Now if, for all that hath been said, you are resolved to spend the flower of your days, and the prime of your strength, in the service of sin and the world, then know that no tongue can express, no heart can conceive that trouble of mind, that terror of soul, that horror of con- science, that fear and amazement, that weeping and wailing, that cry- ing and roaring, that sighing and groaning, that cursing and banning, that stamping and tearing, that wringing q{" hands and gnashing of teeth, that shall certainly attend you, when God shall bring you into judgment for all your looseness and lightness, for all your wickedness and wantonness, for all your profaneness and baseness, for all your neglect of God, your grieving the Comforter, your trampling under foot the blood of a Saviour, for your despising of the means, for your priz- ing earth above heaven, and the pleasures of this world above the plea- sures that be at God's right hand.4
1 The philosophers had Rome dreams of a severe day of accounts, as appeareth by Plato-* Qeorgi [Gorgies], and many pas-sups in Tully. &c. 8 ^Eneas Sylvius.
8 The Turks have a tradition and frantic opinion, that wicked men shall at the great day carry their Bins in latoheta [Qu. ' satchels '?— G.] after their captain, Cain; but well would it be tor them if this should be all their punishment in that great day.
4 OhryBoetom, speaking of this day, saith, For Christ at this day to say, Depart from me, is a thing more terrible than a thousand hells. — Chrys. Horn, ad Fop. Anlioch.
1 Kings XIV. 13.] apples of gold. 219
Oh ! how will you wish in that day when your sins shall be charged on you, when justice shall be armed against you, when conscience shall be gnawing within you, when the world shall be a flaming fire about you, when the gates of heaven shall be shut against you, and the flame 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 of 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 ! Oh, 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 ! Oh that we were nothing ! Oh that we were any- thing but what we are !
I have read a remarkable story of a king1 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, happily, be a long time ere that day come, and besides that, it 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 com- manded 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 and trembling to the king. How now i saith the king; what's the matter you are so affrighted ? I am, saith he, attached of treason, and next morning I shall be executed. Why, saith 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 I 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 beside this, if the worst come, it is but a temporary2 death you shall die, but I am liable to death eternal, both of 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 primrose of their days, the day of judgment will be to them melodia in aure, 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 coro- nation, a day of consolation, a day of salvation ; it will be to them a marriage-day, a harvest-day, a pay-day. a 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 remem- ber all the individual offices of love and friendship shewed to any of his. Now he will mention many things for their honour and comfort
1 Joan. Damasc. et Author. Anonym. De quat. Noviss. Impress. Daven. Ann. 1494.
8 Acts iii. 19-22, Micah vii. 7-11, Rev. xix. 6-10, Mat. xxv. 34-41.
220 APPLES OF GOLD. [1 KlNOS XIV. 13.
that they never minded, now the least and lowest acts of love and pity towards his shall be interpreted as a special kindness shewed to him- self. Now the crown shall be set upon their heads, and the royal robes put upon their backs; now all the world shall see that they have not served the Lord for nought.1 Now Christ will pass over all their weak- nesses, and make honourable mention of all the services they have per- formed, of all the mercies they have improved, and of all the great things that for his name and glory they have suffered.
Qurxt. But here an apt question may be moved, viz., Whether at this great day, the si ns of the saints shall be brought into the judgment of discussion and discovery, or no? Whether the Lord ivill in this day publicly manifest, proclaim, and make mention of the sins of his people, or no ?
1 humbly judge, according to my present light, that he will not ; and my reasons for it are these, viz. :
1. The first is drawn from Christ's judicial proceedings in the last day, set down largely and clearly in the 25th of Matthew, 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, Deut. xxxii. 4-6. My,