Honour? Thirdly, in refpect of its immediate Confequence of it, his Gracious Interceffion. Whereas every Prieft according to the Law flood daily miniftring, and offering oftentimes the fame Sacrifices which could never take away Sins; our bleffed Lord, after He had offered one Sacrifice for Sins for ever, fat down on the right hand of GODt. He which was accepted in his Oblation, and +Heb. x. 11, 12. therefore fat down on GOD's Right Hand, to improve this Acceptation, continues his Interceffion; and having obtain'd all Power by Virtue of his Humiliation, reprefents them both in the fweeteft Mixture, by an humble Omnipotency, or omnipotent Humility. What then remains to all true Believers, but that triumphant Exclamation of the Apostle, Who shall lay any thing to the Charge of GOD's Elect? It is GOD that justifieth; who is he that condemneth? It is Chrift that died, yea rather that is rifen again, who is even at the right hand of GOD, who alfo maketh Interceffion for us *.

It is likewife, in many respects, neceffary to profess our Belief of GO D's Omnipotence, according to the Sense of this Arricle. As firft, to beget in us a true Fear, and a regular Obedience. Our GØD is a great GOD, mighty, and terrible: Therefore terrible because mighty. It was a powerful Perfuafive to Obedience, that Command of GOD to Abraham, I am the Almighty GOD, walk before me, and be thou perfect *.

*Rom. viii. 33›

34.

And it is Gen. xvii. 1.

a proper Incentive to the Obfervation of the Divine Law, that there is one Lawgiver, who is able to fave and to deftroy t. Secondly, to fupport our Faith, the Ob- + James iv. 12. jects of Faith are beyond all Natural and Finite Power; and did they not require an infinite Activity, our Affent unto them would not deserve the Name of Faith. If GOD were not Almighty, we should believe nothing: But fince He is fo, why fhould we not gladly believe any thing which He has propounded to us? This Influence it has on our Speculative Faith; nor lefs on our Operative Faith, or our reliance on GOD's Promifes. This was the particular Confidence of Abraham the Father of the Faithful; who ftaggered not at the Promife of GOD through Unbelief; but was strong in Faith, giving Glory to GOD, and being fully perfuaded that what He had promifed He was able alfo to perform *. Every good Chriftian *Rom. iv. 20,21. may fay with the Apostle, I know whom I have believed;

and

* John x. 29:

and I am perfuaded that He is able to keep that which I +2 Tim. i. 12. have committed unto Him, against that day t. We have full affurance, that if we are of our Saviour's Flock, and hear his Voice, the Powers of Darkness, and the Gates of Hell, can never prevail againft us: It was his own Declaration; My Father which gave them me is greater than all, and none is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand*. Laftly, to give Life and Spirit to our Devotions. In the Form of Prayer which our Lord Himself has taught us, we conclude our Petitions with this Acknowledgment; for thine is the Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: This is the Confidence which we have in GOD, that if we ask any thing according to his Will, he beareth us. And if we know that he bear us, what foever we ask, we know that we have the Petitions that we desired of him t; of Him 1Joh. v. 14, 15. that it able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we

Eph. iii, 20.

ask or think *.

ACTIC LE VII.

From thence he thall come to judge the Quick and the Dead.

I

Am fully persuaded of this, as of an infallible and neceffary Truth, that the Eternal Son of GOD, in that Human Nature in which He died and rose again, and afcended into Heaven, fhall certainly come (a) from the fame Heaven into which He afcended (b), and at his Coming fhall gather together all thofe which fhall be then alive, and all which ever lived, and fhall be before that Day dead: When caufing them All to ftand before his JudgmentSeat, He shall judge them All (c) according to their Works done in the Flesh; and paffing the Sentence of Condemnation upon all the Reprobates, fhall deliver them to be tormented with the Devil and his Angels; and pronouncing the Sentence of Abfolution upon all the Elect, fhall tranflate them into his Glorious Kingdom, of which there fhall be no End (d).

(a) It

* Jude xiv.

(a) It was before obferved, that the Jewish Fiction of a double Meffias, is really of Advantage to our Faith, by giving Teftimony to the double Condition of the Meffias, which the Scriptures fo clearly reprefent. As often as we read of his Griefs and Humility, fo often are we admonished of his coming to fuffer: As often as we hear of his Power and Glory, fo often are we affur'd of his coming to judge. Particularly of this fecond Advent, Enoch the feventh from Adam prophefied, faying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his Angels *. And more particularly, Daniel faw the Representation of his Judiciary Power and Glory: I faw in the Night Visions, and bebold, one like the Son of Man came with the Clouds of Heaven, and came to the Antient 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, fhould ferve him: his Dominion is an everlasting Dominion, which shall not pass away, and his Kingdom that which shall †Dan.vii. 13, 14. not be deftroyed t. The Jews acknowledge this to be a Description of the Meffias, and of his Coming in Glory. But here, without having recourfe to the former Abfurdity, they have a new Evafion; affirming, That this glorious Advent defcrib'd by Daniel fhould only happen, if they continued to serve and please GOD; but if they went on in their Sins, the Meffias fhould come in the lowly manner describ'd by Zachary. Whereas the two Descriptions being both Predictions, are both infallibly to be fulfill'd.

1

That our Lord fhall thus come the second time, as the Angels declared at his Afcenfion. fo He Himself has taught us to expect: For the Son of Man fhall come in the Mat. xvi. 27. Glory of his Father, with his Angels *. And this glorious Attendance of Angels the Jews understood by the Expreffion of Coming with Clouds in Daniel's Vifion, which is also used in St. John's Prophefy; Behold, He cometh with Clouds, and every Eye fhall fee Him, and they also which pierced Him +. As, from the Beginning, He was known by the Style of Him that was to come, fo is He still to be known by the fame Appellation: For yet a little while, and He that hall come will come

Rev. i. 7.

Heb. x. 37:

#Patya nžલ.

(b) For,

(b) For, the Heavens must receive Him, till the time of the Reftitution of all things †, and when that time is ful- † Acts iii. 21. filled, the Lord Himself hall defcend from Heaven, with a

fbout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the Trump

of GOD+ Our Converfation ought to be in Heaven; be- †Theff. iv. 16. caufe from thence we look for a Saviour, the Lord Jefus *. * Phil. iii. 20. Our High-Priest is gone up into the Holy of Holies, there to make an Atonement for us: As therefore, the People of Ifrael stood without the Tabernacle, expecting the return of Aaron, fo must we look unto the Heavens, and expect Chrift from thence; when the Lord Fefus fhall be revealed from Heaven, with his mighty Angels *. * 2 Theff. i. 7.

(c) Four Particulars deferve here to be illustrated :

I. The affurance of a Judgment to come.

II. The Defignation of the Perfon who is to judge. III. The Object of the Judgment, or the Perfons to be judg'd. The manner of the Performance.

IV.

I. That there is a Judgment to come after this Life, is demonstrable as well from the Confideration of our felves who are to undergo it, as of GOD who is to execute it. Since we have not only an antecedent and directive, but also a subsequent and reflexive Conscience; a Principle which not only allows and approves our good Actions, but also creates a Complacency, and Confidence in us; not only difapproves, and condemns our Evil Actions, but also accuseth us, and breeds in us a fearful Expectation and Terror; and all this without the leaft regard to any thing which in the prefent Life we can fuffer or enjoy; it follows, that this Confcience which in the former part of its Office is a Judge, in the latter is a Witness, referv'd and bound over to a greater Judgment.. And thus all Men are a Law unto themselves, baving the Work of the Law written in their hearts, their Confcience alfo bearing witness, and their Thoughts the mean while accufing or excufing one another, in the day when GOD fball judge the fecrets of Men *. The fame may be evin- * Rom. ii. 15. ced from the Confideration of GOD, either in his Nature, or in his Word. Whoever confeffeth a GOD, muft fay likewife, verily there is a GOD who judgeth the

Earth. And fince this Judge of all the Earth will infal-† Pfal. lviii. 11.

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