[2.] We know not how soon God may take the advantage of this
VeR. 41.] SERMONS UPON MATTHEW XXV. 91
curse, and cut us off from the possibility of his grace. Christ coraeth as a thief, and stealeth upon men ere they are aware. We are indebted to God's justice, and we know not how soon God may put the bond in suit. Other debts have a day set for payment : God may demand it before to-morrow : Gen. iv. 17, ' Sin lieth at the door,' like a sergeant, to surprise us every hour ; and then we go to prison, and remain there till we have paid every farthing, Luke xii, Solomon wisheth a man to hasten out of debt as a ' bird out of the hand of the fowler,' Prov. vi. 5, A condemned malefactor, that is only reprieved during the pleasure of the prince, is in danger of execution every hour. Wrath breaketh out of a sudden. What provision have you made ? How stand mat- ters between God and you? If a man were informed that his servants had a plot to take away his life, to carry away his treasure, which is speedily to be put in execution, he would not be quiet till he had rid his hands of them : so is sin.
[3.] At the last day this curse is ratified by Christ's sentence : ' Go, ye cursed ; ' depart, ye cursed creatures. When others are acquitted by proclamation, as at the day of judgment, we receive our solemn discharge. Acts iii. 19 ; then your curse is revived before all the world, and as cursed creatures you lose all pity from God, men, and angels. As Adam was driven out of paradise with a bitter taunt, Gen. iii. 22, so with a terrible bann and proscription, that shall never be reversed.
[4.] It shall be presently executed : Esther vii. 8, ' As soon as the word went out of the king's mouth, they covered Haman s face.' These are considerations to beget a feeling of wrath.
2. Flee from it to Christ. Poor sinners, they stand in continual fear of execution. Oh ! fiy to Christ, to get the sentence reversed.
For motives to persuade us to come to Christ for help : —
[1.] Consider how willing mercy is to receive those that fly from the curse. This was God's design in shutting us up under the curse, that there might be no other way of escape : Kom. iii. 19, 'That every mouth might be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God ;' that we may become obnoxious, that we may acknowledge ourselves to be quite undone. So Gal. iii. 23, ' The scripture hath concluded all under sin;' and Kom. xi. 32, 'For God hath concluded them all in unbelief.' The law, in the name of God, arrests us, accuses us, convinceth us, leaving us dead (all preparations to damnation), that through the prison doors we may beg for mercy. He alloweth an appeal from court to court.
[2.] With what honour to himself God may show us mercy. It is no wrong to appeal from the law to the gospel : Gal. iii. 13, ' Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us.' Christ hath taken the curse into his own person : Ps. Ixix. 4, ' I restored that which I took not away ; ' that honour to God which he took not away.
[3.] The great offence in refusing Christ, Heb. xii. 15. Esau was called a profane person, because he sold his birthright for a mess of pottage. He was no drunkard, no swearer. To refuse the Father's riches of wisdom and grace, the Son's self-denial and sufferings, is the greatest ingratitude that can be. When all the labours and wooings of the Spirit are in vain, it is the greatest spite we can do to God ; it
92 SERMONS UPON MATTHEW XXV. [SeR. XXVI.
is the greatest profaneness to set light by holy things, especially this great mystery, when we do not think it worthy our care and thoughts, Mat. xxii. 5.
SERMON XXVI.
Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for tlie devil and his angels. — Mat. XXV. 41.
Now we come to the sentence itself. There we shall first take notice of the poena damni, the loss, depart.
The point is —
Doct. This is the hell of hells, that the reprobates must all depart, or lose the fruition of God in Christ.
But before I begin to set forth this part of the punishment, let me observe something : —
1. In this part of the torment all are equal. There are degrees elsewhere, but here the reprobates are all equally excluded. Christ wdll thus profess, Mat. vii. 23, ' Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity ; I know you not.'
2. It is the greatest part of the punishment. The punishment of sense is finite in nature, though infinite in duration. Though it be from the wrath of God, it is still according to the capacity of the creature. But p)oena damni is the privation of an infinite good. It is indeed a question which is the greater punishment, whether everlasting separation from God or everlasting torment ? whether * depart,' or ' everlasting fire ' ? According to the present state, pain is more sen- sible than loss. In the bodily state we judge altogether by the senses ; but in the other world, when all objects are taken away, and there is a ceasing of temptations, and our judgments are mostly spiritual, there it is otherwise. The greatness of the punishment will appear : —