112 THE WORLD TO COME. the price of my own blood ; these have I rescued by my grace. from the dominion of sin and the devil ; I have formed them unto holiness, and fitted them for heaven ; I have kept them by my power, through all the dangers of their mortal state, and have brought them safe to thy celestial kingdom : All thine are mine, and all mine are thine ; I was glorified in them on earth; John xvii. 10. and they are now my everlasting crown and glory. Then shall the unknown worlds that never fell, worlds of angels and innocent creatures, and the world of guilty devils and condemned rebels, stand and wonder together at the recovery and salvation Christ has provided for the fallen sons of Adam. They shall stand amazed to see the millions of apostate creatures, the inhabitants of this earthly globe, recovered to their duty and allegiance, by the Son of God going down to dwell amongst them : Millions of impure and deformed souls, restored to the divine image, and made beautiful as angels, by the grace and Spirit of our Lord Jesus. Those spectators shall be filled with admiration and transport, to see such a multitude of criminals pardoned and justified, for the sake of a righteousness which they themselves never wrought, and accepted as righteous in the sight of God, by a covenant of grace unknown to other worlds, and by faith in the great Mediator. They shall wonder to see such an innumerable company of polluted wretches, washed from their sins in so precious a laver as the blood of God's own Son : And he that hung upon the cross as a spectacle of wretchedness at Jerusalem, shall entertain the superior and in- ferior worlds with the sight of his adorable and divine glories, and the spoils he has brought from the regions of death and hell Thus to the principalities and powers in heavenly places, shall be made known by the church triumphant, the manifold wisdom, and the manifold grace of God the Father, and his Son Jesus Christ ; Eph, iii. 10. But tremble, Oli ye obstinate and impenitent wretches, ye sensual sinners, ye infidels of a christian name and nation, Christ will be glorified in you one way or another : If your hearts are not bowed and melted to receive his gospel, you shall be punished with everlasting destruction among those that know not God, and obey not the gospel of his Son. Tremble, ye sensual and ye profane sons of iniquity, when ye remember this day, when ye shall see the holy souls that ye scorned, with crowns on their heads, and palms in their hands, with the shout of vic- tory and joy on their tongues, and the god-man whom ye des - pised, and whose grace ye neglected, shining at the head of that bright assembly. Tremble ye infidels, ye despisers of the name of a crucified Christ, behold his cross is become a throne, and his crown of
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=