[2.] Secondly, There is the booh of providence, wherein all parti- culars are registered, even such as atheists may count trivial and in- considerable : Mat. X. 30, * But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.' And where is their number summed up ? Even in the book of provideuce. The three worthies were taken out of the fiery furnace, with their hairs in full number, not one of them singed, Dan. iii. 27. Paul, encouraging the passengers to eat, who were in fear and danger of death, tells them that ' there should not a hair fall from the head of any of them,' Acts xxvii. 34. And when Saul would have put Jonathan to death, the people told him ' that there should not a hair of his head fall to the ground,' 1 Sam. xiv. 45. Christ doth not say that the hairs of your eyelids are numbered, but the hairs of your head, where there is the greatest plenty, and the least use. Though hair is but an excrement, and the most contemptible part of man, yet every hair of an elect person is observed and registered down in God's books, and not one of them shall be lost. Nor the Holy Ghost doth not say the hairs of your heads shall he numbered, but the hairs of your head are all numbered. God has already booked them all down, and all to shew us that special, that singular care that God takes of the smallest and least concernments of his chosen ones. This book of providence God will produce in the great day, to confute and condemn the atheists of the world, who have denied a divine providence, and whose hearts have swelled against his government of the world, ' ac- cording to the counsels of his own heart.' But,
[3.] Thirdly, There is the book of men's afflictions. This some account an entire book of itself: Ps. Ivi. 8, ' Thou tellest my wander- ings ; put thou my tears into thy bottle ; are they not in thy book ? ' ^ God told all those weary steps that David took in passing over those
^ The Septuagint, for my wanderings or Sittings, have Zwt^j', ' my life,' to teach us, Siiith one. that our life is but a flitting.
ALL THE SAINTS SHALL BE JUDGED, ETC. 409
two great forests, when he fled from Saul, or thou cipherest up my flittings, as the words may be read. Whilst David was hunted up and down like a partridge, and hushed i out of every bush, and had no cer- tain dwelling-place, but driven from post to pillar, from one country to another, God was all this while a-noting down and a-numbering of his flittings, and a-bottling up his tears, and a-booking down his sighs: ' Put thou my tears into thy bottle ;' Heb., 'my tear,' that is, every tear of mine ; let not one of them be lost, but kept safe with thee, as so much sweet water. God is said in Scripture to have a bag and a bottle : a bag for our sins, and a bottle for our tears. And oh that we would all labour to fill liis bottle with our tears, as we have filled his bag with our sins ; and certainly if the white tears of his servants be bottled up, the red tears of their blood shall not be cast away. If God keeps the tears of the saints in store, much more will he remember their blood, to avenge it ; and though tyrants burn the bones of the saints,^ yet they cannot blot out their tears and blood out of God's register : ' Are they not in thy book ? ' are they not in thy register, or book of accounts, where they cannot be blotted out by any time or tyrants ? i.e., yes, certainly they are ; thou dost assuredly book them down, and wilt never forget one of them, according to the usual interrogatory that was used among the Hebrews when they aflSrmed a thing past all doubt. Let the great Nimrods and oppressors of the saints look to themselves, for God books down all the afflictions, suf- ferings, and persecutions of his servants ; and in the great day he will bring in this book, this register, to witness against them. Ah, sinners, sinners ! look to yourselves. In the great day of account, the Lord will reckon with you for every rod that he hath spent upon you ; he will reckon with you, not only for all your mercies, but also for all your crosses; not only for all your sweets, but also for all your bitters; not only for all your cordials, but also for all your corrosives. In this book of afflictions there is not only item for this mercy and that, but item also for this affliction and that, this sickness and that, this cross and that, this loss and that. And will not the opening of this book of the saints' afflictions and sufferings, and of sinners' afflictions and suf- ferings, be as the handwriting upon the wall, to all the wicked of the earth, in the great day of account ? Dan. v. 5, 6. Surely yes ; for as they cannot answer for one mercy of ten thousand that they have en- joyed, so they cannot answer for one affliction of ten thousand that they have been exercised with. But,
[4.] Fourthly, There is the hook of conscience. Conscience, saith Philo, is the little consistory of the soul. Conscience is mille testes, a thousand witnesses, for or against a man, Kom. ii. 14, 15. Conscience is God's preacher in the bosom. Conscience hath a good memory, saith one. The chief butler forgot the promise that he had made to Joseph, but conscience told him of it. Gen. xli. 9. Fama propter homines^ conscientia propter Deum, saith Augustine : a good name will carry it amongst men, but it is a good conscience only that can acquit
' ' startled,' as birds by a cry or shout. — G. " Cf. Sibbes, ii., 370, and note m, 434. — G. ^ The conscience is a domestic and true tribunal, saitli [Gregory] Xazianzen.
410 OF THE BOOK OF LIFE, OUT OF WHICH