Use 3. Of trial. It is good to see how we stand affected towards this appearing. Nothing can content true christians in the world. Do we look beyond it ? Whither is the bent of our hearts ? How is it with them ?
1. If there were this looking, there would be preparing. A man that expecteth the coming of a king to his house, he will furnish his house accordingly, and make all things ready. Surely you look for no- body when you do not suit and prepare yourselves to entertain them. When the house is sluttish, and the kitchen cold, do you look for great guests ? What are we to do to prepare ourselves for Christ's coming ?
[1.] Judge yourselves: 2 Cor. xiii. 5, ' Examine yourselves whether ye be in the faith ; prove your own selves : know ye not your own-
218 SERMONS UPON TITUS II. 11-14. [Ser. XVII.
selves how that Jesus Christ is in you, except you be reprobates.' By judging yourselves God's act is anticipated.
[2.] Get into Christ : Eom. viii. 1, ' There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.' They that are in Christ need not fear Grod's judgment ; you may set Christ's righteousness against Christ's judgment. Guilty felons desire not the judge's presence. Art thou in thecase wherein thou wouldst be found of him ? 2 Peter iii. 14, ' Be diligent, that you may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.'
[3.] Walk strictly. We are between the two comings of Christ, his first and his second coming ; let us live soberly, righteously, and godly. When a man is providing matter of condemnation for himself, can he be said to look for Christ's coming ?
2. How do you entertain Christ for the present in your hearts and in his ordinances ? Can a man slight ordinances, and expect Christ's second coming ? A woman that never careth to hear from her husband cannot be said to desire his coming ; so if Christ has often knocked at the door of our hearts, and we will not give him entrance, how can we be said to look for his appearing ?
SERMON XVII.
And the glorious a2)peaving, Sc. — Titus ii. 13.
I PROCEED to the manner of his appearance — the glorious appearing. The note is —
Doct. 2. That Christ's second coming to judgment will be very glorious.
Here I shall show — (1.) How glorious it will be ; (2.) Why it will be so glorious.
I. How glorious it will be. You may conceive of it if you consider the preparation for his approach, the appearance itself, and the conse- quences of it.
First, It will be glorious in regard of the preparation for his approach. The scripture mentions two — the trumpet of the archangel, and the sign of tlie Son of man.
1. There is that great noise of the voice of the Lord, that begets a terror in the world, which is ministerially managed by an archangel, though the power and success be of God. That great noise startles the dead in their graves, and sunniions all the world to appear before Christ's tribunal. There is much spoken of this in scripture : 1 Thes. iv. 16, 'For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God ; ' Mat. xxiv. 31, 'He shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.' Some expound this trumpet analogically, some literally. Analogically ; some think it only signifies the power
VeR. 13.] SERMONS UPON TITDS II. 11-14. 219
and virtue of Christ, by which all the dead are awakened out of their sleep, and forced to appear before his tribunal ; and they say it is tliere- fore expressed by a trumpet, because the solemn assemblies of Israel were wont to be summoned by the sound of a trumpet. But why may we not take it literally for the audible sound of a trumpet ? Look, as at the giving the law, the voice of the trumpet was exceed- ing loud, so such an audible voice, like the voice of a trumpet, is there when Christ comes to judgment, to require an account of the perfor- mance of the law, which is, as it were, a terrible summons to all the world, and a near sign of his coming. Look, as at his first coming Christ had his forerunner and harbinger, John the Baptist, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, ' The kingdom of God is at hand,' so at his second coming Christ hath his forerunner, an archangel, that shall sound a trumpet, which maketh his coming glorious, because it shall awaken and startle all the world. This sound shall be heard all the world over by the dead ; as the prophet speaks, Ezek. xxxvii. 7, 8, of a noise and clattering among the bones, and bone ran to bone, and then they were clothed with flesh and sinews, so such a noise shall there be among the bones when Christ comes to judgment. Here in the church God speaks in a stiller voice, but it is not regarded ; he speaks by his angels and messengers ; they sound the trumpet to the spiritual battle ; they pipe, but few dance, till by his mighty power he raiseth sinners from the dead. So at the last day God hath his mes- sengers ; there is the archangel that is to manage the ministerial excitation, and the mighty power of God accompanies it to make the dead live and awaken out of sleep.