3. For power. A divine power is also plainly necessary, that none may withdraw themselves from this judgment, or resist and hinder the execution of his sentence, for otherwise it would be passed in vain, Titus ii. 13. Christ then comes to show himself as the great and powerful God. His power is seen in raising the dead, in bringing them into one place, in opening their consciences that they may have a review and sense of all their actions, and afterward in binding the wicked, hands and feet, and casting them into hell : Mat. xxiv. 13, * The Son of man shall come from heaven with power and great glory.'
4. His authority. I shall the longer insist upon this, because the main hinge of all lieth here ; and this will bring the matter home to the second person, to prove that Jesus Christ, and no other but Christ, he is to be the world's judge, and it is his tribunal before whom ' we must all appear.' By the law of nature, the wronged party and the supreme power hath a right to require satisfaction for any wrong that is done. Let us consider Christ's authority a little, and weigh it in the balance of reason. I say, by the law of nature, where there is no power publicly constituted, where people live without law and govern-
56 SERMONS UPON 2 CORINTHIANS V. [SeK. XIV.
ment, possibly there the wronged party hath power to require it, he is the avenger ; but where things are better ordei-ed, where there is law and government, lest the wronged party should indulge his revenge and passion for his own interest, therefore the supreme power takes, vengeance to itself, and doth right, and will challenge the parties that offend, judge the matter that is in hand, will make amends to those that are wronged, either in body, goods, or good name.
Well, both these things concur : God is the wronged party, and the supreme judge, and therefore the judgment is devolved upon the Lord Jesus Christ,
[1.] He is the wronged party, that is offended with the sins of men ; for it is his law that is broken, his authority that is despised, his glory that is trampled under foot. It is true, we cannot lessen Grod's happi- ness by anything that we can do ; all that we do, it is but as a man that strikes at the light that shines upon a tree ; he may cause his axe to "fasten in the tree, but he hurts not the light. God is not really hurt, there is no loss or happiness by anything the creature can do ; our good and evil extends not to him ; his essential glory is still the same ; whether we obey or disobey, please or displease, honour or dis- honour him that is eternally immutable ; he is neither lessened nor increased by anything that we can do ; he is out of the reach of all darts we cast at him. We may fling up darts to heaven; hurt us they may, not him. But how is sin a wrong to God ? It is a wrong to his declarative glory, as he is the sovereign lord and law-giver, as a breach to his law and contempt of his authority. Look, as David, when he sinned in the matter of Bathsheba, he wronged Uriah, but yet he says, Ps. li. 4, ' Against thee, thee only have I sinned.' The sin was properly against God. God is the author of the light of nature, and the order of things, which begets a sense of good and evil in our hearts ; and therefore, whoever sins against the light of nature is responsible to God. Conscience within him tells him he hath done something against God. If a man be poor, or sick, his conscience is not troubled for that ; but if he hath done something disorderly, con- science being God's deputy, his mind may be troubled about it ; if he hath committed adultery, or done anything that is contrary to the light of nature, his heart will be upon him, and summons him to appear before God to answer for the wrong done to God. I speak this because of the Gentiles. But now for christians. God certainly gave the law by Moses, and gave the law by Christ in the gospel ; ancfe therefore every sin of ours is an offence to God, as being a breach of that order he hath established, and the way of government under which he hath put us : 1 John iii. 4, ' Sin is a transgression of the law.* Laws cannot be despised ; but the majesty of the law-giver is also violated, and therefore as God is the wronged party, God comes in to be our judge, to require satisfaction for the wrong we have done. There is something indeed in this, but God does not barely as an offended party, or as a ])rivate man would revenge himself, where there is no public power constituted to do him right. No ; he properly judgeth us as the supreme and sovereign lord and governor of the world, to whom it belongs, as the universal king, to secure the ends of government for common good, to see that it be well with tliem that