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OF THE LAST JUDGMENT AND CHANGE OF THIS WORLD

WITH THE PREVIOUS SIGNS OF THE TIMES.

Heb. 1. 10.

Isa. lxv. 17.

Rev. xx. 11.

THAT the last Judgment extends not only to this globe, but also to the whole moveable creation, is evident by the following words:

“For Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands: they shall perish-but Thou remainest and they all shall wax old as doth a garment; and as a vesture shalt Thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but Thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail."

Again, "Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind."

Again, And I saw a great white throne, and Him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no Rev. xxi. 1. place for them."-" And I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea."

We have now to show how far our inferences, from our observation of things around us, accord

with this revelation of the last judgment extending over all the moveable creation.

It has already been demonstrated, that the universal law of gravitation, which are Almighty was pleased to establish for the government of his creation, and previous to the existence of our race, is the only just law which can be formed, to regulate and support the peaceable order of society-consistently with the precepts of our Saviour!* This being the case, it follows, that the same inferences we derive in all our reasonings, from this universal law, may be also derived from it by every reasonable being, upon every planet throughout the vast creation! for, by the perception of those laws, their assent must be regulated as reasonable beings, as the conclusions of all our reasonings are-in astronomy, or in any other department of knowledge, which that law regulates. And the Word of God may have adopted ways, consistently with his wisdom and beneficence to raise millions of others in the bliss of his own glory, as extended to ourselves. He says, "In my Father's house are many man- John xiv. 2. sions, and if it were not so, I would have told you:" that "the nations are but as a drop in a bucket" Isaiab, xl. 15. in the creation, "and are counted as the small dust in the balance" of reciprocal attraction-for this world he likened in his parables to a field, or as a part of an estate. And to suppose that those man

* See Appendix.

Ps. viii. 4.

sions were created, but for the wisest and best of purposes, would be a contradiction to the clearest possible evidence we have around us of His beneficence, wisdom, and power! And knowing these truths as David did, well might he exclaim: "What is man that Thou art mindful of him, and the son Ps. lxxxix. 5. of man that Thou visitest him."-" The heavens shall praise thy wonders, O Lord, thy faithfulness also in the congregation of the saints."

Ps. lxxxix. 14.

For "Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne: mercy and truth shall go before thy face. Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance. In thy name shall they rejoice all the day and in thy righteousness shall they be exalted, for Thou art the glory of their strength."

To enquire, however, about other worlds than our own, is not our business here, more than pointing out the circumstances which prove the consistency of revelations, with the law which regulates the visible creation. Our business here, is to consider the language that describes the coming of the Lord to judge the world; and compare the elements around us, He has at his command to fulfil those words. The words of the prophet Habakkuk Hab. iii. 4. are," His brightness was as the light. He had bright beams out of his side, and there was the hiding of his power: before Him went the pestilence, and burning diseases went forth at his feet. He stood and measured the earth: He beheld, and

drove asunder the nations: the everlasting mountains were scattered-the perpetual hills did bow— His ways are everlasting."

Again, "The mountains quake at him, and the Nah. 1. 5. hills melt, and the earth is burned at his presence, yea, the world, and all that dwell therein."

Again, "For, behold, the Lord cometh forth out Micah i. 3. of his place, and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth. And the mountains shall be molten under him, as wax before the fire, and the valleys shall be cleft as the waters poured down a descent."

Again, "A fire goeth before him and burneth up Psalm xcvii. 3. his enemies"-" For, behold, the day cometh that Mal. iv. 1. shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of Hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch."

"But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall and ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be as ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of Hosts." "And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of Hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked; between

Rev. i. 16.

Rev. i. 15.

Rev. i. 17.

him that serveth God, and him that serveth him not."

The Almighty Lord is revealed as the most effulgent light. "His countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength, and his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead." St. Paul also fell down to the ground, and those who journeyed Acts. xxvi. 13. with him, when the Lord appeared to him " as a light from heaven, above the brightness of the sun." Ex. xxxiii. 18. And when Moses said, "I beseech thee, show me thy glory? the Lord said, Thou canst not see my face, for there shall no man see me and live.” That is, no one can live in the impure spirit of this world, which constitutes this natural life, in beholding the purity of his glory: for the spirit of this

1 John ii. 17. World, we are assured, "will pass away." St. John and St. Paul were raised again by the Holy Spirit.

Rev. i. 15.

Now to be in the pure Spirit of the Lord, as St. John describes himself to have been, his soul must be as the union of a ray of light, with the whole effulgence of the sun or similar to the smallest particle of water, in union with the whole ocean: and in that purity of spirit, the impure spirit of evil, that pervades and surrounds the material creation, must appear as a troubled sea, or "Like unto fine brass burning in a furnace," as it is represented by St. John:-but whether the body of that power be what we call electricity or not, sure we are, that when it shall please the Almighty Lord to give it motion

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