VOL. XIII. E
66 SERMONS UPON 2 CORINTHIANS V. [SeR. XV.
heart ; and then shall every man have praise of God/ When every man's intentions and purposes, actions and spring of actions shall be displayed, then they that deserve blame shall be discovered, and the sincere and upright justified and commended. Well then, the scripture shows they shall be made manifest, and when made mani- fest. In the general there are two places demonstrate it ; one is Ps. 1. 21, ' I will reprove thee, and set thy sins in order before thine eyes/ All the ways and circumstances of sin shall be so represented to the conscience, that the sinner shall not be able to deny or excuse, evade or forget, jjut ever be vexed with the remembrance of his past folly, and ever see his sins before him as if fresh committed. The other place is Rev. xii. 12, 'And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before the Lord, and the books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life ; and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works/ There are books, and another book ; there is the book of conscience and the book of God's remembrance, Mai. iii. 16. In these books all things are written which belong to the government and judgment of the rational creature, our good and evil is all upon record, our means and mercies, and our unthaukfulness and unprofitableness under them : Jer. xvii. 1, ' The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron and the point of a diamond ; ' not only in their consciences, but before God : Isa. Ixv. 6, ' Behold it is written before me.' God doth not forget, or pass over, but note and remember. Now these books are opened at the last day ; there is not one book, but books ; the book of scripture is opened as a rule, the book of conscience as a witness, and the book of God's remembrance as the notice, or judge's knowing both persons and facts. But, more particularly, how are we manifested ?
1. By the knowledge of the judge. We may hide our sins from men, but not from God ; from the world, and from ourselves, but Christ shall perfectly discover them, and bring them forth unto the light, and show themselves to themselves, and to the world, and all their shifts will not serve the turn. God observeth men now, and observetli them in order to judgment: Ps. xxxiii. 13-16, 'The Lord looketh from heaven ; he beholdeth all the sons of men from the i)lace of his habi- tation ; he beholdeth all the inhabitants of the earth ; he fashioneth their hearts alike ; he considereth all their thoughts.' Though God resides in heaven, yet he beholdeth all and every of their actions, yea, their most secret thoughts; he fashioneth tlieir hearts alike (Sept., one by one) ; he is the former of their souls as well as their bodies, and knoweth the operations of their hearts as well as their outward actions. Men think otherwise : Ezek. ix. 9, 'They say, The Lord hath forsaken the earth ; the Lord seeth not' When he came to mark the mourners, and to distinguish them from the sinners. Ps. xciv. 7, ' They say, the Lord shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard it.' These are men's brutish, atheistical thoughts, and so go on and are regardless of the judgment. But then your judge shall convince j^ou upon his own knowledge. A judge is not disabled from being a witness. The woman of Samaria said, John, iv, 29, ' Come and see a man that told me all things that ever I did ; is not this the Christ ? ' Christ knoweth all that men do, and is able to produce their lives by tale and number,
YeE. 10.] SERMONS rPOX 2 CORDfTHIANS V. 67
even those passages which were most secret ; there needeth no proof to oiu' judge ; for all is open and naked before him.
2. The good angels may be produced as witnesses ; they have an inspection over this lower world, are conversant about us in all our ways, and are conscious to our conversations : Ps. xci. 11, ' He shall give his angels charge over thee ; Jhey shall keep thee in all thy ways.' Reverence is pressed upon us in scripture in this respect : Eccles. v. 6, ' Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin ; neither say thou before the angel, It was an error.' All the business is, what is meant by the angel. There, some understand it of the angel of the covenant, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the searcher of hearts, who will not be mocked, who cannot be deceived. But why not of the angels in heaven, who are sent forth for the good of the elect, and observe our behaviour, and who stop us in our sins, as the angel did Balaam, who said, It is an error? See Numb. xxii. 34; so 1 Tim. v. 21, 'I charge thee before the elect angels.' Surely the angels observe our actions ; they are sent abroad in the world as the spies and intelli- gencers of heaven. So they attend upon congregations : 1 Cor. xi. 10, ' For this cause ought a woman to have power on her head, because of the angels.' In assemblies for worship more company meeteth than is visible. Devils and angels meet there : devils, to divert your minds as soon as you begin to be serious, to snatch the good word out of your hearts ; angels, to observe you ; therefore there should be no indecency.