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wicked; for they fhall be afhes under the foles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, faith the Lord of hofts." Zech. iii. 8. 9. "And it fhall come to pafs, that in all the land, faith the Lord, two parts therein fhall be cut off, and die, but the third fhall be left therein. And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as filver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried." Well, what follows upon that? "They fhall call on my name, and I will hear them; I will fay, It is my people; and they fhall fay, The Lord is my God." I only name another, in the prophefy of Ifaiah, chap. iv. We fee terrible work in the clofe of the preceding chapter, "Thy men fhall fall by the fword, and thy mighty men in the war. And her gates fhall lament and mourn; and the being defolate fhall fit upon the ground." And the land fhall be fo defolate, that " feven women fhall take hold of one man, faying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel; only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach." Well, what comes out of that? See it in ver. 2. 3. "In that day fhall the branch of the house of the Lord be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth fhall be excellent and comely, for them that are escaped of Ifrael. And it fhall come to pafs, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerufalem, fhall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerufalem."

For the further confirmation of this truth, I fhall produce two or three inftances, from which it will appear, that God's ordinary way is to ufher in the enlarging and upbuilding of his church by fuch awful and terrible difpenfations.

And the firft I name is, God's planting a church for himfelf in the land of Canaan. When God has a mind to pitch his tabernacle there, according to the promife made to Abraham, by which he made a grant of it to him and to his feed; what way goes he to work? First, Ifrael is brought into Egpyt, and are made to grean there for four hundred years. When the time of their deliverance comes, Egypt is plagued, Pharoah and his hoft is turned into the Red fea, there they are executed as on a high gibbet; fix hundred thousand that came out of Egypt, are made to dung the wildernefs with their carcases; after that, twenty or thirty kingdoms are overthrown, and the old inhabitants are pulled up by the roots. And then the Lord fets up his tabernacle, and puts Ifrael in poffeffion of the land, according to his promife.

Another instance to the fame purpose is in the return of the children of Ifrael from the Babylonifh captivity. Before the captivity, they were fo degenerate, so funk in fin, that it was impoffible to mend them they were, like an old houfe, too

crazy

crazy and ruinous to be patched up. Therefore what does the Lord? He takes them quite down, he unhinges their civil and ecclefiaftic constitution, he as it were pulls them up from the very ground, he makes the land fpue out its inhabitants, he fells Ifrael into the hand of the Babylonians, and lets them lie there feventy years, till the land enjoyed her Sabbaths. Well, what does he after the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths? What a strange revolution is made to bring Ifrael out of captivity! The great Babylonish empire must be turned over to the hands of the Medes and Perfians, and this makes way for Ifrael to return; and he "makes them then to take root downward, and bring forth fruit upward."

A third inftance I give you is in New Teftament times, about three hundred years after our bleffed Lord, in the days. of Constantine the Great. When the whole ftrength of the Roman empire had been employed for fuppreffing the name of a crucified Chrift, that empire is made to bow to the Mediator's fceptre, to the fceptre of a crucified Jefus; but before that comes about, what feas of Chriftian blood must be shed in ten feveral bloody perfecutions? And when thefe are over, what ftrange catastrophies, what terrible convulfions follow? The kings and great men, the mighty men of the earth, the grandees and great folk in the Roman empire that opposed Chrift, they are overthrown in many pitched battles; and then they cry, as we read in Rev. vi. to the hills and mountains to hide them from the terror of the name Chrift that was upon them and after all this comes deliverance and enlargement to the Chriftians.

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A fourth instance is yet to come, and that is, the revival of the church upon the downfal of Antichrift. We read in Rev. xi. that Antichrift he prevails to the flaying of the witneffes, and his kingdom is carried unto fuch a prodigious height, that all the nations and kingdoms of the earth are made drunk with the wine of his fornication, his vile idolatries and delufions.. But in the 18th, 19th, and 20th chapters of the book of Revelation, we have an account of the overthrow of Antichrift, with fuch terrible appearances of God in his providence, that men are made to ride in blood unto the horfes bridles; and after all this the beaft, and the falfe prophet, and Satan who deceived them, are caft into the lake of fire and brimstone, where they fhall be tormented day and night for ever and ever. Then comes down the new Jerufalem out of heaven, Jew and Gentile are converted to the faith of Chrift; a cry comes from heaven, faying, "Behold the tabernacle of God is with men." From all these things the truth of the doctrine is abundantly evident, that God commonly ufhers in his remarkable appear

ances

ances for his church, with very awful and cloudy dispensations of providence.

Readily you may afk me the reafon of this, why is it God goes this way to work? I answer,

1. In the first place, One reafon of it is, that he may be avenged on the perfecutors and enemies of his church and people. Why does God plague and overthrow Egypt, but to avenge the quarrel of Ifrael upon Pharaoh and the Egyptians? Why is the Babylonish empire overthrown, but to avenge the quarrel of Ifrael that had been oppreffed by them seventy years? See a word to this purpofe, Jer. 1. 33. 34. "Thus faith the Lord of hofts, The children of Ifrael, and the children of Judah, were oppreffed together, and ali that took them captives, held them faft, they refused to let them go. Their Redeemer is strong, the Lord of hofts is his name, he fhall throughly plead their caufe, that he may give reft to the land, and difquiet the inhabitants of Babylon." God will take his own time to refent his people's quarrel; he lets them lie for a while under the feet of their enemies, but "the rod of the wicked fhall not always reft upon the lot of the righteous, left the righteous put forth their hands unto iniquity. Precious in the fight of the Lord is the death of his faints;" and he will make inquifition for the blood of his faints that has been shed like water in our streets. Sirs, much of this blood was fhed in the times of perfecuting tyranny, particu larly in this city. That blood, I fay, hath not been purged; yea, the guilt of it calls for wrath upon us their finful pofterity. There was no due inquiry after it, when the Lord turned back our captivity after the Revolution; yea, instead of that, men who had dipt their hands in the blood of his faints were put into places and posts both civil and military; yea, I will add, that they were admitted to fit as constituent members in the fupreme judicatories of this church. We have reafon to believe, that he will inquire after that blood; for he "vifits the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, to the third and fourth generation." It is crying yet from under the altar against many families in Scotland; and I fear it has a loud cry against this city, where it was shed in great abun

dance.

2. But then a fecond reafon why God goes this way to work is, that he may remove the abounding offences in the visible church, and roll away the impediments that hinder her reformation. The visible church is juft like a draw-net, that takes in both good and bad fishes; and fometimes the net is fo full of bad fishes, bad minifters, bad magiftrates, and bad profeffors, that error, iniquity, profanity, and fcandalous offences,

inftead

inftead of being fuppreffed, are encouraged and patronised by thofe whofe office obliges them to ftand up for the great God according to their commiffion. Well, when those things are neglected by men of power and authority, or by judicatories civil and ecclefiaftic; when fcandalous errors, wickedneffes, and abominations, are not purged by those whose province it is to do it; God takes the work in his own hand; his turn fhall not lie behind; he will put to his hand, and do it himself, rather than it lie undone. But a terrible work he makes when he begins; I fhall read you a fcripture to this purpose, in If. lix. 13. "In tranfgreffing and lying against the Lord, and departing away from our God, fpeaking oppreffion, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falfehood. Judgement is turned away backward, and juftice ftandeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the ftreet, and equity cannot enter. Yea, truth faileth, and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey." Well, what follows? The Lord faw it, that his cause and work was neglected, and it displeased him that there was no judgement: he faw that there was no man to ftand up for his truths and his ways, and for the privileges of his fubjects; "Therefore his own arm brought falvation unto him; and his righteousness it fustained him: for he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and an helmet of falvation upon his head; and he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloke. According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay, fury to his adverfaries, recompence to his enemies, to the islands he will repay recompence." I fear, this points at the island of Britain, for the public affronts done to God in it, and the neglect of magiftrates, minifters, and others, in purging the houfe of God of fcandalous offences and abominations. I fhall give you an inftance in the cafe of Eli's two fons; they abandoned themfelves unto fuch fcandalous carriage about the tabernacle of God, that they gave offence unto all that feared God in Ifrael; yea, they made the facrifices of the Lord to be abhorred by their fcandalous way of acting. Well, Eli, who was both their father and their judge, he neglected to take them to task as he ought to have done; he cenfured them, but it was very overly and fuperficially; just like fome fentences paffed in the judi catories of this church, when the honour of Chrift required much more to be done. Well, what does the Lord when offences abound, and Eli neglects to pafs due cenfure upon his fons? He "does a thing that makes the ears of every one that heard tell of it to tingle." Hophni and Phinehas, his two fons, are flain in battle, Eli's neck is broken, and the armies of Ifrael fall before the Philiftines; the ark of God is carried

away

away into captivity, and delivered into the hands of the Philiftines. Some hundreds of years after, the quarrel is pursued further; eighty-five of his pofterity are flain by the fword in one day; Abiathar, one of his feed, in the days of Solomon, is turned out of his priesthood, for being concerned in Adonijah's confpiracy; and the whole of his pofterity are reduced to beggary and flavery. So, you fee, God goes this way to work, that he may purge his houfe of corruptions and offences, especially when this is neglected by thofe clothed with authority fecular or fpiritual for that end. But then again,

3. Another reafon why God goes this way to work in building up his own tabernacle is, because there is fomething godlike, great-like and majestic in this manner of procedure. There is an awful and terrible majefty in God's way of working, particularly in his way of repairing and building up his houfe: "Clouds and darkness are round about him, and yet righteoufnefs and judgement are the habitation of his throne; the heavens declare his righteoufnefs, and all the people fee his glory." There is fomething very admirable in this way of working,

for

, In refpect of God himfelf. It is feen that the excellency of the power is of him, and not of any inftrument whatfoever. Is it not for the glory of God, to open a way himself that feems altogether impaffable? If. xlii. 15. 16. “I will make wafte mountains and hills, and dry up all their herbs, and I will make the rivers iflands, and I will dry up the pools." What follows? "I will lead the blind by a way they know not, and in paths they have not known: 1 will make darkness light before them, and crooked things ftraight." It is good for the Lord's people to be aiming and minting at the restoration of his houfe, though they know not a step before them; for though they be bemifted, yet the Lord leads them, and he makes crooked things ftraight. But then,

2dly, There is fomething in this way admirable in respect of religion itself. All falfe religions have been propagated by an arm of fiefh; Mahometanifm by force, Popery by fire and faggot; but the true religion of Jefus, by ways and means that would rather feem to crufh it. Thefe bloody perfecutions I was fpeaking of would rather feem to fmother the cause of Chrift, than any other thing; and yet the Lord advanced his intereft by the blood of his faints. Who would ever have thought, that by a handful of poor illiterate fishermen the whole world fhould be made to fubject themselves to a crucified Chrift, a contemned Jefus of Nazareth?

3dly, It is admirable likewife in refpect of the people of God, and the effect that this way of working has upon them;

for

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