US before God. In this great day the book of every man's conscience shall be opened for their conviction, wherein they shall read their guilt in legible characters ; for that is a book of record, wherein men's actions are entered. And although now it be shut up close, and sinners will by no means be brought to look into it, and though many things that are written in this book seem to be so greatly obliterated and blotted that they can hardly be read, yet in that great day of accounts God will refresh and recover the lustre of those ancient writings ; and sinners, in that day, shall find that conscience hath an iron memory. In the last day God will bring the book of conscience out of the rubbish, as they did the book of the law in Josiah's time ; and the very laying open of this book before sinners will even put them beside their wits, and fill them with unspeakable horror and terror, and be a hell on this side hell unto them, ' In this book they shall find an exact account of every vain thought they have had, and of every idle word they have spoken, and of every evil action they have done ; and oh, what amazement and astonishment will this fill them with ! By the hoohs in this Rev. xx. 12, Origen does understand the books of conscience, which now are hid, not from God, but from most men ; for the hidden things of the heart are not now known, but then they shall be opened, and manifested to the consciences of every sinner, so as there shall be no place, no room left for any excuse or plea.i Ambrose saith that the books that are here said to be opened are the books of men's consciences and God's omniscience.^ Oh, what dread- ful challenges and accusations will every sinner be forced to read out of this book of conscience in the great day ! Oh, how in that great day will all wicked men wish that they had followed the counsel of the heathen orator when he said, A recta conscientia ne latum quidem unguem discedendum ; A man may not depart an hair's-breadth all his life long from the dictates of a good conscience,^ The book of God's omniscience takes in all things past, present, and to come, as if he had kept a diary of every man's thoughts, words, and actions. But,
[5,] Fifthly, There is the hooh of Scripture ; and of aU books this book is the most precious book. The book of the creature is but as the inventory of the goods ; the book of the Scripture is the evidence, and conveyance, and assurance of all good to us. The book of Scrip- ture is the book of the statutes and ordinances of the King of heaven, which must be opened and consulted, and by which all must be judged in the great day : James ii. 12, ' So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty ;' i.e., by the gospel of Jesus Christ, by the whole word of God, registered in the blessed Scriptures, James i. 23-25. Now the whole word of God is called the law of liberty ; because thereby we are born again to a new spiritual life, and so freed from the bondage and slavery of sin and Satan. ^ Our Lord Jesus Christ, in his proceedings in the great day of account, will judge us by
^ Comm. ad Rom. xiv. * Ambrose in Ps. i. ' Cic. in OfBc.
* Let the word be president in all assemblies and judgments, saith Beza. In the Nicene Council, Constantino caused the Bible to be set upon the desk as judge of all con- troversies. The word shall be the judge of all men's estates at last; everj' man shall stand or fall according as he holds weight in the balance of the sanctuary.
ALL THE SAINTS SHALL BE JUDGED, ETC. 411
the Scriptures, and pass everlasting sentence upon us according to the tenor of the Scriptures. At the great and general assizes Christ will try all causes by the word of God, and pass judgment upon all sorts of persons according to the word : John xii. 48, ' He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him : the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.' The persons that are to be judged in the great day are not believers in Christ, they are not receivers of Christ, but such as reject his person, and receive not his doctrine. ' He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him,' &c. However the rejecters of Christ may escape judgment for a time, yet they shall never be able to escape the judgment of the last day ; they shall assuredly, they shall unavoidably, be judged in the last day. Though the rejecters of Christ had none to witness against them, yet the word of the Lord shall be more than a thousand witnesses against them in the great day, ' The word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.' The word of the Lord is so sure and infallible a word, that Christ's sentence in the great day, when heaven and earth shall pass away, 2 Pet. iii. 7, 10-12, shall proceed according to the verdict and testimony thereof, ' For the word that I have spoken shall judge him in the last day.' Christ will pronounce then according to what it saith now ; and that as well in favour of believers as against unbelievers. Look, as Christ himself is ' ordained to be the judge of quick and dead,' Acts xvii. 31 ; so the word, the doctrines which he hath de- livered, will be the rule of all his judicial proceedings, both in acquit- ting the righteous, and condemning the wicked. By the books in this Kev. XX. 12, Augustine understands the books of the Old and New Testament, which shall then be opened ; because, according to them, the judge will pronounce sentence : i Kom. ii. 16, ' When God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel,' which promiseth heaven and happiness to all believers. The sentence of the last day shall be but a more manifest declaration of that judg- ment, that the Lord, in this life, most-an-end 2 hath passed upon men. Heathens shall be judged by the law of nature ; profligate professors by the written law, and the word preached ; iDelievers by the gospel, which saith, ' He that believeth shall be saved ; he that believes shall not perish, but have eternal life ; he that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life ; he that believeth shall not come into condemna- tion, but is passed from death to life,' Mark xvi. 16 ; John iii. 15, 16, 36, and V. 24. Christ shall, in the great day, give sentence according to the doctrine of the gospel, which saith, ' If there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not.' The Jesuits report of a student at Paris who, coming to confession, and not being able, for tears and sobbings, to speak, was willed by his confessor to write down his sins, which he did ; and when the confessor received it, the writing vanished, and there remained nothing but the white and clean paper ; this, say they, was by a miracle, because of his great contrition. Let the credit of this
^ Lib. XX. De C. Dei. c. 14; and Bede saith the same -with Austin. *' Continually,' 'generally.' — G.