Bodies as thefe, which are vifible Teftimonies of their Faith, and Patience, and Mortification, and Self-denial and Self-denial, which are the Members of Chrift, and the Temples of the Holy Ghoft.

Thus all Mankind fhall rife out of their Graves, and appear before the Judgment-feat of Chrift; and therefore now let us contemplate our Lord, fitting upon his Throne, the Throne of Judgment, as he himself tells us, 25 Matth. 31. When the Son of Man fhall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then fhall be fit upon the throne of his glory. Thus it is described in the Revelations of St. John, 20 Revel. 13. And I saw a great white throne, and him that fat on it, from whofe face the earth and the heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them.

What this Throne is, or where it fhall be placed, we are not told ; but the most probable Conjecture, is, that this Throne is a bright refplendent Cloud in the form of a Magnificent Throne, placed in the Air, at fome distance from the Earth; for he is faid to come in the Clouds of Heaven; and St. Paul plainly intimates to us, that his Throne fhall be in the Air, when he tells us, that thofe Good Men, who fhall be alive at Chrift's coming, fhall be caught up to meet the Lord in the air; and it is not improbable, but this may be near Jerufalem, where the Temple of God was, where he converfed while he lived on Earth, and where he was judged and condemned as a Malefactor, and treated with the utmoft Scorn and Contempt, and

nailed in an infamous manner upon the Crofs; for it seems to add to the triumph of that Day, to appear in all his Glory to judge the World, at that very place where he fuffered Shame, and Reproach, and Death, for the Sins of Men, and from the hands of Sinners. But this is all Conjecture (though not without fome appearing Probability) and therefore I fhall build nothing on it.

The Judge being fat, all Mankind appear before him, to give an account of their Actions, and to receive their final Sentence: Before him fhall be gathered all Nations; and he Shall Separate them one from another, as a Shepherd divideth the Sheep from the Goats, 25 Mat. 32. This, as I obferved before, our Saviour attributes to the Miniftry of Angels, who feparate the Wheat from the Tares, and the good Fish from the bad: For the Angels we know are miniftring Spirits fent forth to minifter for them who fhall be Heirs of falvation, 1 Heb. 14. and therefore they know how to diftinguish between Good and Bad Men, and to feparate them from each other.

This is the last and final Separation; Good and Bad Men fhall never meet and intermix with each other after this: They live together in this World, and converfe together, are united by Relation and Interest are Members of the fame Church, and worfhip God together in the fame Holy Communion of Prayers and Sacraments, but they muft part Company at the Day of Judgment; the one to the right Hand, and the other to the left: Men are very apt to flatter

them

themselves now, that they fhall fare the better for the Company they keep; no Church, and no Communion is pure enough for them; not that they are fo much holier than their Neighbours, but they are of Opinion, that God will judge of them by the Church they are of; and therefore whatever Church strikes their Fancy moft with an appearance of Sanctity and Holiness, there they join themselves,not so much to be made better by their Company, as to escape the better with them: But they should remember, that the Tares and the Wheat grow together in the fame Field, but yet have a very different end; the one is gathered into the Barn, and the other is burnt, and that good and bad Fish are taken in the fame Net, but they are feparated at the Day of Judgment: All our Separations now will avail us nothing, unless we take care to be found in the number of Chrift's Sheep, when we come to Judgment; for if we be concealed Hypocrites, and rotten and corrupt Members of a Sound and Orthodox and Pure Church, though we have converfed with Good Men all our Lives here, yet we must part Company at laft; the Angels at that Day will gather forth out of Chrift's Kingdom, and Church, all things which offend, and work iniquity.

The Judge being thus feated on his Throne, and all Mankind before him, the Books are opened; which is another Circumstance to be confidered in the last Judgment, 20 Revel. 12. And I am the dead, small and great, fand before God; and the Books were opened: And

ano

another Book was opened, which is the Book of Life And the dead were judged out of thofe things which were written in the Books, accor ding to their Works. The like we have 7 Dan.

IO.

This opening of the Books, feems to be an Allufion to the Form of Process in Humane Judicature; for we cannot think that God keeps Books of Record in a literal fenfe, as Men do for fuch Books are only Helps to Memory, and therefore God needs them not: But this reprefents to us the exact and impartial Juftice of the laft Judgment; for there are two forts of Books which fhall be opened, and out of which we fhall be judged: 1. The Laws of God, which are the Rule of our Actions, by which we shall be judged. 2. The Records of our Lives and Actions, which contain the Matters of Fact, or that for which we fhall be judged. I fhall difcourfe more particularly of this hereafter, and fhall only obferve at prefent, that God is a curious Observer of all our Actions, and keeps a faithful Record of them; though we take little notice of our Sins our felves, and forget them prefently, and then think they are gone and paft, yet God remembers them, and we fhall find fair and fresh Records of them, when we come to Judgment: And how will it amaze and confound Bad Men, to fee all the Sins of their Lives called to remembrance; to fee a black Gatalogue of all their Impieties and Blafphemies, Injuftice and Oppreffion, Uncleannefs and Impurities; to fee an exact Counterpart of a most wicked

and

and ungodly Life! Nothing can blot our Sins out of God's Book, but a fincere Repentance and Reformation of our Lives: For then God has promised to blot out all our Iniquities, which is fomewhat more than croffing the Accompt, for when the Accompt is only croffed, it is vifible ftill; but what is blotted out, don't fo much as appear; it no longer ftands upon Record, it is forgot, and fhall never be alledged againft us; there shall be no mention made of it at the Day of Judgment; for St. John tells us, there is another Book fhall be opened, the Book of Life, out of which Good men fhall be judged, which records their Faith, and Patience, and Charity, and all the Good they have done; but none of their Sins, which God has blotted out of his Remembrance, and has promised to keep no Record of them: And is not this a mighty encouragement to true Repentance, that all our Sins fhall be blotted out before the Day of Judgment, that there fhall be no mention, no remembrance of them then?

Some very Good Men have been guilty of very great Wickedneffes, which it may be none but God and their own Confciences know; and the best Men have fo many Failings, Weakneffes, Miscarriages, that fhould all the Sins of Good Men be expofed to the View and Cenfure of Men and Angels at the Day of Judgment, though they were finally abfol ved and acquitted, yet it would caufe great Shame and Confufion, and overcaft the Glcry of that Day; but their Sins are done away and forgot, and they have washed