1. Thy own vows and promises shall be a 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 told 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" (Josh 24:22).
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, it 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" (Matt 12:37). I observe, that talk with who you will, they will with their mouth say, serving of God, and loving of 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 meantime, 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; they do 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 my 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 thy own good; but seeing thou hast, against thy own light and mouth gone contrary: Angels, take this unprofitable servant, and cast ye him into utter darkness, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth; he sinned against his light, he shall go to hell against his will (Matt 25:26-31).
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 dist also condemn, and pass judgment upon them for their sin, "Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for" thou that judgest dost the same thing; wherefore, "wherein thou hast judged another, thou condemnest thyself." I must therefore, saith Christ, look upon thee to be no other but a sinner against thy 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 (Rom 2:1-5). 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.
3. 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 on 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" (Luke 10:10-12).
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 plague, that he would shortly come against him with one army of lice, and 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 anything 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 (2 Cor 13:1). "And at the mouth of two or three witnesses, shall he that is worthy of death, be put to death" (Deu 17:6; John 8:17).
[Fourth—the sentence of the ungodly.] Thus then, the books being opened, the laws read, the witnesses heard, and the ungodly convicted; forthwith the Lord and Judge proceeds to execution.
