the form of God, (viz. before his incarnation, when he appeared to his ancient fervants, in all ages from the beginning) he thought it not robbery to be equal with God, being his very Word and Wif dom, his face, effulgence, and exprefs image, affuming, as we' have seen, all the divine names, titles, and attributes, as belonging to him, in union with the Father; yet emptied himself, taking the form of a fervant, being made in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, humbled himself ftill more, becoming obedient to death, the death of the Crofs: therefore God alfo hath highly exalted him, not only his Word that had glory with him before the world was,-but the humanity affumed for our fakes, and given him a name above every name, that at the name of Jefus every knee fhould bow, of thofe in heaven and thofe in earth, and thofe under the earth, and that every tongue fhould confefs that Jefus Chrift is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

7. It is not denied, but that the Judge is man, yea, very man, and, as man, is diftinct from pure and proper Deity and to this his manhood, the Apostles often refer in the New Teftament. As for inftance, Acts x. 38-42. God anointed Jefus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghoft, and with power : who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppreffed of the Devil: for God was with himwhom they flew and hanged on a tree: Him God raifed up the third day, and fhewed him openlyand he commanded us to preach to the people, and to teftify that it is He that is ordained of God to be the Judge of the quick and dead, viz. he that was anointed with the Holy Ghoft and with power, he whom they flew and hanged on a tree; he whom God raised up, and fhewed openly,

even the Man Chrift Jefus. He is the appointed and visible Judge. But to prevent our mistaking, (were it poffible to mistake in fo plain a cafe) to prevent our fuppofing that a mere man, however dignified and exalted, could, of himself, be able to judge all the ten-thousand millions of men

and

and angels, to know perfectly, and remember diftinctly, every action of every individual, of that immenfe multitude-every word, every temper, every defire, every thought; to difcern, and unfold, all the fecret workings of every heartof every fon and daughter of fallen Adam, and of every fallen Angel; to bring to light all the hidden things of darkness, and make manifeft all the counfels of the heart; to dif cover all the motives and ends, as well as words and works, schemes, and purfuits, arifing therefrom, and to know, and make known, the true ftate and character of every one, fo as to pro nounce a right fentence, and affign every Saint and every finner, every Man and every Angel, his proper fhare of praife or blame, happinefs, or mifery to prevent our mistaking (I fay) in this cafe, we are repeatedly allured that the Divine Nature is joined to the human, and that God (in and by his eternal Word and Wifdom) is with and in the man.

8. Thus St. Paul, preaching at Athens, de clares, God hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteoufnefs by that Man whom he hath ordained, whereof (fays he) he hath given affurance to all men, in that he hath raifed him from the dead, A&ts xvii. 31.Again, Rom. ii. 16. God fhall judge the fecrets of men by Jefus Chrift, according to my gofpel. So that God, in and by Man, the Divine Nature in and by the human, brings (as Solomon fays) every work into judgment, and every fecret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil. Thus, though the dead, fmall and great, ftand before a visible Man, yet, as St. John affures us, they also ftand before GoD, (Rev. xx. 12.)

and though every knee of thofe in Heaven, and thofe in earth, and thofe under the earth, bow, and every tongue confefs to that Man whom God hath highly exalted, yet, in bowing and confeffing to Him, they bow and confefs to God.

9. The Man, therefore, the vifible Judge, is not alone when he judges the world, any more

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than

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than he was alone when he walked upon the water, rebuked the wind and the fea, faid, Lazarus, come forth; Deftroy this Temple (my body) and in three days I will raife it up; pronounced to the fick of the pally, Thy fins be forgiven thee, proclaimed, I am the refurrection and the life; I quicken whom I will: He that hath feen me hath feen my Father: If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink; Come unto me, ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you reft; My grace is fufficient for you, My frength is made perfect in weakness: Where two or three are met in my name, I am there in the midft of them; I you always, even unto the end of the world; Upon this Rock I build my Church, and the gates of hell fhall not prevail against it. But as when he did the fe wonders, and pronounced these words, (too great, furely, for any creature to do and pronounce) the Word that was in the beginning with God, and, in union with him, was God, dwelt in the human nature, and fpoke and acted by that nature ;and as the Father was in the Son, and the Son in the Father,fo when he comes to judge the world in righteoufnefs, the man does not come alone, but the fulness of Deity that dwelt, and does dwell, and ever will dwell, in him bodily, comes along with him, and perceives, and knows, and speaks, and acts, in and by him, as much as the foul perceives, and knows, and fpeaks, and acts, in and by the body. So that, as David fays, God is, indeed, Judge himfelf; and yet the Man Jefus of Nazareth is appointed Judge of quick and dead.

10. And how exceeding reasonable and proper does all this appear to be, even to us, little as we know in divine things. Hereby, firft, the Judge is vifible he is a man like ourselves, and we may have access to him. We need not fay with Job, Ch. xxiii. 3, &c. Oh! that I knew where I might find him! that I might come, even to his feat! I would order my caufe before him, and fill my mouth with arguments: I would know the words which he

would

would anfwer me, and understand what he would fay unto me. For he may reply, If thou canst anfwer me, fet thy words in order before me, ftand up. Behold, I am according to thy wifh, in God's flead. I alfo was formed out of the clay. Behold, my terror fhall not make thee afraid; neither fhall my hand be heavy upon thee.

all

"In this (fays Bp. Pearfon) appeareth the wif dom and goodness of God, that making a general Judgment, he will make a visible Judge, whom may fee who fhall be judged. Without holiness no man fhall ever fee God; and, therefore, if God, as God only, fhould pronounce fentence upon all men, the ungodly fhould never fee their Judge. But that both the righteous, and unrighteous, might fee and know who it is that judgeth them, Chrift, who is both God and Man, is appointed Judge; fo, as he is Man, all fhall fee him; and, as he is God, they only fhall fee him, who by that vifion fhall enjoy him."

11. "And, fecondly, whom can we desire to appear before, rather than Him who is of the fame nature with us? If the Children of Ifrael could not bear the presence of God as a Lawgiver, but defired to receive the Law by the hand of Mofes,how fhould we appear before the prefence of that God, judging us for the breach of that Law, were it not for a better Mediator, of the fame nature that Mofes was and we are, who is our Judge ?"--Having dwelt in flefh, and in the days of his flesh having fuffered, being tempted, he perfectly knows our frame knows what fore temptations mean, and is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. Befides, he is our near kinfman, our own brother, a defcendant of our father Adam, of our flesh, and of our bone; and, therefore, "for his affinity with our nature, for his fenfe of our infirmities, as well as for his appearance to our eyes, he is most fit to reprefent the greatest mildness and fweetness of equity, in the severity of that juft and irrefpective judgment. 12. "Nor

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12. "Nor is this a reason only in refpect of us who are to be judged, but, thirdly, in regard of him alfo who is to judge; for we must not look only upon his being the Son of Man, but also upor what he did and fuffered as Son of Man. He humbled himfelf fo far as to take upon him our nature, in that nature, so taken, he humbled himfelf to all the infirmities which that was capable of-to all the miferies which this life could bring -to all the pains and forrows, which the fins of all the world could caufe; and, therefore, in regard of his humiliation did God exalt him; and part of the exaltation due unto him, was: this power of judging. The Father, therefore, who is only God, and never took upon him either the nature of Men or Angels, judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son; and the reason why he hath committed it to him, is, becaufe he is, not only the Son of God and truly God, but alfo the Son of Man, and fo truly Man because he is the Son of Man who fuffered fo much for the fons of men.

13. And certainly it is a great demonftration of the juftice of God, fo highly to reward that' Son of Man, as to make him Judge of all the world, who came into the world, and was judged here; to give him abfolute power of abfolution and condemnation, who was by us condemned to die, and died that he might abfolve us; to cause all the fons of men to bow before his Throne, who did not difdain, for their fakes, to ftand.before the Tribunal, and receive that fentence, "Let him be crucified." He, therefore, who for the fuffering of death was made a little lower than the Angels, nay, lower than the generality of men,

-who was arraigned as a criminal at the bar of Pilate, and expired as a malefactor on a cross on Calvary, is now rewarded and crowned with glory and honour, comes. in the Clouds of Heaven, fits on a Throne of Judgment, fummons all nations to his Bar, and paffes an irreversible fentence on Men and Angels !:

"O`how