[3.] Some lived under the legal administration of the covenant of grace, to whom two things are propounded : — (1.) The duty of the law ; (2.) Some strictures and obscure beginnings of the gospel. They shall be judged according to that administration they are under ; either for violating the law, or neglecting the gospel, or those first dawnings of grace which God offered to their view and study. Indeed the law was more manifest, but the gospel was not so obscure but they might have understood it. Therefore God will call them to an account about keeping his law, by which who can be justified ? Or whether by true repentance they have fled to the mercy of God, whicli by divers ways was then revealed to them, and have owned the Messiah in his types ? Ps. cxliii. 2, 'Enter not into judgment with thy servant; for in thy sight shall no man living be justified ;' Ps. cxxx. 3, 4, ' If thou shouldst mark iniquities, 0 Lord, who shall stand ? But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared.' Which, if not clear, they shall be condemned not only for not keeping the law, but also for neglect of grace. Though their unbelief and impenitency be not so odious as theirs is that lived under a clearer revelation, yet a grievous sin it was, which will bring judgment upon them.
[4.] There are some that have no other discovery of God but what they could make from the courses of nature and some instincts of con- science, as mere pagans. The apostle having told us of the righteous judgment of God, Kom. ii. 5, and how managed, ver. 6-8, and how aggravated, the Jew first, and then the Gentile ; he then coucludeth, ver. 12, ' For as many as have sinned without the law, shall perish without the law; but as many as have sinned in the law, shall be judged by the law ; ' that is, the Jews, as the other is to be understood of the Gentiles, to whose notice no fame of Christ or the law of Moses could possibly come. To perish without the law is to be punished, and punishment followeth upon condemnation, and condemnation is in this judgment. Therefore pagans and heathens, that lived most remote from the tidings of the gospel and divine revelation, must appear befoie Christ's tribunal to be judged. But by what rule? He telleth us, ver. 14, 15, ' For when the Gentiles, whicli have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law ; these having not a law, are a law to themselves : which show the work of the law written upon their hearts ; their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or excusing one another.' They knew themselves to have sinned by that rule, by the natural knowledge of God, and some sense of their duty impressed upon their hearts ; nature itself told them what was well or ill done ; the law of nature taught them their duty, and had some affinity with the law of Moses ; and the course of God's providence taught that God was placable, which hath some affinity with these gospel rudiments and first strictures. Therefore the goodness and long-sulfering of God should lead them to repentance, Kom. ii. 4. Surely, then, the impenitency of the Jews will meet with a heavy condemnation, according to the proportion of clearness in then* revelation.
VeES. 32, 33.] SEEMONS UPON MATTHEW XXV. 39
[5.] Men of all conditions, high and low, rich and poor, mighty and powerful, or weak and oppressed, kings, subjects: Eev. xx. 12, ' I saw the dead, both small and great, stand before Grod,' No rank or degree in the world can exempt us. These distinctions do not outlive time ; they cease at the grave's mouth ; there all stand upon the same level, and are of the same mould. To bridle the excesses of power, the scrip- ture often telleth us of the day of judgment, how the great men of the earth shall tremble, and the hearts of the powerful then be appalled, Eev. vi. 15-17. They shall then understand the distance between God and the creature, when his wrath and terror is in its perfection. Who can stand when he is angry ? Ps. Ixxvi. 7. It is a wonder men will live in a way of controversy with him, and are so little moved at it. No wrath so considerable as the wrath of the Lamb. When their mediator is their enemy, none in heaven or earth can befriend them. Those that, in the thoughts of men, are most secure, ringleaders to others in sin, that swear and swagger, and bear down all before them, and persist in their opposition to Christ with the greatest confidence, will be found the greatest and most desperate cowards then. Now these gallants ruffle it as if they would bid defiance to Christ and his ways. Oh ! how pusillanimous and fearful then ! Appear they must, though they cannot abide it. What torture do they endure between these two, the necessity of appearing, and the impossibility of endur- ing ! Oh ! the great ones then would gladly change power 1 with the meanest saint. Then they know what an excellent thing it is to have the favour of God, and of what worth and value godliness is, and how much a good conscience exceedeth all the glory of the world, and what an advantage it is to have peace made with God.