III. For what reasons God has so ordered it, that ministers and their
people shall then meet together in such a manner, and for such purposes.
I. I would show, in some particulars, in what manner ministers, and the
people who have been under their care, shall meet one another at the day
of judgment. Concerning this I would observe two things in general.
1. That they shall not then meet only as all mankind must then meet, but
there will be something peculiar in the manner of their meeting.
2. That their meeting together at that time shall be very different from
what used to be in the house of God in this world.
1. They shall not meet at that day as all the world must then meet
together. I would observe a difference in two things.
(1) As to a clear actual view, and distinct knowledge and notice of each
other.
Although the whole world will be then present, all mankind of all
generations gathered in one vast assembly, with all of the angelic nature,
both elect and fallen angels; yet we need not suppose that every one will
have a distinct and particular knowledge of each individual of the whole
assembled multitude, which will undoubtedly consist of many millions of
millions. Though 'tis probable that men's capacities will be much greater
than in the present state, yet they will not be infinite; though their
understanding and comprehension will be vastly extended, yet men will not
be deified. There will probably be a very enlarged view that particular
persons will have of various parts and members of that vast assembly, and
so of the proceedings of that great day; but yet it must needs be, that
according to the nature of finite minds, some persons and some things at
that day shall fall more under the notice of particular persons than
others; and this (as we may well suppose) according as they shall have a
nearer concern with some than others, in the transactions of the day.
There will be special reason why those who have had special concerns
together in this world, in their state of probation, and whose mutual
affairs will be then to be tried and judged, should especially be set in
one another's view. Thus we may suppose that rulers and subjects, earthly
judges and those whom they have judged, neighbors who have had mutual
converse, dealings and contests, heads of families and their children and
servants, shall then meet, and in a peculiar distinction be set together.
And especially will it be thus with ministers and their people. 'Tis
evident by the text that these shall be in each other's view, shall
distinctly know each other, and shall have particular notice one of
another at that time.
(2) They shall meet together, as having a special concern one with another
in the great transactions of that day.
Although they shall meet the whole world at that time, yet they will not
have any immediate and particular concern with all. Yea, the far greater
part of those who shall then be gathered together, will be such as they
have had no intercourse with in their state of probation, and so will have
no mutual concerns to be judged of. But as to ministers, and the people
that have been under their care, they will be such as have had much
immediate concern one with another, in matters of the greatest moment,
that ever mankind have to do one with another in. Therefore they
especially must meet and be brought together before the judge, as having
special concern one with another in the design and business of that great
day of accounts.
Thus their meeting, as to the manner of it, will be diverse from the
meeting of mankind in general.
2. Their meeting at the day of judgment will be very diverse from their
meetings one with another in this world.
Ministers and their people, while their relation continues, often meet
together in this world. They are wont to meet from Sabbath to Sabbath, and
at other times, for the public worship of God, and administration of
ordinances, and the solemn services of God's house. And besides these
meetings, they have also occasions to meet for the determining and
managing their ecclesiastical affairs, for the exercise of church
discipline, and the settling and adjusting those things which concern the
purity and good order of public administrations. But their meeting at the
day of judgment will be exceeding diverse, in its manner and circumstance,
from any such meetings and interviews as they have one with another in the
present state. I would observe how, in a few particulars.
(1) Now they meet together in a preparatory mutable state, but then in an
unchangeable state.
Now sinners in the congregation meet their minister in a state wherein
they are capable of a saving change, capable of being turned, through
God's blessing on the ministrations and labors of their pastor, from the
power of Satan unto God; and being brought out of a state of guilt,
condemnation and wrath, to a state of peace and favor with God, to the
enjoyment of the privileges of his children, and a title to their eternal
inheritance. And saints now meet their minister with great remains of
corruption, and sometimes under great spiritual difficulties and
affliction: and therefore are yet the proper subjects of means of an happy
alteration of their state, consisting in a greater freedom from these
things, which they have reason to hope for in the way of an attendance on
ordinances, and of which God is pleased commonly to make his ministers the
instruments. And ministers and their people now meet in order to the
bringing to pass such happy changes; they are the great benefits sought in
their solemn meetings in this world.
But when they shall meet together at the day of judgment, it will be far
otherwise. They will not then meet in order to the use of means for the
bringing to effect any such changes; for they will all meet in an
unchangeable state. Sinners will be in an unchangeable state: they who
then shall be under the guilt and power of sin, and have the wrath of God
abiding on them, shall be beyond all remedy or possibility of change, and
shall meet their ministers without any hopes of relief or remedy, or
getting any good by their means. And as for the saints, they will be
already perfectly delivered from all their before remaining corruption,
temptation, and calamities of every kind, and set forever out of their
reach; and no deliverance, no happy alteration, will remain to be
accomplished in the way of the use of means of grace, under the
administrations of ministers. It will then be pronounced, "He that is
unjust, let him be unjust still; and he that is filthy, let him be filthy
still; and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still; and he that
is holy, let him be holy still."
(2) Then they shall meet together in a state of clear, certain and
infallible light.
Ministers are set as guides and teachers, and are represented in Scripture
as lights set up in the churches; and in the present state meet their
people from time to time in order to instruct and enlighten them, to
correct their mistakes, and to be a voice behind them, when they turn
aside to the right hand or to the left, saying, "This is the way, walk in
it;" to evince and confirm the truth by exhibiting the proper evidences of
it, and to refute errors and corrupt opinions, to convince the erroneous
and establish the doubting. But when Christ shall come to judgment, every
error and false opinion shall be detected; all deceit and illusion shall
vanish away before the light of that day, as the darkness of the night
vanishes at the appearance of the rising sun; and every doctrine of the
word of God shall then appear in full evidence, and none shall remain
unconvinced; all shall know the truth with the greatest certainty, and
there shall be no mistakes to rectify.
Now ministers and their people may disagree in their judgments concerning
some matters of religion, and may sometimes meet to confer together
concerning those things wherein they differ, and to hear the reasons that
may be offered on one side and the other; and all may be ineffectual as to
any conviction of the truth: they may meet and part again, no more agreed
than before; and that side which was in the wrong may remain so still;
sometimes the meetings of ministers with their people in such a case of
disagreeing sentiments are attended with unhappy debate and controversy,
managed with much prejudice and want of candor; not tending to light and
conviction, but rather to confirm and increase darkness, and establish
opposition to the truth and alienation of affection one from another. But
when they shall hereafter meet together, at the day of judgment, before
the tribunal of the great Judge, the mind and will of Christ will be made
known; and there shall no longer be any debate or difference of opinions;
the evidence of the truth shall appear beyond all dispute, and all
controversies shall be finally and forever decided.
Now ministers meet their people in order to enlighten and awaken the
consciences of sinners: setting before them the great evil and danger of
sin, the strictness of God's law, their own wickedness of heart and
practice, the great guilt they are under, the wrath that abides upon them,
and their impotence, blindness, poverty, and helpless and undone
condition: but all is often in vain; they remain still, notwithstanding
all their ministers can say, stupid and unawakened, and their consciences
unconvinced. But it will not be so at their last meeting at the day of
judgment; sinners, when they shall meet their minister before their great
Judge, will not meet him with a stupid conscience: they will then be fully
convinced of the truth of those things which they formerly heard from him,
concerning the greatness and terrible majesty of God, his holiness, and
hatred of sin, and his awful justice in punishing it, the strictness of
his law, and the dreadfulness and truth of his threatenings, and their own
unspeakable guilt and misery: and they shall never more be insensible of
these things: the eyes of conscience will now be fully enlightened, and
never shall be blinded again: the mouth of conscience shall now be opened,
and never shall be shut any more.
Now ministers meet with their people, in public and private, in order to
enlighten them concerning the state of their souls; to open and apply the
rules of God's word to them, in order to their searching their own hearts,
and discerning the state that they are in. But now ministers have no
infallible discerning of the state of the souls of their own people; and
the most skilful of them are liable to mistakes, and often are mistaken in
things of this nature. Nor are the people able certainly to know the state
of their minister, or one another's state; very often those pass among
them for saints, and it may be eminent saints, that are grand hypocrites;
and on the other hand, those are sometimes censured, or hardly received
into their charity, that are indeed some of God's jewels. And nothing is
more common than for men to be mistaken concerning their own state: many
that are abominable to God, and the children of his wrath, think highly
of themselves, as his precious saints and dear children. Yea, there is
reason to think that often some that are most bold in their confidence of
their safe and happy state, and think themselves not only true saints, but
the most eminent saints in the congregation, are in a peculiar manner a
smoke in God's nose. And thus it undoubtedly often is in those
congregations where the word of God is most faithfully dispensed,
notwithstanding all that ministers can say in their clearest explications
and most searching applications of the doctrines and rules of God's word
to the souls of their hearers, in their meetings one with another. But in
the day of judgment they shall have another sort of meeting; then the
secrets of every heart shall be made manifest, and every man's state shall
be perfectly known: 1 Cor. iv. 5, "Therefore, judge nothing before the
time, until the Lord come, who will both bring to light the hidden things
of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then
shall every man have praise of God." Then none shall be deceived
concerning his own state, nor shall be any more in doubt about it. There
shall be an eternal end to all the ill conceit and vain hopes of deluded
hypocrites, and all the doubts and fears of sincere Christians. And then
shall all know the state of one another's souls: the people shall know
whether their minister has been sincere and faithful, and the ministers
shall know the state of every one of their people, and to whom the word
and ordinances of God have been a savor of life unto life, and to whom a
savor of death unto death.
Now in this present state it often happens that when ministers and people
meet together to debate and manage their ecclesiastical affairs,
especially in a state of controversy, they are ready to judge and censure
one another with regard to each other's views and designs, and the
principles and ends that each is influenced by; and are greatly mistaken
in their judgment, and wrong one another with regard to each other's views
and designs and the principles and ends that each is influenced by, and
are greatly mistaken in their judgment, and wrong one another in their
censures. But at that future meeting, things will be set in a true and
perfect light, and the principles and aims that every one has acted from
shall be certainly known; and there will be an end to all errors of this
kind, and all unrighteous censures.
(3) In this world, ministers and their people often meet together to hear
of and wait upon an unseen Lord; but at the day of judgment they shall
meet in his most immediate and visible presence.
Ministers, who now often meet their people to preach to 'em the King
eternal, immortal, and invisible, to convince 'em that there is a God, and
declare to 'em what manner of being he is, and to convince 'em that he
governs and will judge the world, and that there is a future state of
rewards and punishments, and to preach to 'em a Christ in heaven and at
the right hand of God in an unseen world, shall then meet their people in
the most immediate sensible presence of this great God, Saviour and Judge,
appearing in the most plain, visible and open manner, with great glory,
with all his holy angels, before them and the whole world. They shall not
meet them to hear about an absent Christ, an unseen Lord and future Judge;
but to appear before that Judge, and as being set together in the presence
of that supreme Lord, in his immense glory and awful majesty, whom they
have heard so often of in their meetings together on earth.
(4) The meeting, at the last day, of ministers, and the people that have
been under their care, will not be attended by any one with a careless,
heedless heart.
With such an heart are their meetings often attended in this world by many
persons, having little regard to him whom they pretend unitedly to adore
in the solemn duties of his public worship, taking little heed to their
own thoughts or frame of their minds, not attending to the business they
are engaged in, or considering the end for which they are come together.
But the meeting at that great day will be very different: there will not
be one careless heart, no sleeping, no wandering of mind from the great
concern of the meeting, no inattentiveness to the business of the day, no
regardlessness of the presence they are in, or of those great things which
they shall hear from Christ at that meeting, or that they formerly heard
from him and of him by their ministers, in their meeting in a state of
trial, or which they shall now hear their ministers declaring concerning
them before their judge.
Having observed these things concerning the manner and circumstances of
this future meeting of ministers and the people that have been under their
care, before the tribunal of Christ at the day of judgment, I now proceed,