[2.] Observe the several kinds of retribution — ' Good or bad ; ' both the godly and the wicked receive a full recompense at that time.
[3.] The proportion — according to their several ways ; only the reward of good is of grace, of evil of desert ; Eom. vi. 23, ' The wages of sin is death.'
Boct. There will certainly come a day when every person that ever lived shall be judged by Christ according to his works.
46 SERMONS UPON 2 CORINTHIANS V. [SeR. XIII.
I shall examine this point by the circumstances of the text. First, The necessity. He might have said, We shall appear ; no, but he saith, We must appear. God hath so appointed. Here I shall speak —
1. Of the certainty of the thing ; there must be a judgment.
2. The infallible certainty of the event : there shall be a judgment. 1. It must be so ; for God hath decreed it, and reason enforceth
it. But why is it necessary ? I answer, not to discover anything to God, — (1.) But partly, that grace may be glorified in and by the righteous: 1 Peter i. 13, ' Hope unto the end for the grace which is to be brought unto you, at the revelation of Jesus Christ.' Then is the largest and fullest manifestation of God's love to his people. We see. his grace now in tbe pardon of sins, and that measure of sanctification which now we attain unto, that he is pleased to pass by our offences, and take us into his family, and give us a taste of his love, and a right to his heavenly kingdom, and emjoloy us in his service ; but then it will be another manner of grace and favour indeed, when pardon and approbation shall be pronounced and ratified by the judge's own mouth, Acts iii. 19, when he shall not only take us into his family, but into his immediate presence and palace : John xii. 26, ' Where I am, there shall my servant be ; ' when he giveth us not only a right, but the pos- session. Mat. XXV. 34, ' Come ye blessed of my father, inherit tlie king- dom prepared for you ; ' when we shall not only have some remote service and ministration, but be everlastingly employed in loving, delighting in, and praising of God, with all those heavenly creatures who are our eternal companions in the Avork, The grace of God, or his favour to his people, is never seen in all its glorious graciousness till we be glorified. (2.) That the wicked may be convinced of their sin and defect, they come upon a trial, and the fault of all their mis- carriage is charged on themselves. It is hard to determine which is the greater torment to them, the righteousness or terribleness of the sentence. God leaveth them without excuse : Kom. i. 20 ; Ps. 1. 21, * I will set all thy sins in order before thee.' Sins forgotten, lost in the crowd by a secure sinner, in the day of God's reckoning shall be brought to remembrance, with time, place, and other circumstances, and so presented to conscience as if newly done. (3.) That God's justice may be cleared : Ps. li. 4. ' That thou may est be clear when thou judgest.' When he giveth to men according to their choice, and accoi'ding. to the merit of their own works, there lieth no just exception against God's proceeding. The justice of God requireth that there should be differing proceeding with them that differ among themselves, that it should be well with them that do well, and evil with them that do evil ; that every man should reap according to what he hath sown. Therefore those whom Christ will receive into everlasting hfe must ap])ear faithful and obedient, for then God will judge the world in righteousness, Acts. xvii. 31 ; now in patience towards the wicked, now by way of exercise and trial of his people.
2. The certainity of the event — ' The hour is coming,' John v. 28. That there is such a time coming, he ill deserveth the name of a christian who maketh any question of it. But because many live as if
VeR. 10.] SERMONS UPON 2 CORINTHIANS V. 47
they shall never be called to an account, I shall evidence that certainly we shall appear, both by natural light and scripture.
[1.] Let the evidence of reason be heard so far as it will go : reason showeth that it may be, and argue th —
(1.) From the nature of Grod. There is a God ; that God is just : and it is agreeable to his justice that it should be well with them that do well, and ill with them that do evil. These are principles out of dispute, and foundations in the structure and building of the christian faith. Here the best suffer most, and are exercised with poverty, dis- grace, scorn, and all manner of persecutions, and the wicked live a life of pomp and ease ; how shall we reconcile these things with the notions which we have of God and his providence ? No satisfactory account can be given but this : the wicked are reserved to future punishment, and the godly to future reward. Here the goodness of God towards the good, and the justice of God towards the wicked, is not enough manifested ; therefore there is a day when his judgment shall be brought to light, and his different respect to good andbad made more conspicuous.