16.

hand of God) fhall Chrift hereafter come to judge both the Quick and the Dead. For him the heaven Acts iii. 21. must receive until the times of reftitution of all things and when that time is fulfilled, from that Heaven Efhall he come. For the Lord himself shall defcend from 1 Theff. iv. heaven with a fhout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God. Our converfation ought tọ Phil, iii,20. be in heaven, because from thence we look for the Saviour the Lord Jefus. Our High Prieft is gone up into the Holy of Holies not made with hands, there to make an atonement for us; therefore as the People of Ifrael ftood without the Tabernacle, expecting the return of Aaron, fo muft we look unto the Heavens, and expect Chrift from thence, when the 2 Thef. i. 7. Lord Jefus fhall be revealed from heaven with his mighty Angels. We do believe that Chrift is fet down on the right hand of God; but we must also look upon him as coming thence, as well as fitting there; and to that purpose Chrift himself hath joined them together, faying, Hereafter shall ye fee the Son of Man Mat. xxvi. fitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the 64. clouds of heaven. Thus fhall the Saviour of the World come from the right hand of power, in fulness of majesty, from the highest Heavens, as a demonftration of his fanctity; 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 fecond coming, and leads me to the third confideration, the act of his judging: From whence he shall come to judge.

Se

For the explication of this action, as it stands in this Article, three confiderations will be neceffary: Firft, how we may be affured that there is a Judgment to come, that any one hall come to judge. condly, in cafe we be affured that there fhall be a Judgment, how it appeareth that he which is afcended into Heaven, that is, that Chrift, fhall be the Judge. Thirdly, in cafe we can be affured that we fhall be judged, and that Christ shall judge us, it will

be

be worthy our inquiry in what this Judgment fhall confift, how this action fhall be performed: and more than this cannot be neceffary to make us understand that he fhall come to judge.

That there is a Judgment to come after this life, will appear demonftrable, whether we confider ourfelves 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 fpirits, 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 pafs upon us. There is in the foul of every man a • Conscience, and wherefoever it is, it giveth teftimony to this truth. The antecedent or directive Conscience tells us what we are to do, and the fubfequent or reflexive Confcience warns us what we are to receive. Looking back upon the actions we have done, it either approves or condemns them; and if it did no more, it would only prove that there is a Judgment in this life, and every Man his own Judge. But being it doth not only allow and approve our good actions, but alfo doth create a complacency, apology, and confidence in us; being it doth not only difprove and condemn our evil actions, but doth alfo conftantly accuse us, and breed a fearful expectation and terror in us; and all this prefcinding from all relation to any thing either to be enjoyed or fuffered in this life: it followeth that this confcience is not fo much a Judge as a Witnefs, bound over to give teftimony, for or against us, at fome Judgment after Rom. ii. 14, this life to pass upon us. For all men are a Law unto themfelves, and have the work of the Law written in their bearts, their confcience alfo bearing witnefs, and their thoughts the mean while accufing or elfe excufing one another; in the day when God fhall judge the fecrets of

15, 16.

men.

Again, if we confider the God who made us, and hath full dominion over us, whether we look upon him in himself, or in his word, we cannot but ex

pect

1

pect a Judgment from him. Firft, If we contemplate God in himfelf, we muft acknowledge him to be the Judge of all mankind, fo that a man shall fay, Pfal. Iviii, Verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth. Now the II. fame God who is our Judge, is, by an attribute neceffary and infeparable, juft; and this juftice is fo effential to his Godhead, that we may as well deny him to be God, as to be juft. It was a rational expoftulation which Abraham made, Shall not the Judge Gen. xviii of all the earth do right? We may therefore infallibly 25. conclude that God is a most just Judge; and if he be fo, we may as infallibly conclude that after this life he will judge the world in righteousness. For as the affairs of this prefent world are ordered, though they lie under the difpofition of Providence, they fhew no fign of an univerfal Juftice. The wicked and difobedient perfons are often fo happy, as if they were rewarded for their impieties; the innocent and religious often fo miferable, as if they were punished for their innocency. Nothing more certain than that in this life, rewards are not correfpondent to the virtues, punishments not proportionable to the fins of men. Which confideration will enforce one of these conclufions; either that there is no Judge of the actions of mankind; or if there be a Judge, he is not juft, he renders no proportionate rewards or punishments; or laftly, if there be a Judge, and that Judge be juft, then is there a Judgment in another world, and the effects thereof concern another life. Being then we must acknowledge that there is a Judge, which judgeth the earth; being we cannot deny but God is that Judge, and all must confefs that God is moft juft; being the rewards and punishments of this life are no way anfwerable to fo exact a juftice as that which is divine must be; it followeth that there is a Judgment yet to come, in which God will fhew a perfect demonstration of his justice, and to which every man shall in his own bofom carry an undeniable witness of all his actions.

From

25.

1

From hence the Heathen, having always had a serious apprehenfion both of the power of the confcience of Man, and of the exactness of the justice of God, have from thence concluded that there is a Judgment to come. Infomuch that when St. Paul Acts xxiv. reafoned of righteousness, temperance and judgment to come, Felix trembled. The difcourfe of righteousness and temperance touched him who was fo highly and notorioufly guilty of the breach of both, and a preconception which he had of judgment after death, now heightened by the Apoftle's particular defcription, created an horror in his foul and trembling in his limbs. The fame Apoftle difcourfing to the Athenians, the great lights of the Gentile world, and teaching them this Article of our Creed, that God Acts xvii. bath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteoufnefs by that Man whom he hath ordained; whereof be bath given afsurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead; found fome which mocked when they heard of the refurrection of the dead, but against the day of Judgment none replied. That was (k) a principle of their own, that was confeffed by all who either believed themselves, or a God; a Conscience, or a Deity.

31.

But yet, befide the confideration of the internal power of Confcience in ourselves, befide the intuition of that effential attribute, the juftice of God, (which are fufficient arguments to move all men) we have yet a more near and inforcing perfuafion grounded upon the express determination of the will of God. For the determinate counsel of the will of the Almighty actually to judge the world in righteousness, Heb. ix. 27. is clearly revealed in his word; It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the Judgment. There is a death appointed to follow this life, and a Judgment to follow that death; the one as certain as the other. For in all ages God hath revealed his refolution to judge the World.

Upon the first remarkable action after the fall,

there

there is a fufficient intimation given to angry Cain; If thou doeft well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou Gen, iv. 7. doeft not well, fin lieth at the door; which by the moft ancient (1) interpretation fignifieth a reservation of his fin unto the Judgment of the world to come. Before the flood Enoch prophefied of a Judgment to come, faying, Behold the Lord cometh with ten thoufand of bis Saints to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard fpeeches which ungodly finners have spoken against him. His words might have an aim at the waters which were to overflow the world; but the ultimate intention looked through that fire which shall confume the world preferved from water.

The teftimonies which follow in the Law and the Prophets, the predictions of Chrift and the Apostles, are fo many and so known, that both the number and the plainness will excuse the profecution. The Throne hath been already feen, the Judge hath appeared fitting on it, the Books have been already opened, the Dead fmall and great have been seen ftanding before him; there is nothing more certain in the word of God, no doctrine more clear and fundamental, than that of eternal Judgment. I fhall Heb. vi. 2. therefore briefly conclude the firft confideration from the internal teftimony of the confcience of Man, from the effential attribute, the juftice of God, from the clear and full revelation of the will and determination of God, that after death, with a reflection on this, and in relation to another life, there is a Judgment to come, there shall fome perfon come to judge.

Our fecond confideration followeth; (feeing we are fo well affured that there fhall be a Judgment) who that Person is which shall come to judge, who shall fit upon that throne, before whofe tribunal we Thall all appear, from whofe mouth we may expect our fentence. Now the judiciary power is the power

of