of this glory doth set light comparatively by all things in this world and waiteth for it as the end of his life choosing any suffering that God shall call him to rather then to lose his hopes of that felicity and thus persevereth to the end I say that soul and none but that shall be Justified in Judgement and escape Damnation In these five marks I have told you truly and briefly who shall be justified and saved and who shall be condemned at the day of Judgement And if you would have them all in five words they are but the Description of these five Graces Repentance Faith Love Obedience Hope But though I have laid these close together for your use yet lest you should think that in so weighty a case I am too short in the proof of what I so determine of I will tell you in the express words of many Scripture Texts who shall be Justified and who shall be condemned John 3.3 Except a man be born again he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God Heb. 12.14 Without holiness none shall see God Luk. 13.3 5. Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish Acts 26.18 I send thee to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an Inheritance among the sanctified by Faith that is in me John 3.15 16 17 18 19. Whoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life he that believeth on him is not condemned he that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not Believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God and this is the condemnation that light is come into the world and men loved darkness rather then light because their deeds were evil John 5.28 29. The hour is coming in which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth they that have done good to the Resurrection of life and they that have done evil to the Resurrection of damnation Mat. 25.30 Cast the unprofitable servant into outer darkness there shall be weeping and gnashing of Teeth Luke 19.27 But those mine enemies which would not that I should raign over them bring hither and slay them before me Mat. 22.12 13. Friend how camest thou in hither not having on a wedding garment And he was speechless Then said the King to the servants Bind him hand and foot and take him away and cast him into outer darkness c. Mat. 5.20 For I say unto you that except your Righteousness exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of heaven Mat. 7.21 Not every one that saith Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doth the wâ—ll of my Father which is in Heaven Heb. 5.9 He is become the Author of eternal salvation to all them that obey him Rev. 22.14 Blessed are they that do his Commandments that they may have right to the tree of life and may enter in by the Gate into the City Rom 8.1 13. There is then no Condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus that walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit For if ye live after the flesh ye shall dye but if ye through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live Rom. 8.9 If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his Gal. 5.18 But if ye be Led of the Spirit ye are not under the Law Gal. 6.7 8. Be not deceived God is not mocked for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap for he that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap Corruption but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life Everlasting Matth. 6.21 For where your Treasure is there will your heart be also Read Psal. 1. and many other Texts to this purpose of which some are cited in my Directions for Peace of Conscience Dir. 11. p. 115 116. And thus I have told you from Gods Word how you may know whether you are Ready for Judgement which is the fourth thing that I would advise you to enquire after O Sirs what shift do you make to keep your souls from Continual Terrours as long as you remain unready for Judgement How do you keep the Thoughts of it out of your mind that they do not break your sleep and meet you in your business and haunt you every way you go while Judgement is so neer and you are so unready But I shall proceed to my next Question Qu. 5. AND in the last place to those of you that are not yet Ready nor in a Condition wherein you may be safe at that day my Question is How are you resolved to prepare for Judgement for the time to come Will you do no more than you have done hitherto Or will you now set your selves with all your might to make preparation for so great a day me thinks you should be now past all demurrs delays or further doubtings about such a business and by the consideration of what I have said already you should be fully Resolved to lose no more time but presently to awake and set upon the work Me thinks you should all say We will do any thing that the Lord shall Direct us to do rather than we will be unready for the final doom O that there were but such hearts in you that you were trully willing to follow the gracious Guidance of the Lord and to use but those sweet and reasonable means which he hath prescribed you in his Word that you may be ready for that day Alas it is no hard matter for me to tell you or my self what it is that we must do if we will be happy and it is no very hard matter to Do it so far as we are truly willing but the difficulty is to be truly and throughly willing to this work If I shall tell you what you must do for preparation shall I not lose my labour Will you resolve and promise in the strength of Grace that you will faithfully and speedily endeavour to practise it whoever shall gainsay it Upon hope of this I will set you down some brief Directions which you must follow if ever you will with comfort look the Lord Jesus in the face at the hour of Death or in the Day of Judgement THE first Direction is this See that your souls be sincerely established in the Belief of this Judgement and Everlasting life For if you do not soundly believe it you will not seriously prepare for it If you have the Judgement and belief of an Infidel you cannot have the Heart or the Life of a Christian Unbelief shuts out the most of the world from heaven see that it do not so by you If you say You cannot Believe what you would I answer Feed not your unbelief by wilfulness or unreasonableness Use Gods means to overcome it and
grieved the Spirit Act. 7.51 As the Spirit witnesseth with the Spirits of the righteous that they are the children of God Rom. 8.16 so doth he witness with the conscience of the wicked that they were children of Rebellion and therefore are justly children of wrath This Spirit will not alway strive with men at last being vexed it will prove their enemy and rise up against them Gen. 6.3 Isa. 63.10 If you will needs Grieve it now it will Grieve you then Were it not a Spirit of Grace and were it not free mercy that it came to offer you the Repulse would not have been so condemning nor the witness of this Spirit against you so heavy at the last But it was the Spirit of Jesus that came with recovering Grace which you resisted And though the wages of every sin is death yet you will find that it will cost you somewhat more to Reject this salvation than to break the Creators Law of works Kindness and such Kindness will not be rejected at easie rates Many a good motion is now made by the Spirit to the Heart of a sinner which he doth not â—o much as once obseâ—ve and therefore doth not now Remember them But then they shall be brought to his Remembrance with a witness Many a thousand secret motions to Repentance to Faith to a Holy Life will be Then set before the eyes of the poor unpardoned trembling sinner which he had quite forgotten And the Spirit of God shall testifie to his Confusion At such a Sermon I perswaded thy heart to Repent and thou wouldest not At such a time I shewed thee the evil of thy sin and perswaded thee to have forsaken it but thou wouldest not I minded thee in thy secret thoughts of the neerness of Judgement and the Certainty and VVeight of everlasting things of the need of Christ and faith and holyness and of the Danger of sinning but thou didst drown all my motions in the cares and pleasures of the world Thou harkenedst rather to the Devil than to me The sensual inclinations of thy flesh did prevail against the strongest Arguments that I used Though I shewed thee Reasons undenyable Reasons from thy Creator from thy Redeemer from nature from grace from heaven and from hell yet all would not so much as stop thee much less turn thee but thou wouldest go on Thou wouldest follow thy flesh and now let it pay thee the wages of thy folly Thou wouldest be thy ovvn guide and take thine ovvn Course and novv take vvhat thou gettest by it Poor sinners I beseech you in the fear of God the next time you have any such motions from the Spirit of God to Repent and Believe and Break off your sins and the Occasions of them consider then what a mercy is set before you and how it will confound you at the day of Judgement to have all these motions brought in against you and that the Spirit of Grace it self should be your Condemner Alas that men should choose their own Destruction and wilfully choose it and that the foreknowledge of these things should not move them to relent So much concerning the witness that will be brought in against the sinner 5. The fifth Evidence that will be given in against the sinner will be The Instruments and Effects You know among men if a man be found murthered by the high-way and you are found standing by him with a bloody sword in your hand especially if there were a former dissention between you it will be an Evidence that will prove a strong presumption that you were the Murderer But if the fact be certain by other Evidence then many such things may be brought for aggravation of the fault So a twofold Evidence will be brought against the sinner from these things One to prove him guilty of the fact the other to Aggravate the fault and prove that his sin was very great For the former 1. The very creatures which sinners abused to sin may be brought in against them to their Conviction and Condemnation For though these creatures shall be consumed with the last destroying Fire which shall consume all the world yet they shall have a Being in the memory of the sinner an esse Cognitum The very Wine or Ale or other liquor which was abused to drunkenness may witness agaâ—nst the Drunkard The sweet morsels by which the Glutton did please his Appetite and all the good creatures of God which he luxuriously devouâ—ed may witness against him Luke 16.19 25. He that fared deliciously every day in this life was told by Abrahâ—m when he was dead and his soul in Hell Remember that thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things and likewise Lazarus evil things but now he is comforted and thou art tormented Though their sweet morsels and cups are past and gone yet must they be Remembred at Judgement and in Hell Remember Son saith Abraham Yea and Remember he must whether he will or no Long was the Glutton in sinning and many a pleasant bit did he taste and so many Evidences of his sin will lie against him and the sweetness will then be turned into gall The very cloathing and ornaments by which Proud persons did manifest their Pride will be sufficient Evidence against them as his being cloathed in Purple and fine linnen is mentioned Luk. 16.19 The very lands and goods and houses of worldlings will be an Evidence against them Their Gold and Silver which the covetous do now prefer before the everlasting Riches with Christ will be an Evidence against them Jam. 5.1 2 3 4. Go to now ye Rich men weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you Your Riches are corrupted and your Garments moath-eaten Your Gold and Silver is cankered and the Rust of them shall be a Witness against you and shall eat your flesh as it were fire Ye have heaped Treasure together for the Last daies Behold the hire of the Labourers which have reaped down your fields which is of you kept back by fraud cryeth and the cryes of them which have reaped are entred into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth Ye have lived in Pleasure on the Earth and been wanton Ye have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter Oh that worldlings would well considâ—r this one Text and therein observe whether a life of earthly pleasure and fulness of worldly Glory and Gallantry be as desirable as they imagine and to what Time and Purpose they now lay up their Treasures and how they must hear of these Things hereafter and what effect the review of their Jovial daies will have upon their miserable condemned souls 2. The very circumstances of Time Place and the like may Evidence against a sinner to his Condemnation The drunkard shall Remember In such an Ale-house I was so oft drunk and in such a Tavern I vvasted my time The Adulterer and Fornicator shall Remember the very Time the Place the Room the Bed vvhere they
least they may see that potentially this is the Accusation that lyeth against us and which we must be justified against For all Iustification implyeth an Actual or Potential Accusation He that is truly accused of final Impenitency or Unbelief or Rebellion hath no other Defence to make but must needs be condemned He that is falsly accused of such non-performance of the condition of Grace must deny the Accusation and plead his own personal Righteousness as against that Accusation and produce that Faith Repentance and sincere Obedience and Perseverance by which he fulfilled that Condition and so is Evangelically Righteous in himself and therefore hath part in the blood of Christ which is instead of a Legal righteousness to him in all things else as having procured him a pardon of all his sin and a right to everlasting glory And thus we must then be Justified by Christs satisfaction only against the accusation of being sinners in general and of deserveing Gods wrath for the Breach of the Law of works But we must be justified by our faith repentance and sincere Obedience it self against the accusation of being Impenitent Vnbelievers and Rebels against Christ and having not performed the Condition of the promise and so having no part in Christ and his Benefits So that in summ you see that the cause of the day will be to enquire whether being all known sinners we have accepted of Christ upon his terms and so have right in him and his benefits or not Whether they have forsaken this vain world for him and loved him so faithfully that they have manifested it in parting with these things at his Command And this is the meaning of Mat. 25. Where the enquiry is made to be whether they have fed and visited him in his members or not That is whether they have so far loved him as their Redeemer and God by him as that they have manifested this to his members according to Opportunity though it cost them the hazard or loss of all Seeing danger and labor and cost are fitter to express Love by then empty Complements and bare Professions Whether it be particularly enquired after or only taken for granted that men are sinners and have deserved Death according to the Law of works and that Christ hath satisfied by his death is all one as to the matter in hand seeing Gods enquiry is but the Discovery and Conviction of us But the last Question which must decide the Controversie will be whether we have performed the condition of the Gospel I have the rather also said all this to shew you in what sense these words are taken in the text that Every man shall be Judged according to what he hath done in the flesh whether it be good or bad Though every man be Judged worthy of Death for sinning yet every man shall not be Judged to dye for it and no man shall be Judged worthy of Life for his good works It is therefore according to the Gospel as the rule of judgement that this is meant They that have Repented and Believed and returned to true though imperfect Obedience shall be Iudged to everlasting Life according to these works not because these works Deserve it but because the free Gift in the Gospel through the blood of Christ doth make these things the condition of our possessing it They that have lived and dyed Impenitent Unbelievers and Rebels against Christ shall be judged to everlasting punishment because they have deserved it both by their sin in general against the Law and by these sins in special against the Gospel This is called the Merit of the Cause that is what is a mans due according to the true meaning of the Law Though the due may be by free gift And thus you see what will be the cavil of the Day and the matter to be enquired after and decided as to our Life or Death VIII THE next point in our method is to shew you What will be the Evidence of the Cause Answ. There is a five fold Evidence among men 1. When the fact is notorious 2. The knowledge of an unsuspected Competent Iudge 3. The parties Confession 4. Witness 5. Instruments and visible effects of the action All these Evidences will be at hand and any one of them sufficient for the conviction of the guilty person at that day 1. As the sins of all men so the Impenitency and Rebellion of the wicked was notorious or at least will be then For though some play the hypocrites and hide the matter from the world and themselves yet God shall open their hearts and former lives to themselves and to the view of all the world He shall set their sins in order before them so that it shall be utterly in vain to deny or excuse them If any men will then think to make their cause as good to God as they can now do to us that are not able to see their hearts they will be foully mistaken Now they can say they have as good hearts as the best then God will bring them out in the light and shew them to themselves and all the world whether they were good or bad Now they will face us down that they do truly Repent and they obey God as well as they can but God that knoweth the Deceivers will then undeceive them We cannot now make men acquainted with their own unsanctified hearts nor convince them that have not true Faith Repentance or Obedience but God will convince them of it They can find shifts and false answers to put off a Minister with but God will not so be shifted off Let us preach as plainly to them as we can and do all that ever we are able to acquaint them with the impenitency and unholyness of their own heart and the necessity of a new heart and life yet we cannot do it but they will Believe whether we will or not that the old heart will serve the turn But how easily will God make them know the contrary We plead with them in the dark for though we have the candle of the Gospel in our hands when we come to shew them their corruption yet they shut their eyes and are wilfully blind But God will open their eyes whether they will or not not by holy Illumination but by forced conviction and then he will plead with them as in the open light See here thy own unholy soul canst thou now say thou didst love me above all canst thou deny but thou didst love this world before me and serve thy flesh and lusts though I told thee if thou didst so thou shouldst dye Look upon thy own heart now and see whether it be a holy or an unholy heart a spiritual or a fleshly heart a heavenly or an earthly heart Look now upon all the course of thy life and see whether thou didst live to me or to the world and thy flesh Oh how easily will God convince men then of the very sins of their
your youth by doubling your diligence when you came to riper years The Apostles gathered Churches among Heathens that never heard of Christ before and converted many thousand souls that were never once told of a Saviour or the way to salvation till they had past a great part of their lives If you loitered till the latter part of the day it behoved you then to have bestirred your selves the more and not to say Through the fault of my Parents I lost the beginning of my life and therefore I will lose all they taught me not then and therefore I will not learn now Have you not seen some of your neighbors who were as ill educated as your selves attain to much knowledge afterwards by their Industry And why might not you have done so if you had been as industrious as they May not God and Conscience witness that it was because you cared not for knowledge and would not be at the pains to get it that you knew no more Speak truth man in the presence of thy Judge was thy heart and mind set upon it Didst thou pray daily for it to God Didst thou use all the means thou couldest to get it Didst thou attend diligently on the word in publike and think of what thou heardest when thou camest home Didst thou go to the Minister or to others that could teach thee and intreat them to tell thee the way to salvation Or didst thou not rather carelesly neglect these matters and hear a Sermon as a common tale even when the minister was speaking of Heaven or Hell It was not then thine unavoidable Ignorance but thy negligence Yea further answer as in the presence of God Didst thou Obey so far as thou dâ—dst know Or didst thou not rather sin against that knowledge which thou hadst Thou â—newest that the soul was better then the body and everlasting life more to be regarded then this transitory life But didst thou regard it accordingly Thou sure knewest that God was better then the world and Heaven then earth at least thou wast told of it But didst thou accordingâ—y value him and love him more Thou knewest sure that there was no salvation without Faith and Repentance and newness of life and yet they were neglected In a word many a thousand sins which were committed and duties that were omitted against thy own Knowledge and Conscience will marr this Excuse The fifth Excuse I lived not under a powerful Minister to tell me of these things but where there was no Preaching at all Answ. And might you not have gone where a powerful Minister was with a little pains Yea did not the very plain word which you heard read tell you of these things And might you not have had a Bible your â—elves and found them there The sixth Excuse I was a servant and had no time from my labour to mind these matters I lâ—ved with a hard master that required all his own work of me but would allow me no time for the service of God Or else I was a poor man and had a great charge to look after and with my hard labour had much ado to live so that I had no time for heavenly things Answ. 1. Who should be first served God or man what should be first sought after Heaven or Earth Did not Christ tell thee One thing is necessary Luke 10.41 42. was it not as needful to see that you escape Damnation and get safe to Heaven when this life is ended as to see that you had food and raiment for your selves and yours 2. Did you spend no time in Recreation nor Idleness nor vain talking why might not that at least have been spent about heavenly things 3. Could you have taken no time from your rest or eating or at other intermissions Mans body will not endure so great labours as have no Intermission And why then might not godlyness have been your ease and recreation 4. Or might you not have minded these things even when you were about your labour if you had but a heart to them 5. At least you might have spent the Lords own Day in hearing reading and pondering of these matters when you were forced to forbare your worldly labours even by the wholsom Law of the Land These therefore are all but vain Excuses and God will shortly make thee speak out and plainly confess It was not so much for want of Time or Helps or warning as for want of a heart to use them well I should have found some Time though it had been when I should have slept if my heart had been but set upon it The seventh Excuse Little did I think to have seen this Day â— did not Believe that ever God would be so severe I thought his Threatnings had been but to keep men in awe and I suspected either that the Scripture was not his word or else I thought he would be better than his word I thought all that I heard of another life had been uncertain and therefore was loth to let go a certainty for an uncertainty and lose my present pleasures which I had in hand for the hopes of that which I never did see Answ. He that will not know his misery by believing to prevent it shall know it by feeling to endure it You were told and told again what your unbelief would bring you to Did Gods word make Heaven and Earth Doth it support them and secure them And is not his word sufficient security for you to have trusted your souls upon Did you know where was any better security to be had and where was any surer ground for your confidence And did you think so basely and blasphemously of God that he would falsifie his word lest such as you should suffer and that he was fain to rule the world by a Lye Did God make the world so easily and can he not Govern it by true and righteous means what need God to say that which he will not do to awe sinners Can he not Awe them by Truth Is it not just that those should eternally perish that will entertain such despeâ—ate thoughts of God and then by such wicked imaginations encourage themselves in sin against him And for the Truth of Scripture God did not bid you believe it without Evidence He stamped on it the Image of his own Purity and Perfection that you might know it by that Image and superscription if you had eyes to see them He sealed it by uncontrouled multitudes of Miracles He delivered it down to your hands by Infallible witnesses so that he left you no room for rational Doubting And you knew that the matters of this world were not only uncertain but certainly vain and transitory and would shortly come to nothing and leave you in distress If it had then been uncertain whether there were a Glory and misery hereafter as it was not should not Reason have taught you to prefer the least probabilities of an everlasting unspeakable happiness before that which
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 aâ—d trusted in him to the lâ—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 â—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 â—ove to Christ expressed in their Obedience self-denyal and forsaking all for him For I was hungry and ye fed me I was thirsty and ye gave me drink I was a stranger and ye took me in Naked and ye cloaâ—hed me I was sick and ye visited me I was in prison and ye came to me Verily I say unto you inasmuch as ye have done it to one of the least of these my Brethren ye have done it unto me Mat. 25.35 to 41. Here is 1. The causal conjunction for 2. And the Cause or Reason it self Concerning both which Observe 1. How it is that mans Obedience and self-denyal is The Reason and Cause of his Justification 2. Why it is that God will have the Reason or Cause thus Declared in the Sentence For the first observe that It s one thing to give a Reason of the Sentence and another thing to express the Cause of the Benefit Given us by the promise and Judged to us by the Sentence Mans Obedience was no proper Cause why God did in this life Give pardon of sin to us or a Right to glory much less of his Giving Christ to dye for us And therefore as to our Constitutive Justification at our Conversion we must not say or think that God doth Justifie us For or Because of any works of our Obedience Legal or Evangelical But when God hath so Justified us when he comes to give a Reason of his Sentence in Judgement he may and will fetch that Reason partly from our Obedience or our performance of the Conditions of the New Covenant For as in this life we had a Righteousness consisting in free pardon of all sin through the blood of Christ and a Righteousness consisting in our personal performance of the Conditions of the promise which giveth that pardon and continueth it to us so at Judgement we shall accordingly be justified And as our Evangelical personal Righteousness commonly called Inherent was at first only in our Faith and Repentance and Disposition to obey but afterward in our Actual sincere Obedience in which sense we are Constitutively Justified or made Righteous here by our works in James his sense Jam. 2.24 so accordingly a double Reason will be assigned of our sentential Justification One from our pardon by Christs blood and merits which will prove our Right to Impunity and to Glory The other from our own Faith and holy Obedience which will prove our Right to that pardon through Christ and to the free Gift of a Right to glory and so this last is to be pleaded in subordination to the former For Christ is become the Author of Eternal salvation to all them that Obey him Heb. 5 9. He therefore that will be saved must have a Christ to save him as the Author and an Obedience to that Christ as the Condition of that salvation and consequently both must be declared in the Judgement The Reason why the Judge doth mention our Good works rather then our Believing may be because those holy self-denying expressions of Faith and Love to Christ do contain or certainly imply Faith in them as the life of the tree is in the fruit but faith doth contain our works of Obedience but only as their cause These works also are a part of the personal Righteousness which is to be enquired after that is we shall not be judged righteous meerly because we have Believed but also because we have added to our Faith vertue and have improved our Talents and have loved Christ to the hazard of all or his sake For it is not only or principally for the goodness of the work considered in it self or the good that is done by it to the poor but it is as these works did express our Faith and Love to Christ by doing him the most costly and hazardous service that by Faith we could see Christ in a poor beggar or a prisoner and could love Christ in These better then our worldly goods or liberties which we must part with or hazard by the works that are here mentioned 2. The Reasons why Christ will so publikely Declare the personal righteousness of men to be the Reason or Cause of his Justifying sentence it is because It is the business of that day not only to glorifie Gods meer Love and Mercy but eminently to glorifie his Remunerative Justice and not only to express his love to the Elect as such but to express his love to them as Faithful and Obedient and such as have denyed all for Christ and Loved God above all And to shew his justice to the men and faithfulness in fulfilling all his promises and also his holinss in the high estimation of the holiness of his people I shall express this in the words of a Learned Divine Dr Twiss against Mr. Cotton pag. 40. Was there no more in Gods intention when he elected some then the manifestation of the riches of his glorious grace Did not God purpose also to manifest the Glory of his Remunerative Justice Is it not undenyable that God will bestow salvation on all his Elect of ripe years by way of reward and Crown of Righteousness which God the Righteous Judge will give 2 Tim. 4. 2 Thes. 1. It is great pitty this is not considered as usually it is not Especially for the momentous Consequence thereof in my Judgement So far he So much of the Sentence of Justification which shall be passed by Christ at Judgement upon the Righteous 2. We are next to consider of the Sentence of Condemnation which shall then by Christ be passed on the unrighteous Which is delivered to us by Christ Mat. 25. in the same order as the former This Sentence containeth 1. The Condemnation it self 2. The Reason or Cause of it The Condemnation expresseth the misery which they are judged to 1. Generally in the Denomination Cursed 2. Particularly by Description of their Cursed state To be cursed is to be a People destinated and adjudged to utter unhappiness to all kind of misery without remedy 2. Their Cursed condition is described in the next words Depart from me into Everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels 1. Depart From whom from the God that made them in his Image From the Redeemer that bought them by the price of his blood and offered to save them freely for all their unworthyness and many a time intreated them to Accept his offer that their souls might live From the Holy Ghost the Sanctifier and Comforter of the faithful who strove
said this much of the Certainty of the Execution I should next have spoke somewhat of the manner and the Instruments and have shewed how God will be for ever the Principal Cause and Satan and their own Consciences the Instruments in part and in what manner Conscience will do its part and how impossible it will be to quiet or resist it But having spoke so much of all this already elsewhere as is said before I will forbear here to repeat it leaving the Reader that desireth it there to peruse it The Vses Vse 1. BEloved hearers it was not to fill your fancies with news that God sent me hither this day nor to tell you of matters that nothing concern you nor by some terrible words to bring you to an hours amazement and no more But it is to tell you of things that your eyes shall see and to foretell you of your danger while it may be prevented that your precious souls may be saved at the last and you may stand before God with comfort at that day But because this will not be every mans case no nor the case of most I must in the name of Christ desire you to make this day an enquiry into your own souls and as in the presence of God let your hearts make answer to these few Questions which I shall propound and debate with you Qu. 1. DO you soundly Believe this Doctrine which I have preached to you What say you Sirs do you verily Believe it as a most certain Truth that you and I and all the world must stand at Gods barr and be Judged to Everlasting Joy or Torment I hope you do all in some sort Believe this but blame me not if I be jealous whether you soundly believe it while we see in the world so little of the effect of such a Belief I confess I am forced to think that there is more infidelity then faith among us when I see more ungodliness then godliness among us And I can hardly believe that man that will say or swear that he believeth these things and yet liveth as carelesly and carnally as an Infidel I know that no man can love to be damned yea I know that every man that hath a reasonable soul hath naturally some love to himself and a fear of a danger which he verily apprehendeth he therefore that liveth without all fear I must think liveth without all apprehension of his danger Custom hath taught men to hold these things as the Opinion of the Country but if men soundly believed them surely we should see stranger effects of such a faith then in the most we do see Doth the sleepy soul that liveth in security and followeth this world as eagerly as if he had no greater matters to mind that never once trembled at the thoughts of this great day nor once asked his own soul in good sadness My soul How dost thou think then to escape I say doth this man Believe that he is going to this Judgement Well Sirs whether you believe it or not you will find it true and believe it you must before you can be safe For if you do not Believe it you will never make ready Let me therefore perswade you in the fear of God to consider that it is a matter of undoubted Truth 1. Consider that it is the express word of the God of Truth revealed in Scripture as plainly as you can desire So that you cannot be unbelieving without denying Gods Word or giving him the lye Mat. 13.38 39 40 41 42 43 49 50. Mat. 25. throughout Rom. 2.5 6 7 8 9 10 16 and 1.32 John 5.28 29. The hour is coming in which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth they that have done good unto the resurrection of life and they that have done evil unto the Resurrection of damnation Heb. 9.27 It is appointed to all men once to dye and after this the Judgement Rom. 14.9.12 So then every one of us shall give Account of himself to God Rev. 20.12 And I saw the dead small and great stand before God and the Books were opened and another book was opened which is the Book of life and the dead were Judged out of those things which were written in the Books according to their works Mat. 12.36 37. But I say unto you that every idle word that men shall speak the shall give account thereof in the day of Judgement For by thy words thou shalt be Justified and by thy words thou shalt be condemned Many more most express Texts of Scripture do put the Truth of this Judgement out of all question to all that believe the Scripture and will understand it There is no place left for a Controversie in the point It is made as sure to us as the Word of the living God can make it And he that will question that what will he Believe What say you Sirs Dare you doubt of this which the God of Heaven hath so positively affirmed I hope you dare not 2. Consider it is a master-part of your faith if you are Christians and a fundamental Article of your Creed that Christ shall come again to Judge the quick and the dead So that you must Believe it or renounce your Christianity and then you renounce Christ and all the hopes of mercy that you have in him It s impossible that you should soundly Believe in Christ and not believe his Judgement and Life Everlasting because as he came to bring Life and Immortality to light in the Gospel 2 Tim. 1.10 so it was the end of his Incarnation Death and Resurrection to bring you thither and its part of his honour and office which he purchased with his blood to be the Lord and Judge of all the world Rom. 14.9 Joh. 5.22 If therefore you believe not heartily this Judgement deal plainly and openly and say you are Infidels and cast away the hypocritical vizor of Christianity and let us know you and take you as you are 3. Consider that it is a Truth that is known by the very light of nature that there shall be a happiness for the Righteous and a misery for the wicked after this life which is evident 1. In that we have undenyable natural reason for it 1. God is the Righteous governor of the world and therefore must make a difference among his subjects according to the nature of their waies which we see is not done here where the wicked prosper and the good are afflicted therefore it must be hereafter 2. We see there is a necessity that God should make promises and threatnings of everlasting happiness or misery for the right governing of the world for we certainly perceive that no lower things will keep men from destroying all humane society and living worse then bruit beasts and if there be a necessity of making such threats and promises then there is certainly a necessity of fulfilling them For God needeth no lye or means of deceiving
to rule the world 2. And as we see it by Reason so by certain experience that this is discernable by the light of nature for all the world or almost all do believe it Even those nations where the Gospel never came and have nothing but what they have by nature even the most Barbarous Indians acknowledge some life after this and a difference of men according as they are here Therefore you must believe thus much or renounce your common Reason and humanity as well as your Christianity Let me therefore perswade you all in the fear of God to confirm your souls in the belief of this as if you had heard Christ or an Angel from heaven say to you Oh man thou art hasting to Judgement Qu. 2. MY next Question is Whether you do ever soberly consider of this great day Sirs do you use when you are alone to think with your selves how certain and how dreadful it will be how fast it is coming on and what you shall do and what answer you mean to make at that day are your minds taken up with these considerations Tell me is it so or not Alas Sirs Is this a matter to be forgotten Is not that man even worse then mad that is going to Gods Judgement and never thinks of it when if they were to be tryed for their lives at the next Assize they would think of it and think again and cast 100 times which way to escape Me thinks you should rather forget to go to bed at night or to eat your meat or do your work then forget so great a matter as this Truly I have often in my serious thoughts been ready to wonder that men can think of almost any thing else when they have so great a thing to think of What! forget that which you must remember for ever forget that which should force remembrance yea and doth force it with some whether they will or not A poor despairing soul cannot forget it He thinks which way ever he goes he is ready to be Judged Oh therefore Beloved Fix these thoughts as deep in your hearts as thoughts can go Oh be like that holy man that thought which way ever he went he heard the Trumpet sound and the voice of the Angel calling to the world Arise ye dead and come to Judgement You have warning of it from God and man to cause you to Remember it do not then forget it It will be a cold excuse another day Lord I forgate this day or else I might have been ready you dare not sure trust to such excuses Qu. 3. MY next Question to you is How are you affected with the Consideration of this day Barely to think of it will not serve To think of such a day as this with a dull and senseless heart is a sign of fearful stupidity Did the knees of King Belshazzar knock together with trembling when he saw the hand-writing on the wall Daâ— 5.6 How then should thy heart be affected that seeth the hand-writing of God as a summons to his barr When I began to preach of these things long ago I confess the matters seemed to me so terrible that I was afraid that people would have run out of their wits with fear but a little experience shewed me that many are like a dog that is bred up in a forge or furnace that being used to it can sleep though the hammers are beating and the fire and hot Iron flaming about him when another that had never seen it would be amazed at the sight When men have heard us 7 years together yea 20 years to talk of a day of Judgement and they see it not nor feel any hurt they think it is but talk and begin to make nothing of it This is their thanks to God for his Patience Because his Sentence is not executed speedily therefore their hearts are set in them to do evil Eccl. 8.11 As if God were slack of his Promise as some men Account slackness 2 Pet. 3.9 When one day with him is as a 1000. years and a 1000. years as one day What if we tell you 20 years together that you must dye will you not believe us because you have lived so long and seen no death coming Three or four things there be should bring any matter to the heart 1. If it be a matter of exceeding weight 2. If it concern not others only but our selves 3. If it be certain 4. If neer All these things are here to be found and therefore how should your hearts be moved at the Consideration of this great day 1. What matter can be mentioned with the Tongue of man of greater moment For the poor creature to stand before his Maker and Redeemer to be Judged to Everlasting Joy or Torment Alas all the matters of this world are playes and toyes and dreams to this Matters of profit or disprofit are nothing to it Matters of credit or discredit are unworthy to be named with it Matters of temporal life or death are nothing to it We see the poor bruit beasts go every day to the slaughter and we make no great matter of it though their life be as dear to them as ours to us To be Judged to an Everlasting death or torment this is the great danger that one would think should shake the stoutest heart to consider it and awake the dullest sinner to prevent it 2. It s a matter that concerneth every one of your selves and every man or woman that ever lived upon the earth or ever shall do I am not speaking to you of the affairs of some far Countrey that are nothing to you but only to marvail at which you never saw nor ever shall do no It is thy own self man or woman that hearest me this day that shalt as surely appear before the Judgement-Seat of Christ as the Lord liveth and as he is true and faithful and that is as sure as thou livest on this earth or as the heaven is over thee That man that heareth all this with the most careless blockish heart shall be awakened and stand with the rest at that day that man that never thought of it but spent his time in worldly matters shall leave all and there appear that man that will not believe these things to be true but make a jest of them shall see and feel what he would not Believe and he also shall be there The godly that waited in hope for that day as the day of their full Deliverance and Coronation they shall be there Those that have lain in the dust these 5000. years shall rise again and all stand there Hearer whoever thou art believe it thou mayest better think to live without meat to see without light to escape death and abide for ever on earth then to keep away from that Appearance Willing or unwilling thou shalt be there And should not a matter then that so concerneth thy self go neer to thy heart and awake thee from thy security