( 418 DISCOURSE P THEWRATH OF THE LAMB REV. vi. 1.5, 16, 17. And thekings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and thet thief captains, and the mighty men, and every bond-man, and every free-man, hid themselves in thedens, and in the rocks of the moun- tains; and said to the mountains and rocks, fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of his wrath is come ; and who shall be able to stand ? WHEN some terrible judgment, or execution of di. vine vengeance, is denounced against an age or a nation, it is sometimes described in the language of prophecy by a resemblance to the last and great judgment-day, when all mankind shall be called to account for their sins, and the just and final indignation of God shall be executed upon obstinate and unrepentingcriminals. The discourse of our Saviour in the xxiv. chapter of Matthew, is an eminent example of this kind ; where the destruction of the Jewish nation is predicted, together with the final judgment of the world, in such uniform language, and similar phrases of speech, that it is difficult to say, whe- ther both these scenes of vengeance run through the whole discourse, or which part of the discourse-belongs, to the one, and which to the other. The same manner of prophecy appears in this text. Learned interpreters suppose these words to foretel the universal consternation, which was found amongst the heathen idolaters and persecutors of the church of Christ, when -Constantine, the first christian emperor, . was raised to the throne of Rome, and became governor of the world. But whether they hit upon the proper ap- plication of this prophecy, or not, yet still it is pretty evident, that this scene of terror is-borrowed from the last judgment, which will eminently appear, to be the clay of wrath, as it is called, Rom. ii. 5. It is the great-
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