Now the text informs us to whom the authority is committed to "execute judgment.” It is given to the Son of man, and because he is the Son of man. It is given to Him who, having vouchsafed to take our nature upon him, has had actual participation of our infirmities, our trials, our temptations. "We "have not an High Priest which cannot be "touched with the feeling of our infirmities, "but was in all points tempted like as we

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are, yet without sin°." And this is He who will "hereafter come to be our Judge." For we must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ. It is as the Christ that he will exercise this divine prerogative. "Both he "that sanctifieth, and they who are sancti

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fied," says the Apostle, " are all of one; for "which cause he is not ashamed to call them "brethren":" and "forasmuch as the children "are partakers of flesh and blood, he also "himself took part of the same." Thus the character of our Judge, though invested with the authority of the Most High, is brought nearer to the level of our apprehensions; and we are enabled to regard it with a somewhat more stedfast eye. He, indeed, not only knew, but felt what was in man. He wept for the calamities of men, pitied their frail

o Heb. iv. 15.

P Heb. ii. 11.

q Heb. ii. 14.

ties, had compassion on their ignorance, patiently endured their contradictions, exercised towards them continual mercy and forbearance, prayed for his bitterest enemies and persecutors. To HIM this last and highest act of sovereign power is committed, by which is to be determined the final destination of every human being. Can we sufficiently admire the lenity, as well as the equity of this Divine appointment? Do we not discern in it the most striking features of condescension to human infirmity? How entirely does it harmonize with every part of that beneficent system, which proceeded from Him who "is "not willing that any should perish, but that "all should come to repentance'!"

But it is not only in this respect that we are to contemplate the fitness of our Lord, as Son of man, to take this office upon him. It was in his human character that he withstood the assaults of the Tempter; that he obtained for us the victory over sin and death; that he bruised the serpent's head; that "by death "he destroyed him that had the power of death;" that he "spoiled principalities and

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powers, and triumphed over them;" that he "led captivity captive, and obtained gifts These things he did while he

"for men."

I 2 Peter iii. 9.

was yet "in the flesh;" while he " was found "in fashion as a man," and "humbled him"self unto death, even the death upon the 66 cross." His sufferings wrought our deliverance; His humiliation our triumph. "For " it became Him," says the Apostle, "for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, "in bringing many sons unto glory, to make "the Captain of their salvation perfect through

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sufferings;" and having thus" perfected for "ever them that are sanctified, this man”— the man Christ Jesus-" for ever sat down on "the right hand of God, from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his foot"stool." So far, however, was this his character of Son of Man from being in any of these points disconnected from that of the Son of God, that without the latter the former would have wanted that which not only distinguished him from every other human being, but gave efficacy to all that he did and suffered. His human faculties, far from annulling his divine prerogatives, manifested them so much more distinctly to the world, and, perhaps, in the only way in which they could have been rendered perceptible to mortal observation. In vain, then, would the impugners of his divinity set these at variance

s Heb. ii. 10.

t Heb. x. 13.

with each other. Their union is that which constitutes his essential character as the Christ, and that which gives to our faith its strongest and surest hold upon the mind. When he said, that "the Father had given "him authority to execute judgment because "he was the Son of Man," it was not because he was a mere man, and nothing more; but because He only, of the Persons in the Godhead, took upon him the nature of man. Still, therefore, it is GOD who will judge the world, though he will judge it by that MAN whom he hath ordained. The judgment delegated to him as Son of Man will be executed by Divine power, because he is also Son of God: and when he shall come to judge the quick and dead, He will come in the glory of the Father, with his angels, to reward every man according to his works.

Let not occasion, then, be taken to think less seriously of the awful day that is approaching, as if we were to be judged by merely such an one as ourselves. Every representation of him in his judicial character sets forth his infinite power, holiness, and justice, no less than his mercy and goodness. The Baptist described him as one "whose "fan is in his hand, and who will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into

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"the garner, but will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire":" and he himself pourtrays his own character in the parable of "the householder and reapers," in similar terms. He will "bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and make manifest the "counsels of the heart." Here is enough to arouse the careless and impenitent to a sense of danger, notwithstanding the consolation and encouragement which every humble and sincere penitent may derive from the assurance that he will be judged by One who "knoweth our frame, and remembereth that 66 we are dust." It will therefore be our wisdom and our duty to contemplate Him as that omniscient Being, "unto whom all hearts are 66 open, all desires known, and from whom no "secrets are hid." Nor let it be forgotten, that if as Son of man he is touched with a feeling of our infirmities and of the dangers that beset us; He is also no less able to discern whether or not these are deceitfully pleaded in extenuation of our guilt. Ever, then, let it be borne in mind that the dispensation of the Gospel, though full of mercy and benevolence, and originating in the most perfect love to mankind, is nevertheless a system of holiness, purity, and truth. It is "the

u Matt. iii. 12.

x 1 Cor. iv. 5.