31. That after all his present receivings he will be brought to his future reckonings
Another principle by which a Christian should walk, is this: That after all his present receivings, he will be brought to his future reckonings.
Thus the certain rich man dealt with his steward: Give an account of thy stewardship, for thou mayest be no longer steward. Man's enjoyment of outward blessings, is not a lordship, but a stewardship. God communicates those good things of life to men, not that they should lay them up for their own vanity; but that they should lay them out for his glory. The richest man had as poor a beginning as the meanest; and the poorest will have as rich an end as the wealthiest.
So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. St. Austin says, 'We can never do that, except we number every day as our last day.' Many put far the evil day. They refuse to leave the earth, when the earth is about to take its leave of them.
Persons of the greatest eminence have anciently had their monitors. Agathocles, a Sicilian prince, had his earthen plate set before him, to remind him that he had been a potter. The Roman triumphers, in the meridian of their splendour, had a servant behind them, crying to each, Memento te esse hominem. That is, 'Remember that you are only a man.'
Men, who are gods in office, are too apt to think themselves gods in essence: but the change of the name can make no change in the man. The royal psalmist, who was raised to princely dignity, ridicules such an haughty prince's vanity: I have said, ye are gods, but ye shall die like men. All human divinity will soon be shrouded in mortality; and those who would appear as gods before men, shall soon appear as men before God.
Death levels the highest mountains with the lowest valleys. He mows down the fairest lilies, as well as the foulest thistles. The robes of illustrious princes, and the rags of homely peasants, are both laid aside in the wardrobe of the grave.
As the cloud and the pillar which led Israel through the wilderness, left them on the brink of Jordan; so shall all the glittering shows of life be forgotten in the solemn article of death. Then those ungodly mortals, who were determined not to approach a throne of grace, shall be obliged to appear before a throne of judgment. For we must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.
At the shrill voice of the last trumpet, every gaoler shall deliver up all his prisoners. Now we see the living fall into the arms of death; but then we shall behold the dead awake, and rise to an unchanging life. Then the scattered dust of all Adam's children shall ride upon the wings of the wind, till it meet together in its own bodies.
Then the purchased bodies of saints shall be claimed by their heavenly owner. Thy dead men shall live; together with my dead body shall they arise; awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust. All the various animals which have feasted on human flesh, shall then find that their food was too rich for digestion. The bellies of beasts and whales are not always to be the bed of God's Jonahs. Death will cut us down; but he shall not eternally keep us down.
Now the same glorious person who shall come to raise the dead, will also come to judge the dead. In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel. The same rule which God has given the world to act by, the same rule has he taken to himself to judge by.
Reader, if you obstinately and finally disobey the precious truth of God, revealed from heaven to you; you must suffer the eternal wrath of God, revealed from heaven against you. Though you may now hardenedly resist the judgments which he sets before your eyes; yet you cannot then resist those which he will angrily pour out upon your soul.
Poor sinner! will you yet so wilfully embrace those poisonous vipers, your lusts, which will so assuredly sting you with the pains of eternal death?
Why will you rashly pursue any thing in this world, which will subject you to the intolerable curse of God in another?
God hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness, by that man whom he hath ordained. It is the Son of man, by whom the believing world was redeemed; and it will be by the same Son of man, that the whole world shall be judged. He who was guarded to the cross by a band of soldiers, shall soon be attended to the bench by a shining company of angels.
The ancient Thebans pictured their judges without eyes, that they might not respect persons; and without hands, to denote that no bribes should be received. But the Judge of all the earth shall do right. The wills of human judges are to be regulated by the laws of righteousness; but so glorious is the heavenly Judge, that even the laws of righteousness are regulated by his will. As all his works are great and marvellous, so are all his ways just and righteous.
Reader, there will be no possibility of standing before Christ, but by standing in Christ. What hopes can you entertain of an acquittal at the general assize, if your conscience condemn you before you appear at the bar?
Those who freight their minds with carnal pleasures, will one day be condemned for carrying contraband commodities. Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth, and let thine heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine own heart, and in the sight of thine own eyes. This were brave indeed, if it could but be secured for
O ever: but, alas, after the flash of lightning, then comes the dreadful clap of thunder: But know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment. This is just as if God had said, 'Well, poor sinner, run down the hill as fast as you please; but know, that you will be sure to break your neck at last.'
This is the day of God's long-suffering, but the judgment-day will be the day of the sinner's long-suffering. Here the cords of patience do, as it were, tie the hands of vengeance; but our Sampson may at last be roused, and break all these cords, and then woe be to the Philistines! Sinners may have sparing patience exercised towards them; and yet, not have converting grace revealed in them. All such, at the world's end, will be at their wit's end.
He who now shakes his sword over the hardened sinner's head, will in the great day sheath it in his heart. In the awful storm of death, if his vessel be wrecked, there will be no plank to swim to shore upon.
And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every freeman, said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth upon the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb. Thus, all who refuse and reject him as a refining fire, must be obliged to meet and feel him as a consuming fire. How can they endure the wrath of the Lamb, who have uniformly disregarded the death of the Lamb? If the night of death find them graceless, the day of judgment will find them speechless.
St. Peter informs us of some, who deridingly challenged God to come to judgment: There shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts: and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? These cowards may boast and discharge the artillery of their venom, and appear as conquering heroes at a distance; but when he appears with his naked sword, they will wish for the wings of the wind, wherewith to make their escape. As a dying man has generally a short revival before his departure, and as an expiring candle gives a brighter glare when just going out; so these, in their boasted security, will be surprised with eternal misery.
As mercy lets no service pass unregarded, so justice lets no sin pass unrevenged. He who now makes no account of his coming, will have a sad account to give at his coming.
One observes, that the resurrection of the body is placed between the forgiveness of sins and everlasting glory; to shew, that then only can the resurrection of the body be a benefit, when remission of sin precedes it, and eternal life succeeds it.
It is reported of an Hungarian king, who being on a time extremely dejected, was asked the cause of it by his brother: 'Oh! I have been a great sinner against God,' said he, 'and know not how I shall appear before him in judgment!' His brother ridiculed these his thoughts as too melancholy, and as unworthy of a moment's place in the breast of a king. The king then made no further reply; but it was customary in that country, that if the executioner sounded a trumpet at any man's door, he was presently to be had forth to execution.
The king, at midnight, sent the trumpeter to sound an alarm at his brother's door; which so terrified him, that he ran to the king with a trembling heart, a pale and frightful countenance, and besought him to make known wherein he had offended him. 'O brother,' said the king, 'you have never displeased me: but if the sight of mine executioner be so dreadful in your eyes, what must the sight of God's be in mine?'
Reader, if you have uniformly lifted up your rebellious hand against Christ, how will you be able to lift up your guilty head before Christ? For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be bad. If men were to be their own judges, they would never be just judges. But God shall bring every work into judgment. As he is too merciful to condemn the innocent, so he is too just to acquit the guilty.
For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned. Though the arrows of idle words may be shot out of sight for a season; yet they will certainly hereafter fall down upon the heads of those who discharged them. Reader, if your servant be capable of offending you by his words, is it not as reasonable to suppose that you are capable of offending God with your's?
Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. Than a good tongue, there is nothing better; than an evil tongue, there is nothing worse. Jesus Christ will in the great day pass a sentence upon every sentence that has passed. There is in the same rose, honey for the bee, and poison for the spider.
The same person who shall say, 'Come, ye blessed,' will also say, 'Go, ye cursed.' As blessing and cursing proceed out of the mouth of the same man, so they will out of the mouth of Christ. Man's is a curse of wicked execration, but Christ's is a curse of righteous execution. As the same wind may send one vessel into the haven, and sink another in the ocean; so shall the same voice of Christ doom the sinner to eternal death, and welcome the saint to eternal life. That gate which is opened for a citizen to go abroad for recreation, may also be opened for a malefactor to go out to execution.
Reader, how sad is that tragedy which shall never be ended! On the stage of eternity, the rich man's bags will be emptied, to see how the poor man's box has been filled. Then the charge of the pilgrim's journey will be examined in the steward's accounts. Ah, how can you hear the doleful knell of an everlasting funeral! Will those transient glances of former prosperity lessen the intolerable weight of future calamity?
The wheat and the chaff may grow together, but they shall not always lie together. There may be but the breathing of a few moments between the sinner and everlasting burning. The day of retribution will prove to him a day of separation. While the wheat is secured in the garner, the tares are consumed in the fire.
Sinner, if you now hold the righteous in derision, you would then give a thousand worlds to be their o 3 companion. Then their enjoyments will be incomparably pleasant, while your torments shall be intolerably painful. The sea of damnation will not be sweetened with a drop of compassion. If once you fall into hell, you will, after millions of ages are elapsed, be as far from coming out, as you were at going in.
There will not be a sinner in heaven to interrupt the joys of saints, nor a saint in hell to soften or soothe the anguish of sinners. Those who have the ear-mark of election, and those who have the hand-mark of transgression, shall be put into separate folds.
How will those magistrates appear, who have stained the sword of authority with the blood of innocency? They have turned its back against the vicious, and whet its edge against the righteous. Many an unjust judge, who now sits confidently on the bench, will then stand trembling at the bar.
How will those ministers appear, who, like the dog and wolf, combine to macerate the flock? who, instead of treading out the corn, tread it down? and instead of furthering the birth, have strangled the child?
How will fair-faced, gilded professors appear, when they shall be found no better than hell's freeholders? How will they appear, when the painted sepulchre shall be opened, and the dead men's bones disclosed? They will not be judged by the whiteness of their hands, but by the blackness of their consciences. The black hand must then part with its white glove. That solemn day will be too critical for the hypocritical. All those who now colour for shew, will then be shewn in their own colours.
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