[1.] First, Our Lord Jesus Christ, in his judicial proceedings in the last day, which is set down clearly and largely in Mat. xxv. 34-42, doth only enumerate the good ivorJcs they have done, hut takes not the least notice of the spots and blemishes, of the infirmities or enormities, of the weaknesses or ivickednesses, of his people. God has sealed up the sins of his people, never to be remembered or looked upon more, Deut. xxxii. 4-6 ; Dan. ix. 24. In the great day the book of God's remembrance shall be opened and publicly read, that all the good things that the saints have done for God, for Christ, for saints, for their own souls, for sinners ; and that all the great things that they have suffered for Christ's sake, and the gospel's sake, may be mentioned to their everlasting praise, to their eternal honour. And though the choicest and chiefest saints on earth have, 1. Sin dwelling in them ; 2. Operating and working in them ; 3. Vexing and molest- ing of them, being as so many goads in their sides and thorns in their eyes ; 4. Captivating and prevailing over them, Kom. vii. 23, 24 ; Gal. V. 17 ; yet in that large recital which shall then be read of the saints' lives. Mat. xxv., there is not the least mention made either of sins of omission or commission ; nor the least mention made either of great sins or of small sins ; nor the least mention made either of sins before conversion or after conversion. Here in this world the best of saints have had their bids, their spots, their blots, their specks, as the fairest day hath its clouds, the finest linen its spots, and the richest jewels their specks ; but now in the judicial process of this last and universal assizes there is not found in all the books that shall then be opened, so much as one unsavoury ' but ' to blemish the fair characters of the saints. Surely he that sees no iniquity in Jacob, nor perverseness in Israel, Num. xxiii. 21, to impute it to them whilst they live, he will never charge iniquity or perverseness upon them in the great day, Eev. XX. 12 ; Dan. vii. 10. Surely he who has fully satisfied his Father's justice for his people's sins, and who hath by his own blood balanced and made up all reckonings and accounts between God and their souls, he will never charge upon them their faults and follies in the great day. Surely he who hath spoken so much for his saints whilst he was on earth, and who hath continually interceded for them since he went to heaven, John xvii. ; Heb. vii. 2.5 ; he won't, though
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he hath cause to blame them for many things, speak anything against them in the great day. Surely Jesus Christ, the saints' paymaster, who hath discharged their whole debt at once, who hath paid down upon the nail the ten thousand talents which we owed, and took in the bond and nailed it to the cross, Heb. x. 10, 12, 14 ; Mat. xviii. 24 ; Col. ii. 14 ; leaving no back reckonings unpaid, to bring his poor chil- dren, which are the travail of his soul, Isa. liii. 11, afterward into any danger from the hands of divine justice; he will never mention the sins of his people, he wiU never charge the sins of his people upon them in the great day. Our dear Lord Jesus, who is the righteous judge of heaven and earth in the great day of account, he will bring in omnia hene in his presentment, all fair and well, and accordingly will make proclamation in that higli court of justice, before God, angels, devils, saints, and sinners, &c. Christ will not charge his children with the least unkindness, he will not charge his spouse with the least unfaithfulness in the great day ; yea, he will represent them before God, angels, and men, as complete in him, as all fair and spotless, as without spot or wrinkle, as without fault before the throne of God, as holy and unblamable and unreprovable in his sight, as immaculate as the angels themselves who kept their first estate. Col. ii. 10; Cant. iv. 7; Eph. v. 27; Eev. xiv. 5. This honour shall have all the saints, and thus shall Christ be glorified in his saints, and admired in all them that believe, 1 Thes. ii. 10. The greatest part of the saints by far will have passed their particular judgment long before the general judgment, Heb. ix. 27, and being therein acquitted and discharged from all their sins by God the Judge of the quick and dead, 2 Tim. iv. 1, and admitted into heaven upon the credit of Christ's blood, righteous satisfaction, and their free and full justification, it cannot be imagined that Jesus Christ, in the great day, will bring in any new charge against his children when they have been cleared and absolved already. Certainly when once the saints are freely and fully absolved from all their sins by a divine sentence, then their sins shall never be remembered, they shall never be objected against them any more ; for one divine sentence cannot cross and rescind another. The Judge of all the world had long since cast all their sins behind his back, Isa. xxxviii. 17 ; and will he now set them before his face, and before the faces of all the world ? Surely no. He has long since cast all their sins into the depths of the sea, Micah vii. 19, — bottomless depths of everlasting oblivion — that they might never be buoyed up amy more ! He has not only forgiven their sins, but he has also forgotten their sins, Jer. xxxi. 34 ; and will he remember them and declare them in the great day ? Surely no. God has long since blotted out the transgressions of his people, Isa. xliii. 2.5. This metaphor is taken from creditors, who, when they purpose never to exact a debt, will blot it out of their books. Now after that a debt is struck out of a bill, bond, or book, it cannot be exacted, the evidence cannot be pleaded. Christ having crossed the debt-book with the red lines of his blood, Col. ii. 14 ; if now he should call the sins of his people to remembrance, and charge them upon them, he should cross the great design of his cross. Upon this foundation stands the absolute impossibility that any sin, that the
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least sin, yea, that the least circumstance of sin, or the least aggrava- tion of sin, should be so much as mentioned by the righteous Judge of heaven and earth in the process of that judicial trial in the great day, except it be in a way of absolution in order to the magnifying of their pardon. God has long since blotted out as a thick cloud the trans- gressions of his people, and as a cloud their sins, Isa. xliv. 22. Now we know that the clouds which are driven away by the winds appear no more ; nor the mist which is dried by the sun appears no more ; other clouds and other mists may arise, but not they which are driven away and dried up. Thus the sins of the saints being forgiven, they shall no more return upon them, they shall never more be objected against them.