That all may think themselves concerned in this consideration, let us remember that even the righteous and most innocent shall pass through a severe trial.  Many of the ancients explicated this severity by the fire of conflagration, which say they shall purify those souls at the day of judgment, which in this life have built upon the foundation (hay and stubble) works of folly and false opinions, states of imperfection.  So St. Augustine’s doctrine was:  “The great fire at doomsday shall throw some into the portion of the left hand, and others shall be purified and represented on the right.”  And the same is affirmed by Origen and Lactantius; and St. Hilary thus expostulates:  “Since we are to give account for every idle word, shall we long for the day of judgment, wherein we must, every one of us, pass that unwearied fire in which those grievous punishments for expiating the soul from sins must be endured; for to such as have been baptized with the Holy Ghost it remaineth that they be consummated with the fire of judgment.”  And St. Ambrose adds:  “That if any be as Peter or as John, they are baptized with this fire, and he that is purged here had need to be purged there again.  Let him also purify us, that every one of us being burned with that flaming sword, not burned up or consumed, we may enter into Paradise, and give thanks unto the Lord who hath brought us into a place of refreshment.”  This opinion of theirs is, in the main of it, very uncertain; relying upon the sense of some obscure place of Scripture is only apt to represent the great severity of the Judge at that day, and it hath in it this only certainty, that even the most innocent person hath great need of mercy, and he that hath the greatest cause of confidence, altho he runs to no rocks to hide him, yet he runs to the protection of the cross, and hides himself under the shadow of the divine mercies:  and he that shall receive the absolution of the blest sentence shall also suffer the terrors of the day, and the fearful circumstances of Christ’s coming.  The effect of this consideration is this:  That if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the wicked and the sinner appear?  And if St. Paul, whose conscience accused him not, yet durst not be too confident, because he was not hereby justified, but might be found faulty by the severer judgment of his Lord, how shall we appear, with all our crimes and evil habits round about us?  If there be need of much mercy to the servants and friends of the Judge, then His enemies shall not be able to stand upright in judgment.

Let us next consider the circumstances of our appearing and his sentence; and first I consider that men at the day of judgment that belong not to the portion of life, shall have three sorts of accusers:  1.  Christ Himself, who is their judge; 2.  Their own conscience, whom they have injured and blotted with characters of death and foul dishonor; 3.  The devil, their enemy, whom they served.