though his prophecy respects Jerusalem's doom immediately, yet through this it looks forward to the final doom of the world: and therefore, as in foretelling the former he prefigures the latter; so in foretelling the foregoing signs of the former he prefigures the foregoing signs of the latter. And since he here intended the signs of Jerusalem's doom's day only for types and figures of those signs which shall forerun the doom's day of the world, and seeing that types have always less in them than are in the things which they typify and prefigure, there is no doubt but those signs which shall forerun the last judgment, will be much more eminent and illustrious than those of Jerusalem's judgment, which were intended only to typify and prefigure them. And accordingly St. Jerom tells us of an ancient tradition of the Jewish doctors, (to which our Saviour in this prediction seems plainly to refer,) that for fifteen days together, before the general judgment, there shall be transacted upon the stage of nature a continued scene of fearful signs and wonders: the sea shall swell to a prodigious height, and make a fearful noise with its tumbling waves; the heavens shall crack day and night with loud and roaring thunders; the earth shall groan under hideous convulsions, and be shaken with quotidian earthquakes; the moon shall shed forth purple streams of discoloured light; the sun shall be clothed in a dismal darkness; and the stars shall shrink in their light, and twinkle like expiring candles in the socket; the air shall blaze with portentous comets, and the whole frame of nature, like a funeral room, shall be all hung round with mourning and with ensigns of horror: and when these fatal symptoms ap

pear upon the face of the universe, then shall the inhabitants of the earth mourn, and the sinners in Sion shall be horribly afraid, being loudly forewarned by these astonishing portents of the near approach of their everlasting doom. Having thus briefly shewn what shall be the signs of our Saviour's coming to judgment, I shall proceed to

III. The third general, which was to shew the manner and circumstances of his coming. And here we will first consider the place from whence he is to come: secondly, the state in which he is to come: thirdly, the carriage on which he is to come : fourthly, the equipage with which he is to come: fifthly, the place to which he is to come.

1. The place from which he is to come, which is no other than the highest heavens, where he now lives and reigns in his exalted and glorified humanity; for him must the heavens receive till the time of the restitution of all things, Acts iii. 21. In that bright region of eternal day, that kingdom of angels and of spirits of just men made perfect, he is to reign in person till the last and terrible day, and from thence he is to begin his circuit, when he comes to keep his general assizes upon earth; for he is to be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, 2 Thess. i. 7. and to descend from heaven with a shout, 1 Thess. iv. 16. So that in the close of those dreadful alarms which he will give the world by the preceding signs of his coming, he will arise from his imperial seat at his Father's right hand, and descend in person from those high habitations of inaccessible light, and every eye shall see him as he comes shooting like a star from his orb, and the sight of him shall affect the whole world with un

speakable joy or consternation. The righteous, when they see him, shall lift up their heads and rejoice, because they know he is their friend, and brings the day of their redemption with him; they shall congratulate his arrival, and welcome him from heaven with songs of triumph and deliverance. But as for the wicked, they shall shriek and lament at the sight of him, as being conscious to themselves that by a thousand provocations they have rendered him their implacable enemy; the sense of which will cause them to exclaim in the bitter agonies of their souls; "O yonder comes he whose mercies we have spurned, whose authority we have despised, whose laws we have trampled on, and all the methods of whose "love we have utterly baffled and defeated; and

66

66

66

66

66

now, forlorn and miserable that we are, how shall "we abide his appearance, or whither shall we flee "from his presence? O that some rock would fall upon us, or that some mountain would be so piti"ful as to swallow us up, and bury us from his sight for ever. But, woe are we! within these "few moments the rocks and mountains will be gone, the heavens and earth will melt away, and nothing will be left besides ourselves for his fiery indignation to prey on." Thus shall the sight of the Son of man, descending from his throne in the heavens to judge the world, inspire his friends with unspeakable joy, and strike his enemies with terror and confusion.

66

66

66

2. We will consider the state in which he is to come, which shall be far different from that in which he came sixteen hundred years ago. Then he came in an humble and despicable condition, clouded with poverty and grief, and oppressed with all the inno

cent infirmities of human nature. But at the last day he shall come in his glorified state, clothed in that celestial body which he now wears at the right hand of God for so, Acts i. 11. the angel assures his disciples, This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as you have seen him go into heaven; that is, he shall return to judgment in that selfsame glorified body wherein you now see him ascend. And what a glorious one that is we may partly learn from that majestic description of it, Rev. i. 13-16. In the midst of the seven candlesticks was one like the Son of man; his head and his hair were white as wool, as white as snow, his eyes were as a flame of fire, and his countenance was as the sun shining in its strength. And partly from his transfiguration on the mount, which was but a short essay and specimen of his glorification; for it is said, that his face did shine as the sun, and that his raiment was white as the light, white with those beams of glory, which from his transfigured body shone through all his apparel, Matth. xvii. 2. When therefore he descends from heaven to judge the world, it shall be with this glorified body, this body of pure and immaculate splendour, with its hair shining like threads of light, its eyes sparkling with beams of majesty, and its face displaying a most beautiful lustre, and its whole substance shedding forth from every part a dazzling glory round about it: and this I conceive is that which he himself calls his own glory, Luke ix. 26. When he (i. e. the Son of man) shall come in his own glory; that is, the glory of that illustrious heavenly body wherein he is now arrayed. Besides which bright and luminous robe, in which, like a

meridian sun, he shall visibly shine over all the world, the aforecited text tells us, that he shall also come in the glory of his Father; by which I conceive is meant that which the Hebrews call the schechinah, and the scripture the glory of the Lord, viz. a body of bright shining fire, in which the Lord was especially present, and with which, as the Psalmist expresseth it, he covered himself as with a garment, Psalm civ. 2. for in 2 Thess. i. 7, 8. we are told, that he shall be revealed from heaven with flaming fire and so he descended on the mount in fire, Exod. xix. 18. and that fire is called the glory of the Lord, Exod. xxiv. 17. That fire therefore in which our Saviour shall be revealed from heaven seems to be of the same nature with that fiery schechinah, or visible glory of the Lord, in which he descended on mount Sinai, though doubtless it will be far more glorious, as being designed to adorn a far more glorious solemnity. And this And this glory being added to the natural brightness and splendour of his glorified body, will cause him to outshine the sun, and drown all the lights of heaven in the conquering brightness of his appearance. So that when he comes forth from his ethereal palace, and appears upon the eastern heaven, that immense sphere of visible glory which will then surround him will in the twinkling of an eye spread and diffuse itself over all the creation, and cause both the heavens and the earth to glitter like a flaming fire.

3. Thirdly, we will consider the carriage on which he is to come, which, as the scripture tells us, shall be a cloud. So, Acts i. 11. the angels tell his disciples, who stood gazing after him as he was ascending into heaven, This same Jesus, which is