2. If this be your end, it will be known by your solace. So much as a man doth attain unto his end, so much doth he attain of content and satisfaction : 2 Cor. i. 12, ' For our rejoicing is this, the testimony ■of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, we have had our conversations in the world, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversations in the world.' You will not rejoice so much in the effects of his common bounty as in his special love : so Ps. iv. 7, ' Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time when their corn and wine increased.'
3. If God's glory be your scope, any condition will be tolerable to you, so as you may enjoy his favour. Man's displeasure may be the better borne ; yea, poverty and want. Your great cordial is your ac- ceptation with God ; and losses are the better borne ; as David com- forted himself in the Lord his God, when all was lost at Ziklag ; and Hab. ii. 1, ' I Avill stand upon my watch and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved.'
SERMON XIII.
For we rmist all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that lie hath done, ivhether good or bad. — 2 CoR. v. 10.
Paul's motives to faithfulness in his ministry were three : hope, fear, and love. Hope of a blessed immortality ; fear, or an holy reverence wrought in him by the consideration of the last judgment; love to Christ, ver. 14. We just now come to the second consideration ; it fitly falleth in with the close of the former branch, as a reason why it must be our chiefest care to approve heart and life to God. Not only the hope of the resurrection breedeth this care to please God, but also the consideration of the general judgment. We are so cold, careless, and backward, because we seldom think of these things ; but if we did oftener think of them, it would make us more aweful and serious ; we would soon see that though we can approve ourselves to the world,
VeR, 10.] SERMONS UPON- 2 CORINTHIANS V. 45
yet it will not profit us unless we approve ourselves to God, for all dependeth upon his doom and sentence, ' For we must all appear,' &c. In the words observe a description of the day of judgment. Wherein —
1. The necessity of this judgment — Bel, We must. Judged we must be. willing or unwilling.
2. The universality of this judgment ; who must be judged — in the word TTai/ra?, All.
3. The person by whom we shall be judged. The text speaketh of the judgment-seat of Christ. He is our rightful lord, to whom this judgment belongeth ; and he hath his judgment- seat and throne of glory, as it is called : Mat. xxv. 31, ' Then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory.' What that is, because it is wholly to come, and not elsewhere explained in scripture, we know not ; we must rest in the general expression. The cloud in which he cometh shall possibly be bis throne ; or, if you will have it farther explained, you may take that description of the prophet Daniel, chap. vii. 9, 10. Of this see more in sermon on Mat. xxv. 31.
4. The manner — We must appear before the judgment-seat of Christ, (f)avepa)6f]vaL. The word signifieth two things —
[1.] To stand forth and make our appearance, Rom. xiv. 10. There it is TTapaarrjvai. ' We shall all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ.'
[2] Or else, to be made manifest. And so rendered, ver 11, ' But we are made manifest before God, and I trust are made manifest- in your consciences.' So here our hearts and ways shall be laid open, as well as we ; every action of our lives shall be taken into consider- ation. Well then, we must appear so as to be made manifest in our thoughts, words, and deeds ; we must not only appear in person, but be laid open, have our whole life ripped up, and have all our thoughts, words, and works disclosed before men and angels.
5. The matter about which we shall be judged — TJie things done in the bodg ; that is, during the bodily life. The body is the shop of action, wherein or whereby everything is done. Mechedius telleth us- it is av^ir/ov tt)? "^^XV^ — ^^® yokefellow or colleague of the soul. Now whatever is done by it, good or evil, is the cause to be tried.
6. The end — that every man may be punished or rewarded accord- ing to his deserts ; the end is, that there may be sentence given, and after sentence execution, both as to reward and punishment.
[1.] Mark the emphasis of the phrase — ' The things done in the body.' W^e are said to receive them when we receive the fruits of them: so, Eph. vi. 8, ' W^hatsoever good thing a man doth, the same shall he receive, whether bond or free.' So here, things done in the body are the just reward of those things.