with the blood of atonement, attended with a believing view of Chrift and of intereft in him, and of God's appearing reconciled and well-pleafed in Jefus, fhining upon us in his blessed face, accepting us in the beloved, and bleffing us with all spiritual bleffings in heavenly places in him: this is repentance unto life, and is the gift of God. In the next words our Lord calls for watchfulness.

If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief. No doubt but this is fpoken to our watchmen in Zion, the generality of whom are stone blind; who are fo far from going about the city, that they do not know the way into it (Eccl. x. 15); and, instead of standing on Zion's walls, which are falvation, they are for the most part dead in trefpaffes and fins. A watchman is to give the time of the night, to found an alarm in times of danger, to take up thieves and loose perfons, and to obferve the motions and approaches of invaders, and to give timely notice to the citizens, that they may be upon their guard: this is God's account of a watchman; but who comes up to the character? Moft of our watchmen indeed are boafting of our great light, and the wonderful spread of the gofpel, when I think that we are finking into one of the darkest nights that ever came upon gofpel Zion; and, fo far from the gofpel being univerfally fpread, even in this country, I do not believe that one fermon in a thousand that is preached among us bears the least resemblance of it, if Paul's defcription of the gospel be a true one. He tells us that the gospel

is the power of God unto falvation to every one that be hieveth; that it is the miniftration of life and of righte oufnefs; and that a real minifter of it is a minifter of the Spirit. And, if this be true, where shall we find fuch gospel and fuch minifters? Nor can we fay that our watchmen have apprehended or taken into cuftody any thieves or robbers, but rather confented with them. I know of no worse thieves and robbers than Papists, Arminians, Arians, and Socinians, for they rob God; but many of our blind watchmen have wifhed God speed even to the French, and faid

A confederacy' to all the other dens of thieves; and, inftead of barking or giving tongue at the devil when he came down among us, the most of them were dumb dogs, and rather fawned upon him than otherwife. If therefore thou shalt not watch,

I will come on thee as a thief. The thief generally comes when people are moft fecure, and when he is leaft expected and fure I am that Chrift fulfilled his word in this hour of temptation; for he stripped many wolves of their fheep-fkins, and made them go naked, that others might fee their fhame; he ftripped many of their hearts of all their inward decorations, fweepings, and garnishings, and let Satan return again to his houfe whence he came out. And this was visible by the rebellion, revenge, blood, and flaughter, they breathed forth; fo that their hearts might truly be called the dragons' dens, and their mouths the holes of the afps. Some the Lord bereaved of their houfes and goods, of their preferments,

families,

families, and friends, and even of their own native country, by tranfporting them to ftrange lands, as unworthy to remain in their own; others he cooped up in prifons, depriving them of the common liberty of ftrollers and fortune-tellers; and fome he sent out of the world by a halter, as unworthy of life; and great numbers which remain among us have had their one talent taken from them; many, who had fome found notions of the gofpel, and fome good views, and who were capable of sound speech which could not be condemned, were given up to the devil and Tom Paine, that they even fucked in the rebellion, blafphemy, and carnal logic, of that man, till they could not produce one argument but what was point blank against the will and word of God: these were too wife to be ruled and governed by that, and their wisdom hath perverted them. Others, who had not much in hand but a deal in hope, have been ftripped alfo; I mean those who have been long predicting and expecting the ruin and deftruction of all the civil rulers in Europe; promifing themselves from week to week French liberty by the fword of France and by the deftruction of their own country; these have hoped in Buonaparte and the Irish Papists, and have cried up the majefty of the people, by which they meant none but themselves; these our Lord has depofed from their imaginary thrones, and from all the princely dignity that they have fancied, and demolished all their hopes by fending the Irish murderers out of the world, the French fleets into our harbours,

and

and the blafphemous Rabshakehs into the land of Ham inftead of Jerufalem, giving Egypt for our ranfom. Thus has our dear Lord come as a thief, and unmasked the impoftors and hypocrites in Zion, and hung them up as polluted with perjury, rebellion, and blood, to contempt before all the righteous in both worlds.

And thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee. This hour of our Lord's coming was to be a profound fecret till he was pleased to make it known; and a fecret it hath been, and hid in God; for no one commentator hath ever described it, or hit the mark about it; which shews that prophecies are best underftood by the fulfilment of them. And, when this hour of temptation did come, we were all at a lofs to know where the prediction of it stood in fcripture, and what it would terminate in; and thofe who feemed to be the wifeft about it were the fartheft from it. It exercised my mind not a little for near five years, till the Lord told me upon my bed, by a voice from heaven, that this is the hour of temptation;" and I knew the voice, and who it was that spoke it; and an hour of temptation it hath been with a witnefs. Many thousands hath the devil tempted to dig pits and set traps and fnares for the lives of others, who, by the juftice of God, Haman like, have fell into them themselves. Not a fnare has been fet by Satan or his agents, not a vile plan hath been laid either on the continent, in our own country, or on board the fleets, but what our God has difcovered and marred, and

thrown

thrown moft of the contrivers headlong into their own inventions; fo let thine enemies perifh, O Lord, but them that love thee be as the fun when he goeth forth in his ftrength, and let our land have reft forty years.

This hour of temptation hath exercised and tried the hearts of many of the children of God, whether they would be led away with the error of the wicked, whether they would fall from their own stedfastness, and follow a multitude to do evil or no. Many impoftors in the pulpits and hypocrites in the pews have tried them not a little, befides the fly and private pimps and lacquies of the devil, who daily went their rounds with Tom Paine's books, inflammatory pamphlets, jacobine newfpapers, and lunatic prophecies. By these tempters, and their temptations, God hath tried his people, that their faith and obedience might be feen; when once God's judgments fhould return unto righteousness, that the upright in heart might follow that. Some were not a little ftaggered in their confidence, and for awhile halted about a confede racy: but God healed them that halted; nor will he suffer them that are of a broken and a contrite heart, and who walk humbly with him, to be finally deceived, their falls into troubles, their trials and temptations, fhall be fanctified to purify them and to make them white and so it is; for, when God makes manifest the hearts of the contrary part, thefe ftand the ftronger, shine the brighter, and fee the better, and appear the more plain by having God's will, word, providence,