Lastly, let the truth, here declared by the infallible word of God, check the presumption of the careless and the wicked; and give comfort and encouragement to the faithful. The worldling may fancy, because no great distinction, between him and others, is made upon earth; because he perhaps can see no great reason for such distinction; that, therefore, he shall escape in the end; but in the day when “God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ,” { 307} when “every one shall receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad,” { 308} he will find, that an immeasurable distinction will be made between him “that hath served God, and him that hath served him not;” between him, whose heart has been given to his Creator and Redeemer, and sanctified by the Spirit of grace, and him, who has only made it his object to maintain a decent appearance in the world. If we do believe in the final judgment, if we believe in the perfect truth and justice of the Almighty, we must conclude, that this fearful difference will be made. And if it were so dreadful a calamity, to be left to fall in the tremendous overthrow of Jerusalem, what will it be, to be left an everlasting-prey to the tortures of Satan and of sin?
But let the true believer, the righteous servant of God in Jesus Christ, take encouragement and comfort: there is no exercise of faith, no holy meditation, no fervent prayer, no religious deed, no pious intention or design, however secret from the eyes of men, which can escape the notice of their heavenly Father: though justice is not, cannot be, done to their characters here; though sometimes the greatest injustice and injury and wrong; yet shall they be triumphantly and gloriously vindicated at the last: though they be on earth forsaken or oppressed, though they bear the burden of private affliction or public scorn, in a “world which is not worthy of them,” they shall be visited and acknowledged and received at the last; shall lift up their heads with honour and with joy, and be admitted into a kingdom, which is more than worthy of all their faith and all their constancy; the Redeemer has marked them for His own; He will single them out, on the last day, from the crowd of countless multitudes, as objects of his compassion and favour; will take them into the arms of His mercy, and so “they shall be forever with the Lord.” { 309}