Classic Poem

11

Mean men lament, great men do rent
their Robes, and tear their hair:
They do not spare their flesh to tear
through horrible despair.
All Kindreds wail: all hearts do fail:
horror the world doth fill
With weeping eyes, and loud out-cries,
yet knows not how to kill.

12

Some hide themselves in Caves and Delves,
in places under ground:
Some rashly leap into the Deap,
to scape by being drown'd:
Some to the Rocks (O sensless blocks!)
and woody Mountains run,
That there they might this fearful sight,
and dreaded Presence shun.

13

In vain do they to Mountains say,
Fall on us, and us hide
From Judges ire, more hot than fire,
for who may it abide?
No hiding place can from his Face,
sinners at all conceal,
Whose flaming Eyes hid things doth 'spy,
and darkest things reveal.

14

The Judge draws nigh, exalted high
upon a lofty Throne,
Amidst the throng of Angels strong,
lo, Israel's Holy One!
The excellence of whose presence
and awful Majesty
Amazeth nature, and every Creature,
doth more than terrify.

15

The Mountains smoak, the Hills are shook,
the Earth is rent and torn,
As if she should be clean dissolv'd,
or from the center born.
The Sea doth roar, forsakes the shore,
and shrinks away for fear;
The wild Beasts flee into the Sea,
so soon as he draws near.

16

Whose Glory bright, whose wondrous might,
whose Power Imperial,
So far surpass whatever was
in Realms Terrestrial;
That tongues of men (nor Angels pen)
cannot the same express,
And therefore I must pass it by,
lest peaking should transgress.

17

Before his Throne a Trump is blown,
Proclaiming th' Day of Doom:
Forthwith he cries, Ye Dead arise,
and unto Judgment come.
No sooner said, but 'tis obey'd;
Sepulchers open'd are:
Dead Bodies all rise at his call,
and's mighty power declare.

18

Both Sea and Land, at his Command,
their Dead at once surrender:
The Fire and Air constrained are
also their dead to tender
The mighty word of this great Lord
links Body and Soul together
Both of the Just, and the unjust,
to part no more for ever.

19

The same translates, from Mortal states
to Immortality,
All that survive, and be alive,
i'th' twinkling of an eye:
That so they may abide for ay
to endless weal or woe;
Both the Renate and Reprobate
are made to dy no more.

20

His winged Hosts flie through all Coasts,
together gathering
Both good and bad, both quick and dead,
and all to Judgment bring.
Out of their holes those creeping Moles,
that hid themselves for fear,
By force they take, and quickly make
before the Judge appear.