CHAPTER IV. How we may be said to be kept blameless until the day of Christ.
day of our death. And thus it is necessary to distinguish these two phrases, to the end, as meant of death, from that other, as of the day of Christ, for else it had been a tautology, when yet the latter is made the end of the former; and the reason why yet these two are one in the issue and reality and event is, because as the tree falls it lies, qualis hinc exit, talis judicandus in isto die, there being indeed no account to arise from all that passeth between the day of death and this of judgment; for, 2 Cor. 5:10, we are to be judged only for what the soul doth in the body: 'For we must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.' The account is not for what is done out of the body, which is alike common both to wicked and godly men, to those that have done good or evil; and therefore Paul, Heb. 9:27, makes no more between, but that it is appointed for all men to die, and after this the judgment; and he speaks of the general judgment, for it is brought as a parallel instance, to prove Christ's coming the second time, as it followeth there, ver. 28, 'So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many: and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time, without sin unto salvation.'
But if the question be asked why, since these two phrases, 'to the end,' and 'to the day of Christ,' come both to one sense in reality, he should choose rather and more frequently to use this latter, 'till the day of Christ'? the answer is, Because holiness is of more concernment to us at that day than at all times else; therefore he contents not himself here, nor also, 1 Cor. 1:8, to have said, who shall confirm you to the end, viz., till death, but adds also, is the day of Christ.
CHAPTER IV
How we may be said to be kept blameless until the day of Christ.
Thus much touching the difficulty in the phrase; there is another remaining in the thing itself, which is concerning the blamelessness, or being void of offence; how both in this and other places, as 1 Cor.
1:8, 1 Thes. 5:23, the promise included in these prayers, to present us blameless in that day, is to be understood. For men shall be presented such as they were in this life; and in this life in many things, as James says, we offend all; and many of the saints after conversion run into scandals and offences to others, and their own consciences. How then are such prayers and promises fulfilled?
To this an antinomian would be ready to give an easy answer with respect to their principles: that all this is accomplished in justification; because Christ shall present us then to himself and his
Father, clothed with his righteousness, we shall be spotless and without wrinkle. But the blamelessness of the saints here, and in other the like places at that day, is not that of justification, but sanctification. 1. For here he speaks of sincerity, 'being filled with the fruits of righteousness.' 2. And elsewhere, 1 Thes. 5:23, 'The God of peace sanctify you wholly, that your whole soul and body be preserved blameless at the coming of Christ.' It is spoken of sanctification, you see; and as so taken, I find it sometimes uttered
(1.) as an absolute promise which God undertakes to perform, as well as that the saints shall persevere; 2. sometimes as a prayer for, and exhortation to, us to be found as such, so here. And the several consideration of either will answerably afford a double distinction of blamelessness, even of sanctification intended in this and the like places.
1. We find absolute promises annexed to the prayers he makes for their being kept blameless to that day, that God will perform it: 1
Cor. 1:8, 'Who shall also confirm you, to the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.' And that it is an absolute promise the 9th verse shews: 'God is faithful, by whom ye were called into the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.' And in more absolute terms yet, 1 Thes. 5, you have heard how he prays, even as here in ver. 23; and yet, verse 24, it follows, 'Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.' He first engageth God's faithfulness, and then doubles the assurance, 'he will do it,' yea 'also do it,' as sure as he hath called you. Yea, and it is such a promise as shall be performed unto all saints called, small and great; for the promise is founded upon a consideration, that in common holds true of all the saints, 'faithful is he that calleth you;' and all saints are saints by calling, in the same 1 Cor. 1:2. Of necessity, therefore, such a blamelessness, of that latitude and size, must be understood in these places, as is a common privilege to all saints that ever were, or shall be, and common even to those that have run into offences, as many of those he wrote to also did. And to interpret this only of that perfect sanctification, wrought just at the parting of soul and body, is too dilute; because Paul prays and exhorts, and accordingly promiseth from God, that during the whole course and time of their lives they be so kept, even blameless. There is therefore, brethren, a blamelessness and sincerity in the saints, some especially, in respect of all that vacuity of all sorts of offences, such as in the sense the word was interpreted. But in respect to those principles and laws which the state of grace is bounded with, and men preserved in that state, notwithstanding such particular offences, there are certain principles which are essential to the being and keeping of us in the state of grace, as that a man should live in no known sin, but live in the constant practice of known duties, seeking the glory of God in all.
The apostle John hath everlastingly stated such principles as the bounds, the limits between both estates: 1 John 3:7, 'Let no man deceive you; he that doth righteousness is righteous, even as he is
righteous.' He speaks not of particular acts; wicked men may do some things righteous, and godly men do things that are evil. But his ποιεἴν, is a man's course, work, business, to go on in an ill track, as the devil from the beginning. Another like principle: Paul inculcates,
Rom. 14:7, 8: 'None of us lives to himself, but to the Lord;' that is, maketh God's glory the end of his course and ways. This is a fundamental maxim of our livery, they are none of us that do not; we own them not, nor will Christ own them. To be kept then to the practice of these and such like, is radically and essentially necessary to the being kept in the state of grace. Again, if a man falls into particular acts of sin through temptation, wherein a Christian offendeth his own conscience or others, an essential law to the being kept in the state of grace is to return and convert, humbling themselves, renewing their repentance, as Peter did whose faith was recovered. 'I have prayed,' says Christ, 'thy faith fail not.' He wept bitterly, repentance was renewed, and he loved Christ more than ever: 'Lord,' says he, 'thou knowest I love thee.' Now then, as in respect to such principles as these there is a blamelessness, a being void of offence according to the rules of the gospel, whenas in respect of acts there is not a blamelessness in conversation, this is such a blamelessness as that perfection of heart is said to be in David,* 1
Chron. 28:9, and in Asa all his days, 2 Chron. 15:17, though with a nevertheless (as there) of many foul acts, the particulars of which you may read in chap. 16. It was a comparative perfection, taking their whole course and summing up the account of all their days, as it is there said; yea, and further, when in respect of such acts committed a man is to be blamed, Gal. 2:11, yet if a man renews faith and repentance, he is, according to the rules and verdict of the gospel
(which is that royal law of liberty), rendered pure and void of offence.
Again, this Paul upon these principles pronounceth of the Corinthians in a matter wherein they had been highly guilty (as in the business about the incestuous person, 1 Cor. 5); yet in 2 Cor. 7,
after he had related how they had 'sorrowed' (for their sin) 'to God,' and 'after a godly manner' (witness all those gracious dispositions he rehearseth, ver. 11), in the conclusion he gives forth this gracious sentence of the gospel thereupon: 'In all things you have approved yourselves clear in this matter,' ἁγνούς (as high a word as any other, equivalent to that 'without spot or wrinkle'), clear, not in respect only to other things in their lives wherein they had done worthily; but even in this very matter wherein they had afore been so fully faulty.
The sin they had committed could not be undone, but yet they had done all ('in all, things we have shewn,' &c.), all, namely, which the law of liberty, the gospel, requires in such a case (the particulars of which he had reckoned up), upon which it declares a man pure.
Neither speaks he of purity through justification, that is, only by faith, not repentance; but according to the rules and maxims which about sanctification the gospel holds forth, and according to which the day of judgment shall proceed.
So then we see one sense in which those speeches of the apostle (take them as absolute promises) are to be understood; and this kind of blamelessness must needs be supposed at least to be intended in these prayers of Paul, especially in that parallel prayer of his (1 Thes.
5:23), where the promise of keeping all the saints in this respect blameless is also annexed; and this to be sure his prayers attained for them that were true saints among them.
But yet, my brethren, this is the lowest, and if I may call it so, the worser sort of blamelessness; though indeed thus to be kept all a man's days in the midst of many offences, still within the circle and limits of the state of grace, is an infinite privilege and high specimen and argument of God's free grace, according to that of Hosea 14:4, 'I will heal their backslidings, I will love them freely.' In the state of nature, God gives examples in various proportions, and degrees, and
sizes, how far in common righteousness men unregenerate may proceed, and yet remain unregenerate, and be still in that estate.
Some attain to the height of morality, as Socrates; others of legality, 'as concerning the law blameless,' as Paul, Philip. 3:6; others attain to a degree of a work evangelical, yet not saving: 2 Peter 2:19, 20,
'While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage. For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world, through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.' They do escape the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of Christ, who yet remain in their nature; swines washed outwardly yet not renewed, but returning to their former vomit. And God in his actings towards those in a state of grace, to shew the glory of his free grace in the variety of dispensations, doth preserve in and amidst several sizes and degrees of unblameworthiness those whom he saves. Some run out farther, others in lesser measures as to particular acts of sin, and yet still so as they remain within the line of communication of those principles mentioned. And as it is a matter of difficulty to define how far a man unregenerate may go in external acts of virtue, and yet still continue within the sphere and dominion of that unregenerate estate, so it is as hard to say how far saints may fall, or how often, into offence and blameworthiness, and yet this radical fundamental blamelessness as to the principles of the state of grace, both for his whole course and reducements by repentance, be preserved. Some are more scarcely saved, though certainly saved; some are saffered to put the sure mercies of David to it. Thus the sureness of God's mercies were exemplified in David and Solomon, for they tried, especially Solomon, how far they would hold. I sinned, saith
Solomon, to the utmost of the tether, as far as the lines of the principles of grace would reach, as far as would be consistent with
them. Himself expresseth it thus in the sad story of all his vanities, in Eccles. chap. 1 and 2. He inserts this, Eccles. 2:3, that he 'yet acquainted his heart with wisdom;' and his reducements by repentance are known to you, for the title of his book is a testimony of it, and yet he was so scarcely saved, that it is a controversy in the church to this day whether he were saved yea or no. And although this may be an encouragement to some souls who have had great diversions from God in their lives since their calling, that the prerogative sovereignty and the faithfulness of that grace they are under the dominion of hath reduced them, and hath in all their goings astray kept them within the fore-mentioned principles of this state, and hath reduced them from their wanderings; yet whoever he be that, having the work of God upon his soul, will think with himself, I will be sure to sin but so as to keep within that compass, let that soul know that he into whose heart this thought enters, or takes any hold in, is at the next step to outsin those principles, and to sink into eternal perdition. For, poor soul, though the free grace that is in God may say it, I will suffer such an one to sin, and yet keep him blameless according to the covenant of grace, yet it is desperate daring for thee to say this, or to presume upon it; and it is indeed utterly against the ingenuity* of grace, and argues nothing but selfishness in thy soul. Thus much of the first sort of blamelessness which the absolute promise is made to.
2. There is certainly, in the second place, another sort intended; for the apostle prays not barely that they may be kept blameless, according to the principles of the state of grace; but this being a prayer indefinitely uttered, therefore that sort of blamelessness which is possible to be attained by saints must be intended here; and my reasons are, 1. Because in prayer we are allowed to seek for ourselves and others the utmost good which by any kind of promise we judge they may possibly attain to. And 2. It is evident he stints not
himself here barely to pray for perseverance, but for their abounding more and more, so ver. 9, and that they might be filled down, laden with the fruits of righteousness; and he aimed therefore at the highest blamelessness in his prayer for these. I will not dispute now whether the desires of our prayer may not be extended beyond what we know God in his decrees will grant, when yet his revealed will propounds it as what should and ought to be in us, and as what we should aim at and endeavour to attain. Thus, in Mat. 6:10, 'Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven;' and also, 2 Cor. 13:7, 'I pray God ye do no evil;' all which will one day be accomplished on this earth when Christ comes to judgment. But take this blamelessness de facto, attained at the highest pin (without breaking the strings of mortality) it hath in any been wound up unto, and as we descended to the lowest degrees in the other interpretation, so let us ascend up to the highest possible in this other. And such a blamelessness (we may well understand) he intended for these Philippians; and what was the aim of his prayers should be the aim, yea, hope, of our endeavours; and to understand what blamelessness this is, let us take his own example, 1 Cor. 4:4, 'I know nothing by myself' (not any fact against light, and he speaks it as in relation to a censure of him by the Corinthians), and though I am not justified (which belongs to another court) by this kind of blamelessness (for I do not say I am without sin), yet this blamelessness I have (says he) that I never sinned against light from the first of my conversion, I know nothing by myself. If he had so sinned he must have known it, and his conscience have checked him in the writing this.
So then, from hence I gather that besides the former there is a blamelessness possible to be attained as a more special privilege, and to be aimed at by Christians, even to be void of offence against light of conscience all the residue of a man's days. I say it is a special privilege for him who attains to it. The chief of the apostles, that
forsook Christ, did not attain it, yet Paul did; therefore propounds himself as an example: Follow me, as I follow Christ. And it would seem that Paul was kept to the very end of his days, to his offering up. For, 2 Tim. 4:18, he expresseth his confidence in him that had hitherto kept him, 'that he would deliver him from every evil work, and would preserve him unto his heavenly kingdom.' His meaning is not simply that God would save his soul, and accordingly keep him from such ways of sinning as could not stand with the principles of grace; but further, so to keep him in his heavenly kingdom as he might be kept from every evil work, such as was contrary to the principles which he professed before others, or which his own conscience had the impression of. And that place is not so fairly or honourably enough to Paul's spirit, nor rightly as to his scope, interpreted of deliverance from persecution, and the evil workings of evil men against him. For this interpretation is grounded on that false pretence that the occasion of that speech was the narrative of his being delivered out of the mouth of the lion Nero, in the words before, and so as that confidence of his should intend only like deliverances from the bloody hands of persecutors. No; for he was not delivered, but died by the sword of the same Nero, whose power he had now escaped. But Paul's confidence had a further deliverance in his eye, which that very deliverance was a pledge of. His case stood thus: I Paul (I speak in his person to utter his sense) have been often before the bus of kings and great ones for my life in the profession of Christianity, (yon read how before Felix, Agrippa, and the high priest in the Acts), in all such pressures I never did anything at any time (I thank God) unworthy of my profession. You read how, instead of pleading for his life, he still endeavours at the bar to turn them
Christians he spake to. God still preserved him from every evil work; upon all such sore trials he came not off halting. Now in my old age
(for so it was when he wrote this, now he was ready to be offered, and the time of his departure was at hand, and this story was then newly
acted) I was called before Nero, and I was more put to it than ever.
Ver. 16, 'At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me: I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge.' Yet, as at all other times you have heard or read of, I have undergone great trials, this time of temptation is as great as I ever underwent, and yet, notwithstanding, the Lord stood with me and strengthened me. The chief of his intention, you see, was not upon outward deliverance, but how not to sin, how to carry it so as to credit religion, to come off so as to make a good confession for the advantage of the gospel, as elsewhere he had done; and that this is his meaning the next words shew: 'that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear.' Paul having thus as a lion kept his integrity in this great certamen in his old age, and having made this his glory, besides his being delivered out of the mouth of the lion, what was his reward? God came in upon his spirit with fresh assurance, not only that he would preserve him unto his heavenly kingdom, so as not to fall away, but that he would from thenceforth deliver him from every evil work. Oh, that gladded Paul's heart! I shewed you formerly how
Paul made this his glory, but we could not tell certainly whether he might not blemish his glory after; but this scripture shews that, as he had made it his ambition not to sin against his light, to be void of offence all along, so he had now the security of it as a special privilege. An holy man that affected the same exemption came once to me, and professed he had read all the Scriptures over, and could not find one promise to keep a believer from a gross sin as long as he lived. I thought of this, I know no other. I observe that, upon eminent trials, such as that was of Paul's, God useth to seal up something to a man's soul of special grace to him. In the 28th of this 1st chapter of the Philippians, when Christians are called to bear witness for Christ,
'Be you in nothing,' says he, 'terrified by your adversaries, which is to them an evident token of perdition; but to you of salvation, and that of God.' God at such times, and upon such occasions, used to give
(ordinarily to martyrs and confessors of him.) an evidence and token of their salvation; as unto the persecutors, a consternation of spirit, which is to them an evident token of perdition. Now therefore upon this occasion he gave unto Paul a double assurance at last, who had served him in so many trials: 1. He gave him an assurance of preserving him to his heavenly kingdom, which is common to other
Christians. 2. He gives him an assurance, which was more special, of delivering him from every evil work, which he had so much desired.
God said to him, As hitherto thou hast not, so thou shalt from henceforth never commit any evil work against thy light and principles.
I have been the larger in this, to set before you the examples, the possibility of attaining this kind of blamelessness, for which he therefore prays for these Philippians. I would provoke your spirits hereby to affect it, and endeavour it. It would seem attainable also by other instances, as that of Elizabeth and Zacharias, the parents of the Baptist. Luke 1:6, it is said they were 'both righteous before God, walking in the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.' You profess to live in obedience to commandments. I beseech you, do the same with respect to ordinances, and all ordinances; for they are all of a like necessity, and the second commandment commands you this duty. From this doctrine, though the papists would fondly gather their perfection and possibility of keeping all the commandments without sin (however John and James contradict it, saying, 'in many things we offend all'), yet we may well allow them (their errors having usually a shadow of some truth, which they miss, speaking either over or under) a possibility to be blameless in respect of sinning against light, and so to have a conscience void of offence before God and man. And the reason for it is this, because if an holy man be, and is often kept from such sins a week, a month, a year, then it is also possible with this state of frailty
to be kept all his lifetime; but for the papists' perfection, a man is not kept an hour, a moment, sin cleaving to all we do. The apostle Peter, though he had not so lived from the time of his conversion, yet from experience now perhaps he had learned the way how thus to be kept, and accordingly directs those primitive churches he wrote to, 2 Peter
1:10, where, exhorting them to all diligence, &c., he adds this motive, 'If ye do these things, ye shall never fall.' What! fall away? There is no danger to men, partakers of the divine nature, so to do; but as the word imports never, μήποτε, not at anytime. And that doxology of Jude seems more clearly and fully to hold forth such a meaning as I have put upon this petition of Paul for these Philippians, and so withal to argue the possibility of obtaining it, which he would have those primitive Christians to have in their eye to obtain at God's hand. Jude ver. 24, 'Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding great joy,' &c. I observe how the apostle had afore made mention of very great errors and miscarriages in doctrine and life, which some professors in those times had run into, and he had also spoken of the day of judgment; and to be kept faultless hath relation to those gross sins in judgment and practice, which would be of infinite moment to them at that day, for it would cause mighty exultation and a triumphant joy. And as Paul prays here, so he there sets out God to them as able to keep them, to the end they should have recourse to him, and so to do with encouragement; that as he was able, so that he might do it for them. For to that end is God set forth to them as able to do this for them, and so he concludes his epistle.
Obs. The only observation or meditation I shall now make is, that the solemnity of the great day ought to be continually in our eyes, as that which should move us to be sincere and blameless. For therefore it is that the apostle chooseth to use the phrase, until, or in the day of
Christ (for either serves a bottom for this meditation), rather than until the day of death. We should so walk and live and die as if we were immediately to go to judgment at the very hour of our deaths.
And though both the one and the other import the same thing in the event, yet the consideration of this latter strikes a greater awe, and that is the true reason, which is a remaining part of the former objection, why Christ in his cautions to watch and be sober, under which he expresseth the highest care to be holy, and to be continually ready, still mentions this day. Mat. 24:42, 'Watch ye therefore' for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.' Mark 13:35, 36, 'Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cock-crowing, or in the morning; lest, coming suddenly, he find you sleeping.' And ver. 37, 'What I say to you, I say to all in all ages.' And he speaks of the day of judgment, and preseeth this readiness and preparedness upon the uncertainty of the coming and approach thereof, both to them in that age who knew it not, and to us, and those after that did and do know, it could not be in their or our times; yet because judgment finds us as death leaves us, and as our behaviour in this world hath been, therefore it is that Christ gives forth the caution to all ages of watching for the day of judgment, thereby to make the greater impression. It always moves men, both as it contains a promise sealed with Christ's last prayer and blood, and as withal it carries the greatest warning for our care and study how to behave ourselves in this world. Thus Christ at last, when himself was to go to God out of this world, as having seen and passed through the temptations of it, as a signal instance of his love for us, prays that we should be kept whilst in this world. Thus in his last prayer, wherein you may see wherein his solicitude ran out most: John 17:12, 'While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name; those that thou gavest me, I have kept, and none of them is lost but the son of perdition, that the scripture might be fulfilled.'
And ver. 15, 'I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the world,
but that thou shouldst keep them from the evil.' The time of their being in the world had all the danger in it, and he had a special memento and occasion at that time to put up his prayer; for Peter was to deny him, the disciples to leave him. I have been glad that Paul in saying, that neither death nor life shall separate us from Christ, did put in life, for I profess I fear life and the temptations of it, and how to go through this world comelily, more than death. Now then, as the time and concernment of danger is in this life, so the consideration of a judgment to come should have a great influence to keep us blameless in this world, and free from the evil of it; therefore here he mentions that day, as also Christ doth, Luke 21:36, 'Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.' To stand, namely, in judgment. (as Ps. 1, the phrase is), and thus Paul likewise aweth Timothy, and us in him, 1 Tim. 6:14,
'That thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.' The force of this motive lies thus: as Christ appeared before Pilate (for that was God's day of judging Christ standing in our stead), so thou, says Paul, must appear before Christ; therefore I charge thee keep this commandment; and therefore the apostles turned the eyes of all the primitive Christians upon that day, or the coming of Christ. It was a great part of the religion of the primitive Christians to wait for the coming of Jesus Christ, and they are described to us to have been such as those that walked in view of it, as those that had that day in their eye, and should then be judged; and in this they are set forth as a pattern to us: 1 Cor. 1:7, 'So that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.' He makes this an evidence of their excelling in all other gifts: 2 Tim. 4:8, 'Which he shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto them also that love his appearance.' This latter, you see, is a paraphrase, a description of the saints in those times, and all ages; and as he describes them by it, so
he sets it before them as his own principle, which did keep him steady in his walking: 2 Cor. 5:9, 10, 'Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. For we must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.' There is a necessity of it, we must so appear, none can avoid it; and we shall not be present only as in a crowd, so as to hope to shrink aside and hide ourselves unseen, but we must be singled out, be presented (as Col. 1:28), and stand forth apart as at a bar. Men that are personally called to appear ought παραστῆναι σώματι, personally to answer, Rom. 4:10, ἔμπροσθεν, in conspicuo, to be seen or all, 2 Cor. 5:10, to the end they may be made transparent, and be seen through and through, what they are or have been in their lives, Φανερωθῆναι; and this is then to be made apparent to men, as now unto God, 'We are now manifest to God, and we trust also in your consciences.'* However, this place implies, that at that day we shall be made manifest one to another, even as now we are unto God.
It is a great scripture, and full or majesty, in 1 Thes. 3:12; he prayeth they may 'abound in love more and more (as here), to the end their hearts might be established unblameable in holiness before God, even the Father, at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints.' He presenteth before them the solemnity or that day, by all such ways as might strike their hearts. 1. He tells them they must appear before God, the judge of all, as Heb. 12 he is set forth. 2.
Before Jesus Christ, who, Heb. 4, is said to have a sword in his hand to rip up every man's heart and conscience, to divide between the marrow and the bones, and the intentions of the heart; and that description of him referreth to judgment, as the close of that discourse shews: Πρὸς ὃν ὁ λόγος, to whom we must give an account, as speaking of judgment, though it is otherwise translated.
3. He tells them that the saints will be all present there, and the general assembly of angels and first-born; and these as witnesses, yea, judges, when all of a man shall be ripped up, And to this place add that of Jude 14, 15, 'Lo, he comes with ten thousand of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.' Now therefore, when Paul considered what a judicatory, a presence there will be, and how that all secrets shall be ripped open and laid together, he falls a-praying that their hearts might be established in holiness; for, as I will shew you, God will make out every man's state by his works, and the casting or men's conditions shall, according to an evangelical rule, depend thereon. Now observe it, that this prayer is plainly and directly for this, that then at that day their hearts might be established in holiness. Now it would seem strange, that for men who are to be in heaven a long time before that day, there should be supposed a need to pray that their hearts should be then thoroughly established in holiness, which they should have here in this life, to the end they might then be without wavering or fear established. Yet to me the reason is clear, for they are not then to be judged, nor is their condition to be sentenced by that holiness they have had in heaven, but barely by that which men have had here on earth, whilst in the body, as you heard. All is put upon this, whether such holiness accompanied here their faith, as puts a manifest difference between them and hypocrites, and by that evidence it must and shall be made forth to others. Thus Jude, because he had said Christ comes with ten thousand of his saints, prays, ver. 24, 'Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy,' &c. And thus I understand
Peter, 2 Peter 3:14, 'Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent, that ye may be found of him in peace, without
spot, and blameless.' In peace, that is, in their spirits; and therefore John still makes a great matter or it, to have boldness at that day: 1
John 2:28, 'And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.' And again, chap. 4:17, 'Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.' And there will be a confidence and a quietness in the soul when heaven and earth shall shake.