THE UNJUST ARE SELF-CONDEMNED.

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1. Thine own vows and promises shall witness against thee, that thou hast, contrary to thy light and knowledge, destroyed thy soul. As Joshua said to the children of Israel, when they said, the Lord should be their God: "Well," saith he, "Ye are witnesses against yourselves, that ye have chosen you the Lord to serve him :" that is, if now you turn back again, even this covenant and resolution of yours will in the great day be a witness against you: "And they said, We are witnesses."

2. Every time you have with your mouth said well of godliness, and yet gone on in wickedness; or every time you have condemned sin in others, and yet have not refrained it yourselves; I say, every such word and conclusion that hath passed out of thy mouth, sinner, shall be as a witness against thee in the day of God, and the Lord Jesus Christ. As Christ saith, "By thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned."

I observe, that talk with whom you will, they will with their mouth, say, Serving God, and loving Christ, and walking in ways of holiness, are best; and best will come of them. I observe again, that men who are grossly wicked themselves, will yet, with heavy censures and judgments, condemn drunkenness, lying, covetousness, pride, and whoring, with all manner of abominations, in others; and yet, in the mean time, continue to be neglecters of God, and embracers of sin and the allurements of the flesh themselves. Why, such souls, every time they speak well of godliness, and continue in their sins, do then pass judgment upon themselves, and provide a witness, even their own mouth, against their own soul, at the judgment-seat. "Out of thy own mouth," saith Christ, "will I judge thee, thou wicked servant:" thou knewest what I was, and that I loved to see all my servants zealous and active for me, that at mv coming I might have received again what I gave thee, with increase. Thou oughtest, therefore, to have been busying thyself in my

work, for my glory, and thine own good; but seeing thou hast, against thine own light and mouth, gone contrary— Angels, take the unprofitable servant, and east ye him into utter darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. He sinned against light; he shall go to hell against his will.'

The very same, I say, will befall all those that have used their mouth to condemn the sins of others, while they themselves live in their sins. Saith God, 'O thou wicked wretch, thou didst know that sin was bad, thou didst condemn it in others, thou didst also condemn and pass judgment upon them for their sin; thou art therefore, inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art, that hast thus judged; for thou that judgest doest the same thing: wherefore, wherein thou hast judged another, thou hast condemned thyself. I must, therefore, saith Christ, look upon thee to be no other but a sinner against thine own mouth, and cannot but judge thee as a despiser of my goodness, and the riches of my forbearance; by which means thou hast treasured up wrath against this day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. "He that knoweth to do good, and doth it not, to him it is sin." Thus will God, I say, judge and condemn poor sinners, even from and by themselves, to the fire-that lake of brimstone and fire.

Lastly, God hath said in his word, that, rather than there shall want witness at the day of judgment against the workers of iniquity, the very dust of their city, that shall cleave to his messengers that publish the gospel, shall itself be a witness against them. And so Christ bid his servants say: "Into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you not, go your ways out into the streets of the same, and say, Even the very dust of your city, which cleaveth to us, we do wipe off against you," &c. "But I say unto you," saith he to his ministers, "It shall be more tolerable for Sodom at the judgment, than for that city."

THE DUST A WITNESS.

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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, where 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. And how sayest thou? If God had said, by a prophet, to Pharaoh, but two years before the plagues, that he would shortly come against him with one army of flies, a second army of frogs, and with a third army of locusts, &c., and would destroy his land, dost thou think it had been wisdom in Pharaoh now to have laughed such tidings to scorn? "Is any thing too hard for the Lord?" "Hath he said it, and shall he not bring it to pass?" You shall see, in the day of judgment, of what force all these things will be as witnesses against the ungodly.

Many more witnesses might I here reckon up; but these at this time shall suffice to be nominated. "For out of the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established;" and "at the mouth of two or three witnesses shall he that is worthy of death be put to death."

CHAPTER XI.

THE FINAL SENTENCE OF THE JUDGE.

THUS, then, the books being opened, the laws read, the witnesses heard, and the ungodly convicted, forthwith the Lord and Judge proceeds to execution; and to that end doth pass the sentence of eternal death upon them, saying, “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." You are now, by the book of the creation, by the book of God's remembrance, by the book of the law, and by the book of life, adjudged guilty of high treason against God, and me, and murderers of your own souls; as these faithful and true witnesses here have testified, every one of them appearing in their most upright testimony against you. Also you never had a saving work of conversion and faith passed upon you; you died in your sins. Neither can I find any thing in the last part of this book that will serve your turn; no worthy act is here recorded of you: "When I was an hungered, you gave me no meat; when I was athirsty, you gave me no drink; when I was a stranger, you took me not in; I was naked, but ye clothed me not: I was sick, and in prison, but ye visited me not." I have made a thorough search among the records of the living, and find nothing of you, or of your deeds therein. "Depart from me, ye cursed."

Thus will these poor ungodly creatures be stripped of all hope and comfort, and, therefore, must needs fall into great sadness and wailing before the judge; yea, crying out, as being loath to let go all for lost. And even as the man that is fallen into the river will catch hold of any thing, when he is struggling for life, though it tend to hold him faster under

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the water, to drown him; so, I say, with these poor creatures, as they lie struggling and twining under the ireful countenance of the Judge, they will bring out yet one more faint and weak groan, and there goes life and all. Their last sigh is this, "Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, and gave thee no meat? or when saw we thee thirsty, and gave thee no drink? when saw we thee a stranger, and took thee not in? or naked and clothed thee not? or when wast thou sick, or in prison, and we did not minister unto thee?"

Thus you see how loath the sinner is now to take a nay 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 the 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 drunk in thy presence. And when did we see thee an 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 unwilling, do they turn away from Christ! How loath are they to partake of the fruit 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!"

"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