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Third. To stand, doth here also—as the compliment of their reward—denote the saints’ standing in heaven’s glory.  Princes, when they would reward any of their subjects that in their wars have done eminent service to the crown, as the utmost they can do for them, they prefer them to court, there to enjoy their princely favour, and [to] stand in some place of honourable service before them continually.  Solomon sets it out as the greatest reward of faithful subjects, to ‘stand before kings.’  Heaven is the royal city where the great God keeps his court.  The happiness of glorious angels is to stand there before God—‘I an Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God,’ Luke 1:19; that is, I am one of those heavenly spirits who wait on the great God, and stand before his face, as courtiers do about their prince.  Now such honour shall every faithful soul have.  ‘Thus saith the Lord of hosts; If thou wilt walk in my ways, and if thou wilt keep my charge....I will give thee places to walk among these that stand by,’ Zech. 3:7.  He alludes to the temple, which had rooms joining to it for the priests that waited on the Lord in his holy service there; or to courtiers, that have stately galleries and lodgings becoming their place at court allowed them in the king’s palace they wait upon. Thus all the saints—whose representative Joshua was —shall, after they have kept the Lord's charge in a short life's-service on earth, be called up to stand before God in heaven, where with angels they shall have their galleries and mansions of glory also.  

O happy they who shall stand before the Lord in glory!  The greatest peers of a realm—such as earls, marquises, and dukes are—count it greater honour to stand before their king, though bare­headed and oft upon the knee, than to live in the country, where all bow and stand bare to them; yea, let but their prince forbid them coming to court, and it is not their great estates, or respect they have where they live, will content them.  It is better to wait in heaven than to reign on earth.  It is sweet standing before the Lord here in an ordinance.  One day in the worship of God is better than many elsewhere.  O, what then is it to stand before God in glory!  If the saints' spikenard sendeth forth so sweet a smell, while the king sits at his table here in a sermon or sacrament; O then what joy must needs flow from their near attendance on him, as he sits at his table in heaven, which when God first made, it was intended by him to be that chamber of presence in which he would present himself to be seen of, and enjoyed by, his saints in all his glory.  I know nothing would have a more powerful, yea, universal operation, upon a saint’s spirit, than the frequent and spiritual consideration of that blissful state in heaven, which shall at last crown all their sad conflicts here on earth. 

None like this sword, to cut the very sinews of temptation, and behead those lusts which defy and out-brave whole troops of other arguments.  It is almost impossible to sin with lively thoughts and hopes of that glory.  It is when the thoughts of heaven are long out of the Christian's sight, and he knows not what has become of his hopes to that glorious place, that he begins to set up some idol—as Israel the calf in the absence of Moses—which he may dance before. But heaven come in sight, and the Christian’s heart will be well warmed with the thoughts of it, and you may as soon persuade a king to throw his royal diadem into a sink, and wallow with his robes in a kennel, as a saint to sin with the expectation of heaven’s glory.  Sin is a devil’s work, not a saint’s, who is a peer of heaven, and waits every hour for the writ that shall call him to stand with angels and glorified saints before the throne of God.  This would cheer the Christian’s heart, and confirm him when the fight is hottest, and the bullets fly thickest from men and devils, to think, it is heaven all this is for, where it is worth having a place, though we go through fire and water to it.  ‘It is before the Lord,’ said David to scoffing Michal, ‘which chose me before thy father, and all his house;.... therefore will I play before the Lord, and I will yet be more vile than thus,’ II Sam. 6:21,22.

Thus, Christian, wouldst thou throw off the vipers of reproaches, which from the fire of the wicked's malice fly upon thee.  It is for God that I pray, hear, mortify my lust, deny myself of my carnal sports, profits, and pleasures, that God who hath passed by kings and princes to chose me a poor wretch to stand before him in glory; therefore I will be yet more vile than thus.  O sirs, were there not another world to enjoy God in, yet should we not, while we have our being, serve our Maker?  The heavens and the earth obey his law, that are capable of no reward for doing his will.  ‘Quench hell, burn heaven,’ said a holy man, ‘yet I will love and fear my God.’  How much more when everlasting arms of mercy stand ready stretched to carry you as soon as the fight is over into the blissful presence of God?  You have servants of your own so ingenuous and observant, that can follow you work hard abroad in all weathers; and may they but, when they come home weary and hungry at night, obtain a kind look from you, and some tender care over them, they are very thankful. 

 ‘Yea,’ saith  one, to shame the sluggish Christian, ‘how many hundred miles will the poor spaniel run after his master in a journey, who gets nothing but a few crumbs, or a bone from his master’s trencher?’  In a word, which is more the devil’s slaves; what will they not do and venture at his command, who hath not so much to give them as you to your dog, not a crust, not a drop of water to cool their tongue? and shall not the joy of heaven which is set before the Christian, into which he shall assuredly enter, make him run his race, endure a short scuffle of temptation and affliction? yea sure, and make him reckon also that these ‘are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in him.’

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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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In the words we have also the blessed result of the saints’ perseverance propounded, as that which will abundantly recompense all their pain and patience in the war.  Having done all, to stand.

Doctrine. To stand at the end of this war will abundantly recompense all our hazard and hardship endured in the war against sin and Satan.  In man’s wars all do not get by them that fight in them.  The gains of these are commonly put into a few pockets.  The common soldiers endure most of the hardship, but go away with little of the profit.  They fight to make a few that are great yet greater, and are many times themselves turned off at last, with what will hardly pay for the cure of their wounds, or keep them from starving in a poor hospital.  But in this war there is none loseth, but he that runs away.  A glorious reward there is for every faithful soldier in Christ’s camp, and that is wrapt up in this phrase, ‘having done all, to stand.’  Now in this place, to stand imports three things, which laid together will clear the point.

First. To stand, in this place, is to stand conquerors.  An army, when conquered, is said to fall before their enemy, and the conqueror to stand.  Every Christian shall at the end of the war stand a conqueror over his vanquished lusts, and Satan that headed them.  Many a sweet victory the Christian hath here over Satan.  But, alas! the joy of these conquests is again interrupted with fresh alarms from his rallied enemy.  One day he hath the better, and may be the next he is put to the hazard of another battle.  Much ado he hath to keep what he hath got, yea, his very victories are such as send him bleeding out of the field.  Though he repulses the temp­tation at last, yet the wounds his conscience gets in the fight do overcast the glory of the victory.  It is seldom the Christian comes off without some sad complaint of the treachery of his own heart, which had like to have lost the day, and betrayed him into his enemy's hand. But for thy eternal comfort, know, poor Christian, there is a blessed day coming, which shall make a full and final decision of the quarrel betwixt thee and Satan. Thou shalt see this enemy's camp quite broken up—not a weapon left in his hand to lift up against thee.  Thou shalt tread upon his high places, from which he hath made so many shots at thee.  Thou shalt see them all dismantled and demolished, till there be not left standing any one corruption in thy bosom, for a devil to hide and harbour himself in.  Satan, at whose approach thou hast so trembled, shall then be subdued under thy feet. He that hath so oft bid thee bow down, that he might go over thy soul and trample upon all thy glory, shall now have his neck laid to be trodden on by thee.  Were there nothing else to be expected as the fruits of our watching and praying, weeping and mourning, severe duties of mortification and self-denial, with whatever else our Christian warfare puts us upon, but this, our labour sure would not be in vain in the Lord.  Yea, blessed watching and praying, happy tears and wounds we meet with in this war.  May they but at last end in a full and eternal victory over sin and Satan. 

Bondage is one of the worst of evils.  The baser the enemy is, the more abhorred by noble spirits.  Saul feared to fall into the hands of the uncircumcised Philistines and to be abused by their scorns and reproaches, more than a bloody death. Who baser than Satan?  What viler tyrant than sin? Glorious then will the day be, wherein we shall praise God for delivering us out of the hands of all our sins, and from the hand of Satan.  But [it will be] dismal to you, sinner, who, at the same wherein you shall see the saints stand with crowns of victory on their heads, must like fettered captives be dragged to hell’s dungeon, there to have your ear bored unto an eternal bondage under your lusts.  And what more miserable sentence can God himself pass upon you?  Here sin is pleasure, there it will be your torment.  Here [it is] a sweet bit that goes down glib, but there it will stick in your throats.  Here you have suitable provision to entertain your lusts withal—palaces for pride to dwell and strut herself in; delicious fare for your wanton palates; houses and lands, with coffers of silver and gold, for your covetous hearts, by their self-pleasing thoughts, to sit brooding upon—but you will find none of these there.  Hell is a barren place. Nothing grows in that land of darkness to solace and recreate the sinners’ minds.  

You shall have your lusts, but want the food they long for.  O what a torment that must needs be, to have a soul sharp set, even to a ravenous hunger after sin, but chained up where it can come at nothing it would have to satisfy its lust!  For a proud wretch, that would wish he might domineer over all the world, yea, over God himself if he would let him, to be kept down in such a dungeon as hell is, O how it will cut!  For the malicious sinner, whose heart swells with rancour against God and his saints, that he could pluck them out of God's bosom, yea, God, out of his throne if he had power, to find his hands so manacled, that he can do nothing against them he so hates, O how this will torment!  Speak, O you saints, whose partial victory over sin at present is so sweet to you, that you would choose a thousand deaths, sooner than return to your old bondage under your lusts!  How glorious then is that day in your eye, when this shall be completed in a full and eternal conquest, never to have anything to do more with sin or Satan!