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SERMON CLXXXIII.

The uncertainty of the day of judgment, confider'd and improv'd.

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MARK XIII. 32, 33.

But of that day, and that hour knoweth no man, no not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the FATHER. Take ye heed, watch and pray; for ye know not when the time is.

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HESE words are spoken by our SA-SERM. VIOUR of the day of judgment; for tho' CLXXXIII. in this chapter, as likewife in the xxivth

of St. Matthew, and the xxist of St. Luke, which are parallel to it, our SAVIOUR discourseth very particularly and largely concerning the eminent appearance of his power and juftice in the deftruction of Jerufalem, which may perhaps fometimes in fcripture be called his coming; yet it is plain likewife, that he difcourfeth there concerning his coming to judgment at the end of the world. For we find in the xxivth of St. Matthew, that after our SAVIOUR had foretold his difciples of the utter ruin of Jerufalem, they came afterwards to him, to enquire more particularly about it; ver. 3. "And as he fat upon the mount of olives, the difciples came unto him privately, faying, tell us, when shall these things be? and what fhall be the fign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?" Where there are two feveral queftions, to which our SAVI

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SERM.OUR returns a distinct answer. The first, when CLXXXIII, thofe things he had been speaking of before should

be; that is, the things which related to the deftruction of Jerufalem, for of that only he had been speaking of before. The other queftion was "concerning "the fign of his coming, and of the end of the ❝ world."

The reafon of their joining these two questions together, feems to be this, (as is very probable from many texts of the new teftament) viz. that the apoftles did think (and our SAVIOUR permitted them for a long time to remain under this mistake) that the end of the world, and the general judgment, would be presently after the deftruction of Jerufalem.

Now to this fecond question of theirs, concerning the end of the world, and our SAVIOUR'S coming to judgment, he gives an answer in the latter part of that chapter, ver. 29. But immediately

after the tribulation of thofe days, the fun fhall " be darkned, and the moon fhall not give her

light; and then fhall appear the fign of the SON "of man in heaven." Not that the general judgment of the world was immediately to follow the deftruction of Jerufalem; for there were many other things to intervene, as is manifeft from St. Luke, chap. xxi. 24. "That the Jews fhould be led cap"tive into all nations, and Jerufalem fhould be *troden down of the gentiles, until the times of the

gentiles were fulfilled." And tho' these things be expreft in a few words, yet they comprehend a long tract of time; for the captivity of the Jews hath continued for above 1600 years, and is not yet at an end. And then after the accomplish

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CLXXXIII.

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ment of these things, it follows, "that there fhall SERM. "be figns in the fun and the moon, and then they fhall fee the Son of man coming in a cloud " with power and great glory." And then he tells them in conclufion, "that these things fhould be"gin to come to pass," that is, some of them should happen, "before the end of that generation ;" and fo they did, for the deftruction of Jerufalem was about forty years after. But when the end of all fhould be, that is, when the day of judgment would happen, he could not tell them the precife time, ver. 36. "But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no not the angels of heaven, but the FA"THER only;" and it is added in St. Mark, "neither the SON."

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Now by" that day and hour" is meant that famous and terrible time of the general judgment of the world, which St. Peter calls by way of eminency, "the day of the LORD," 2 Pet. iii. 10. « The day "of the LORD will come, as a thief in the night;' that is, it will furprize men fuddenly and unexpectedly, because no man can tell when it will be; it will steal upon the world, as a thief does into a house by night. "But of that day and hour know"eth no man, no not the angels which are in hea "ven, neither the Son, but the FATHER. Take

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ye heed, watch and pray; for ye know not when

"the time is."

Having thus cleared all difficulties concerning the general meaning of the Text, that it is to be understood of the day of judgment, and not, as fome learned men have thought, of the destruction of Jerufalem, I fhall now confider the words more particularly, and they contain in them these two things.

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First, the uncertainty of the day of judgment, as

CLXXXIII. to us, and all other creatures. "But of that day "and hour knoweth no man, no not the angels of heaven, neither the Son, but the FATHER." Secondly, that the confideration of the uncertainty of the time, fhould make us very careful to be always prepared for it. "Take ye heed, watch and 66 pray; for ye know not when the time is." I shall speak as briefly as I can to both these.

Firft, our SAVIOUR here declares the uncertainty of the time, as to us, and all creatures, when the general judgment fhall be. And to exprefs this the more emphatically, he tells us,

1. That GOD only knows it. "Of that day " and hour, dis oïden, ei μù ó Пarp, none knows, "but the FATHER." For tho' we translate it, "no man," yet in the Greek it is more general, 86 none knows but the FATHER, that is GOD 6c only." For the word FATHER is feveral times in the new teftament, not used perfonally, in way of diftinction from the SON, and the HOLY "GHOST;" but fignifies "the deity," the FATHER being fons & principium deitatis," the foun"tain and principle of the deity."

"Of that day and hour," the word pa is not here to be taken ftrictly for the measure of time, commonly call'dan hour;" this were to make our SAVIOUR'S expreffion very flat, after he had denied that "the day" is known, to deny that they know" the hour;" for if they do not know "the : day," much lefs "the hour." Now in these kind of fpeeches, the expreffion ought to rife, and that which is moft emphatical ought to be faid in the laft place; fo that it fhould rather have been,

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CLXXXIII.

"they know not the hour, no nor the day:" but SERM.
pa here does undoubtedly fignify the appointed.
feafon or time; and fo the four feafons of the year.
are by the Greeks called pa; and in this fenfe
the word is most certainly used by the evangelist,
St. John, chap. vii. 30. "But no man laid hands
upon him,” speaking of CHRIST," because his
"hour was not yet come," that is, the time ap-
pointed for his fuffering; and that which in the text
is called " hour," is in the next verfe called, xagès,
which fignifies a particular feafon or appointed time.
"Ye know not when the time is," that is, the
time which GOD hath particularly defigned and
appointed for this great work of judging the world.

2. He excludes from the knowledge of it, those
who were most likely to know it, if GOD had not
abfolutely referved it to himself. "Of that day and
"hour knows none, no not the angels, neither the
"SON."

(1.) "Not the angels, which are in heaven;" tho' they be creatures of fo perfect a knowledge, tho' they be the minifters of GoD," and do continually attend upon him, and "behold his face," and understand much more of the works of GoD, and his providence in regard to the affairs of the world, than we who live here below in fo much error and ignorance, that "dwell in houfes of clay, whofe "foundations are in the duft:" yet the particular time, when Gop will judge the world, he hath referved as a fecret to himself, and not communicated it fo much as to the angels, who are defigned to wait upon the great judge of the world, and to make up his train in that folemnity. So our SAVIOUR tells us, Matth. xxv. 31. that " the Son of man "fhall

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