within you, when justice shall be armed against you, when the world shall be a flaming fire about you, when the gates of heaven shall be shut against you, and flames of hell ready to take hold of you, when angels and saints shall sit in judgment upon you, and for ever turn their faces from you; when evil spirits shall be terrifying you, and Jesus Christ for ever disowning of you; how will you, I say, wish in that day, that you had never been born, or that you might now be unborn, or that your mothers' wombs had proved your tombs? O how will you then wish to be turned into a bird, a beast, a stock, a stone, a toad, a tree! Oh, that our immortal souls were mortal! O that we were nothing! O that we were any thing but what we are!

I have read a remarkable story of a king that was heavy, and sad, and wept; which when his brother saw, he asked him why he was so pensive? Because, saith he, I have judged others, and now I must be judged myself. And why, saith his brother, do you so take on for this, it will haply be a long time ere that day come, and besides, that is but a slight matter. The king said little to it for the present.

Now it was a custom in that country, when any had committed treason, there was a trumpet sounded at his door in the night time, and he was next day brought out to be executed; now the king commanded a trumpet to be sounded at his brother's door in the night time, who awakening out of his sleep when he heard it, arose, and came quaking to the king: how now, said the king, what is the matter you are so affrighted? I am, said he, attached of treason, and next morning I shall be

executed. Why, said the king to him again, are you so troubled at that; knowing that you shall be judged by your brother, and for a matter that your conscience tells you, you are clear of? How -much more therefore may 1 be afraid, seeing that God shall judge me, and not in a matter that my conscience frees me of, but of that whereof I am guilty? and besides this, if the worst come, it is but a temporary death you shall die, but I am liable to death eternal, both of the body and soul. I will leave the application to those young persons that put this day afar off, and whom no arguments will move to be good betimes, and to acquaint themselves with the Lord in the morning of their youth.

But now to those young men and women, who begin to seek, serve, and love the Lord in the prime of their days, the day of judgment will be to them, melodia in aura jubilum in corde, like music in the ear, and a jubilee in the heart; this day will be to them a day of refreshing, a day of redemption, a day of vindication, a day of coronation, a day of consolation, a day of salvation; it will be to them a marriage-day, a harvest-day, a pay-day: now the Lord will pay them for all the prayers they have made, for all the sermons they have heard, for all the tears they have shed: in this great day Christ will remember all the individual offices of love and friendship, showed to any of his; now he will mention many things for their honour and comfort, that they never minded; now the least and lowest acts of love and pity towards his, shall be interpreted as a special kindness showed to himself. Now the crown shall be set upon their heads,

and the royal robe put upon their backs; now all the world shall see that they have not served the Lord for nought: now Christ will pass over all their weaknesses, and make honourable mention of all the services they have performed, of all the mercies they have improved, and of all the great things that for his name and glory they have suffered.

CHAPTER V.

BUT here an apt question may be moved.

Whether at this great day, the sins of the saints shall be brought into the judgment of discussion and discovery or no? whether the Lord will in this day publicly manifest, proclaim, and make men. tion of the sins of his people or no?

I humbly judge according to my present light, that he will not; and my reasons for it are these, The first is drawn from Christ's judicial proceedings in the last day, set down largely and clearly in the 25th of Matt. where he enumerateth only the good works they had done, but takes no notice of the spots and blots, of the stains and blemishes, of the infirmities and enormities, of the weaknesses and wickednesses of his people. My

Second reason is taken from Christ's vehement protestations that they shall not come into judg. ment, John v. 24. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto

life." Those words, shall not come into condemnation, are not rightly translated, the Original is, eis crisin, shall not come into judgment, not into damnation, as you read it in all your English books: I will not say what should put men upon this exposition, rather than a true translation of the original word. Further, it is very observable, that no evangelist useth this double asseveration but St. John, and he never useth it, but in matters of greatest weight and importance, and to show the earnestness of his spirit, and to stir us up to better attention, and to put the thing asserted out of all question, and beyond all contradiction; as when we would put a thing for ever out of all question, we do it by a double asseveration, Verily, verily, it is so.

3. Because his not bringing their sins into judgment, doth most and best agree with many precious and glorious expressions that we find scattered, as so many shining, sparkling pearls up and down in scripture; as,

1st, With those of God's blotting out the sins of his people, Isa. xliii. 15. "I, even I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions, for my own name's sake, and will not remember thy sins. I have blotted out, as a thick cloud thy transgressions, and as a cloud thy sins."

Who is this that blots out transgressions? he that hath the keys of heaven and hell at his girdle, that opens, and no man shuts, that shuts, and no man opens, he that hath the power of life and death, of condemning and absolving, of killing and making alive, he it is that blotteth out transgressions: if an under-officer should blot out an indict

ment, that perhaps might do a man no good, a man might for all that be at last cast by the judge: but when the judge or king shall blot out the indictment with their own hand, then the indictment cannot return: now this is every believer's case and happiness.

2dly. To those glorious expressions of God's not remembering of their sins any more, Isa. xliii. 25. “And I will not remember thy sins. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for they shall all know me from the least of them, to the greatest of them, saith the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." So the apostle, Heb. viii. 12. "For I will be merciful unto their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. And again the same apostle saith, "This is the covenant that I will make with them, after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my law into their heart, and in their minds will I write them, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more."

The meaning is, their iniquities shall be quite forgotten; I will never mention them more, I will never take notice of them more, they shall never hear more of them from me. Though God hath an iron memory to remember the sins of the wicked, yet he hath no memory to remember the sins of the righteous.

3dly, His not bringing their sins into judgment, doth most and best agree with these blessed expressions of his casting their sins into the depth of the sea; and of his casting them behind his back.