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DISCOURSE
P
THE
WRATH
OF
THE
LAMB
REV.
vi.
1.5,
16, 17.
And the
kings
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
the
dens,
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
unrepenting
criminals.
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-