3. Devils may accuse men in that day. The devil is called the ac- cuser of the brethren. The fathers bring him in pleading thus against the sinner, Domine, sit mens per culpam, qui tuns esse noluit per gratiam ; I never died for him, could promise him no heavenly king- dom, but a little sensitive pleasure ; Ostende tuos tales numeral- ios, 0 Christe, &g.
4. Sometimes the word of God is made to be our accuser : John v. 45, 'Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father ; there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust;' that is, Moses' law would accuse and condemn them ; Christ needeth not to bring his complaint and indictment against them. And it teacheth us this truth, that where men remain in their impenitency and unbelief, both law and gospel, God's justice and mercy, our own consciences, the Spirit resisted by them in his moral suasions, messengers, means, pains taken on them, will all contribute to make up an accusation against a sinner before the tribunal of Christ. So John xii. 48. 'He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him ; the word that I have spoken shall judge him at the last day.' The word of the gospel delivered by Christ, that will judge them. Though there were no other witnesses, yet the grace of God in the word will show their condemnation to be just, because of then- contempt and neglect. Believers or unbelievers may know their doom aforehand by the word. So Mat. xii. 41, 42, 'The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment against this generation, and condemn it, because they re- pented at the preaching of Jonas ; and behold a greater than Jonas is here. So, the queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it, for she came from the
68 SERMONS UPON 2 CORINTHIANS V, [SeR. XV.
uttermost parts of the earth, to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, a greater than Solomon is here.' The means that we have enjoyed shall be produced, and aj^gravate the judgment against the neglecters and despisers of the Lord's grace. There was a greater manifestation of God in Christ than Solomon ; a greater confirmation in Christ's resurrection and. infusion of the Spirit, than in Jonah's being dehvered out of the whale's bell}'.
5. The ministers of the gospel. Their diligence and faithful incul- cation of the doctrine of life maketh up a part of the evidence which is produced to convince sinners : Mat. xxiv. 14, ' And this gospel of the kingdom sliall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations ; ' first to them, and then against them, compared with Mark, xiii. 9. The preaching of the word will be a witness that men had warning enough, but that they unthankfully neglected their oppor- tunity, and did cast away their own mercies : so Mark. vi. 11, ' Shake off the dust of your feet for a testimony against them.' That signified what a crying sin, and what a punishment, did attend them that con- temned the messages of salvation sent them by God. It is not only a testimony before God for the present ; but compare Mat. x. 14, 15, * Shake off the dust of your feet,' and ' it shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment.' This showeth you are free of their blood, and if there be no other witnesses, this dust shall witness it.
6. Conscience itself shall witness against them, and God will dis- cover ourselves to ourselves, that we shall see the judgment is just. As long as men have any tenderness, conscience speaketh now, but by custom in sinning men stop the mouth of it. But when it speaketh not, it writeth many times ; for the present it is silent, and seemeth to take no notice of the sins we commit, but they are all registered, and they appear legible. The sad story of our lives is all engraven upon the heart, and when God awakeneth the conscience, it is all sin. God will open our eyes, not by a holy illumination, but by a forced con- viction : Kev. XX. 12, ' The books were opened,' and one of these books is conscience, and though it be in the sinner's kee{)ing, yet it cannot be so blurred and defaced, but our story will be legible enough, and for- gotten sins will stare us in the face: Num. xxxii. 23, 'And be sure your sins shall find you out.' We forget them now, think we shall never hear of them more ; but God can make all occur to memory as fresh as if newly committed, and in an instant represent the story of an ill-spent life, and show us all the thouglits, words, and actions, that ever we have been guilty of. The paper goeth white into the printing-house, but within one instant it is marked within and without, and Cometh forth stamped with words, and lines, and sentences, which were no way legible there before,
7. It will be made evident by the confession of offenders themselves. As their consciences will convince them, so their own tongues will accuse them then ; as men now in the ravings of despair will vomit up their own shame : as Judas, Mat. xxvii. 4, ' I have sinned, in that I have betrayed the innocent blood ; ' and Jer. xvii. 9, ' At his latter end he shall be a fool;' crying out, Oh, fool! Oh, madman! So much more then God can easily, and without other evidence, convince men