_ Use 1. To show that if the unprofitable servant be cast into hell, what will become of them that live in open sins, that bid defiance to God ?
14 SERMONS UPON MATTHEW XXV. [SeR. XVIII.
2. To condemn the unprofitable lives of many ; they live as if they had only their souls for salt to keep their bodies from stinking ; cumber the ground, Luke xiii. 7 ; do not good in their relations, are neither comfortable to the bodies nor souls of others. Certainly how mean and low soever you be in the world, you may be useful. Dorcas made coats for the poor. Servants may adorn the gospel, Titus ii. 10.
3. If sins of omission be so dangerous, we may cry out with David, Ps. xix., 'Who can understand his errors?' The children of God offend in these kind of sins oftener than in the other kind. They are not guilty of drunkenness or uncleanness, but of omission of good duties, or slight performance of them. Paul complaineth, Eom. vii. 18, 19, ' For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, there dwelleth no good thing ; for to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good, I find not ; for the good that I would, I do not.' And should not you complain likewise ? A child is not counted dutiful because he doth not wrong and beat his father ; he must also give him that reverence that is due to him. Alas ! how many duties are re- quired of us to God and men, the neglect of which we should humble ourselves before God for !
SERMON XVIII.
WJien the Son of ma7i shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels ivith Mm, tlien shall he sit upon the throne of his glory : and before him shall he gathered all nations ; and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats : and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, hut the goats on the left.— Mat. XXV. 31-33.
This latter paragraph I cannot call a parable, but a scheme and draught or a delineation of the last judgment, intermingled with many passages that are plainly parabolical ; as that Christ setteth forth him- self as a king sitting upon the throne of his glory, and as a shepherd dividing his flock ; that he compareth the godly to sheep and the wicked to goats. Those allegations and dialogues between Christ and the righteous, Christ and the wicked, ' When saw we thee an hungry ? ' &c., have much of the nature of a parable in them. In these three verses we have described —
1. The appearance, or sitting down of the judge,
2. The presenting the parties to be judged. The former is in ver. 31, the latter in ver. 32, 33. In ver. 31 we have —
[1.] The person who shall be the judge, the Son of man.
[2.] The manner of his coming ; it shall be august and glorious. Where note —
(1.) His personal glory, he shall come in his glory.
(2.) His royal attendance, and all the holy angels loith him.
(3.) His seat and throne, then shall he sit upjon the throne of his glory.
Pirst, The person is designed by this character and appellation,
Vers. 31-33.] seemons upon matthew xxv. 15
* the Son of man.' He is called so to show that he is true man, and descended of the present race of men. He might have been true man if God had framed his substance out of nothing, as he did Adam out of the dust of the ground. And this title is given him here, as in many other places, when the last judgment is spoken of, as I shall show you by and by —
1. Partly to recompense his foregoing humiliation, or despicable appearance at his first coming.
2. Partly because of his second coming : he shall appear visibly in that nature' as he went from us: Acts i. 11, 'In like manner,' &c. Christ shall come in the form of a man, but not in the same humble and mean appearance as now when he spake these things to them ; for it is added for the manner —
[1.] For his personal glory, ' He shall come in his glory.' Not in the form of a servant, but becoming his present state. All infirmities shall be removed from his soul and body. It is not a borrowed glory, but he shall come in his own glory. It is said, Mat. xvi. 27, ' The Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father.' Here, in his own glory. The Son of man and the son of God is only one person ; and his glory as God and his Father's glory is the same. So that he ' shall come in his glory,' noteth either — (1.) His divine power and majesty, which shall then conspicuously shine forth ; or (2.) The glory put upon the human nature ; and so it will note his plenary absolution as our surety. The Father sendeth him from heaven in power and great glory : ' He appeareth without sin,' Heb. ix. 28. He doth not say, They that look for him shall be without sin ; but ' He shall appear the second time without sin unto salvation ;' that is, fully discharged of our debt. First, he came in carnem ; he showed himself in the nature of man to be judged: then, in came ; he shall show himself in the nature of man to judge the world. At his first coming he was holy, yet in the garb of a sinner ; we judged him as one forsaken of God : his second coming shall make it evident that he is discharged of the debt he took upon himself.