on the throne; ye shall all see both
heaven and earth flee away from his face, ye shall all see the dead, great
and small, and yourselves among the rest, standing before God; and ye
shall all see the books opened, and the dead judged according to their
works, and death and hell cast into the lake of fire, even those that had
their hands in his heart's blood, and those that pierced his side with a
spear, and those that rivetted him with nails, both hands and feet, they
shall see it also. The elect shall see it, as Job says, "For I know that
my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the last day upon the
earth. And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet I shall see
God in my flesh: whom myself shall see, and my eyes shall behold, and not
another, though my reins were consumed in me." And this was his
consolation; even so those very eyes of yours, and no other, shall see
with terror or with joy, either to your endless comfort, or to your
endless condemnation. Now, what sees he? First, he sees a throne; ye know
a throne is set for a judge to sit on; so he sees a throne whereon the
Judge of the whole earth is to sit on; therefore he shall come to be a
Judge. He came before, at his first coming, not to sit on a throne, nor to
be a Judge, but to be judged before thrones and tribunals of men; for John
says, "That he sent not his Son that he should condemn the world, but that
the world through him might be saved." Christ himself says, "Man, who made
me a judge, or a divider over you?" And in another place, "The Son of man
came not to judge, but be judged himself." In his first coming, he comes
from high majesty to baseness and humility; he came from his Father's
glory to shame and ignominy; he came from a palace to a crib; from the
seat of his majesty to a tree; he came like a Lamb to be slain, and as a
Saviour to save sinners: as the Apostle says, it was a true saying, "That
Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the chief;"
Christ himself says, "I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to
repentance;" and therefore that is the name that the angel gives him, when
he appears to Joseph in a dream, saying, and "thou shalt call his name
Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins; and they shall call
his name Emmanuel, that is, God with us," our God made flesh, our God
manifested in the flesh. So I say, in his first testimony, he comes as a
Saviour and Mediator between God and man; but i