Chapter 16: The Eleventh Prerogative Royal

The next blessed privilege is the sentence of absolution. Here take notice of two things:

1. The process in law (Revelation 20:12): "The books were opened." It is a metaphor taken from the manner of our courts of judicature, where there is the whole process, every circumstance traversed, and the witnesses examined. So here, the books are opened — the book of God's account, the book of conscience. Now observe another book was opened, which is the book of life — that is, the book of God's decree, the book of free grace, the book that has our names written in it, and our pardon. And the elect shall be judged out of this book. Surely the sentence cannot be dismal, when our husband is judge, and will judge us by the book of life.

2. The sentence itself (Matthew 25:34): "Come, you blessed of my Father" — which implies two things. First, the saints' acquittance: the curse is taken off, they have their discharge in the court of justice and shall have the broad seal of heaven — Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, all setting their hands to the pardon — and this Christ shall proclaim. Second, it implies the saints' installment: "Come, you blessed." As if Christ should say: you are the heirs apparent to the crown of heaven; heaven is your freehold; come in, you blessed of the Lord, enter upon possession. And this sentence can never be reversed to eternity, but as Isaac said, "I have blessed him, and he shall be blessed." At the hearing of this comfortable sentence, O with what ineffable joy will the saints be filled! It will be like music in the ear, and a jubilee in the heart. Even as Elizabeth once said to the Virgin Mary, "As soon as the voice of your salutation sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy" — so the heart of a believer will leap in him at the hearing of this blessed sentence, and be ready to leap out of him for joy. O what trembling now among the devils, what triumph among the angels!