the following morning; the feed, or the young daughter of the prefent church, will be the mother of the next. The darkest hour that this church will come to, will be that in which the witneffes will be flain; then this prefent dark ftate of the church pafles away, and the brighter fucceeds. But many of the fame witneffes, which will be figuratively flain in that night, will, after three days and a half, rife again, in the morning of the next church state, and go on with their ufual work as foon as the Holy Spirit raifes them up again. (Read Rev. xi. 7—11.) But to proceed with the parallel.

What was God's declaration to the heathen nations? Why, it was this: I have made the earth by my power, and I have given it to whom it seemed meet to me to give it; and I have given all thefe nations into the hand of the king of Babylon my fervant, to ferve him, and they fhall ferve him and his fon, and his fon's fon; and I have given him the beafts of the field alfo: and the nations that ferve him shall stand, and they that do not shall be deftroyed by his hand. This time of trial was a lively type of ours.

And what was God's command to his own prefeffing people? Why this: he that falls away to the Chaldeans fhall have his life for a prey, and I will fet mine eyes and my heart upon him for good, and he fhall live and return again; but them that will not put their necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, they shall be pursued by the fword, by

famine,

famine, and by peftilence; they fhall be for an aftonifhment, a hiffing, and a curfe.

And now, what is the declarative will of God to us, upon whom this fecond trying hour is come? Juft the fame as it was to them. By me kings reign, and princes decree juftice. By me princes rule,and nobles, even all the judges of the earth. Prov. viii. 15, 16. This is the revealed will of God to us, that there is not a king that reigns, a prince, noble, or judge, that rules in all the earth, as civil magiftrates, but what reign and rule by him.

And what is his command, his watchword, and his warning, to us? Juft the fame as it was to the Jews of old. Let every foul be fubject unto the higher powers; for there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore refifteth the power, refifteth the ordinance of God: aná they that refift shall receive to themfelves damnation. Rom. xiii. 1, 2. This warning to us under the present time of trial (by Paul), is exactly the fame as that by the prophet Jeremiah. All nations, fays God, fhall ferve the king of Babylon; let every foul be subject to the higher powers. I have given all these nations into the hand of my fervant the king of Babylon: the powers that be are ordained of God. He that did not fubmit his neck to the yoke of the king of Babylon, adhered to a lie, and was feduced and ruined as a rebel against God: he that refifteth the power, refifteth the ordinance of God. The rebels were delivered up of God to be a reproach

C 4

a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curfe, in all places whither God drove them. Jer. xxiv. 9. Yea, fays God, I will make this city a curfe to all the nations of the earth. Jer. xxvi. 6. Thefe rebels were curfed according to the law; and those that refift fhall receive to themselves damnation according to the gofpel. Those that obeyed the Lord's voice by the prophet, lived, and he promised them, faying, Surely I will caufe the enemy to entreat thee well in the day of evil: and his word and promise to us is, rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil: do that which is good, and thou shalt have praife of the fame. For he is the minister of God to thee for good. Rom. xiii. 3, 4.

But that which made it a fore trial in the days of old was, the curfed work of the minifters of Satan. The magicians pushed Pharaoh and all his hoft to deftruction. Among the nations, dreamers, diviners, and enchanters, drove many of them upon the thick toffes of God's buckler. And among the Jews lying prophets brought thousands to perish by sword and famine, who were cut off with a lie in their right hand, in the very act of rebellion, and under the curfe of God; and fo it is now. Among the nations there is that felf-deifier, that enchanter, that hath bewitched and deftroyed thoufands; I mean Tom Paine; who not only oppofes the fervants of the Lord, as the falle prophets did in the days of old, but ridicules and blafphemes both God and the Bible. No wonder that he

ridicules

ridicules the powers on earth, when he hath fet his mouth against the heavens, and his tongue walks through the earth. Pfalm lxxiii. 9. And this monfter in human shape hath not a few profelytes in his bonds of iniquity: and thofe who die holden in thefe cords of their fins, fall receive to themfelves damnation, faith our great apoftle. Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for confcience fake. Rom. xiii. 5. Ye must needs be fubject not only through fear of wrath, but ye must be fubject to those civil powers that are of God, or you cannot keep a confcience void of offence toward God. Tom Paine was aware of this, and therefore was under the neceffity of ridiculing, blafpheming, and exploding the Bible, and all the light of divine revelation, in order to make room for the Age of Keafon, or for the age in which deified reafon is exalted. However, this is not a new god, or a god newly come up; this high thing, this vain imagination, was brought forth, and fet in oppofition to the King of Jacob in Ifaiah's days. Ifa. xli. 21. This fame god was brought forth " by Zedekiah and Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roafted in the fire."

Thus the nations now are furnished with an enchanter, as in the days of old. And if we come nearer home, we shall find falfe prophets among us, as the Jews had among them.

Mr. Brothers has told us what he is, and whať he was appointed to do; what calamities were coming upon us; and, like Bar Co-cab, the falfe meffiah,

he

he was going to take both Jews, and as many Gen tiles as pleafed to follow him, to the Holy Land. Great numbers were affembling, others letting their business, or retiring from it, getting their property together, to be ready at an hour's warning, and fome have been, in their own imaginations, as far as the island of Cyprus; but though they have been often thus abfent from us in fpirit, yet their bodies, or their fepulchres, are with us to this day. Not a few hypocrites had their beards fhorn, and their heels made bare, by this artificer. Jer. xiii. 22.

After this buftle of Bar Co-cab was a little abated, the devil raised up another, a mere boy; this feems to have been one that was a lunatic from the cradle, for a strange spirit hath often taken him. This Thudas came forth to perform greater things than thofe of Judas of Galilee in the days of the taxing; he was to convert the Jews before there is the leaft appearance or fign of the fulness of the Gentiles coming in. But did any of the rulers or the Pharifees, among the Jews, believe on either of these men? No; they fufpected the cheat, they had been too often bit by the devil before, and therefore proceeded with caution. However, many of the Gentiles received them, as they came in their own name (for they never favoured of any other), especially the latter; for he was a very young man, his word was attended with great power among the ladies. A little like a former exhibition in Shiloh, when four hundred Benjamites caught four hundred