Obrazy na stronie
PDF
ePub
[ocr errors]

rapid wing-and but a few moments now remain to precipitate a confession of errors and of crimes which require the expiation of a holy and a christian life, but which can now but a few moments precede the awful judgment of a just and omnipotent God. Alas! we often complain, during life, of a treacherous memory; so that the minister of God is under the necessity of remedying our inattention, and of assisting us to know and to judge of ourselves. But in that last hour, the expiring sinner shall require no assistance to recal the remembrance of his sins: the justice of God which during health had delivered him up to all the profundity of spiritual darkness, will then awaken and enlighten him, with the thunderings and lightnings of his wrath.

"Every thing around his bed of death awakens the remembrance of some error or some crime: servants whom he has scandalized by his example-children whom he has cruelly neglected a wife whom he has rendered miserable by unkindness and infidelity-ministers of the church whom he has despisedriches which he has abused-the luxury in which he has revelled, and for which the poor and his creditors have suffered-the pride and magnificence of his buildings which have been reared by the inheritance of the widow and the orphan, or perhaps by a public calamity-every thing, in a word, the heavens and the earth' says Job shall reveal his iniquity and rise up against him;' shall recal to him the frightful history of his passions and his crimes. His eyes seek some resting place; but in vain: they can find nothing to dwell upon, but the dreary representations of death-yet even these the remembrance of the past, and the view of the present, though they awaken agonies inexpressible, might be supported by the expiring sinner, could he confine his attention to these: though wretched, he would not be so completely overwhelmed with misery as he is by the thoughts of futurity, which convulse him with horror and despair, that futurity, that incomprehensible region of darkness which he now approaches, conscience his only companion: that futurity, that unknown land, from which no traveller has ever returned, where he knows not whom he shall find, nor what awaits him: that futurity, that fathomless abyss, in the contemplation of which his mind is lost and bewildered, and into which he must now plunge, ignorant

of his destiny: that futurity, that tomb, that residence of horror; where he must now lie down amongst the ashes and the mouldering carcasses of his ancestors: that futurity, that incomprehensible eternity, the view of which in prospect he cannot support: that futurity; in a word, that dreadful judgment seat of God, before which he must now appear, to render an account of a life, every moment almost of which has been blackened by sins. Alas! while he only looked forward to this terrible futurity, at a distance, he made an infamous boast of not dreading it: he boldly braved its terrors: he continually demanded with a tone of blasphemy and derision, "who is returned from it?" he ridiculed the vulgar apprehensions, and piqued himself upon his superior intelligence and undaunted courage. But, from the moment that the hand of God is upon him; from the moment that death approaches near to him-that the gates of eternity unfold to receive him, and that he touches upon that awful futurity, against which while at a distance he seemed so strongly fortified-ah! then, he becomes weak, trembling, dissolved in tears, raising his suppliant hands to heaven; or, gloomy, silent, agitated, revolving in his mind the most dreadful thoughts, and alternately expecting consolation or relief from tears and lamentations, from frenzy and despair.

"Yes, my brethren, this inconsiderate, unhappy mortal, who had uniformly lulled himself in his excesses; uniformly flattered himself that one pious moment alone was necessary, one sentiment of compunction before death, to appease the anger of a justly incensed, yet merciful God, despairs now of his clemency: in vain is he told of his eternal mercies; for he feels how utterly unworthy he is of them. In vain the appointed minister of religion endeavours to sooth his terrors, by opening to him the bosom of divine love, and announcing the promises of pardonthese assurances cannot console him, because he well knows that the charity of the church, which never despairs of salvation for her children, cannot avert the awful judgment of a just and omnipotent God. In vain does the holy preacher descant upon forgiveness and grace; a secret and terrifying voice resound's from the bottom of his heart, and tells him that there is no salvation for the impious; and that he should have no confidence in consolations which are dictated by compassion rather than by

[blocks in formation]

truth: in vain is he exhorted to apply to those last remedies which the church offers to the dying: he regards them as desperate expedients which are useless when hope has expired: and which are bestowed more for the consolation of the living, than from any prospect of benefit to those who are departing. Servants of Jesus Christ are called in to support him in his last moments; while all which he is enabled to do is to envy their happy lot, and to writhe under the hopeless misery of his own. His friends and relations are assembled round his bed to receive his last sighs; but he averts from them his eyes, because they serve but to renew the remembrance of his sins. Death at fast arrests him; and the spiritual pastor endeavours to cherish and to animate by prayer and soothing exhortation the expiring spark of life. 'Depart, christian soul!' says he: he says not to him, 'Prince, Grandee of the world, depart!' though during his life the public monuments might have been insufficient to emblazon the number and pride of his titles. In this last moment, he receives that title alone which he had obtained by baptism, the only one which he had disregarded; though the only one, of all the pompous train, which can accompany him into eternity. Depart, christian soul!' alas! he has lived as though the body formed his only being and treasure. He had endeavoured to persuade himself that his soul was but animated matter: that man is but a composition of flesh and blood, and that his existence perishes with his body. He now, however, is convinced that his body indeed is clay, and about to return to its kindred dust; but that his soul is immortal: that image ofthe Divinity that sublime and intelligent principle which is capable of knowing, adoring, and, loving its Almighty Creator, and which must now quit its earthly mansion, and appear before his awful tribunal to receive a retribution, according to the deeds done in the body.' 'Depart, christian soul! you who have considered the earth as your abiding country, when it was but a place of pilgrimage and probation, through which you were appointed to pass in your way to the mansions of eternity. The church desires to announce glad tidings to you, in announcing the expiration of your trial, the dissolution of your earthly prison, your emancipation from the fetters of clay; but alas! it can only thereby confirm your terrors and increase your wo.'

RHETORIC.

"Depart, then, christian soul! once marked with the seal of salvation which you have effaced; redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ, whom you have trampled under foot; purified by the grace of regeneration, which you have a thousand times stained; enlightened by the beams of the gospel which you have uniformly rejected; loaded with all the tender mercies of heaven, which you have always unworthily profaned.' 'Depart christian soul! go, and carry before Jesus Christ that august title, which should have been the illustrious signet of your salvation, but which now constitutes the seal of your condemnation.'

"The expiring sinner, then finding in the remembrance of the past, naught but agonizing regret in all which takes place around him, naught but images which afflict him—in the thoughts of futurity, naught but horrors which appal him--can look nowhere for relief or consolation-not to created beings, for he must now leave them-not to the world, for it now vanishes from before him—not to his fellow mortals, for they cannot possibly protect him from the arrest of death-not to an infinitely just God whom he has rendered an avowed enemy, and from whom he has therefore nought but vengeance to expect: a thousand horrors occupy his thoughts-he writhes in agony, vainly endeavouring to elude the grasp of death, or to escape if possible from himself. The frenzy of his soul is awfully depicted in his agitated countenance. His exclamations, rendered unintelligible by interrupting sobs, may be equally the dictates of repentance and despair-the convulsions which agitate his frame must be attributed not merely to the natural pangs of dissolution, but to the struggles of the soul, against the approaching interview with its judge. He sighs! he groans! but whether through contrition for his past crimes, At or despair of the mercy of heaven, cannot be ascertained. length his eyes fix, his features change, his countenance be: comes disfigured, his livid lips convulsively separate, his whole frame quivers, and his distracted soul is torn reluctantly from the body-hurried into the presence of Almighty God,-and stands trembling and alone at the foot of his awful tribunal.

"Thus, my brethren, do those expire who disregard and disobey their Creator during life-and thus shall you yourselves die, if your crimes thus accompany you to the bed of death.

[ocr errors]

"Every thing will assume a new aspect; but your consciousness of identity shall remain unchangeable-you shall die-and you shall die as you have lived, polluted, deformed, and degraded by sin. O! brethren, avoid this misery-live the life of the righteous; and your death, like theirs, will be peaceful, consolatory, and triumphant." Massillon, Serm. 10.

The exemplification of Forensic Eloquence, to which I solicit your attention, is a part of Mr. Erskine's speech, on the trial of Thomas Williams, for the publication of Paine's "Age of Reason," before lord Kenyon and a special jury, July 24th, 1797.

"This publication appears to me to be as mischievous and cruel in its probable effects, as it is manifestly illegal in its principles; because it strikes at the best, sometimes, alas! the only refuge, and consolation amidst the distresses and afflictions of the world. The poor and humble, whom it affects to pity, may be stabbed to the heart by it. They have more occasion for firm hopes beyond the grave, than those who have greater comforts to render life delightful. I can conceive a distressed, but virtuous man, surrounded by children, looking up to him for bread, when he has none to give them, sinking under the last day's labour, and unequal to the next, yet still looking up with confidence to the hour when all tears shall be wiped from the eyes of affliction, bearing the burden laid upon him by a mysterious Providence which he adores, and looking forward with exultation to the revealed promises of his Creator, when he shall be greater than the greatest, and happier than the happiest of mankind. What a change in such a mind might be wrought by such a merciless publication? Gentlemen, whether these remarks are the overcharged declamations of an accusing counsel, or the just reflections of a man anxious for the public freedom, which is best secured by the morals of a nation, will be best settled by an appeal to the passages in the work, that are selected by the indictment for your 'consideration and judgment. You are at liberty to connect them with every context and sequel, and to bestow upon them the mildest interpretation.*

* Here Mr. Erskine read and commented upon several of the selected passages.

« PoprzedniaDalej »