yous. In the Apostle Paul's epistle to the church at Rome, he says, And we know that all things work together for good to them who love God, to them who are called according to his purpose. These passages of scripture, teach us distinctly, that the good of his church, is what God always aims at, by every event which takes place under his government. Sin and holiness, mercies and judgments, all will work together for the good of God's spiritual kingdom. The truth of this assertion we cannot question, with the passages of scripture before us, just mentioned.

We have heard what God says; now let us see what he has done, by which we may have evidence, that the Lord, by the judgments and calamities he sends on the world, and the church, are all for the church's good: are for its sake.

Let us go down into Egypt, and see what is doing there. Here we see the people of God persecuted, oppressed in a most barbarous manner. The Egyptians made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in mortar and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field; all the service wherein they made them serve, was with rigour. What is worse than all this, murder is added to hard bondage; for Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born, ye shall throw into the river. What a time of distress, and mourning among the Hebrews!

Now we see the God of the Hebrews, lifting up his Almighty hand over Egypt, to plague and distress the Egyp tians. For plagues unparalleled in their kind, were successively sent. The last plague was the most dreadful. The Egyptians had killed the children of the Hebrews; now God kills all the first born of the Egyptians, both of men and beasts. What a distressing calamity! Now, it is asked, for what were all these dreadful judgments sent on Pharaoh? They were sent for the sake of God's people that Pharaoh might be brought to terms, and let Israel go. They were tokens of God's anger against Pharaoh and the Egyptians, but sweet and precious mercies, as they had an aspect on the affairs of God's people. So sings the sweet Psalmist of Israel. Psal. exxxvi. 10. To him that smote Egypt in the first born: for his mercy endureth forever.

What a vast sum of misery was suffered by the devoted nations, when the victorious arms of the Israelites conquered their country. Joshua was warranted by a Divine order, to destroy all who opposed them; men, women and children. For what were these nations extirpated? For what was all this destruction of human lives? It was all done that the Lord's people might have a city of habitation. The events, as they respected those nations, were dreadful; by them God displayed his justice; their wickedness deserved all these calamities. But in regard to God's church, it was kindness, and mercy. Thus these events are viewed and celebrated by the Psalmist. Psal. exxxvi. 17-22. To him which smote great kings:---and slew famous kings:-Sihon, king of the Amorites-and Og, king of Bashan:-and gave their land for an heritage: Even an heritage unto Israel: Adding at every sentence, For his mercy endureth forever. God will devote to destruction millions and millions of the world, for the safety of his church.

In the books of the Judges, and the Kings we have melancholy accounts of great apostacies of the church. The body of the Jewish nation was so corrupt, that, instead of worshipping the God of their fathers, they worshipped Baal, and other gods of heathen nations. Now Israel look to thyself; calamity is near, even at the door. This was uniformly the case. They were subjugated by their enemies or some other heavy calamity was sent, and in some instances, heaven frowned on the nation a long time. Thus corrected, they would return to God in duty, and then he would return to them in mercy: He would crush their enemies, break, and dash them one against another like a potter's vessel; and deliver them from the calamities under which they had groaned. By their repentance, and return to their God, and his holy worship, the design, and end of God in chastising them was answered, and he would effect in his holy providence, some remarkable event, and they would escape as a bird from the snare of the fowler.

Nebuchadnezzar invades Judea, destroys Jerusalem, burns the temple, depopulates the country, by carrying the inhabitants to Babylon. Seventy years the land lay desolate; the city and temple lay in ruins; the seed of Abraham, the friend of God, were captives in a strange land. This was a long,

and distressing, and dark night of affliction to the church. Now what shall we say of all this? Say! we must say of all this, as of all other dispensations of God's holy government, towards his people, he meant it for their good. By the prophet Jeremiah, God tells them, expressly, that he had sent them out of their own land, into the land of the Chaldeans, for their GOOD. Jer. xxiv. 5.

A vast sum of human misery was suffered at Babylon when it was taken, and plundered by the Medes and Persians. An immeuse number of human lives were sacrificed to Divine justice. Was this for the sake of the church? Yes: All this misery was suffered by the Babylonians, that God's church might be released from captivity. Of Cyrus, who led the victorious army into Babylon, God says, "I have raised him up in righteousness, and I will direct his way; he shall build my city, and he shall let go my captives."

In Ezekiel xxi. 27. it is written, I will overturn, overturn, overturn it, and it shall be no more, until he come whose right it is; and I will give it him. The enemies of God, and his church shall be remarkably destroyed, again, and again, and again; and their power broken. One nation will be dashed to pieces by another: there will be an astonishing degree of misery, and distress, and perplexity, among the nations. So it came to pass. The Babylonian empire was overturned by the Medes and Persians, the Median empire was overturned by the Greeks, and the Grecian empire was overturned by the Roman. All these overturnings were designed to prepare the way for the coming of the Messiah. To Him, of right belonged the kingdom, and God will give it Him.

By Titus, the Roman general, the Jewish nation was destroyed. After this the Jews were so dispersed, that it was impossible for them to observe their long established modes of worship; the Levitical priesthood, was of necessity laid aside, and came to an end. If it be asked why was this done? The answer is, it was for the sake of the church. That the gracious purposes of God respecting his spiritual kingdom, on earth, might take place. That dispensation stood in the way of a universal spread of the church among all nations. Therefore the whole Jewish economy was taken down, that

so the way might be opened for continuing and setting up the church among the Gentiles. In this way God promoted the interest of his holy kingdom.

As a prelude to the prosperity and triumphs of God's church, in the time of the millennium, when the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdom of our Lord, and of his Christ; the destruction of the enemies of the church will be immensely great. Oh how much human blood will be shed! This is represented to the apostle John. Rev. xix. 17, to the end of the chapter. I saw, says John, an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, come, and gather yourselves together to the supper of the great God: that ye may eat the flesh of kings and the flesh of captains, and he flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great. The representation is continued in the following verses. All this work of destruction, among the ungodly, is preparatory to the glory of the church in the latter day. It is therefore meant for the church's good.

After all this, and near the close of time, satan, with his adherents in this world, will make one more violent effort to destroy the church. The number of whom is as the sand of the sea. But their purposes will be broken; and meet with complete disappointment, and destruction. The following is the scripture representation. Rev. xx. 9. And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about; and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.

Now the great catastrophe closes, as you may see in the following verses. The dead are raised, the books are opened, the judgment day commences. The church is safe, and its enemies destroyed.

We have in the foregoing discourse followed the church from the apostacy to the consummation of all things, by collecting a few particulars from the scriptures. By examining the word of God it appears that he has had, and always will have a church—that his love to it is wonderful—that he takes care of it—and that he orders all things for its good.

PART II.

IMPROVEMENT.-1. It is seen from a reveiw of our subject, that the world, when it comes in competition with the church of God, is of small account with him.

The church and the world are two different kingdoms: the object of their pursuits, and the tempers which govern the subjects of these two kingdoms, are diametrically opposed to each other. God loves his church, and in his holy government, disposes all events for the highest and best good of his moral kingdom. The spirit of the world is enmity with God. He is carrying on a war againts his enemies, and will, finally, bring the wheel over-crush and destroy them without remedy. While the church, not only hereafter, but here, shall see her desire on her enemies; they are as stubble before the wind: and chaff that the storm carrieth away.

God valued one righteous Noah more than a whole world of ungodly men. They are swept away with the flood, but Noah is preserved in the ark. When the Lord was about to destroy the cities of the plain, he addressed Lot in this remarkable manner; Haste thee, escape thither; for I cannot do any thing until thou be come thither (to Zoar.) As if the hands of Omnipotence were tied, by the presence of this one good mas. His life, in God's account, is of more value, than the lives of all the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim. So soon as righteous Lot is secured, Sodom is burned. It is to be remembered that Zoar was preserved from destruction, for Lot's sake: so precious are God's saints in his account.

No words can express the miseries endured by the Egyptians, while the Lord sent on them plague after plague, destroying the fruits of the earth, destroying all their first born, and finally drowning Pharaoh, and his host in the sea. While the Egyptians were suffering in an unexampled manner, and the Hebrews secured, by the providence of God, from the dreadful judgments, we see how much more God values an Israelite, than an Egyptian.

That a few captive Jews might be released from captivity, return to their own country, rebuild Jerusalem, and the temple, and set up the worship of God according to his appointment, the Babylonian empire, and the most splendid city in