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met with from a wicked and ungrateful world; and that his despised servants may be owned by him in the fight of angels and men, to the great confufion of all thofe wretches that shall be doomed to everlafting torments; that publick justice may be done to those virtues their humility took care to conceal, which were fullied by the calumnies and flanders of wicked men ; and which by the false judgment of the world, were represented as the effects of folly and extravagance, and fometimes blafphemy.

Committed

by the Father to the

Son.

The administration of which judgment is committed by the Father to his Son Jefus Chrift. God will judge the world in righteousness by that man Chrift Jefus, whom he hath ordained. The Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his holy angels, and then shall he reward every man according to his works. The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son. Chrift commanded his disciples to preach unto the people, and teftify, that it is Jefus that is ordained of God to be the judge of quick and dead; and the tribunal is called the judgment feat of Chrift. Hence obferve, that though the right of judging us belongs Why. to God, whofe fervants and fubjects we are, yet the execution of this power of judging is particularly committed to the Son of man; because all men fhould honour the Son, as they honour the Father; that our bleffed Saviour might receive publick honour in that nature wherein he fuffered; that he, who for our fakes stood before an earthly tribunal, might therefore be conftituted judge of the whole world; that he, who was defpifed and rejected of men, might appear in the glory of his Father, attended with an innumerable train of holy angels; that he who was condemned and crucified to abfolve us, might receive authority to abfolve or condemn the whole race of mankind; and because being cloathed with a human body, he will make a vifible appearance, which will be fuitable to the other circumstances of that great day; all which will be performed in the fight of all the world. And

Again, mankind being judged by one in their own nature, a man like themselves, touched with a feeling of their infir

mities,

mities, greatly declares the equity of this judgment; because he understands all our circumftances, and whatever may influence our cafe, to leffen or increase Who fhall our crimes. judge angels

And

and men.

Not only men, but angels alfo will be judged at the laft day; the fallen angels are referved in everlasting chains under darknefs, unto the judgment of the great day. For the apoftle fays, know ye not that we fhall judge angels; or fit with Chrift, and approve that fentence against them which he shall then pronounce. And all men that have ever lived in the world, and thofe that fhall be alive at our Saviour's coming, fhall be gathered before him, who is ordained by God to be judge of quick and dead; and they shall all ftand before the judgment-feat of Christ, both small and great. Neither riches, power, nor honour, fhall deliver any great man from the hand of God, neither fhall the poorest flave be excused for his meannefs; for they are all the work of his hands: neither will he have regard to fuch qualities and circumstances of perfons, which do not appertain to the merits of the caufe: paffing judgment upon all, according to all things we have done in the body, whether they be good or evil.

words, and

Then the Judge will fearch into all our thoughts, words, and actions; for they being all fubject to God's laws, we shall then be examined how we have kept Thoughts, or difobeyed them. Our duty to God, our neigh- deeds. bour, and ourselves, will then be strictly confidered; and especially it will be demanded how we have improved the talents we have been intrufted with; particularly we shall be tried for the omiffions of our duty, which is the main enquiry recorded in the procedure of that great day of the Lord, when we are affured that we must alfo give an account of every idle or wicked word we shall speak; and by our words we shall be juftified, and by our words we fhall be condemned; nay, our fecret thoughts shall then be expofed to publick view; for all wickednefs taketh it's rife from the heart, and the defign and intention with which a thing is done, frequently difcovers the goodness or evil of the action; therefore God shall judge the fecrets of mens hearts by

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Jefus

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Jefus Chrift, whofe fentence will pass upon men according to the nature and quality of their deeds. The wicked shall go into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal.

Degrees of punishment and rewards.

forrow.

Thus God will reward and punish us in the next life, in proportion to the good or evil we shall do in our mortal state. For in that day, the degrees of good and bad actions will be confidered as well as their nature and quality. To whomsoever much is given, of him, fhall be much required; he that foweth sparingly fhall reap fparingly, and he that foweth bountifully fhall reap bountifully. So our Saviour plainly teacheth us, by the parable of the talents, that men are rewarded according to the improvement they make. Of them, whoso hath gained ten talents, is made ruler over ten cities; and he that hath gained five talents, ruler over five cities. The apoftle of the Gentiles exprefsly affirms, that the glory of the Of glory and faints fhall be different at the refurrection. And we are informed from our Saviour's own mouth, that in the day of judgment the condition of Tyre and Sidon, of Sodom and Gomorrah, fhall be more tolerable than that of impenitent finners, that have heard and rejected the terms of falvation through Jefus Chrift. By which we are inftructed to believe the juftice and equity of God's providence, and to the reafon of the thing; nothing being a greater promoter of piety than the confideration that the leaft fervice fhall not lofe it's reward; and the better any man is, the greater difpofition he hath for the enjoyment of God; and the more hardened he is in his wickedness, the more fufceptible he is of torment, and treasureth up greater measures of wrath against the day of God's vengeance; of which day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels, which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.

Why.

But,

As to the manner and the circumstances of The manner Chrift's appearing. He fhall be revealed from of his com- heaven with his mighty angels: he shall defcend ing. with a fhout, with the voice of the archangel, with the trump of God: he fhall come in his own glory, and in his Father's, and in that of his holy angels: he shall sit upon

upon the throne of his glory, and all nations fhall be gathered before him; and he shall separate them, the one from the other, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: thofe that fleep in the grave fhall awake, and the dead in Chrift shall rise first, and they that are alive fhall be changed, and caught up to meet the Lord in the air; which fufficiently fhews the glorious appearing of the great God, and our Saviour Jefus Chrift, who fhall then come glorious in the brightness and fplendor of his celeftial body; fupported by that authority which his Father hath committed to him, of univerfal judge, accompanied with thousands of holy angels, who shall attend not only to make of his apthe up pomp of his pearance, but as minifters of his justice; and feated in that bright throne of glory from whence he shall dispense life and death to all mankind.

hereby.

From whence we fhould learn to govern our lives with that care and confideration, and with that due regard to the measures of our duty, that we may be What we able to give up our accounts with joy, and not with are taught grief; to keep that strict watch over ourselves by frequent examination, that our behaviour in this ftate of probation and tryal, may obtain the favour and acceptance of our judge at his dreadful judgment-feat; to reftrain ourselves from committing the leaft fin, because there is none fo inconfiderable as to be overlooked at that day of general account for all the world; not to encourage ourselves by the greatest fecrecy to the breach of any of God's holy laws, because all our actions shall be then exposed to publick view, and known by the whole world to our eternal infamy; not to be dejected by the flanders and calumnies of bad men, because our integrity shall then be cleared by him, who cannot err in the fentence he fhall pafs on us; to improve all those talents the providence of God hath intrufted us with, because we are but stewards, and must give an account of them all; to be fincere in all our words and actions, because in that day the secrets of all hearts shall be opened; to avoid all rash judging of others, because he that judgeth another, fhall not efcape the judgment of the Almighty; to abound in fuch works as we know will particularly distinguish men at that day, as feeding

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feeding the hungry, cloathing the naked, &c. because our labour fhall not be in vain in the Lord; and to be humble and jealous over our own conduct, because though we know nothing by ourselves, we are not thereby juftified; for he that judgeth us is the Lord. And

we may

Alfo we should learn immediately to reconcile ourselves to God, by a fincere and hearty repentance, that the terrible day of God's wrath may not find us unprepared to enter into the joy of our Lord. We must be always upon our guard, that make a daily progrefs towards chriftian perfection, and conftantly defend ourselves against the attacks of our fpiritual feducers. We must be frequent in all acts of piety and devotion, that when we are fummoned to appear, we may, if poffible, be found employed in religious exercises: we must be conftantly begging God's grace, that the day of judgment may not overtake us unawares; but that by a patient continuance in well doing, we may wait for that glory, honour, and immortality, promifed in the gofpel to all those that believe in God through Jefus Chrift.

Ghoft's

VI. Chrift before his paffion had promised to The Holy fend to his difciples the Holy Ghost, to guide them into all truth, and to fhew them things to come, and to glorify him; and when the day of Pentecoft was fully come, they were accordingly all filled with the Holy Ghoft, who is the third perfon in the most adorable Trinity, distinct from the Father and the Son, and eternally proceeding from both; being called the Spirit of Chrift, and the Spirit of the Son, as well as of the Father, and of one divine fubftance with them, holy in refpect of his own divine nature; for as the Son was fo begotten of the Father, as to be one God with him, in like manner the Holy Ghost so proceedeth from the Father and the Son, that he is one * and the fame God with the Father and the Son,

Peculiar office.

Whofe peculiar office is to fanctify and renew our corrupt nature, and to reftore it to it's primitive perfection and dignity, to incline us to receive thofe truths, which are only fpiritually difcerned, and are foolishness to a carnal or natural man; by opening our hearts

* See the first article of the belief as explained in this book, page 56.

that

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