"blessed of MY FATHER, inherit the kingdom "prepared for you from the foundations of the "world." And to the latter, "Depart from "me ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared "for the devil and his angels." This awful subject, which I will endeavour to explain by other parts of God's holy word, the prophet foretels in these words:

Ver. 11." And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat upon it." It was a throne to denote his supremacy and omnipotence over all his works: it was white to show his immaculate justice. "And he that sat upon it "was THE ETERNAL SELF-EXISTING JEHOVAH, THE I AM, THE ALPHA AND OMEGA, the 846 SUPREME INFINITELY PERFECT AND EVER GLO"RIOUS GOD, BESIDES WHOM THERE IS NO "GOD." A God whose purity and holiness are so infinitely perfect, that no temporal, impure, or imperfect thing, can, for a moment, bear his holy presence without perishing*. Of his excellence the prophets and apostles have attempted in vain to give us a perfect idea, as all such attempts must be while we remain in this imperfect fallible state; for that which is finite and mortal cannot comprehend infinity. Nahum attempts to describe his infinite righteousness and justice, when foretelling the same awful event here predicted by St. John: "THE LORD," says he, " is slow to anger and great in POWER, and will not at all acquit

*Exod. iii. 6. xix. 21. Ix, 35.

"the wicked. His way is in the whirlwind, " and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust "of his feet. He rebuketh the sea, and drieth "up all the rivers. The mountains quake at "HIM, and the hills melt, and the earth is burnt "at HIS PRESENCE; yea, the world and all that "dwell therein. Who can stand before HIS in"dignation; and who can abide in the fierce"ness of HIS anger? His fury is poured out "like fire; and the rocks are thrown down by 66 HIM. THE LORD is a good strong hold in "the day of trouble; and HE knoweth him "that trusteth in HIM. But with an overrunning flood he will make an utter end of the

place thereof (of the earth), and darkness, or "everlasting punishment, shall pursue His ene"mies."

Such is Nahum's sublime, although inadequate, description of the God of heaven; and such his prediction of the same awful event here foretold by St. John. And although the first is more diffuse in narrating the fact, and the other more brief and comprehensive, there is such an agreement in the essential circumstances, that I will not pass over it without a remark or two. The first begins with a description of the omnipotence and righteousness of God, for the most part literal; the other, in a concise and beautiful figure, represents the same truths, by seeing GoD sitting upon white throne;" an emblem of purity, power, and righteousness. The first predicts that the mountains shall quake at HIM, and the hills

"A

shall melt, and the earth, yea, the world, and all that dwell therein, shall be burnt at his presence. The other, that "the earth and the heavens shall flee away from his face." The first, that God will "make an utter end thereof;" and the other, that there shall be "found no place for them," plainly meaning that they shall be utterly annihilated by the same incomprehensible wisdom and power by which they were created*. Of the same event St. Peter† also treats in his first Epistle equally clear and concise; "For," says he, "the DAY of the "LORD will come as a thief in the night, in "the which the heavens shall pass away with "a great noise, and the elements shall melt "with fervent heat; the earth also, and the "works that are therein, shall be burnt up. I could here add the testimony of other prophets and apostles to confirm the truth of this great prophetic event, but enough has been offered to convince any true believer in those ‡ "two witnesses" of God, the Old and New Testament. And as to the atheist and sceptic, who deny the existence, or doubt the truths of the holy word of God, all that the prophets and apostles have said will not § "remove their delusion," nor save them from the everlasting punishment that will be irreversible if they persist in their blasphemies and unholiness until death; which they must know, from daily

* Dan. xii. 1.
Rev. xi. 3,

† 2 Peter iii. 10. § 2 Thess. 11.

events, may be to-morrow, yea, the next mo

ment.

The prophet having now foretold the coming of Christ with the departed saints, their union with the just then living upon earth in his kingdom, the depression of the power of Satan, his capture and final punishment, and the utter destruction of the world, naturally leads us to the last resurrection and final judgment to be passed upon the whole race of Adam, according to the deeds done in the body; a judgment in which the righteous, through Christ, will be rewarded with everlasting and immortal happiness, and the followers of Satan, or those that have "lived in the gratifications of their lusts, and "without God in the world," and those in particular who shall have worshipped the "beast of atheism and his image," will be condemned to everlasting punishment*; a judgment which seems, from the tenor of the prophecies and other parts of the scriptures, to be the last office committed to Christ by the Father, as the Son of Man, to be performed on earth before he shall deliver up his kingdom to God†, that God may be all in all. For the world being destroyed, and all the posterity of Adam having suffered a temporal death, except those alive at the coming of Christ, nothing seems to remain but for him to judge the quick and the dead, and to destroy the power of the "second death;" that death which

* Rev. xxi. 8.

VOL. ii,

A 2

† 1 Cor. xv. 28.

was brought into the world by the wiles of Satan and the disobedience of Adam,* and which the latter, with all his posterity, must have suffered, had not the abundant mercies of an everlasting God reprieved them for a time, to give them an opportunity of recovering their lost immortality and happiness; that death from which Christ came to save the world†; that death, the second death, by which he that overcometh shall not be hurt,

but shall eat of the tree of life in the paradise of God," that death, which Christ shall so destroy that it shall have no power upon those who shall be redeemed through faith in his Gospel; for to him that overcometh, God has promised that "he shall inherit all things, and he will be his GOD, and he shall be HIS Sont;" but that death, which shall have its full effect " upon the "fearful and unbelieving, and the abominable, and "murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers and "idolaters, and ALL LIARS," for these shall have "a part in the lake of fire and brimstone, which "is the second deaths."

This coming of Christ, after the destruction of the world, to judge the human race, their resurrection to a state of immortality, and Christ's final victory over the second death, are truths more frequently inculcated and established by the "two witnesses of God," the Old and New Testaments, than any others. They are held up as the great objects of the faith

* 1 Cor. xv. 22.
Rev. xxi. 7.

and hope of both the

Acts iv. 11, 11 § Ibid xxi. 8.