.•:. :j •••"•• •••••• •-.-
tf
ftallpn?
r°RONTO ™
A
8X3
, 1906
\~IS~
^O.
THE
WORKS OF THOMAS MANTON, D.D.
VOL. X.
COUNCIL OF PUBLICATION.
W. LINDSAY ALEXANDER, D.D., Professor of Theology, Congregational Union, Edinburgh.
JAMES BEGG, D.D., Minister of Newington Free Church, Edinburgh.
THOMAS J. CRAWFORD, D.D., S.T.P., Professor of Divinity, University,. Edinburgh.
D. T. K. DRUMMOND, M.A., Minister of St Thomas's Episcopal Church,. Edinburgh.
WILLIAM H. GOOLD, D.D., Professor of Biblical Literature and Church History, Reformed Presbyterian Church, Edinburgh.
ANDREW THOMSON, D.D., Minister of Broughton Place United Presby terian Church, Edinburgh.
General <£tritor. REV. THOMAS SMITH, D.D., EDINBUBGH.
THE COMPLETE WORKS
OP
THOMAS MANTON, D.D.
VOLUME X.
CONTAINING
SEVERAL SERMONS UPON THE TWENTY-FIFTH CHAPTER OF ST MATTHEW;
ALSO
SERMONS UPON THE SEVENTEENTH CHAPTER OF ST JOHN.
LONDON: JAMES NISBET & CO., 21 BEKNERS STREET.
1872.
CONTENTS.
SEVERAL SERMONS UPON MATTHEW xxv.
PAGE
SERMON XVII. " And cast ye the unprofitable servant into utter darkness : there shall be weeping and gnash ing of teeth," ver. 30, . .3
„ XVIII. " When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory : and before him shall be gathered all nations ; and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats : and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left," ver. 31-33, . . . .14
f, XIX. " When the Son of man shall come in his glory,
and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory," ver. 31, 23
, XX. " And before him shall be gathered all nations ;
and he shall separate them one from another, as a "shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats : and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left," ver. 32-33, . . . .33
, XXI. " Then shall the King say unto them on his
right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world," ver. 34, . 45
„ XXII. "For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat;
I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink ; I was a stranger, and ye took me in ; naked, and ye clothed me ; I was sick, and ye visited me; I was in prison, and ye came unto me," ver. 35, 36, . . . .56
„ XXIII. " Then shall the righteous answer and say, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, and fed thee? and thirsty, and gave thee drink1? when saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in 1 and naked, and clothed thee ] or when
VI CONTENTS.
PAGE
saw we thee sick and in prison, and came unto thee 1 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inso much as you have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto rne," ver. 37-40, . . .66
SERMON XXIV. "Thenshallhesayalsountothem on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels," ver. 41, . . . .77
„ XXV. " Then shall he say to them on the left hand,
Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels," ver. 41, . . . .83
„ XXVI. " Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels," ver. 41, . . . .92
„ XXVII. " And these shall go away into everlasting pun ishment : but the righteous into life eternal," ver. 46, . . . . 100
SERMONS UPON JOHN xvn.
SERMON I. " These words spake Jesus, and lift up his eyes
to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come ; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee," ver. 1, . . .109
„ II. " As thou hast given him power over all flesh,
that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him/' ver. 2, .125
tt III. " And this is life eternal, that they might know
thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent," ver. 3, . .139
n IV. " And this is life eternal, that they might know
thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent," ver. 3, . .156
„ V. " I have glorified thee on the earth : I have
finished the work which thou gavest me to do," ver. 4, . . . .169
n VI. "And now, 0 Father, glorify thou me with
thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was," ver. 5, . 185
„ VII. "I have manifested thy name unto the men
which thou gavest me out of the world : thine they were, and thou gavest them me ; and they have kept thy word," ver. 6, .195
CONTENTS. Vll
PAQB
SERMON VIII. " I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world : thine they were, and thou gavest them me, and they have kept thy word," ver. 6, . 203
., IX. " I have manifested thy name unto the men
which thou gavest me out of the world : thine they were, and thou gavest them me, and they have kept thy word," ver. 6, . 210
„ X. " Now they have known that all things, what soever thou hast given me, are of thee," ver. 7, 218
„ XL " For I have given unto them the words which
thou gavest me ; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me," ver. 8, . . 226
„ XII. " I pray for them : I pray not for the world, but
for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine," ver. 9, . . . 241
„ XIII. " And all mine are thine, and thine are mine ;
and I am glorified in them," ver. 10, . 255
„ XIV. " And now I am no more in the world, but these
are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are," ver. 11, . . 269
„ XV. " And now I am no more in the world, but these
are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are," ver. 11, . . 281
„ XVI. " And now I am no more in the world, but these
are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are," ver. 11, . . 291
„ XVII. " And now I am no more in the world, but these
are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are," ver. 11, . • 300
„ XV-HI. " And now I am no more in the world, but these
are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are," ver. 11, . .313
Vlll CONTENTS.
PAGE
SERMON XIX. " And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are," ver. 11, . . .322
„ XX. " While I was with them in the world, I kept
them in thy name : those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition ; that the scripture might be fulfilled," ver. 12, . . 334
„ XXI. " And now I come to thee ; and these things I
speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves," ver. 13, . 352
„ XXII. " I have given them thy word ; and the world
hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world," ver. 14, . . . . . 363
XXIII. " I have given them thy word ; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world," ver. 14, . . . . . 376
., XXIV. " I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil," ver. 15, . . 389
,, XXV. " They are not of the world, even as I am not
of the world," ver. 16, . . .403
„ XXVI. " Sanctify them through thy truth : thy word
is truth," ver. 17, . . . . 411
„ XXVII. " Sanctify them through thy truth : thy word
is truth," ver. 17, . . . . 422
„ XXVIII. "Sanctify them through thy truth : thy word
is truth," ver. 17, . . . . - 438
XXIX. " Sanctify them through thy truth : thy word
is truth," ver. 17, . . . .450
„ XXX. "As thou hast sent me into the world, even so
have I also sent them into the world," ver. 18, . . . . . 461
„ XXXI. " As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world," ver. 18, . . . . 470
„ XXXII. ''As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world," ver. 18, . . . .482
SEVERAL SERMONS
UPON THE
TWENTY-FIFTH CHAPTER OF SI MATTHEW.
VOL. X.
SEVEEAL SERMONS UPON THE TWENTY-FIFTH OF ST MATTHEW.
SERMON XVII.
And cast ye the unprofitable servant into utter darkness : there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. — MAT. XXV. 30.
IN these words is the positive part of the sentence ; the master doth not only take away the talent, but condemneth him to eternal torments. In them take notice — (1.) Of the reason of the punishment ; and then, (2.) The punishment itself.
1. The reason of the punishment is represented in the notion and character by which the party sentenced is expressed, ' The unprofitable servant.' The word unprofitable is sometimes used in a larger, and sometimes in a stricter sense. In a larger sense it is used for him that deserveth no reward ; so it is said, Luke xvii. 10, ' We are unpro fitable servants.' Sometimes more strictly and properly for the- idle and the negligent, for them that do not their duty, and make no improvement of their gifts. So it is taken here, and in many other places ; /cat TOV a%peiov $ov\ov e/cySaXXere, ' Cast ye the unprofitable servant/
2. The punishment itself is represented by two notions : —
[1.] It is dismal, ' Cast him into utter darkness/
E
[2.] It is doleful, ' There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth/ First, Dismal ; et? TO O-/COTO? TO e^wrepov. (2.) It is doleful ; eicei 6 K\avd/jib^ teal 6 ftpvyfjios TWV oSovrwv. Sometimes hell is expressed by one of these notions ; as Mat. xiii. 42, ' He will cast the tares into a furnace of fire : there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth ; ' so Mat. xxiv. 51, ' He shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with hypocrites, where shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth/ It is notable, that is the punishment of the luxurious servant, that did eat and drink with the drunken, and beat his fellow-servants ; and here the unprofitable servant is threatened with the same, though he was not riotous, but negligent. Sometimes by both together ; as Mat. viii. 11, 12, 'The children of the kingdom shall be cast into utter darkness ; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth ;' and Mat. xxii. 13, ' Take him away, and cast him into utter darkness ; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth/
4 SERMONS UPON MATTHEW XXV. [SER. XVII.
Now, let us first consider the punishment as it is dismal, 'Cast him into utter darkness.' There are two terms to be explained — darkness, and utter darkness.
1. Darkness. Heaven is set forth by light, and hell by darkness. The inheritance of the saints is called an ' inheritance in light/ Col. i. 12, because that is an estate full of knowledge ; for there we ' see God face to face,' 1 Cor. xiii. 12 ; an estate full of joy and comfort, Ps. xvi. 11 ; an estate full of brightness and glory : Dan. xii. 3, ' They shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and as the stars for ever and ever ; ' Mat. xiii. 43, ' The righteous shall shine as the sun in the kingdom of heaven.' How base soever the children of God appear in this world, in the world to come they shall be wonderful glorious. Now the opposite state of this is set forth by darkness ; as the fallen angels are said to be ' held in chains of darkness/ 2 Peter ii. 4 ; or as Jude hath it, in ' chains under darkness/ Jude 6. Hell is compared to a prison or dungeon, 1 Peter iii. 19. So Christ speaketh of hell as the prison wherein damned spirits are held in a wretched and comfortless estate, in a state most remote from joy and blessedness.
2. It is called utter darkness, either because their prisons or dun geons were out of the city, as appeareth Acts xii. 10, or because they shall be shut from the feast or rooms of entertainment. Their feasts were usually kept by night ; suppers, and not dinners ; and then cele brated with a great many lamps and candles or torches. Now, those that were not only shut out from those rooms of entertainment, but cast into dungeons, were left in a comfortless condition. That it is opposite to the feast, these two places, Mat. viii. 12, and Mat. xx. 13, show. And here, when the good servants ' enter into the master's joy/ or sit down and feast with him, then is the naughty servant ' cast into utter darkness ; ' that is, shut out of the communion of the blessed spirits (who in the place of happiness have eternal joy), and cast into the dungeon of hell.
Secondly, Let us consider it as it is doleful, ' Where shall be weep ing and gnashing of teeth.' Their estate shall be sad, and they shall have a bitter apprehension of it. Their apprehension is expressed by two things — their sorrow and indignation.
1. Their desperate tormenting sorrow, e'/cet ftXavO/jibs, ' weeping.' This dolour shall arise from the inexplicable torments of body and soul.
2. Their indignation or vexation, c gnashing of teeth.' It is a token of indignation and impatience ; as Acts vii. 54, ' When they heard these things, they were cut at the heart, and gnashed on him with their teeth.' I shall explain it more by and by. Two points will arise hence : —
Doct. 1. That hell is a place and state of inexpressible torments.
Doct. 2. That unprofitableness is a damning sin.
The unprofitable servant is condemned, though he did not waste his master's goods, yet because he did not increase them. There is no treachery laid to his charge, no riot and wasteful profusion, no oppo sition to his fellow-servants, to vex or hinder them in their work. We hear nothing of this laid to his charge ; but he neglected to do that which is good.
VER. 30.] SERMONS UPOX MATTHEW xxv. 5
For the first point, that hell is a place and state of inexpressible torment, the argument may seem harsh and ingrate, but this is part of the doctrine that we must unfold. See the commission of the ministers of the gospel : Mark xvi. 16, ' He that believeth shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned.' It is gospel preaching to warn men of damnation ; we must curse, as well as bless ; and this part of doctrine hath its profit, as well as the more comfortable.
1. To those that are carnal, to rouse them out of their security. If men did believe the torments of hell, they would not sin as they do. Sermons of hell may keep many out of hell. Ne fugiamus sermones de Gehenna, ut Geliennam fugiamus. John startled many by pressing them ' to flee from wrath to come.' And it is God's usual course to bring to heaven by the gates of hell.
2. To God's children ; partly that they may know what they have escaped, to be the more thankful to their Kedeemer. We were all involved in this condemnation ; and it is the Lord's mercy that we are ' as brands plucked out of the burning,' Zech. iii. 2. A child of God is a firebrand of hell quenched, Eph. ii. 3. It was the pity of our Lord Jesus to rescue us, 1 Thes. i. 10. It is a part of a Christian's heaven to think of hell. The miseries of this life commend heaven to us ; much more the torments of hell. We know good the better by the opposite evil ; as the Israelites, when they looked back, and saw the Egyptians tumbling in the waters, it heightened the deliverance, and made them the more sensible of their own safety. And partly to warn them, and quicken them to their duty. This motive alone would beget slavish fear and compulsory obedience ; but mixed with others, it doth good. We need this discipline as long as we are in the world. We are flesh as well as spirit. Adam in innocency needed to be threatened and told of death. Paul saith, 1 Cor. ix. 27, ' I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection ; lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.' If so sanc tified a man as Paul, much more we ; and Eom. viii. 13, 'If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die ; but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.' It is one of the saints' motives. And partly because they that cannot endure to hear of such discourses discover much of the guilt and security of their own hearts. As Ahab said of Michaiah, 'He prophesieth nothing but evil,' so men say of many of the preachers of the gospel (that yet speak with tenderness and compassion), He preacheth nothing but hell and damnation. Presumption is a coward and a runaway ; but faith meeteth its enemy in open field : Ps. xxiii. 4, 'Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, yet I will fear no evil.' It supposeth the worst ; it can encounter the greatest terrors ; but a false unsound peace is a tender thing, loath to be touched, cannot endure a few sad and sober thoughts of the world to come, as sore eyes cannot endure the light. I shall only speak of this dreadful place and estate as it cometh under the view of this text, leaving a more full discussion of this point to the 41st verse of this chapter.
1. That there is a hell, or everlasting torments prepared for the wicked. It is good to prove a hated truth strongly. Now, it is so, that there is a hell, if God, or man, or devils be competent witnesses
6 SERMONS UPON MATTHEW XXV. [SER. XVII.
in the case. God hath ever told the world of it, and his witness is true. In the Old Testament but sparingly, because the state of the world to come was reserved as a discovery fit for the times of the gospel, 2 Tim. i. 10 ; yet there God speaketh, Deut. xxxii. 22, of a ' fire kindled in his anger, that shall burn to the lowest hell.' God's wrath is repre sented by fire, which is an active instrument of destruction ; and the seat and residence of it is in the lowest hell. So Ps. xi. 6, ' Upon the wicked shall he rain snares, fire, and brimstone.' See more, ver. 41.
2. Let us see it described here.
First, As a dismal state, ' Cast them out into utter darkness ; ' that is — (1.) Shut them out of the feast ; and (2.) Cast them into the dun geon of hell. There they shall be deprived of all consolation and joy and happiness. As —
1. Of the sight of God, the company of the good angels and blessed spirits ; to which loss there is added the most inexplicable torments of body and soul, which is exceeding great. And it is a dreadful thing to be deprived of the light of God's countenance, to be banished out of his presence. The disciples wept when Paul said, ' Ye shall see my face no more/ Acts xx. 38. What will the damned do when he shall say, ' Depart, ye cursed,' as it is in the 41st verse ? Here in the loss all are equal, but not in the pain ; all alike depart from God ; they all lose heaven's joys, the favourable presence of God, and the sight of Christ, the company of the blessed, and their abode in those happy mansions in Christ's Father's house. Hell is a deep dungeon, where the sunshine of God's presence never cometh. God is summum bonum, the chiefest good ; and in the other world, omne bonum, all in all. All things there are immediately from God, rewards and punish ments. Better lose all things than God : Exod. xxxiii. 15, 'If thy presence go not with us, carry us not up hence.'
Object. But is it any grief to the wicked to want God, from whom they have such an extreme averseness and hatred ?
Ans. They are sensible of the loss of happiness ; their judgment is changed, though not renewed. Fogs of error, atheism, and unbelief then vanish ; they are confuted by experience. There are no atheists in hell ; they know there is a God, and that all happiness consists in the full enjoyment of him; which happiness they have lost by their own folly, as by their bitter experience they can find, being in a place most remote from him : therefore, as rational creatures, they cannot but be sensible of their loss ; and that sense must needs breed sadness and dejection of spirit ; being they look not upon God as lovely in himself, but as one that might be profitable to them : oculos quos occlusit culpa, aperiet posna. It would lessen their torments if their understandings might be taken away : they know what it is to want God, though their hatred of him still remaineth.
2. The sight of Christ. They had a glimpse before they went into hell, by the glory of his presence : 2 Thes. i. 9, ' They shall be pun ished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord/ That short experience of Christ's appearing will remain in their minds to all eternity ; it will stick by them. How are they thrust out ? Christ himself, who hath the keys of death and hell, shall bid them go; as if he had said, I cannot endure your presence.
. 30.] SERMONS -UPON MATTHEW XXV. 7
3. From the company of the blessed : Luke xiii. 28, ' There shall be weeping, and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out.' Envy is a great part of their punishment, as well as horror : Luke xvi. 27, ' And being in torments, he lift up his eyes, and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom/ It is a torment to think that others of the same nature, interests, instruc tion, do enjoy what they have forfeited.
4. From an abode in the palace of heaven : Kev. xxii. 15, ' With out shall be dogs and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.' If the pavement of heaven is glorious, what will the place itself be ? And from this glori ous place they are banished.
Secondly, This utter darkness implieth positively a state of woe and misery most remote from this blessedness ; for as they are shut out of the palace of heaven, so they are cast into the prison of hell, where all is dark, without hope of ever coming out more : 2 Peter ii. 17, ' To whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever.' Hell is a region upon which the sun shall never shine. They know they shall never be reconciled to God, nor their punishment ended or lessened : ' Their worm shall never die, their fire shall never be quenched,' Mark ix. 44. They can never hope to be admitted into God's presence more. There are many ups and downs in a Christian's experience. God hideth his face sometimes, that he may show it afterwards the more gloriously. The church prayeth, Ps. Ixxx. 19, ' Turn again, and cause the light of thy countenance to shine upon us, and we shall be saved.' But this is an everlasting darkness. God doth, as it were, by chains hold them under everlasting torments. It is a curse that shall never be reversed, a comfortless life that shall never have an end. Men might lose the face of God if they were annihilated ; but the souls of men and women do not go to nothing, or die as their bodies, but subsist in a dolesome miserable state of darkness, and in the place of everlasting imprisonment, where the devils and damned spirits torment one another. All here are kept safe, without any possibility of escaping ; here God holdeth them in everlasting chains.
Now this is just ; they that rejected the light are thrust into utter darkness. They reject the light of the gospel : John iii. 19, ' Men love darkness more than light.' They despise the light of glory, in com parison of worldly things and present satisfactions : Ps. cvi. 24, ' They despised the good land.' They forsake God and their own happiness ; that which is now their sin is then their misery. They first excom municated God, Job xxii. 17, and that for a trifle. They think his pre sence a torment : Mat. viii. 20, ' What have we to do with thee ? art thou come to torment us before the time ? ' Eom. i. 28, ' They did not like to retain God in their knowledge.' They could not endure to think of God, and abhorred their own thoughts of God, that they were their burden.
Secondly, It is a doleful place and state. Here are two notions, the one expressing their grief and sorrow, the other their vexation and indignation.
1. Their grief and sorrow. In hell there is nothing but sorrow and
8 SERMONS UPON MATTHEW XXV. [SEE. XVII.
fear, overwhelming sorrow and despairing fear : it is a helpless and hopeless grief. Carnal men are prejudiced against godly sorrow ; but that is useful and profitable, 2 Cor. vii. 10. These sorrows would pre vent those that the damned suffer in hell. The sorrows of repentance are joys in comparison of these sorrows ; the sorrows of repentance are full of hope. God will afford comforts to his mourners ; but the sor rows of the damned are heightened by their own desperations ; it is for ever and ever. These are small, those swallow us up ; these are curing, those tormenting ; here it is like pricking a vein for health, hereafter wounds to the heart. These are mixed with love : Luke vii., she that loved much, wept much. The cup of wrath is unmixed, confounding and overwhelming us with continual amazement. These are short, those endless.
2. Their vexation and indignation. The grinding and the gnashing of the teeth is usually in pain or rage, in pain of body and soul. But of that afterwards, when I come to speak of hell under the notion of everlasting fire. Now, as it is a token and effect of rage. Now the damned are represented as full of rage, blasphemy, and indignation against God, against the saints, and against themselves.
[1.] Against God ; they have despised his favour, and now feel the power of his justice and displeasure against them, and have still an implacable hatred against him. We see in Rev. xvi. 9, when they were ' scorched with great heat, they blasphemed the name of God, which had power over these plagues ; and repented not, to give glory to God : they blasphemed the God of heaven, because of their pains and sores, and repented not of their deeds.' I know that this pro phecy doth not concern the state of the wicked in hell, but their plagues and disappointments in this world. However the fashion and guise of the reprobate is to be observed, here when they will not repent, so there when they cannot repent. Like men distracted and mad, they gnaw their tongues, and gnash their teeth ; like mad dogs, that bite their chains, or wild bulls in a net or toil, that roar and foam. They will curse God that created, and sentenced them to this death ; his power, by which they are continually tormented ; his wisdom, by which he governeth the world ; his goodness, that to them is turned into fury ; his Son's death and blood, which hath profited so many, and they have no benefit by it.
[2.] Against the saints. They hate them, and have an envy at all the felicity that betideth them in this world : Ps. xxxvii. 12, ' The wicked plotteth against the just, and gnasheth at him with his teeth ;' so Ps. cxii. 10, ' The horn of the righteous shall be exalted with hon our : the wicked shall see it, and be grieved ; he shall gnash with his teeth, and melt away.' The godly are their opposite party ; then their blessedness shall be so great that they shall envy their happiness when they see the godly in good case, and themselves miserable. At the great day the wicked shall see the believers' joy to the increase of their own sorrow.
[3.] Against themselves; their own hearts shall reproach them: Hosea xiii. 9, ' Thou hast destroyed thyself.' They shall rave and vex at their own past folly, past neglects, and past abuse of grace, and past refusal of that happiness which others enjoy, when they find their own
VER. 30.] SERMONS UPON MATTHEW xxv. 9
delights salted with the present curse. Little comfort and satisfaction shall they have, when they remember they came thither to avoid the tediousness of a few blessed duties.
Use. Is to shame us that we make no more preparation to escape this dreadful estate ; or, in the language of the Holy Ghost, that we do not ' flee from wrath to come.' No motion can be earnest and speedy enough. There are two things that are very great wonders : —
1. That any man should reject the Christian faith, so clearly pro mised in the predictions of the prophets, before it was revealed, and confirmed with such a number of miracles, when it was first set afoot, received among the nations by so universal a consent, in the learned part of the world, notwithstanding the meanness of the instruments employed in it ; and perpetuated to us throughout so many successions of ages, who have had experience of the truth of it And yet still we have cause to complain : Isa. liii. 1, ' Lord, who hath believed our report?' Some cannot outsee time and look beyond the grave: 1 Peter i. 9, ' He that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off ; ' and 2 Peter iii. 3, ' There shall come in the latter times scoffers, and mockers, walking after their own lusts.' Many dare not question the precepts of Christianity, because of their usefulness to human society and reasonable nature ; they doubt of the recompenses, and yet have a secret fear of them, and seek to smother it by their incredulity and unbelief. But alas ! it will not do. They scoff at others as simple and credulous ; none so credulous as the atheist ; there is a thousand to one against him : at least, if it prove true, in what a case are they ? It will do them no hurt to venture upon pro babilities until further assurance. What assurance would you have ? Luke xvi. 30, 31, ' You have Moses and the prophets ; if you believe not them, neither will you be persuaded if one came from the dead.' "Will you give laws to heaven ? God is not bound to make a sun for them to see that wilfully shut their eyes; yet that way what assurance would you have to prove this is nc phantasm ? Doth God need a lie to persuade you to your duty ? But —
2. The greater miracle is that any should embrace the Christian faith, and yet live sinfully and carelessly ; that they should believe as Christians, and yet live as atheists. You cannot drive a dull ass into the fire that is kindled before him : Prov. i. 17, ' Surely in vain is the net spread in the sight of any bird.' How can men believe eternal torments, and yet with so much boldness and easiness run into the sins that do deserve them ? Many times not compelled by any terror, nor asked or invited by any temptation, but of their own accord they tempt themselves, and seek out occasions of sinning. On the other side, can a man believe heaven, and do nothing for it ? If we know that it will not be lost labour, there is all the reason we should not grudge at it : 1 Cor. xv. 58, ' Be steadfast and unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour shall not be in vain in the Lord.'
Now there are three causes of this : — (1.) Unbelief ; (2.) Inconsi- deration ; (3.) Want of close application.
[1.] Want of a sound belief. Most men's faith is but pretended, as appeareth by the effects.
10 SERMONS UPON MATTHEW XXV. [SEE. XVII.
(1.) By our proneness to sin. If God did govern the world by sense, and not by faith, we should be other manner of persons than we are, in all holiness and godliness of conversation. If we were sure and certain that for every law we break, or for every one whom we deceive and slander, we should hold our hands in scalding lead for half an hour, how afraid would men be to commit any offence ? Who would taste meat, if he knew there were present death in it ? yea, that it would cost him bitter gripes and torments ? How cautious are men of their diet that are prone to the stone, or gout or colick, where it is but probable the things we take will do us any hurt ? We know certainly that ' the wages of sin is death,' yet how little are we con cerned at sin !
(2.) By our backwardness to good works. Sins of omission will damn as well as sins of commission, small as well as great. It is not said, Ye have robbed, but, Ye have not fed, ye have not clothed ; not, Ye have blasphemed, but, Ye have not invoked the name of God ; not done hurt, but done no good : ' And cast the unprofitable servant/ &c.
(3.) By our weakness in temptations and conflicts. We cannot deny a carnal pleasure, yet we are told, Kom. viii. 13, 'If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die.' Nor withstand a carnal fear, yet we are told, Mat. x. 28, ' Fear not him that can kill the body, but fear him that can cast both body and soul into hell.' But shrink at the least pains of duty, when we are told on the one hand, 1 Cor. xv. 58, ' That our labour shall not be in vain in the Lord ;' on the other side, Eev. xxi. 8, ' That the fearful and unbelieving shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.' On the other side, that it is the most irrational thing to go to hell to save ourselves the labour of obedience. The whole world promised for a reward cannot induce us to enter into a fiery furnace for half an hour. If one much desiring sleep, which is Chrysostom's supposition, should be told that if he once nodded he should endure ten years' tor ment, would he venture ?
(4.) By our carelessness in the matters of our peace. If we were in danger of death every moment, we would not be quiet till we got a pardon. All men by nature are children of wrath, liable to this horrible estate that hath been described to you ; but yet few run for refuge, Heb. vi. 18, 19, nor ' flee from wrath to come,' Mat. iii. 7. Seek ' peace upon earth/ Luke ii. 14. Labour ' to be found of him in peace/ 2 Peter ii. 14. How can a man be at rest, till he be secured, and can bless God for an escape ?
[2.] Want of serious consideration. The scripture calleth for it everywhere : Ps. 1. 22, ' Consider this, ye that forget God ;' and Isa. i. 3, ' My people will not consider.' Many that have faith do not act it, and set it a-work by lively thoughts. When faith and knowledge are asleep, it differeth little from ignorance or oblivion, till consideration awaken it. Carnal sensualists put off that they cannot put away, Amos vi. 3. Many that know themselves wretched creatures are not troubled at it, because they cast these things out of their thoughts, and so they sleep ; but their damnation sleepeth not, it lieth watching to take hold of them ; they are not at leisure to think of eternity.
[3.] Want of close application : Eom. viii. 31, ' What shall we then
VER. 30.] SERMONS UPON MATTHEW xxv. 11
say to these things ?' Job v. 27, ' Know this for thy good.' Whether promise or threatening, we must urge and prick our hearts with it. Self-love maketh us fancy an unreasonable indulgence in God, and that we shall do well enough, how slightly and carelessly soever we mind religion. We do not lay the point and edge of truths to our own hearts, and say, Heb. ii. 3, ' How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation ?' These are the causes. Now there is no way to remedy this but to get a sound belief of the world to come, and often to meditate on it, and urge our own hearts with it.
Doct. 2. That unprofitableness is a damning sin.
If there were no more, this were enough to ruin us. By unprofit ableness I do not mean want of success ; to the best, gifts may be unprofitable : Isa. xlix. 4, ' I have laboured in vain/ saith the prophet Isaiah ; but want of endeavour, omitting to do our duty. The scope of the parable is to awaken us from our negligence and sloth, that we may not prefer a soft and easy lazy life before the service of God, and doing good in our generation. Now, because we think omissions are no sins, or light sins, I shall take this occasion to show the heinousness of them ; and here I shall show two things : —
First, That there are sins of omission. Sins are usually distin guished into sins of omission and commission. A sin of commission is when we do that which we ought not ; a sin of omission, when we leave that undone which we ought to do. But when we look more narrowly into these things, we shall find both in every actual sin ; for in that we commit anything against the law, we omit our duty, and the omitting of our duty can hardly or never fall out but that something is preferred before the love of God, and that is a commission. But yet there is ground for the distinction, because when anything is formally and directly committed against the negative precept and prohibition, that is a sin of commission; but when we directly sin against an affirmative precept, that is an omission. We have an instance of both in Eli and his sons. Eli's sons defiled themselves ' with the women that assembled at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation,' 1 Sam. ii. 22. Eli sinned in that ' he restrained them not/ 1 Sam. iii. 13. His was an omission, theirs a commission.
Secondly, That sins of omission may be great sins appeareth —
1. Partly by the nature of them. There is in them the general nature of all evil ; that is, avopia, ' a transgression of a law,' 1 John iii. 4 ; a disobedience and breach of a precept, and so by consequence a contempt of God's authority. We cry out upon Pharaoh when we hear him speaking, Exod. v. 2, ' Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice ? ' By interpretation we all say so ; this language is couched in every sin that we commit, and every duty we omit. Our negligence is not simple negligence, but downright disobedience, because it is a breach of a precept ; and the offence is the more, because our nature doth more easily close with precepts than prohibitions. Duties enjoined are perfective, but prohibitions are as so many yokes upon us. We take it more grievously for God to say, ' Thou shalt not covet,' than for God to say, ' Thou shalt love me, fear me, and serve me.' We are contented to do much which the law requireth, but to be limited and barred of our delights, this is distasteful. To meet with
12 SERMONS UPON MATTHEW XXV. [SER. XVII.
man's corruptions indeed, the decalogue consists more of prohibitions than precepts ; eight negatives, the fourth and fifth commandments only positive. To be restrained is as distasteful to us as for men in a fever to be forbidden drink ; nature is more prone to sin. But to return, there is much disobedience in a sin of omission. When Saul had not done what God bid him to do, he telleth him, ' Kebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness as iniquity and idolatry,' 1 Sam. xv. 11 ; implying that omission is rebellion, and stubbornness parallel to idolatry and witchcraft.
2. Partly by the causes of them. The general cause is corrupt nature : ' They are all become unprofitable/ Kom. iii. 12, compared with Ps. xiv. 3, ' They are altogether become filthy.' There is in all by nature a proneness to evil, and a backwardness to good. Onesimus before conversion was unprofitable, good for nothing, Philem. v. 11 ; but grace made a change, make him useful in all his relations. The particular causes are — (1.) Idleness and security ; they are loath to be held at work : Isa. Ixiv. 7, ' None stirreth up himself to lay hold on thee;' 'They forget his commandments,' Jer. ii. 31, 32. (2.) Want of love to God : Isa. xliii. 22, ' Thou hast been weary of me, 0 Israel ;' and Eev. ii. 4, ' Nevertheless I have something against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.' And (3.) Want of zeal for God's glory : ' Not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord/ Kom. xii. 11. Where there is a fervour, we cannot be idle and neglectful of our duty. There is an aversion from God before there is an express disobedience to him.
3. Partly by the effects — internal, external, eternal.
[1.] Internal; gifts and graces languish for want of employment: 1 Thes. v. 19, ' Quench not the Spirit.' Thomas his omission made way for his unbelief, John xx. 24.
[2.] External ; it bringeth on many temporal judgments. God put by Saul from being king for an omission : 1 Sam. xv. 11, 'It repenteth me for setting up Saul to be king, for he hath not done the thing that I commanded him ;' forbearing to destroy all of Amalek. For this he put by Eli's house from the priesthood: 1 Sam. iii. 13, ' I will judge his house for ever, because his sons made themselves vile, and he re strained them not.' Eli's omission is punished as well as his sons' commission, yet it was not a total omission. Compare 1 Sam. ii. 23- 25, ' And he said unto them, Why do ye such things ? for I hear of your evil dealings by all this people ; nay, my sons, for it is no good report that I hear of you ; ye make the Lord's people to transgress : if one man sin against another, the judge shall judge him ; but if a man sin against the Lord, who shall entreat for him ? Notwithstanding they hearkened not to the voice of their father.' His admonition was grave and serious, yet it was not enough. All Israel knew their sin before ; Eli took upon him to reprove them secretly, whereas the fact was open, and he should have put them to open shame : and then his rebukes were mild and soft ; he should have frowned upon them, punished them, but his fondness would not permit that.
[3.] Eternal, here in the text : ' Cast the unprofitable servant/ &c. These sins Christ will mainly inquire after at the day of judgment; and ver. 42, 43 of this chapter, and Mat. vii. 19, ' Every tree that
VEE. 30.] . SERMONS UPON MATTHEW xxv. 13
bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire;' though not bad or poisonous fruit. By all these arguments it appear- eth that sins of omission may be great sins.
Thirdly, That some sins of omission are greater that others. All are not alike, as the more necessary the duties, the more faulty the omission : Heb. ii. 3, ' How shall we escape if we neglect so great sal vation?' 1 Cor. xvi. 22, ' If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema maranatha.' Not if a man hate, but if he love not, &c. These are peccata contra remedium, as others contra officium. By other sins we make the wound, by these we refuse the plaster. Again, if the omission be total : Jer. x. 25, ' Call not on the name of the Lord;' Ps. xiv. 3, 'None seeketh after God.' Again, when seasonable duties are neglected : Mat. xxv. 44, ' When I was an hungered ye fed me not;' 1 John iii. 17, 'He that hath this world's goods, and seeth his brother in need ;' Prov. xvii. 16, 'Why is there a price put into the hand of a fool?' And then when it is easy, this is to stand with God for a trifle : Luke xvi. 24, Desideravit guttam, qui non dedit micam ; Amos ii. 6, ' They sold the poor for a pair of shoes.' And when convinced of the duty : James iv. 17, ' To him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin/
Fourthly, In many cases sins of omission may be more heinous and more damning than sins of commission. (1.) They are the ruin of most part of the carnal world. Carnal men are often described by their omissions, ' To be without God/ Eph. iii. 12 ; Ps. x. 3, 4, ' The wicked through the pride of their heart will not seek after God ; God is not in all their thoughts ;' Jer. ii. 32, ' None stirreth up himself to seek after God/ And (2.) Partly because these are most apt to harden us more. Foul sins scourge the conscience with remorse and shame, but these bring on insensibly slightness and hardness of heart ; and therefore Christ saith, publicans and harlots shall enter into the kingdom of God before pharisees that rested in a superficial right eousness, but neglected faith, love and judgment, Mat. xxi. 31. And (3.) Partly because omissions make way for commission of evil : Ps. xiv. 4, ' They that called not upon God eat up his people like bread/ They lie open to gross sins that do not keep the heart tender by a daily attendance upon God. If a man do not that which is good, he will soon do that which is evil, John ii. 13. Oh ! then, let us bewail our unprofitableness, that we do no more good, that we do so much neglect God, and no more edify our neighbour, so that God's best gifts lie idle upon our hands.
Fifthly, The first and main evil of sin was in the omission : Jer. ii. 13, 'My people have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters;' James i. 14, ' Every man is tempted, when he is drawn away by his own lust, and enticed/ First enticed from God, and then drawn away to sin, therefore the work of grace is to ' teach us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts/ Titus ii. 12. By ungodliness is meant, not denying God, but neglecting God ; there our chief mischief began ; for when we do not look upon God as our chief good, then we seek happiness in the creature.
Use 1. To show that if the unprofitable servant be cast into hell, what will become of them that live in open sins, that bid defiance to God ?
14 SERMONS UPON MATTHEW XXV. [&ER. XVIII.
2. To condemn the unprofitable lives of many ; they live as if they had only their souls for salt to keep their bodies from stinking ; cumber the ground, Luke xiii. 7 ; do not good in their relations, are neither comfortable to the bodies nor souls of others. Certainly how mean and low soever you be in the world, you may be useful. Dorcas made coats for the poor. Servants may adorn the gospel, Titus ii. 10.
3. If sins of omission be so dangerous, we may cry out with David, Ps. xix., 'Who can understand his errors?' The children of God offend in these kind of sins oftener than in the other kind. They are not guilty of drunkenness or uncleanness, but of omission of good duties, or slight performance of them. Paul complaineth, Bom. vii. 18, 19, ' For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, there dwelleth no good thing ; for to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good, I find not ; for the good that I would, I do not.' And should not you complain likewise ? A child is not counted dutiful because he doth not wrong and beat his father ; he must also give him that reverence that is due to him. Alas ! how many duties are re quired of us to God and men, the neglect of which we should humble ourselves before God for !
SEEMON XVIII.
When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory : and before him shall be gathered all nations ; and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats : and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.— MAX. XXV. 31-33.
THIS latter paragraph I cannot call a parable, but a scheme and draught or a delineation of the last judgment, intermingled with many passages that are plainly parabolical ; as that Christ setteth forth him self as a king sitting upon the throne of his glory, and as a shepherd dividing his flock ; that he compareth the godly to sheep and the wicked to goats. Those allegations and dialogues between Christ and the righteous, Christ and the wicked, ' When saw we thee an hungry ? ' &c., have much of the nature of a parable in them. In these three verses we have described —
1. The appearance, or sitting down of the judge.
2. The presenting the parties to be judged. The former is in ver. 31, the latter in ver. 32, 33. In ver. 31 we have —
[1.] The person who shall be the judge, the Son of man.
[2.] The manner of his coming ; it shall be august and glorious. Where note —
(1.) His personal glory, he shall come in his glory.
(2.) His royal attendance, and all the holy angels with him.
(3.) His seat and throne, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory.
First, The person is designed by this character and appellation,
VERS. 31-33.] SERMONS UPOX MATTHEW xxv. 15
' the Son of man.' He is called so to show that he is true man, and descended of the present race of men. He might have been true man if God had framed his substance out of nothing, as he did Adam out of the dust of the ground. And this title is given him here, as in many other places, when the last judgment is spoken of, as I shall show you by and by —
1. Partly to recompense his foregoing humiliation, or despicable appearance at his first coming.
2. Partly because of his second coming : he shall appear visibly in that nature as he went from us : Acts i. 11, ' In like manner/ &c. Christ shall come in the form of a man, but not in the same humble and mean appearance as now when he spake these things to them; for it is added for the manner —
[1.] For his personal glory, ' He shall come in his glory.' Not in the form of a servant, but becoming his present state. All infirmities shall be removed from his soul and body. It is not a borrowed glory, but he shall come in his own glory. It is said, Mat. xvi. 27, ' The Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father.' Here, in his own glory. The Son of man and the son of God is only one person ; and his glory as God and his Father's glory is the same. So that he ' shall come in his glory,' noteth either — (1.) His divine power and majesty, which shall then conspicuously shine forth ; or (2.) The glory put upon the human nature ; and so it will note his plenary absolution as our surety. The Father sendeth him from heaven in power and great glory : ' He appeareth without sin,' Heb. ix. 28. He doth not say, They that look for him shall be without sin ; but ' He shall appear the second time without sin unto salvation ;' that is, fully discharged of our debt. First, he came in carnem ; he showed himself in the nature of man to be judged: then, in came ; he shall show himself in the nature of man to judge the world. At his first coming he was holy, yet in the garb of a sinner ; we judged him as one forsaken of God : his second coming shall make it evident that he is discharged of the debt he took upon himself.
[2.] His royal attendance. The angels shall attend him, both to honour him and to be employed by him.
[3.] His royal posture, he shall ' sit upon the throne of his glory.' A glorious throne, beseeming the Son of God and the judge of the quick and the dead, shall be erected for him in the clouds, such as none can imagine how glorious it shall be till they see it.
Secondly, The next thing that is offered in these words is the pre senting the parties to be judged ; and there you may take notice —
1. Of their congregation, and before Mm shall be gathered all nations.
2. Their segregation, and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats. In the segregation we have —
[1.] The ordering them into two several ranks and companies, sheep and goats, ver. 32.
[2.] As to posture and place, ver. 33, ' And he shall set his sheep on the right hand and the goats on his left.' Not only a separation as to Christ's knowledge and discerning them, but a separation in place.
16 SERMONS UPON MATTHEW XXV. [SEE. X. VIII.
I begin with the first branch, the appearance and sitting down of the judge.
Two points I shall observe: —
Doct. 1. That the judge of this world is Jesus Christ.
Doct. 2. That Christ's appearance for the judgment of the world shall be glorious and full of majesty.
For the first point, that Jesus Christ is the world's judge —
1. Here I shall inquire why he is judge.
2. In what nature he doth act or exercise this judgment, whether as God or man, or both.
First, Let us inquire how Christ cometh to be the world's judge, and with what conveniency and agreeableness to reason this honour is put upon him ? To a judge there belongeth these four things — (1.) Wisdom ; (2.) Justice; (3.) Power; and (4.) Authority.
1. Wisdom and understanding, by which he is able to judge all persons and causes that come before him, according to the rules and laws by which that judgment is to proceed ; for no man can give sen tence in a cause wherein he hath not skill, both as to matter of right and wrong, and sufficient evidence and knowledge as to matter of fact. Therefore, in ordinary judicatures, a prudent and discerning person is chosen.
2. Justice is required, or a constant and unbiassed will to determine and pass sentence, ex cequo, et bono, as right and truth shall require. He that giveth wrong judgment because he doth not accurately under stand a thing is imprudent, which in this business is a great fault ; but he that doth rightly understand a matter, and yet is biassed by perverse affections and aims, and giveth wrong judgment in the cause brought before him, that is highly impious and flagitious ; therefore, the judge must be just and incorrupt.
3. Power is necessary that he may compel the parties judged to stand to his judgment, and the offenders may receive their due punish ment ; for otherwise all is but precarious and arbitrary, and the judg ment given will be but a vain and solemn pageantry.
4. There is required authority; for otherwise, if a man should obtrude himself of his own accord, they may say to him, ' Who made theeajudge over us?' Or if he by mere force should assume this power to himself, the parties impleaded have a pretence of right to decline his tribunal, and appeal from him. Certainly he that rewards must be superior, and much more he that punisheth ; for he that punisheth another bringeth some notable evil and damage upon him ; but for one to bring evil upon another, unless he hath right to do it, is unjust ; therefore good authority is required in him that acts the part of a judge. These things, as they stand upon evident reason, and are necessary in all judicial proceedings between man and man, so much more in this great and solemn transaction of the last judgment ; for this will be the greatest court that ever was kept both in respect, of the persons to be judged, which shall be all men and evil angels, high and low, small and great, rich and poor, princes and subjects ; and in respect of the causes that shall be produced, the whole business of the world for six thousand years, or thereabouts ; or the retributions made, which shall be punishments and rewards of the highest nature
VERS. 31-33.] SERMONS UPON MATTHEW xxv. 17
and degree, because everlasting. And therefore there must be a judge sought out that is exactly knowing not only of laws, but of all persons ;md causes : ' That all things should be naked, and open to him with whom we have to do/ Heb. iv. 12, 13, and 1 John iii. 20. Again, exceeding just, without the least spot and blemish of wrong dealing : Gen. xviii. 25, ' Shall not the judge of all the earth do right ? ' and Horn, iii. 5, 6, ' Is God unrighteous, that taketh vengeance ? God forbid : for then how shall God judge the world?' It cannot be that the universal and final judgment of all the world should be committed to him that hath or can do anything wrongful and amiss. And then, that power is necessary both to summon offenders, and make them appear, and stand to the judgment which he shall award, without any hope of escaping or resisting, will as easily appear ; because the offen ders are many, and they would fain hide their guilty heads, and shun this tribunal, if it were possible : Kev. vi. 16, ' Say to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth upon the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb.' But that must not, cannot be : Ps. xc. 11, ' Who knoweth the power of thine anger ? According to thy fear, so is thy wrath/ Authority is necessary also, or a right to govern and to dispose of the persons judged into their everlasting estate ; which being all the world, belongeth only to the universal king, who hath made all things, and preserveth all things, and governeth and disposeth all things for his own glory. Legislation and execution both belong to the same power. Judgment is a part of government. Laws are but shadows if no execution follow. Now, let us particularly see how all this belongeth to Christ.
[1.] For wisdom and understanding. It is in Christ twofold — •divine and human; for each nature hath its particular and proper wisdom belonging to it. As God, it is infinite : Ps. cxlvii. 15, ' His understanding is infinite.' And so by one infinite view, or by one act of understanding, he knoweth all things that are, have been, or shall be, yea, or may be, by his divine power and all-sufficiency. They are all before his eyes, as if naked and cut down by the chine-bone. We know things successively, as a man readeth a book, line after line, and page after page ; but God at one view. Now his human wisdom cannot be equal to this. A finite nature cannot be capable of an infinite understanding, but yet it is such as it doth far exceed the knowledge of all men and all angels. When Christ was upon earth, though the forms of things could not but successively come into his mind or understanding, because of the limited nature of that mind and understanding, yet then he could know whatever he would, and to whatsoever thing he would apply his mind, he did presently under stand it ; and in a moment, by the light of the divinity, all things were presented to him ; so that he accurately knew the nature of whatever he had a mind to know. And therefore then he was not ignorant of those things that were in the hearts of men, and were done so secretly as they were thought only to be known to God himself. Thus he knew the secret touch of the woman, when the multitude thronged upon him, Luke viii. 45, 46. So Mat. ix. 3, 4, ' When certain of the scribes said within themselves, This man blasphemeth : Jesus knowing their thoughts, said, Why think ye evil in your hearts ? ' He discerneth
VOL. x. B
18 SERMONS UPON MATTHEW XXV. [SER. XVIII.
the inward thoughts, and turneth out the inside of the scribes' minds. So Mat. xii. 24, 25, Jesus knew their thoughts when they imagined that ' by Beelzebub the prince of the devils he cast out devils.' But most fully, see John ii. 24, 25, ' He committed not himself to them, because he knew all men, and needed not that any should testify of man ; for he knew what was in man.' It may be they knew not them selves, but he knew what kind of belief it was, such as would not hold out in time of temptation. We cannot infallibly discern professors before they discover themselves ; yet all hypocrites are seen and known of him, even long before they show their hypocrisy, not by a conjectural, but a certain knowledge, as being from and by himself, as God. He doth infallibly know what is most secret and hidden in man. Now, if he were endowed with such an admirable understanding even in the days of his flesh, while he grew in wisdom and stature, Luke ii., and his human capacity enlarged by degrees, what shall we think of him in that state in which he is now glorious in heaven ? Therefore, to exercise this judgment, he shall bring incomparable knowledge, so far exceeding the manner and measure of all creatures, even as he is man ; but his infinite knowledge as God shall chiefly shine forth in this work. Therefore he is a fit judge, able to bring forth the secret things of darkness and counsels of the heart into open and manifest light, 1 Cor. iv. 5, and disprove sinners in their pretences and excuses, and pluck off their disguises from them.
[2.] For justice and righteousness. An incorrupt judge, that neither doth nor can err in judgment, must be our judge. As there is a double knowledge in Christ, so there is a double righteousness ; one that belongeth to him as God, the other as man ; and both are exact and immutably perfect. His divine nature is holiness itself : ' In him is light, and no darkness at all.' The least shadow of injustice cannot be imagined there. All virtues in God are his being, not superadded qualities. God's holiness may be resembled to a vessel of pure gold, where the substance and lustre is the same ; but ours is like a vessel of wood or earth gilded, where the substance and gilding is not the same. Our holiness is a superadded quality. We cannot call a wise man, Wisdom ; or a righteous man, Righteousness. We use the concrete of man, but the abstract of God. He is love, he is light, he is holiness itself ; which noteth the inseparability of the attribute from God. It is himself ; God cannot deny himself : his act is his rule. Take Peter Martyr's similitude : A carpenter chopping a piece of wood by a line or square, may sometimes chop right and sometimes wrong ; he cannot carry his hand so evenly ; but if we could suppose that a carpenter's hand were his rule, he could not chop amiss. Christ's human nature was so sanctified, that upon earth he could not sin, much more now glorified in heaven. And there will be use of both righteousnesses in the last judgment ; but chiefly of the righteous ness that belongeth to the divine nature ; for all the operations of Christ are theandrical ; neither nature ceaseth to work in them. As in all the works of men, the body and the soul do both conspire and concur in that way which is proper to either ; only, as in the works of his humiliation his human nature did more appear, so in the works that belong to his exaltation and glorified estate, his divine nature
VERS. 31-33.] SERMONS UPO>T MATTHEW xxv. 19
appeareth most ; especially in this solemn action, wherein Christ is to discover himself to the world with the greatest majesty and glory.
[3.] For power. A divine power is plainly necessary, that none may withdraw themselves from this judgment, or resist or hinder the execu tion of this sentence ; for otherwise it would be passed in vain : Titus ii. 13, ' Looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of the great God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ.' Christ is then to show himself the great and powerful God. His power is seen in raising the dead, in bringing them together in one place, in opening their consciences, in casting them into hell : Mat. xxiv. 30, ' The Son of man shall come from heaven with power and great glory.'
[4.] For authority. I shall the longer insist on this, because the main hinge of all lieth here, and this doth bring the matter home. That Jesus Christ, and none but Jesus Christ, shall be the world's judge. By the law of nature, the wronged party and the supreme power hath right to require satisfaction for the wrong done. Where no power is publicly constituted, possibly the wronged party hath power to require it ; but where things are better constituted, lest the wronged party should indulge his revenge and passion too far, it rests in the supreme power, and those appointed by it, to judge the matter, and to make amends to those that are wronged in their body, goods, or good name. Now, to God both these things concur.
(1.) He is the wronged party, and offended with the sins of men. Not that we can lessen his happiness by anything that we can do ; for our good and evil reacheth not unto him ; his essential glory is still the same, whether we obey or disobey, please or displease, honour or dishonour him. That which is eternal and immutable neither is lessened nor increased by anything that we can do. He is out of the reach of all the darts that we can cast at him. Hurt us they may, but reach him they cannot. But sin, it is a wrong to his declarative glory as sovereign lord and lawgiver, as it is a breach of his law. There was hurt done to Bathsheba and Uriah, Ps. li. 4, but the sin and obliquity of the action was against God and his sovereign authority. If the injury done to the creature could be severed from the offence done to God, it were not so great. God is the author of the light of nature, and that order which begetteth a sense of good and evil in our hearts. God is the author of the law given by Moses, and the gospel revealed by his Son. Therefore, whatever things are committed against the law of nature, or the law of Moses, or the gospel, certainly it is a wrong to the justice of God, as being a breach of that order which he hath established : 1 John iii. 4, ' He that committeth sin, transgresseth also the law ; for sin is a transgression of the law/ Laws cannot be despised, but the majesty of the lawgiver is contemned, disparaged, and slighted. Therefore upon this right God might come in as a very proper judge. But, indeed, God doth not punish merely as offended, or as a private man revengeth himself, where there is no power pub licly constituted to do him right ; but he properly judgeth.
(2.) A supreme and sovereign lord, and governor of the world, to whom it belongeth, for the common good, to see that it be well with them that do well, and ill with them that do evil, arid that no com passion be showed but where the case is corupassionable, according to
20 SERMONS UPON MATTHEW XXV. [&ER. XVIII.
that declaration he hath made of himself to the creatures. To declare this more plainly, we shall see how this right accrueth to God. It may be supposed to accrue to him two ways — either because of the excel lency of his being, or because of his benefits which he hath bestowed upon mankind.
(1st.) The excellency of his being. This is according to the light of nature, that those that excel should be above others ; as it is clear in man, who is above the brute creatures; he is made to have dominion over them, because he hath a more excellent nature than they. And when God said, ' Let us make man after our own image,'he presently upon that account gave him dominion over the beasts of the field, and fowls of the air, and fishes of the sea. So God, being infinite, and far above all finite things, hath a power over the creatures, angels or men, who are as nothing to him, and therefore to be governed by him. But chiefly —
(2d.) By virtue of the benefits bestowed by him ; for great benefits received from another do necessarily beget a power over him that receiveth them ; as parents have a power and authority over their children, who are a means under God to give them life and education ; the most barbarous people would acknowledge this. How much greater, then, is the right of God, who hath given us life, and breath, and being, and well-being, and all things ! He created us out of nothing ; and being created, he preserveth us, and giveth us all the good things which we enjoy. And therefore we are obliged to be subject to him, and to obey his holy laws, and to be accountable to him for the breach of them. Therefore, let us state it thus : As the excellency of his nature giveth him a fitness and a sufficiency for the government of mankind, his creation, preservation, and other benefits give him a full right to make what laws he pleaseth, and to call man to an account whether he hath kept them, yea or no. His right is greater than parents can have over their children ; for in natural generation they are but instruments of his providence, acting only the power which God giveth them ; and the parents propagate nothing to the children but the body, and those things that belong to the body ; called, there fore, ' The fathers of our flesh,' Heb. xii. 9. Yea, in framing the body God hath a greater hand than they ; for they cannot tell whether the child will be male or female, beautiful or deformed. They know not the number and posture of the bones, and veins, and arteries, and sinews ; but God doth not only concur to all these things, but ' form the spirit of man in him/ Zech. xii. 1. And all the care and provi dence of our parents cometh to nothing, unless the Lord directeth it, and secondeth it with his blessing. Therefore God naturally is the governor and judge of all creatures, visible and invisible; so that, from his empire and jurisdiction they neither can nor ought to exempt themselves. So that to be God and judge of the world is one and the same thing expressed in divers terms.
Well, then, you will ask, Why is Christ the judge of the world, 7-ather than the Father and the Spirit, who made us, and gave the law to us ? I answer —
1. That we have gone a good step to prove that it is the pecu liar right of God, common to the three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost ; 'for these three are one/ 1 John v. 7. They have one
VERS. 31-33.] SERMONS UPON MATTHEW xxv. 21
common nature, and the operations that are with the divine essence are common to them all. So that as the creation of all things is equally attributed to all, so also the right of this act of judging the world doth alike agree to all. So that as yet the thing is not explained enough, unless we should grant that it shall he exercised by all, or can prove out of the scriptures that one person of these three is ordained, and by mutual consent chosen out by the rest to exercise it for himself and for the other. Indeed, at the first, when the doctrine of the Trinity was not as yet openly revealed, it was not needful to inquire more diligently after it ; but this general truth sufficed, that God is the judge of the world. As when Enoch said; Jude 14., ' Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints ;' and as David, Ps. Ixiv, 2, 'Lift up thyself, thou judge of the earth;' and Ps. 1. 6, 'God is judge himself ;' and in many other places. It was enough to under stand it of one only and true God, without distinction of the persons ; but when that mystery was clearly manifested, then the question was necessary, which of the persons should be judge of the world?
2. As there is an order among the persons of the blessed Trinity in the manner of subsisting, so there is also a certain order and economy according to which all their operations are produced and brought forth to the creature ; according to which order their power of judging fell partly to the Father, and partly to the Son.
[1.] In the business of redemption. The act of judging, which was to be exercised upon our surety, who was substituted in our room and place, and offered himself not only for our good, in bonum nostrum, but loco et vice nostri, to bear our punishment, and to procure favour to us; there the act of judging belongeth to the Father, to whom the satisfaction is tendered, 1 John ii. 1 ; the advocate is to plead before the judge. But —
[2.] As to the judgment to be exercised upon us, who either par take of that salvation which was purchased by that surety, or have lost it by our negligence and unbelief; there the Son, or second person, is our judge. In the former, the Son could not be judge, because in a sense he made himself a party for our good, and in our room and place ; and the same person cannot be both judge and party too ; give and take the satisfaction both ; that cannot be. Well, then, in this other judgment the Holy Ghost cannot be conveniently the judge ; for in this mystery he hath another part, function, and office prepared ; and being the third person in the order of subsisting, the Son was not to be passed over, but it fell to him.
[3.] In the Son there is a double relation or consideration — one as he is God, the other as he is mediator; the one natural and eternal, and shall endure for ever ; the other of mediator, which as he took upon himself in time, so in the consummation of time he shall at length lay aside : in this latter respect, as mediator, he is judge by deputation. The primitive sovereign and judge is God ; and the king and judge by derivation is Jesus Christ the mediator, in his manhood, united to the second person in the Godhead; and so the judgment' of the world is put upon him. In regard of the creatures, his authority is absolute and supreme, for there can be no appeal from his judgment; but in regard of God, it is deputed. He is ordained ; so it is said,
22 SERMONS UPON MATTHEW XXV. [SEE. XVIII.
John v. 27, ' The Father hath given him authority also to exercise judgment, because he is the Son of man.' He hath the power of life and death, to condemn and to absolve. So Acts x. 42, ' He is ordained of God to be the judge of the quick and the dead ;' and Acts xvii. 31, ' He hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in right eousness by that man whom he hath ordained.' In all which he acts as the Father's vicegerent ; and after he hath judged, ' He shall deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father/ 1 Cor. xv. 24. So that the right of Christ as mediator is not that which befalleth him imme diately from the right of creation ; but is derivative, and subordinate to that kingdom which is essential to him, common to the Father, Son, and Spirit.
[4.] This power which belongeth to Christ as mediator is given to him partly as a recompense of his humiliation ; of which I shall speak in the second point. But chiefly —
(1.) Because it belongeth to the fulness of his mediatory office ; and therefore, being appointed king by the Father, his last function as a king was to judge the world. The Mediator was not only to pay a price to divine justice, and to separate the redeemed from the world, by his Spirit converting them to God, but also to judge the devil, and all those enemies out of whose hands he had freed! the Church. He was to fight against the blind world, and triumph over them ; and when, the world is ended, to judge them, and cast them into eternal tor ments.
(2.) His office is not full till this be done. It is a part of his ad ministration as mediator. The last act of conquest is overcoming his enemies, and glorifying and redressing injuries and wrongs of his saints.
Secondly, In what nature he doth act and exercise the judgment, as God, or man, or both.
I answer — In both. Christ is the person, as God-man ; yet the judg ment is acted visibly by him in the human nature, sitting upon a visible throne, that he may be seen of all, and heard. Therefore Christ is so often designed by this expresion, ' Son of man ;' as in the text, and Mat. xvi. 27, and Acts xvii. 31, and Mat. xxvi. 64, 'Ye shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds, with power and great glory;' John v. 27. The Son of man is the visible actor and judge. Because the judgment must be visible, therefore the judge must be such as may be seen with bodily eyes. The Godhead puts forth itself by the human nature, in which all these great works are acted.
Use. You see what need there is to get in with Christ: Horn. viii. 1, 'There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ;' 1 John ii. 28, ' And now, little children, abide in him, that when he shall appear we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.' Oh ! what a comfort will it be to have our Kedeerner in our nature to be our judge! Then we shall see our goel, our kins man, whom we have heard so much of, whom we have loved, and longed for. But the contemners of his mercy will find the Lamb's face terrible : Eev. vi. 16, ' And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall upon us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth upon the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb.' But believers will find their advo cate their judge, to reward those that trust in him, Ps. ii. 12. He that
VER. 31.] SERMONS UPON MATTHEW xxv. 23
hath so often pleaded with God for us, he is to pass sentence upon us. Would a man be afraid to be judged by his dearest friend, or think his sentence would be terrible? If the devil were our judge, or wicked men, we might be sad; but it is your dear Lord Jesus ; therefore let us comfort ourselves with the thoughts of it. David's followers were afraid; but when he came to be crowned at Hebron, then he dignified and re warded them. Christ's followers are now despised; but when he shall come in his glory, they shall be invited into his kingdom : ' Come, ye blessed of my Father.'
SERMON XIX.
Wlien the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory. —MAT. XXV. 31.
I COME now to the second point : —
Doct. 2. That Christ's appearance for the judgment of the world shall be glorious and full of majesty.
I shall prove it by opening the circumstances of the text. Three things are offered here : —
1. His personal glory.
2. His royal attendance.
3. His glorious seat and throne.
First, His personal glory. Let us see what it is, and why he will come in such an appearance.
First, What it will be. We cannot fully know till we see it ; but certain we are this glory must be exceeding great, if we consider —
1. The dignity of his person. He is God-man ; and now that mystery is to be discovered to the utmost ; therefore he must needs have such a glory as never creature was capable of, nor can be ; but .at that day the creatures are capable of great glory ; for it is said, Mat. xiii. 43, ' The righteous shall shine as the sun in the kingdom of the Father.' And if it be thus with the saints, how shall it be with Christ ? The saints are but creatures ; they are not deified when they are glorified ; but he is God-man in one person. The saints are but members of the mystical body, but Christ is the head ; and therefore lie must needs far excel the glory of all the creatures. Ours is but a derived ray ; the body of light is in himself. We read, 2 Thes. i. 10, that 'he will be admired in the saints;' that is, in the glory he puts upon them. All the spectators shall stand admiring at the honour he puts upon them, that are but newly crept out of dust and rottenness. But how much more may he be admired for his own personal glory !
2. The quality of his office. He is the judge of the world, who now cometh to appear upon the throne, to be seen of all ; therefore there must be a glory suitable. We read, Acts xxv. 23, that Agrippa and Bernice came to the judgment-seat, pera TroX/V^? ^ayracrta?, with a great deal of pomp and state. And we see in earthly judicatures, when great malefactors are to be tried, the whole majesty and glory of
24 SERMONS UPON MATTHEW XXV. [SER. XIX,
a nation is brought forth; the judge in gorgeous apparel, accompanied with nobles and gentry and officers, and a great conflux of people, to make it more magnificent and terrible. So here is a conflux of the Avhole world, angels, devils, men from all corners of the earth ; all the men that ever were and ever shall be ; and Christ cometh forth in his greatest glory.
3. Consider the greatness of his work, and that will show that his glory must needs be discovered. His work is, on the one side, to gather together, to convince, to judge, and punish creatures opposite and rebellious ; and to honour and reward his servants, on the other. There is not such a union and confederation of miracles in any one point and article of faith, so much as there is in this of the general judgment. The mighty power and dominion of God is seen in dis solving the elements, in raising the dead bodies, and giving every dust its own flesh, and bringing them together that they may be arraigned and judged; and then in separating them into their several ranks, in which his omnisciency and wisdom is seen, that not one of the reprobate shall lie hid among the elect. In judging them his justice cannot be eluded ; he that seeth all things in the light of the Godhead cannot want evidence. Then one of the books that is opened is in the parties' custody ; and yet they cannot deface it, or blot it out. And then for execution, the majesty of his person and presence will be enough to confound a wicked man. How will the wolves tremble at the sight of the pure and unspotted Lamb ! Kev. vi. 16. Oh ! it will be a piercing sight to them to see him whom they have despised upon the throne ! That Jesus whose word they have scorned, whose ordi nances they have neglected or corrupted, whose servants they have molested ! When Joseph, who was so great and high in Egypt, dis covered himself to his brethren, — ' I am Joseph,' — they were abashed and confounded because of the injury they had done him ; much more shall sinners be confounded when he shall tell them, ' I am Jesus/ and that he is come on purpose to be revenged on all the abusers and de- spisers of his grace, and the troublers of his people. How can they then look him in the face ? We read, that when they came to attack Christ, John xviii. 6, as soon as he had told them, ' I am he/ they went backward, and fell to the ground. He would convince his ene mies in the midst of his greatest abasement how full of majesty and terror his presence is, if he should let out the glory of it upon them. If the Lamb's voice be so terrible, how dreadful will he be when he roareth as a lion ! And if then, when he was taken and led to be judged, you may guess how glorious his presence will be when he cometh in all his glory to judge others. And by this you may under stand the apostle's expression, 2 Thes. i. 9, ' That the wicked shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power.' From there is as much as l)ij ; it doth not signify there the kind of the punishment, the pcena damni, but the cause. The majesty of Christ is the cause of their torments ; and his look and face will be terror enough to sinners. And as he cometh in glory to shame and punish those that despised him, so to comfort and reward his people who have trusted in him, and served him, and suffered for him. He shall come from heaven in-
VER. 31.] SERMONS UPON MATTHEW xxv. 25
state to lead them into those blessed mansions with honour : 1 Peter iv. 13, ' Rejoice inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceed ing joy.' They have seen, him in his worst, and now in his best also. The glory of Christ's appearing is sometimes expressed by fire, and sometimes by light. To the saints it is as light, and as a comfortable sunshine ; but to the wicked it is a dreadful fire, ev irvpl <f»\ojo<; : 2 Thes. ii. 8, 'And then shall that wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the Spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.'
4. If you consider some foregoing appearances of Christ. As for instance, at the giving of the law, it was the second person that man aged that appearance ; for it is said, Acts vii. 38, that it was ' an angel that appeared in Mount Sinai, and spoke to our fathers ;' that is, the angel of the covenant, Jesus Christ ; for it is clearly said, Heb. xii. 26, that ' the voice of Christ then shook the earth.' Now, what a dreadful appearance was that ! The earth shook, the mountain trembled, and out of the midst of the thunderings, and lightnings, and a thick cloud, was the sound of the trumpet heard, so that the people trembled ; year Moses himself, a meek man, that had done great service in the church, did exceedingly quake and tremble, Heb. xii. 18-21. When he gave the law, he is represented as a terrible judge, ready to overcome his adversaries with the tempest of his wrath ; much more when he cometh to execute the sentence of the law ; as execution is always more ter rible than promulgation. Or you may guess at it by the prophet Isaiah's terror when he saw God in vision, Isa. vi. 5. Into what an agony it drove that holy prophet ! ' Woe is me, for I am undone ; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips ; for mine eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts.' Adam fled from the presence of God walking in the garden, though God came to him in no terrible appearance, and though he had sinned, yet was not cut off from all hope of reconciliation. How will wicked men abide the presence of Christ when he cometh to show forth his glory, and they are excluded by his final sentence from all hope of pardon ? Or you may set it forth by the glory of Christ's transfiguration, the glory that was seen then ; for that was a glimpse of this glory of the Father, in which he shall appear at that day : Mat. xvii. 2, ' And he was transfigured before them, and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light.' And then arose a bright cloud, and a voice out of the bright cloud : ' And when the disciples heard it, they were sore afraid.' There was a glorious shining brightness, breaking through skin and garment, overwhelming the disciples, that they were not able to stand before his majesty, though it were in mercy revealed to them. Or by that appearance of the angel, described Mat. xxviii. 3, 4, ' His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment as white as snow ; and for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men.' Or by the appearance of Christ to Paul, Acts ix., when he was blind for seven1 days, when the Lord Jesus showed himself to him from heaven. These instances will give us a guess, a taste of it. But —
1 Three.— ED.
26 SERMONS UPON MATTHEW XXV. [SEB. XIX.
Secondly, Why he will come in this great glory ? I answer — 1. To take off the scandal and ignominy of the cross, and to recom pense him for his humiliation. He that was once despised in the world for his outward and despicable estate will then be glorious, when he shall declare his power in raising the dead by his voice, and all the elements burning about him, and all the saints and angels attending him, every one as bright as the sun ; a glorious high throne set in the air for him, and all the creatures presented before him, and bowing to him. Ransacking the consciences of sinners, and bringing forth the story of all his administrations in the world. Then there will be a full recompense for all his sufferings. To make this evident, let us compare the two comings of Christ. Christ's first coming was so obscure, that it was scarce observed and understood by the world. The second will be so conspicuous and glorious as to be seen of all. In the former, he came in the form of a servant, and the contemptible appearance of a mean man ; in the second, he corneth as the Lord and heir of all things, clothed with splendour and glory as with a garment. At his first coming he had a forerunner, ' The voice of one crying in the wilderness ; ' in the second he hath a forerunner also ; there the Baptist, here an archangel with his trumpet, 1 Thes. iv. 10. In his first coming he was accompanied with a few poor fishermen, twelve disciples, persons of mean condition and rank in the world ; now with legions of angels, and with his holy ten thousands of his saints, Jude 14. Heretofore he raised three to life ; now all the dead. Then he was scorned, buffeted, spit upon ; now crowned with glory and honour. In the former he was to act the part of a minister of the circumcision, to preach the gospel to the people of Israel ; in the latter he shall act as the judge of all the world. In the former he invited men to repent ance, and offered remission of sins to those that received him as a redeemer; but in the latter he shall cut off all hope of pardon for evermore from them that received him not, and neglected their day of grace. At first he came to bear the sins of many ; but now he shall come without sin, Heb. ix. 28, not bearing a burden, but bringing a discharge ; not as a surety, but as a paymaster ; not as a sufferer, but as a conqueror ; triumphing over death, and hell, and the devil. He cometh, no more to go from us, but to take us from all misery unto himself. In the former state he was God-man ; but he did as it were hide his godhead under the infirmities of his flesh ; sometimes it peeped out through the veil in a miracle, but yet mostly obscuring himself ; but in the latter he shall discover himself with an unspeak able brightness and majesty, and there will be no need of miracles to prove the divinity of his person and office ; for then it shall be a matter of sense ; all shall see it, and feel it ; some with joy, others with trembling. In the former state he presented himself to suffer death ; but then he shall tread death under his feet. In the former lie was judged and condemned by men to an ignominious death, the death of the cross; but in the latter he will judge, and with his own mouth pronounce sentence upon all men, on all kings, emperors, and judges, as well as poor peasants, sitting upon a glorious throne and tribunal. Then he judged no man: John iii. 17, ' For God sent not his Son to condemn the world, but that the world through him might
VER. 31.] SERMONS UPON MATTHEW xxv. 27
be saved.' His work then was to hold out the way of life, or to open the way of salvation to lost man, as a meek saviour and mediator. So John xii. 47, ' If any man hear my words, and believe them not, I judge him not, for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.' ' I judge not/ that is, as yet. He laid aside the person of a judge then, and took on him the office of a Saviour, to offer and pur chase mercy ; that was his proper errand when he came first into the world. So Luke ix. 56, ' The Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them/ And to comply with that end, he cast a veil upon his glory, and endured the enmity and contradiction of the world ; but now it is otherwise, so that the scandal of his first estate is fully taken off.
2. He appeareth in this great glory to beget a greater reverence and fear in the hearts of all those that shall be judged by him. He telleth them aforehand, that ' the Son of man will come in great glory and majesty ;' to daunt and quell the haughty minds and proud conceits of the potentates, oppressors, and great ones of the earth, who often abuse their power to wrong and violence : Eccles. v. 8, 'If thou seest the oppression of the poor, and the violent perverting of judgment and justice in a province, marvel not at the matter ; for he that is higher than the highest regardeth, and there be higher than they.' Here is swaying and swaggering, and bearing high upon the thought of their title and greatness ; but there they and all their greatness and power shall meet with a judge that is able by the breath of his mouth to consume them. What meaneth the insolency of the mighty, the pride of the great heroes of the earth, that swell and grow haughty with their greatness, to look and speak so big ? Nothing is so profitable to allay the excesses of power, or to fortify us against the fears of it, as the consideration of this mighty judge, who will review all matters, and cause the great men of the earth to tremble. Power is an unwieldy thing, apt to degenerate, and to put men upon unwarrantable prac tices ; therefore, it needeth to be allayed and balanced with the con sideration of a greater power. Alas ! all the power and glory of the world is but a fancy, a vain pageantry, compared to Christ's power and glory. What is their authority to his, their splendour to his, their guard to his? Nothing can excuse them; this judgment must and shall pass upon them.
3. For the comfort of his people ; for Christ is a pledge and pattern of what shall be done in them ; in all things he must first it, Kom. viii. 29 ; and we are made conformable to his image and likeness. All privileges come to us not only from Christ but through Christ : he as mediator is the first possessor. Are we elected ? he was elected first : 'My elect servant,' Isa. xlii. 1. Are we justified? so was he as our surety : 1 Tim. iii. 16, ' Justified in the Spirit/ Are we sanctified ? first he received the Spirit of holiness. Are we glorified ? so was he : Col. iii. 4, ' When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, we shall appear with him in glory ;' 1 John iii. 2, ' We shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is/ There will be a manifestation of the sons of God, Kom. viii. 19 ; first the first-born, then all the rest of the brethren. Yea, we participate of his judicial power: the saints shall not only be judged, but the judges, 1 Cor. vi. 2, 3. The evil spirits a long time
28 SERMONS UPON MATTHEW XXV. [SER. XIX.
ago had their punishment, but then their solemn doom. The saints shall sit down with him as justices upon the bench. Here the saints judge the world by their doctrine and conversation, there by their vote- and suffrage. There is the relation between Christ and the church of wife and husband ; uxor fidget radiis mariti ; as the husband riseth in honour so doth the wife : of head and members, when the head is crowned all the members are clothed with honour. His mystical body shares with him, that there may be a proportion in the body. He is the captain of our salvation, and he will dignify and reward his soldiers, Heb. ii. 10. David, when he was crowned at Hebron, his followers were made captains of thousands, captains of hundreds, and captains of fifties. Masters and servants : ' My servant shall be where I am/ He will put marks of honour and favour upon all his servants. Here they were disgraced with him, suffered with him, slighted with him ; then they shall be glorified with him, for still there is a likeness. We must be contented to lie hid till he be publicly manifested to the world, for we have all our blessings at secondhand. So much for the first thing, his personal glory.
Secondly, His royal attendance, ' And all the holy angels with him/ Chrysostom saith the whole court of heaven removeth with him ; surely there are many of them : Jude 14, ' The Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints to execute judgment on all, to convince all that are ungodly/ It is likely these angels will put on some visible shape, for the greater glory and majesty of Christ's appearing; for as he will appear in a body upon his glorious throne, so will his legions round about him ; whose order, power, and formidable hosts must some way or other be seen of the wicked for their greater terror. Their attend ance upon Christ seemeth to be for these reasons : —
1. Partly for a train, to make his appearance the more full of majesty. We find angels waiting upon Christ at his ascension, and so at his return to judgment. Public ministers of justice are made formidable by their attendance, and Christ will come as a royal king in the midst of his nobles. And —
2. Partly that by their ministry the work of the day may be the more speedily and powerfully despatched. They are to ' gather the elect from the four winds,' Mat. xxiv. 31. The angels that carried their souls to heaven shall be employed in bringing their bodies out of the graves : Luke xvi. 22, ' Carried by angels into Abraham's bosom/ They are still serviceable about the saints ; this is the last office they perform to them ; they are as it were, under Christ, guardians of their bones and dust. Now, to the wicked, they are to bind the tares in bundles, Mat. xiii. 41, that they may be burnt in the fire. They force and present wicked men before the judge, be they never so obstinate. They are witnesses ; they attend upon congregations, 1 Cor. xi. 10. In assemblies there is more company meets than is visible ; devils and angels meet there ; the devils to divert your minds as soon as they begin to be serious, to catch the good word out of your heart ; and angels observing you ; here should be no indecency. So in your ordi nary conversations they are conversant about you. And then for execution, no sooner is sentence pronounced but executed ; as Haman's face was covered, and he led away to execution as soon as the king
VER. 31.] SERMONS UPON MATTHEW xxv. 29
had but said the word. Thus the scripture, in a condescension to our capacity, representeth to us the ministry of angels in that great and terrible day. We can. better understand the operations of angels than of God himself ; they being nearer to us in being, and of an essence finite and limited, their acts are more comprehensible.
3. There may be a third reason imagined why the angels should come to this judgment, which will give us an occasion for handling a question, Whether they shall be judged, yea or no ?
I answer — For the good angels, I think not ; for the bad, the scrip ture is express and plain.
[1.] For the good angels, it is clear, by what hath been said already, that they shall be present at this action, not to be judged, but to bring others to judgment ; as officers, not as parties. I suppose this, if men had continued in their innocency and integrity of their creation, such a day of universal judgment had been needless, for then there had been none to be condemned, because none had sinned ; the covenant of God would have been enough to have secured their happiness : so the good angels continuing in that state wherein they were created, there is nothing doubtful about them that needeth any judiciary debate and discussion ; and being already confirmed in the full fruition of God and happiness as to their whole nature, their estate is not to be put to any trial : whereas good men, though their souls be in heaven, yet their bodies are not admitted there ; some part of them as yet lieth under the effects of sin, and their glorification is private, and God's goodness as yet hath not been manifested to them in the eyes of all the world, nor their uprightness sufficiently vindicated; therefore a judg ment needeth for them, but not for the angels, who were never as yet censured and traduced in the world, and they in their whole nature and person enjoy most absolute felicity in God's heavenly sanctuary : no such great change will happen to them after the judgment as happeneth to the saints when their whole persons are taken into glory. It is true they have a charge and ministry about the saints, Heb. i. 14 ; but of that ministry and charge they give an account daily in the sight of God, to whom they do approve themselves in it ; so that there is no cause for further inquisition concerning that thing, there being no neces' sity of judgment concerning them ; I think they shall not be judged.
[2.] For the evil angels, the scripture is express: 1 Cor. vi. 3, ' Know ye not that we shall judge angels ?' that is, as evil men, so evil angels. So 2 Peter ii. 4, ' God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved to the judgment of the great day/ Though they are im prisoned in the pit of hell, yet reserved for further judgments. God's irresistible power and terrible justice overruleth, tormenteth, and restraineth them for the present. Thelse are the chains of darkness ; yet there is a more high measure of wrath that shall light upon them at the day of judgment. Where any accession or considerable increase shall be made either to the happiness or punishment of any creature, there that creature shall be judged. Now, there is no such consider able alteration or increase of happiness to good angels as to men ; and on the other side, there is a considerable alteration as to wicked angels : Mat. viii. 20, 'Art thou come to torment us before the time? ' They
30 SERMONS UPON MATTHEW XXV. [SEE. XIX.
know there is a time coming when they shall be tormented more than they are yet. And besides, God's justice was never publicly manifested, and by any solemn act glorified, as to the punishment of the evil angels for their rebellion against him, but was reserved for this time. Besides, as God would now receive into glory the good and holy among men, and therefore would first begin with their head, which is Christ, sending him in power and great glory, so, on the other side, when God would punish the disobedient, he would begin with condemning their head, who is the devil, and is first cast into hell as a pledge of what should light upon all those that follow him, and are seduced by him. I could say more, but I forbear.
Thirdly, There remaineth one circumstance in the text, and that is, Christ's throne of glory ; which, because it is wholly to come, and not elsewhere explained in scripture, we must rest in the general expres sion. The cloud in which he cometh possibly shall be his throne ; or, if you will have it further explained, you may take that of the prophecy of Daniel, chap. vii. 9, 10, ' I beheld all the thrones were cast down, and the ancient of days did sit ; whose raiment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool : his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued, and came forth from him : thousands ministered unto him, and ten thou sand times ten thousand stood before him. The judgment was set, and the books were opened.' I cannot say this prophecy is intended of the day of judgment ; but as they said of the blind man, John ix. 9, ' Either it is he, or it is very like him/ so this is it, or very like it. And in the general you see it describeth that which is very glorious. Or you may conceive of it by the description of Solomon's throne : 1 Kings x. 18-20, 'Moreover, the king made a great throne of ivory, and overlaid it with the best gold : the throne had six steps, and the top of the throne was round behind ; and there were stays on either side of the place of the seat, and two lions stood behind the stays : and twelve lions stood on the one side, and on the other, upon the six steps : there was not the like made in any kingdom/ It was high and dreadful, but not worthy to be a footstool to this tribunal.
The Use of all is exhortation. To press you to propound this truth — (1.) To your faith ; (2.) To your fear and caution ; (3.) To your love ; (4.) To your patience ; (5.) To your hope. That all these graces may be the more exercised upon this occasion, that you may believe it, and consider it —
1. Propound it to your faith; be persuaded of it. We are so occupied in present things, that we forget or do not mind the future ; and men that are in love with their lusts and errors love to be ignorant of those truths, the knowledge whereof might disquiet them in follow ing those lusts : 2 Peter iii. 5,' ' This they are willingly ignorant of.' But we had need to call upon you again and again to believe these things, that the Lord Jesus shall come in his glory with his angels. They that are slaves to their lusts strongly desire an eternal enjoyment of the present world, and labour to banish out of their hearts the thoughts of the day of judgment. The sound belief of it is not so much encountered with doubts of the understanding, as the lusts and inclinations of their carnal and perverse hearts. But, beloved, I hope
YER. 31.] SERMONS UPON MATTHEW xxv. 31
it will not be tedious to you to tell you again and again of these things, and to press you to rest your hearts upon them ; to you that have set your hearts to love Christ, and to wait for his coming ; to you that know there is no such powerful help to the mortification of your lusts as to consider the day of judgment, no such special encourage ment in your difficulties as the comfort, glory, and sweetness of it. Oh ! therefore, press your hearts with this truth : Hath not the mouth of truth averred it ? Would Jesus Christ assure us of that which shall never be ? He that hath been so punctual on his word in lesser truths, would he deceive us in this main article ? Sure it should be no hard thing to persuade you that are assured of his fidelity and love that what he hath spoken will come to pass. If it were not so, he would never have told you so. You will find no less than he hath promised. If we did deceive you with sugared and golden words, it were another matter. Expect not that I should bring arguments from nature to prove it to you : God's word is sufficient. Faith is built upon God's testimony, and nothing else. Though other arguments have their use, and at other times I have produced them, now I shall forbear : only, because there are godless mockers, who suspect all, and do not so much reason against this article of our Christian faith, as scoff at it, and you may meet with some of those, I think it not amiss to answer their cavils. A carnal and devilish wit will find out so many reasons, plausible to themselves and others like themselves ; otherwise it were enough to reject them as blasphemies with detesta tion. But, because they please themselves in their atheistical conceits, you shall see they make rather against them than for them.
[1.] If they should urge that reason in the apostles' days, when blas phemy was not grown so bold and witty : 2 Peter iii. 3, 4, ' All things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation ; ' we might answer, as, the apostle did, that it is fit that things should keep one constant course in the day of the Lord's patience and mercy ; but ' the day of the Lord will come as a thief.' Shall there never be a change because the preparations are not presently visible ? This is a manifest lie. Particular judgments on some wicked men do prove that there shall be a general judgment on all ; for seeing some are justly punished, and others deserving no less are spared, he who is immutably good and impartially just must have a day for punishing these afterwards ; and God hath fire in store as well as water, to burn up as well as to drown the object of their lusts and pleasure.
[2.] Their great argument is the blemish of providence in their eyes, the seeming neglect of the good, and evil done amongst men. I answer — That will prove it which they bring to disprove it ; for the apostle telleth us, ' This is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God/ 2 Thes. i. 5. What ! even the calamity of good men ? Solomon made another the quite contrary use of it : Eccles. iii. 16, 17, ' Moreover, I saw the place of judgment, that wickedness was there ; and the place of righteousness, that iniquity was there : I said in my heart, God shall judge the righteous and the wicked ; for there is a time for every purpose and for every work.' The wicked prosper, and destroy the just. You make it an argument for your infidelity ; but it is an argument against it. Stay till the assizes come. It followeth
32 SERMONS UPON MATTHEW XXV. [SER. XIX.
not there is no government because the thief and murderer is not hanged as soon as he hath done the fact. God's day will come, and then they go to prison. When you see malefactors drinking, dancing, frolicking in prison, will you say, I see there is no government in this kingdom ?
[3.] Many think this is a state-engine to keep the world in better order and government. But I answer — Needeth there a lie to establish so great a benefit to mankind ? It cannot be. Doth interest or virtue govern the world ? If mere interest, what a confusion would there be of all things ? Then men might commit all villany, take away men's lives and goods at pleasure, when it is their interest, when they could do it safely and secretly ; then servants might poison their masters, if they could do it without discovery ; and we might prey one upon another if it were in the power of our hands, and so live like wild and ravenous beasts ; and by this rule, catch he that catch can here would be the best, and vice and impiety would be the greatest wisdom. But if virtue govern the world, it is a clear case virtue can not be supported without thoughts of the world to come ; and can we imagine that God would make a world that cannot be governed but by falsehood and deceit, as you suppose the opinion of judgment to come is ?
2. Propound it to your fear and caution. Great ones, that are most powerful and unruly, there is a power above them : Jer. v. 5, ' I went to the great ones, that had altogether broken the yoke.' They should tremble now at this glorious coming, to prevent trembling then, Ps. ii. 10-12. It is your wisdom to observe the Son, not to oppress his truth, interest, and people. Take heed of living in opposition to Christ : he will come in great power and great glory. If you neglect, if you stumble upon the rock you should build upon, and reject your own mercies, perish for want of a little care, you shall see the excellency of Christ, but have no benefit by it ; see the happiness of the saints with your eyes, but shall not taste thereof, 2 Kings vii. 19 ; as Haman was forced to be Mordecai's lacquey, and cry before him, ' Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king will honour.'
3. Propound it to your love, that you may long for it. The saints are described to be those ' that love his appearing,' 2 Tim. iv. 8. And the apostle biddeth them ' hasten to the coming of the day of the Lord,' 2 Peter iii. 12. These will be days of refreshing to the saints. Send forth your wishes after it. ' The Spirit in the bride saith, Come,' Kev. xxii. 17. Nature saith not, Come, but, Tarry still. If it might go by voices whether Christ should come, yea or no, would carnal men give their voice this way ? No ; the voice of corrupt nature is, Depart, Job xxii. 14. They are of the devils' mind, cannot endure to hear of it, Mat. viii. 24. If malefactors were to choose whether there should be assizes, yea or no, there would never be none. But you, my beloved, should desire to see him whom you have heard so much of. When Christ took his leave of us, his heart was upon meeting and fellowship again, John xiv. 2. So should we be affected towards his appearing.
4. Propound it to your patience, fortitude, and self-denial. Have no cause to think shame of Christ's service, though you suffer disgrace for it ; he will appear worthy of all the respect you show to his person and ways. He is disgraced indeed that is refused by Christ when he
VERS. 32, 33.] SERMONS UPON MATTHEW xxv. 33
cometh in great glory. The judgment of the blind world is not to be regarded. The Lord will show who are his condemned in the world on purpose to try you, though now you are accounted the scurf and offscouring of all things. I know it is a great temptation to persons of honour and quality ; but Christ suffered greater indignities : there fore let us resolve to be more vile for the Lord. Chiefly consider the glory reserved for us in the life to come, 1 John iii. 2. Then is the day of the manifestation of the sons of God. Christ is contented for a while to lie hid, and will not show himself in his full glory till the end of the world. In the days of his flesh his person was trampled upon by wicked men ; and now he is in heaven, he is despised in his cause and servants : his person is above abuse and contempt, but not his members. Christ came in disguise to try the world. Satan would not have had the boldness to encounter him, the Jews to reject him, carnal Christians to neglect him, nor the faith of the elect found to such praise and honour, if all were honourable, glorious, and safe here in the world. But the day of manifestation is hereafter. Let us be patient therefore, and bear all the harsh usage we meet with. There will be honour : ' When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, we shall meet with him in glory.'
5. Propound it to your hope, and stand ready to meet with him and wait for him ; and comfort yourselves with the hopeful expectation, This will be when all things are ready. And you should look every day and long every day for his appearing. I have a Saviour in heaven, that will come again, with all his saints with him : ' Even so come, Lord Jesus, come quickly.'
SEKMON XX.
And before him shall be gathered all nations ; and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats : and he shall set the slieep on his right hand, but the goats on the fc/£.— MAT. XXV. 32, 33.
WE now come to the second general, the presenting the parties to be judged ; and there we have —
1. The congregation, and all nations shall be gathered before him.
2. A segregation.
[1.] As to company, he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats.
[2.] As to place and posture, and he shall set the sheep on the right hand, and the goats on the left.
First, The congregation. All the dead shall rise, and being risen, shall be gathered together into one place or great rendezvous. Ac cording to the analogy of faith we may gather this point : —
Doct. That in the general judgment, all that have lived from the beginning of the world unto that day shall without exception, from the least to the greatest, appear before the tribunal of Christ.
VOL. x. c
34 SERMONS UPON MATTHEW XXV. [SEE. XX.
This point will be best illustrated and set forth to you by consider ing the several distinctions of mankind.
1. The most obvious distinction of mankind is of grown persons and infants ; and if all these are presented to the judgment, it will go far in the decision of the point that we have in hand. Grown persons are those whose life is continued to that age wherein they come to the full use of reason ; infants are those that die before they are in an ordinary way capable of the doctrine of life. Now for grown persons, the scrip ture is written purposely for them, and showeth that they shall be judged according to the dispensation they are under ; as to infants or lesser children, the case is more difficult and obscure. It is likely that all shall rise in the stature and condition of grown persons, that is to say, in such a state of body and mind as they may see and hear and understand the judge. When they were born, they were born with a rational soul, which though according to ordinary course lieth idle for a while, and doth not discover itself in any human and rational actions till the organs be fitted and matured, yet that it should be still buried in the body, and perpetually sleep, as being hindered by its organs or instruments of operation, reason will not permit us to con ceive, because it is contrary to its natural aptness and disposition, as also the end of its creation. We cannot conceive that God should form the spirit in man, which is immortal, in a body in vain and to no purpose ; therefore children shall rise again : we know God hath made a difference between infants. The scripture seemeth to extend the merit of Christ's death to his church, Eph. v. 26, 27 ; and that infants of believers are born members of the church is out of question. To be sure, the covenant taketh in our children together with us : Gen. xxii. 7, ' I am thy God, and the God of thy seed.' And those that never lived to disinherit themselves of that blessing, we have no reason to trouble ourselves about them : God is their God, and knoweth how to instate them in the privileges of the covenant. Look, as we judge of the slip according to the stock upon which it groweth, till it live to bring forth fruit of its own, so we judge of children according to the parents' covenant, till they come to years of discretion to choose their own way, and declare what have been God's counsels concerning them. The parents' sprinkling the blood on the door-posts saved the whole family. It is very reasonable therefore to think that infants, born in the church, dying infants, obtain remission of original sin by Christ, whatever become of others ; for what reason have we to judge them that are without ? 1 Cor. v. 12. And if God vouchsafe some the remission of that sin which they have, out of his mercy and grace in Christ, they must in the resurrection be in that state, that they may enjoy eternal felicity. The sum of the whole matter is, that in this great congregation children shall appear as well as parents. But children, dying children, are reckoned to their parents as a part of them, or as an appendage and accession to them, whose condition is likely to be the same with theirs as to glorification and acceptance to life. And with the condition of others we meddle not, but leave them to God. The scripture is sparing of speaking of them to whom it speaketh not. God speaketh more fully to grown persons, as those with whom he dealeth and treateth in the gospel. He is not bound to give us an
VEES. 32, 33.] SEKMONS UPON MATTHEW xxv. 35
account how he will proceed with others ; yet for godly parents' com fort, he hath more fully revealed his mind concerning their children than the children of infidels or wicked and open enemies to his truth. What he may do to them as to their original sin we cannot easily pronounce, as to their condemnation or absolution. Many allege, indeed, that they have an evil heart, and a nature that they would despise the gospel, if they had lived to receive the offer of it. I answer — It is true they are by nature children of wrath, as all are, Eph. ii. 3 ; and the gospel telleth us who are the serpentine brood of a trans gressing stock ; but how far God may show grace to them we know not. But for what they would do afterwards, that can make no argu ment in this case ; for God being a most just and most equal judge, doth not judge his creature for what is possible and future, but only for things that are past and actually committed. He punisheth nothing but sins ; but things that are not, cannot be sins. We crush serpents for their venomous nature before they have actually done us any harm ; so may God destroy children ; but that he doth not always do it, plain experience manifesteth.
2. The next distinction is of those whom Christ shall find dead or alive at his coming. Those that are dead shall be raised out of their graves, and have the spirit of life restored to them, that they may come to judgment. Those that are alive shall undergo a change like death: 1 Cor. xv. 51, 'We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.' These bodies, as thus qualified, cannot brook the state of the other world. Now, there will be found both good and bad alive at Christ's coming. If all the faithful were dead before, there would be some time when God would have no church upon earth. Now, it is foretold in the scriptures that the kingdom of Christ, which consists in the church, shall endure for ever, and that of his government there shall be no end ; as no intermission, so no interruption. That there fore it may not be interrupted, some believers there must be, even in the very last times, by whom the kingdom of Christ may be continued in this world, and come to join with the other part of Christ's kingdom that is in the other world. Therefore the apostle telleth us, 1 Thes, iv. 16, 17, ' The dead in Christ shall rise first, and then we which are alive and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, and meet the Lord in the air ; and so for ever be with the Lord.' On the other side, all the wicked shall not die ; for the man of sin is to be consumed with the brightness of his coming. Now, how shall the brightness of his coming consume him if he were already abolished, with all his adherents and followers ?
3. The third distinction is of good and bad. Both sorts shall come to receive their sentence ; only the one come to the judgment of con demnation, the other to the judgment of absolution : John v. 28, 29, 'They which are in the grave shall hear his voice, and shall come forth ; they that have done good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation/ The word is clear in this point, that both the godly and wicked shall live again, that they may receive a full recompense according to their ways. None of the godly will be lost, but shall all meet in that general assembly ; nor shall any of the wicked shift or shun this day of appear-
36 SERMONS UPON MATTHEW XXV. [SfiR. XX.
ance, but both shall at the call of Christ be brought before his judg ment-seat; the godly rejoicing to meet their Kedeemer, and the wicked forced into the presence of their judge, who could otherwise wish that hills and mountains might cover them. So Acts xxiv. 15, ' I believe the resurrection of the just and unjust ;' not cequabiliter boni ; for Mat. v. 45, ' He maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth his rain upon the just and unjust.' Let us answer some places for the good: John iii. 18, 'He that believeth in him, ov Kpiverai, is not j udged ; ' that is, with the j udgment of condemnation ; so we render it ; and et9 Kpiaiv OVK epxerai : John v. 24, ' He that believeth on him shall not come into condemnation/ Yet for absolution they come. On the other side, some of the ancients denied the wicked's entering into judg ment: Ps. i. 5, ' The ungodly shall not stand in judgment' (the latter clause expounds it), ' nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous/ This is the great bridle upon the wicked when they are serious ; they fear more the resurrection from the dead than death itself.
4. The next distinction of men whom Christ shall judge are be lievers and unbelievers. To believers we reckon all those that lived not only in the clear sunshine of the gospel, but those also to whom the object of faith was but more obscurely propounded ; to those that lived before the flood and after the flood, as well as those that lived in Christ's time, and after the pouring out of the Spirit. Abel and Enoch and Noah are mentioned in the chronicle and history of faith, Heb xi., as well as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and believers of a later stamp and edition. And among unbelievers are reckoned all those that through their own obstinate incredulity rejected the divine revelation made to them, as well those that neglected the great salva tion spoken by the Lord himself, as the world of ungodly in Noah's time, 1 Peter iii. 20, who were disobedient when Noah preached righteousness to them, or laid open the way of life and salvation to them. Indeed, it concerneth most those that have the gospel clearly preached to them, but others are not excused. In short, this distinction will bring in several ranks of men.
[1.] Some that have heard of Christ, and of the grace of God dis pensed by him. These shall be judged by the gospel tenor and dispensation, which clearly sets forth all men to be sinners, and there fore to have deserved eternal death ; and that ' there is no name under heaven whereby men can be saved, but by the name of Jesus/ Acts iv. 12. And the great question propounded to them is, whether they have believed in Christ, yea or no ? Mark xvi. 16, ' They that believe not shall be damned/ They are condemned upon a double account — partly by the law, and partly by the gospel. Partly by the law, be cause they, being under the wrath and curse of God, would not em brace the remedy. Besides, the sentence of the law standeth in full force against a man if he cometh not to Christ to get it repealed : John iii. 18, 'He that believeth not is condemned already;' and the sentence is ratified in the gospel : John iii. 36, 'He that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abide th on him/ To their other sins they added unbelief, which is a heinous crime ; yea, the great damning sin, 1 John v. 10. Those that say they believe are to prove the truth of their faith by the power it hath upon their hearts and
VERS. 32, 33. J SERMONS UPON MATTHEW xxv. 37
practice, James ii. 6-8, Rev. xx. 21 ; if that hath drawn off their hearts from worldly vanities and fleshly lusts, and engaged them to live unto God -in the new and heavenly life.
[2.] All that have heard of Christ have not the gospel alike clearly made known unto them. To some he is preached clearly and purely, and without any mixture of errors that have any considerable influence upon the main of religion. Others are in that communion in which those doctrines are as yet taught that are indeed necessary to salva tion, but many things are added which are indeed pernicious and dangerous in their own nature ; so that if a man should possibly be saved in that profession, ' he is saved as by fire/ 1 Cor. iii. 13. And it is a strange escape; as if one had poison mingled among his meat, the goodness of his digestion and strength of nature might work it out, but the man runneth a great hazard. As the Papists acknowledge Christ for the redeemer and mediator between God and men ; they own his two natures and satisfaction, though they mingle doctrines that strangely weaken these foundations. The Turks deny not Christ to be a great prophet, but they deny him to be the Son of God and the Saviour of the world, and the Eedeemer of mankind, and wickedly prefer their false prophet before him. The Jews confess there was a Jesus the son of Mary, that gave out himself in their country of Judea to be the Messiah, and gathered disciples, who from him are called Christians ; but they call him an impostor, question all the miracles done by him, as done by the power of the devil. Now, all these shall be judged by the gospel, which is so proudly and obsti nately rejected by them : ' The Spirit shall convince the world of sin, because they believe not in me/ John xvi. 9. He hath so proved himself to be the Christ, the Son of God, the great prophet, and true Messiah, that their rejecting and not believing in him and his testi mony will be found to be a great and damning sin, both in itself and as it bindeth their other sins upon them ; however, their judgment shall be lighter or heavier, according to the diversity of their offence, and the invincible prejudices they lie under. The corrupters of the Christian religion, because they have perverted the truth of the gospel to serve their interests (ambition, avarice, or any human passion), their doom will be exceeding great : 2 Thes. ii. 10-12, ' And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish ; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusions, that they should believe a lie : that they all might be damned, who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.' To poison fountains was the highest way of murder; to royle the waters of the sanctuary, to mangle Christ's ordinances, is a crime of a high nature. The Jews that rejected Christ in so clear light of miracles, John viii. 24, Christ saith, ' If you believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins ; ' it maketh the judgment the more heavy upon them. Others to whom Christ is less perspicuously revealed shall have a more tolerable judg ment ; for the clearer the revelation of the truth is, the more culpable is the rejection or contempt of it. For there is no man that heareth of Christ's coming into the world, suffering for sinners, and rising again from the dead, and ascending into heaven, but is bound more diligently
88 SERMONS UPON MATTHEW XXV. [SEE. XX.
to inquire into it, and to receive and embrace this truth. Carnal chris- tians, their profession condemneth them ; they are inexcusable ; they deny in works what in word they seem to acknowledge.
[3.] Some lived under the legal administration of the covenant of grace, to whom two things are propounded : — (1.) The duty of the law ; (2.) Some strictures and obscure beginnings of the gospel. They shall be judged according to that administration they are under ; either for violating the law, or neglecting the gospel, or those first dawnings of grace which God offered to their view and study. Indeed the law was more manifest, but the gospel was not so obscure but they might have understood it. Therefore God will call them to an account about keeping his law, by which who can be justified ? Or whether by true repentance they have fled to the mercy of God, which by divers ways was then revealed to them, and have owned the Messiah in his types ? Ps. cxliii. 2, ' Enter not into judgment with thy servant ; for in thy sight shall no man living be justified ; ' Ps. cxxx. 3, 4, ' If thou shouldst mark iniquities, 0 Lord, who shall stand ? But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared.' Which, if not clear, they shall be condemned not only for not keeping the law, but also for neglect of grace. Though their unbelief and impenitency be not so, odious as theirs is that lived under a clearer revelation, yet a grievous sin it was, which will bring judgment upon them.
[4.] There are some that have no other discovery of God but what they could make from the courses of nature and some instincts of con science, as mere pagans. The apostle having told us of the righteous judgment of God, Rom. ii. 5, and how managed, ver. 6-8, and how aggravated, the Jew first, and then the Gentile ; he then concludeth, ver. 12, ' For as many as have sinned without the law, shall perish without the law; but as many as have sinned in the law, shall be judged by the law ; ' that is, the Jews, as the other is to be understood of the Gentiles, to whose notice no fame of Christ or the law of Moses could possibly come. To perish without the law is to be punished, and punishment followeth upon condemnation, and condemnation is in this judgment. Therefore pagans and heathens, that lived most remote from the tidings of the gospel and divine revelation, must appear before Christ's tribunal to be judged. But by what rule ? He telleth us, ver. 14, 15, ' For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law ; these having not a law, are a law to themselves : which show the work of the law written upon their hearts ; their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or excusing one another.' They knew themselves to have sinned by that rule, by the natural knowledge of God, and some sense of their duty impressed upon their hearts ; nature itself told them what was well or ill done ; the law of nature taught them their duty, and had some affinity with the law of Moses ; and the course of God's providence taught that God was placable, which hath some affinity with these gospel rudiments and first strictures. Therefore the goodness and long-suffering of God should lead them to repentance, Kom. ii. 4. Surely, then, the impenitency of the Jews will meet with a heavy condemnation, according to the proportion of clearness in their revelation.
VERS. 32, 33.] SERMONS UPON MATTHEW xxv. 39
[5.] Men of all conditions, high and low, rich and poor, mighty and powerful, or weak and oppressed, kings, subjects : Eev. xx. 12, ' I saw the dead, both small and great, stand before God.' No rank or degree in the world can exempt us. These distinctions do not outlive time ; they cease at the grave's mouth ; there all stand upon the same level, and are of the same mould. To bridle the excesses of power, the scrip ture often telleth us of the day of judgment, how the great men of the earth shall tremble, and the hearts of the powerful then be appalled, Eev. vi. 15-17. They shall then understand the distance between God and the creature, when his wrath and terror is in its perfection. Who can stand when he is angry ? Ps. Ixxvi. 7. It is a wonder men will live in a way of controversy with him, and are so little moved at it. No wrath so considerable as the wrath of the Lamb. When their mediator is their enemy, none in heaven or earth can befriend them. Those that, in the thoughts of men, are most secure, ringleaders to others in sin, that swear and swagger, and bear down all before them, and persist in their opposition to Christ with the greatest confidence, will be found the greatest and most desperate cowards then. Now these gallants ruffle it as if they would bid defiance to Christ and his ways. Oh ! how pusillanimous and fearful then ! Appear they must, though they cannot abide it. What torture do they endure between these two, the necessity of appearing, and the impossibility of endur ing ! Oh ! the great ones then would gladly change power 1 with the meanest saint. Then they know what an excellent thing it is to have the favour of God, and of what worth and value godliness is, and how much a good conscience exceedeth all the glory of the world, and what an advantage it is to have peace made with God.
[6.] Not only some of all sorts, or of all nations, but every indi vidual person. In one place the apostle saith, ' All of us,' collective, 2 Cor. v. 10 ; in another place, distributive, l Every one of us,' Kom. xiv. 12 ; not only all, but every one ; not all, shuffled together in gross, but every one, severally and apart, is to give an account of his ways and actions to God.
Use. If these things be so, that all places shall give up their dead, and all those nations that differ so much one from another in tongues, rites, and customs of living, and distance of habitation, shall be gathered together into one place, and not left scattered up and down the world ; — there are many ways to shift men's courts and tribunals (they may fly the country, or bribe the judge), but there is no shun ning the bar of Christ ; — oh ! then, let the thought of this make us more watchful and serious.
1. In this judgment there is no exemption ; for all are summoned, small and great ; and whether they will or no, they shall be gathered together. The faithful shall willingly come, as to absolution ; the wicked shall be violently haled, as to condemnation.
2. There is no appearing by a proctor or attorney ; but every one in his own person must give an account of himself to God.
3. No denying ; for the books shall be opened, Kev. xx. 12.
4. No excusing or extenuating; for Christ will 'judge the world in righteousness,' Acts xvii. 31, according to terms of strict justice.
1 Qu. 'place'?— ED.
40 SERMONS UPON MATTHEW XXV. [SEE. XX.
5. No appealing ; for this is the last judgment. No suing out of pardon, or no time of showing favour ; for this is too late ; the day of grace is past ; sinners are in iermino; their work is over, and now come to receive their wages. Oh ! then, now let us take care that this day may be comfortable to us. God's children have more cause to look and long for it than to dread it.
Secondly, We now come to the segregation ; and there — First, as to company, ' He shall separate them one from another, as the shepherd divideth between the sheep and the goats.' In these words there is —
1. A point intimated and implied, that Christ is represented as a shepherd and the godly as sheep, but the wicked as goats.
2. There is a second point expressed, that though there be a con fusion of the godly and wicked now, yet at the day of judgment there will be a perfect separation.
For the first of these, that Christ is represented to us under the notion of a shepherd, so he is called, Zech. xiii. 7, ' Awake, 0 sword, against my shepherd : I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered ;' and 1 Peter ii. 25, ' But are now returned to the shep herd and bishop of your souls.'
1. A shepherd among men is one that is not lord of the flock, but a servant to take care of them and charge of them. This holdeth good of Christ as mediator ; for he is God's elect servant, the servant of his decrees : the flock are his, not in point of dominion, right, and original interest, but in point of trust and charge. So Christ is lord of the faithful as God ; but as mediator he hath an office and service about them, and is to give an account of them to God, when he bringeth them home, and leadeth them into their everlasting fold, John vi. 37-40, with 1 Cor. xv. 24, 25 ; Heb. ii. 13, ' Behold I and the children which God hath given me ; ' Jude 24, ' Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory ; ' and Col. i. 22, ' To present you holy, and unblamable, and unreprovable in his sight.'
2. The work of the shepherd is to keep the flock from straying, to choose fit pasture and good lair for them ; yea, not only to fodder the sheep, but to drive away the wolf. To defend the flock is a part of his office ; as David fought with the lion and the bear, and slew them for the flock's sake. All these concur in Christ, as you may see, Ps. xxiii. 1-4, ' The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; he leadeth me beside the still waters. Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.' There is guarding, and feeding, and defending. So John x., there is leading, ver. 3, 4 ; then there is feeding them, ver. 9 ; and defending them, ver. 12, 27-29.
3. Christ is not an ordinary shepherd : he is 6 Troifirjv 6 /caXo?, ' The good shepherd,' John x. 11 ; and Heb. xiii. 20, TroL^eva TWV 7rpo/3dra)v rov fj,eyav, ' The great shepherd of the sheep ;' and 1 Peter v. 4, ap^i7roi/jievo<f, ' The chief shepherd;' ' When the chief shepherd shall appear/ &c.
[1.] He is the good shepherd. Other shepherds are said to be good when they perform their office well, or quit themselves faithfully in the discharge of their trust. But besides the resemblance in these
VERS. 32, 33.] SERMONS UPON MATTHEW xxv. 41
qualities, there are certain singularities in Christ's office that denomi nate him the good shepherd.
(1.) A good shepherd is known by his care and vigilance; if he know the state of his flock, Prov. xxvii. 23. This resemblance holdeth good in Christ : he hath a particular care and inspection of every soul that belongeth to his flock : ' Calleth his sheep by name,' John x. 3. He hath a particular exact knowledge of every one of them, their per sons, their state, their condition, their place, their country, their con flicts, temptations, and diseases: 2 Tim. ii. 19, 'The Lord knoweth who are his ;' John xiii. 18, ' I know whom I have chosen.' Though there be so many thousands of them scattered up and down in the world, yet he is acquainted with every individual person, every single believer, and all their necessities; John, James, Thomas. As the high priest carried the names of the tribes upon his bosom, so hath Christ the names of every one that belongeth to God's flock engraven upon his heart, though they may be despicable in the world, mean servants, employed in the lower offices of the family : Ps. xxxiv. 6, ' This poor man cried unto the Lord.' Poor soul ! he lieth under such temptations, encumbered with such troubles, employed in such a hard task and service : My Father gave me a charge of him ; I must look to him. Luke xv. we read, that when one was missing, he left all to look after the stray lamb. His knowledge is infinite.
('2.) The goodness of a shepherd lieth in his pity and wisdom to deal tenderly with the flock as their state doth require ; so is Christ a good shepherd by reason of his tender respect and gentle conduct : Isa. xl. 11, ' He shall feed his flock like a shepherd ; he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom ; and shall gently lead those that are with young.' He guideth his people with dispen sations suitable to them. In his lifetime he taught them, /ea#&>? rfcvvavTo UKOVCIV, ' He spake the word unto them as they were able to hear it/ Mark iv. 33 ; as Jacob drove as the little ones and cattle were able to bear, Gen. xxxiii. 14. He calleth to work and suffering according as he giveth grace and strength, 1 Cor. x. 13. Proper- tioneth their temptations according to their growth and experience. He sendeth great trials after large assurances, Heb. x. 32. As castles are victualled before they are suffered to be besieged. There is a sweet con descension in all his dispensations to every one's state and condition.
(3.) The goodness of a shepherd lieth in a constant performing all parts of a shepherd to them : Ezek. xxxiv. 15, 16, ' I will seek that which was lost, bring back that which was driven away, bind up that which was broken, strengthen that which was sick : but I will destroy the fat and the strong, and feed them with judgment.' There is all necessary attendance and accommodation conducing to the safety and welfare of the flock ; to protect them from violence from without, to prevent diseases within, to keep them from straying by the inspirations of his Spirit and the fence of his providence (' Blessed be God, that sent thee to meet me this day,' saith holy David), and to reclaim and reduce them when strayed. It were endless to instance in all.
(4.) There is this particularity in this good shepherd, of which there is no resemblance found in others: John x. 11, ' I am the good shep herd, that giveth my life for the sheep/ He doth not only give life to
42 SERMONS UPON MATTHEW XXV. [SER. XX.
them, but his own life for them, by way of ransom. This is a flock purchased by the blood of God, Acts xx. 28. He came from heaven to find out lost sheep ; left a palace for the wilderness, and the throne for the fold. David was called from the sheep-hook to the sceptre ; but Christ from the sceptre to the sheep-hook. Lost man had never been found if Christ had not come from heaven to seek him. We were forfeited, and therefore to be ransomed ; and no price would serve but Christ's own blood.
(5.) There is this peculiar in this good shepherd, that he maketh us become the flock of his pasture, and sheep of his fold, Ps. c. 3. When other shepherds have the sheep delivered into their hands, he searcheth up and down for them in the woods and deserts ; wherever they are scattered abroad, a lamb here and a lamb there ; free grace findeth them out : Ezek. xxxiv. 4, ' I will search out my sheep, and seek them out ; ' Zeph. iii. 10, ' I will look after my dispersed from beyond the river of Ethiopia.' In the farthermost and unknown countries in every land, Christ knoweth where his work lieth, though it may be but one in a village, in the midst of wolves and swine. He maketh them to be what they are not by nature ; turneth and changeth swine into sheep and wolves into lambs.
[2.] He is the great shepherd. (1.) Great in his person, the Son of God. Dominus exercituum fit pastor oviiim, saith Bernard — the Lord of hosts is become the shepherd of the flock. He needed us not ; if he had delighted in multitudes of flocks and herds, there are ten thousand times ten thousand angels that stand about the throne. He needed not leave his throne and die for angels as for us. And (2.) He is great in regard of the excellency of his gifts and qualifications : he is king, priest, and prophet. In the pastoral relation he manifesteth all his offices; he feedeth them as a prophet, dieth for them as a priest, defendeth them as a king ; never sheep had better shepherd. Eedimit preciose, pascit caute, ducit solicite, collegit secure. Jacob was very careful, yet some of his flock were lost, or torn, or stolen, or driven away ; but it cannot be so with Christ's flock ; we are safe as long as he is upon the throne. (3.) Great in regard of his flock: he is the shepherd of souls ; millions of them are committed to his charge, and one soul is more worth than all the world.
[3.] He is the chief shepherd. Though he doth employ the min istry of men to feed his flock under him, yet doth he keep the place and state of arch-shepherd and prince of pastors, as the chief ruler and feeder of his flock, from whom all the under-shepherds have their charge and commission, Mat. xxviii. 19, 20. their furniture and gifts, Eph. iv. 8, 11 ; upon whose concurrence dependeth the efficacy and blessing of the ordinances dispensed by them, 1 Cor. iii. 6, 7 ; and to him they give an account, Heb. xiii. 17, as he doth to God. Now this is a great comfort, that Christ taketh the prime charge of the flock. Some thrust in themselves, but he will require his flock at their hands.
Use. Let all this encourage you to look for your supplies by Christ. He professeth by special office to take charge of you ; and you may be confident of his care and fidelity. Besides his love to the flock, he is bound as God's shepherd. By distrust you carry it so as if Christ were unfaithful in his charge and office. When you come to the ordinances,
VEES. 32, 33.] SERMONS UPON MATTHEW xxv. 43
you do directly cast yourselves upon Christ's pastoral care to feed you to everlasting life ; and he will give you strength and refreshing. Only be not lean in Christ's pasture, nor faint, as Hagar, near a fountain. Secondly, The godly are as sheep.
1. Sheep are animalia gregalia, such kind of creatures as naturally gather themselves together and unite themselves in a flock. Other creatures we know, especially beasts of prey, live singly and apart ; but sheep are never well but when they come together and live in a flock. Such are Christians, and such as are partakers of a heavenly calling. It is unnatural for them to live alone : they feed in flocks, Heb. x. 25. Man by nature is ££>ov TroXiriicbv ; he hath a nature that is apt to make him gather into a community and society. We are social, not only upon interest, as weak without others, but upon natural inclina tion. We have a desire to dwell and live together, Eccles. iv. 10. The voice of nature saith, it is not good to be alone ; so it is true of the new nature ; there is -a spirit of communion that inclineth them to some other, and to join with them.
2. Sheep, they are innocent and harmless creatures. They that belong to Christ are not bears and tigers and wolves, but sheep, that often receive harm, but do none, Christ was holy and harmless, Heb. vii. 26, and so are they.
3. Sheep are obedient to the shepherd. The meek and obedient followers of Christ are like sheep in this, who are docile and sequa cious : John x. 4, ' He goeth before them, and they know his voice ;' and ver. 16, ' Other sheep must I bring in also, and they shall hear my voice ;' and ver. 27, ' My sheep hear my voice ; I know them, and they follow me.' All Christ's comforts,1 in all places and all ages, have the same properties and the same impression.
4. They are poor dependent creatures. They are ever attendant on the shepherd, or the shepherd on them.
[1.] Because of their erring property. They are creatures pliant to stray ; but being strayed, do not easily return. Swine will run about all day and find their way home at night. Domine, errare per me potui, redire non potuissem, saith Austin. Christ bringeth home the stray lamb upon his own shoulders, Luke xv. ; and Ps. cxix. 176, ' All we like sheep have gone astray.' If God leave us to ourselves, we still shall do so.
[2.] Because of their weakness. They are weak and shiftless crea tures, unable to make resistance. Other creatures are armed with policy, skill, or courage to safeguard themselves ; but sheep are able to do little for themselves ; they are wholly kept in dependence upon their shepherd for protection and provision. All their happiness lieth in the good wisdom, care, and power of the shepherd. Wolves, lions, and leopards need none to watch over them. Briars and thorns grow alone ; but the noble vine is a tender thing, and must be supported, pruned, and dressed. The higher the being the more necessitous, and the more kept in dependence. There needs more care to preserve a plant than a stone ; a stone can easily aggregate and gather moss to itself. There needeth more supplies for a beast than a plant, and more supplies to a man than to a beast.
1 Qu. ' consorts ' ? — ED.
44 SERMONS UPON MATTHEW XXV. [SEE. XX.
Thirdly, The wicked are as goats. They are as goats both for their unruliness and uncleanness. Unruliness: they have not the meek ness of sheep, are ready to break through all fence and restraint ; so a wicked man is yokeless. They are also wanton and loathsome ; it is a baser sort of animal than the sheep ; therefore chosen to set forth a wicked and ungodly man.
The second point expressed is this, that though now there is a con fusion of godly and wicked, as of goats and sheep in the same field, yet then there shall be a perfect separation.
There will not then be one of one sort in company with the other : Ps. 1. 5, ' He will gather his saints together ;' and Ezek. xxxiv. 17, ' I will judge between cattle and cattle, the sheep and the goats ;' Ps. i. 5, ' The ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous/ When the saints meet in a general assembly, not one bad shall be found among them. Though now they live together in the same kingdom, in the same village, in the same visible church, in the same family, yet then a perfect separation.
The reasons are briefly these two — (1.) The judge's wisdom and perspicuity ; (2.) His justice. They that will not endure them now shall not then abide with them in the same fellowship.
Use 1. Here is comfort to them that mourn under the degenerate and corrupted state of Christianity. The good and the bad are mixed together ; many times they live in the same herd and flock. It is a trouble to the godly that all are not as they are ; and we feel the incon- veniency, for the carnal seed will malign the spiritual, Gal. iv. 29. But God will distinguish between cattle and cattle. Discipline indeed is required in the church to keep the sound from being infected, and the neglect of it is matter of grief. But the work is never perfectly done till then ; then there is a perfect separation, and a perpetual separation, never to mix more.
Use 2. This may serve to alarm hypocrites. Many hide the matter from the world and themselves, but Christ shall perfectly discover them, and bring them to light, and show themselves to themselves and all the world. All their shifts will not serve the turn. Here are mixed together the sheep and the goats, the chaff and the solid grain, tares and wheat, thorns and roses, vessels of honour and dishonour. Many do halt between God and Baal. A man cannot say, They are sheep or goats ; neither do they themselves know it. Therefore it calleth upon us to make our estate more explicit. Yea, many that seemed sheep shall be found goats. Then it will appear whether they are regenerated to the image of Christ, or destitute of the spirit of sanctitication, yea or no ; whether they loved God above all, or con tinued serving the flesh, making it their end and scope.
Use 3. Are we sheep or goats? There is no neutral or middle estate. Is there a sensible distinction between us and others ? Then we shall have the fruit and comfort of it at that day : 1 Peter ii. 25, ' Ye were as sheep going astray ; but now are returned to the bishop and shepherd of your souls.' We all should look back upon our former courses, betaking ourselves to Jesus Christ, seeking to enjoy his favour and fellowship, submitting to him as our ruler and guide, resigning up ourselves to be at his disposal, both for condition of life and choice
YER. 34.] SERMONS UPON MATTHEW xxv. 45
of way and course. I say, when by his powerful grace we are thus brought back from our sinful way and course, and made to follow him as our Lord, we are his flock, and he will mind us. Time was when you did run wild, according to your former fancies and the bent of your unruly hearts, and were wholly strangers to God, and could spend days, nights, and weeks, and months, and yet never mind com munion with him ; but now the business of your souls is to give up yourselves to him, or take the way which he hath prescribed to ever lasting glory. Eesolve no longer to live to yourselves, but to be under his discipline.
Secondly, As to place, ' He shall set the sheep upon the right hand, and the goats upon the left.
In the right hand there is greater strength and ability, and fitness for all kind of operations ; therefore that place is counted more honourable. So Christ himself is said to ' sit down at the right hand of God the Father ; ' that is to say, hath obtained the highest place of dignity and power, above all angels and men, in bliss, honour, and dominion.
Doct. The godly shall be placed honourably at the day of judgment, when the wicked shall have the place of least respect.
A type and figure of this we have in Moses his division of the tribes. Some were to stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people, some on Mount Ebal to curse ; those born of Jacob's wives put upon Mount Gerizim, those of his servants on Mount Ebal, Reuben ex- cepted, who went into his father's bed. The saints, in their measure, enjoy all the privileges that Christ doth. Now the Father saith to the Son, Ps. ex. 1, ' Sit thou at my right hand/ So they have chosen the best blessings. It is said, Ps. xvi. 11, 'At thy right hand are pleasures for evermore ; ' and Prov. iii. 16, ' Length of days is in her right hand.' They love God, and are beloved of him ; they honour God in the world : 1 Sam. ii. 30, ' They that honour me I will honour.'
Use. Let us then encourage ourselves when we are counted the scurf and offscouring of all things. We shall not always be in this condi tion, but Christ will put honour upon us in sight of all the world.
SERMON XXI.
Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. — MAT. XXV. 34.
WE have considered in the former verses — (1.) The sitting down of the judge; (2.) The presenting the parties to be judged. Now (3.) The sentence.
First, Of absolution, in these blessed words which I have now read to you. Observe in them — (1.) The preface ; (2.) The sentence itself.
1. The preface showeth the person by whom the sentence is pro nounced, then shall the King say.
2. The parties whom it concerneth, to them on the right hand.
46 SERMONS UPON MATTHEW XXV. [SER. XXI.
Secondly, The form and tenor of the sentence itself ; it is very comfortable and ravishing. Take notice —
1. Of a compilation used, ye blessed of my Father.
2. An invitation, expressed in two words, SeOre, /cA^powj/i^o-are, come and inherit.
The first giveth warning for entering ; the second, for possessing of this blessed estate, and that by a sure tenure.
3. The happiness unto which we are invited ; and there the notion by which it is expressed, the kingdom. The adjunct, a kingdom prepared. The application of it to the parties concerned, for you. The ancientness of it, from the foundation of the world. An estate excellent in itself, and made sure for us.
Doct. That Jesus Christ, at his coming, will adjudge his people unto a state of everlasting happiness, by a favourable and comfortable sentence passed in their behalf.
First, Observe the order, then. The godly are first absolved, before the wicked are condemned. Why ? Because —
1. It is more natural to God to reward than to punish, to save than to condemn. The one is called alienum opus, ' his strange work,' Isa. xxviii. 21. His self-inclination bendeth him to the one more than to the other. The absolution of the good maketh for the mani festation of his mercy, the attribute wherein God delighteth, Micah vii. 18. But his justice, as to the punitive part of it, it is last. God doth good of his own accord, but punishment is extorted and forced from him.
2. It is suitable to Christ's love to begin with the saints. He is so pronely inclined to them, that he taketh their cause first in hand. He parted from them with thoughts of returning to them again.
3. For the godly's sake, that they be not for any while terrified with that dreadful doom which shall pass on the reprobate ; and that afterwards become judges of the wicked, by their vote and suffrage, when absolved themselves, 1 Cor. vi. 3.
4. For the wicked, that they may understand and be affected with their loss, and so be made more sensible of their own folly. Christ will, in their sight, put glory and honour upon his good servants, that they may have a stinging and vexatious sense of that happiness which they have forsaken. ^Vhether it be for this or that reason, let us the better bear it here. When judgment beginneth at the house of God, as it often doth, 1 Peter iv. 17, there absolution beginneth at the house of God ; and if upon us God first show his displeasure against sin, it is for the bettering of the saints, and reforming the world. First Christ will take in hand our absolution and coronation before he passeth sentence against the wicked.
Secondly, The next thing observable is the title given to Christ, ' Then shall the King say/ Christ first calleth himself the Son of man, ver. 31, because in human nature he administereth this judg ment ; afterward sets forth himself by the notion of a shepherd, ver. 32, because of his office and charge about the flock, and then to show it in the exact discrimination he shall make between cattle and cattle. But now the notion is varied, ' The King shall say.' Partly because it belongeth to his kingly office to pass sentence, and prefer his faith-
VER. 34.] SERMONS UPON MATTHEW xxv. 47
ful subjects to dignity and honour, as also to punish the disobedient. Partly because in that day he shall discover himself in all his royal magnificence, and call the godly to him, and solemnly put them in possession of the promised glory. The King shall crown and absolve us : it shall be a tribunal act ; and therefore valid and authentic. "When the Eedeemer of the world, as King, shall then sit in judgment in all his royalty, he shall then put this honour upon the saints.
Thirdly, The next thing is —
1. The compellation used, ' Come, ye blessed of my Father.'
[1.] Observe in the general, it is a friendly compellation, used to such as were thought to be in favour with God. Witness Laban's words to Abraham's servant ; Gen. xxiv. 31, ' Come in, thou blessed of the Lord ; ' and Judges xvii. 2, ' Blessed be thou of the Lord.' Those that were counted dear and beloved of the Lord were thus treated and spoken to. And because of the high favour vouchsafed to the Virgin Mary, in being the mother of the Son of God, it is said, ' All generations shall call thee blessed,' Luke i. 28, 42, 48. But what an honour is this, when Christ shall pronounce us to be so with his own mouth : ' Come, ye blessed of my Father.'
[2.] More particularly, two terms must be explained — (1.) 'Blessed;' (2.) ; Of my Father/
First, ' Blessed.' This term is — •
(1.) Opposed to the world's judgment of them. The world de- spiseth them, and counteth them execrable, vile, and cursed. There fore it is said, Mat. v. 44, ' Bless them that curse you ; ' and Mat. v. 11, ' Blessed are ye when men shall say all manner of evil of you for my name's sake.' He is blessed whom Christ blesseth. The world rails at us as cursed miscreants, unfit to live in human societies. The world saith, Abite maledicti; ' Away, ye cursed ;' it is not fit for such a one to live. But Christ saith, Venite benedicti, ' Come, ye blessed.' We should set one against the other. The least thing intended in this compellation is an absolution from the reproaches of the world and their censures, whether rashly vented, or pronounced under a colour of law and church power. They are not so ready to curse and fulminate dreadful censures on the true worshippers of Christ as he is to acquit and absolve them. Their Kedeemer in judgment will call them blessed, and publish to the world that all the censures of wicked men were preposterous and perverse.
(2.) The term i,s opposed to the sentence of the law. The world's obloquy is the less to be stood upon, as being the product of wrath, bitterness, and hatred. But the law of God, that containeth in it the highest reason in the world, pronounceth them accursed : Gal. iii. 10, ' Cursed is every one that continueth not in all that is written in the law to do them.' And to this sentence we were once subject, and were so to look upon ourselves, Eph. ii. 3. Whatever we were in the purpose of God, our duty is to look upon what we are in the sentence of the law of God ; and so we were all of us condemned to a curse. And the wicked, that never changed copy and tenure, lie still under that curse ; as Christ himself showeth in his sentence on them, ver. 41, ' Depart, ye cursed.' The curse of the law taketh them by the throat, and casteth them into eternal torments. The devil would
48 SERMONS UPON MATTHEW XXV. [SER. XXI.
have that sentence executed upon us now, according to our deserts ; but the judge on the throne pronounceth us blessed, as having taken hold of the privilege of the new covenant, and so escaped the curse of the law. In this term our justification is implied, Acts iii. 19, Christ doth in effect say, These my friends and servants deserved in them selves to be accursed and miserable for ever, but I have made satisfac tion to God for them, and pronounce them blessed, and free from all sin and misery.
(3.) The term is opposed to their own fears. Not only doth the world condemn us, and Satan urge the curse of the law against us, as having transgressed the bonds and rules of our duty in many cases, but our own trembling hearts are ever and anon casting up many a fearful thought : What shall become of us to all eternity ? This fear is so strong, and rooted in the hearts of the godly, that it is a long time ere the promises of the gospel can vanquish and quell it ; though the messengers of Christ come and tell them of the tender mercies of God, that there is enough in the merits of Christ, of the privileges and immunities offered by the new covenant, and beseech them that they would not obstinately lift up their fears against the whole design of Christ in the gospel, yet all will not do : if they can get a little peace and rest from accusations of conscience, it is almost all they can attain unto in the world : ' Perfect love casteth out fear,' 1 John iv. 10. But then the supreme judge, before whom all must stand or fall, will assure them with his own mouth that they are blessed ; and therefore they shall fully get rid of all disquieting and tormenting fears. He shall say, Tremble no more ; ' Come, ye blessed of my father.'
(4.) It noteth what God hath done for them to bring them to this estate of blessedness : Eph. i. 3, ' Blessed be God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.' He hath loved them, and enriched them with grace, heaped many spiritual favours upon them, which now they are to receive the consummation and accomplishment of. Dei benedi- cere est benefacere — when we bless God, we declare him blessed ; when God blesseth us, he maketh us blessed ; his saying is doing. Since ye are elected, called, justified, sanctified, at the will of my Father, come and freely possess yourselves of all that you have hoped, longed, and waited for.
Secondly, ' Of my Father.'
(1.) In this expression he pointeth at the fountain cause of all our happiness ; the beginning of our salvation was from a higher cause than our own holiness, yea, than Christ's merit, from the favour and blessing of God the Father. He was the principal efficient cause and ultimate end of the work of our redemption and the saints' blessed ness. Christ as mediator is but the way to the Father, John xiv. 6. It is the Father appointed Christ, gave him to us, John iii. 16, gave them to Christ, John xvii. 6, and in time brought them to close with his grace, John vi. 44. It is the Father that prepared this kingdom for them before the foundation of the world ; they are the Father's chosen ones, those whom the Father loveth.
(2.) This expression shows how the divine persons glorify one
VEK. 34.] SERMONS UPON MATTHEW xxv. 49
another. As the Spirit glorifieth the Son, John xvi. 14, so here the Son glorifieth the Father, and referreth all to him ; he doth not say, My redeemed ones, but ' Ye blessed of my Father,' they are not less beloved and blessed by the Father than by the Son who redeemed them; blessed in the Father's love who elected them, gave them to Christ, sent Christ and accepted his ransom, declared his will in willing their glorification.
2. The invitation, in two words, Bevre, K\r)povofj,^crar€ ; both have their emphasis and proper signification : the one signifieth our en trance upon the glorified estate, the other our everlasting possession of it.
[1.] JeOre, 'Come.' To the wicked he saith 'Depart,' but to the saints, ' Come.' As the quintessence of all misery lieth in the one, so the consummation of all blessedness in the other. He had said before, Mat. xi. 28, ' Come to me all ye that are weary and heavy- laden, and I will give you rest;' but that was but an acquaintance at a distance, and some remote service we were called unto. But now, Come into my heart, my bosom, my glory. Our nearest communion with Christ is not till we be translated into heaven. Come, draw near to me ; be not afraid of my majesty. This was it the saints longed for, and now they enjoy it : ' When shall I come and appear before God ? ' saith holy David, Ps. xlii. 2. You that had a heart upon my first invitation to come to me, and seek after me in the kingdom of grace, come near to me now in the kingdom of glory. The godly do not so much desire to come near to Christ, as Christ desireth to come near to them. Where have you been all this while ? Come, come ; I am ready to receive you ; you are welcome guests to me : we have been too long asunder. Oh ! how ravishing will this be to every gracious heart that loved and longed for this day !
[2.] K\r)povo/j,ri<raT€, ' Inherit.' Our happy and blessed estate we have and hold by inheritance : 1 Peter iii. 9, ' Ye are called to inherit a blessing/ That noteth a tenure free, full, and sure. This heritage —
(1.) Is free. We do not possess it as bondmen or servants only ; we do not come to this happiness by our own earning and purchase ; but as heirs of Christ. Adam's tenure was that of a servant ; the blessings he expected from God were mere wages. We hold promises, in another manner. Our title is by adoption, which we have imme diately upon closing with Christ, John i. 12, by virtue of our sonship, Born. viii. 17 ; not by merit, but free gift, Horn. vi. 23.
(2.) A full tenure. As children under age differ but little from a servant ; but we come then as heirs to our full right. A child, though he be an heir, and owner of all his father's inheritance in hope, yet as long as he is a minor, or under age, he differeth little or nothing from a servant in point of subjection, and as to free government and enjoy ment of his rights and goods. But now, to this inheritance we come as meet heirs. They distinguish of jus hereditarium, and jus aptitudinale — an hereditary right and an aptitudinal right. Now, when we have believed, suffered, and been exercised enough, we shall receive our full inheritance, ' being made meet for it,' Col. i. 12.
(3.) A sure title. It was given us by the Father, and purchased by the Son ; and we hold it by this tenure for ever. God the Father gave
VOL. x. D
50 SERMONS UPON MATTHEW XXV. [SER. XXL
it : Luke xii. 32, ' Fear not, little flock ; it is your Father's pleasure to give you a kingdom/ And Christ hath purchased it, Heb. ix. 15 ; it is left us as a legacy by him, John xvii. 24 ; and he liveth for ever to be the executor of his own testament, Heb. vii. 25 ; so that now we are past all danger when once admitted into possession.
3. Here is the description of that happy estate we are invited unto. Where observe —
[1.] The notion by which it is expressed ; it is ' a kingdom.' What can be thought of more magnificent and glorious than a kingdom ? It is called a kingdom —
(1.) Partly with respect to Christ, who is our head and chief ; in whose glory we shall all participate and share, in our places and capa cities. Jesus Christ is King of kings and Lord of lords, and we shall reign with him as kings ; for he hath made us a royal priesthood, 1 Peter ii. 9 ; and Eev. i. 6, ' He hath washed us in his own blood, and made us kings and priests unto God ; ' and Kev. v. 10, ' And hath made us unto our God kings and priests, and we shall reign with him.' It is begun on earth spiritually, but it is perfected in heaven gloriously, where the saints shall be as so many crowned kings.
(2.) And partly with respect to the very thing itself. Our blessed estate shall be an estate of the highest dignity and dominion, of the fullest joy and content that heart can wish for. We have no higher notions whereby to express a blessed and happy estate ; and therefore our eternal glory, whereof we are partakers, is thus set forth ; especially to counterbalance our mean and low estate in the world : James ii. 5, ' God hath chosen the poor of the world to be rich in faith, and heirs of a kingdom ; ' ' The saints shall have dominion in the morning,' Ps. xlix. 14. They shall sit with Christ as kings upon the throne, to execute the judgment written. Oh ! how should this warm our hearts with the thoughts of these things !
(3.) Partly with respect to our loss by the fall. In the creation God put man in dominion, but by subjecting ourselves to the creature, who was made to be under our feet, we lost our kingdom, and are become slaves under the power of brutish lusts ; and till our blessed estate, we never fully recover it again; but then we are absolutely free, and at liberty to love and serve God.
Well, then, it is no mean thing Christ inviteth us unto, but unto a kingdom, which we shall all jointly and severally possess. There are two quarrellous pronouns, meum and tuum, mine and thine, which are the occasion of all the strifes in the world. These shall be excluded out of heaven as the common barretters and makebates. There is no envy, no uncharitableness. There one cannot say to another, This part of this glorious kingdom is mine, that is yours ; for every heir of this kingdom shall be as much an heir as if he were sole heir. Here we straiten others as much as we are enlarged ourselves ; but there each one hath his full proportion in that blessed estate ; each hath the whole, and the rest never the less ; as the same speech may be heard entirely by me and all, as the light of the sun serveth all the world ; another hath not the less, because I enjoy the whole of it.
Secondly, The adjunct of this kingdom is that it was prepared for us. The word signifieth made ready. God made ready this" statet>f
VER. 34.] SERMONS UPOX MATTHEW xxv. 51
happiness long ere we were ready for the possession of it. Eternal love laid the foundation of it. Merit of infinite value carried on the build ing, and powerful and effectual grace still pursueth the work in our hearts; for we must be prepared for the kingdom, as well as this kingdom prepared for us. So that, in short, this kingdom was prepared for us —
1. By the Father's love. It was his own love and most free good ness that inwardly moved him to do all this for us : Luke xii. 32, ' It is your Father's good pleasure.'
2. By the Son's merit and mediation, who ' died that we should live , together with him,' 1 Thes. v. 10.
3. By the sanctification of the Spirit, by which we are fitted for this estate, 2 Cor. v. 5. ^
1. The Father's love. The preparation is ascribed unto God: 1 Cor. ii. 9, ' The things which God hath prepared for them that love him;' and Heb. xi. 16, 'For God hath prepared for them a city.' Particularly by God the Father. So Mat. xx. 23, ' It is not mine to give, but to them for whom it was prepared of my Father.' The Father's act may be thus conceived : God loved us so much, as he decreed to give Christ for us, that by his precious blood he might purchase and acquire for us a blessedness in heaven; and in the fulness of time accordingly sent him into the world for that end, and bound himself by eternal paction and covenant that all that believe in his name should have this kingdom. This was the preparation of his decree.
2. Jesus Christ, by way of execution of this decree, maketh a further preparation, when by his death he purchased it, and by his ascension went to seize upon it in our name : John xiv. 2, ' I go to prepare a place for you.' As Christ by his death did purchase a right and title to heaven, so by his ascension he prosecuteth and applieth that right. He is gone, as our harbinger, to take up rooms for us. As the high priest entered into the most holy place with the names of the children of Israel upon his breast and shoulders, and with the blood of the sacrifices, so he hath entered heaven with our names, to present the merit of his blood continually, and to pour out the Spirit to fit us for glory : this is his errand and business in heaven, and he is not unmindful of it.
3. The Spirit prepareth us, without which all the rest would come to no effect; for it is the wisdom of God to dispose all things into their apt and proper places. Therefore the persons are prepared, as well as the place : Kom. ix. 23, ' Vessels of mercy, which he hath aforehand prepared unto glory.' He worketh faith in their hearts, giveth them a title, and by sanctifying prepareth them for the possession and enjoy ment of it : ' He that worketh us for this self-same thing is God,' 2 Cor. v. 5.
Thirdly, The application or appropriation of this preparation to the persons that shall now enjoy it, ' For you ; ' which respects not only the qualification, but the persons.
1. Not only for such as you, but for you particularly. In the general, heaven was prepared for believers. God never intended unbelievers should have such a glorious estate ; such as love the world do not prize nor long for this happiness, and therefore it is fit they should never enjoy it ; for though the preparation be a work of abundant mercy,
52 SERMONS UPON MATTHEW XXV. [SER. XXI.
yet that mercy is so tempered and limited by his wisdom and justice, that it will not permit him to give such holy things to dogs, or cast pearls before swine. No ; it was prepared to be enjoyed only by believers and holy ones.
2. For you personally and determinatively. This is most agreeable to Christ's scope and sense, for all the conditions were also prepared for them. God did elect us to faith and holiness, as well as to eternal life. Faith is the fruit of election, not a cause ; he did not choose us because we were holy, or because he did foresee that we would be holy, but that we might be holy, Eph. i. 4; that, being sanctified and renewed by the Spirit, we might be placed in the new Jerusalem. For you in person, that is Christ's meaning.
Fourthly, The antiquity or ancientness of this preparation, ' From the foundation of the world ;' that is, from all eternity ; for the scrip ture goeth to the highest point of time unto which we can ascend in our thoughts. So that cnro Kara/3 o\rjs signifieth as much as TT/OO Karaftokris ; as it is expressly said, Eph. i. 4, ' Before the foundation of the world.' The phrase is ordinary in scripture, and is as much as to say, from all eternity, or before any time was ; for God's purposes are as he is, eternal and without beginning ; therefore, if we speak of God's intention and purpose, it was before all worlds. Those that understand this, ' For you/ that is, for persons so qualified, will deny the meaning of the phrase to be that the dignities of the kingdom of heaven were designed to be the reward of all the faithful servants of Jesus Christ before all worlds ; and they that know the scriptures cannot but conclude that from all eternity he made choice of us to be justified, sanctified, and glorified. The elective love of God is of an ancient standing, even from all eternity, and therefore most free, there being nothing in the elect before they had a being to move his love towards them ; and this will be the glory of his grace at that day, that we are invited into that estate that was prepared for us long before : and who are we, that the thoughts of God should be taken up about us so long since ? Titus iii. 2, ' Which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began ;' so 2 Tim. i. 9, ' Who saved us, and called us with a holy calling, according to his purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ before the world began.' He indented then with Christ to bring us to what we shall at last enjoy. But if any morosely insist upon the phrase, because it doth not necessarily signify eternity, we must then understand that though the purpose of God were from everlasting, yet the things designed and acted by him, they take their beginning in time, or with time ; and so the words must be under stood — (1.) Of preparing the place which shall be the state of the blessed. The third heaven is the dwelling-place of the saints, which was framed about the beginning of the creation. So good and gracious was our God, that he did not make man or angel till he prepared a place convenient for them. Or (2.) To the promise presently made upon Adam's fall ; but the former exposition is more simple.
Well, then, you have heard what entertainment the faithful shall have from Christ at his coming, so far as our dull minds can conceive of it, and with weak and imperfect words can express it to you. Now let us see what use we may make of all this.
VER. 34.] SERMONS UPON MATTHEW xxv. 53
Use 1. Let us be convinced that there is such an estate, and will be such a time, and that there is no true blessedness but this enjoyment of God in the kingdom of heaven, that we shall then have. The world hath been much puzzled about disputes of happiness, and the way to it. The philosophers, some placed it in knowledge, some in that virtue which they knew, some in pleasure ; some in this, some in that. Austin out of Varro reckoneth up two hundred and eighty-six opinions about the chief good. They erred thus because they sought it in so many things, whereas it consists in one — the enjoyment of God ; and because they sought it in this world, where all things are mortal and frail, and we can find not one thing that can make us completely happy. This discovery was left for the scriptures, which teach us that our happiness lieth in God alone, and that our perfect enjoyment of him, in body and soul, is reserved for Christ's coming, when there is a perfect conformity to God and communion with him : 1 John iii. 2, ' Beloved, we are now the children of God ; but it doth not appear what we shall be, but we know when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.' The Lord revealeth his truth to us in the word, but before we can be convinced of it we must be enlightened by the Spirit ; for spiritual things can only be spiritually discerned, 1 Cor. ii. 14. We may talk of these things by rote one to another, and have an assent to them, which is called a non-contradiction, though not a positive understanding and conviction of the truth of them : ' Believest thou this ?' John xi. 26.
2. When we believe it, let us look for it and long for it, and live in the hopeful expectation of this blessed time, when all these things- shall be accomplished. Therefore, if we believe such a thing, we must long for it, and live in the hope of it : Titus ii. 13, ' Looking for the blessed hope.' Hope showeth itself —
(1 .) Partly by frequent and serious thoughts and delightful medi tations of the thing hoped for. Thoughts are the spies and messengers _of hope ; it sendeth them into tKe land of promise, to bring the soul tidings thence. It is impossible a man can hope for anything but he will be thinking of it, for it is the nature of this affection to set the mind a-work, and to preoccupy and forestall the contentments we expect before they come by serious contemplations, and feast the soul with images and suppositions of things to come, as if they were already present. So should we demean ourselves as if the judgment were set, and the judge upon his white throne, and we heard him blessing and cursing, absolving and condemning. The heart will be where the treasure is, Mat. vi. 18. As if we saw Christ with his faithful ones about him. If a beggar were adopted to the succession of a crown, he would please himself in thinking of the happiness, honour, and pleasure of the kingly estate. If you did hope to be coheirs with Christ, or to inherit the kingdom prepared for you, you would think of it more than you do. Our musings discover the temper of our hearts. A carnal heart is always thinking of building barns, advancing the family higher, our worldly increase : Luke xii. 18, ' I will pull down my barns, and build bigger, and bestow my fruits.' And those in James iv. 13, ' To-morrow we will go to such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell and get gain.' It is usual with men to
54 SERMONS UPON MATTHEW XXV. [$EB. XXI.
feed themselves with the pleasure of their hopes ; as young heirs spend upon their estate before they possess it.
(2.) By hearty groans, sighs, and longings: Kom. viii. 23, 'We groan in ourselves.' They have had a taste of the clusters of Canaan in private justification; they can never be soon enough with Christ : when shall it once be ? They are still looking out, and the nearer to enjoyment the more impatient of the want : ' The earnest expectation of the creature,' Kom. viii. 19. Stretching out the head to see if they can spy a thing a great way off ; as Judges v., ' She looked through the lattice : why is his chariot so long a-coming?' They would have a fuller draught of consolation, more access to him, and communion with him.
(3.) By lively tastes and feelings. It is called a lively hope, 1 Peter i. 3 ; not a living hope only, but lively ; because it quickens the heart, and filleth it with a solid joy, Kom. v. 2 ; 1 Peter i. 8. Where we have such a fruition, the very looking and longing giveth us a taste.
3. This hope should put us upon serious diligence and earnest pursuit after this blessedness, 1 Peter i. 13. Partly as it purgeth the heart from lusts : 1 John iii. 3, ' He that hath this hope in him purifieth himself as Christ is pure.' These are the months of our purification, wherein we are made meet to be partakers of the saints in light ; we are a-preparing for heaven, as that is prepared for us, and it is a lively expectation which produceth this. That puts us upon mortification and diligence in cleansing the soul, that we may be counted worthy to stand before the Son of God. Partly as it withdraweth our hearts from present things, and minding earthly things : ' But our conver sation is in heaven/ Phil. iii. 18-21. A man that is always looking and longing for the world to come, the present world is nullified to him, and he hath a mean esteem of all secular interests and content ments in comparison of those other which his soul looketh after ; as a man looking upon the sun cannot see an object less glorious. On the contrary, our overprizing secular contentments necessarily breedeth an undervaluing of matters heavenly ; and those that have so great a relish for the world and the delights of the flesh, they know not what eternal life meaneth. The Israelites longed for the flesh-pots of Egypt before they tasted the clusters of Canaan ; by faith Moses refused the honours and pleasures of Pharaoh's court. We cannot value real happiness till we are brought to contemn earthly happiness. Partly as it urgeth to care and diligence, and constancy in obedience. This is the spring that sets all the wheels a-going : Phil. iii. 13, ' I press towards the mark, because of the high prize of our calling." What is the reason Christians are so earnest and serious ? There is an excellent glory set before them ; the race is not for trifles. We want vigour, and find such a tediousness in the Lord's work, because we do not think of the kingdom of heaven prepared for us, 2 Cor. viii. 8, 9 ; 1 Cor. xv. 53, ' We are confident and willing rather to be absent from the body, and present with the Lord: wherefore we labour, that whether we are present or absent, we may be accepted of him.' If it be tedious to us to be at work for God, this tediousness will not consist with the cheerful remembrance of that great blessedness which
VER. 34.] SERMONS UPON MATTHEW xxv. 55
he hath prepared for us. How eminent should we be in the labours of holiness, to whom this estate was so peculiarly designed ! Partly in self-denial ; men venture all in this vessel of hope. Self-denial is seen in refusing and resisting temptations of honour and profit. Sin maketh many promises, and so prevaileth by a carnal hope. Balaam was enticed by proffers of riches to curse God's people ; Babylon's fornications are presented in a golden cup. Now faith and hope sets promise against promise, heaven against earth, the pleasures at God's right hand against carnal delights ; as the kingdoms of the world are nothing to this glorious kingdom. Partly in charity ; laying up trea sure in heaven : Luke xii. 33, ' Being rich in good works,' 1 Tim. vi. 18. I call this self-denial, because it is a loss for the present, Eccles. ii. So in hazarding interests : Christians' blessings are future, their crosses are present, Eom. viii. 18 ; 2 Cor. iv. 12.
Thus you see there are some who are carried on by the hopes of heaven to make serious preparation ; others are wholly wedded and addicted to present things. The world, morally and spiritually con sidered, is divided into two ranks ; the one of the devil, the other of God. Some seek their rest and happiness on earth, others eternal felicity in heaven. By nature all are of this earthly society, in the kingdom of darkness, and strangers to the commonwealth and city of God ; but when grace hath wrought in them the belief of this coming of Christ, and the hope of this blessed estate is rooted in us, we are always purging out of fleshly lusts, and weaning our hearts from the world, exercising ourselves to godliness, and denying our worldly interests.
4. This hope must moderate our fears, sorrows, and cares, so as no temporal thing should unreasonably affect us : Luke xii. 32, ' Fear not, little flock.' The fear is allayed ; the world cannot take away anything from us so good as Christ will give unto us. If our earthly estate be sequestered, or anyway taken from us, we have a better estate in heaven, Heb. x. 34. If we be reproached and disgraced in this world, yet we shall be kings and priests, and for ever be honoured in heaven. If banished and driven from place to place, so that we can find no rest nor safety, but are wearied out with our removals, let us consider we have a place of eternal abode in heaven, a kingdom that cannot be shaken, of which none can dispossess us. Our sufferings may be many, long, and grievous, but then all will be at an end when Christ shall place us at his right hand : Heb. vi. 19, ' Which hope have we as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil/ We have a sure anchor in the stormy gusts of temptations : 1 Thes. v. 8, ' Let us put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for an helmet the hope of salvation ;' and Eph. vi. 17, 'And take the helmet of salvation.' Hope is our helmet in the dreadful day of battle. As long as we can lift up our heads and look to heaven/ we should patiently bear all calamities. We shall at last hear this blessed voice, ' Come, ye blessed of my Father ; inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.'
56 SERMONS UPON MATTHEW XXV. [SER. XXL
SERMON XXII.
For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat ; / ivas thirsty, and ye gave me drink ; I ivas a stranger, and ye took me in ; naked, and ye clothed me ; / was sick, and ye visited me ; I was in prison, and ye came unto me. — MAT. XXV. 35, 36.
WE have seen the sentence, now the reason of the sentence. For, the illative particle, showeth that many like the sentence, would be glad to be entertained with a ' Come, ye blessed of my Father ; ' but turn back upon the reason, to visit, feed, and clothe ; they have no mind, or to any other serious duties and acts of faith and self-denial. But we must regard both ; and I hope in a business of such moment you will not be skittish and impatient of the word of exhortation. I shall first vindicate the words, and then give you some observations from them. First, Vindicate them, and assert their proper sense and intend- ment ; for upon the reading four doubts may arise in your minds : —
1. That good works are the reason of this sentence.
2. That the good works of the faithful are only mentioned, and not the evil they have committed.
3. That only works of mercy, or the fruits of love, are specified.
4. All cannot express their love and self-denial this way.
Let me clear these things, and our way will be the more easy and smooth afterward.
1. For the first doubt, that works are assigned as the reason of the sentence of absolution ; for the papists thence infer their merit and causal influence upon eternal life. I answer —
[1.] It is one thing to give a reason of the sentence, another to express the cause of the benefit received and adjudged to us by that sentence. A charter may be given to a sort of people out of mere grace, and privileges promised to all such as are under such a qualifi cation, though that qualification no way meriteth those privileges and that grace promised ; as if a king should offer pardon and preferment to rebels that lay down their arms and return to their duty and allegiance, and live in such bounds ; their returning to their duty doth not merit this pardon, for it was a mere act of grace in the prince ; much less doth their return to their duty, and living peaceably within their ancient bounds, merit the honours and advancement promised ; yet this is pleadable in court, and the judge that taketh knowledge of the cause, taketh the reason of his sentence from their peaceable living within their bounds, whereby lie judgeth them capable of the honours promised and expected. So here ; God of his mere grace pro- miseth the pardon of our sins, and to bestow upon us eternal life, if we believe and repent, and return to the duty we owed him by our creation. Our obedience is not the cause of our pardon, or of our right to glory, but his free promise ; but yet this qualification must be taken notice of by our judge in the great day, as the reason of his sentence. The sprinkling of the door-posts with blood was not a proper cause to move the destroying angel to pass over, but according to that rule he must proceed ; the admitting all that have a ticket to any solemnity
VERS. 35, 36.] SERMONS UPON MATTHEW xxv. 57
is not the cause why they are worthy to be received. This is clear, that a person is justified in some other way than a sentence is justified. These works are produced to justify the righteousness of his sentence before the whole world. A sinner is justified by faith ; Christ's sen tence by the believer's obedience.
[2.] That works merit not the blessings promised and adjudged to us, is evident ; for they are due : Luke xvii. 10, ' So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants ; we have done that which was our duty to do.' And they are imperfect : Phil. iii. 12, ' Not as though I had already attained, or were already perfect.' And they are gifts of God, for which we ought to give him thanks, 2 Cor. viii. 1 ; a grace of God bestowed on us; and gifts have no equality with the reward, Rom. viii. 18. And they are done by servants redeemed by an infinite price : 1 Peter i. 19, ' With the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish, and without spot ; ' being already appointed * heirs of eternal life,' Horn. viii. 17 ; deserving eternal death, Kom. vi. 17 ; and that need continually implore the mercy of God for the pardon of sin. So much as you ascribe to man's merit, so much you detract from the grace of God ; and the more sin is acknowledged, the mom illustrious is grace : Eom. v. 20, ' Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound/ You cross the counsel of God, all glorying in himself : 1 Cor. i. 29, That no flesh should glory in his presence ; ' and Beut. ix. 4-6, ' Speak not thou in thy heart, after that the Lord thy God hath cast them out from before thee, saying, For my righteousness the Lord hath brought me in to possess this land ; but for the wickedness of these nations the Lord doth drive them out from before thee. Not for thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of thine heart, dost thou go to possess their land ; but for the wicked ness of these nations, the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee, and that he may perform the word which the Lord sware unto thy fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Understand therefore, that the Lord thy God giveth thee not this good land to possess it for thy righteousness ; for thou art a stiff-necked people.'
[3.] That works are produced as the undoubted evidences and fruits of a true and sound faith.- Justification is opposed to accusa tion before God's tribunal. A double accusation may be brought against us — that we are sinners, or guilty of the breach of the first covenant, and that we are no sound believers, having not fulfilled the conditions of the second. From the first accusation we are justified by faith, from the latter we are justified by works, and that not only iii this world, but in the day of judgment. Christ's commission and charge is to give eternal life to true believers, and the mark of true believers is holiness. Therefore, if his judgment be right, by pro ducing this fruit and effect it must be justified. A judge is to proceed secundum regulas juris, et allegata et probata, as to the parties judged ; and because in the day of judgment the covenant of grace hath the force of a law, therefore it belongeth to Christ as a judge to see we have fulfilled the condition of it, which is faith ; and that our faith is true is proved by works. When we are first pressed with sin, because the promise of justification, or remission of sin, requireth
58 SERMONS UPON MATTHEW XXV. [SER. XXII.
faith, it must be embraced by faith, and taken hold of by faith ; our faith must pitch upon it, draw comfort from it, even before good works are done by us. But because the next accusation will presently arise, as if our faith were not true, we must be justified from this accusation by good works, not be contented with one or two good works, but abounding in all, that thus we may be justified more and more, and approved by our judge.
[4.] That faith is implied in all the works mentioned is evident — (1.) From Christ's scope. The manner of judging those in the visible church is intended. And (2.) The expression showeth it ; for it is Christ they respected in his members. Now it requireth faith to see Christ in a poor beggar or prisoner, to love Christ in them above our worldly goods, and actually to part with them for Christ's sake. Self-denial is the fruit of faith. It is not merely the relieving of the poor, but the doing of it as in and to Christ. (3.) There is a near link between faith and works. Faith is not sound and perfect unless it produce these works, and these works are not acceptable unless they were the works of faith, and done in faith.
2. The second doubt is, whether the good works of the faithful shall be only mentioned, and not the evil ? I answer —
So some would collect from this scheme and draught set down by Christ. It is a problem disputed, with probabilities on both sides, by good men. Some reason from the terms by which pardon is expressed; as by the blotting out of sin, remembering transgressions no more, cast into the depths of the sea. It is like God will cover them, because repented of and forgiven in the world. On the other side, they urge the exact reckoning, Eev. xx. 11 ; the general particles, 2 Cor. v. 10, and Eccles. xii. 13 ; and that for every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give an account thereof in the day of judgment, Mat. xii. 36. I would not interpose ; I cannot say abso lutely that their sins shall not be mentioned at all ; for Acts iii. 19, it is said, ' Eepent ye, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the pre sence of the Lord.' Certainly not to their trouble and confusion; possibly not particularly. These scriptures are not cogent to prove they shall. For it may be meant distributively ; all the evil of the wicked, and the good of the godly. However, these scriptures should breed an awe in our hearts.
3. A third doubt is, that only works of mercy and charity, rather than piety, are mentioned by our Lord and Saviour. I answer —
[I.]- It is clear that the special is put for the general, and an act of self-denying obedience is put for all the rest. In other places a more general expression is put ; as Mat. xvi. 27, ' For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father, with his angels ; and then he