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A58800 The Christian life. Part II wherein that fundamental principle of Christian duty, the doctrine of our Saviours mediation, is explained and proved, volume II / by John Scott ... Scott, John, 1639-1695. 1687 (1687) Wing S2053; ESTC R15914 386,391 678

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judgment seat whence every Eye shall see him shine in his own his Fathers and his Angels glory who in a bright Corona shall sit round about him like so many Stars about a Sun and where as the Prophet Daniel describes him Chap. 7. ver 9 10. he shall exhibit himself to publick view cloathed in garments as white as snow with the hair of his head like the pure wooll sitting on a Throne like the fiery flame and its Wheels as burning fire with a fiery stream issuing out from before him and a thousand thousands ministring unto him and ten thousand times ten thousand standing before him whilst the Iudgment is set and the Books are opened And thus I have given a brief account from Scripture of the manner and circumstances of his coming from whence I proceed to the IV. And last general I proposed to treat of viz. to explain the whole Process of this Iudgment And that we may proceed herein the more distinctly we will consider it with respect to those twofold objects viz. the Righteous and the Wicked about which it is to be exercised for it is plain from Scripture that they are not to be judged promiscuously one among another as they come but the Sheep are to be separated from the Goats the Good from the Bad and to be tried and sentenced apart from one another Mat. 25.32 33. And he i. e. the Son of Man shall separate them from one another as a Shepherd divideth his Sheep from the Goats and he shall set the Sheep on his Right hand and the Goats on the left in which separation the precedency will be given to the Sheep or Righteous who are to be judged first for so the Scripture assures us that the dead in Christ are to rise first and that after they have undergone their Iudgment they are immediately to be wasted up into the Air there to meet the Lord and to sit as Assessors with him in that Judgment which he shall afterwards pass upon the wicked vid. 1 Thes. 4.15 16 17. compared with 1 Cor. 6.2 In explaining therefore the Process of this Iudgment we will treat of it in the same order wherein it will be transacted beginning first with the Iudgment of the Righteous in which according to the Scripture-account of it there are these five things implied 1. Their Citation or Summons 2. Their personal Appearance before the Judgment Seat. 3. Their Trial. 4. Their Sentence 5. Their Assumption into the clouds of heaven I. This Judgment of the Righteous includes their Citation or Summons which as was observed before is to be performed by the Voice or Trump of the Archangel i. e. by an Audible shout or noise made by the Prince of Angels and sounding throughout the Universe like the mighty blast of a Trumpet For as it was anciently the manner of Nations to gather their Assemblies by the sound of a Trumpet so by the same sound the Scripture tells us God will assemble the world of men to judgment and that this shall be a real Audible sound like that of a Trumpet though proceeding from no other instrument than that of the Archangels mouth I see no reason to doubt because with such a noise we read God did descend upon Mount Sinai Exod. 19.16 and why may we not as well understand the one in a literal sense as the other it being no more improper in the nature of the thing for God to proclaim by such a sound his coming to judge the World than it was his coming to give Laws to Israel But then together with this mighty Voice or Trump of the Archangel there shall proceed from Christ a divine power even his holy Spirit by which he raised himself from the dead by whose omnipotent Agency all those holy Reliques of the bodies of his Saints which are now scattered about the world shall be gathered up reunited and reorganized into glorious bodies for so the Apostle attributes the Resurrection of our bodies to the Holy Ghost Rom. 8.11 For if the Spirit of him that raised up Iesus from the dead dwell in us he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken our mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in us and the old materials of their bodies being thus reunited and reformed by the powerful energy of the Holy Ghost accompanying the sound of the Archangels Trump those Saintly Spirits which anciently inhabited them and which are now come down from heaven with their Saviour shall every one re-enter its own proper body and animate it with immortal vigour and activity and whilst the dead Saints are thus arising those who shall then be living and have not tasted death shall by the same Almighty Power be changed transformed and glorified in the twinkling of an eye 1 Cor. 15.51 52. which being transacted they shall all be gathered together by the Ministry of the holy Angels from all parts of the Earth before the judgment Seat of Christ Mat. 13.27 For II. This Iudgment of the Righteous doth also include their personal Appearance before the Judgment Seat. What this Iudgment Seat will be hath been briefly hinted before viz. a vast body of luminous aether condensed into the form of a bright and radiant Cloud and placed in the Region of the Air at a convenient distance from the Earth streaming with light from every part and casting forth an unspeakable glory for which cause it is called the Throne of his glory and is described by S Iohn to be a great white or refulgent Throne Rev. 20.11 out of which Lightnings and Thunders are said to proceed Rev. 4.5 which implies that it will be a Cloud it being from Clouds that Thunders and Lightnings do proceed And before this glorious Tribunal or bright Iudgment-Seat shall all the Assembly of the Righteous appear to undergo a merciful Trial and receive a happy Doom Here shall the glorious company of the Apostles the goodly fellowship of the Prophets the noble Army of Martyrs the holy Church throughout all the World both Militant and Triumphant meet and in one entire body present themselves before their blessed Redeemer who looking down from his exalted Throne shall at one view see all the Congregation of his Saints before him and with infinite complacency surveigh the fruit of the travel of his Soul and the mighty purchase of his precious bloud for so the Apostle tells us that we must all stand before his Iudgment Seat. Rom. 14.10 III. This Iudgment of the Righteous doth also include their Trial for so the Apostle assures us We must all appear i. e. we Righteous as well as others before the Iudgment-Seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body 2 Cor. 5.10 which plainly implies that even the Righteous shall undergo an impartial trial of their deeds that so they may receive a reward proportionable to them and more expresly Rom. 14.12 he tells us that we must every one of us give an account
14.15 and that by these ten Thousand he means the whole body of the Church Triumphant is evident by that passage of S. Paul 1 Thess. 3.13 where he prays that they might be established in their Christian course till the coming of the Lord Iesus with all his Saints and indeed since they are all to re-assume their bodies and to be made partakers of the Glorious Resurrection it 's necessary that they should all come down along with him and return to this earth where the old matter of those bodies lies wherein they are to be reinvested and to this illustrious retinue of glorified Saints shall be joyned the heavenly hosts of the holy Angels for so Christ himself tells us that he shall come in his own glory and in his Fathers and of his holy Angels Luke 9.26 and that he shall come in his glory and all his holy Angels with him Mat. 25.31 And S. Paul tells us that he shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty Angels 2 Thess. 1.2 And as the Angels shall come down along with him so in all probability they shall come in a glorious appearance cloathed in bright aetherial bodies in which to adorn the triumphs of that glorious day they shall be conspicuous to all the Inhabitants of the Earth Neither shall their coming with him be only for shew and pomp but the Scripture plainly tells us that they shall minister to him in that great transaction For at his issuing forth from the heaven of heavens these mighty hosts of Angels shall march before him with the Archangel in the head of them who with a mighty voice or sound like that of a Trumpet shall send forth an awakening summons to all the Inhabitants of the grave to come forth and appear before the Judgment Seat at which Tremendous voice which with an all-enlivening power shall be reverberated through all the vault of heaven and penetrate the most secret repositories of the Earth the dead shall rise and the living shall be changed and transfigured and all shall be set before the dread Tribunal to undergo their Trial and receive their doom For so 1 Thess. 4.16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout with the voice of the Archangel and the trump of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first and in 1 Cor. 15.52 the resurrection of the dead is made the consequence of the sounding this Trumpet for the Trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible And so also Mat. 24.31 our Saviour tells us that at his coming on the clouds of Heaven he will send his Angels with a great sound of a Trumpet and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds from whence it is evident that the Angels then minister to him to raising the dead and assembling them to Judgment and hence that which is called the voice of the Archangel in the above cited 1 Thess. 4.10 is elsewhere called the voice of the Son of God John 5.25 because as it will be animated by his power so it will be pronounced by his authority and as they shall minister to him in raising the dead to be judged so shall they also in executing his Sentence and Judgment for so Mat. 13.41 42. He tells us the Son of man shall send forth his Angels and they shall gather out of his Kingdom all things that offend and them which do iniquity and shall cast them into a furnace of fire there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth From whence it 's evident that when he hath pronounced sentence on the workers of iniquity he will by the ministry of his Angels chase them into that everlasting fire whereunto he hath doomed and devoted them Thus when he comes to judg the World all his holy Angels shall come with him and that not only to contribute to the glory and splendor of his Circuit but also to minister to him in his Judgment so that his retinue shall consist of all the Inhabitants of heaven who shall all come forth together with him and bear him company in this his Triumphant progress through the skies by which we may easily imagine what an amazing spectacle his coming down from heaven will be to the Inhabitants of the earth when they shall see him descend from his Imperial Seat far above the starry Skies with all the Train-bands of heaven about him the Captain of the Angelical Host in the front of innumerable Angels marching before him and with his mighty Trump ringing a peal of Thunder through the Universe and with ten thousand thousands of the Spirits of just men made perfect following after him with Crowns of glory on their heads and Songs and Halelujahs in their mo●ths O blessed Jesu● how will this glorious and dreadful sight confound thy Enemies and ravish thy Friends make those that hate thee tremble and gnash their teeth and those that love thee lift up their heads and shout for joy V. And lastly We will consider the place to which he is to come concerning which all that is certain from Scripture is this that when he comes down from He●ven he will fix his Throne or Judgment Seat in the Air at such a convenient distance from the Earth as shall render him visible to all its Inhabitants For so 1 Thess. 4.17 it is said of the righteous that after their being raised or changed they shall be caught up in the Clouds to meet the Lord in the Air which is a plain argument that the Lord will sit in judgment on them in the Air since thither they will be caught up to him after they are raised and judged Thus in that very Air which is now the seat of the Devils Empire shall Christ fix his Throne to manifest to all the World the consummation of his Victory over the Powers of darkness There shall he sit in Majesty and Glory where now the Devil and his Angels reign and in the publick view of the World shall even in their own dominion spoil those Hellish Principalities and Powers and having chained them at his Chariot Wheels make a shew of them openly triumphing over them there where they now domineer and tyrannize over this wretched World shall he set his foot upon their necks and from thence shall he tread them down into everlasting darkness and despair Thus that he may expose himself to the more publick view and the Devil to the more publick shame and confusion he will choose to keep his general Assizes in the Air. Being therefore arrived into the airy Regions after a long and glorious progress from the highest heaven there he shall sit down upon the Throne of his glory as some think over against Mount Olivet the place from whence he ascended whither all People Nations and Languages shall be gathered before him to receive their everlasting Doom And now let us imagine with our selves in what a glorious and tremendous Majesty he will appear to the World from his