113 Aspasio relates a remarkable Panic-Terrors of the Day of Judgment-Christ's righteousness and its imputation, largely demonstrated from the New Testament. DEAR THERON, Aspasio to Theron. GIVE me leave to relate an uncommon accident which happened a little while ago in this neighbourhood, and of which I myself was a spectator. The day was the Sabbath, the place appropriated to divine worship was the scene of this remarkable affair. A boy came running into the church, breathless and trembling; he told, but in a low voice, those who stood near, that a press-gang was advancing to besiege the doors, and arrest the sailors; an alarm was immediately. taken; the seamen, with much hurry, and no small. anxiety, began to shift for themselves. The rest of the congregation, perceiving an unusual stir, were struck with surprise; a whisper of inquiry ran from seat to seat, which increased by degrees into a confused murmur. No one could inform his neighbour, therefore every one was left to solve the appearance from the suggestions of a timorous imagination. Some suspected the town was on fire; some were apprehensive of an invasion from the Spaniards; others looked up, and. looked round, to see if the walls were not giving way, and the roof falling upon their heads. In a few moments the consternation became general; the men stood like statues, in silent amazement and unavailing perplexity; the women shrieked aloud, fell into fits, sunk to the ground in a swoon. Nothing was seen but wild disorder, nothing heard but tumultuous clamour; drowned was the preacher's voice; had he spoke in thunder, his message would scarce have been regarded; The reader, it is hoped, will excuse whatever may appear low, or savour of the plebelan, in any of these circumstances. If Aspasio had set himself to invent the description of a panic, he would probably have formed it upon some more raised and dignified incident: but as this was a real matter of fact, which lately. happened in one of the sea-port towns, truth, even in a plain dress, may possibly be no less acceptable than fiction, tricked up with the most splendid embellishments. to have gone on with his work amidst such a prodigious ferment, had been like arguing with a whirlwind, or talking to a tempest. This brought to my mind that great tremendous day, when the heavens will pass away, when the earth will be dissolved, and all its inhabitants receive their final doom. If at such incidents of very inferior dread, our hearts are ready to fail, what unknown and inconceivable astonishment must seize the guilty conscience when the hand of the Almighty shall open those unpa ralleled scenes of wonder, desolation, and horror!When the trumpet shall sound-the dead arise-the world be in flames-the Judge on the throne and all mankind at the bar! The trumpetshall sound," says the prophetic teacher; and how startling, how stupendous the summons!. No. thing equal to it, nothing like it, was ever heard through all the regions of the universe, or all the revolutions of time. When conflicting armies have discharged the bellowing artillery of war, or when victorious armies have shouted for joy of the conquest, the seas and shores have rung, the mountains and plains have echoed; but the shout of the Archangel and the trump of God will resound from pole to pole; will pierce the centre, and shake the pillars of heaven. Stronger, stranger still! it will penetrate even to the deepest recesses of the tomb; it will pour its amazing thunder into all those abodes of silence. The dead, the very dead, shall hear. When the trumpet has sounded, the dead shall arise. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, the graves open; the monumental piles are cleft asunder; and the nations under ground start into day. What an immense harvest of men and women springing up from the caverns of the earth, and the depths of the sea! Stand a while, my soul, and consider the wonder. ful spectacle. Adam formed in paradise, and the babe born but yesterday, the earliest ages and latest generations meet upon the same level; Jews and Gentiles, Greeks and barbarians, people of all climes and languages, unite in the promiscuous throng, Here those vast armies, which, like swarms of locusts, covered #1 Cor. xv. 52 countries; which, with an irresistible sweep, overran empires; here they all appear, and here they all are lost; lost like the small drop of a bucket when plunged into the unfathomable and boundless ocean. O the multitudes the multitudes which these eyes shall survey, when God calleth the heavens from above, and the earth that he may judge his people.' What shame must flush the guilty cheek, what anguish wound the polluted breast, to have all their filthy practices, and infamous tempers, exposed before this innumerable crowd of witnesses! Fly, my Theron, and fly my soul; instantly let us fly, earnestly let us fly, to the purifying blood of Jesus; that all our sins may be blotted out; that we may be found unblameable and unreproveable, in the presence of the assembled world; and, what is infinitely more to be revered, in the sight of the Omni. potent God. When the swarm issues, the hive will burn. There is no more need of this habitable globe: the elect have fought the good fight, and finished their course; the wicked have been tried and found incorrigible. The important drama is ended; every actor has performed his part; now therefore the scenes are taken down, and the stage is demolished. Woe be to the earth, and to the works thereof!' Its streams are turned into pitch, its dust into brimstone, and the breath of the Almighty, like a torrent of fire, enkindles the whole. See, see, how the conflagration rages-spreads-prevails over all! The forests are in a blaze, and the mountains are wrapt in flame; cities, kingdoms, continents, sink in the burning deluge; London, Britain, Europe, are no more. Through all the receptacles of water, through all the tracts of land, through the whole extent of air, nothing is discernible but one vast, prodigious, fiery ruin. Where now are the treasures of the covetous? where the possessions of the mighty? where the delights of the voluptuary? How wise, how happy are they, whose portion is lodged in heavenly mansions! Their inherit. ance is incorruptible and undefiled; such as the last fire cannot reach, nor the dissolution of nature impair. But see! the azure vault cleaves; the expanse of hea. ven is rolled back like a scroll; and the Judge, the Judge appears! He cometh,' cries a mighty seraph, the herald of his approach, he cometh to judge the world in righteousness, and minister true judgment unto the people!' He cometh, not as formerly, in the habit of a servant, but clad with uncreated glory, and magnificently attended with the armies of heaven. Angels and archangels stand before him, and ten thousand times ten thousand of those celestial spirits minister unto him. Behold him, ye faithful followers of the Lamb, and wonder and love! This is he who bore all your iniquities on the ignominious cross: this is he who fulfilled all righteousness for the justification of your persons. Behold him, ye despisers of his grace, and wonder and perish! This is he whose merciful overtures you have contemned, and on whose precious blood you have trampled. The great white throne, beyond description august and formidable, is erected: the King of heaven, the Lord of glory, takes his seat on the dreadful tribunal: mercy on his right hand displays the olive-branch of peace, and holds forth the crown of righteousness; justice on his left poises the impartial scale, and unsheaths the sword of vengeance; while wisdom and holiness, brighter than ten thousand suns, beam in his di vine aspect. What are all the preceding events to this new scene of dignity and awe? The peals of thunder sounding in the archangel's trumpet; the blaze of a burning world, and the strong convulsions of expiring nature; the unnumbered myriads of human creatures, starting into instantaneous existence, and thronging the astonished skies; all these seem familiar incidents compared with the appearance of the incarnate Jehovah. Amazement, more than amazement, is all around. Terror and glory unite in their extremes. From the sight of his majestic eye, from the insupportable splendours of his face, the earth itself and the very heavens flee away.' Ilow then? Oh! how shall the ungodly stand? stand in his angry presence, and draw near to this consuming fire? Yet draw near they must, and take their trial-their decisive trial at his righteous bar. Every action comes under examination: for each idle word they must give account: not so much as a secret thought escapes this exact scrutiny. How shall the criminals, the impenitent criminals, either conceal their guilt or elude the sentence? They have to do with a sagacity too keen to be deceived, with a power too strong to be resisted, and (O, terrible, terrible consideration!) with a severity of most just displeasure that will never relent, never be entreated more. What ghastly despair lowers on their pale looks! What racking agonies rend their distracted hearts! The bloody axe and the torturing wheel are ease, are down, compared with their prodigious And (O holy God! wonderful in thy doings! Tearful in thy judgments!) even this prodigious woe is the gentlest of visitations, compared with that indignation and wrath which are hanging over their guilty heads which are even now falling on all the sons of rebellion-which will plunge them deep in aggravated and endless destruction: And is there a last day? and must there come Surely then, to use the words of a pious prelate, it should be the main care of our lives and deaths what shall give us peace and acceptation before the dreadful tribunal of God. What but righteousness? What righteousness, or whose? Ours or Christ's? Ours, in the inherent graces wrought in us, in the holy works wrought by us? Or Christ's, in his most perfect obedience and meritorious satisfaction, wrought for us, and applied to us? The popish faction is for the former; we protes tants are for the latter. God is as direct on our side as his word can make him, every where blazoning the defects of our own righteousness, every where extolling the perfect obedience of our Redeemer's.' 'Behold!' says the everlasting King, I lay in Zion, for a foundation, a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner-stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.'t As this text contains so noble a display of our Saviour's consummate ability for his great work, as it is admirably calculated to preserve the mind from distressing fears, and to settle it in a steady tran. Bishop Hall. + Isa. xxviii. 16. |