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terror; a God descending at the head of an army of angels, and a burning world under his feet?

These are things truly above expression, and not only so, but so different and remote from our ordinary thoughts and conceptions, that he that comes nearest to a true description of them, shall be looked upon as the most extravagant. "Tis our unhappiness, to be so much used to little trifling things in this life, that when any thing great is represented to us, it appears fantastical, an idea made by some contemplative or melancholy person. I will not venture therefore, without premising some grounds, out of Scripture, to say any thing concerning this glorious appearance. The coming of our Saviour, being wholly out of the way of natural causes, it is reasonable, we should take all the directions we can from Scripture, that we may give a more fitting and just account of the sacred pomp.

I need not quote those parts of Scripture, that prove the Second Coming of our Saviour in general, or his return to the earth again, at the end of the world, Matt. xxiv. 30, 31, Acts i. 11, and iii. 20, 21; Apoc. i. 7, Heb. ix. 28. No christian can doubt of this, it is so often repeated in the sacred writings; but the manner and circumstances of his coming, or of his appearance, are the things we now enquire into. And, in the first place, we may observe, that the Scripture tells us, our Saviour will come in flaming fire, and with an host of mighty angels; so says St. Paul to the Thessalonians. "The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ." In the second place, our Saviour says, Matt. xvi. 27, "The Son of Man shall come in the glory of his Father, with his angels." From which two places we may learn, first, that the appearance of our Saviour will be with flames of fire. Secondly, with an host of angels. Thirdly, in the glory of his Father: By which glory of the Father, I think it understood, that throne of glory, represented by Daniel for the Ancient of days. For our Saviour speaks here to the Jews, and probably in a way intelligible to them; and the glory of the Father, which they were most likely to understand, would be either the glory wherein God appeared at Mount Sinai, upon the giving of the law, whereof the apostle speaks largely to the Hebrews, chap. xii. 18-21; or that which Daniel represents him in, at the day of judgment, and this latter being more proper to the subject of our Saviour's discourse, it is more likely, this expression refers to it. Give me leave, therefore to set down that description of the Father upon his throne, from the prophet Daniel vii. 9, "And I beheld till the thrones were set,* and the

*It is rendered in the Fuglish, cast down.

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in this tragedy, and have something extraordinary in them at that time; either as to number, or bigness, or nearness to the earth. Besides, the air will be full of flaming meteors, and of unusual forms and magnitudes; balls of fire rolling in the sky, and pointed lightnings darted against the earth; mixt with claps of thunder, and unusual noise from the clouds. The moon and the stars will be confused and irregular, both in their lights and motions; as if the whole frame of the heavens was out of order, and all the laws of nature were broken or expired.

When all things are in this languishing or dying posture, and the inhabitants of the earth under the fear of their last end, the heavens will open on a sudden, and the glory of God will appear. A glory surpassing the sun in its greatest radiency; which though we cannot describe, we may suppose it will bear some resemblance, or proportion, with those representations that are made in Scripture, of God upon his throne. This wonder in the heavens, whatsoever its form may be, will presently attract the eyes of all the christian world. Nothing can more affect them than an object so unusual, and so illustrious; and that brings along with it their last destiny, and will put a period to all human affairs.

Some of the ancients have thought, that this coming of our Saviour, would be in the dead of the night, and his first glorious appearance in the midst of darkness, 2 Peter iii. 10. God is often described in Scripture, as light or fire, with darkness round about him. "He bowed the heavens, and came down, and darkness was under his feet. He made darkness his secret place. His pavillion round about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies. At the brightness that was before him, the thick clouds passed," Psalm xviii. 9, 11, 12. And when God appeared upon Mount Sinai, the "mountains burnt with fire unto the midst of heaven, with darkness, clouds, and thick darkness," Deut. iv. 11; or, as the apostle expresses it, "with blackness, and darkness, and tempest," Heb. xii. 18. Light is never more glorious than when surrounded with darkness; and it may be, the sun at that time, will be so obscure, as to make little distinction of day and night. But, however, this divine light overbears, and distinguishes itself from common light, though it be at mid-day. It was about noon that the light shined from heaven, and surrounded St. Paul, Acts xxii. 6.— And it was in the day-time that St. Stephen saw the heavens opened, Acts vii. 55, 56, "Saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God." This light which flows from a more vital source, be it day or night, will always be predominant.

That appearance of God upon Mount Sinai, which we men

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trump to earth's remotest bounds-now God begins to ra snares, fire and brimstone upon the ungodly. That flood fire begins to pour from heaven which is to consume th holocaust.

Imagine all nature now standing in a silent expectation to re ceive its last doom; the tutelary and destroying angels to hav their instructions; every thing to be ready for the fatal hour and then after a little silence, all the host of heaven to rais their voice, and sing aloud," Let God arise, let his enemies b scattered: As smoke is driven away, so drive them away; a wax melteth before the fire, so let the wicked perish at the pres ence of God." And upon this, as upon a signal given, all the sublunary world breaks into flames, and all the treasuries of fire are opened in heaven, and in earth.

The conflagration begins. If one should now go about to represent the world on fire, with all the confusions that necessarily must be in nature, and in mankind upon that occasion, it would seem to most men a romantic scene: yet, we are sure there must be such a scene. "The heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with a fervent heat, and all the works of the earth will be burnt up." And these things cannot come to pass without the greatest disorders imaginable, both in the minds of men, and in external nature, and the saddest spectacles that eye can behold. We think it a great matter to see a single person burnt alive; here are millions shrieking in the flames at once. 'Tis frightful to us to look upon a great city in flames, and to see the distractions and misery of the people; here is an universal fire through all the cities of the earth, and an universal massacre of their inhabitants. Whatsoever the prophets foretold of the destructions of Juda, Jerusalem, or Babylon, (Isa. xxiv. Jer. li. and Lamentations,)in the highest strains, is more than literally accomplished in this last and general calamity; and those only that are spectators of it, can make its history.

The disorders in nature, and the inanimate world, will be no less strange and unaccountable, than those in mankind. Every element and every region, so far as the bounds of this fire extend, will be in a tumult and a fury, and the whole habitable world running into confusion. A world is sooner destroyed than made, and nature relapses hastily into that chaos state, out of which she came by slow and leisurely motions: as an army advances into the field by just and regular marches, but when it is broken and routed, it flies with precipitation, and one cannot describe its posture. Fire is a barbarous enemy, it gives no mercy; there is nothing but fury and rage, and ruin and destruction, where soeverit prevails. A storm or hurricane, though it

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