Vers. 32, 33.] sermons upon matthew xxv. 35
account how he will proceed with others ; j^et for godly parents' com- fort, he hath more fully revealed his mind concerning their children than the children of infidels or wicked and open enemies to his truth. What he may do to them as to their original sin we cannot easily pronounce, as to their condemnation or absolution. Many allege, indeed, that they have an evil heart, and a nature that they would despise the gospel, if they had lived to receive the offer of it. I answer — It is true they are by nature children of wrath, as all are, Eph. ii. 3 ; and the gospel telleth us who are the serpentine brood of a trans- gressing stock ; but how far God may show grace to them we know not. But for what they would do afterwards, that can make no argu- ment in this case ; for Grod being a most just and most equal judge, doth not judge his creature for what is possible and future, but only for things that are past and actually committed. He punisheth. nothing but sins ; but things that are not, cannot be sins. We crush serpents for their venomous nature before they have actually done us any harm ; so may God destroy children ; but that he doth not always do it, plain experience manifesteth.
2. The next distinction is of those whom Christ shall find dead or alive at his coming. Those that are dead shall be raised out of their graves, and have the spirit of life restored to them, that they may come to judgment. Those that are alive shall undergo a change like death: 1 Cor. xv. 51, 'We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.' These bodies, as thus qualified, cannot brook the state of the other world. Now, there will be found both good and bad alive at Christ's coming. If all the faithful were dead before, there would be some time when God would have no church upon earth. Now, it is foretold in the scriptures that the kingdom of Christ, which consists in the church, shall endure for ever, and that of his government there shall be no end ; as no intermission, so no interruption. That there- fore it may not be interrupted, some believers there must be, even in the very last times, by whom the kingdom of Christ may be continued in this world, and come to join with the other part of Christ's kingdom that is in the other world. Therefore the apostle telleth us, 1 Thes. iv. 16, 17, ' The dead in Christ shall rise first, and then we which are alive and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, and meet the Lord in the air; and so for ever be with the Lord.' On the other side, all the wicked shall not die ; for the man of sin is to be consumed with the brightness of his coming. Now, how shall the brightness of his coming consume him if he were already abolished, with all his adherents and followers ?
3. The third distinction is of good and bad. Both sorts shall come to receive their sentence ; only the one come to the judgment of con- demnation, the other to the judgment of absolution : John v. 28, 29, 'They which are in the grave shall heai- his voice, and shall come forth ; they that have done good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation.' The word is clear in this point, tliat both the godly and wicked shall live again, that they may receive a full recompense according to their ways. None of the godly will be lost, but shall all meet in that general assembly ; nor shall any of the wicked shift or shun this day of appear-
36 SERMONS UPON MATTHEW XXV. [SeR. XX.
ance, but both shall at the call of Christ be brought before his judg- ment-seat; the godly rejoicing to meet their Iledeemer, and the wicked forced into the presence of their judge, who could otherwise wish that hills and mountains might cover them. So Acts xxiv. 15, 'I believe the resurrection of the just and unjust ;' not cequabiliter ho7ii ; for Mat. v. 45, 'He maketli his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth his rain upon the just and unjust.' Let us answer some places for the good: John iii. 18, 'He that believeth in him, ov Kplverai, is not judged ; ' that is, with the j udgment of condemnation ; so we render it ; and eh Kplcnv ovk epx^rai : John v. 24, ' He that believeth on him shall not come into condemnation.' Yet for absolution they come. On the other side, some of the ancients denied the wicked's entering into judg- ment: Ps. i. 5, ' The ungodly shall not stand in judgment' (the latter clause expounds it), ' nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.' This is the great bridle upon the wicked when they are serious ; they fear more the resurrection from the dead than death itself.
4. The next distinction of men whom Christ shall judge are be- lievers and unbelievers. To believers we reckon all those that lived not only in the clear sunshine of the gospel, but those also to whom the object of faith was but more obscurely propounded ; to those that lived before the flood and after the flood, as well as those that lived in Christ's time, and after the pouring out of the Spirit. Abel and Enoch and Noah are mentioned in the chronicle and history of faitli, Heb xi., as well as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and believers of a later stamp and edition. And among unbelievers are reckoned all those that through their own obstinate incredulity rejected the divine revelation made to them, as well those that neglected the great salva- tion spoken by the Lord himself, as the world of ungodly in Noah's time, 1 Peter iii. 20, who were disobedient when Noah preached righteousness to them, or laid open the way of life and salvation to them. Indeed, it concerneth most those that have the gospel clearly preached to them, but others are not excused. In short, this distinction will bring in several ranks of men.