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whom they have pierced by their fins, and DISC. crucified afresh. And that wailing must needs be terrible, when millions of men and women shall at the same instant fearfully cry out, and the noise shall mingle with the trumpet of the Archangel, and the thunders of the dying and groaning heavens paffing away with a great noise, and the roaring of the flames in which the earth and all the works that are therein shall then be diffolving. The terror and lamentation throughout the world at that time, with the foreboding pangs and convulfions of departing nature, will be fuch as never were, since the day that God created man upon the earth. Include in your idea the destruction of the old world by the flood, the overthrow of the cities of the plain by fire and brimstone, and the defolation of Jerufalem by the Roman armies, with an affemblage of the plagues of Egypt, and the miseries and calamities felt by men in all ages, yet your conceptions will fall as far short of the things themselves, as the shadow does of the

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DISC. the substance. Nothing can exceed our blessed Lord's defcription of this last scene, but it's actual accomplishment" There "shall be signs in the fun, and in the " moon, and in the stars; and upon the " earth distress of nations, with perplexity, "the sea and the waves roaring; men's "hearts failing them for fear, and for " looking after those things which are com"ing on the earth; for the powers of "heaven shall be shaken. And then shall

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appear the sign of the son of man in "heaven; and then shall all the tribes of "the earth mourn, and they shall see the " fon of man coming in the clouds of hea"ven, with power and great glory." At this most awful and tremendous hour, when the son of man shall display his banner the cross in the clouds; when the fea and the waters of the great deep shall roar; when the destroying angel shall again go forth at midnight into the land of Egypt, and there shall be a great cry throughout all the land, because of death and judgment; then shall be brought to pass that which is written

VI.

written in the Revelation; "I beheld DISC. "when the kings of the earth, and the " great men, and the rich men, and the " chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every freeman hid "themselves in the dens, and in the rocks " of the mountains, and said to the moun"tains and rocks, fall on us, and hide us " from the face of him that fitteth on the " throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb. " For the great day of his wrath is come, "and who shall be able to stand?"

A view of the terrors of the Lord has by this time, perhaps, made us all ready to join in asking this last question: "Who shall be able to stand?" And we cannot help taking up our parable with Balaam; "Alas! who shall live, when "God doth this?" But thanks be to God, an answer will be abundantly ministered unto us by a confideration of the

IIId And last point proposed, namely, the faith and hope of the church, who wishes

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DISC. wishes for Christ's manifestation, notwithstanding all the terrors that are to attend it, as appears by the remaining words of my text-" Even so. Amen."

For these are not the words of St. John only, but they carry in them the prayers and fighs of Christians, sent up to the throne of grace through him. It is not " the Spirit" alone, speaking by him, that says "Come," but "the bride," or church, also says the fame. "How long, O Lord, " holy and true," is the voice of the departed spirits, refting from their labours under the altar in heaven, and waiting for the completion of their glory, at the day of their Redeemer's triumph. And that part of the church which is still militant, and fojourns in the wilderness, may be heard earnestly joining in the fame expostulation, in the Ixivth chapter of the prophet Ifaiah : "O that thou wouldest rend "the heavens, that thou wouldest come "down, that the mountains might flow "down at thy prefence; as when the " melting

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" melting fire burneth, the fire causeth the DISC. " waters to boil; to make thy name known " to thine adverfaries, that the nations may " tremble at thy presence! When former" ly thou didst terrible things, which we "looked not for, thou camest down, the " mountains flowed down at thy prefence." Nay, we ourselves, every one of us, daily put up the very fame petition to God, when we pray that "his kingdom may "come;" for his kingdom of glory cannot come, till all these things shall have been brought to pass. And again, when, standing at the grave's mouth, we have before our eyes a plain proof, that "man, who is born of a

woman, hath but a short time to live" in this world; we earnestly beseech the Father of Spirits, " that it would please " him of his gracious goodness shortly to "accomplish the number of his elect, and " to hasten his kingdom." Thus the coming of that day, in which "all the kin"dreds of the earth shall wail," is the constant subject of the wishes and prayers of the Sons of God. A found Chriftian faith

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