A Sermon of Judgment, Sermon · Part 2 – Part 6
II. FOR the ſecond thing, who ſhall be the Judge, I anſwer, the Judge is God himſelf by Ieſus Chriſt.
1. Principally, God as Creator.
2. As alſo, God as Redeemer; the humane nature of Jeſus Chriſt having a derived ſubordinate power. God loſt not his right to his creature either by mans fall, or the Redemption by Chriſt, but by the latter hath a new and further right: but it is in and by Chriſt that God Judgeth: For as meer Creator of innocent man, God judgeth none, but hath committed all Judgement to the Son, who hath procured this right by the redeeming of fallen man, John 5.22. But as the Son only doth it in the neereſt ſenſe, ſo the Father as Creator doth it remotely and principally.
1. In that the power of the Son is derived from the Father, and ſo ſtandeth in ſubordination to him as Fountain or Efficient.
2. In that the Judgement of the Son (as alſo his whole Mediatorſhip) to bring men to God their maker as their ultimate end, and recover them to him from whom they are faln, and ſo as a means to that end, the Judgement of the ſon is ſubordinate to the Father.
From hence you may ſee theſe following Truths worthy your conſideration.
1. That all men are Gods creatures, and none are the workmanſhip of themſelves or any other; or elſe the Creator ſhould not Judge them on that right.
2. That Chriſt dyed for All, and is the Redeemer of the world, and a ſacrifice for All; or elſe he ſhould not Judge them on that Right. For he will not Judge wicked men as he will do the Devils, as the meer enemies of his Redeemed ones, but as being themſelves his ſubjects in the world, and being bought by him, and therefore become his own, who ought to have glorified him that bought them, 2 Cor. 5.14, 15. 2 Pet. 2.1. 1 Cor. 6.…9, 20. 1 Ioh. 2.2. Heb. 2.9. 1 Tim. 2.6, 7.
3. Hence it appeareth that all men were under ſome Law of Grace, and did partake of ſome of the Redeemers mercy. Though the Goſpel came not to all, yet all had that mercy which could come from no other Fountain but his Blood, and which ſhould have brought them neerer to Chriſt then they were, (though it were not ſufficient to bring them to believe:) and which ſhould have led them to Repentance. Rom. 2.4. For the neglecting of which they juſtly periſh; and not meerly for ſinning againſt the Law that was given man in innocency: Were that ſo, Chriſt would not Judge them as Redeemer, and that for the abuſe or not-improvement of his Talents, as he tels us he will do, Mat. 25. per totum.
4. If God will be the Judge, then none can expect by any ſhifts or indirect means ſcape at that Day. For how ſhould it be?
1. It is not poſſible that any ſhould keep out of ſight, or hide their ſin and the evil of their actions, and ſo delude the Judge: God will not be mocked now, nor deceived then, Gal. 6.7. they groſsly deceive themſelves that imagine any ſuch thing: God muſt be Omniſcient and All-ſeeing, or he cannot be God. Should you hide your cauſe from men and from Devils, and be ignorant of it your ſelves, yet cannot you hide it from God. Never did there a thought paſs thy a heart, or a word paſs thy mouth, which God was not acquainted with: and as he knows them, ſo he doth obſerve them. He is not as Imperfect man, taken up with other buſineſs, ſo that he cannot mind All. As eaſie is it with him to obſerve every Thought, or Word, or Action of thine, as if he had but that one in the world to obſerve: and as eaſie to obſerve each particular ſinner, as if he had not another creature to look after in the world. He is a fool indeed that thinks now that God takes no notice of him, Ezek. 8.12. and 9.9. or, that thinketh then to eſcape in the croud: He that found out one Gueſt that had not on a wedding Garment, Mat. 22.12. will then find out every unholy ſoul, and give him ſo ſad a ſaluation as ſhall make him ſpeechleſ, Job 11.11. For he noweth vain man; he ſeeth wickedneſs alſo, and will he not conſider it?
2. It is not poſſible that any ſhould ſcape at that Day by any Tricks of with and falſe Reaſoning in their own Defence. God knoweth a ſound Anſwer from an unſound, and a Truth from a Lye. Righteouſneſs may be perverted here on earth, by out-witting the Judge; but ſo will it not be then: To hope any of this, is to hope that God will not be God. It is in vain then for the unholy man to ſay he is holy; or extenuate his ſin: To bring forth the counterfeit of any Grace, and plead with God any ſhells of hypocritical performances, and to think to prove a Title to heaven by any thing ſhort of Gods Condition; all theſe will be vain attempts.
3. And as impoſſible will it prove by fraud or flattery, by perſwaſion or bribery, or by any other means, to pervert Juſtice, by turning the mind of God who is the Judge: Fraud and flattery, bribery and importunity may do much with weak men; but with God they will do nothing: Were he changable and partial, he were not God.
4. If God be Judge, you may ſee the Cavils of Infidels are fooliſh, when they ask, How long will God be in Trying and Judging ſo many perſons, and taking an Account of ſo many VVords, and Thoughts, and Deeds? Sure it will be a long time, and a difficult work. As if God were as man, that knoweth not things till he ſeek out their Evidence by particular ſigns. Let theſe fools underſtand, if they have any underſtanding, that the infinite God can ſhew to every man at once, all the thoughts, and words, and actions that ever he hath been guilty of. And in the twink of an eye, even at one view, can make all the world to ſee their wayes and their deſervings. Cauſing their conſciences and memories to preſent them all before them in ſuch a ſort, as ſhall be equivalent to a verbal debate, Pſal. 50.21, 22. he will ſet them in Order before them.
5. If Jeſus Chriſt be the Judge, then what a comfort muſt it needs be to his members, that he ſhall be Judge that loved them to the death, and whom they loved above their lives: and he who was their Rock of hope and ſtrength, and the deſire and delight of their ſouls!
6. And if Ieſus Chriſt muſt be the Iudge, what confuſion will it bring to the faces of his enemies, and of all that ſet light by him in the day of their viſitation? to ſee Mercy turned againſt them, and he that dyed for them, now ready to condemn them: and that blood and grace which did Aggravate their ſin, to be pleaded againſt them to the increaſe of their miſery, how ſad will this be!
7. If the God of Love, and Grace, and Truth be Judge, then no man need to fear any wrong. No ſubtilty of the Accuſer, nor darkneſs of Evidence: no prejudice, or partiality, or whatſoever elſe may be imagined, can there appear to the wrong of your cauſe. Get a good cauſe and fear nothing; and if your cauſe be bad, nothing can deliver you.
III. FOR the third point, Who are they that muſt be Judged?
Anſw. All the rational creatures in this lower world. And it ſeems, Angels alſo, either all or ſome: But becauſe their caſe is more darkly made known to us, and leſs concerns us, we will paſs it by. Every man that hath been made or born on earth (except Chriſt, who is God and man, and is the Iudge) muſt be judged. If any fooliſh Infidel ſhall ſay, VVhere ſhall ſo great a number ſtand? I anſwer him; that he knoweth not the things inviſible: either the nature of ſpirits, and ſpiritual bodies: nor what place containeth them, or how; but eaſily he may know, that he that gave them all a Being, can ſuſtain them all, and have room for them all, and can at once diſcloſe the thoughts of all, as I ſaid before.
The firſt in Order to bejudged, are, the Saints, Mat. 25. and then with Chriſt they ſhall Judge the reſt of the world, 1 Cor. 6.2, 3. not in an equal Authority and Commiſſion with Chriſt, but as the preſent Approvers of his Righteous Iudgement. The Princes of the earth ſhall ſtand then before Chriſt, even as the Peaſants; and the honourable as the baſe; the rich and the poor ſhall meet together, and the Lord ſhall judge them all, Prov. 22.2. No man ſhall be excuſed from ſtanding at that Barr, and giving up their Account, and receiving their doom. Learned and unlearned; young and old; godly and ungodly; all muſt ſtand there. I know ſome have vainly imagined, that the righteous ſhall not have any of their ſins mentioned, but their graces and duties only; but they conſider not, that things will not then be tranſacted by words as we do now but by clear diſcoveries by the infinite Light; and that if God ſhould not diſcover to them their ſins, he would not diſcover the Riches of his Grace in the pardon of all theſe ſins: Even then muſt they be humbled in themſelves, that they may be glorified; and for ever cry, Not unto us Lord, but unto thy name be the glory.
IV. FOR the fourth particular; VVho will be the Accuſer?
Anſw. 1. Satan is called in Scripture the Accuſer of the Brethren, Rev. 12.10. and we find in Iob 1. and other places, that now he doth Practice it even before God, and therefore we judge it probable that he will do ſo then. But we would determine of nothing that Scripture hath not clearly determined.
2. Conſcience will be an Accuſer, though eſpecially of the wicked, yet in ſome ſenſe of the righteous: for it will tell the truth to all: and therefore ſo far as men are faulty, it will tell them of their faults. The wicked it will accuſe of unpardoned ſin, and of ſin unrepented of; the godly only of ſin repented of and pardoned. It will be a Glaſs wherein every man may ſee the face of his heart and former Life, Rom. 1.15.
3. The Judge himſelf will be the Principal Accuſer; for it is he that is wronged, and he that proſecutes the cauſe, and will do Iuſtice on the wicked; God judgeth even the Righteous themſelves to be ſinners, or elſe they could not be pardoned ſinners; But he judgeth the wicked to be impenitent, unbelieving, unconverted ſinners. Remember what I ſaid before, that it is not a verbal Accuſation, but an opening of the Truth of the Cauſe to the view of our ſelves and others, that God will then perform.
Nor can any think it unworthy of God to be mens Accuſer by ſuch a diſcloſure, it being no diſhonour to the pureſt light to reveal a dung-hill, or to the greateſt Prince to Accuſe a Traytor. Nor is it unmeet that God ſhould be both Accuſer and Judge; ſeeing he is both abſolute Lord, and ſo far beyond all ſuſpition of Injuſtice. His Law alſo doth virtually accuſe, Iohn 5.45. but of this by it ſelf.
V. FOR the fifth particular, How will the ſinners be called to the Barr?
Anſw. God will not ſtand to ſend them a Citation, nor require him to make his Voluntary Appearance; but willing or unwilling he will bring them in.
1. Before each mans particular Judgement, he ſendeth death to call away his ſoul: A ſurly Serjeant, that will have no Nay; How dear ſo ever this world may be to men, and how loth ſoever they are to depart, away they muſt, and come before the Lord that made them; Death will not be bribed. Every man that was ſet in the Vineyard in the morning of their lives, muſt be called out at evening to Receive according to what he hath done; then muſt the naked ſoul alone appear before, its Judge, and be accomptible for all that was done in the body; and be ſent before till the final Judgement, to remain in happineſs or miſery, till the body be raiſed again and joyned to it.
In this appearance of the ſoul before God, it ſeemeth by Scripture, that there is ſome Miniſtery of Angels; for Luk. 16.22. it is ſaid, that the Angels carried Lazarus, that is, his ſoul, into Abrahams boſom: What local motion there is, or ſituation of ſouls, is no fit matter for the enquiry of mortals; and what it is in this that the Angels will do, we cannot clearly underſtand as yet; But moſt certain it is, that as ſoon as ever the ſoul is out of the Body, it comes to its account before the God of Spirits.
2. At the end of the world the bodies of all men ſha…l be raiſed from the earth, and jo…ned again to their ſouls; and the ſoul and body ſhall be judged to their endleſs ſtate; and this is the great and general Judgement, where all men ſhal at once appear. The ſame power of God that made men of nothing, will as eaſily then New make them by a Reſurrection; by which he will add much more perfection, even to the wicked in their Naturals, which will make them capable of the greater miſery; even they ſhall have immortal and incorruptible bodies, which may be the ſubjects of immortal woe, 1 Cor. 15.53 Iohn 5.28, 29.
Of this Reſurrection, and our Appearance at Judgement, the Angels will be ſome way the Miniſters: As they ſhall come with Chriſt to Judgement, ſo they ſhall ſound his Trumpet, 1 Theſ. 4.16. and they ſhall gather the wicked out of Gods Kingdom; and they ſhall gather the Tares to burn them, Mat. 13.39▪40, 41. in the end of the world the Angels ſhall come forth and ſever the wicked from among the juſt, and ſhall caſt them into the Furnace of fire, Mat. 17.49, 50.
FOR the ſixth particular, What Law is it that men ſhall be Iudged by?
Anſw. That which was given them to live by: Gods Law is but the ſign of his will, to teach us what ſhall be due from us and to us: Before we fell he gave us ſuch a Law as was ſuitable to our perfection: when we had ſinned and turned from him, as we ceaſed not to be his creatures, nor he to be our Lord, ſo he deſtroyed not his Law, nor diſcharged or abſolved us from the duty of our obedience. But becauſe we ſtood condemned by that Law, and could not be Juſtified by it, having once Tranſgreſſed it, he was pleaſed to make a Law of Grace, even a new remedying Law, by which we might be ſaved from the deſerved puniſhment of the Old. So we ſhall be tryed at Judgement upon both theſe Laws, but ultimatly upon the Laſt. The firſt Law commanded perfect Obedience, and threatned Death to us if ever we diſobeyed; the ſecond Law finding us under the Guilt of ſin againſt the firſt, doth command us to Repent and Believe in Chriſt, and ſo to return to God by him▪ and promiſeth us pardon of all our ſins upon that Condition, and alſo if we perſevere, everlaſting Glory. So that in Judgement, though it muſt firſt be evinced that we are ſinners, and have deſerved Death according to the Law of pure nature; yet that is not the upſhot of the Judgement. For the enquiry will be next, whether we have accepted the remedy, and ſo obeyed the Law of grace, and performed its Condition for pardon and ſalvation; and upon this our Life or Death will depend. It is both theſe Laws that condemn the wicked, but it is only the Law of grace that juſtifieth the righteous.
Obj. But how ſhall Heathens be judged by the Law of grace, that never did Receive it?
Anſw. The expreſs Goſpel ſome of them had not, and therefore ſhall not directly be judged by it; but much of the Redeemers mercy they did enjoy, which ſhould have led them to repent and ſeek out after Recovery from their miſery, and to come neerer Chriſt, and for the neglect and abuſe of this, they ſhall be judged; and not meerly for ſinning againſt the Law that was given us in pure innocency: So that Chriſt as Redeemer ſhall judge them as well as others: though they had but one Talent, yet muſt they give an account of that to the Redeemer, from whom they received it. But if any be unſatisfied in this, let them remember, that as God hath left the ſtate of ſuch more dark to us, and the terms on which he will Iudge them; ſo doth it much more concern us to look to the terms of our own Iudgement.
Obj. But how ſhall Infants be judged by the Goſpel, that were uncapable of it?
Anſw. For ought I find in Scripture, they ſtand or fall with their parents, &c. on the ſame terms; but I leav each to their own thoughts.