1. All are guilty, and all are accused; and, therefore, all must be judged.

Both God's equity, and also the clamours of our great accuser, require, that not one guilty person escape judgment. Now, the whole world is guilty before God: even infants themselves, whose souls are but just dipped into their bodies, yet thereby become partakers of original sin: others grow up under innumerable actual provocations; every day and hour adding sin to sin, and guilt to guilt. If any might escape this trial, it might seem most reasonable, that true believers should, whose guilt is removed by free pardon and justification: but, though that guilt of their sins, which exposeth and is ordained unto condemnation, be removed; yet, because those sins, which God hath pardoned them, do for ever deserve condemnation, which guilt remission and justification can never take away; therefore the Devil will try the suit with them; and the great Day of Hearing will be the Day of Judgment, wherein all shall be impleaded, and, therefore, all must then appear to answer.

2. All must appear, because, on this day, God intends, most solemnly, to manifest the riches of his mercy on all the vessels of mercy, and the severity of his wrath upon all the vessels of wrath fitted for destruction.

God hath, for this very end, decreed, that there shall be such a number of men in the world, and no more; that those two royal attributes of mercy and justice may be glorified upon them, especially in that Great Day. There is no part, in all eternity, so fitted for the exalting of mercy and justice, as this is: and, therefore, certainly, if God hath created all men to this very end, that they might be the standing monuments of these two attributes, they must all then appear, when these attributes may be most glorified. There was scarce any other reason, why God should create the world and men in it, but that the whole multitude of them, assembled together at the Last Day, should there serve for the glorious declaration of his justice in condemning them for their own sins, and of his mercy in saving his elect without their own merits: and, therefore, thou mayst as well not be a creature, as not appear at the Judgment-Seat, where the great end of thy creation shall be most solemnly accomplished. And, hence it is, that our Saviour saith, John vi. 39. This is the Father's will, which hath sent me, That of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but

should raise it up again at the Last Day: Christ shall raise them, that they may not be lost. Indeed, men were as good as lost, if they were not to rise again to judgment. It were almost lost labour to create them, and more loss to redeem them, were it not, that the judgment of the Last Day shall fulfil God's ends upon them in glorifying his love and mercy, in the view and to the admiration of the whole world, in the salvation of some; and his justice and righteousness, in the damnation of others. As sure, therefore, as God hath not been at labour in vain, in making any one man in the world; so sure shall every man in the world come to judgment.

(1) Hence it is, that believers usually pass through a Fourfold Justification, before they come to be perfected in glory.

[1] The First is a Justification in foro Divino, in God's own breast.

Whereby he doth, according to his secret grace, pardon their sins, and accept them into favour and unto life eternal.

[2] The Second is a Justification in foro Conscientia, at the bar of their own consciences. And that is, when God's Spirit `witnesseth with theirs, that they are the children of God.

When the Holy Ghost opens the Book of Life, before their eyes; and darts in such a beam of heavenly and supernatural light, as enables the soul clearly to read its name written therein: when they can see their election, adoption, and justification, in their sanctification; and their sanctification itself, both in the fruits of a holy life, and the testimony of God's Spirit: this is to be justified in the Court of Conscience. Now there is no absolute necessity of this: men's eternal state may be secured without it: but, yet, God doth thus sometimes vouchsafe to set up his judgment-seat and to acquit his children in their own consciences, that so they may glorify and adore the riches of divine mercy, in choosing, in calling, such as they are, while he passeth by the far greater part of the world; and, thereby, as far as in them lies, they fulfil the end why he doth so.

But the glory, that redounds to God by this justification, is but private and personal.

And, therefore, there is,

[3] A Third Justification; and that is in foro Ecclesiæ Triumphantis, before all the angels and saints in heaven.

The mercy of a king, in pardoning a malefactor, is most

honoured, when the pardon is read in full and open court. Here is a full assembly, even the assembly of the first-born: and, therefore, presently upon the death of his servants, as soon as their souls return to him; he doth, for the glorifying of his mercy and free grace, pronounce them acquitted and blessed, in the audience of saints and angels.

But, yet, neither is this an assembly full enough: there are vast numbers of sinners on earth and wretches in hell, who know not what transactions pass above in heaven.

And, therefore, for the glorifying of pardoning-mercy before them too, there shall be,

[4] A Fourth Justification, pro Tribunali Christi, before the judgment-seat of Christ, at the Last Day.

(2) Now, as there is this Fourfold Justification, so there is also proportionably a Fourfold Condemnation; and the last is before the tribunal of Christ too.

God will then assemble together angels and devils, saints and sinners, all the rational creation; that, before them, he may represent his mercy and justice, in their most conspicuous glory: his justice, in damning sinners, according to their own merits; his mercy, in saving his elect, according to the merits of Christ. And, therefore, all must then appear.

iii. And, if all must appear, then,

1. What shame and confusion will cover the faces of wicked men, when their foul and gross sins shall be laid open before all the world of men and angels!

:

This is the day, wherein the secrets of every man's heart shall be revealed, and the actions of every man's life brought to public view. Nothing is secret, saith our Saviour, that shall not be made manifest Luke viii. 17. It is manifest to God already: Psal. xc. 8: Thou hast set...our secret sins in the light of thy countenance: but this, wicked men blush not at: though God sees. them, and sees that he may punish them; yet they are neither ashamed for his knowledge, nor afraid of his justice. That, which most awes them, is, lest the world should know how base and wicked they are: but, let them dig never so deep, to hide, their sins; let them draw night and darkness round about, when they commit them; yet, foolish creatures! the whole world must know what they think to conceal: unless thou canst find out such an obscure and retired corner, where neither God, nor the

Devil, nor thine own Conscience can follow thee; it is but childish to sin in secret: as good commit it on the house-top, in the face of the sun, in the concourse of people; for, if God, and the Devil, and thine own Conscience know it, the whole world must know it. Nay, the whole world of men, now living, are nothing, in comparison with the endless numbers of those, who must know thy greatest and vilest sins: all, who have ever lived from the foundation of the world, or shall until the final dissolution of it, shall hear the black catalogue of thy sins read over, sin by sin. Yea, the very sins of thy thoughts shall be ripped up : at such a time, blasphemy : at such a time, murder : at such a time, filthy lusts. Oh! whither wilt thou cause thy shame to go? where wilt thou hide thy head? Think, O Sinner! how wilt thou be able to look up, when God shall read aloud this long scroll of thy sins, in the hearing of Patriarchs, Prophets, and Apostles, and all the world, both of good and bad? who shall as distinctly see thee, as though thou wert the only person to be then judged; and as thoroughly know thee, who thou art, under what education thou wast brought up, under what ministry thou hast lived, and what profession_thou hast made, as though they had always been conversant with thee here on earth. Oh! the shame and amazement, which will then seize sinners, when God shall thus set their iniquities before their faces, to the everlasting confusion of their faces! It is indeed questioned, whether the sins of God's children shall be made public, at the Day of Judgment, to all the world: some deny it; because they think it unlikely, that God should uncover those sins in judging, which he hath already covered in justifying: but this proves it not; for, justification only covers our sins from condemnation, not from manifestation: it covers them from God's justice; but it doth not cover them from the world's notice: and, therefore, I think it most probable, that the sins of God's best saints and people, shall, in this universal judgment, be made known to all, both men and angels: the text tells us, that all must give an account of what they have done in the flesh, whether it be good or bad; and, besides, the sins of God's children and of wicked men are so entangled together, by many circumstances, that the one cannot be fully made known, without the other: nor yet will this expose them to shame; for that shall be fully swallowed up in the joy which they shall then have, that God is glorified: as they shall not

grieve at the damnation of their dearest friends, because God's justice is glorified, in their destruction; so neither shall they be ashamed at the publishing of their own sins to all the world, because the mercy of God shall be thereby glorified before all the world, in their pardon.

2. Since our appearing at the Judgment-Seat of Christ is so necessary, how much doth it concern us, to endeavour that it may be joyful!

And, how may this be accomplished, but,

(1) By labouring, in all things, to keep a good conscience void of offence, both towards God and towards men; so to walk, that our hearts may never reproach us while we live, nor our consciences condemn us when we die?

Our rejoicing is this, saith the a good conscience: 2 Cor. i. 12. here on earth, this also will be Day.

Apostle, even the testimony of And, if this be our rejoicing our joy and glory at the Great

(2) But, because there is no man living so perfect, but his own conscience may accuse him here, and will there bring in witness against him, of many sins he hath committed; therefore, if we would appear with joy at the Judgment-Seat, let us labour to procure an interest in Christ, the Judge.

Then, when thou standest at the great bar, thou mayst boldly throw out that challenge of the Apostle, Who shall lay any thing to my charge? If the Devil, if thy own Conscience answer, "Yes, we can: we can lay such and such sins to thy charge:" yea, but it is Christ that justifies; who shall condemn me? His merits, his righteousness, are mine; and, therefore, so is the glory purchased by them. This is that, which, when others shall call for rocks and hills to fall upon them and to hide them from the wrath of the Lamb, will make us lift up our heads with joy, knowing that our redemption is drawn nigh.

Thus you have seen, Who must be judged; and that is, All Men.

Now,

VI. Consider WHAT THEY MUST BE JUDGED FOR, and what account they must give; and that is, for All Things.. They must receive, saith the text, according to all they have done in the body, whether it be good or bad.

But, yet, neither doth this seem fully to comprehend the