1. That there are books of account kept between God and the crea- ture; which is to be understood not properly but figuratively. Not properly, as if God, who seeth all things with one infinite act of under- standing, did need books, as men for the help of their memories, or to confirm the truth and equity of his judgment by producing a record; but avdpco7ro7ra6co<;, after the manner of men, an.d for our better con- ception. Men use books, in which they write those things which they have given out upon trust, and of which they expect a return ; and in allusion to this, because of God's exact and righteous judgment, the scripture speaketh as if our good and evil were all upon record. So Jer. xvii. 1, ' The sin of Judali is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond.' The expression there is taken from characters cut or carved with iron and steel, or any strong tool, in marble, so as they cannot be defaced. So again, ' It is written before me,' Isa. Ixv. 6. God did not forget or pass over, but observe and remember. In- deed there is a twofold book. The book of God's remembrance : Mai. iii. 16, ' A book of remembrance was written for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name ; ' whereby his notice is expressed. The sin that we commit, or the good that we do, doth not die with the action, as if no further memory of it should remain, but it is recorded. The book of our conscience : ' It is graven on the table of their hearts,' Jer. xvii. 1. It maketh a deep impression on their minds and memories.
380 SERMONS UPON LUKE XII. 48.
as cannot easily be razed out. Nothing can escape the eye of the judge, and not easily the notice of conscience. Though one of the books be in our keeping, it is not easy to deface it, and blot it out. Now let us see what is written in these books.
[1.] What God doth for us, or to us ; as opportunities of grace and mercy : ' These three years I come seeking fruit on this fig-tree, and find none,' Luke xiii. 7 ; John iv. 54, ' This is again the second miracle that Jesus did, when he came out of Judea into Galilee ; ' 2 Peter iii. 1, ' This second epistle write I to you.' Tot convincor testibus, quo christianis sermonibus ine monuerunt — I have so many witnesses against me as I have heard sermons. So the same is true for deliverances : ' The Lord will set his hand again the second time, to recover the remnant of his people that shall be left,' Isa. xi. 11. So for motions of his Spirit : ' My Spirit shall not always strive with man,' Gen. vi. 3 ; it had done so long already. So for God's apparitions to Solomon : 1 Kings xi. 9, ' His heart was turned from the Lord God of Israel, which had appeared unto him twice.' So Jer. xxv. 3, ' From the thirteenth year of Josiah, the son of Amon, king of Judah, unto this very day (that is, the three- and-twentieth year), the word of the Lord hath come unto you, and I have spoken unto you, rising early, and speaking, but you have not hearkened.' God's expostulations in scripture, when he proceedeth to any particular judgment, are an instance of what he will do in the general judgment.
[2.] On the other side is written all the good and evil that we do. For good, the apostle speaketh of ' fruit abounding to their account,' Phil. iv. 17. The prophet showeth God taketh notice of our faithful- ness, or owning God in an evil time : Mai. iii. 16, ' Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another ; and the Lord hearkened and heard it ; and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name.' So of the conversion of any, be they never so few : Acts xvii. 34, ' Howbeit certain men clave unto him, and believed.' Kindness to his servants : Mat. X. 42, ' AVhosoever shall give to drink to one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily.I say unto you he shall in no wise lose his reward;' 1 Kings xix. 18, 'Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him.' On the other side injuries done to his people are recorded ; he hath a bottle for their tears, a book for their sorrows : Ps. Ivi. 8, ' Thou tellest my wanderings ; put thou my tears into thy bottle ; are they not in thy book ? ' So for all the sins we have committed : ' Is not this laid up in store with me, and sealed up among my treasures ? ' Deut. xxxii. 34. Nay, Job xiii. 27, ' Thou lookest narrowly unto all my paths, thou settest a print upon the heels of my feet' Every action leaveth a mark behind it. Nay, in the verse before,' Thou wri'test bitter things against me, and makest me to possess the iniquities of my youth ; ' as if God had taken account of his old sins. Many in this account shall hear of things long ago committed ; their iniquities will find them out. If a man escape any remarkable judgment for one year or two, he thinketh all is forgotten. Ay ! but these debts stand upon record against us till the book be can- celled or crossed. Thousands of vain thoughts, sinful actions, much