and Repented that indeed they did not By thy works also will this be discovered that is by the main bent and scope of thy life as Matth. 25. throughout and Jam. 2. The nine and thirtieth Excuse I did many Good Works and I hope God will set those against my evil works Answ. Thy good works were thy sins because indeed they were not good being not done in sincerity of heart for God The best mans works have some infirmity which nothing can cleanse but the blood of Christ which thou hast made light of and therefore hast no part in If all thy life had been spent in perfect works except one day they would not make satisfaction for the sins of that day For they are but part of thy Duty Wo to him that hath no better a Saviour at Judgement then his own good works The fourtieth Excuse I lived in poverty and misery on earth and therefore I hope I have had my suffering here and shall not suffer in this world and another too Answ. 1. By that Rule all poor men and murderers and thieves that are tormented and hanged should be saved But as Godlyness hath the promise of this life and that to come so Impenitency and Wickedness hath the Threatning of this life and that to come 2. The Devils and the damned have suffered much more than you already and yet they are never the neerer a deliverance When thou hast suffered ten thousand years thy pain will be never the neerer an end How then can a little misery on earth prevent it Alas poor soul these are but the foretasts and beginnings of thy sorrow Nothing but pardon through the blood of Christ could have prevented thy Condemnation and that thou rejectedst by Infidelity and Impenitency His sufferings would have saved thee if thou hadst not Refused him But all thine own sufferings will yield thee no Relief So much for the answering of the Vain Excuses which poor sinners are ready to make for themselves Wherein I have been so large as that this part I confess is disproportionable to the rest but it was for these two Reasons 1. That poor careless souls might see the vanity of such Defences and consider if such a worm as I can easily confute them how easily and how terribly will they be all answered by their Judge 2. I did it the 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 Judgement which consisteth in the exploration or tryal 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 knowledge of it if Christ had not there revealed it unto us Indeed almost all the world do acknowledge 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 Vnrighteous and on what terms and grounds by whom they shall be Judged and to what Condition they know not The Sentence in Judgement 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 is it more obscurely revealed to us in the Scripture ●t 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 knowledge 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 Judge 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 Heathens 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 Gods 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

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 ●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 cloa●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