rum igitur dæque res nes dicebat) omnem Deorum ac poteftatem. rapine did teftimonium contra deos dicere, yield a fhrewd Improbotestimony against the being and providence of God. But, profperitaon the contrary, fuppofing a judgment to follow, and a tes, fecunproceeding according thereto, all these discourses have no redarguunt force or moment; God's prefent connivance, (as it were,) (ut Diogeor patient indulgence toward bad men, will argue no more, vim than what becomes him; his excefs of goodness in expecting those bad men's return to a better mind, or his wife severity in suffering them to proceed to an inexcufable degree of wickedness, to be strictly inquired into and severely punished hereafter; as neither then doth God's permitting good men to fuffer deeply here infer any thing prejudicial to his goodness or juftice; fince thereby he makes them fitter for, and gives them a furer title to, that reward, which he intends hereafter, after trial and approbation of their virtue, to confer upon them. Thus doth this doctrine clear the providence and establish the great attributes of God; therefore doth Christianity most fully and clearly teach, moft earnestly and frequently inculcate this point, with all poffible advantage, both for the justification of the divine attributes, and the excitation of us to a virtuous and pious life. It tells us, that all men's Dan.vii. 10. actions are registered in books written with greatest punctuality and exactnefs, (the books of divine omnifcience ;) that all persons shall be cited, and presented at the bar, (We must all pavepadñvai, be made to appear, nagioτaodai, be Rom, xiv. fet forth, at the judgment-feat of Chrift: I faw the dead, 2 Cor. v. 10. great and small, ftanding before God's throne ;) that every Rev.xx.12. thought, every word, every work of man fhall be difclofed and difcuffed, with its due quality and defert; (God will 1 Cor. iv. 5. bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifeft the counfels of hearts: Every idle word that men Matt. xii. Shall Speak, thereof they shall render account at the day of 36. judgment: Every work fhall be brought into judgment, Ecclef. xii. with every fecret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil;) that according to the quality of their doings, thus detected and examined, the merits of each cause weighed, every plea heard, every cafe confidered and tried according to truth. Men fhall be acquitted and com Rev. xx. 10. 14. L. 7, 8, 9. Vid. 2 Thef. mended, or declared guilty and condemned; a definitive 1 Cor. iv. 5. fentence paffing upon every one, ἔπαινος γενήσεται ἑκάστῳ, praise (that is, generally, a due taxation and esteem, according to defert) shall be made to every one by the righteous Judge. That this fentence doth include a gracious reward and a just punishment affigned respectively; everlafting glory and joy to them which have done well, endlefs fhame and forrow to them who have done ill; which Matt. xvi. fhall be infallibly executed: (for, God will render to every Rom.ii.6-man according to his works-To them who by patient con 27. 10. tinuance in well-doing feek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life; but unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteoufnefs, indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, upon every foul of man that doeth evil-but glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good; fo St. Paul in the second 2 Cor. v. 10. to the Romans: We must all appear before the tribunal of Christ, iva xoμioýrai exaσros, that every one may bear ac 34, &c. cording to the things done in the body, whether good or Matt. xxiv. evil.) That all this fhall be performed in a most public Vid. Matt. and folemn manner, in open court, in the face of all the Luke xii. 9. world, before angels and men; to the conviction and faRom. ii. 5. tisfaction of all; fo that the confciences of all concerned XXV. 31. shall be forced to acquiefce in their doom, as most just and equal; and all shall confefs, and fay with them in the ReRev. xix. 1, velation, Salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, be to the Lord our God; for true and righteous are his ways: Great and wonderful are thy works, O Lord God Almighty; righteous and true are thy ways, O thou King of Saints. 2. xvi. 7. KV. 3. Thus (and much more fully than time will permit me to relate) doth our religion and holy Scripture fet out that judgment, which all men hereafter must undergo; wherein the wonderful clemency of God fhall be demonftrated; wherein his exact justice fhall be declared; wherein the knotty mysteries of his providence fhall be unfolded; Rom. ii. 5. wherein his honour (that seems now to fuffer fo much) fhall be fully repaired and vindicated; wherein all scores, that now run on, fhall be quitted and made even. Such, I fay, fhall the judgment itself be; the confideration of which, if it make no impreffion upon our hearts, if it beget no dread within us, if it do not render us somewhat wary and watchful over our doings, what means can be imagined able? what method apt to do it? what a desperate hardness and infenfibility do we lie under! how deplorably blind and stupid are we! more stupid than Felix, acts xxiv. who hearing St. Paul difcourfe of judgment to come, could not forbear trembling; more blind and fenfeless than those obftinate fons of darkness, the devils themfelves, who believe, and tremble. 25. James ii.19. But paffing the judgment, let us (which should more ftill engage us, and may work farther on us to the fame purpose) confider the Judge: He shall come to judge ;-He: He that came once in our nature, (with wonderful condefcenfion of grace and charity,) to free us from fin and mifery; he that fuffered fo deeply for us; he that died to redeem us; he fhall come to judge. The original and Rom. xiv. abfolute right or power of judging appertains to God,* whose creatures, whofe fubjects, whofe fervants we are 25. naturally; as he is the Sovereign Lord and King, fo is he Heb.xii. 23. the Judge of all; as we owe obedience to the laws he Gen. xviii. hath prescribed us, performance of the fervice he hath allotted us, improvement of the talents he hath committed to us; fo we ftand bound to render account to him of the due performance in those respects, and obnoxious to the judgment he shall make thereof. All judgment therefore must be exercised either immediately by God himself, or in subordination to him; in his name and right, by virtue of authority and power derived from him: and it (for the honour of his Son, for the comfort of us) hath he delegated and committed to Jefus our Saviour: not immediately by himself, but by his Son he hath determined to judge the world; The Father judgeth John v. 22. no man, (saith our Saviour himself,) but hath committed all judgment to the Son: and, God, faith St. Paul, hath appointed a day, in which he will judge the world in right-31. eoufnefs, by the man whom he hath ordained: and, faith St. Peter, God hath commanded us to preach unto the people, A&ts x. 42, and to teflify that it is he which was ordained of God Acts xvii. 10. Rom. xiv. to be the Judge of quick and dead: and, It is the judgment2 Cor. v.10.Jeat of Chrift, before which we must all appear. In fine, John v. 27. The Father, faith our Saviour, hath given to the Son autho John v. 23. rity, to execute judgment, for that he is the Son of man; (hath committed to him authority regal and judicial; for that he is that Son of man, whom God had defigned to this office, even of old, as we fee in Daniel vii. 13, 14. and in Ifaiah ix. 6, 7.) It is plain then, that our Saviour is by defignment and deputation from God invested with this great office and power. And why God fo appointed him many reafons may be affigned; upon many accounts our Saviour's perfon may appear moft fit for this grand employment. How could God more plainly fhew his goodness in this matter, than by conftituting such a Judge? Seeing that judgment fhould pass upon us, it was neceffary and requifite; how could the terror and severity thereof be better tempered, than by putting the execution thereof into fuch hands? whom, were the choice permitted to us, fhould we rather fubmit to, than to him who is by nature our brother; who in difpofition is meek and lowly, compaffionate and merciful; who by fo many fignal experiments hath expreffed fuch an excess of kindness and charity toward us; who hath fo confpicuously evidenced himself to be the best friend of mankind; that he ardently defires the falvation of all men, even of his worst enemies; whom he spent his blood for, whom he prayed for, dying; whom he continually invites to reconciliation and repentance? How alfo could God better declare his juftice, than in exalting him to this pitch, who out of obedience and compliance with his will defcended fo low, and underwent fo much? Who better deferved a crown, who more righteoufly would manage a fceptre, than he who willingly bore a cròfs, who patiently fubmitted to a fcourge? It was alfo equal and fit, that he who was unworthily rejected and despised, cruelly abused and perfecuted, unjustly accused, condemned, and flaughtered by men, should be requited with power to right himself upon them; to reprobate them worthily who had unworthily rejected him; to judge them justly, who had wickedly condemned him; to punish them severely, who had unmercifully afflicted him; that he should fee his proud and spiteful enemies lying under his feet, at his difcretion. Add hereto the wisdom of God in designing him to be judge, whom they who were to be judged might fee and hear, and converse with; whom the godly with cheerful fatisfaction and comfort, the wicked with befitting terror and astonishment, might behold; they with unexpreffible joy hear him commending, acquitting, and bleffing them; thofe with difmal amazement and regret hear him pronouncing the fatal fentence and curfe upon them; they with humble thankfulness acknowledge his grace, those with confufion confess their guilt; Behold, faith St. John in the Revelation, (i. 7.) he cometh with clouds; and every eye fhall fee him, even they who did pierce him. The Jer. x. 10. dreadful prefence of God were neither discernible nor fupportable by guilty men: Who may stand in his fight when Pf. lxxvi.7. once he is angry? Pf. cxxx. 3. 11. 1. Who could endure to hear that voice, at which the Pf. xlvi. 6. earth melteth; that reproof, at which the pillars of hea- Job xxvi, ven tremble; that majefty, in presence whereof the pureft la. vi. 2. feraphims are constrained to hide their faces? how should impure men abide that face which no man can behold and live? But the milder, though glorious and bright afpect of the Son of man, all men, in fome manner, may be capable to fee; and, if we believe St. Auftin, Rectum erat ut judicandi viderent judicem; It was fit that they who were to be judged should see their Judge. So much reason there was, (and more questionless, beyond what we can know or comprehend,) that our Saviour Jefus fhould be defigned and deputed to this office; in it we may admire the wifdom and adore the juftice of God; for it we may applaud his goodness and clemency, We may also (that this doctrine may have the greater impreffion upon our hearts and influence upon our practice) farther confider, how great an aggravation it will feem to our whether foolish perverseness or slothful negli |