4. Propound it to your patience, fortitude, and self-denial. Have no cause to think shame of Christ's service, though you suffer disgrace for it ; he will appear worthy of all the respi'ct you show to his person and ways. He is disgraced indeed that is refused by Christ when he
Vers. 32, 33.] sermons upon matthew xxv. 33
Cometh in great gloiy. The judgment of the blind world is not to be regarded. The Lord will show who are his condemned in the world on purpose to try you, though now you are accounted the scurf and oftscouring of all things. I know it is a great temptation to persons of honour and quality ; but Christ suffered greater indignities: there- fore let us resolve to be more vile for the Lord. Chiefly consider the glory reserved for us in the life to come, 1 John iii. 2. Then is the day of the manifestation of the sons of God. Christ is contented for a while to lie hid, and will not show himself in his full glory till the end of the world. In the days of his flesh his person was trampled upon by wicked men ; and now he is in heaven, he is despised in his cause and servants : his person is above abuse and contempt, but not his members. Christ came in disguise to try the world. Satan would not have had the boldness to encounter him, the Jews to reject him, carnal christians to neglect him, nor the faith of the elect found to such praise and honour, if all were honourable, glorious, and safe here in the world. But the day of manifestation is hereafter. Let us be patient therefore, and bear all the harsh usage we meet with. There will be honour : ' When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, we shall meet with him in glory.'
5. Propound it to your hope, and stand ready to meet with him and wait for him ; and comfort yourselves with the hopeful expectation, This will be when all things are ready. And you should look every day and long every day for his appearing. I have a Saviour in heaven, that will come again, with all his saints with him : ' Even so come, Lord Jesus, come quickly.'
SEEMON XX.
And before Mm 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.— Kai\ XXV. 32, 33.
We now come to the second general, the presenting the parties to be judged ; and there we have —
1. The congregation, aiid all nations shall he gathered hefore him.
2. A segregation.
[1.] As to company, he shall sejoarate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats.
[2.] As to place and posture, and he shall set the sheep on the right hand, and the goats on the left.
First, The congregation. All the dead shall rise, and being risen, shall be gathered together into one place or great rendezvous. Ac- cording to the analogy of faith we may gather this point : —
Doct. That in the general judgment, all that have lived from the beginning of the world unto that day shall without exception, from the least to the greatest, appear before the tribunal of Christ.
VOL. X. c
34 SERMONS UPON MATTHEW XXV. [SeR. XX.
This point will be best illustrated and set forth to you by consider- ing the several distinctions of mankind.
1. The most obvious distinction of mankind is of grown persons and infants ; and if all these are presented to the judgment, it will go far in the decision of the point that we have in hand. Grown persons are those whose life is continued to that age wherein they come to the full use of reason ; infants arc those that die before they are in an ordinary way capable of the doctrine of life. Now for grown persons, the scrip- ture is written purposely for them, and showeth that they shall be judged according to the dispensation they are under ; as to infants or lesser children, the case is more difficult and obscure. It is likely that all shall rise in the stature and condition of grown persons, that is to say, in such a state of body and mind as they may see and hear and understand the judge. AVhen they were born, they were born with a rational soul, which though according to ordinary course lieth idle for a while, and doth not discover itself in any human and rational actions till the organs be fitted and matured, yet that it should be still buried in the body, and perpetually sleep, as being hindered by its organs or instruments of operation, reason will not permit us to con- ceive, because it is contrary to its natural aptness and disposition, as also the end of its creation. We cannot conceive that God should form the spirit in man, which is immortal, in a body in vain and to no purpose ; therefore children shall rise again : we know God hath made a difference between infants. The scripture seemeth to extend the merit of Christ's death to his church, Eph. v. 26, 27 ; and that infants of believers are born members of the church is out of question. To be sure, the covenant taketh in our children together with us : Gen. xxii. 7, ' I am thy God, and the God of thy seed.' And those that never lived to disinherit themselves of that blessing, we have no reason to trouble ourselves about them : God is their God, and knoweth how to instate them in the privileges of the covenant. Look, as we judge of the slip according to the stock upon which it groweth, till it live to bring forth fruit of its own, so we judge of children according to the parents' covenant, till they come to years of discretion to choose their own way, and declare what have been God's counsels concerning them. The parents' sprinkling the blood on the door-posts saved the whole family. It is very reasonable therefore to think that infants, born in the church, dying infants, obtain remission of original sin by Christ, whatever become of others ; for what reason have we to judge them that are without ? 1 Cor. v. 12. And if God vouchsafe some the remission of that sin which they have, out of his mercy and grace in Christ, they must in the resurrection be in that state, that they may enjoy eternal felicity. The sum of the whole matter is, that in this great congregation children shall appear as well as parents. But children, dying children, are reckoned to their parents as a part of them, or as an appendage and accession to them, whose condition is likely to be the same with theirs as to glorification and acceptance to life. And with the condition of others we meddle not, but leave them to God. The scripture is sparing of speaking of them to whom it speaketh not. God speaketh more fully to grown persons, as those with whom he dealeth and treateth in the gospel. He is not bound to give us an