Appendix C: Sermon

‘And iMth given him to execute judgment alao becawne be a the Sod t. 27.

Ir oar toxt affirmed that Jesns Christ was ordained the Judge of all, because he is the Son of CM, it were a matter of no great difficulty to discover some of the reasons of such an appointment. The necessary preparations, the act itself of deciding the eternal state of all, and the giving effect to this final award, — all demand and proclaim that none other than a Divine Person may sit on that tribunaL The parties, whose actions the great day is to review, must be summoned from their repose of years, or centuries, or millenniums, by a voice not inferior in majesty to that which shakes the wilderness. The Judge must possess an arm, strong enough to drag reluctant generations before his bar, so that none, — no, not the mighty monarchs of the earth, — shidl be able to offer effectual resistance. He must have an eye so piercing, that no shadow of death can hide a single trembling criminal) and that, of the inconceivable multitude that shall stand before him, not one individual shall be able to elude its glance, or pass undistinguished in the throng. He must have an understanding comprehensive enough to grasp all the deeds of all the men on whom the snn ever shone, to fathom their motives, to estimate their character, to pronounce their doom. And, after the first grand object, for which the vast assembly was convened, hajs been accomplished, — after mankind have been judged out of the things written in the books, it remains that, if he would not hold up his authority to the scorn of his subjects, he should make infallible provision for carrying his allotments into full effect; so that, as no reluctancy could exempt from appearing at his bar, so not the fiercest struggles of despair shall stop the execution of his sentence. In short, his arm must be omnipotence; his eye, omniscience; his word, the universal law. It B’6hd that must be the Judge of all; and, were the Redeemer no more than man, — nay, were he the most honoured and most scrutinizing spirit that ever rejoiced in heaven, — were he other than the mighty God and the everlasting Father, he were unequal to the burden of go weiffhty a judicature.

Bat it would seem from the words of our text, that from bis manhood, as well as from his Grodhead, he derives a fitness for presiding in this ultimate assize. It would seem, that, though there may be other reasons — hidden among those profrindities of the Divine nature and counfels which the line of our reason is too short to sound — why the second Person of the Eternal Three, rather than the Father or the Spirit, should adjudge to every man his final destiny, — yet this is certainly one most sufficient reason, that the Word was made flesh, and still continues incarnate. It would seem, that, in addition to those general qualifications for this office of loftiest dignity, which are his in virtue of his Divinity, he possesses others of a special and peculiar kind in virtue of his being clothed wiUi the nature of man. Now, a connection between his humanity and his function of judgment, thus explicitly asserted for our learning, cannot but afford the materials of profitable, if modest and reverent, meditation; and we only strive to be wise up to what is written, when we would search the Scriptures for the reasons and constituents of this connection. Great, indeed, above measure, are the works of the Lord; and, certainly, this work of judgment holds no mean place among them: yet are they sought out of all them that have pleasure therein. Remembering, then, that the ground whereon we stand is pre-eminently holy, and imploring the guidance of that Spirit who sefifTcheth all Uiiiin, let us addresB onnelYcs to thk high oonteooil*’ tion, and learn, if we may, how it is that the Father hath given the Son authority to execute judgment, because his name is Ewmanuei And,

1. Christ’s investiture with this authority seems to be fl#0eiiar|f to ike eompUtemeu of hii kmy ofiu.

We need not detain you by showing at length, that the kingdom which our Lord administers is a mediaibanal kingdom, and that it is in hb Amuuhi nature that he is set at God’s riht hand in the heavenly places, iax above all principality and power. That he rules at he is, and h eauue he is the ineamaU God, — that there is some connection, which we stop not now to investigate, between his manhood and his peculiar sovereigntyy — is implied in the tenor of all those Scriptures that make mention of his rrign. If he is txdUed to be a Prince as well as a Saviour, — if he is gheu to be the Head over all things to the Church, — if his Father hath appoinUd him a kingdom, — it is obvious that all this can be said of him, only as he is a partaker of flesh and Uood, in which capacity alone it was possible for him to receive a dominion. In his <mv ginal and ineffable majesty, he was, by a glorious necepsity of nature, the upholder of all things by the word ff his power, and the object of all creation’s worship; inscmuch that, before the foundations of the earth were laid, he could have been hailed with the adoring exclamationi ‘Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever!’ Such is the native and independent royalty, essentially annexed to his Godhead, — an empire so vast, that it has no limit save what his own will may set to the forthgoings of his crei five energy, — a dynasty so ancient, that in the abyss of. the past eternity, you will search in vain for the traces of its origin. Had he borne, therefore, no other nature than the Divine, it were impossible that he should have received a kingdom by dispensation of his Father. Yet, that he did so, the whole scheme of salvation emphatically into- ’ claims. It remains, then, that this recepdon of a kingdom is among those actions that belong more peculiarly to his humanity; that, when he is exdUedy it is as one chosen out of the people; and that, since, as the Son of Godj he was from everlasting the sharer of his Father’s throne, — when all power is given him in heaven and in earth, it must have been given because he it the Son of Man.

The sway thus conferred for his Church’s benefit, m every consideration of the Divine wisdom must assure us.

comprehends all the principles and elements of a perfect dominion, — every thing that can contribute to insure star bilitj, or to encircle the throne with a fitting dignity and lustre. It was typified by the kingdom of Solomon, in the earlier and more prosperous periods of his reign, when a power, which no enemy had the daring to oppose, walked hand in hand with a consummate and heaven-bom prudence, — and when all the glories of a dominion, extending from sea to sea, and reposing in the abundance of peace, were enhanced — if indeed they were not eclipsed — by the more excellent glory of a monarch who possessed an understanding heart to judge his people. Now, in accordance, both with our most accurate and elevated conceptions of the regal office, and with what is required to answer the type in the fulness of its meaning, it is fit and suitable that the throne of eternal judgment should be oqcupied by him who has in all things the pre-eminence. It belongs to a king to be the fountain of justice, and shall he have no control over its streams? From him the laws are primarily to emanate; and would there be harmony or consistency in a scheme of administration, which should prevent him from seeing that they are executed; and, while it placed him in the seat of legislation, should sternly exclude him from the seat of judgment 1 Where were the respect due to majesty, if it could only frame the statute, and perhaps wield the sword, but durst take no concern in holding the impartial scales? And where the completeness of royal authority, if, after subduing his people’s enemies, the triumplumt monarch must transfer the adjudication of their punishment to other hands, and thus be robbed of half the fruit and honour of his victory! Our Saviour is invested with no such modified and measured sovereignty. His is the honour of a royalty, perfect and unbroken in all its parts and prerogatives. His wisdom devised the statutes of his kingdom, — he gave Jacob a testimony, and Israel a law; his power is armed against those who transgress them; and, in order to make his sway complete, it belongs to his justice to summon all his subjects to one vast assembly, that he who enacted the ordinance may execute the judgment. His government is not stricken with such imbecility of counsel, or his mind so distracted with the multiplicity of cares, that he must leave to others the crowning act of his monarchy, — that act in which his infinite understanding, as it would be most needed, would most conspicuously udne. Hence the Scripture tells us that he shall yj« the quick and the dead at his appearing and his Hndom; represents him not only as makii war, but as judging in righteousness; and seems not obficurely to specify two of die most important functions that enter into our idea of a perfect royalty, when it announces that the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lansiver, the Lord is our king. Were it otherwise, might we not ask, although with fearful and reverent amaasement, — Is CSirist divided? Is that changeless one, who is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever — to be putting forth, at one time, what some might deem a royal power, in legislating for Uie umv««e, — and, at another, to be striyed of soveienty, in being debarred from judgment? Is the everlasting dominion, after all, imperfect, sfaice there is one province of government into which it makes no esitranoe? Or, is the kingdom, of which Daniel prophesied that it should never be dettrojfed, to be mependedorvKUrntpUdy that another than he to whom the Ancient of days gave it, may administer its laws on one grand day of reckoning V But the inquiry is needless; our solicitude is spared. He wears not the robes of an imperfect royalty. If the Almighty Father annemioes that he has set his King upon his holy hill of Zion,^ — he assures us also, that tkere — on the sacred mount where Jesus reigns — he has set the thrones ofjudgmetU,

Observe, now, what we have gained in explanation of our text. We have shown you, briefly, that the kingdom which our Lord administers is the result of a peculiar economy — an eeonomy which turns wholly on the cardinal fact of his incarnation; insomuch that he is invested with the peculiar regal honours which he now bears, mainly in consequence of being the Son of man. But the kingly office, thus dependent on his humanity, were shorn of half its splendour, and his su|»*eme wisdom were shut out from a field of most appropriate and most needful exercise, if he were not constituted the Judge of all. And hence, if his kingly office dmnds on his humanity, and includes in it that declaration of doom which the last day shall witness, — if he reigns because he shares our nature, and, because he reigns, must hold the seat of a universal judicature — if that economy, by which his manhood is a main reason of his rule is combined with another economy, by which he who rules must judge; we are furnished with one sense, and that neither unimportant nor obscure, in which it is true, that the Father hath given him authority to execute judgment beecnue he is the San of man.

S<%, We observe that Christ is invested with a judicial authority, as a part of the reward of kit kvmiJIAatvcm, This, we would have you remark, is something quite distinct irom that completeness of regal dignity of which we have already spoken. That dignity of the Saviour is, indeed, in part, the joy set before him-*-the requital of his descent to BO low an abasement; but it is chiefly to be viewed as one of those offieet which were necessarily involved in his great work of mediation. He might have possessed a kingdom, independently of every idea of recompense, in vxrtue merely of his sustaining the part of a Redeemer; and, in consequence of this possession, we have seen that the seat of judgment is his due. But let us superadd to this the conception — unquestionably both reasonable and scriptural — of his exaltation being awarded him, because he abhorred not the Virgin’s womb, and bowed his head to the stroke of a death by himself unmerited, — let us add this conception, and we double our argmnent for the suitableness of his obtaining authority to execute judgment. We are, indeed, still looking at the same Jesus, — and beholding him still,, as Stephen did, on the right hand of God; but, while the object is the same, our point of view is different: instead of drawing our inference now from the entireness of his kingly state, we are to make it good from a consideration of the fitness of his reward; and, instead of regarding the crown of royalty and the robes of. judgment only as the insignia of his office, we shall endeavour to contemplate them as the omaments of his triumph.

To apprehend this argument, conceive, fiist, how mighty was the downward step, to which the eternal Word condescended, when he became a dweller in a tabernacle of clay; or rather, admire and adore a mystery, on which the most soaring of created intellects must ever exert itself in vain. That he, who was above the law, should be made under the law; that he, who was the essential image of the invisible God, should be shrouded in a vesture of earthliness; that he, who had reigned embosomed in uncreated glory, should make his visible entrance into his own world in the likeness of a nature which sin had marred and deformed; that he, in whom dwelt everlasting strength, should appear in the form of a weak and weeping iant; — this presents to us the overpassing of an infinite interval with so vast a condescension, that we can no more conceive of it aright, than scale the heavens, or measure that shoreless sea of space which on every side snrroiindfl us. Bnt scarcely have our minds had time to recoil upon themselves, baffled and amazed at this infinitude, ere another step of abasement, too great for their comprehension, challenges them to a new defeat. The Messiah assumes not me temporal throne of his father David, — he appears not as one of earth’s noblest and most honoured sons (although even this had been marvellous in him who humbleth himself to behold the things that are in heaven); but he is born in the mean chamber to which overbearing wealth had driven his mother’s unpretending poverty; the only member of the human race, of whom it could be said that he deserved no suffering, he yet meekly stofjped to the endurance of all; not shining forth as the bright centre of heaven’s attraction, he lived in obscurity; receiving not the homage which all creation owed him, he was subject to those whom his own hands had made; instead of the praises of eternity, he was encompassed by revilings, — instead of angelic attendants, by the fishermen of Galilee, or the rude soldiers of Rome; — worst of all, instead of enjoying the light of his Father’s countenance, he was visited with the intolerable sense of desertion and wrath, settling down like the shadow of death upon his spirit. To consummate his abasement, the Prince of life yielded to death a temporary triumph; and, instead of leaving this world in that perfect peace which his grace has shed aroimd so many expiring sufferers, he gave up the ghost in unparalleled ignominy and anguish. Herein indeed is love; here is condescension unutterable; a descent, first from heaven to earth, and then, from the deserts of a stainless purity, to the worst punishment that could have been dealt out to the very chief of sinners. If any honour could be added to that spotless humanity which the eternal Word had assumed into personal union with himself, surely it was nobly and dearly won, and would never be withheld by the Father, who set him apart for such a career of mercy and of suffering.

Accordingly we learn, that, beeaute he made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of man; because, being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself still farther, and became obedient to death, even the death of the cross; there/ore, Grod also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earthy and things under the earth; and that

Is very tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father* It is then the will of Him whose counsel all stand, that, as the fruit of his toils and sorrows, there shall one day resound, from the whole creation, the confession that Jesus Christ is the Lord supreme. Snt tphen shall that welcome sound be heard 1 Never, we believe, till the time of the end, when he, who was once smitten with a rod upon the eheek, shall appear as the Jndge of Israel, — when all his enemies shall have been put under his feet, and all his saints gathered together around him. So long as a foe is unsubdued, or a remnant of unbelief and unholiness resides in any of his people — so long will there be something to hinder the utterance of that confession in its fullest and largest compass. But, when all nations are gathered before him his people joyftdly acknowledging that power which has preserved them, and his enemies constrainedly, and from bitter experience, admitting his resistless might, then will that saying of the apostle obtain its complete fulfilment. So that, if that confession shall only then be fully made, when he comes to judge the world; if the confession itself is an important element in the reward of his humiliation; if no small part of his humiliation consisted in his assumption of manhood; it seems clear, that his assumption of manhood contains a reason for his pronouncing the ultimate award, — that the Father hath given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of man.

If you consider, also, the steps of his exaltation, you will see that they are in general correlative to those of his abasement. Was his birth mean and companionless? His second birth — his resurrection from the dead, was clothed with a majesty worthy of his nature, when the rocks were rent, and many bodies of the saints started from the sleep of ages, to do homage to their king? Was his visage marred more than any man’s, and his form morethan the sons of men 1 That body now shines in an excellent glory, of which his glistering raiment on Tabor was but the distant reflection. Did he make supplication, with strong crying and tears, to him that was able to deliver! He is now the object of the prayers of all believers; the constituted way, by whom alone it is that any man cometh unto the Father. Did he grieve under the hidings of that face, which had beamed on him from everlasting, with an inexpressible divine complacency! Yes, but now is that prophecy accomplished, * Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; thou shalt make me full of joy with thy counteiuuice.’ And, finding an analogy in so rnaaj parti’- colara, to which as many more might easily be addled, may we not infw that that correspondence of his reward to hu humiliation pervades the whole of his history and staiej and thaty because he stood (we will not say trakbiUd for he was tranquil and unmoved as innocence; but, because he iiood) before plate’s tribunal, there shall be enaeted, to match this degradation, a great scene of assize at which all the kindreds of the world shall await his dicxMsal? Then shall come the time of peculiar honour to the crucip fied Jesus; the purchase of fals pain; the very triumph of his victory. Then shall the Sun of righteousness, who appeared beforetime in dim and disastrous eclipse, break forth in all his native splendour; and he, who once seined but a root out of a diy ground, shall be admired as the rose of Sharon in full-blown loveliness. The bands, once nailed to the cross, shall bear the sceptre; the lips, once smitten, shall announce the destinies of eternity; the bead, once crowned with thorns, in cruel mockery, shall sparkle with many diadems, studded with countless jewels — the spirits whom he saved; the soul, that was once exceeding sorrowful even imto dh, shall thrill with a satis&ction, deep, glorious, divine. Then shall all confess that he is Lord, — the wicked in abject terror, and the righteous in joy unspeakable. Then his saints, when they see him raised so high because he stooped so Ibw, shall gladly read the full meaning of his saying, that this authority was given him becanue he is the Son of man; and, as they proceed, exulting, across the everlasting hills of heaven to their final habitation, the burden of their song shall be, that all this gladness and all this glory have issued from that fountain which was opened by the soldier’s spear.

3. We remark that Christ is constituted the Judge of all, in order that there might be a nimkiU Judge.

‘No man hath seen God at any time; the only begot* ten Son, who y& in the bosom of the Father, be Imth declared him.* In the divine communications with oar race, the Incarnate One has evw been the great medium of intercourse. Like speech, which embodies the impalpable and aetherial something that men call thought, the Word has graciously brought nigh unto us the Father, who dwelleth afar in the light that is inaccessible. In the days of patriarchs and prophets, he gave such disclosures of himself as formed a sure presage of another and a clearer advent; lie announced himself to Abraham as his »hield and exceeding great reward; he was the Angel who redeemed Jacob from all evil; it was he that sptSce with Moses, as a man with his friend; and it was he whom Isaiah beheld on a throne high and lifted up, and of whose glory he revealed as much as it was befitting for unclean lips to utter. In due season, these mysterious omens obtained their accomplishment; he assumed a true and permanent humanity; and, filling up the shadowy outline which he had traced as the Messenger of the Covenant he gave a more explicit revelation of the Father. And now, as the glorified Son of man, he abideth ever — the visible representative of an unseen Godhead — the Shechinah of the heavenly temple. But another grand exhibition of the Divine character and counsels is yet to come; when, before the myriads of men and angels assembled, he will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and judge the secrets of every heart. Can it be, that the function of declaring the Father shall have expired before that day of disclosure comes? or rather, is there not a fitness in the arrangement, whereby he, who has been the medium of Divine maniiestation hitherto, should be the tiiible medium of Divine manifestation then?

Consider the nature of those who shall stand before that dread tribunal. It shall be no company of unembodied spirits; but the souls of mankind, inhabiting the same tabernacles which here encased them, — only no more to see corruption. Now, we all know the power of the eye and ear,’ those great avenues of feeling, in the production either of terror or of joy; and how vastly the hearing of the ear rises in impressiveness, when it is aided by the faithful painting of the eye. A. voice might have come from heaven to Ahab, as he walked, in guilty satisfaction, through the rows of Naboth’s well-trained and fruitful vines; and he, who had so oft resisted the still small voice within, might have passed off tkU sound lightly, as proceeding from some lurking malcontent or ambushed foe ,* but when, like a statue, cold and stilly unchanged in feature, unabashed by the presence of royalty, the figure of Elijah stood before him, — that marble visitant shot a chillness into his very soul; the king quailed before the prophet, and faltered out his fear in the tremulous inquiry, ‘Hast thou found me, O mine enemy!’ A voice from heaven did come, when our Saviour was baptized in Jordan, proclaiming him the well-beloved of the Father; but think joo that that aoond, fltnage and scdeiim aa it vw, sank 80 deeply into the hearts of those who heard it, as the same words into the hearts of the three disciples on an after day, when there bnrst forth on Tabor a single bewn of that glory which is yet to be revealed on the heavenly IQont

Since, then, the ear, and especially the eye, forms the main entrance of whatever is to affect the mind; since our Maker knoweth our frame, and treats his creatures, in his wisdom, according to the constitution he has given them, is there not an obvious fitness in supplying the closingscene of this world’s history with all that is calculated to keep the eye vigilant, as well as the ear attentive, — in providing not only that mysterious trumpet to awaken the sleeping generations, but also a vitilie Judge to fix, in awful reverence, the gaze of the unnumbered mnltituci!

Not certainly, that such an element of angnstnees is needed to throw around the Godhead an additional majesty (the thought were blasphemous), but that it is needed to carry some rays of that majesty to the minds of those who are not bodiless and aerial spirits, but the tenants of a structure, which, refined and immortalised though it be, is still materiaL To such a nature, when deeds done in the body are to be quoted as the measure of the ultimate doom

the appointment of a visible Judge contains, palpably, a

most wise adaptation; and the consideration of the &ct, that such a nature is ours, may serve to heighten the emphasis of Isaiah’s declaration, that ‘^ the Lord shall cause his glorious voice to be heard, and shall Aaw the lighting down of his arm;” to disclose the ground of Job’s rejoicing, because in his flesh he should tee Grod; and to saggest a most valid reason for the statement of our text, that ’ the Father hath given the Son authority to execute judgment, becanue he is the Son of man.’

But we stop not here in our argument for the desirableness of letting those who are to receive the sentence 6e4oU Him who is to pronounce it. We argue, also, that the honour and equity of Heaven’s high jurisdiction must be preserved unimpeached and unimpeachable. Now, w&e the Judge unseen, there might remain (we say not with the shadow of justice, but still there migkt remain) to the wicked the materials of murmuring and complaint. They might say that they had been sacrificed to a dark and dismal inquisition; abandoned to a doom over which hung the cloud of an impenetrable mystery; hurried from a dead

VBbroken stoMse, with no crime alleged, and no liberty of ^fenoe aooorded, to their prison of eternal woiliiKg; the victiBiB of a sentence, proceeding they knew not ydivnoe, and paased they knew not why, and exeonted they knew not how aave that all was done with fearful and despotic randity. This utmost refuge of cavilling shall no be given. The Bon of man is Judge, that evy eye may see him. All will be done * in open court; in the face and andienoe of the universe.’ * The criminate shall be oonfironted with their Judge. “And as we learn from our Lewd himself, if any one dares tojmutt dissent from his equal allotments, the miserable plea shall be heard, and weired in the balances, and found wanting: When saw we tkee an hungered, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in piison, and did not minister unto thee I” Inasmnch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me’ Thus unchallenged, or, if challenged, triumphantly vindicated, eternal justice shall hold on her eoiorBe; and thus, that every mouth may be stopped, hath Jems obtained * authority to execute judgment, beecuae he ia the Son of mam,’

It is now time to add,

^thip. That the humanity of Christ qualifies him for being a affrnpaihrnng judge. In the words of the prophet, * Therefore shall the LonL be exalted, that he may have mercy.’

It may seem strange to you, on a first announcement, that we flould speak of sympathy aa a quality which is desirable in a judge. You have been wont, probably, to opneeive of (me who is placed on a tribunal, as occupying a majeaiic elevation, where any such feeling, even though entertaiited, ought never to be shown; to invest justice with every attribute of hard constraint and immiUgable Btemness; to point her as ruling with.a vod of iron, bearing the sctre of an adamantine sway. And no doubt, in the caae of fallible men, in whom, i£ mingled at all with milder ingredients, she is either enervated by irresolution or corrupted by partiality, there may be some cause for endeavouring to abstract her from softer feelings, and some temptation to view her as most perfect when she is most Mistere. But, in the Divine mind, we may not look upon the attribute as thus naked and unrelieved. The light and the love of that glorious character, we cannot — we would not separate. There, justice is never for a moment disjoined from gentleness; mercy and truth are met in indis- * QnoUd, it ii Mlisfed, firom Jtanvwip; ImC only memerHer.

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Boluble oompapiofiship; righteousness and peace are locked in one eternal embrace; ue awards of equity are tempered by so tender an affection, that even when he sharply rebukes, his| repentings are kindled together; the soft snd the severe melt into each other, like the brighter and darker hues in that glorious bow which is the emblem of His covenant of peace.

Now, in the final reckoning, the Lord would manifest this blessed peculiarity of his government. He would allay to us the terrors of Deity; and in his own unerring wisdom, he attains his end, by raising Jesus to the throne of judgment, became he u the Son of mam. In him we recognise a Judge who is touched with a feeling of our infirmities. Were we to be arraigned before a &od, of whose throne justice and judgment — unmitigated — were the habitation, our sole feeling would be that of the afiiighted Israelites, — * Let not God speak with us, lest we die. But goodness is co-ordinate wiUi justice on that tribunal; and the way which Infinite Wisdom has adopted, to mark this character of its ultimate decisions, is to put the authority of executing judgment into the hands of him who is bone of our bone, and who, as a high-priest over the house of God, has already proved himself to be merdjul as well B&faiid,

It would seem, moreover, that the appointment to this high jurisdiction, of one who can sympathize with the trembling multitudes at his bar, is desirable (we will not say ‘necessary’) for precluding any one from reclaiming against his sentence. We are far from thinking that the Monarch of the universe was hound to adopt such a measure for securing a full and unanimous acquiescence in the proceedings of the great day; but the measure once adopted, and the man Christ Jesus once ordained to be the Judge, we can easily see how completely the end is thereby attained of stopping or shaming every murmur against hu awards. Were an angelic nature elevated to the seat of judgment, we can understand how the finally rejected, grasping eagerly at any poor alleviation which an impeachment of the equity of their sentence might be thought to yield, would argue that such a one, moving in a higher sphere, inhaling (as it were) a purer aether, unconscious of that gravitation whereby the souls of men are made to cleave unto the dust, and, therefore, void of any thing like sympathy with the subjects of his junsdiction,-MSould make no proper account of the difficulties and temptations which palliated their offences, and thus, from the want of such an essential element of computation, could not strike a fair and equitable balance between their virtues and their <)rimes: and we can even imagine some lost spirit, in the audacity ministered by desperation, uttering the like complaint against him who is the Iiord of ange£. The human nature of our Judge is the ground of an easy reply. To such a plea if urged in arrest of judgment, it might be said, — Look agtdn to the midst of the throne, and see whether the dispenser of doom is not one like unto the Son of fnan. Yes! thou that replie£(t against God, it is no enemy that judges thee; no, nor one indifferent; but a friend; one whose delights have long been with the sons of men; who was tempted in all points like thyself; who is still of the same mind as when he prayed for his murderers; who is not nufied to a cold and haughty elevation, but qualifies the awfulness of Deity with the warm and overflowing tenderness of a most perfect manhood. If he condemns, where in the universe is there a holy being who would absolve? If mercy itself denounces wrath, where’ will one be found to gainsay the sentence I Cease, then, to quarrel with divine justice, as something harsh and severe; it is compassion that holds the scales; the judgment of the great day will involve nothinig inconsistent with the softest sym-X>athy, for he who presides in it is the Son of man; and when he spei, the heavens themselves shall declare his righteousness.

But we have not forgotten, that besides those who might be disposed to cavil at the allotments of that assize, another ‘class remains, whose case can be met only by the appointment of a sympathizing Judge. There are many — perhaps a majority — of his own people, whose spirits would fail within them at thought of meeting an ahtolute Deity; and whose feelings, in such a prospect, these words of David would best express, — ‘My flesh trembleth for fear of thee, and I am afraid of thy judgments.’ For their reassurance, it is wisely and well ordered that he who is to execute judgment is the Son of man. Let them but be Teminded that the occupant of the throne is not ashamed to call them brethren; that he loved them more than his own Ufe; that on the mystic vesture in which he is robed above, his people’s names are inscribed for an everlasting memorial; and faith may again be able to assert her empire. Their Advocate is their Judge; and who is he that condenmeth A fearfol tempest, indeed, awaits the world at the great and dreadful day; but their Lord and d80

liaster — his hiunaa sympttthi unimpaired by hisglatifNiB €leTation — shall walk the angry waves, and role in the midst of their fiercest commotion; and they shall hear, from his voice of placid miestyy the words of ^leooragement, — * It is I, be not afraid, In a word, a constant operative c<mviction of the tmth that their Judge is cmsctible of that nameless feeling of fellowship which springs from the possession of a common natare — ^ihat He is, in very deed, the Son of moa — is one most valuable mean of promoting their comfort and establishmwit. By meditating on this truth, th are brought to low his appearing — to think of his coming as the signal for thor return to Zion with songs and everlasting joy, — to fed that the pale horse will bat bear them to Fiinmannel’s Isnd — to look forward to the tramp of €rod as that silver trumpet whose welcome note shall soond their invitation to an endless jubilee.

And now, brethren, what shall we say to these things! It is truly an impressive, an overpowering thought, that our eyet shall bAdd the Lord when he comes forth to judgment. Has it obtained that deep seat in our convictions, that constraining power over our conduct, which it may most rightfully challenge I Not more surely do we see each other now, than on that great day which is so swiftly approaching, they shall see the Sem of man ccHning in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. Has this amazing certainty ever impelled us solemnly to put the question, how we shall Stand when he 4ipaareth! If so, what is the tenor of the answer which conscience has returned!

Are there here any who can say, humbly yet hopefully, that they have fled fnmi themselves to him; that in him their confidence against that day is all reposed; thai in his righteousness alone they would wish to be eacalted! Brethren, do your hearts misgive you, when you contemplate, from afar, the great white throne t Why should this be! Your Brother sits on it; he whose name has been to you as ointment poured forth — who is all your salvation and all your desire. Lift up your heads, then; grasp your privU^e of a good hope through grace, of a holy confiding joy. Call him no longer Baali, but lahif your Master no longer, but your Husband; for lo 1 he declares that he appoints you a kingdom, even as his Pather hath appointed him. And whenever Satan would attempt to subject you to bwidage through the fear of death and of a subsequent judgment, remember that he who is to execute that judgment is the Bon of man, whom, having not seen, ye love, and for whose glorious appearing it is your duty and privilege to wait -with a calm unruffled expectation.

On the other hand, are there any who feel that they have never unfeignedly submitted to the righteousness of Christ, or who are in a doubt about their condition, as painful and (if rested in) as dangerous, as the most dreadftd certainty? We would warn you that he cometh quickly — that 8aviour whom you have wronged, dishonoured, and disclaimed, — that he cometh with clouds, and ecery eye skaU 966 Aim, and they also which pierced him. How, if you continue impenitent to the end, will you endure the sight? How will you bear the lightning of his eye I How will you stand in his presence, before whose face the heaven and the earth shall flee away? Can you think without a shudder, of taking your dreary place among those kindreds of the earth which shall wail because of him! The rapid approach of those scenes of astonishment, at which all £eices, that are not lightened by Him, shall gather blackness, is no dream — no sickly and unfounded fancy; ere long, they shall pass in startling succession before our eyes. The hour is coming, cmd now is, in which all that are in their graves shall hear his voice,’ evoking them from their long imbroken slumber. And if there is one ingredient in uie cup of trembling, which, above all others, renders it a cup of insupportable woe, — it is the thought of being condemned by a Judge so full of sympathy — of incurring the wrath of the Lamb.

If these his terrors will not persuade you, perhaps you will be drawn by the sweet constraint of his mercy. We preach him, not merely as a Prince, but as a Scmour. We implore you, in fleeing from his anger, to make trial of the tenderness of his compassion. The door is open, a%d the feast is spread; the guests are thronging in, but still there is room; the Master waits; rejected, scorned, contemned so long, he invites you still; — come, and he will rejoice over you in his love, and forgetting all your folly and perversity, he will yet cause you to be glad in his occupancy of the throne of judgment, and to account his exaltation to so high an authority, the very pledge and security of your happiness,

Feb, 27, 1837.