IV. The last and most important reason of all why we should give an attentive ear to the word of God, is, _That we shall finally be judged by it_.
If the Gospel had only proposed to instruct us in the knowledge of God, that so we might speculate more ably on divine subjects; or, at most, refer the knowledge we acquire to present use; though it could not be denied that such purpose was an important one, yet, if it went no further, we might, if we could allow ourselves in such imprudence, make light of this, as we do of so many other kinds of instruction. We should be ignorant, indeed, and unaccomplished in a very sublime science; but so we are of many others, and yet are contented to remain in that ignorance. We might conduct ourselves foolishly and perversely, and might suffer much inconvenience, and even misery, for want of acting on the principles of this science; but so we do, in many other instances, for want of acting on the maxims of art and prudence in the management of our common concerns, and yet we make a shift to satisfy ourselves with our condition. But if the Gospel follow us into another world; if this immortal volume must be laid open in the presence of men and angels, and our eternal doom pronounced out of it, though we would not obey, or so much as listen to its commands, when they were so earnestly, so repeatedly, in this life pressed upon us; if such be the effect of not _hearing_, how shall we excuse our indifference in this respect, or what can support us under the consciousness of it?
Hear then the awful sentence of Christ himself, denounced in that Gospel—_He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him_; THE WORD _that I have spoken, the same shall judge him at the last day_[117].
Go now, ye careless hearers, ye despisers of the WORD, and justify to yourselves, if ye can, your neglect and scorn of it!
When our Lord himself taught in the streets of Jerusalem, many a _supercilious_ Pharisee, we may suppose, passed by, without so much as stopping to hear what this divine teacher had to say to them: others, if they gave attention to his words, were only gratifying an idle, perhaps a malignant curiosity; they sought occasion from what he said to intrap him in his discourse, to accuse him to the rulers, or to vilify him in the eyes of the people. Again: when this same doctrine was taught by the Apostle Paul in another proud city, as proud of its philosophic schools, as Jerusalem was of its temple, many a contemptuous sophist, we may believe, disdained to listen, at all to the _foolishness of preaching_; and of those few who did, _some_, we know, _mocked_, while others negligently asked their companions, _What would this babbler say_? But how will both these be astonished in the last day to find themselves judged by that _word_ which they neglected, or contemned; by that word, which they would not _hear_, though it was brought home to their doors, or which they rejected with scorn, when they _did_ hear it!