What a fund has this one declaration laid up for
them in every age of the world !
[We cannot conceive any other thing which could have so forcibly interested the mind of man. The obligations which we owe to Christ infinitely exceed any thing which words can express, or imagination can conceive. Were he therefore to command any thing, the hope of pleasing him would be a strong incentive to his believing people to obey him : but when he declares, that he will accept as done for himself whatsoever is done for others in his name, methinks the diligence of all in serving him should so anticipate the wants and wishes of man- kind, as almost to banish misery from the world. But, though the greatness of human miseries, and the fewness of the Lord's people, preclude the hope of such an event as this, yet this one consideration, of administering to the Lord Jesus Christ in the person of his people, animates thousands to the most ardent zeal, and carries them through the most self-denying exertions.]
If we need any further stimulus to such exercises, let us consider,
in. The importance of them to ourselves —
The issue of the final judgment depends altogether upon them. In that day they will be brought forth,
1 . As an evidence of our state —
[As God has taught us to judge of the tree by its fruits, so will he himself do in the day of jiidgment : and, whatever may have been our professions of faith and love, he will judge of them only by the fruits which they have produced. The fruits after which he will inquire, and by which he will be determined, are those spoken of in the text. Where they are found, there must a living faith and real piety have existed*": and, where they are not found, there must have been an entire absence of true love to God'. By this test, therefore, shall every man be tried; and, according to this shall he stand or fall*^.]
2. As a justification of our sentence —
[The day of judgment is emphatically called " the day of the revelation of the righteous judgment of God*:" and it is appointed, not so much for the awarding of happiness or misery to the sons of men, as for the display of God's equity in these decisions. Much is spoken in the Scriptures of God's having chosen men to salvation, and predestinated them to the adop- tion of children : and, beyond all doubt, the whole glory of man's salvation must be given to him : but still he will evince
^ Jam. i. 27. * 1 John iii. 17. ^ Jam. ii. 13. ' Rom. ii. 5.