1 Behold God’s great incarnate Son
In majesty comes flying down:
Hark! for His trumpet’s awful sound
Awakes the dead, and cleaves the ground.
2 So solemn shall the judgment be,
And so severe the scrutiny,
That, by his merit tried alone,
The saint himself would be undone.
3 Where then, ye sons of Belial, where
Will your astonished souls appear?
How will ye shun His piecing sight?
Or how resist His matchless might?
4 Up to the pointed mountains fly,
And gain the confines of the sky;
There shall ye meet celestial fire,
While mountains melt before His ire.
5 Call on the rending earth to save,
And in its center search a grave;
The Judge shall well discern thee there,
And drag thee trembling to His bar.
6 Deck thee around with fraud and lies,
And put on every fair disguise;
Soon shall thy painted form be known
Amidst ten thousand of His own.
7 Gird thee in arms, His wrath t’oppose,
And league with millions of His foes;
Soon would the rebel band expire
Like crackling thorns amidst the fire.
8 One only way may yet be found;
Submissive bow ye to the ground:
His cross a refuge will afford
From all the terrors of His sword.
Source: The Cyber Hymnal #9436
Philip Doddridge (b. London, England, 1702; d. Lisbon, Portugal, 1751) belonged to the Non-conformist Church (not associated with the Church of England). Its members were frequently the focus of discrimination. Offered an education by a rich patron to prepare him for ordination in the Church of England, Doddridge chose instead to remain in the Non-conformist Church. For twenty years he pastored a poor parish in Northampton, where he opened an academy for training Non-conformist ministers and taught most of the subjects himself. Doddridge suffered from tuberculosis, and when Lady Huntington, one of his patrons, offered to finance a trip to Lisbon for his health, he is reputed to have said, "I can as well go to heaven from Lisbon as from Nort… Go to person page >
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