pifts; and the catholics must come into office, and into power, that the toleration acts may be univerfally taken away. Then fhall the power of the holy people be scattered; the fun fhall go down at noon, and the earth fhall be darkened in the clear day. Then will the holy of holies be ranfacked the third time, and the witneffes for truth be flain. This will be the day of the great and last slaughter, when the towers fall: Alas! who shall live when the Lord doth this?

But after three years and a half the spirit of life from God defcends, and a cloud of witneffes once more appear for the God of Jacob, to raise up the city, which, till then, will be low in a low place. And bleffed will thofe witneffes be which will fow befide all waters, and fend forth thither the feet of the ox and the afs.

For near feventy years will this present work be carying on; but before 1870 it will be completed; the golden city will ceafe, when the papal fun shall be turned into darkness, and the Turkish moon into blood: then fhall the former be confounded, and the latter afhamed before the Lord of Hofts, who shall rife to reign in mount Zion; when he will collect the fullness of the Gentiles, reftore the preferved of Ifrael, and gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. And in this present interval is the denunciation of Heaven applicable; But wo be to him that worshippeth the beaft. And it is plain that the caufe of Satan's great wrath in the late hour of temptation was, because he knoweth that he hath but a

fhort

fhort time; for the vial that is poured upon the popifh fun leads on to that on the feat of the beaft, which paffes to the Turk, and ends upon the prince of the power of the air. Read Rev. xvi.

But fome, more wife than well read, have objected that this cannot be the hour of temptation, because it is not univerfal, fo as to reach to all the inhabitants of the terraqueous globe. Let fuch take the parallel texts which follow: there went out a decree from Cæfar Auguflus, that all the world fhould be taxed; (Luke vii. 1.) And the great dragon was caft out, that old ferpent called the Devil and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world. Rev. xii. 9. And all the world wondered after the beast. Rev. xiii. 3. To the firft text it may be replied, that none of the natives of America were included in Auguftus Cæfar's taxation; nor did all the Mahometan nations wonder after the Romish beaft, but fought against him and beat him. No more doth this hour of temptation extend itself to the Eaft Indies, the Friendly Inlands, Botany Bay, or New Holland, unless fome of our difaffected who trade there, or fome rebels who are banished, or the miffionaries, have spread it there, which I think selfpreservation will teach them to forbear; for, though many here have changed their God for Tom Paine's image of human reason, and others have caft off all affection for their fovereign, and afcribed majesty to themselves; yet heathen nations feldom change their gods, which indeed are no gods; nor do they so readily caft off all regard to their chiefs.

The

The epiftle out of which my text is taken, and the one which fucceeds it, are directed to the angel of the church of Sardis, and to that of Philadelphia, and to the two churches fucceeding each other, which were typified by them; but is there any thing faid to these angels, or to the churches of Chrift which they prefided over, that can be applicable to the American Indians, the rude Arabs, the natives of Negro-land, Lapland, or the Hottentots? The contents of the epiftle are reproofs, rebukes, and threatenings, to them that have a name to live when dead in trefpaffes and fins; and the approbationary and en couraging parts of the epiftle are directed to a few fa cred names, who are clean from the corruptions that are in the world through luft, and from the fpiritual pollutions of the whore of Babylon, which cannot have to do with the kingdoms of Benin or Japan. This hour of temptation was fent to discover the hearts of the hypocrites in gofpel Zion; their difaffection to rulers, and their unruly fpirits; the corruption of their hearts, their rotten principles, their perjury, their prefumption in affuming the ministerial office, and their craftinefs and deception in it; that the godly might fee them and fhun them; and that fuch as have long called themfelves the Evangelical Affociation, might, by flow degrees, go over to the holy fee. And, on the other hand, Chrift, by this trying hour, hath made manifeft thofe few to whom he hath given an honeft and good heart, that thefe might take to themfelves the encouragement that he

holds

holds forth to them; and by being tried might appear the brighter. And this end is now answered; the devil has got his chaff, and the fan will foon be laid afide. And the Saviour's concluding oration confirms what I have faid, and all the churches fhall know: he doth not fay all the feed of Adam, but all the churches shall know that I am he which try the reins and the hearts, and I will give to every one of you according to your works. I must now pass on to my fecond head, which is to fhew that the overcomer

Shall be clothed in white raiment. This fhews us that temptations and fiery trials are, under the wife management of Ifrael's Holy One, of a purifying na

because God fends them to ftir up, discover, and bring to light, and to our own feelings, the bafe metal that lies at the bottom, more or less of every chosen veffel; and that the operations of his Spirit may purge the fame, empty us of felf, and renew us more and more in the spirit of our minds. Moreover; in an hour of temptation like this, when the accufer of the brethren was let loofe; when deftruction rode in triumph; when anarchy ftruggled for the reins; when hypocrites and abjects affumed the honour of majefty; when many were fwayed in their minds, and those who stood faft had death prefented to them in a thousand forms; when flesh and blood urges all her pleas, ftrengthened and feconded by carnal reason and unbelief; when all the dreadful confequences of apoftasy and a denial of Christ be confidered and imagined; here is a long lingering martyrdom, a dying daily,

till fubmiffion to the will of God take place, and the mind is at a point, and the fears and doubts be removed by the Holy Spirit of God, and a fellowship with Chrift in his fufferings be felt, and the mind be made conformable unto his death. A foul that has felt the pains of hell and the joys of heaven, and had the honour of Christ at heart, had not a few of these workings in his mind; as for the time-ferver, he can warp to the strongest side, and hold the vicarage of Bray to the end. However, thefe trials, and falls into trouble, temptation, and distress, are intended by our good God to purify us; and fo it is written; And fome of them of understanding shall fall to try them, to purge, and to make them white, even to the time of the end; Dan. xi. 35; and fome that have been tried of late do walk with Chrift in white.

Again, white linen raiment was always the garments of God's priefts; the ephod in which they drew near to him was made of white linen. Hence this white raiment is expreffive of their prieftly office, of their belonging to the royal priesthood, and of their having nearness and access to him, and of their honeft confeffions, prayers, praises, thank offerings, and every other spiritual facrifice being acceptable, wellpleasing, and delightful to him; and walking with him fhews his great condefcenfion and familiarity, in admitting such poor creatures to have any fellowship, intimacy, or communion, with him.

Again, this white raiment is the faint's wedding garment, that juftifies us freely from all things, and