to go over these heads again, and to compare fome things in their case with ours, and to offer you what I have in view in the language of the New Teftament. I have fhewn you that this long and tedious captivity was fome hundreds of before years predicted by Mofes, David, and Ifaiah; and often mentioned, especially by the pfalmift, in the past tenfe, which was to fhew that it had long fince passed in the court of heaven, and therefore was as fure to come upon them as the decree of heaven is fure and fo is this prefent calamity of ours foretold alfo. And there fhall be a time of trouble, fuch as never was fince there was a nation, even to that The New Testament Jame time. Dan. xii. 1. fpeaks the fame language; it is univerfal, and is fpoken by way of threatening to all those who profefs the name of Chrift. And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and he repented not. (This is Jezebel, or the whore of Babylon.) Bebold, I will caft her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds. And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches fhall know that I am he which fearcheth the reins and bearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works. Rev. ii. 21-23. In this paffage a time is offered to Jezebel to repent; but to no effect. She repented not, nor ever confeffed her abominations to God, but perfifted in them; for which she is threatened with a bed of languishing

B 4

and

and pining fickness, and there fhe lies now. The kings of the earth who efpoufe her caufe, encourage it, and profefs it, Chrift will caft them into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds; and all fuch as go over to her, or become her converts, fhall be deftroyed; I will kill her children with death. The next thing mentioned, is a trial upon all the churches; and in this Chrift will make himself known as the omnifcient God; all the churches fhall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and bearts; and he will reward both faint and hypocrite, and I will give to every one of you according to your works.

Nebuchadnezzar's monarchal statue, or the great image prefented to him in his dream, and Daniel's interpretation of it, are well known. At each end of this image a heavy trial falls upon the church of Chrift. The empire which began in Nimrod rofe to the height of its splendour under Nebuchadnezzar; he was the head of gold. And under this golden head the fiery trial, of which my text fpeaks, fell the Jews; and under the ten toes of the image, which are part of iron and part of clay, and which are explained to be ten kings; under thefe kings this univerfal trial befalls all the churches.

upon

Moreover, from the time that this trial came upon the Jews, to the expiration of the reign of the golden head, was about feventy years; and from the beginning of the next fiery trial which befalls the New Teftament churches, to the destruction of the great

whore,

wbore, called Myftical Babylon, will be the fame date." According to the teaching which I am now under, and according to what I fee, and what I really believe; yea, I have not a doubt but that whoever lives to fee it, and compare the one with the other, will find this to be true.

Furthermore, the former trial under the golden bead was univerfal; Jeremiah was ordained a prophet of the nations. He was to give the cup of the Lord to all nations: For thus faith the Lord God of Ifrael unto me; Take the wine cup of this fury at my band, and caufe all the nations to whom I fend thee to drink it. And they fhall drink, and be moved, and be mad, because of the fword that I will fend among them. Jer. xxv. 15, 16. And the trial which befalls the nations, under the ten toes, or ten kings, fhall be as univerfal as that was; for it fhall reach to all those who have drank of the wine cup of the whore's fornication. Rev. xvii. 4. And as all nations have been drunk with the wine of her fornication (Rev. xviii. 3), fo all thefe nations and kings, over whom that great city hath reigned, shall be caft into great tribulation; for this hour of temptation fhall come upon all the world to try them. Rev. iii. 10. But my business lies with the people of God, and therefore I fhall bring in no more of the calamities that are threatened to the nations at large, than what is needful to help me in the things I have in view.

The trial that I am about to treat of, is called a temptation; which word doth not always mean the

evil

evil fuggestions of Satan, or the enticements and allurements which he makes ufe of to draw people into fin, but it often means the trials that God brings his people into, and the tests that he puts them to: and the Lord did tempt Abraham. Abraham might have fome godly jealoufies and fufpicions of his own heart, whether he did not indulge too inordinate an affection for this long-looked-for and much expected heir of promise; and therefore God tempted and tried him, not to evil, nor with evil, for in this fenfe God tempteth no man; every man that is tempted in this way, is drawn away of his own luft and enticed. Nor did God tempt Abraham that he might know what Abraham's faith and heart was, for God could not be ignorant of these things; but God intended that Abraham fhould know his own integrity and the power of that grace that God had put into him. Moreover it is called a temptation on various accounts.

First, because he is ordered to do that which is contrary to reason, to nature, and to all laws, human and divine, and that was, to murder his own child, without any crime laid to his charge, or without doing any thing worthy of death or of bonds.

2dly, He was ordered to do what God never intended he should do; and this taught Abraham this leffon, that God accepts the will for the deedIf there be firft a willing mind, it is accepted; and God received Ifaac in a figure, or as figurative of a better facrifice.

3dly, This temptation tried Abraham forely in this: it was in Abraham, and in his feed, that the nations of the earth were to be bleffed; in Ifaac the covenant was to be established, and the feed of Ifaac was to be as innumerable as the ftars of heaBut how was this to come about if Ifaac was to be no more? Therefore fprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, fo many as the stars of the Jky in multitude, and as the fand which is by the feahore innumerable. Heb. xi, 12.

ven.

And, lastly, this trial was to let Abraham know the power of grace in his own heart; for Abraham obeyed, and went at God's command, and was determined to flay his fon, rather than keep him as a rival to God. This proved to Abraham that gracę reigned, and that God was fupreme in his affections: hence the great encomiums; By myself bave Ifworn, faith the Lord, because thou haft done this thing, and not withheld thy son, thine only son, that in bleffing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thee and in thy feed fhall all the nations of the earth be blessed: because thou haft obeyed my voice Gen. xxii. Now this is called a temptation.

Again. The very heavy trial of the children of Ifrael in Egypt is called the fame. Mofes and Aaron gather the elders of Ifrael together, and inform them of the appearance of God to them, and of their being fent to deliver them from their yoke of bondage: but, instead of a speedy deliverance, as they expected, a yoke ten times heavier comes on

them.