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as they certainly will, this body of mine, yet in the flesh, even in this flesh, now almost consumed, I shall see God; yea, I shall see him for myself, and not for another; not at a distance, but near, though my reins be consumed within me. I shall see him on that momentous and much desired day on which I shall in my whole person be made like unto himself." -These words were expressed even in the arms of Death, so that he was quite spent with speaking, and Jay in a profound silence for a minute or two; then in a holy triumph, with a countenance that displayed a sense of conquest, he said, "Lord Jesus come quickly; into thy hands I commend my spirit."These were his last words, and a few minutes after he quietly yielded up the ghost, and slept in Jesus.

In the mean while Veratio addressed himself to me as follows:-This, Novitio, is Christian fortitude, distinct from the ancient Pagan bravery of the Romans. If you see a Brutus, or Cassius, or even a Cato himself, out-brave the fears of Death, it is from ignorance of the real nature and state of an hereafter; but it is the clear knowledge of eternity, and of the perfections of God, which fortifies the mind of Stabilius against every painful apprehension, now he is making his exit from the stage of time, and struggling hand to hand with the quencher of the animal flame.

Mind the tender Honoro; mark how she stands with a mournful pleasure by the bed of her dying partner, hers but a very few moments longer. Two things oppress her with sensible concern, and two things inspire her labouring bosom with holy joy. She is most sensible of the awful dispensation which lays her under a multiplicity of cares; and O! her dear, her much esteemed Stabilius, the pain which he endures in his departing moments becomes her by sympathy. As she supports his head, and tenderly wipes the cold sweat from his brow, every sigh of his, every symptom of pain, cuts its way directly through her sympathetic heart; she dreads the parting with him, yet longs for the dissolving moment.

Souls thus knit by holy matrimony, and thus made one by sympathy, feel in parting such rending and tearing of the sensitive faculties, as neither tongue nor pen can describe. But in the midst of her sorrow, two things support the amiable Honora, namely, the consideration that these departing agonies put a period to every grief, a final period to every sorrow of her dear, her much valued husband. And she hopes upon solid and scriptural grounds, she hopes, that in a little time she herself will be in mercy taken to the celestial world, where she should again receive with unspeakable joy, the pure and spiritual caresses of her glorified husband, where they shall spend a vast and endless eternity together, in the transporting pleasures of paradise, and mutually join in celebrating the praises of their common God and Saviour. Thus she mourns, and reason says she should; but religion teaches her to mourn as one that is not without hope.

The dissolving moment come, the watchful infer nals took wing and fled, leaving the soul for ever to the blessed possession of uninterrupted peace; she ascended triumphant, and rapt in extatic wonder, sat for a season on the clayey lips of her beloved mate, gazing on the splendor of the messengers of heaven, notwithstanding she herself shone more gloriously than all her attendants, who, free from envy, joyfully saluted her with," Peace be unto thee," and fondly congratulated her on her safe arrival on the confines of eternity.

By this time I thought I saw an innumerable company of seraphic flames, all of them shining in the perfection of glory, who, as the former, came at the will of Immanuel, to congratulate the soul on her passage through the wilderness of tears, and the gloomy valley of the shadow of Death, and her safe arrival in Immanuel's country; then gave her their united welcome into their resplendent society. I cannot now, ah' cannot describe the joys of the glory-born soul, when she first perceived herself invested with the radiance of heaven, and sensibly prest to the fervent

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bosom of everlasting love, for her admiration was inexpressible. But my benevolent guide, the good Veratio, now becoming an interpreter, with no small difficulty I gathered up some few of her rapturous expressions, which but for his assistance I could not have done; for she spoke in the celestial tongue, which is a language that I never had learned; and so imperfect is the fragment which I collected, when .compared with the original, that I redden with shame, and my heart flutters with fear to expose it to view, lest I should thereby injure the subject, and eclipse the glory which I would gladly (the Lord knows) recommend to human esteem. But encouraged by the confession of incomparable. Paul, "Here we see darkly and but in part," I will venture to write it, though it is, as it were, with fear and trembling.

No sooner was the happy soul disentangled from -mortality. but she was filled with the fulness of the glory of God, and in the highest elevations of transport, cried out with a voice of the most perfect melody

"Is this the resting place to which we weary pilgrims are brought after a moment's trouble below? Glorious rest! I have often, heard, I have often longed for the possession of thee, when tossed with the tempest of life. Happy I! Blessed peace! Uninterrupted joy and permenent rest! Hallelujah! Let all the empyrean hosts, let all the militant church incessantly praise in the highest strain, the eternal and bounteous Provider of this glorious rest, in which all our labour and sorrow shall eternally cease! Is this the heaven I have so often heard preached? This glorious place! O heaven! How often have I heard of thy divine excellencies when sojourning in the world below! But now I behold thy refulgent glories without an interposing cloud, and lo! the thousandth part of thy beauties was never disclosed. Happy are thine inhabitants, thou imperial city, for the great King is in the midst of thee; his uncreated glories irradiate every corr.er of thy blissful streets. Blest and unsullied mansions of the disembodied spirits of

the just! Happy I, who was predestinated to the possession of this divine inheritance! Is this the Saviour whom I formerly denied? Ever, till the day of unspeakable grace, did I say unto thee, thou adorable Lord, I will not have thee to reign over me.And, O my Lord, am I now at last blest with the immediate vision of thee, thou Sharon rose divine! Thy beauties, Lord, how amiable! O, how transcendently great are thine excellent glories! Eternal and all-conquering Saviour, I am now at last ravished with thy superabundant goodness, which on earth I could scarcely with coolness admire, but now I behold thee to be all excellent and divine. Is this the crown, the end of all my former crosses? Massy treasure! glorious lustre! How striking is the stupendous blaze! In the world below, my eyes were dreadfully obscure; but now I behold all the excellencies of Godhead, all the radiant beams of unclouded divinity in their fullest resplendency, shining forth in thine immaculate person, thou adorable Jesus. Blessed thou! happy I! Blessed afflictions, which in thy all-powerful hand, thou eternal Spirit, have fitted me for those unsulliable mansions of uninterrupted felicity.

"Sin and Death, where are ye now? trampled for ever beneath my victorious feet. Adorable Saviour, the conquest is thine. Ye tempting fiends, the promised time is now come that I scorn for ever your envious rage. No more, ye malignant infernals, shall your cruel buffetings be able to shake the tranquility of this ever-peaceful and glorified mind. Nor shall your spear-like tongues, ye sons of violence and deceit, evermore be able to tarnish my conduct with blame. Ye children of perfidy, ye treacherous persecutors of the gracious church, the gulph is fixed, and here you can never come a second time to perplex me with sorrow; nor shall the tumultuous rage of fiery lust and impetuous passions, ever more be able to separate betwixt my best beloved and me. "I am now secure within thine insurmountable walls, O thou blessed Jerusalem! Overwhelmed 11.

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with the insupportable blaze of delighted divinity, here let me bask for ever, though the bliss is insufferable. Already filled with the fulness of manifested and imparted love, let me drink for ever at the fountain of life. Ever, for ever, my God, will I praise thee; incessantly praise thee, whilst eternity endures. Grace and providence, providence and grace, shall fill up the measure of mine eternally delightful song. This is my employment; this is the task prescribed by the sweet obligations of gratitude."

Having gathered up this most imperfect fragment of what I heard, I thought that the scene was drawn, and the vision departed from me; and I, astonished at what I had heard and seen, turned to my guide, and in transport said: No wonder, sir, if Balaam, who saw the vissions of the Almighty, desired to die the death of the righteous, and enjoy such a latter end as theirs. No wonder if Judas the traitor despaired and hanged himself, after having betrayed such a glorious Saviour as this. Ah, Veratio, my good Veratio, may I enjoy the divine favour, whatever else I may lack! May I endure all sorrow which both earth and hell can inflict, rather than miss of the glory which shall be revealed! Fall short of heaven! O! I tremble at the thought! Fall short of heaven! If I should, I should, be of all creatures the most emphatically wretched and miserable. Το love, to see, and not enjoy, ah, what intolerable anguish would it give! If it depended less or more on works of my performing, I could not avoid falling short but it is of grace, all of grace, of nothing but grace, and so let grace have the glory for ever secure. Yet, O let me not deceive myself in a matter of such grand importance; but, raw and unexperienced as I am, I think I have something of the same hope. which the good Stabilius expressed; and O, Veratio, may my latter end be like his!

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