_Ministers, and the people that are under their care, must meet one
another before Christ's tribunal at the day of judgment._
Ministers, and the people that have been under their care, must be parted
in this world, how well soever they have been united: if they are not
separated before, they must be parted by death; and they may be separated
while life is continued. We live in a world of change, where nothing is
certain or stable; and where a little time, a few revolutions of the sun
bring to pass strange things, surprising alterations, in particular
persons, in families, in towns and churches, in countries and nations. It
often happens, that those who seem most united, in a little time are most
disunited, and at the greatest distance. Thus ministers and people,
between whom there has been the greatest mutual regard and strictest
union, may not only differ in their judgments, and be alienated in
affection, but one may rend from the other, and all relation between them
be dissolved; the minister may be removed to a distant place, and they may
never have any more to do with one another in this world. But if it be so,
there is one meeting more that they must have, and that is in the last
great day of accounts.
Here I would show,
I. In what manner ministers, and the people who have been under their
care, shall meet one another at the day of judgment.