west.

Whatever the rites or fashions of other nations were, the church of God, or land of Jury, in which God was only known, had no such custom. Now the tenor of this prerogative here mentioned must be valued by the scales of the sanctuary, not by the heraldry of foreign courts. Even in those countries wherein the attendance on the left hand of princes was more honourable than on the right, the only ground of the subject's power or dignity so attending was the imbecility of the prince, who ordinarily could not defend himself so well on the left side as on the right. And as our uncomely parts have more comeliness bestowed upon them, so the weaker side of greatest princes had more need of valorous and trusty champions. And though princes in all ages have been prone to honour and grace their special favourites with place of more honourable attendance, yet the warlike princes of ancient times made choice of men most trusty and valorous for their favourites. But the Almighty, unto whose future designs the rites and customs of the kings of Judah were (haply) prefashioned, needs no defendant, no assistant, either on the right hand or on the left. The former occasion of imbecility, or need of defendants, being set apart, as the right hand is ordinarily more worthy than the left, so to be on the right hand of supreme honour is simply more honourable than to be on the left, specially according to the custom of the Jews. The sons of Zebedee, or their mother, or both, were not ignorant in respect of the general matter, but in the particular form or manner or circumstance of their petition, when they desired that the one might sit on their Master's right hand, and the other on the left, in his kingdom. To sit by him in his kingdom, 310 was, to their apprehension, and according to the custom

of their native country, a greater dignity than to stand

by him, or to go in and out before him. To sit on the right hand was affected by the mother as a place of precedence for her elder son, and therefore ranked in the former place in her petition ". She saith not, that the one may sit on the left hand, and the other on the right; but, that one may sit on the right hand, and the other on the left. Matt. xx. 21. That to sit on the right hand of majesty was the greatest honour whereof any subject or inferior prince in Jury was capable, may be gathered from the honour which Solomon did unto his mother Bath-sheba, 1 Kings ii. 19: The king rose up to meet her, and bowed himself unto her, and sat down on his throne, and caused a seat to be set for the king's mother; and she sat on his right hand. Nor hath the royal psalmist any better place for the spouse whose dignity he sought to emblazon, psalm xlv. 9: Kings' daughters were among thy honourable women: upon thy right hand did stand the queen in a vesture of gold of Ophir. To have the power of superiors on the right hand, or for the enemy to have the right hand, is in sacred heraldry a sign of victory or preeminence, whether in civil or warlike proceedings. The greatest plague and root of curses which David did wish unto the enemies of his God, and which did afterwards fall on Judas, the greatest enemy of David's Son and Lord, was, that the wicked might be set over him, and that the adversary might stand at his right hand; for so he knew that he should be condemned, when he was judged, and that his prayers should be turned into sin. Psalm cix. 6, 7. The surest anchor of David's confidence was God's being on his right hand, psalm xvi. 8: The Lord is at my right hand, therefore I shall not slide or fall. And the final consummation of all the happiness which he hoped for, whether a See Gen. xlviii. 13, 14, 17.

in his own person or in the person of his expected Son the Messias, was, to be placed at the right hand of God: In thy presence is fulness of joy; and at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. Psalm xvi. 11. And so will it be found at the last day, when the Son of man shall set the sheep on his right hand, and the goats on the left: and shall say to them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed...... But to them on the left, Go, ye cursed... ... Matt. xxv. 33, &c.

2. So then, this article of Christ's sitting at the right hand of God is as a trophy of his victory gotten over death, and over all the temptations of the world and the devil, whilst he lived on earth; and a certain prognostic of his final triumph over all his succeeding enemies: for he must sit at the right hand of God until all his enemies be made his footstool. But before we come to decipher the real dignity here described, it may be questioned whether the description itself be merely metaphorical or symbolical; that is, a language borrowed from the visible customs of men, without any real sensible similitude between the things signified by the same words. That this phrase of sitting at the right hand of God is a mere borrowed speech, most divines do hold; giving us withal this general rule: that no corporeal substance, quality, habit, or gesture, can be attributed unto God otherwise than aveрwπотαOs, that is, by a kind of poetical fiction, or figurative speech, borrowed from the fashions of men. The proper logical subject, notwithstanding, of this rule or maxim, must be the Godhead, or divine nature in the abstract it holds not so truly of God, or at least of every divine person. The divine nature or Godhead is simple, pure, and immixt: the Godhead hath neither eyes nor ears nor body, much less can there be in it any distinction of right hand or left; yet may we not

deny but the Son of God, who is truly God, hath eyes and ears, feet and hands, right hand and left hand, and 311 all the parts of the human body, which any perfect man hath. His blood, though human blood, is as truly the blood of God as of man. His blood is the blood of God, his body the body of God, in such a sense, as neither the body nor blood of any other creature are said to be God's, whose all things are in heaven and earth. His flesh and blood, and all the parts of his human body, are the flesh, blood, and parts of God in as strict and proper sense, as our hands are said our own; that is, by strict and personal propriety. The Son of God hath flesh and blood, hands and feet, in such a sense as God the Father or God the Holy Ghost

hath not.

3. But when it is said that "Christ sitteth at the right hand of God," this must be understood of God the Father, not of God the Son, for so it is expressed in the Apostles' Creed, that "the Son of God, who was crucified, dead, and buried, and who rose the third day from the dead, now sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty." Now if God the Father hath no body, no right hand or left hand, as God the Son hath, the case seems clear, that Christ's sitting at the right hand of the Father must needs be a speech merely metaphorical, borrowed from the custom of earthly princes, to be placed at whose right hand is the greatest honour that can be to their chief peers or subjects. This is most certain, if we speak of the nature or essence of the Godhead, or of the divine person of the Father. Yet all this hinders not, why the Divine Majesty, or person of the Father, who is every where essentially present, may not be more conspicuously present (in respect of created sights) in some visible heavenly throne than in any other place. The Father

bable that

there are distinct thrones in heaven.

It is pro- (for aught we know) may have a distinct throne, and the Son another, or they may have distinct manifestations of glory upon the same throne, Rev. iii. 21. To confine the presence of God the Father, of God the Son, or of God the Holy Ghost, to any visible throne, were a gross heresy. But that there may be real emblems or representations of the blessed Trinity in heaven, as conspicuous and sensible to blessed saints and angels, as the representations which have been made of them to God's saints or people here on earth, who can conceive improbable? The representations or pledges of the blessed Trinity have been divers. Daniel saw the glory of the Father shadowed by the Ancient of days, the glory of the Son represented by the similitude of the Son of man. At our Saviour's baptism there was a voice from heaven, as an audible testimony of the distinct person of the Father; Christ as man, was the conspicuous seat or throne of God the Son; and the dove, which appeared unto John, a visible pledge of the Holy Ghost. And may not the church triumphant have as punctual representations or pledges of this distinction no less sensible, though more admirable, than the church militant hath had here on earth?

4. It is not then altogether so clear, that this title, of Christ's sitting at the right hand of God the Father, is borrowed from the rites or customs of the kings of Judah, as it is questionable, whether this rite or custom amongst them were not framed after the pattern of the heavenly thrones or representations of celestial dignities; so we know the earthly sanctuary was framed according to the pattern of the heavenly sanctuary. Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as he had appointed, speaking unto Moses, that he should make it according to the fashion that he had seen. Acts vii. 44. Exod. xxv. 40. And our