strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being persuaded that what he had promised, he was able also to perform." (Rom. iv. 20, 21.) The promises of God are therefore firm and sure, because he is both willing and able to perform them.* We doubt or distrust the promises of men, either because we may fear they intend not to do what they have promised, or cannot do what they intend: in the first, we may suspect them because they are subject to iniquity; in the second, because they are liable to infirmity. But being God is of infinite sanctity, he cannot intend by breaking his promises to deceive us : therefore if he be also of infinite power, he must be able to perform what he intended, and consequently we can have no reason to distrust his promises. From whence every good Christian may say with the apostle, "I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that, which I have committed unto him, against that day." (2 Tim. i. 12.) I am assured that if I be a sheep, and hear my Saviour's voice,

powers of darkness and the gates of hell can never prevail against me; for it was the voice of the Son of God, "My Father, which gave them me is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand." (John x. 29.)

Lastly, The belief of God's omnipotency is necessary to give life to our devotions. We ask those things from heaven which none but God can give, and many of them such, as if God himself were not Almighty, he could not effect. And therefore in that form of prayer, which Christ hath taught us, we conclude all our petitions unto the Father with that acknowledgment, "For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory." (Matt. vi. 13.) Nor can there be a greater encouragement in the midst of all our temptations, than that we are invited to call upon him in the day of trouble, "who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us." (Eph. iii. 20.)

After this explication of our Saviour's session, we may conclude what every Christian ought, and may be supposed, to intend, when he maketh profession to believe, that Christ is set on the right hand of God the Father Almighty. For thereby he is conceived to declare thus much: I assent unto this as a most infallible and necessary truth, that Jesus Christ, ascending into the highest heavens, after all the troubles and sufferings endured here for our redemption, did rest in everlasting happiness; he which upon earth had not a place to lay his head, did take up a perpetual habitation there, and sit down upon the throne of God, as a Judge, and as a King, according to his office of Mediator, unto the end of the world; according to that which he merited by his mediatorship, to all eternity: which hand of God the Father Almighty signifieth an omnipotent * Nulla est in promissis Dei falsitas, quia nulla est in faciendis difficultas aut

impossibilitas. Fulgent. ad Monim. l. i. c. 12.

power, able to do all things without any limitation, so they involve not a contradiction, either in themselves or in relation to his perfections. And thus I believe in Jesus Christ, who SITTETH AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD THE FATHER AL

MIGHTY,

ARTICLE VII.

From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.* THIS Article containeth in it four particular considerations and no more; First, That Christ, who is gone from us, shall come again. Secondly, That the place from whence he shall then come, is the highest heaven, to which he first ascended, for from thence he shall come. Thirdly, That the end for which he shall come, and the action which he shall perform when he cometh, is to judge; for from thence he shall come to judge. Fourthly, That the object of that action, or the persons whom he shall judge, are all men, whether dead before, or then alive; for from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

For the illustration of the first particular, two things will be necessary, and no more; first, To shew that the promised Messias was to come again, after he once was come: secondly, To declare how our Jesus (whom we have already proved once to have come as the true Messias) did promise and assure us of a second coming.

That the Messias was to come again, was not only certainly, but copiously foretold: the Scriptures did often assure us of a second advent. As often as we read of his griefs and humility, so often we are admonished of his coming to suffer; as often as we hear of his power and glory, so often we are assured of his coming to judge. We must not fancy with the Jews, a double Messias, one the son of Joseph, the other of David; one of the tribe of Ephraim, the other of Judah: but we must take that for a certain truth, which they have made an occasion of their error; that the Messias is twice to come, once in all humility, to suffer and die, as they conceived of their son of Joseph; and again in glory, to govern and judge, as they expect the son of David. Particularly, "Enoch the

*Or from whence; the Latins sometimes inde, sometimes unde. And the Greek is sv, unde, both in the ancient MS. in Sir Robert Cotton's library, and in the Creed of Marcellus. But Exeter Exμevov, in the latter MS. in Bene't College Library. Others neither ev, nor xe, but dw, as Justin Martyr: Ἡμεῖς ἐπέγνωμεν Χριστὸν Υἱὸν Θεοῦ σταυρω θέντα καὶ ἀναστάντα, καὶ ἀνεληλυθότα εἰς

τοὺς οὐρανοῖς, καὶ πάλιν παραγενησόμενον κρι τὴν πάντων ἁπλῶς ἀνθρώπων μέχρις αὐτοῦ Ada. Dial. cum Tryphone, p. 362. Others without inde or unde, only venturus, as the Nicene Creed, Socrat. I. i. 8. ipxóμενον κρῖναι, others πάλιν ἐρχόμενος, Constantin. Symb. Concil. Gen. t. i. p. 534. or ovra máy, and Fortunatus, leaving out inde venturus, hath only judicaturus vivos

et mortuos.

seventh from Adam prophesied of this advent, saying, Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his angels." (Jude, ver. 14.) And more particularly Daniel saw the representation of his judiciary power and glory; "I saw in the night visions, and behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed." (Dan. vii. 13, 14.) This Son of man the Jews themselves confess to be the promised Messias,* and they take the words to signify his coming, and so far give testimony to the truth; but then they evacuate the prediction by a false interpretation, saying, that if the Jews went on in their sins, then the Messias should come in humility, according to the description in Zachary, "lowly and riding upon an ass;" (Zech. ix. 9.) but if they pleased God, then he should come in glory, according to the description in the prophet Daniel," with the clouds of heaven:" whereas these two descriptions are two several predictions, and therefore must be both fulfilled. From whence it followeth, that, being Christ is already come, "lowly and sitting upon an ass," therefore he shall come gloriously "with the clouds of heaven." For if both those descriptions cannot belong to one and the same advent, as the Jews acknowledge, and both of them must be true, because equally prophetical; then must there be a double advent of the same Messias, and so his second coming was foretold.

That our Jesus, whom we have already proved to have come

once into the world as the true Messias, shall come the second time, we are most assured. We have the testimony of the angels, "This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner, as ye have seen him go into heaven." (Acts i. 11.) We have the promise of Christ himself to his apostles: "If I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself: ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away and come again unto you." (John xiv. 3. 28.) He it is which from the beginning was to come; that express prophecy so represented him," The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, until Shiloh come:" (Gen. xlix. 10.) the name of Shiloh was obscure; but the notion of the comer, added to it, was most vulgar. According to this notion, once Christ came; and being gone, he keeps that notion still; he is to come again: "For a little while, and he that shall come, will come." (Heb. x. 37.)* Our Jesus then shall come; and not only so, but shall so come, as the Messias was foretold, after the same manner, in the same glory of the Father, as the "Son of man coming in his kingdom." (Matt. xvi. 28.) This was expressed in the prophetical vision by coming with clouds; and in the same manner shall our Jesus come: "Behold, he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him." (Rev. i. 7.) Those clouds were anciently expounded by the Jews of the glorious attendance of the angels, waiting upon the Son of man:† and in the same manner, with the same attendance, do we expect the coming of our Jesus, even as he himself hath taught us to expect him, saying, For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels." (Matt. xvi. 27.) And thus our Jesus as the true Messias shall come again; which was our first consideration.

The place from whence he shall come, is next to be considered, and is sufficiently expressed in the CREED by reflection upon the place whither he went, when he departed from us; for he ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God, and from thence he shall come; that is, from and out of the highest

O exóμevos #, that is, he who is known by that vulgar appellation ὁ ἐρχόMEVOS, he which did once come into the world to make that notion good, is still to be known by the same appellation, and therefore will come again. This was it which made the apostles ask that question, Matt. xxiv. 3. "When shall these things be, and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?"

+ As R. Saadias Gaon upon that place

עם ענני השמים הם מלאכי .13 .of Dan. vii צבש השמים זו היא רוב הגדולה שיתן הבורא The clouds of heaven they are the למשיח:

angels of the host of heaven; this is the great magnificence and power which God

heaven (where he now sitteth at the right hand of God) shall Christ hereafter come to judge both the quick and the dead. For him "must the heavens receive, till the time of the restitution of all things;" (Acts iii. 21.) and when the time is fulfilled, from that heaven shall he come. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God." (1 Thess. iv. 16.) "Our conversation ought to be in heaven, because from thence we look for our Saviour the Lord Jesus." (Phil. iii. 20.) Our High-priest is gone up into the Holy of Holies not made with hands, there to make an atonement for us; therefore as the people of Israel stood without the tabernacle, expecting the return of Aaron, so must we look unto the heavens, and expect Christ from thence," when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels." (2 Thess. i. 7.) We do believe that Christ is set down on the right hand of God; but we must also look upon him, as coming from thence, as well as sitting there; and to that purpose Christ himself hath joined them together, saying, "Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven." (Matt. xxvi. 64) Thus shall the Saviour of the world come from the right hand of power, in fulness of majesty, from the highest heavens, as a demonstration of his sanctity, that by an undoubted authority, and unquestionable integrity, he might appear most fit to judge both the quick and the dead; which is the end of his second coming, and leads me to the third consideration, the act of his judging: From whence he shall come to judge.

For the explication of this action, as it stands in this Article, three considerations will be necessary. First, How we may be assured, that there is a judgment to come, that any one shall come to judge. Secondly, In case we be assured that there shall be a judgment, how it appeareth that he which is ascended into heaven, that is, that Christ shall be the judge. Thirdly, In case we can be assured that we shall be judged, and that Christ shall judge us, it will be worthy our inquiry, in what this judgment shall consist, how this action shall be performed: and more than this cannot be necessary to make us understand, that he shall come to judge.

That there is a judgment to come after this life, will appear demonstrable, whether we consider ourselves who are to undergo it, or God who is to execute it. If we do but reflect upon the frame and temper of our own spirits, we cannot but collect and conclude from thence, that we are to give an account of our actions, and that a judgment hereafter is to pass upon us. There is in the soul of every man a conscience; and whosesoever it is, it giveth testimony to this truth. The antecedent or directive conscience tells us what we are to do, and the subsequent or reflexive conscience warns us what we are to receive. Looking back upon the actions we have done, it either