Christs Certain and Sudden Appearance to Judgment, Chapter 3
CHAP. III.
2. THe second appearance of Christ will be in Glory at the last day, when the world shall come to an end: this is the appearance we are treating of, and therefore I shall speak of it more largely, and show,
1. The manner of this appearance.
2. The end and transactions at this appearance.
1. Concerning the manner of Christs second appearance, what tongue of Men or Angels is able to set it forth? what heart can conceive the splendour thereof? Something the Scripture doth reveale, and taking the Scripture for my guide, I shall assay to speak something of it. See Luke 21. 27. Then shall they see the Son of man coming in a Cloud, with Power and great Glory.
1. Christ at his second appearance will come with Power, with great power; he hath all power put into his hands in Heaven and in Earth now, and doth exercise it more secretly; then he will exercise it more visibly and apparently in the sight of the whole world. To give instance,
1. He will come with power over Death. Death hath had great power since the Fall, and is the greatest Conquerour in the world; Death hath made an universal Conquest over all the sons and daughters of Adam (Enoch and Elias only excepted) which lived in former generations, and hath led them captive, binding their faces in secret, chaining their hands and their feet, and clapping them up close prisoners in the grave, and none have been able to make resistance; yea, Death did assail the Lord of Life himself, and got the victory for a while, and shut him up in prison; but he got loose before three daies were at an end, broke open the doors, and gave Death a deep wound, as it were, and an abolishing stroke in his Resurrection, 2 Tim. 1. 10. presaging the compleat victory which afterward he would obtain over this enemy of man-kind. Now when Christ makes his second appearance in the world at the last day, he will exercise his power over death, he will lead captivity captive, he will lay his first Hands on Death, and tread this Conquerour under his feet, and strip him of all his force and spoils, which he hath been treasuring up for so many years; he will snatch the keys of the grave out of the hand of Death, and open the prison doors and let forth all his captives; he will loosen all the bonds of Death, and knock off his chains, and bring out all his prisoners into freedom and enlargment: as it is said, Hos. 13. 14. I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from Death: O Death! I will be thy Plagues! O Grave! I will be thy destruction! And it is said, 1 Cor. 15. 25, 26. that all enemies shall be put under the feet of Jesus Christ, and the last enemy which he shall destray is Death. And v. 54. When this mortall shall put on immortality, then Death shall be swallowed up in victory. And surely Christ must needs come with great power to get victory over such a potent enemy.
2. He will come with power over Men and Devils, he will have power over all his enemies, which have rebelled against him; over all the Principalities and Powers on the Earth, that exercise Lordship and dominion in the World; he will bring the Kings of the Earth down from their seats, and pluck off the robes of Princes; he will take the staff and the sword out of their hand, and divest them of all their royalty and greatness; and they who have employed their borrowed power against him, how will they quake and tremble before him? See Rev. 11. 15, 16, 17, 18. When the seventh Angel sounded, there were great voices in Heaven, saying, the Kingdomes of the World are become the Kingdomes of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever. And the four and twenty Angels fell on their faces, saying, we give thee thanks O Lord God all-mighty, which art, and wast, and art to come, because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned. And the Nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged; and that thou shouldst give reward unto thy servants the Prophets, and to thy Saints, and them that fear thy name small and great, and shouldst destroy them which destroy the Earth.
The Kings of the Earth, and great Potentates will be angry when they are dis-throned; and the wicked of the Earth will be troubled, when the Lord Jesus shall come down from Heaven to call them to Judgment: If all the Powers of wicked Men and Devils too, who are greater in power than Men, could, they would make head, and resist the Lord Jesus Christ, and pull him from his Throne, and put him to death, as the Iewes did at his first appearance; if they had but any hopes, of making their party good against him, how would they call their forces, and gather their Armies, and wage War with this great King; especially when all the wicked shall be raised up, and the ancient Rebels, the Giants of the old World, shall come forth of their dust, and the Prison of Hell, where some of them have been tormented by him many years? O how would they combine their strength, and so many millions of them together, rush upon him with rage and violence; and endeavour to avenge themselves upon him, at least defend themselves against him, when he comes to torment them? but Christ will come with so great power, that he will be able to deale with the whole wicked world of men together, when they are raised and united in one body, and have obtained more strength of body, and are filled with more rage and spight of minde than here they had, and are out of all hopes of making any peace with him, and have the whole flock of all the Devils in Hell to joyn in to their company; I say Christ will come with sufficiency of strength to binde them all in Chains, and so to hold them all down that they shall not be able to make the least resistance; he that hath power to raise the wicked from the dead, will have power to keep all his Enemies from Rebellion, he will come with Power.
2. Christ will come at his second appearance with great glory; At his first appearance, he came like a Servant, yea like a Servant of Servants; at his second appearance he will come like a Lord, yea like a Lord of Lords, like the great Lord of glory; at his first appearance he was …loathed with dishonour, and a chain of contempt was put about him; but at his second appearance he will be cloathed with glory and honour, and most excellent Majesty will be put upon him; at his first appearance his Deity was vailed, his beauty was masked with infirm flesh, his brightness was under a Cloud; though sometimes some beams did break forth with such a dazling lustre, as made Peter fall at his feet saying, Depart from me, for I am a sinful Man, O Lord, Luke 5. 8. And others in the Ship to worship him, acknowledging of a truth thou art the Son of God: Mat. 14. 33. And often filled his Disciples with fear, and astonishment; but he was so disguised in flesh, that few knew him at all, none knew much of him, when he was so disrobed, and so meanly attired, and attended. It is said the Princes of this World knew him not, else surely they would have laid down their Scepters at his feet, had they known him, they would not have dared, so disgracefully, to have crucified the Lord of glory, 1 Cor. 2. 8. But at his second appearance, the Vail will be so drawn aside, that the Deity of Christ will shine forth with amazing splendour to the view of the whole World; his humane nature will be glorious beyond any other Creature; but oh how glorious will his Divine nature be, when the eyes of the whole World shall be opened to see God in such a way, as now we are not able to conceive? He will appear in the brightness of his Fathers glory, so that they which see him will see the Father; the M…jesty, Authority, Dominion, Power, Holiness, Justice, and love of the Father, will be like so many sparkling gems, to deck the Crown of Christ at his appearance; but who can conceive the royalty and surpassing excellency of Jesus Christ, when he comes down out of his Fathers Pallace, into the World? He will come in great glory, God will come down in him and with him; the Throne of God will be removed, the Pallace will be below, Heaven will be upon the Earth, where Christ is, there is Heaven, there is God in his greatest glory to be seen; he will come in great glory, never was there such glory seen upon the face of the Earth; never did the eye of man behold such a sight, as then it will behold; we read of great and pompous showes, which some Princes have made in their triumphs: but never was there such pomp in the World, as there will be at this appearance of Jesus Christ, when he cometh triumphing over all his enemies, when he cometh with the spoiles of principalities and powers, making a show of them openly, and decked with such excellent glory. A little further to set this forth,
1 He will come attended with a glorious retinue of Angels, we read M…tth. 26. 53. Of more than twelve legions of Angels. And Dan. 7. 10. Of thousand thousands, yea ten thousand times ten thousands, which Minister about the throne of God; yea further, Rev. 5. 11. Of a number of ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands of Angels, and Heb. 12. 22. Of an innumerable company of Angels. All these Angels will attend upon Jesus Christ at his second appearance. It is said M…tth. 25. 31. That all the holy Angels shall come with him. Now the Angels are dispersed in several places, some of them are upon the Earth ministring unto the saints, which shall be heires of salvation. Heb. 1. 14. Others are in heaven, beholding the face of the Father ready to execute his will, some are ascending, some descending; but then they will all be gathered together into one company, and like so many Courtiers attend upon this great King in this his glorious appearance in the World; all will descend with Christ; Heaven will be emptied of Angels, they will all come forth, and come down from their old habitation; and oh how glorious will this train be! he will come with all the holy Angels, Angels that are holy and glorious; not like those rotten Courtiers which attend upon some Earthly Kings, who have no other glory upon them, but what lies in their rich and splendid apparel; the bodies of some of which if they were uncas'd, would appear to be full of loathsome diseases; but whose souls are monstrously ugly, and deformed; full of loathsome and noisome lusts, besmeared with dung and filthiness; who, could their inside be turned outward, and the deformity of sin be seen with bodily eyes, would appear too hideously black, and swarthy, and more misshapen, than those which are born with the greatest blemishes of nature; who carry Hell in their bosomes, and like so many bears and ugly hounds are led about by the Devil in chains; such, such follow many Kings on earth, when they appear abroad, with hearts full of lust; vvith eyes full of adultery; vvith mouths full of oaths and filthy ribauldry; vvho are like so many spots in the faces of their Princes, or like a Cloud about their brow, vvhichwhich darkneth their glory in the eyes of the serious and sober minded: but Christ vvill come attended vvith millions of holy Angels, arrayed in such pure and vvhite garments, as shall not have the least spot, or tincture of sin upon them, he vvill come vvith holy Angels, who vvill be like so many flames of Fire, full of holy svveet burning Love, and covered vvith such Light and glorious excellency, as will not darken, but illustrate the glory of their Lord and Prince, they attend upon.
2 Christ will come with a glorious Brightness, and great noise; such a light will shine in him and about him, as will a thousand fold surpass the light of the Sun, when it shineth in its full strength: we read Matth. 13. 43. That the righteous shall shine like the Sun, in the Kingdome of their Father; how then will the Sun of righteousness shine? from whom they wil receive all their brightness by reflection, as the Moon and some other Stars do from the Sun in the firmament. It is said, Mat. 24. 29, 30. That at the coming of Christ, the Sun shall be darkned, and the Moon shall not give her light, and the Stars of the Heaven shall fall, and Rev. 6. 12, 13, 14. That the Sun shall be black as Sackcloath of hair, and the Moon shall be like blood, and the Stars of the heaven shall fall to the earth, even as a Fig-tree casteth her untimely Figges, when she is shaken of a mighty winde; and the Heavens shall depart as a scroll when it is rolled together, and every Island and Mountain shall be moved out of their places. At the coming of Christ there will be such a brightness as will darken the Sun and other Luminaries in the Heavens, even as the Sun, doth darken the lesser Stars, who though shining all night with a twinkling light, and like so many Candles in the Firmament, yet upon the Suns first lifting up his head in a morning, and casting about its beames, they presently sink in their sockets and disappear; so the Sun it self, and other Luminaries of Heaven will disappear, when this more glorious Sun doth arise in the morning of the last day, they will then lose their light; and what further need of them? in Heaven it will be all day: Rev. 2. 22. In the City of the new Ierusalem there will be no need of the Sun, neither of the Moon to shine in it; for the glory of God will enlighten it, and the Lamb will be the light of it: and Chap. 22. 5. There shall be no night there, and they shall need no Candle, nor the light of the Sun, but the Lord God giveth them light, and they shall raign for ever and ever. In Hell it will be all night and▪ no day, there will be blackness of darkness for ever, and not the least beam of light shall shine into that place; and if the Sun and other Stars be given for the measure and distinction of times and seasons, when the last day is come, Time will be no longer, and all must launch forth from the confines of Time, into the vast Ocean of Eternity, which cannot be bounded nor measured: It is said, Rev. 20. 11. When the great white Throne shall be set, and Christ is placed thereon, that the Heavens and the Earth shall flee away from before his face, and no more place be found for them: and 2 Pet. 3. 10. When the day of the Lord cometh, that the Heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the Elements shall melt with fervent heat, and the Earth with all its works shall be burnt up. Christ will come with a glorious light, and with a roaring dreadful noise, which will further set forth the glory of this appearance, see this expressed, 1 Thes. 4. 16. The Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Arch-angel, and the Trump of God, and Matth. 24. 31. He shall send forth his Angels with a great sound of a Trumpet, who shall gather in his Elect from the four mindes, Never was there such a noise heard in the World, as then will be heard; when Christ shall appear, the heavens will roar; the Earth will be in flames of Fire; there will be a great shout, and the sound of the last Trump in the Aire; this shout will be given by Jesus Christ himself, as is likely, for it is said, Iohn 5. 28, The hour is coming, in which all that are in their Graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; we read Iohn 11. 43. When Christ came to raise Lazarus, that he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus come forth, surely then when he comes to raise the World, he will cry and shout with a much louder voice: Such a voice likely will come down from him in a roaring shout, Awake yee dead and come to Iudgement, or arise yee Children of Men, and come forth of your Graves. Never was there such a shout given, as then will be given, which will be accompanied with the sound of the Trumpet, the Angels shall sound the Trumpet: we read Exod. 19. 16. When the Lord gave the Law from Mount Sinai, that there were thunderings and lightnings, and the voice of a Trumpet exceeding loud, which made all the People which were in the Camp to tremble. O what thunderings will there be in the aire at Christs second appearance? and how exceeding loud will the sound of this last Trumpet be, when Christ comes to judge them which have broken this Law? That Trumpet was heard only by the Nation of the Jewes, which were together about the Mount; this Trumpet will be heard by all Nations throughout the World; that Trumpet was heard only by those which were alive at that time; this Trumpet will be heard not only by them that shall remain alive upon the Earth at the last day, but also by all those which have dyed throughout all Generations from the beginning of the Creation; such a noise there will be as will awaken all that shall be asleep in their graves. Such a noise as will make all the corners of the earth to ring, and the pillars of the world to tremble; but O how will it startle the wicked when they hear it, and fill them with terrour and amazement? Thus you have something of the manner of Christ's second appearance set forth unto you, he shall come with power and great glory.