2. At the same time _the Son of man shall send forth his angels_ over all the earth, _and they shall gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other_.[40] And the Lord himself shall _come with clouds, in his own glory, and the glory of his Father, with ten thousand of his saints, even myriads of angels_, and _shall sit upon the throne of his glory. And before him shall be gathered all nations, and he shall separate them one from another, and shall set the sheep_, the good, _on his right hand, and the goats_, the wicked, _upon the left_.[41] Concerning this general assembly it is, that the beloved disciple speaks thus: _I saw the dead_, all that had been dead, _small and great, stand before God. And the books were opened_ (a figurative expression, plainly referring to the manner of proceeding among men) _and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works_.[42]
II. These are the chief circumstances which are recorded in the oracles of God, as preceding the general judgment. We are secondly, to consider the judgment itself, so far as it hath pleased God to reveal it.
1. The person by whom God _will judge the world_ is his only begotten Son whose _goings forth are from everlasting, who is God over all, blessed for ever_. Unto him, being _the out-beaming of his Father’s glory, the express image of his person_,[43] the Father _hath committed all judgment, because he is the Son of man_:[44] because tho’ he was _in the form of God, and thought it not robbery to be equal with God, yet he emptied himself, taking upon him the form of a servant, being made in the ♦likeness of men_.[45] Yea, because _being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself_ yet farther, _becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God hath highly exalted him_, even in his human nature, and _ordained him_ as man to try the children of men, to be the _judge both of the quick and dead_; both of those who shall be found alive at his coming, and of those who were before _gathered to their fathers_.
2. The time, termed by the prophet, _the great and the terrible day_, is usually in scripture stiled _the day of the Lord_. The space from the creation of man upon the earth to the end of all things, is _the day of the sons of men_: the time that is now passing over us, is properly _our day_. When this is ended, _the day of the Lord_ will begin. But who can say, how long it will continue? _With the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day._[46] And from this very expression some of the ancient fathers drew that inference, that, what is commonly called, _the day of judgment_, would be indeed a thousand years. And it seems they did not go beyond the truth: nay, probably they did not come up to it. For if we consider the number of persons who are to be judged, and of actions which are to be enquired into, it does not appear, that a thousand years will suffice for the transactions of that day. So that it may not improbably comprise several thousand years. But God shall reveal this also in its season.
3. With regard to the place where mankind will be judged, we have no explicit account in scripture. An eminent writer (but not he alone; many have been of the same opinion) supposes it will be on earth, where the works were done, according to which they shall be judged, and that God will in order thereto employ the angels of his strength,
“To smooth and lengthen out the boundless space, And spread an area for all human race.”
But perhaps it is more agreeable to our Lord’s own account, of his _coming in the clouds_, to suppose it will be above the earth, if not “twice a planetary height.” And this supposition is not a little favoured, by what St. _Paul_ writes to the _Thessalonians_. _The dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we who remain alive, shall be caught up together with them, in the clouds_,[47] to meet the Lord in the air. So that it seems most probable, the _great white throne_, will be high exalted above the earth.
4. The persons to be judged, who can count any more than the drops of rain, or the sands of the sea? I beheld, saith St. _John_, _a great multitude which no man can number_, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands. How immense then must be the total multitude, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues? Of all that have sprung from the loins of _Adam_, since the world began, till time shall be no more? If we admit the common supposition, which seems no ways absurd, that the earth bears at any one time, no less than four hundred millions, of living souls, men women and children: what a congregation must all those generations make, who have succeeded each other for seven thousand years?
“Great Xerxes world in arms, proud _Cannæ’s_ host, They all are here: and here they all are lost. Their numbers swell to be discerned in vain; Lost as a drop in the unbounded main.”