-2. This book seems to be the same with the book of remembrance, not that God needs any thing to assist and refresh his memory; he has a strong memory, to remember the sins which are written by him in his book, with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond; and what is written with an iron pen, or cut with a diamond, is not easily erased; great Babylon will come up in remembrance before God, with all her sins; and so will the sins of wicked men be remembered, be brought into judgment, and meet with their deserved punishment. Though the above book seems to be written for them only that fear the Lord, whose sins he remembers no more; but then he is not forgetful of their good works, which flow from his own grace; and even when they have been forgotten by them, they will be remembered by him, as appears from Matt. xxv. 37.-3. The book of the creatures, or creation, will be opened. Every creature of God is good and useful to men; but those which are given for use, are often abused to gratify one carnal, sensual lust or another; and which will be produced as witnesses against the sinner.-4. The book of providence will be opened: the providential goodness of God extends to all his creatures: and such who have despised the riches of his goodness bestowed upon them, which should have led them to repentance, and have abused the forbearance and long-suffering of God towards them, in his providence, will find that by the hardness and impenitence of their hearts, they have treasured up wrath against the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; when the providential dealings of God with them, shall be brought as an evidence against them, Rom. ii. 4, 5.-5. The book of the scriptures will be opened, both of law and gospel; the law of Moses will accuse those who have lived under the law, and been violaters of it, and pronounce them guilty before God; they that have sinned in the law, shall be judged by the law; nay, the Gentiles will judge them who by the letter and circumcision transgress the law; that is, will rise up in judgment against them, and condemn them. Such who have lived under the gospel-dispensation, and have neglected, despised, and rejected the gospel of Christ, will be judged according to it, and by it; The word, says Christ, that I have spoken, the same shall judge him that rejects it; in the last day, John xii. 48. God, says the apostle, shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel, Rom. ii. 16; and the grand rule in it, according to which judgment will proceed, is that in Mark xvi. 16; nay, even the law and light of nature will be a rule of judgment respecting those who have only had the benefit of that; For as many as have sinned without law, shall also perish without law, Rom. ii. 12.6. The book of conscience in this are recorded the actions of men; and from thence are they to be brought forth upon occasion; and which either accuses or excuses for them, when it does its office; unless cauterized and seared, as it were, with a red-hot iron; and even such, in the day of judgment, will have their consciences awaked, and which will be as a thousand witnesses against them.-7. There is another book that will be opened; and that is the book of life; in which the names of some are written, which is the same as to be written in heaven; and means no other than the : ordination and appointment of them to eternal life in heaven: this is the Lamb's book of life, the book of eternal election, in which all the names of all the elect are written; and the use of this book in the day of judgment will be, that such whose names are found written in it, will be admitted into the new Jerusalem, the holy city, and partake of the privileges thereof, Rev. xxi. 27; and that such whose names are not found written in it; or, as it is expressed in Jude, 4, who are forewritten to this condemnation, those shall be cast into the lake of fire, Rev. xx. 15. Now the dead will be judged out of those things which are written in the books, according to their works, Rev. xx. 12, which must be understood of the wicked dead, when raised and brought to stand before God; who will have sentence pronounced upon them according to their wicked works; between which, and the punishment adjudged to, will be a just proportion; The wages of sin is death; eternal death is the just demerit of it: but as there is a difference in the sins of the wicked; some more, others fewer; some greater, others less; some more, and others less aggravated; their punishment will be proportioned to them, as will be seen in the next chapter: and so every one will be judged according to his works, in the most just and equitable manner. Indeed, good men also will be judged according to their works; but not adjudged to eternal life according to them; for there is no proportion between the best works of men and eternal life; Eternal life is the free gift of God, through Christ: but upon the judgment of them, the distribution of rewards, or of peculiar and distinguished favours, more or less, in the kingdom-state, will be according to every man's works. This judgment out of the books, and according to works, is designed to show with what accuracy and exactness, with what justice and equity, it will be executed, in allusion to statute-books in courts of judicature, to be referred unto in any case of difficulty. V. The circumstances of the judgment, as to time and place. 1. The time of it; the particular judgment of men, or of particular persons in their souls, will be immediately after death; according to Heb. ix 27; the general judgment, or the judgment of all men, in soul and body, will be after the resurrection: the judgment of the righteous, after the first resurrection; and the judgment of the wicked, after the second resurrection. It is often spoken of in scripture as though it would be quickly, particularly in Rev. xxii. 7-20, to alarm men, and keep up a constant expectation of it. There is a day appointed for it, as may be reasonably thought; for if there is a time to every purpose, a time appointed to every thing done under the heavens, then certainly for a business of such moment, and of so great importance, as the general judgment is; and indeed, this is expressly affirmed; He hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness, Acts xvii. 31; the time of it indeed is unknown to men; hence the Judge is represented as coming at an unawares, as a thief in the night, at an hour unthought of; and therefore men should watch and pray, and be ready to meet him. II. The place. This is also uncertain. Some, because of certain : passages in Joel iii. 2, 12, have thought of the valley of Jehoshaphat; but no valley can be supposed large enough to hold all that will be judged at the day of judgment; nor does it appear from scripture, that there ever was such a valley of such a name; nor does this seem to be the proper name of the valley, whatever valley is intended; in verse 14, it is called, the valley of decision; it properly signifies, the judgment of the Lord, and so is applicable to any place where the Lord should judge the enemies of his people, and bring destruction upon them and to me it seems to refer to the battle at Armageddon, where will be a great slaughter of the kings of the earth; which will make way for the latter-day-glory. The two more probable opinions are, that the judgment will be either in the air or in the earth. Some think it will be in the air, because the judge will come in the clouds of heaven, and the living saints will then be changed, and the dead saints raised; and both will be caught up together unto the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air. But I rather think it will be on earth; the judgment of the saints will be on the new earth, on which they will descend from the air with Christ; and which will be the seat of his reign with the saints, and of theirs with him; and which will be the time of their judging; and as for the wicked dead, who will live again after the thousand years are ended, they will come upon the breadth of the earth, where will be a camp of the saints, the beloved city, and encompass that; and being defeated in their design, they will be at once brought to judgment, and stand before God, the Judge of all, and receive their sentence. VI. The properties of this judgment, as may be gathered from what has been said about it, and from express passages of scripture.— 1. It is future, yet to come: the apostle Paul reasoned before Felix, among other things of judgment to come, Acts xxiv. 25. But because it seems to be deferred, and does not immediately take place, some have their hearts set in them to do evil, and put away this evil day far from them, as they reckon it, and put it very far away indeed, and fancy it will never be. But,-2. It is certain; purpose and prophecy make it so: God has, in his purposes, appointed a day for it, and he will keep it; and his purpose is never disannulled; Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of it, as well as others; and the word of prophecy is a sure one, and will certainly be fulfilled therefore let young and old know, that for the things they have committed, God will bring them into judgment, Eccles. xi. 9.-3. It will be universal, both as to persons and things. All men will be judged sooner or later; in the morning, or in the evening of that day; none shall escape it and all works will be brought into it, good or bad.-4. It will be a righteous judgment; so it is called, Rom. ii. 5. The world will be judged in righteousness; the Judge of all the earth will do right; Christ the Lord will be a righteous Judge, and his judgment just.-5. It will be the last judgment: it will be when the last trumpet shall sound, that the dead shall rise, in order to be judged; and it will be at the last day, when the word of Christ, and Christ according to it, shall judge men, 1 Cor. xv. 52.-6. It is called eternal judgment, Heb. vi. 2, not only because it will be a long time about, as has been observed; but because it will issue in the final state of men; either in their everlasting destruction, or in everlasting happiness, which are next to be considered. OF THE FINAL STATE OF THE WICKED. WHEN the judgment is finished, and the sentence pronounced, the wicked will go into everlasting punishment, Matt. xxv. 46. What that punishment will be, and the duration of it, are the things to be considered. With respect to the punishment itself, I shall, I. Prove that there will be a state of punishment of wicked men in the future world. There is a punishment of the wicked in their souls, which takes place at death; as appears from the parable of the rich man, Luke xvi. 23, and there is a punishment of them in soul and body, after the resurrection, and the last judgment, see Rev. xx. 12, 15, which latter is the continuation and perfection of the former. And this will appear, — 1. From the light of nature among the heathens; being owned and spoken of, not only by their poets, but by their philosophers, and those the more wise, grave, and serious among them. The poets, indeed, say many fabulous things of Pluto, the king of hell; of Rhadamanthus, and others, as judges there; of Charon the ferryman, and of the infernal rivers; yet under these fables some truth lies disguised: nay, Tertullian charges the heathens with borrowing these things from the sacred writings; "When we speak of God as a Judge, and threaten men with hell-fire, we are laughed at; but, says he, the poets and the philosophers erect a tribunal in hell, and speak of a river of fire there from whence, says he, I beseech you, have they such like things, but from our mysteries?a" But not the poets only, but the more serious and wiser sort of the heathens, believed these things. Cæsar was reproved by Cato, for deriding punishments after death; as if there were neither joys nor torments beyond it, but that that puts an end to all. Many of the philosophers wrote of things done in hades, or hell; and Plato denies that death is the last thing; but that the punishments of hell are the last; and says all the same things the poets do; yea, declares them to be rational, and not fables: hence Arnobius, an ancient defender of the Christians against the heathens, says, "Dare ye deride us when we speak of hell, and of unquenchable fire, into which we know souls are cast? Does not your Plato say the same, in his book of the immortality of the soul? Does he not make mention of the rivers Acheron, Styx, Cocytus, and Pyriphlegeton, in which he asserts souls are rolled, plunged and burnt?" Epicurus thought the punishment of hell to be a poetical figment. So Horace, who was an Epicurean, says, Mors ultima linea rerum est, death is the last line of things. But Zeno the Stoic believed, and taught, that the godly and ungodly will have different habitations; the one delightful, b Sallust. de Bell. Catilin. p. 28, 31. d In Gorgia, p. 353. Adv. Gentes, 1. 2, p. 67. f Epist. 1. 1, ep. 16, v. 79. a Apolog. c. 47. De Legibus. 1. 9, p. 943; et l. 12, p. 994. h and the other uncomfortable. Indeed, some of the Stoic philosophers derided these things; but then it is thought they only meant the fables of the poets about them, since their founder, as now observed, believed and taught them. Hierocles, a Pythagorean and Platonic philosopher, speaks of ev adov kodaσtnpią, punishments in helli. -2. A state of punishment hereafter, appears from the impressions of guilt and wrath on the consciences of men now, for sins committed, being struck with the fear of a future judgment, and of punishment that shall follow; and which are observable in heathens themselves whose consciences accuse, or excuse, one another; hence as Cicero says, "Every man's sins distress him; their evil thoughts and consciences terrify them; these, to the ungodly, are their daily and domestic furies, which haunt them day and night." Such may be observed in Cain, Pharaoh, Judas, and other wicked persons; in whom there was nothing but a fearful looking for of fiery indignation, which shall consume them in hell. And these are emblems, earnests, presages, and pledges of wrath to come. Yea, there is sometimes, something in good men which bears a resemblance to this; and whilst they are under the sense of them, apprehend themselves as in a condition similar to it; as David, Heman the Ezrahite, and Jonah, Psalm cxvi. 3, and lxxxviii. 6-16, Jonah ii. 2.-3. This may be argued from the justice of God. If there is a God, he must be believed to be just; and if there is a just God, there must be a future state of punishment; and, indeed, the disbelief of these commonly go together: It is certain there is a God; and it is as certain that God is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works; and will render to every man according to his works. Now it is certain, that justice does not take place, or is not so manifestly displayed in this world; it seems, therefore, but just and reasonable, that there should be a change of things in a future state, when the saints will be comforted, and the wicked tormented: it is but a righteous thing with God to render tribulation to wicked men hereafter, who have had their flow of worldly happiness, and abused it. God is a God of vengeance, and he will show it, and it is proper he should.-4. This is abundantly evident from divine revelation, from the books both of the Old and the New Testament. David says, The wicked shall be turned into hell, Psalm ix. 17. And our Lord speaks of some sins which make men in danger of hell-fire, and of the whole body being cast into hell for them; and of both body and soul being destroyed in hell, Matt. v. 22-30. But these, and such like passages, will be considered hereafter.-5. This may be farther confirmed, from the examples of persons that already endure the punishment, at least in part; as the fallen angels, who, when they had sinned, were cast down from heaven, where was the first abode of them, to Tartarus, or hell, a place of darkness, where they are delivered into chains of darkness, and held by them; and though they may not be in full torments, yet they are not without Lactant. Institut. 1.7, c. 7. h Seneca Consolat. ad Marciam, c. 19; Arrian. Epictet. 1. 3, c. 13. |