stage of European affairs, if we should abandon the widows and the orphans of those who heretofore defended us. Brethren, it is a debt of gratitude you owe the children of those whose fathers gave themselves for you. There be this day soliciting you by my lips, sons of the men who fought and conquered for you in every region of the earth. Each notable victory by sea and land hath her representative pleading in me. Alexandria, Maida, Salamanca, Vittoria, Waterloo, and whatever other place was made famous by the valour of our soldiers; the Nile, the Baltic, Trafalgar, and whatever other place was made famous by the stout valour of our sailors, have a representative pleading in me;-children who are the orphans of rightful war; whose fathers fell, not in oppressing, but in liberating the world; whose fathers were an honour to our armies, the pride of the fight, the phalanx of the battle. It is goodly to behold their marshal array, each man clothed in the wild costume of his native mountains; for they were terrible to the enemies of their country, but in peace they were gentle and beloved they are well spoken of in all the world for their fear of God, and their reverence of his holy word. The children for whom I plead are of a worthy stock; whose fathers were ever ready to serve our country well; and when they had no more to give they gave their precious lives, leaving their little ones to our care: and if ever children had a claim upon the care of their country, it is the orphans of the soldier and sailor who have died in their country's cause; whose support I do therefore commend unto you, not only at this

time, in the collection which we are about to make, but by subscription, and in whatever way seemeth best to every one. As every one hath received the gift, even so let him minister the same, as stewards of the manifold grace of God, who is the father of the orphan, the husband of the widow, and the friend of the friendless in their habitation.

But let me remember, before I close, that I am the minister of Christ, and not the advocate of any particular society: and that I am surrounded with many ministers of the everlasting Gospel, who watch over the flock of Christ both young and old, whom I do entreat, and those of them specially who are constituted and established over local boundaries, to watch over the souls of the children, and to be at charges that they be instructed as the children of Christ and the heirs of immortal glory. It is a horrid sin that in a land like ours, so well furnished with ministers of religion, and men of godliness, any of the people should grow up in ignorance of the legacy bequeathed unto them by Christ Jesus, or of the offices which God requireth at their hand. Therefore, let all ministers of Christ, and especially the ministers of the Established Churches, whose opportunities are great above those of others, take heed to the instruction and the warning which I have this day lifted up amongst you. Oh, I do affectionately entreat my brethren of the ministry,-whether established by law or not established, conforming or not conforming, all who love the Lord Jesus and wait for his appearing, all who recognize the immortal

above the mortal, the invisible above the visible, the eternal above the temporal,-that you would wait upon the ministry of all souls, and not less upon the ministry of children than of men: and in all your ministrations, minister as the ministers, not to the earthly, but to the heavenly part, which God quickeneth in all who believe. Amen and Amen.

847

DISCOURSE II.

THE THREE SPIRITS WHICH GATHER THE KINGS OF THE EARTH AND THE WHOLE WORLD TO THE BATTLE OF THAT GREAT DAY OF GOD ALMIGHTY.

(PREACHED IN THE REV. H. F. BURDER'S CHAPEL, HACKNEY, FOR THE CONTINENTAL SOCIETY. 1827.)

REV. XVI. 13, 14.

And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.

IN

order to open and use this text, which decribes the triple activity of evil in the church on the eve of the Lord's advent and kingdom, it will be necessary to explain what and what manner of spirits these are which, immediately before the accomplishment and ending of the wrath of God, are seen by the seer of the Christian Church to proceed from the mouth of these three enemies of God; the dragon, the

beast, and the false prophet ;-then to examine the signs of the times, in the midst of which this wonderful conjunction of evil occurreth, weighing well all along whether these be not the very times wherein we live ;-and afterwards, if it should so appear, to extract from the whole some wholesome and profitable matter, for the use of the church in general, and specially for the Society who have this night chosen me to minister the word of God to them and to you, dearly beloved brethren.

In order, then, to come at a clear and distinct apprehension of the character of these three heads and leaders of the evil confederacy against the Lord and his anointed, I must carry you a good way back into the former ages of the church, and open in order that threefold form which Satan hath assumed against the church in succession, and which all at once he is to let loose, for the muster of all his forces, to the war of the great day of God Almighty. You will understand, then, that the church of God was first delivered over unto the oppression of Satan at the time of the captivity of Babylon, on the eve of which almost all the prophets uttered their warning voice, to avert if it had been possible the direful stroke. From the time of the call of Abraham, when the mystery of the elect church began to be manifested, down to the time of that state of captivity from which we are not yet redeemed, the mystery of God opened itself under an emblem. Egypt was the emblem of the world, and the going up out of Egypt was the emblem of the church's redemption from the world: the Levitical institution, given immediately thereon, was the