13, "Have I also here looked after him that seeth me?" xxii. 14, "In
the mount of the Lord it shall be seen." From this word had the prophets
the name of seers, 1 Sam. ix. 9; and from the same word came the name of
visions, 2 Chron. xxvi. 5, "Zechariah, who had understanding in the
visions of God."

Now, but what of all this? might some think. If Christ come, it is
well,--he is the desire of all nations. O but when Christ thus cometh into
his kingdom among men with power, and is seen appearing with some beams of
his glory, "Who may abide, and who shall stand?" saith the text. How shall
sinners stand before the Holy One? How shall dust and ashes have any
fellowship with the God of glory? How shall our weak eyes behold the Sun
of righteousness coming forth like a bridegroom out of his chamber? Did
not Ezekiel fall upon his face at "the appearance of the likeness of the
glory of the Lord"? Ezek. i. 28. Did not Isaiah cry out, "Woe is me, for I
am undone," "for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts"? Isa.
vi. 5.

But why is it so hard a thing to abide the day of Christ's coming, or to
stand before him when he appeareth in his temple? If you ask of him, as
Joshua did, "Art thou for us, or for our adversaries?" (Josh. v. 13,) he
will answer you, "Nay; but as a captain of the host of the Lord am I now
come," (ver. 14.) If you ask of him, as the elders of Bethlehem asked of
Samuel (while they were trembling at his coming), "Comest thou peaceably?"
He will answer you as Samuel did, "Peaceably." What is there here, then,
to trouble us? Doth he not come to save, and not to destroy? Yes, to save
the spirit, but to destroy the flesh; he will have the heart-blood of sin,
that the soul may live for ever. This is set forth by a double metaphor:
one taken from the refiner's fire, which purifieth metals from the dross;
the other, from the fuller's soap; others read the fuller's grass, or the
fuller's herb. Some have thought it so hard to determine, that they have
kept into the translation the very Hebrew word _borith_. Jerome tells
us,(1405) that the fuller's herb which grew in the marsh places of
Palestina, had the same virtue for washing and making white which nitre
hath. Yet I suppose the fuller's soap hath more of that virtue in it than
the herb could have. However it is certain that {~HEBREW LETTER BET~}{~HEBREW LETTER RESH~}{~HEBREW LETTER RESH~},--_borith_, cometh from
a word which signifieth to make clean, according to t