prophetic gifts and moral depravity; knowledge of the truth, and wilful adherence to error; admiration of virtue, and fixed habits of vice; an earnest wish to "die the death of the righteous," with the deliberate determination to live the life of the wicked; and all this mystery of iniquity explained in one short sentence; his heart went out after its covetousness.

All these have passed in review before us; and their existence, in succession to one another, occupies a space of two thousand five hundred years. But the text collects them, and us, and all succeeding generations of men, into one great co-existent assembly, to undergo a judgment infinitely more solemn than ever was pronounced from human tribunal; a judgment infallible, final, erreversible; which shall bring to trial, and condemn all hasty, rash, erroneous judgments of men, clear injured innocence, bring to light and reward hidden worth, abase insolence and pride, detect and expose hypocrisy. Let the prospect of it direct all our inquiries, animate all our exertions, dictate all our decisions on the character and conduct of other men, and influence, form and govern our own. Thus the review of preceding personages and events, and the prospect of those to come shall be animated, improved, sanctified; thus shall we feel our interest in, and connexion with the church of God universal, of every age, and converse with Moses and the prophets as our contemporaries, countrymen and friends, whom we shall shortly join, and be united to them in bonds of pure and everlasting love. Recollecting times past, anticipating ages to come, let us draw near and consider this great sight, and may God grant us to feel and improve its influence.

The imagery of the scene is sublime and striking. "I saw a great white throne." "A throne," royal state, established empire, acknowledged sway, the right and power of judgment united, universal, everlasting, uncontrollable dominion. A "great" throne,

The seat of kings is raised a little above the people; that of Solomon had six steps; ivory and gold lent their combined aid to enrich and adorn it. But what is the glory of Solomon? His throne once the seat of wisdom, to whose oracular voice foreign potentates and their nations listened with admiration and respect, was at length dishonoured, degraded, defiled by the impurities of idolatry, and by the imprudence and apostacy of him who sat upon it, and thus deprived of one of its firmest supporters, it shook under him, and he at length dropped from it, a monument of the nothingness and vanity of human grandeur, wealth and wisdom. Ten of its twelve props slipt from beneath it, through the imprudence of his son; and, after a few convulsive struggles, it sunk at length into the dust, a poor, precarious, subordinate throne, subject to the lordly state of an Assyrian prince. What is the glory of angels that excel in strength? Delegated power, derived splendour, imparted wisdom, dignity under authority. But, behold on yonder radiant throne, one "made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. "He maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire. But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever; a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom." "Sit on my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool." Behold "the Lord sitting upon the throne, high and lifted up," surrounded with the seraphim, crying continually unto one another, and saying, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts, the whole earth is full of his goodness.'

"A great white throne," the emblem of purity, truth and righteousness; itself unsullied, and purifying all that approach it. Righteousness and judg ment are the habitation of his throne; mercy and truth go before his face." the whole earth do right?"

"Shall not the Judge of With the purest inten.

tion, with the highest degree of human sagacity, with the most extensive knowledge of the law, and the most determined resolution faithfully to apply it, earthly tribunals are not secure from error: craft may overreach wisdom; hypocrisy may disguise the truth, or cover falsehood; the stream of justice may be diverted or forced out of its channel, and the pellucid tide undergo a temporary pollution. The princes of this world must see with the eyes and hear with the ears of other men; the worthy and the wise may, of course, be kept at a distance, while demerit, wickedness and folly bask in the sunshine of royal favour. But yonder radiant throne applies an infallible test to all that approach it: hypocrisy drops the mask, the windings of deceit and cunning stand exposed, the brazen, imposing forehead of impudence is covered with a blush, and the stony, unfeeling, unrelenting heart is dissolved into watermodest worth rears its drooping head, conscious integrity expands its glowing bosom, and purity seeks the source from which it sprung.

Observe the difference; mark the changes which these undergo, as they draw nigh; see the hardened sinner, cased in sevenfold adamant, advancing with intrepid step, striving to make assurance pass for innocence. But, lo, the rays of that white throne have fallen upon him; the spots begin to appear, they grow blacker and blacker, he gradually becomes abominable and more abominable; odious to the beholder, a terror to himself, he shrinks from inquiry, darkness is diffused around from the brightness of that light; he calls upon the mountains to fall upon him, and upon the hills to cover him.

Not so the humble follower of the Lamb. His countenance becomes more and more serene, his confidence increases, every blemish disappears, "the glory of the Lord is risen upon him," his lustre brightens as he proceeds, at length he is united to, he is lost in the fountain of joy.

"I saw him that sat on it." "No man hath seen God at any time." Remove that cloud, that vapor, and I am unable steadfastly to behold the face of the sun: how much more, the face of him who arrays the sun in all his effulgence! If he raise his voice a little louder in the whirlwind, or in the thunder, I am overwhelmed and lost.

Ah! it is conscious guilt that appals me, that clothes the face of God with terror, that roars in the tempest, that raises the voice of the mighty thunder; but, “reconciled unto God," "justified by faith," I "have peace with God," I see as I am seen, I know as I am known: "beholding with open face as in a glass the glory of the Lord," lo, the believer is gradually "changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the spirit of the Lord." "The only begotten who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him."

Did the pomp and wisdom of an earthly potentate dazzle and delight the eyes of a sovereign like himself, and constrain one inured to scenes of magnificence, to cry out, "It was a true report that I heard in mine own land-howbeit I believed not the words, until I came, and mine eyes had seen it: and behold the half was not told me?" What then will it be to see, with the beloved disciple, "a great white throne, and him who sits upon it," with the myriads of the heavenly host bending before it, rejoicing without trembling.

Grant me, gracious God, now to see thee in these thy lower works, in the wonders of thy providence, in the exceeding riches of thy grace, in the face of thy Son Christ Jesus, and thereby prepare me for seeing thee as thou art, and for being made like unto thee! Place me with thy servant Moses upon a rock, put me in a cleft of the rock, cover me with thy hand while thou passest by, remove thy hand, that I may trace thy presence in the blessings thou hast left behind thee, that I may be strengthened to meet the direct rays of thy countenance, when thou comest to "be glorified

in thy saints, and admired in all them that believe." "From whose face the earth and the heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them."

"All these things shall be dissolved. The heavens shali pass away with great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also, and the works that are therein shall be burnt up." "They shall perish, but thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed. But thou art the same." God "spake, and it was done; he gave commandment, and it stood fast." "At his word earth and heaven rose out of chaos," and lo, he looks them into nothing again; they shrink from his presence, they vanish at his nod, they cannot abide the brightness of his coming. They have fulfilled their day, they have accomplished the purpose of him who made them, they have contributed their aid toward the rearing of a more glorious fabric, and having become unnecessary, that moment disappear.

The local and transient effects of an earthquake, a hurricane, an inundation, are striking, impressive and permanent: proud cities levelled to the earth, or swallowed up of it; fertile plains overwhelmed with a briny or a fiery tide; the glory of man sought but not to be found. But what is this to the dissolution of a globe? Surely the balance must be destroyed, a blank in nature take place, and wild uproar ensue. No, the vision represents a whole system passing away: that sun and all the surrounding planets, and innumerable other "planets circling other suns," lost, yet not missed; fled" as the baseless fabric of a vision," and not a wreck left behind: and yet no schism, no deficiency in the body; for the promise of the Eternal immediately repairs the loss; he makes "all things new;" "new heavens and a new earth, therein dwelleth righteous

ness.

With the heavens and the earth, the little, fading

VOL. III.