in assuming to himself the power to do so, declared himself to be truly God; and if not truly God, would stand convicted of all that impiety which his enemies, on such a supposition, so repeatedly imputed to him. Thus clear is the attestation which these facts bear to the divinity of Christ.

*

The last power I shall at present notice, clearly and exclusively attributed to our Lord, and which as clearly and irrefutably establish his divinity-is his power, to act as JUDGE OF MANKIND, at the great day of final retribution. This our text distinctly affirms to belong to him, and at the same time clearly states as its necessary consequence, that the Son fully partakes the divine power and dignity of the Father. "The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son, that all men may honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son, honoureth not the Father which hath sent Him."

At that great consummation will the crucified Messiah return, crowned with the unclouded glory of the supreme divinity. Then those various powers, which we have marked as exhibited by him during his ministry on earth, (each of which separately supplied a clear and decisive character of divinity,) will all be exercised with united energy and transcendent glory. That power restoring life to the dead, which was displayed in raising from their graves a selected number, and above all in his own resurrection, by which "He led captivity captive," and triumphed over all the terrors of death, this power will he at the last day exercise in recalling to existence the whole human race, from Adam to the very last of his posterity. "Verily, verily, (says our Lord Christ,) the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live; for as the Father hath life in himself, so hath He given to the Son to have life in himself.Ӡ

This is so stupendous an exertion of almighty power, that human imagination cannot reach, or the sublimest imagery of prophetic vision adequately paint it. Hear one prophetic apostle : "We shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, (for the trumpet shall sound,) and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed :”‡ 1 Cor. xv. 51, 52.

See Note 17, page 134.

VOL. IV.

† John v. 25-30.

G

and another apostle: "I saw-and the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them."* Reflect on this, my fellow-Christians,—the voice which shall command, and the power which shall effect this, will be the voice of Christ, and the power of Christ. Surely, we must therefore conclude, that his must be the voice and his the power of GOD. This is a work which nothing less than Omnipotence can achieve; this is a dignity which to the almighty God only can belong.

But Christ, the Son of Man and Son of God, will then appear, not only as the Lord of life and death, but as the Searcher of all hearts, the supreme Moral Governor of the universe, the God of truth and justice, the Judge of all the earth.

These attributes and offices are, in every part of Scripture, repeatedly and exclusively ascribed to JEHOVAH; and they are with equal clearness ascribed to the Son of God, to whom "the Father hath committed all judgment."

"The Lord," says the psalmist, "shall endure for ever; he hath prepared his seat for judgment, and he shall judge the world in uprightness." "God," says the royal preacher, "shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil."‡ Now it is as clearly and as positively declared by the prophets, and in the New Testament, that the person by whom this great work of judgment shall be executed, is the Messiah, the Son of God and the Son of Man, the Lord Jesus Christ. "I beheld," says Daniel, till the thrones were placed, and the Ancient of Days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool; his throne was like the fiery stream, and his wheels as burning fire; a fiery stream issued and came forth from before him; thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened." "I saw in the night vision, and behold, one like the Son of Man was brought to the Ancient of Days, and they brought him near before him: and there was given him dominion and glory, and a kingdom that all people, nations, and languages should Eccles. xii. 14.

* Revelation xx. 13.

Psalm ix. 7, 8.

serve him his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed."

Thus clothed with the dominion and authority of the supreme moral Ruler of the universe, he is to execute judgment: "The Father," says our Lord, "judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment to the Son, and hath given him authority to execute it, because he is the Son of Man." Then, as if apprehensive that his hearers might receive with incredulity, as utterly impossible, the declaration, that an office which undeniably required the exertion of divine Omniscience and Omnipotence, should be exercised by a Being, appearing, as he who then spoke appeared, clothed in human nature, our Lord repeated his declaration, and removed the apparent objection by declaring that as man he could do nothing; but that it was by his perfect union in nature, power, and will with God the Father, He should exercise the authority, and discharge the office of Judge of all the earth. "Marvel not," said He, at this, "for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his (the Son of Man's) voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation. I can of mine own self (that is, as a mere human being,) do nothing; as I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not mine own will, but the will of my Father which hath sent me." Here, to enemies who would not view him in any other than his human character, and "sought to kill him, because he not only had broken the Sabbath," by a miracle of healing on that day, "but said also, that God was his Father, thus, (as they rightly judged,) making himself equal with God;"‡ here it was indispensably necessary, in order to refute the charge, and avert the punishment of blasphemy, that He should unequivocally state, that all the powers He claimed, and all the authority He exercised, were exercised in consequence of his union with the Father, and in concurrence with his will. But on another occasion, when his apostles were apprized of his divine as well as of his human nature, he spoke of himself to them, and they

*Daniel, vii. 9, 10, 13, 14.

↑ John, v. 25-31.

John, v. 16-31.

spoke of him, as exercising, of his own right, as well as in his own person, this stupendous dignity of universal Judge. Hear our Lord describing this last awful hour: "The sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken; and then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven; and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory, and He shall send HIS ANGELS, with the great sound of the trumpet: and they shall gather together HIS ELECT from the four winds, from the one end of heaven unto the other." And again, "When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall He sit upon the throne of his glory; and before him shall be gathered all nations, and He shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats; and these shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal.”*

Nor is this all. Not only is it Christ by whom we shall be judged, but the law of Christ, and the gospel of Christ, is the rule by which we shall be tried. Obedience to, and faith in Christ, will be the conditions of acceptance; the secrets of all hearts will by Christ be discovered, and from him shall come the sentence that shall fix our eternal destiny.

This is clear and unquestionable. In proof of it read the parablest by which our Lord illustrates the principles which are to direct this judgment; the descriptions of the faithful and vigilant servant, contrasted with the careless and evil; of the wise with the foolish virgins; of the talents; of the questions which our Lord himself will put, to determine whether men are to be classed with the righteous or the wicked. Hear also his awful declaration; 66 Whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of Man confess before the angels of God; but he that denieth me before men, shall be denied before the angels of God." Consider that in the same manner shall be distinguished,

* Matt. xxiv. 29-32, and xxvi. 31 to the end.

† Vide Matt. xiii. xvi. xviii. xix. xx. xxiv. xxv.; Mark, xii. xiii; Luke, xviii. xix. xx. xxi. xxii.; John, v. x. xiv. xv. xvi. + Luke, xii. 8, 9.

those who favour, from those who persecute "the Church of God," that is, "the Church of Christ." "the Church of Christ." And finally reflect, that in the argument by which St. Paul cheers his Thessalonian converts under persecution, he perpetually identifies Christ and God as one and the same in dominion, and judgment, and grace, and majesty. "We ourselves," says the apostle,

glory in you, in the churches of God, for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations which ye endure; which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer: seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them who trouble you; and to you who are troubled, rest with us when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven, with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them who know not God, and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the glory of his power; when He shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe, because our testimony among you was believed in that day."* Oh, my friends, do not these solemn warnings place the importance of believing or rejecting the great truth, which we have been now discussing, as well as the other great truths of the gospel, in a very serious and awful light;-very different, I fear, from that in which such belief or rejection is too generally considered?

And here I will, for the present, close this argument. Single texts may be distorted, or refined away.† The union of the human with the divine nature in Christ, his inferiority to the Father as touching his manhood, though he was notwithstanding truly God, "for in him dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead;" this may and must produce many passages speaking of Christ in his human nature, which may appear difficult to reconcile with those which speak of him as God; but yet, that union of nature does and must reconcile them. But what could explain away the whole series of facts adduced in this discourse? What can reconcile the idea of Christ being no more than a mere human creature, and like other prophets and teachers sent from

• 2 Thes. i. 4-10.

+ See Note 18, page 85.

Coloss. ii. 9.