no more for ever yea the Lord Jesus nailed all their sins to his Cross Colos 2.14 Rom. 4.15 and buried them all in his Grave yea and crossed the debt-book with the red lines of his own blood If now he should call them to remembrance to charge the Saints with their sins he should undo what he had done he should cross the great design of his Cross Rom. 4.25 upon the matter deny himself to be risen again from the dead and disown his own hand and seal Upon this foundation stands the absolute impossibility that sin the least sin the least circumstance of sin should be so much as once mentioned by the Judg in the process of that judicial tryal unless it be in a way of Absolution and so sin shall be mentioned indeed The Saints Absolved of Sin in the day of Iudgment in what sence 1 In their own Conscience but in order to the magnifying of their Pardon and Absolution Their sins may then be said to be blotted out in a two-fold respect First Because the Saints shall then be fully and finally Absolved in their own Consciences It is true there be some of the Saints even in this life to whose Consciences the Spirit of God doth evidence and seal up Remission of sin who are not only safe but sure and possess not only the blessedness of a pardoned estate but the comfort and assurance of that blessedness nevertheless 1. Not all the Saints 2. Nor any at all times 3. Nor alwaies in the same degree as they have their lucida intervalla so they have also and more frequently their dark times their Eclipses as well as their Transfigurations and no wonder since the Sun of Righteousness himself suffered an Eclipse upon the Cross so dreadful as forced the great Master of Astrology in Egypt to cry out Either the God of Nature suffers Aut Dâ—us naturae patitur aut mit di machina dâ—ssolvituâ— or the whol frame of nature is dissolved and caused the Lord Jesus Himself to the just astonishment of Heaven and Earth to cry out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Is it any wonder then if many of the poor Saints of God with Paul and his Ship-wrack't Company see neither Sun-light nor Star-light for many days together and no small tempest doth often lye upon them Act. 27.20 so that all hope of being saved is taken away yea not a few precious deserted Hemans are there Psal 38.15 who from their youth up are afflicted and ready to dye and while they suffer the terrors of God are even distracted yea and that which is more tremendous their Sun as to any observation which Standers by could make though very rarely hath set in a Cloud I but now at this blessed day the Judg of the Quick and the Dead shall Absolve the Saints of God not only at the Tribunal of his own Justice but at the Tribunal of their Conscience He will proclame that Name in their Bosoms which he Proclamed before Moses The Lord the Lord God merciful and gracious long-suffering abundant in Goodness and Truth pardoning Iniquity Transgression and Sin c. And He will speak so audibly that every Saint shall hear the voyce and so particularly that every one shall know he speaketh to him and shall all eccho back again with joy and joynt acclamation Who is a God like unto thee Micah 7.18 pardoning Iniquity c Nor shall any reflexion either upon sin or sorrow ever damp that joy any more Though the Saints cannot plead Not-guilty in regard of fact yet they shall be acquit by the Sentence of Christ Not that they never sinned but that they are before the Judg as if they had never sinned Not in His Account only but even in their own Consciences and that will fully and finally resolve the Question which all the Ministers in the world while they lived on Earth could never resolve with all the Absolutions which ever they applied to their doubting Souls though it were even Clave non errante from the testimony of the Word This Proclamation shall do it and leave no room for doubting or misgiving thoughts for ever Secondly 2ly The Saints absolved in open Court The Saints are then said to receive their full and final Absolution because then their Absolution shall be Proclaimed in open Court the Judg in Person shall pronounce their Absolution in the Audience of God and all the Elect Angels and of the whole world of Men and Devils what Christ in the days of his flesh said to one poor trembling Penitent he will now say to all Sons and Daughters be of good cheer your sins are forgiven you This will be good Cheer indeed These be the times of refreshment from the presence of the Lord when the sins of the Saints shall be blotted out Acts 13.19 blotted they were before out of God's book but now they shall be blotted out in the sight of all the world so that now indeed Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect since Heaven and Earth yea and Hell it self must be witnesses to the Crossing of the book and to the Cancelling of the Bond wherein they stood obliged to Divine Justice Oh what inexpressible inconceivable refreshment will this be to the Saints of God even the perfecting of all their former refreshments The sense of their pardon pronounced by the Spirit to some of their Consciences within was wont to be exceeding sweet yea any Scriptural hopes of purdoning mercy though apprehended by a weak and trembling hand of Faith were a reviving to their drooping Spirits What must needs then the highest plerophory ratified by the most solemn Proclamation of the great Judg before the upper and neather world as well as to Conscience be but life from the dead Surely it will be even Heaven before the Saints come to Heaven Nor shall any reflection either upon sin or sorrow ever damp that joy any more nor shall Willow-boughs mix with the Palms of the Saints Triumph in that blessed Jubile but everlasting joy shall be upon their Heads and sorrow and sighing shall flee away The Second Branch of the Saints Justification is that the Judg will pronounce them perfectly Righteous This may seem superfluous as supposed to be included in the sentence of Absolution Not to be a Sinner seemeth to imply a Saint To be pardoned all sin and all the degrees of sin and all kinds of sin omissive as well as commissive all defects of perfection all want of conformity to as well as transgression of the Law of God this seemeth to be perfection Answ It doth seem so and truly it doth but seem so for Pardon relates to what is past only Rom. 3.25 Remission of sins that are past it is but privativum quid a freedom from Guilt and a freedom from Punishment it doth not suppose any real and positive Righteousness which may set a man rectus in
Jesus Christ They shall neither go forth to meet this glorious Bridegroom one moment sooner than their Brethren that are in their Graves nor shall they see him coming in his Glory one moment sooner nor consequently be owned by Christ or received by him or taken up to him or be placed upon Thrones with him or receive their absolution and justification from him or their glorification with him one moment before their fellow-Saints that are yet in their dormitories And truly this is a comfortable word even in the negative part of it Believers may lye down to sleep in their beds of dust not only with the Psalmist's even-Song I will both lay me down in peace and rest Psal 4.8 for thou Lord only wilt make we dwell in safety but with the Lord Jesus his Triumph Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoyceth Psal 16.9 10. my flesh also shall rest in hope for thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell c. Christ will not forget his dead in the Grave the living Saints at his coming shall not be made happy without them nor one moment sooner happy in any of the Beatitudes of Christ his coming at the end of the world This comfort I say the very negative part of the Apostles answer to the Objection doth import But then How much stronger Consolation doth the affirtive part afford which although it lye in the close of the next verse yet it being the main branch of the Apostle's accompt whereby he satisfieth the doubt of the dying Servants of God ut suprà we must of necessity speak of it here also with the Negative at least so far as it referrs to the Apostle's scope reserving the consideration of what special and peculiar Import the words carry in them to their own place We are therefore to take notice that the affirmative part of the Apostles satisfaction to the Saints doubt or objection lieth in these words The dead in Christ shall rise first He doth exactly state the method of Christ's procedure at the last Judgment Affirmatively vers 16. viz. That the first business which shall be then transacted shall be the awakening and raising all the Saints of God out of their Graves which from Adam until that moment have slept in the dust The dead in Christ shall rise first nothing shall be done till that be done The very first work Christ will do at his Coming will be to send forth his Angels with a great sound of a Trumpet first to awaken the Elect out of their sleep Math. 24.31 Awake you that sleep in the dust and then to gather them from the four winds from the one end of Heaven to the other and when they shall have put on their Wedding garments to conduct them in State and Triumph to meet with their Royal Bridegroom now comn forth more than half way to meet them and to consummate the Marriage which was long since Contracted in the day of their Espousals It were easie to enlarge here but in a word the sum of this Affirmative account is this That the Saints who sleep in the Grave at Christ's coming shall be so far from being made less happy or later happy in the coming of Christ than the Saints who then shall be found alive that they shall be first remembred the first care Christ will take when he comes in the Clouds shall be not about the living Primitiae Resurrectionis but the dead Saints The dead in Christ shall rise first They shall be the first Fruits of the Resurrection They that have slept so long in their beds of dust Ab illis ordo Resurrectionis incipiet shall be first awakened before any thing be done about them that never slept They that were uncloathed and saw corruption in the Grave must first have their bodies cloathed upon with incorruption and then the surviving-Saints at Christ's coming shall be joyned to them that have for so many years and ages slept in Jesus The dead in Christ shall rise first and both be presented together before the Judge It were too little to say Use This may much alleviate the bieterness of death our own or our godly Relations surely it may greatly augment our joy They and we shall be so far from being losers by laying down our earthly Tabernacles in the dust before we see Christ coming in his Glory that it shall be our advantage If there be any priviledg any joy any glory any triumph at that day it shall be theirs who sleep in Jesus and theirs as soon as their surviving-Brethrens The first dawnings of the Sun of Righteousness coming in his Majesty shall shine upon their faces the first-fruits of that Jubilee shall be reserved for a recompence of their long sleep in the Grave they shall begin the health in this cup of Salvation the primacy of all that blessed solemnity belongs to the departed Saints The dead in Christ shall rise first Oh Christians Comfort one another with this word And the rather because this is not an uncertain conjecture which the Apostle laies down here but an assertion of infallible certainty which he had from the divine Oracle Second branch of this Comfort The Authority quoted the Word of the Lord which brings me to the second branch in this seaventh word of Comfort and that is The Authority which the Apostle brings for this Doctrine sc the Word of God This I say unto you by the word of the Lord. He quotes divine Authority for what he delivereth It being a Doctrine of so much encouragement and satisfaction unto dying Saints Praefatur nihil se preferre vel suum vel humanum Calv. a Doctrine above humane capacity and it seemeth not commonly understood by the Churches Saints of God at that time he doth not pass it in his own name or upon his own Authority When he speaks as one that hath obtained mercy to be saithful then it is 1 Cor. 7.12 I speak not the Lord i.e. not by express dictate of the Spirit but by way of Faith Christivice as agreeable to the word but when he speaks as an Apostle insallibly inspired then it is not I but the Lord and so it is here but tells us from whence he had it q.d. What I deliver now unto you I speak not of my self sed ex ore Domini from the mouth of him that is the truth it self the mouth of Jesus Christ This we say unto you in the word of the Lord. Qu. But where or when had the Apostle this Doctrine from Jesus Christ Ans Others are of opinion he had it by immediate Revelation but as to the time they differ Some conjecture 1 Cor. 12.2.4 the Apostle had this mysterie revealed to him at what time he was rapt up to the third Heaven and there heard unspeakable words amongst which one was this comfortable Doctrine that the living Saints shall not prevent the dead Saints in any glorious
priviledg of the Resurrection which was an Arcanum or Mysterie not formerly made known to the Church But this is but a conjecture which carrieth with it little probability The Apostle telling us in the same place that the words he heard in that Extatical Vision were Vnspeakable words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. things which were either not lawful to be uttered or not possible to be uttered ineffable words had this Mysterie been that Revelation or any part of it the Apostle had in reporting it to the world either exceeded his commission or done impossibilities Others therefore conceive that this was a mystery revealed to none but to the Apostle himself and that not unto him until he wrote this Epistle and so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the word of Lord signifies only the Apostle his delivering this by divine Authority from divine inspiration quasi eo ipso loquente Bern. Christi mandato Grot. Others there are that waving both these Conjectures are apt to think this mystery so called because it was not commonly understood in the Church to be none other than the Doctrine which our Lord himself delivered by word of month in the dayes of his flesh concerning the Resurrection for which Some would make us beholding to Tradition but others more rationally suppose the Apostle to entitle this Doctrine to the Lord not as if any where delivered in terminis in so many express letters and syllables but as a divine Truth deduceable from the general doctrine which the Lord Jesus did deliver in his Sermons and discourses touching the raising of the dead And to this judgment I do much incline as the more safe and warrantable Christ's own words being a much more solid foundation to build an Article of Faith upon than either Tradition or Revelations Witness the Holy Ghost in the mouth of the Apostle St. Peter 2 Pet. 1.19 We have also a more sure word of Prophesie more sure then what Why more sure than the Voyce which the Disciples heard from Heaven when they were with Christ in the Mount ver 18. An infallible Oracle attested by infallible Witnesses and yet behold the written Word is a surer bottom for our Faith to stand upon in taking up divine doctrine than that because though the voyce from Heaven was in it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 infallible yet the holy Scriptures being the standing * Psal 19.7 God's Amen Testimony and Expositor of Gods mind to the world it is a more authentick Touch-stone to try Truth by then a Voyce from Heaven which may be Counterfeited by Satan and Satanical Imposture We shall reckon then this mystery delivered here by holy Paul as the Doctrine which Christ himself Preach'd unto the world and testified by the Evangelists and other Secretaries of the Holy Ghost until Revelation be more clearly revealed unto us in this point Amongst the passages of our Lords Doctrine recorded by the Evangelists concerning the Resurrection from which this particular mystery may be collected we may with safety and modesty select these Then shall appear the sign of the Son of man Math. 24.30 and they shall see him coming in the Clouds of Heaven with power and great glory And he shall send forth his Angels with a great sound of a Trumpet and they shall gather his Elect from the four Winds from the one end of Heaven to another When they shall rise from the dead Mark 12.25 they neither marry nor are given in marriage And again As touching the Dead that they rise have ye not read in the book of Moses c Behold by the way Jesus Christ that he might give testimony to Moses quotes the testimony of Moses for the Doctrine of the Resurrection But yet further take another testimony or prediction of his own The hour is coming Jo. 5.28 in the which all that are in the Graves shall hear the voyce of the Son of man And shall come forth they that have done good unto the Resurrection of life c. To these Scriptures and the like it is most probably conjectured our Apostle doth refer when he doth here quote the Authority of our Lord for the Doctrine here delivered For although it doth not run verbatim word for word with any of the recited Texts yet these things are evident First That in these Scriptures our Blessed Saviour doth positively and expresly assert the doctrine of the Resurrection at the last day The dead must rise Secondly That the main care which Christ will take at his coming will be To gather unto himself all his Elect which have been upon the earth from the Creation until that blessed hour Math. 24.31 He shall send forth his Angels and they shall gather his Elect c. not one of them shall be wanting Thirdly Christ comprehends all these his Elect whether quick or dead under one and the same notion namely the dead and those that are in the Graves not the least mention made or notice taken of them that shall survive and be found alive at his coming whence two things are clearly deducible First That the Resurrection which the Saints that sleep in Jesus shall be made partakers of shall put them into as full a capacity of the glory of Christs coming as if they had remained alive in the body until that blessed hour Yea Secondly That the Saints then surviving can upon no other account become capable of that glory than as they fall under the notion of the dead Christ takes notice in the prediction of his coming of no other but the dead for whom that glory is reserved Whence Some are of opinion that the surviving Saints must dye in a literal sense and a real separation must pass upon them between their bodies and their souls Mirâ celeritate of which opinion Austin himself was though he conceived it would be transacted in a wonderful swift and speedy way But others conceive that the Saints whom Christ his coming shall find in the body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall suffer only some thing analogical to death and to this opinion our faith must needs subscribe the Holy Ghost bearing witness to it in the mouth of the Apostle in the 15th Chapter to the Corenthians 1 Cor. 15.51 We shall not all sleep i. e. all shall not dye in a literal sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what then but we shall all dye or be changed i. e. they that dye not must be changed All must either dye or be changed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they that do not sleep must suffer a mutation that shall bear some proportion to death Verse 50 whereby the corruption of their nature must be abolished for flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdome of God neither doth corruption inherit incorruption The body as it is corruptible much less as it is sinful is not capable of glory there must a refining change pass upon it they must put off their
Rags of mortality before they put on the Robes of Glory and this must be done Partly that the Statute of Heaven may not be broken Heb. 9.27 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 decreed wherein it is appointed for all men once to dye It was a Statute Law past in the Parliament of Heaven Gen. 2.17 In the day that thou eatest thou shalt surely dye Heb. in dying thou shalt dye Christ himself as man submitted himself to this Statute and so must all the Sons and Daughters of Adam they must dye either literally or analogically Death makes a change in some and this change is a death in others a death to mortality and a death to corruption Partly that hereby they may also be made partakers of the Resurrection Our Saviour's prediction of the Resurrection comprehends all the Saints of God and the living Saints at that day can by no other means be counted the Children of the Resurrection than as they are begotten again as it were by this mysterious and ineffable change Math. 19.28 whence possibly it is called the Regeneration because all the Elect of God shall then begin to live their new perfect life all over in their bodies and Souls both the quick and the dead From these Premises we draw this Conclusion c. That our Apostle here doth not start any new doctrine of his own or as * 1 Cor. 7.12 somewhere he doth deliver his own judgment as an holy knowing man and not as one infallibly inspired from above but he doth expound Christ unto us and gives us the sense of His words who was both the Truth and the Resurrection So that the doctrine here laid down as it is a word of exceeding comfort to dying Saints and to their surviving Relations Non primi extitimus Resurrectionis testâ—s 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so here is a consideration which may adde great weight to it and make it so much the stronger consolation in as much as it hath the stamp and sanction of Christ's own Authority Christ himself hath made assidavit to it we have the word of him that cannot lye the Apostle being in this but Christs Interpreter From hence by the way we are informed of these two things Use of Inform. worth our notice First Vse 1 There is no sure and infallible foundation for our faith to stand upon but the word of God Thither therefore the Holy Ghost sends us Isa 8.20 To the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to this word it is because there is no light in them The Apostle himself would not aver such a solemn truth as this is but from the mouth of Christ himself Uncertain Revelations dubitable Traditions Authority of the Church and all humane Testimony whatsoever is too weak a foundation to build our Faith upon in any Article of Religion Search the Scriptures for in them ye hope to have Eternal Life Jo. 5.39 Secondly We gather hence that Scripture-Inference Vse 2 is Scripture that is to say That which may be inferr'd from Scripture by natural and necessary consequence is to be received as the Scripture it self The word of God rightly interpreted is the word of God Thus our Lord himself Luk. 12.27 proves the Resurrection out of the old Testament by inference and deduition from the words which God spake to Moses I am the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob he thence inferrs God being not the God of the dead but of the living that Abraham Isaac and Jacob are alive in their better part sc their Souls and shall live again in their inferiour part sc their bodies So the holy Apostle here inferreth this comfortable truth that the dead Saints shall lose nothing by their not being found alive at Christs coming from Christ's own doctrine of the Resurrection in general And doubts not to honour it with this Title The Word of the Lord This I say unto you by the Word of the Lord. Let the Ministers of the Gospel take heed how they Preach any doctrine opinion or practise 1 Caution to Ministers which cannot either in terminis or at least by just and necessary consequence be justified to be the word of God lest they incurre the brand and censure of false Prophets Jer. 29.9 And let Christians take heed how they reject any doctrine which is so evidenced 2 Caution to private Christians lest they be found to reject the Word of the Lord Jer. 8.9 I have done with the second branch of the seventh word of Comfort sc the Authority quoted for it save only that there is one scruple yet to be removed and that is Quest Why the Apostle in delivering this truth doth use this phrase we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord and not rather they which are alive for Did the Apostle indeed think that he himself should live to see Christ coming in glory to judg the quick and the dead Ans Certainly No for 1. Grotius aliter opinatur quem vide in loc arque etiam Bez. The event shews that that had been a mistaken presumption in him that day is not yet come and the Apostle is long since fallen asleep 2. We hear him Prophesying of his own dissolution and that as a thing hard by 2 Tim. 4.6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am now ready to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand Gr. it is instant upon me See the Apostle was far from flattering himself with any such conceit of being one of them that should live and remain unto the coming of the Lord. What means the expression then Ans The holy Apostle divides all the Elect of God into two ranks sc 1. Such as are fallen asleep from the fall of the first Adam to the coming of the second or 2. Such as should survive and remain unto that day not making himself of the number of either the one or of the other but one of the whole number of Gods Elect some of whom should sleep some should live till Christ's last coming and when he saith we that are alive and remain it signifies no more but this in general such of us as are then alive shall not prevent such of us as are then asleep this is all he intends in this expression Beza and others spy out a mystery in this manner of speech Doct. as if hereby the Apostle would hint unto us the uncertainty of Christ's Coming Vult omnes suspensos tenere ne sibi tempus aliquod promittant that for ought that was revealed of that day Christ might come while some of that generation were superstites living upon the face of the earth If that doctrine be in the Text Vse Christ himself hath made the use of it Lanet ultimus dies ut expectetuâ— singulis ut fideles emnibus horis parati essent Math. 24.36 of that day and hour knoweth no man no not
the Angels of Heaven but the Father there 's the doctrine and then the use is verse 42. Watch therefore for ye know not the hour when the Lord doth come Therefore indeed is the last day concealed from us that we may watch every day And therefore Christians look about you what have you been doing so many years together under the ministry of the Gospel are your accompts yet ready are your evidences cleared is your pardon sealed your interest in Christ secured your calling and Eleclion made sure have ye wrought out your salvation with fear and trembling Luk. 12 35 36. Are your lights burning and your loynes girded and you your selves like unto men that wait for the coming of the Lord that when he cometh and knocketh you may open to him immediatly up and for the Lords sake yea for your own sakes make haste this may be the day the hour when the Son of man may come Wo unto that man to whom the coming of the Lord will be a surprize Therefore I say again watch what you do do quickly I come now to the third branch of this seventh word of Comfort sc Third branch of the seventh word of Comfort The ground and reason of this comfortable truth which lieth in the first clause of the next verse For verse 16. the Lord himself shall descend c. The words are of a twofold consideration sc Absolute And Relative The absolute and positive holds forth a main Article of our Faith sc Christ's last coming to judgment in person The Lord himself shall descend from Heaven The Relative and so they are a confirmation of this comfortable truth They which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep and why so For the Lord himself shall descend c. In their absolute sense the words are as I say a main Article of our Faith concerning Christ's coming to judgment in person and therefore may justly challenge their room to make up one entire and distinct word of Comfort in this divine context And so I will first consider them and then in their relative tendency sc as they are a ground or reason of the former Comfort In the order of this second part they are the second but in the method of the whole Context 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are The Eighth word of Comfort Eighth word of Comfort 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lord himself shall Descend Here the Apostle describes unto us the last coming of Christ to judgment In which description we have three considerable particulars sc 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Person that shall come The Lord himself 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The certainty of his coming He shall come 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The manner of his coming With a shout I begin with the first of these The Person that shall come 1. The Person 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lord himself i. e. Jesus Christ God-Man the Mediator between God and Man He that came at first to purchase and redeem the Elect of God the same person will now come to raise them out of their Graves to gather them together and to bring them with him unto Glory He will not send a Deputy-Angel about the solemn work of that day but will descend Himself in Person to finish that last and grand trust of his Mediatory-Office And that upon a twofold account 1. R. Why Christ will come personally sc because the Judgment must be visible 1. The Lord himself will Descend in his own Person Because the judgment must be visible and therefore the Judge must be so too There is a dispute whether Christ shall sit on a visble Throne and it is very probable he shall sure we are from the Scripture that he shall appear in the Clouds of Heaven that He may be heard and seen of all Behold Rev. 1.7 he cometh with Clouds and every eye shall see him Clouds are visible things and these Clouds shall not obscure him but rather render him more conspicuous Every eye shall see him He shall so come with Clouds that they shall be a Throne to exalt and lift him up to the view of all the world therefore is the posture noted as well as the Throne Ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of Power Math. 26.64 and coming in the Clouds of Heaven Clouds shall be his Throne and sitting will be the posture the posture of a Judge To judge the world is an act of supream Authority and therefore it must be done by one of the three Persons Now the Father and the Spirit are invisible therefore hath the Father appointed a day Act. 17.31 wherein he will judge the world by the man Christ Jesus The Flesh of Christ is a Veil to his Deity by which God is made visible to an eye of Flesh Christ is God manifest in the Flesh 1 Tim. 3.16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God conspicuous in the humane nature and in that humane nature which he assumed of the Virgin will Jesus Christ appear in Judgment that so every eye may see him the wicked to their terror but the Godly to their unspeakable joy Isa 66.5 Secondly 2. R. for the recompence of his abasement The Lord himself shall appear for a recompence to his abasement It is requisite that he that was judged by the world should now come to judge the world He came at first humble lowly despised sitting upon an Ass spit upon Crucified but he shall come again in power and great glory It is good somtimes to compare the two Comings of Christ together At first he came into the Flesh In Carâ—â—â— he shewed himself in the nature of man to be judged But at his second coming he shall come in the flesh In Carne He shall come from Heaven in the same humane nature which he carried up with him into Heaven there to be the Judg both of the quick and the dead His fore-runner then was John the Baptist the voyce of one crying in the Wildeâ—ness At his second coming his fore-runner shall be an Arch-Angâ— With the voyce of an Arch-Angel and the Trump of God as in the Text. Then his Companions were poor Fisher-men Now his Attendants shall be the mighty Angels of Heaven 2 Thes 1.7 Then he came riding on an Ass a Colt the Foal of an Ass Now he shall come riding on the Clouds sitting on a Throne At his first coming he appeared in the form of a Servant Now he shall come as a Lord in the glory of his Father Then he came in the likeness of sinful Flesh to suffer as a Sinner for Sinners Now he shall appear the second time to them that look for him Heb. 9. last without sin unto Salvation Then he drunk of the brook in the way but now shall he lift up his head This for the recompence