Our blessed Saviour, so much disregarded by impious men—some denying his divinity—some his humanity—some his doctrines—some his spirit—and some his ordinances, will preside in that awful solemnity. Angels will be his attendants. They will be employed as agents in carrying on the important transactions of that day. The judge will appear in all the majesty of God. For he will come in the glory of his Father, with the holy angels. All things will be brought to light. The hidden things of dishonesty will be in open day. Such forms of guilt will be revealed, as shall strike horror into the mind. Clouded characters will clear up. The rotten hearts of false professors will be seen—Errors will be unmasked—and all characters pass in review. A full and perfect separation will be made by him whose eyes are as a flame of fire. We cannot make the separation between the tares and the wheat. It must be left with him, who is the head of the Church, to dispose of all, according to their works.—And he shall render unto every man according to his works.——
The last observation to be made on this Parable, is the different fate of the tares and wheat; the righteous and wicked. Truth and duty will be at last triumphant, and honoured with a glorious reward. Error and all evil will be frowned upon and rejected. Nothing but Virtue will, in the final result of things, be recompensed. All vice, in all its multiplied forms, will be condemned. With the wicked there shall be weeping and wailing forever. They must be cast into a furnace of fire. They will be rendered as miserable as they have made themselves sinful. The more vile the more miserable. The greater their turpitude of heart and the more their sins of life, the heavier will be their condemnation. All things that offend, and that work iniquity shall be gathered out of the kingdom of Christ. The angels will be honoured with the office of making the final separation. And the righteous will be rewarded forever, and the wicked will be punished forever. Our Lord solemnly affirms this. And we may believe him with all possible safety. The wheat shall be gathered into the barn, and the tares be burnt with fire—be always miserable. The son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and which do iniquity and shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth—strong expressions to denote remorse and anguish. Then shall the righteous shine forever as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. That there will be as wide a difference in the situation of persons, in another world, as there is in their moral characters in this, is altogether consonant to the dictates of sober reason, and is clearly affirmed in the following words, Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into his garner. But he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. If such language as this can be explained away, so as to get rid of the doctrine of the perpetuity of future misery; any could, which might be used. Besides, it is perfectly consistent with reason, that a discrimination should be eternally made, between Virtue and Vice, right and wrong, between the precious and vile. If there should not, it would infringe upon all our ideas of justice. It is, of course, unreasonable to imagine there will not be such a discrimination. The judge of all the earth will do, all that is right to be done; and nothing but what is so. The wicked, therefore, will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal.—Can any thing be more absurd in itself, or contrary to reason and nature, or repugnant to revelation, in its whole drift, than to suppose no difference will be made by the Lord of the Universe, between the tares and the wheat—that both will be gathered into one place—and no separation be made.—Certainly there is not. How unaccountable is it, that any, while they hold to the divinity of the scriptures, should affect to believe that all the human race, the wicked as well as the righteous, are at last to be admitted to the joys of a blissful immortality?—After persons have cast off a belief of the scripture, we are not to be surprised that they should embrace any error—or even deny a future state of rewards and punishment, and adopt, as one article of their Creed, the mortality of the soul. For when persons leave the plain truths and principles of the Gospel, they are on dangerous ground, and no conjecture can be made, how far they may be permitted to proceed in delusion, and vain imaginations, in error and vice—they may not stop till they have landed in absolute scepticism—or atheism. Hence we are exhorted to be steadfast—to be immovable—to abound in the work of the Lord. Hence too we are cautioned against instability of principle—Meddle not with them that are given to change.
Having made the observations upon the Parable of the tares, which seemed to be naturally suggested from it, it remains only to close the discourse, with some practical improvement.
And our subject may very properly put us upon a close and impartial examination of our hearts and ways, that we may know to our satisfaction, whether we may rank in the number of the Children of the kingdom, the precious grain. The field is the world: the good seed are the Children of the kingdom, belong to Christ’s kingdom on earth, and are heirs of his kingdom of glory, but the tares are the Children of the wicked one. In all our inquiries into the state and temper of our hearts, we are carefully to guard against self-flattery. Man loves to think well of himself, and ill of others. In general, he is confident that he is right in principles and conduct, and that others, who differ from him, are wrong. Pride, self-will, and sinister motives have too much influence over all, both in forming their principles, and regulating their conduct. A fair outside, and a specious appearance catch many, who have not patience to investigate truth and duty, or discernment to descry danger, or to detect the insidious arts of the designing. He saith unto them an enemy hath done this. We are to be upon our guard, lest we be led away by the enemy of our souls, and to see that we be true, sincere, and upright—that we act upon pure and worthy motives—that we keep near to the Saviour of the world in duty—that we abide in his doctrines—that we live up to his laws, then shall we have the comforts of his spirit, and at last, the rewards of faithful followers will be conferred upon us.—What great tenderness has he for all his true followers, the Children of the kingdom. Whatever evils are permitted to happen, he will watch and guard them—will protect them in the midst of all dangers, however alarming, and support them in the darkest hours. He has an eye to pity them, and an arm to save them. He is the good shepherd that giveth his life for the sheep. And his sheep know his voice, and a stranger they will not follow.——
2ndly. We learn from what hath been said, how restless and uneasy the enemy of God and man is, except he be plotting evil. The tares are the Children of the wicked one. The enemy that sowed them is the Devil. He is a roaring Lion going about seeking whom he may devour. His devices are as subtle as numerous. Concealed and out of sight, he employs his cunning to ensnare and beguile souls—to ruin the incautious—to sow tares, errors and heresies, false principles and divisions. And while men slept, his enemy came, and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. He is ever active to do all the mischief, in his power, to the truth, to religion, and to the cause of God. His policy is deep laid. The factors or agents whom he employs, are commonly selected with great skill. He is a liar from the beginning; and his attacks are generally begun with misrepresenting the truth, and varnishing over error. His kingdom, indeed, has always been supported, in the world, by delusion and Idolatry—by impulses, or supposed divine impressions upon the soul; changing himself into an angel of light, is of all others, his most subtle device, and the most successful. People are usually seduced from the right ways of the Lord, by being made to believe, either by corrupt writings, or by artful deceivers, that error is truth—that superstition is real piety, and enthusiasm a more spiritual way of serving God.—In days of prevailing error and irreligion it is a rich consolation to the serious mind, that God reigns: that the enemy of souls can carry his corrupt designs against piety and Virtue, no further than he is permitted. The wrath of man shall praise God, and the remainder thereof he will restrain. Wise ends are to be answered in all events that take place, in divine Providence. While it is our duty to bewail the evils we behold, our vigilance, and prayerful exertions should be awakened, lest we be led away with the error of the wicked.—
To conclude all, Let us be persuaded to make it our chief concern in life to practise all the great and interesting duties of Religion:—to avoid all vicious and evil courses:—to be preserved from errors:—to cultivate the benevolence and Charity of the Gospel:—to be stedfast in our adherence to him, who died for us:—and to abound in the work of the Lord, that so we may be the Children of the kingdom, and with the righteous shine forth as the Sun in the kingdom of our heavenly Father.—
DISCOURSE XVIII.
No immediate inspiration or miraculous teachings of the divine spirit since the Canon of scripture was closed, or since the Apostolic age.
1 CORINTHIANS xiii. 8.