Methodist Madness

I just came across this hymn composed by Charles Wesley in response to Lisbon, and thought it might be worth posting. In Part 2 it is Jesus’s wounds into which we are enjoined to ‘sink’ ourselves; this provides the Kantian safe place from which to 'view the final scene', enjoying the sight of the destroying Lord, ‘Sublime upon his azure throne’. The disaster as cinematic triumph for those spared; and a reminder that Ballard’s erotics can be traced back to a tradition of religious allegory. This also makes it possible to understand the final image of Vaughan, in the lifting aircraft freighted with his semen, as a transcendental rise, with his apostle Ballard left to spread the message by designing the elements of his own car crash.

An Hymn upon the Pouring Out of the Seventh Vial, Rev. xvi, xvii, etc., Occasioned by the
Destruction of Lisbon.

[Part 1.]

1
Woe! To the men, on earth who dwell,
Nor dread th’ Almighty frown,
When God doth all his wrath reveal,
And shower his judgments down!
Sinners, expect those heaviest showers,
To meet your God prepare,
When lo! The seventh angel pours
His vial in the air!

2
A voice out of the temple cries,
And from th’ eternal throne,
And all the storms of vengeance rise,
When God declares ’TIS DONE!
’TIS DONE! Ten thousand voices join
T’ applaud his righteous ire,
And thunders roll, and light’nings shine,
That set the world on fire.

3
The mighty shock seems now begun,
Beyond example great,
And lo! The world’s foundations groan
As at their instant fate!
Jehovah shakes the shattered ball,
Sign of the general doom!
The cities of the nations fall,
And Babel’s hour is come.

4
Lo! From their roots the mountains leap,
The mountains are not found,
Transported far into the deep,
And in the ocean drowned!
Jesus descends in dread array
To judge the scarlet whore:
And every isle is fled away,
And Britain is no more!

5
She sinks beneath her ambient flood,
And never more shall rise:
The earth is gone, on which we stood,
The old creation dies!
Who then shall live? And face the throne,
And face the Judge severe?
When earth and heaven are fled and gone,
O where shall I appear?

Part 2.

1
Now only now against that hour
We may a place provide
Beyond the grave, beyond the power
Of hell our spirits hide:
Firm in the all-destroying shock
May view the final scene,
For lo! The everlasting Rock
Is cleft, to take us in.

2
By faith we find the place above,
The Rock that rent in twain,
Beneath the shade of dying LOVE,
And in the clefts remain:
Jesus, to thy dear wounds we flee,
We sink into thy side,
Assured that all who trust in thee,
Shall evermore abide.

3
Then let the thundering trumpet sound,
The latest light’nings glare,
The mountains melt, the solid ground
Dissolve as liquid air.
The huge celestial bodies roll
Amidst that general fire,
And shrivel as a parchment-scrowl,
And all in smoke expire.

4
Yet still the Lord, the Saviour reigns,
When nature is destroyed,
And no created thing remains
Throughout the flaming void:
Sublime upon his azure throne
He speaks th’ almighty word:
His fiat is obeyed: tis done,
And paradise restored.

5
So be it: let this system end,
This ruinous earth and skies,
The New Jerusalem descend,
The new creation rise:
Thy power omnipotent assume,
Thy brightest majesty,
And when thou dost in glory come,
My Lord, remember me!