XI. The reasons why God will have us ignorant of the precise time of the judgment.

Certain as it is that there will be a future judgment, the precise time of it is altogether unknown. “Of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.” (Mark 13:32.) The reasons why God will have the time of the judgment unknown to us are:

1. That he may exercise our faith, hope an patience, and that we may believe in him, and persevere in the expectation o* the fulfillment of his promise, although we are ignorant of the time when our deliverance shall take place.

2. That he might restrain our curiosity.

3. That he might keep us in his fear, and in the observance of our Christian duties, that so we may not fall into a state of carnal security, but always be ready inasmuch as we know not when the Lord will come.

4. That the ungodly may not defer repentence, seeing they are ignorant of the hour, that so this day may not come upon them unprepared. “But know this, that if the good man of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched.” “Watch, therefore., for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.” Occupy till I come.” (Matt. 24:43; 25:13. Luke 19:13.)