who had before tormented her, they now being flain; but her plagues shall come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine, and she shall be utterly burnt with fire; even in the ruff of all her glory; which does not feem to comport with her present state and circumftances: fhe will have more flesh upon her than now she seems to have, when the kings fhall hate her, and make her defolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire': before the utter deftruction of antichrift, be shall go forth again with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many; yea, he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the feas in the glorious holy mountain, or the mountain of delight, of holiness; and what place is there in all the globe, to which this description fo well answers as Great Britain? This will be done before, and but a little before his ruin; for it follows, yet he shall come to bis end, and none shall help him'.

And I am the more confirmed in all this, by the prefent appearances of things in the world; as, the very great increase of popery in our own land, and in other countries; for though the Pope of Rome, as a fecular prince, and with respect to the exercise of his power and authority as fuch, is not what he was, and is much declining, and has not that regard paid him by the kings of the earch as formerly; yet popery itself is far from being on the decline, or lofing ground as alfo the great departure of the reformed churches, fo called, from the doctrines and principles of the reformation; and even of proteftant diffenters, who are gone, and are going more and more into doctrines and practices which naturally verge and lead to popery: to which may be added, the various fects which within a few years have fprung up among us; the doctrines and practices of some of them being fimilar to thofe of the church of Rome : I will not fay that in general they have it in view and defign to encourage and increase the Romish religion; yet I am very jealous that this is the view of fome; but be this as it will, I am very much of opinion, that these things will at laft iffue in popery; and that fome of those perfons will be suffered as inftruments to spread it, both here, and in all our colonies and plantations abroad.

Now in all that I have faid upon the whole, I do not pretend to any extraordinary impulse from God, or to any prophetic spirit, but I ground all upon the word of God; and if what I have faid does not appear from thence, and upon the face of things in providence, I have no pretenfions to any thing else to support my opinion with; and as fuch only I deliver it. But then after this dark night,

There will be another morning, the spiritual reign of Chrift, which the Philadelphian church-state will introduce; and a bright glorious morning it will be; when it fhall be faid to the church, Arife, fhine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is rifen upon thee; and then the light of the moon skall be as the light

light of the fun, and the light of the fun shall be seven-fold, as the light of feven days then will the witneffes rife and afcend to heaven; then will the vials of God's wrath be poured out upon the antichriftian states, and the kings of the earth will hate the whore and burn her with fire; and then the gofpel will be spread every where; there will be an open door for it, and none will be able to fhut it; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge fhall be increased; the earth will be filled with it, as the waters cover the fea; the watchmen will fee, eye to eye, all truths very clearly, diftinctly, and in agreement with one another; multitudes will be converted every where; and churches fet up according to gospel-order in every place; the doctrines of the gospel will be purely preached; its ordinances adminiftered as they were first received from Chrift, and gofpel-difcipline strictly attended to; the fulness of the Gentiles will now be brought in, and the nation of the Jews born at once. It will be a time of great joy and gladness to the faints: now will thofe voices be heard in heaven, the church, the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; the four and twenty elders, the representatives of gofpel-churches, will fall upon their faces, and give thanks to Christ, because he has taken to himself his great power and reigns; those that have got the victory over the beaft and his image, will stand upon the fea of glass, with harps in their hands, and fing the fong of Mofes and the Lamb; the voice of much people will be heard, saying, Allelujah, falvation, and glory, and honour and power, to the Lord our God; both because of his judgments on the great whore, and the revenging of the blood of his fervants at her hand, and because the marriage of the Lamb will be come ": it will be a time of great profperity, both temporal and spiritual; in those days of Chrift's spiritual reign, the righteous will flourish, both in things outward and inward; and abundance of peace, both from without and from within, fhall be had as long as the moon endures: Chrift shall have dominion from fea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth; kings fhall bring prefents to him, fhall fall down before him, and all nations shall ferve him; for kings will now come with their fubjects, to the brightness of the church, and embrace the doctrines, and fubmit to the ordinances of it, and will be nurfing fathers unto it" and yet as fure as this morning comes,

A night will follow; not of perfecution of the churches of Chrift; for after the flaying of the witnesses, there will be no more perfecution; but a night of coldness, deadness, sleepiness, and carnal fecurity, brought in by the Laodicean ftate; of which church Chrift complains, that it was neither hot nor cold, but lukewarm, and therefore threatens to fpue her out of his mouth; that is, unchurch her and indeed after that, he, will have no other church on earth in an

Ifai Ix. 1. and chap. xxx. 26.

imperfect

1-8.

u Rev. xi. 15-17. and chap. xv. 1, 2, and xix. 1— * Rev. iii. 15, 16.

Pfal. lxxii. 7, 8, 10, 11. Ifai. lx. 3. and chap. xlix. 23.

imperfect state, for that will iffue in his perfonal coming; and with this entirely agrees the account our Lord gives of men at that time, that there will be little grace in exercife; when he comes he will find scarce any faith on the earth, in exercise on himself: and with respect to his coming, thefe days will be like the days of Noah and Lot, when men were eating and drinking, and marrying, and giving in marriage, and had no thought of what was coming upon them": this will be the last night to the church; and then,

Another morning will come, when Chrift, the bright and morning-ftar, shall appear, and bring on that day, which will last a thousand years, and which thouJand years will be as one day. Upon Christ's perfonal coming, the dead in him will rife first; they will have dominion in the morning of this day, the morning of the resurrection, which will now take place; for the rest of the dead will not live till the evening of this day, or rather till the thousand years are ended. And in this ftate, there will be no need of the fun, or of the moon to shine in it; for the glory of God will lighten it, and the Lamb will be the light thereof; the fun shall be no more the light of men by day, neither for brightness fhall the moon give light; but the Lord fhall be an everlasting light, and the days of mourning shall be ended"; there will be no night in this ftate, no fetting of the fun, or withdrawing of the moon; and after this, there will be no more night to the faints; but there will be an everlasting one to the wicked; who will rife at the end of the thousand years, and be judged, and be caft into the lake of fire, into outer darkness, even blackness of darkness, where will be weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth. Thus there will be a conftant fucceffion of morning and night, unto the end of time; which will iffue in an everlasting day to fome, and in an everlafting night to others. I now proceed,

IV. To the exhortation upon all this; If ye will enquire, enquire ye; return,

come.

If you will enquire about the time of night, and when the morning will come, enquire in good earneft; enquire feriously; fearch the fcripture; look into the prophetic parts of it; the feveral prophecies of the Old and New Testament, respecting both the fpiritual and perfonal coming of Chrift, and particularly the book of the Revelation; which is a prophetic hiftory of events, that should befal the church and the world, from the first times of chriftianity to the end of all things; many of which have been fulfilled, and others remain to be fulfilled: carefully read over these accounts, and get the best help you can from those who have made it their study to understand, and explain the things written. VOL. I. F therein;

▾ Luke xvii. 26-29. and chap. xviii. 8.

Rev. xxi. 23. Ifai. Ix. 19, 20.

So the Targum paraphrafes these words, "the prophet said, there is a reward for the righteous, "and there is vengeance for the wicked;" taking them to relate to the world to come.

therein; whereby you will in fome measure know what is come to pafs, and what is yet behind. And to reading add prayer and fupplication, as Daniel did; who, after he had understood by books, by reading the prophecies of Jeremiah, when would be the end of the Babylonish captivity, the night he and his people, were then in; fet his face to feek the Lord by prayer and fupplication, and had the time of the Meffiah's coming made known to him: and whilft you are enquiring either after the spiritual reign of Chrift, or his fecond coming to judgment, enquire with modefty and humility; not indulging a vain curiofity, or looking into things that you ought not, and which are not written; or fixing times and seasons which God has put in his own power. Return to the Lord by faith and repentance, from whom you have backslidden in doctrine and practice; who invites you so to do with promises of a gracious reception, and with the healing of all your backflidings: as you are of the Sardian church, hear what is faid unto you; be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die ;-remember how thou haft received and beard, and hold faft, and repent; remember from whom and from what you have gone back; and do your first works of faith and love, and hold fast the old doctrines of the Reformation, then heard and received, and abide by them. Come to the Lord as humble penitents; let backfliders come for the fresh application of pardoning grace and mercy; let fenfible finners come to the perfon, blood and righteousness of Chrift for justifi cation and falvation; let them come to his word, and to his ordinances; The Spirit and the bride fay, Come; and whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely; and fuch who come to Christ aright, will hear another day those words spoken to them; Come, ye bleffed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

Dan. ix. 2-4.

• Matt. xxv. 34.

* Rev. xxii. 17.

Rev. iii. 2, 3.

SERMON

The Practical Improvement of the Watchman's Answer.

Preached at a Wednesday's Evening Lecture in Great-Eaftcheap, Jan. 1, 1752.

I CHRON. XII. 32.

And of the children of Ifachar, which were men that had understanding of the times, to know what Ifrael ought to do: the heads of them were two hundred, and all their brethren were at their commandment.

N this chapter we have an account of the persons that affociated with David, fhewed him favour, and assisted him when he was obliged to flee from Saul; and also of those of the several tribes of Ifrael, and the numbers of them, that came to him in Hebron after the death of Saul and Abner, to make him king over all Ifrael. And among the reft, those of the tribe of Iffachar are mentioned; who, though but few, but two hundred, when thofe that came out of the other tribes were several thousands; yet being the principal men of the tribe, and having all their brethren at their commandment and beck, it was as well as if the whole tribe had come in a body; and befides, being men of skill and understanding in certain affairs, had an influence over all the tribes; for they knew and could tell all Ifrael what they ought to do; and fo must be very beneficial and useful to David at this juncture.

What the understanding of these men lay in is not easy to say; interpreters are divided about it: fome take them to be chronologers or aftronomers, whofe skill lay in the computation of times, in fixing the beginning of the year, and the beginning of the month, and in the intercalation of the year; and fo were very serviceable to Ifrael to let them know when the new year began, when it was new moon, when it was right to intercalate the month Adar; as they fometimes were obliged to intercalate a whole month together, to make their account of time come right; and when to keep their feasts of Pass-over, Pentecost, and Tabernacles: hence it is thought this tribe is said to call the people to the mountain; to the place of worship, the tabernacle or temple in mount Zion; there they fball offer facrifices of righteousness: and this is the general fenfe of the Jewish writers.

F 2

■ Deut. xxxiii. 19.