"There shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and
unjust." For as the just go before the unjust in name and dignity
and honor, so they shall, in the last day, go before them in the
resurrection.
Now then, when the saints have risen out of their graves, given up
their accounts, received their glory, and are set upon their
thrones--when they are all of them in their royal apparel, with
crowns of glory, every one presenting the person of a king, then
come the unjust out of their graves, to receive their judgment for
what they have done in the body. "We must all appear before the
judgment-seat of Christ, that every one," both saints and sinners,
"may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath
done, whether it be good or bad."
"And the windows," or floodgates, "of heaven were opened." This
opening of the floodgates of heaven was a type of the way that shall
be made for the justice of God upon ungodly men, when Christ has
laid aside his mediatorship; for he indeed is the sluice that stops
this justice of God from its dealing according to its infinite power
and severity with men. He stands like Moses, and as it were holdeth
the hands of God. Oh, but when he shall be taken away, when he shall
have finished his mediatorial work, then will the floodgates of
heaven be opened, and then will the justice and holiness of God deal
with men without stint or diminution, even till it has filled the
vessels of wrath with vengeance till they run over. "It is a fearful
thing to fall into the hands of the living God,"
The Judge is the almighty and eternal God: the law broken is the
holy and perfect rule of God, in itself a consuming fire: sin is so
odious, and a thing so abominable, that it is enough to make all the
angels blush to hear it but so much as once mentioned in so holy a
place as that is, where the great God doth sit to judge. This sin
now hangs about the neck of him that has committed it, yea, it
covers him as doth a mantle.
Doubtless before the flood had carried off the ark, others besides
would with gladness have had there a lodgingroom though no better
than a dog-kennel; but now it was too late, "The Lord had shut the
door."
As the just shall rise in power, so the wicked and unjust in
weakness and astonishment. Sin and guilt bring weakness and
faintness in this life; how much more when both, with all their
force and power, like a giant fasten on them? As God saith, "Can thy
hands be strong, and can thy heart endure in the day that I shall
deal with thee?" Now will the ghastly jaws of despair gape upon
thee, and now will condemnings of conscience, like thunderclaps,
continually batter against thy weary spirit. It is the godly that
have boldness in the day of judgment; but the wicked will be like
the chaff which the wind driveth away.
Now when the wicked are thus raised out of their graves,'they shall,
together with all the angels of darkness, their fellow-prisoners, be
brought up, being shackled in their sins, to the place of judgment;
where there shall sit upon them Jesus Christ, the King of kings and
Lord of lords, the Lord Chief-judge of things in heaven, and earth,
and things under the earth. On whose right hand and left shall sit
all the princes and heavenly nobles, the saints and prophets, the
apostles and witnesses of Jesus; every one in his kingly attire upon
the throne of his glory. Then shall be fulfilled that which is
written, "But those my enemies, which would not that I should reign
over them, bring hither and slay them before me."
When every one is thus set in his proper place, the Judge on his
throne with his attendants, and the prisoners coming up to judgment,
forthwith there shall issue forth a mighty fire and tempest from
before the throne, which shall compass it round about. Which fire
shall be as bars and bounds to the wicked, to keep them at a certain
distance from the heavenly Majesty. "Our God will come and not keep
silence; a fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very
tempestuous round about him." "His throne was like the fiery flame,
and his wheels like burning fire. A fiery stream issued, and came
forth from before him."
This preparation being made--to wit, the Judge with his attendants
on the throne, the bar for the prisoners, and the rebels all
standing with ghastly faces to look for what comes after--presently
the books are brought forth, the books both of death and life, and
every one of them opened before the sinners now to be judged and
condemned; for after that he had said, "A fiery stream issued, and
came forth from before him," he adds, "Thousands, thousands
ministered to him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before
him. The judgment was set, and the book was opened." And again, "I
saw a great white throne and him that sat upon it, from whose face
the earth and the heaven fled away, and there was found no more
place for them', and I saw the dead, small and great, stand before
God; and the books were opened; and another book was opened, which
is the book of life. And the dead were judged out of the things that
were written in the books, according to their works."
"For many will seek to enter in, and shall not be able." They will
put on all the confidence they can; they will trick and trim up
their profession, and adorn it with what bravery they can. Thus the
foolish virgins sought to enter in; they did trim up their lamps,
and made themselves as fine as they could. They made shift to make
their lamps to shine a while; but the Son of God discovering
himself, their confidence failed, their lamps went out, the door was
shut upon them, and they were kept out.
They will make a stop at this gate, this beautiful gate of heaven;
they will begin to stand without at the gate, as being loath to go
any further. Never did malefactor so unwillingly turn off the ladder
when the rope was about his neck, as these will turn away in that
day from the gates of heaven to hell.
It may be that when thou hearest that the dust of the street, that
cleaveth to a minister of the gospel while thou rejectest his word
of salvation, shall be a witness against thee at the day of
judgment, thou wilt be apt to laugh, and say, The dust a witness!
witnesses will be scarce when dust is forced to come in to plead
against a man.
Well, sinner, mock not; God doth use to confound the great and
mighty by things that are not, and that are despised.
When once the master of the house is risen up, that is, when Christ
hath laid aside his mediation for sinners, and hath taken upon him
only to judge and condemn, then will the wicked begin to stand
without, and to knock and contend for a portion among them that are
blessed. Ah, how will their hearts twitter while they look upon the
kingdom of glory! And how will they ache and throb at every view of
hell, their proper place; still crying, O that we might inherit
life, and O that we might escape eternal death!
Thus you see how loath the sinner is now to take a hay of life
everlasting. He that once would not be persuaded to close with the
Lord Jesus, though one should have persuaded him with tears of
blood, behold how fast he now hangs about the Lord: what arguments
he frames with mournful groans; how with shifts and words he seeks
to gain time, and to defer the execution. "Lord, open unto us! Lord,
Lord, open unto us! Lord, thou hast taught in our streets, and we
have both taught in thy name, and in thy name have we cast out
devils. We have eat and drank in thy presence. And when did we see
thee hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in
prison, and did not minister to thee?" O, poor hearts; how loath,
how unwillingly do they turn away from Christ; how loath are they to
partake of their ungodly doings! Christ must say, "Depart," once,
and "Depart," twice, before they will depart. When he hath shut the
door upon them, yet they knock, and cry, "Lord, open unto us:" when
he hath given them their answer, that he knows them not, yet they
plead and mourn. Wherefore, he is fain to answer again, "I tell you,
I know you not whence you are; depart."
O this word, depart, how dreadful is it; with what weight will it
fall on the head of every condemned sinner! For you must note, that
while the ungodly stand thus before the Judge, they cannot choose
but have a most distinct view both of the kingdom of heaven, and of
the damned spirits in hell. Now they see the God of glory, the King
of glory, the saints of glory, and the angels of glory; and the
kingdom in which they have their eternal abode. Now they also begin
to see the worth of Christ and what it is to be smiled upon by him,
from all which they must depart; and as I say they shall have the
view of this, so they will most clearly behold the pit, the
bottomless pit, the fire, the brimstone, and the flaming beds that
justice hath prepared for them of old.
At the day of judgment, will be tried whether thou art within that
part of the book of life wherein all the elect are recorded; for all
the elect are written here, as Christ saith, "Rejoice that your
names are written in heaven."
Now then, if thy name be not found either among the prophets or
apostles or the rest of saints, thou must be put by as one that is
cast away, as one polluted, and as an abominable branch. Thy name is
wanting in the genealogies and rolls of heaven; thou art not marked
for everlasting life; therefore thou must not be delivered from that
soul-amazing misery: for there are no souls can, though they would
give a thousand worlds, be delivered at the day of God, but such
that are found written in this book. Every one of those that are
written, though never a one of those that are not written, shall in
that day be delivered from the wrath to come.
But O methinks, with what careful hearts will the damned now begin
to look for their names in this book. Those that, when once the
long-suffering of God waited on them, made light of all admonition,
and slighted the counsel of making their calling and election sure,
would now give thousands of treasures, that they could but spy their
names, though last and least among the sons of God. But, I say, how
will they fail; how will they faint; how will they die and languish
in their souls, when they shall still, as they look, see their names
wanting! What a pinch will it be to Cain, to see his brother there
recorded, and he himself left out. Absalom will now swoon and be as
one that giveth up the ghost, when he shall see David his father,
and Solomon his brother written here, while he withal is written in
the earth, among the damned. Thus, I say, will sadness be added to
sadness in the soul of the perishing world, when they fail of
finding their names in this part of the book of life of the Lamb
slain from the foundation of the world.