at thy rebuke, O Lord, at the blafting of the breath of thy displeasure *.

Such were the effects of the earthquake mentioned ver. 7, by which the offended. Creator fignified his difpleasure at man's difobedience, and chaftifed him for it! And a prodigious earthquake that must have been, beyond what hath ever fince happened, to be attended with the natural confequences here ascribed to it.

This was a very glorious and magnificent, and at the fame time, a very dreadful and tremendous fcene, on whatever occafion it was exhibited; which could have been none other, than fome very extraordinary and weighty one. The earth and even the heavens tremble, and are convulfed to the very centre, at the approach of the offended Creator.

Smoke and fire iffue out of his prefence. The heavens do homage to him, and in

* For chanels of waters, Samuel reads, chanels of the fea: And for thy rebuke, O Lord-the rebuking of the Lord, and the blafting of the breath of his noftrils.

obeifance

obeifance bend themselves downwards, as it were, to accompany him in his defcent. The glorious Cherubim are proud to be employed, in fupplying the place of a carriage and wing their way with the rapidity of the wind. Dark waters, and thick clouds, form his pavilion all around; which being difperfed by the brightness of his prefence, fall down in fhowers of hail, accompanied with thunder and lightning. These were the arrows of the Almighty, which his enemies were not able to withftand. And, as this aweful fcene is ufhered in, fo it is clofed, with a tremendous earthquake; which made bare the foundations of the earth, and difturbed the whole frame of nature.

Now all this can hardly be thought: a merely imaginary fcene, that never had any existence, or foundation, but in the writer's fancy. Such a fuppofition would favour too much of a levity and wantonnefs ill becoming the Spirit of God to dictate. There must therefore have been fome real grounds on which it stood, fome

fuitable

fuitable occafion for its having actually happened.

Now, Ifhould be glad to know, what occafion fo extraordinary, and of such importance, there could have been, in any period of the world, fince the foundation of it, as to call for fuch an extraordinary vifitation; but this, which in its nature was of fuch univerfal concern; including the fate of Adam, and all his race; in which the whole creation was likewife involved? We faw in the foregoing obfervations, on the hiftory of the fall, and its confequences, that there were fome circumstances of terror attending it. I take this, in the place before us, to be a fuller, and more circumstantial description of the Almighty's descent on this occafion.

Milton, who paints after fcripture, as well as nature, describes the confequences of the fall, in much the fame manner with what we have seen.

When Eve had eaten the forbidden fruit, he fays,

Earth

Earth felt the wound, and nature from her feat Sighing through all her works, gave figns of woe, That all was loft.

[Paradife loft,] B. ix. 1. 782.

When Adam had eaten, he adds,

Earth trembled from her entrails, as again
In pangs; and nature gave a fecond groan.
Sky lowr'd, and mutt'ring thunder, fome fad drops
Wept at completing of the mortal fin,

Original.

Ib. 1. 1000.

In confequence of this he reprefents the Creator, as commanding his angels to make changes in the heavens, and elements. Accordingly,

The fun
Had firft his precept, so to move, so shine,
As might affect the earth with cold and heat,
Scarce tolerable; and from the north to call

Decrepit winter; from the fouth to bring
Solftitial fummer's heat

Ib. 1. 651.

Thefe changes in the heavens, though flow produc❜d,

Like change on fea, and land, fidereal blaft,

Vapour and mist, and exhalation hot,

Corrupt and peftilent

K

Ib. 1. 692.

Thunder

Thunder and lightning are the arms, with which he makes the Almighty to vanquish Satan, and his apostate associates; and with which likewife he arms the Meffiah; agreeably to Pf. xviii. 14. above

taken notice of

In his right hand,

Grafping ten thousand thunders, which he fent
Before him; fuch as in their fouls infix'd
Plagues Then aftonifh'd, all refiftance loft, .
All courage, down the idle weapons drop'd.

His arrows

Glar'd lightning, and shot forth pernicious fire, Among th' accurft, that wither'd all their ftrength;

And of their wonted vigour left them drain'd Exhaufted, fpiritlefs, afflicted, faln.

Book vi. 1. 835, 845.

We have fome farther countenance from fcripture for what hath been advanced, that the mountains owe their origin and pro duction to the fall.

The civth Pfalm feems to allude to this event; and hath some of the fame images, with those of the xviiith.

Ver.