ture, who is fenfible of the Follies, Temptations, and Infirmities of it, who will not judge us as if we were Angels, or unbodied Spirits; but will remember that we are Men, that we are the Race of Apoftate man, that we have a corrupt Nature within, a tempting World, and a tempting Devil without.

If this then will fatisfie us, God has appointed a Man for our Judge; one who is our Bro ther, Flesh of our flesh, and Bone of our bone; one who has fuffered, and has been tempted as we are, who has lived in the midft of a wicked World, and knows the Conversation of Mankind, how easily Men are turned afide by Example, and Perfuafion, and Intereft, by Fears and Flatteries; and has a great Pity for the Weaknesses of Men, and will make all favourable Allowances for them.

Nay, more than this, we have not only a Man, but God-Man for our Judge; a God perfonally united to Humane Nature. All Mankind have a great perfuafion of God's Goodness, that the kindeft and moft compaffionate Man in the World, falls infinitely fhort of the Goodnefs of God; but they are afraid of his Holinefs, and of his Juftice; that thefe Attributes will not fuffer him to make fufficient Allowances for the Weakness of Humane Nature: On the other hand, tho' Men know enough to pity each others Infirmities, yet they are not always the most favourable Judges to one another; in reafon it fhould be fo, that thofe who are expofed to the fame Temptations themselves, who feel the Weakneffes and Infirmities of Humane Nature, fhould pity those R

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who are overcome by them; but it is not always fo, and therefore we cannot always rely on it: But when God becomes Man, we have all the Goodness of God, and all the tender Compaffion of a Man, in their utmost Perfection; that when God-Man is our Judge, if either God or Man can help us, we are fafe; no Man need be afraid of fuch a Judge, who has not out-finned the Mercies of a God, and the tender Compaffions of a Man; and he who has, muft perish, and the most merciful Man muft vindicate the Juftice of God in it.

Efpecially, 2. When we remember that this Man is the Saviour of Mankind: He who is our Judge became Man, that he might be our Saviour; and can we defire a more equal and favourable Judge than the Saviour of Mankind? We may be fure he has all the Kindness for us that we can defire: It was a mighty Love to Human Nature which brought him from Heaven, and clothed him with Flesh and Blood, and expofed him to all the Miferies and Sufferings of this Life, for our fakes; and when he died and fuffered all this for us, can we fufpect he will be a fevere and unequal Judge? That he who died for Sinners, will condemn any Sinners whom he can fave? Has he then forgot his Agony and bloody Sweat, his Crofs and Paffion? Has he forgot that Love which brought him into the World, and which nailed him to the Crofs, for the Salvation of Sinners? We need not doubt but the Saviour of Mankind is more ftrongly inclined to

fave than to deftroy: Than to deftroy did I fay! far be it from the great Lover of Souls, that he fhould have any inclination to destroy: This is foreign to his Design, this is against his Will, this is a force upon his Nature and Government; he is Incarnate and Embodied Love; Mercy is the Temper and Complexion, the Glory and Triumph of his Kingdom, and therefore none fhall eternally perish, but those whom Infinite and Incarnate Love cannot fave.

For we must remember, that he has now purchased us with his own Blood, that he has an Intereft in us, that every Sinner he condemns, he pronounces Sentence against himfelf, he rejects what might have been, and what he paffionately defired fhould have been his own; and therefore we may be certain he will condemn none, whom according to the moft favourable Conftruction of the Terms of the Gofpel, he can fave: I fay, we may be as certain of this, as we are (to allude to fome Parables of our Saviour) that a Man who has travelled into the Wilderness to find a loft Sheep, will bring it home upon his Back rejoycing, and not leave it to perish there, when he has found it; or that a Woman, who fought diligently for her loft Groat, and rejoyced at the finding of it, will not immediately fling it away again; or that a Father who has received his Prodigal Son with all the Festival Expreffions of Joy, will not immediately turn him out of his Family to feek his Fortune: No, Chrift has shed his Blood for us all, and the more he faves, the greater ReR 2 ward

ward he has of his Sufferings, the more numerous his Train and Retinue of redeemed Souls is, and Numbers add to the Glory of the Triumph This may convince all Mankind how merciful our Judge will be; and if we must be judged at all, could God do more for us, than to appoint the Man Chrift Jefus, who is our Saviour, to be our Judge?

But then confider on the other hand, what a terrible thing will it be, to be condemned by the Man Chrift Jefus, the Saviour of the World! What Tumults and Convulfions of Thoughts must such Sinners labour under! They must be Self-condemned; they must feel all the Agonies of Guilt and Defpair: For if they could reafonably excufe themfelves, or the moft merciful Man in the World could excuse them, their Judge would excufe them too. I know not how to bear the thoughts of this; the very imagination of it, amazes and confounds me! To be damned is a tolerable Punishment, in comparison of being damned by the Saviour of the World: And might I have been saved? will fuch a Sinner say: Did my Saviour, who is now my Judge, a terrible Judge, fhed his Blood for me? Did he purchafe Heaven for me? And does he now condemn me to Hell, and defervedly too, againft his own Inclinations, tho' he lofe the Purchase of his Blood by it? Ó Wretch that I am! might I have been faved? And muft Ibe damned, and damned by the Saviour of the World! What Fury and Paffion will accompany these thoughts, is not to be expreffed by words; and I pray God none of us may ever feel it.

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3. Another thing which made it fo fitting and congruous, that the Son of Man fhould judge the World, is, That he will be a visible Judge: It is very fitting the World should be vifibly judged; for without this, all the Pomp and Triumph of Judgment; nay, fome of the principal Ends of Judgment are loft: God judges the World in fo publick a manner, to convince the World of his Power, and Juftice, and Goodness, in the final Deftruction of all Bad Men, and in the final Rewards of Virtue; and therefore this must be a visible Judgment, and then there must be a vifible Judgment-Seat, and a visible Judge, a visible Glory and Power; Bad Men muft know for what they are judged, and fee the Hand that executes Ven-‹: geance on them, or, for ought I know, they might go Atheists and Infidels to Hell; and fee no more of God in a fired World, than they do in Plague, or Sword, or Famine, or fuch other Judgments as God fends upon the Earth: They might curfe their hard Fate, but neither accufe themselves, nor own the Divine Power and Juftice; and could they fink into Hell, without owning the Being and Juftice of God, or acknowledging their own Guilt and Deferts, and accufing themfelves as the Authors of their own Mifery and Destruction; God would lofe the Glory of his Juftice and Power, and Hell it felf would be a very tolerable place to Sinners; there would be Fire there to burn them, but no Worm to gnaw their Confciences, no inward Furies to torment them: The Juftice of the laft Judgment, which will ftop the Mouths of

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