right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven." Agreeably to this, when Jefus was afcending, the angels who stood by faid to those who were prefent on that occafion, (Acts i. 11) " Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This fame Jefus, whom ye fee taken up from you into heaven, fhall fo come in like manner fee him go into heaven."

as ye

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When he was examined before Pilate, and appeared in a state of the greatest humiliation, being asked whether he was a king, he acknowledged it, but added, (John xviii. 36) My kingdom is not of this world." When he was going to the place of crucifixion, and fome women were weeping and lamenting over him, he said, (Luke xxiii. 28) "Daughters of Jerufalem, weep not for me, but for yourselves, and your children ;” and when he was about to expire on the cross, the last words that he spoke expreffed his faith and confidence in the divine favour. For crying with a loud voice, he said, (Luke xxiii. 46) "Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit; and having thus faid, he gave up the ghoft."

After

After his refurrection we cannot wonder at his confidence with respect to his fecond coming, for the glorious purpose which he had fo often mentioned. To this he alluded when he faid to Peter, who, after being informed of fome circumstances relating to his own death, inquired concerning the fate of John, (John xxi. 22) "If I will, that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee."

This full confidence which Jefus evidently had of his rifing after death to a state of immortal life and great glory, is altogether inconfiftent with his being an impoftor. There is no imaginable ground of this great confidence, but in the fullest persuasion of his having a divine miffion, and confequently that every thing that he had announced would be realized. With this perfuafion he was able to bear all the fufferings, and even the torturing death, to which he was deftined: but without it he certainly would, if he had been a man like other men, have abandoned any prospect of advantage that an impoftor could poffibly have had. Admitting that an impoftor might, with a view to posthumous fame (which in the cafe of Jefus it

was impoffible that he should have had) have fubmitted to a fpeedy, and not very painful death, as by the axe, or the halter, the feeling of torture and a lingering death, would have had the effect of extorting a confeffion; and a person might continue a long time nailed to a crofs, and yet be recovered on being taken from it. But Jefus never shrunk from any feeling of pain, though he was fix hours on the crofs, and at length expired in confequence of the torture,

3.

DISCOURSE IV. PART II.

THE circumftance that renders the confideration of the fecond coming of Chrift to raise the dead of importance to us, is that the future life to which we fhall then be raised will be a state of just retribution, in which the righteous will be rewarded, and the wicked punished. This has in fome measure appeared in what I have already quoted; but the fubject is fo very interesting, that it is well worth our while to take a

review of all that our Lord faid upon it, that our minds may be duly impreffed by it; the great bufinefs of this life being our preparation for another.

When he was explaining to his disciples the parable of the tares, he said, (Matt. xiii. 39) "The harvest is the end of the world, and the reapers are the angels. As therefore the tares are gathered, and burned in the fire, fo fhall it be at the end of this world. The fon of man will fend forth his angels, and they fhall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them that do iniquity, and fhall caft them into a furnace of fire. There fhall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the fun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear let him hear."

Also, in his explanation of the parable of the net that was caft into the fea, and took fishes of every kind, which the fishermen afterwards separated, he faid, (Matt. xiii. 49)" So fhall it be at the end of the world. The angels fhall come forth, and fever the wicked from among the just, and shall cast them

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them into the furnace of fire. There shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth."

When he was exhorting his hearers to prefer the future life to the present, and, if neceffary, to facrifice the latter to the former, he added, as a reafon for it, (Matt. xvi. 27) " For the fon of man will come in the glory of his Father, with his holy angels, and then he will render to every man according to his works."

Of this he gave a much fuller, though more figurative account, in a difcourfe which he held not long before his death, in which he represents all mankind affembled before him, when he divides them into two claffes, the righteous and the wicked, and pronounces a sentence upon them according to their respective characters and conduct. Matt. xxv. 31, "When the fon of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then fhall he fit on 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 he fhall fet the sheep on his right hand, but

the