Second. To stand, is here to stand justified and acquitted at the great day of judgement. The phrase id frequent in Scripture, which sets out the solemn discharge they shall have then by standing in judgment. ‘The ungodly shall not stand in the judgment,’ Ps. 1:5, that is, they shall not be justified. ‘If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?’ Ps. 130:3; that is, who shall be discharged? The great God, upon whose errand we come into the world, hath appointed a day wherein he will judge the world by Jesus Christ. A solemn day it will be, when all that ever lived on earth, high and low, good and bad, shall meet in one assembly to make their personal appearance before Christ, and from his mouth to receive their eternal doom, who shall in his majestic robes of glory ascend the awful seat of judicature, attended with his illustrious train and guard of angels about him, as so many officers ready to execute and perform his pleasure according to the definitive sentence that he shall pronounce—either to conduct those blessed ones whom he shall justify into his glorious kingdom, or [to] bind them hand and foot to be cast into hell's unquenchable flames, whom he shall condemn. I do not wonder that Paul's sermon on this subject did not make an earthquake in Felix's conscience; but rather that any should be so far gone in a lethargy and dedolent numbness of conscience, as the thought of this day cannot recover them to their sense and feeling.
O sirs, do not you vote them happy men and women that can speed well on this day? are not your thoughts inquiring who those blessed souls are which shall be acquitted by the lively voice of Christ the judge? You need not ascend to search the rolls of election in heaven. Here you may know they are such as fight the Lord's battles on earth against Satan, in the Lord’s armour, and that to the end of their lives. These having done all, shall stand in judgement. And were it but at a man's bar—some court-martial where a soldier stood upon trial for his life, either to be condemned as a traitor to his prince, or cleared as faithful in his trust—O how such a one would listen to hear how it would go with him, and be overjoyed when the judge pronounces him innocent! Well may such be bid to fall down on their knees, thank God and the judge that have saved their lives.
How much more ravishing will the sweet voice of Christ be in the saints’ ears, when he shall in the face of men and angels make public declaration of their righteousness? O how confounded will Satan then be, who was their accuser to God and their own consciences also, ever threatening them with the terror of that day! How blank will the wicked world be, to see the dirt that they had thrown by their calumnies and lying reports on the saints’ faces, wiped off with Christ's own hand, and those justified from Christ’s mouth as sincere, whom they had called hypocrites! Will not this, O ye saints, be enough for all the scorn ye were laden with from the world, and conflict you endured with the prince of the world! But this is not all. Therefore,
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