well on this day ? Ai-e not your thoughts inquiring who those blessed souls are which shall he acquitted by the lively voice of Christ the Judge ? You need not ascend to search the rolls of election in heaven : here you may know they are such as fight the Lord's battles on earth against Satan, in the Lord's armour, and that to the end of their lives. These having done all, shall stand in judgment. And were it but at a man's bar, some court-martial, where a soldier stood upon trial for his life, either to be condemned as a traitor to his prince, or cleared as faithful in his trust, O how such a one would listen, to hear how it would go with him, and be overjoyed when the judge pronoimces him innocent! Well may such be bid to fall down on their knees, thank God and the judge that have saved their lives ; how much more ravishing will the sweet voice of Christ be, in the saints' ears, when he shall, in the face of men and angels, make public declai-ation of their righteousness ! O how confounded will Satan then be, who was their accuser to God, and their consciences also, ever threatening them with the terror of that day ! How blank will the wicked world be, to see the dirt that they had thrown by their calumnies and lying reports on the saints' faces wiped off with Christ's own hand ; those from Christ's mouth to be justified as sincere whom they had called hypocrites ! Will not this, O ye saints, be enough for all the scorn you were laden with from the world, and the conflict you endured with the prince of the world ? But this is not all. Therefore,
Thirdly, ' To stand,' doth here also, as the complement of their reward, denote the saint's standing in heaven's glory. Princes, when they would reward any of their subjects, that in their wars have done eminent service to the crown, as the utmost they can do for them, do prefer them to court, there to enjoy their princely favour, and stand in some place of honourable service before them continually. Solomon sets it out as the greatest reward of faithful subjects ' to stand before kings.' Heaven is the royal city, where the great God keeps his court. The happiness of glorious angels is to stand there before God. ' I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God,' Luke i. 19; that is, I am one of those heavenly spirits who wait on the great God, and stand before his face, as courtiers do about their prince. Now, such honour shall every faithful soul have. ' Thus saith the Lord of hosts, If thou wilt walk in my ways, and if thou wilt keep my charge, I will give thee places to walk among these that stand by,' Zech. iii. 7. He alludes to the temple, which had rooms joining to it, for the priests that waited on the Lord in his holy service there ; or to courtiers, that have stately galleries and lodgings becoming their place at court, allowed them in the king's palace they wait upon. Thus all the saints, whose represen- tative Joshua was, shall, after they have kept the Lord's charge, in a short life's service on earth, be called up to stand before God in heaven, where with angels they shall have their galleries and mansions of glory also. O, happy they, who shall stand before the Lord in glory ! The greatest peers of a realm, such as earls, marquises, and dukes, count it greater honour to stand before their king, though bare-headed, and oft upon the knee, than to live in the country, where all bow and stand bare to them ; yea, let but their prince forbid them coming to court, and it is not their great estates, or respect they have where they live, will content them. It is better to wait in heaven, than to reign on earth. It is sweet standing before the Lord here in an ordinance. One day in the worship of God is better that many elsewhere ; O, what then is it to stand before God in glory ! If the saint's spikenard sendeth forth so sweet a smell, while the king sits at his table here, in a sermon or sacrament. Cant, i. 12, O then, what joy must needs flow from their near attendance on him, as he sits at his table in heaven, which when God first made, it was intended by him to be that chamber of presence in which he would present himself to be seen and enjoyed by his saints in all his glory ! I know nothing would have amore powerful, yea, universal operation upon a saint's spii-it, than the frequent and spiritual consideration of that blissful state in heaven, which will at last crown all their sad conflicts here on earth. None like this sword to cut the very sinews of temptation, and behead those lusts which defy and outbrave whole troo})s of other arguments. It is almost impossible to sin with lively thoughts and hopes of that glory. It is when the thoughts of heaven are long out of the Christian's sight, and he knows not what is become of his hopes of that glorious place, that he begins to set up
STAND THEREFORE. |95