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SERMON XVIII.

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HEBREWS, ix. 28.

Chrift was once offered to bear the fins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the fecond time, without fin, unto falvation.

HERE are two things which we are

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taught to believe concerning Chrift. The firft is, That he once appeared in this world, clothed with our nature; that he publifhed to finners of mankind a pure and heavenly doctrine; and after exhibiting, in his own conduct, a fair and unblemished example of holy obedience, at laft offered up himself a facrifice to God, to expiate our offences, and purchase our eternal redemption. The fecond is, That this fame Jefus, who was dead, is

now

now alive, and fitteth on the right hand of the Majesty on high, from whence he shall come at the end of the world, crowned with glory and honour, and attended with all the hoft of heaven, to judge the quick and the dead.

We were this day commemorating, in the Holy Sacrament of the Supper *, what Christ hath already done for the redemption of his people. There we beheld him “ evidently "fet forth as crucified before our eyes," bearing our griefs, and "wounded for our tranf

greffions." And now, to display the riches of his grace, and our infinite obligations to love and ferve him, let us with joy contemplate what he is farther to do, as it is fhortly expreffed in the latter part of my text: "Unto them that look for him, fhall he appear "the fecond time, without fin, unto falva"tion." The

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First thing that claims our attention is the certainty of our Lord's return. "He shall

appear

* Preached on the evening of a Communion Sabbath, March 16. 1783, a few days before the Author's death.

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appear the second time." And, bleffed be God, this comfortable truth doth not depend upon any doubtful procefs of reasoning, but is both supported and illuftrated by a variety of the most clear and express declarations of holy writ. The Apoftle Jude informs us, that Enoch, the feventh from Adam, by faith forefaw this great event, and faid, by divine infpiration, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his faints, to execute judge

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ment on all." It was Chrift's promife to his difciples, "In my Father's house are 66 many mansions; if it were not fo, I would "have told you: I go to prepare a place for

you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you "unto myself, that where I am, there ye

may be alfo." The angels who attended him at his afcenfion into heaven, bare witnefs to the fame truth.

"Ye men of Galilee,"

faid they, "why ftand ye gazing up into heaven? This fame Jefus, which is taken up "from you into heaven, fhall fo come in "like manner as ye have seen him go into "heaven.' Nay, we are told, that the Fa

ther hath appointed the very day in which

" he

"he fhall judge the world in righteousness,

by that Man whom he hath ordained.” In a word, this doctrine is not only frequently afferted in Scripture, but is fo intimately connected with all the other parts of revelation, that the whole muft ftand or fall with it. Is not the Sacrament of the Supper a visible pledge of our Lord's return, as well as a memorial of his fufferings and death? And do we not profess an equal belief of both every time we partake of that holy ordinance. "For

as often as we eat this bread, and drink this cup, we do fhew the Lord's death till he come;" that is, we commemorate his death in the faith of his fecond and glorious appear

ance.

This, my brethren, is an interefting truth, and doth justly challenge our most serious attention. It is not more certain that we are met together in this place, than that we shall all meet again at the tribunal of Christ, where every one of us fhall appear in his true colours, without any mask or disguise. At prefent we are but little acquainted with ourfelves, and frequently mistaken by others; but the sentence of the Supreme Judge will

rectify

rectify all mistakes, and at once put an end to the prefumptuous hope of the hypocrite, and to the fears and anxieties of the humble felf-fufpecting foul. Whom he then justifies, none can condemn; and whom he then condemns, none dare juftify, neither is there any that can deliver out of his hand. What a mighty influence ought this to have on our temper and practice? Were any of us to be tried for our lives at a human baṛ, I am perfuaded that the thoughts of it would fo fully poffefs our minds, as to leave room for almoft nothing elfe. Yet the most that the judge can do in fuch a cafe, is to determine the day beyond which we shall not live; while neither he, nor any man in the world, can fay with certainty, that we shall live till that day come. One of a thoufand accidents may cut us off, and prevent the execution of his fentence; fo that the legal date of our lives may be confiderably longer than the term which the Author of our lives hath appointed. But the iffue of that trial, which we must undergo at the fecond appearance of Chrift, is of eternal confequence to us. Our final ftate is determined by it; and no power in heaven or on earth VOL. III. Dd

is