adoption, through it; and loving God better than a miferable life makes us more than conquerors indeed. It was this that made Stephen's face fhine when the ftones were flying about his head.

There is a war between the flesh and the fpirit; or between the law in the members and that in the mind; or between our in-bred corruptions and the grace of God: nor will all the fleshly perfection in this world ever make peace between these two different nations, and oppofite parties, in the believer's heart. God proclaimed a war in Eden between the ferpent and the woman; and between the generation of vipers united to the old ferpent, and Chrift and the chofen feed in him. God himself hath put enmity between these; nor hath he ever appointed or invested any one with the office of a mediator, to stand in this gap. Chrift came not upon any such errand-I came not to fend peace upon earth, but rather divifions; yea, to send a sword and a fire between these parties; and what will I do in future if it be already kindled? He that takes upon himself to remove this enmity, and to demolish this offence of the crofs, had his inveftiture from the fame god that the pope had his from; and we may fay of him, as the Holy Ghoft does of the other, that the dragon gave him his feat, his power, and great authority. Chrift hath chofen us out of this world, and tells us that the world will hate us; yea, You fhall be hated of all men for my name's fake. But then thofe that are labouring to remove these bounds which God

hath placed between the wilderness and the fruitful field, are, in religion, as an amphibious creature is among the brute creation, which are fometimes in the waters among the fifh, and fometimes on land among the beafts. These are shunned by both, and fit companions for neither; and fo is the hypocrite: in the world he is not approved, because he mimics the holy tongue; and in the church he is hated, becaufe he is unfavoury; none admire him but those that speak half Hebrew and half Ashdod.

But what is faid to us in the type and figure of Sardis, no doubt respects the hour of temptation, by which the church hath been tried; and it looks to fomething future, by which fhe will be tried; for every church of the feven, and those represented by them, have their own particular trials; nor are thefe trials to be understood of the particular trials of private believers, but of fuch trials as fhall exercise the whole church, and all thofe who profefs to belong to it; for Chrift fpeaks to the whole body, to thofe that have a name to live, as well as to those few names which have not defiled their garments. Now this hour of temptation hath exercised us all. It is called a temptation, because every thing seemed to our view to run quite out of the ufual channel of Providence. It is the comfort of faith that Chrift is king of nations, and king of Zion; but, when we fee the devil let loose upon us, and the bafeft of all nations, and fuch a general confederacy among ourfelves with them, our hearts were moved as the trees

of

of the wood are moved, and as the houfe of David and the inhabitants of Jerufalem were when they beard that Syria was confederate with Ephraim. We had the preparations and threats of an infernal convention abroad, and a most damnable faction at home; fo that we had work enough to keep our hearts from fear, and from fainting between the tails of thefe two Smoking firebrands. Ifa. vii. 4. It looked as if the Lord of hofts had refigned his government, and turned us over into the hands of a fierce king, and a cruel lord: the devil and the convention are both these. We know that it is by Chrift that kings reign, and princes decree juftice; but, when we faw one throne fall, and another become vacant, and heard nothing from Baal's prophets but the immediate destruction of all the reft, we might well wonder; for, if the olive-tree give us up, and the vine be not suffered to govern, we know the bramble will: and not a few, both at home and abroad, put their truft under that prickly fhadow, till a fire went out of the cedars, and began to confume the bramble. Judges ix. 15. When Chrift was invested with his offices, God laid the foundations of the earth, that he might plant the heavens, Ifa. li. 16; but, when we faw the foundations of the earth out of course, and the dark places of it full of the habitations of cruelty, we ftaggered, both at the work of God's hands, and at the word of his grace; for, if the foundations be deftroyed, what shall the righteous do? By the apparent frowns of heaven, and the terrible fierce anger

of men, God feemed to turn us to destruction; but one smiling providence faid, Return, ye children of men. Then judgment, which feemed to favour the wicked, -returned unto righteoufnefs, and the upright in heart were glad enough, both to fee it and follow it.

What made this temptation the more complicated was, the fudden fpring of a copious crop of tares. We were all on a sudden swarming alive with prophets; and many, who never had one ray of light into divine revelation, faw wonders in the womb of providence; but they prophefied nothing good to the quiet of the land. God was but a little difpleased, but thefe helped forward the calamity. In a former reign, which ftunk of popery, the two points of doctrine then in use were, passive obedience and non-refiftance; but in our day, under a prince that leaveth the King of kings to reign and rule unmolested in the confcience, we have heard of two more-the rights of man, and the majesty of a mob; and under these two heads, fin and death have reigned, till millions have loft their property, and tens of thousands have loft their lives. But Tom Paine gave the word, and great was the company that publifhed it. Thousands fled to America to escape the threatened deftruction; and thofe that tarried at home faw the falvation of God.

The touchstone of this hour of temptation always appeared to me to be this: Thofe who had received the fpirit of French liberty in the power of Satan (which always accompanied it), foon fpake as this

fpirit gave them utterance. Nothing was to be heard but reviling the gods, fpeaking evil of rulers, laughing at authority, cafting off all fear of God, and debafing the king; refifting the ordinance of God, and hoping for a temporal deliverance from all fuperiors. Surely the old ferpent caft this water out of his mouth like a flood, to cause the bride, the Lamb's wife, to be carried away with the flood: but the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and received the waters of the flood; for not the broken and contrite, not the heavenlyminded foul, but those that were earthly, fenfual, and devilish, and only they, found, a fweetnefs in these bitter waters: and it is true that many died of these waters, because they were made bitter. Hence we fee that neither the doctrines nor the politics of devils can work effectually in the fouls of the righteous; only in them that perish.

By this hour of temptation God tried thousands that were under the oaths of allegiance, and not a few who had fubfcribed the articles of the established church, that we might fee what restraint oaths and fubfcriptions have upon the confciences of hypocrites; and in this balance many of high degree were found to be a lie, and thofe of low degree vanity. But those whom the grace of God had exalted to fafety, were kept by the power of God. Here was the patience and faith of the faints.

The great heat of this hour of temptation is abated; for, what with hanging, tranfporting, and