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colt, the fole of an ass-therefore let Jerufalem come into your mind.

God will choose Jerufalem again, and take up his abode there, and dwell there, until the defire of all nations shall come. It is in that city that an end is to be made of fin, and reconciliation for iniquity, everlasting righteoufnefs fhall be brought in, the Moft Holy fhall be anointed, and the Meffiah fhall be cut off, but not for himself-therefore let Jerufalem come into your mind.

But again, it is from Jerufalem that falvation is to go into all lands: the law fhall go forth out of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerufalem. In Bethlehem our hope is to be born, in the land of Zebulun and Naphtali he is to fhine, to Jerufalem he is to come having falvation, in the fecond temple he is to appear in perfon, in his days Jerufalem is to dwell in fafety, and Ifrael is to be faved; and this is the name whereby he shall be called, The Lord our Righteousness. Therefore let Jerufalem come inta your mind.

Remember what hath been done there, what is promised to you at your return thither, and the wonderful works that are yet to be accomplished in that city, and the falvation which is to go from thence, even to the ends of the earth. Therefore I exhort you to let ferufalem come into your mind.

Having gone briefly through the hiftorical and e prophetical part of my text, I fhall now endeavour

to

to go over these heads again, and to compare fome things in their cafe with ours, and to offer you what I have in view in the language of the New Teftament.

I have fhewn you that this long and tedious captivity was fome hundreds of years before predicted by Mofes, David, and Ifaiah; and often mentioned, especially by the pfalmift, in the paft tenfe, which was to fhew that it had long fince paffed in the court of heaven, and therefore was as fure to come upon them as the decree of heaven is fure and fo is this prefent calamity of ours foretold alfo. And there fhall be a time of trouble, fuch! as never was fince there was a nation, even to that Jame time. Dan. xii. 1. The New Testament fpeaks the fame language; it is univerfal, and is: spoken by way of threatening to all those who profefs the name of Chrift. And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and he repented not. (This is Jezebel, or the whore of Babylon.) Behold, I will caft her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except. they repent of their deeds. And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches fhall know that I am he which fearcheth the reins and bearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works. Rev. ii. 21-23. In this paffage a time is offered to Jezebel to repent; but to no effect. She repented not, nor ever confeffed her abominations to God, but perfifted in them; for which she is threatened with a bed of languishing

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and pining fickness, and there fhe lies now. The kings of the earth who efpoufe her caufe, encourage it, and profefs it, Chrift will caft them into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds; and all, fuch as go over to her, or become her converts, fhall be deftroyed; I will kill her children with death. The next thing mentioned, is a trial upon all the churches; and in this Chrift will make himfelf known as the omnifcient God; all the churches fhall know that I am he which fearcheth the reins and hearts; and he will reward bothfaint and hypocrite, and I will give to every one of you according to your works.

Nebuchadnezzar's monarchal ftatue, or the great image préfented to him in his dream, and Daniel's interpretation of it, are well known. At each end of this image a heavy trial falls upon the church of Chrift. The empire which began in Nimrod rose to the height of its splendor under Nebuchadnezzar; be was the bead of gold. And under this golden head the fiery trial, of which my text fpeaks, fellupon the Jews; and under the ten toes of the image, which are part of iron and part of clay, and which are explained to be ten kings; under thefe kings this univerfal trial befalls all the churches.

Moreover, from the time that this trial came upon the Jews, to the expiration of the reign of the golden head, was about feventy years; and from the beginning of the next fiery trial which befalls the New Teftament churches, to the deftruction of the great whore,

called

called Myftical Babylon, will be the fame date. According to the teaching which I am now under, and according to what I fee, and what I really believe; yea, I have not a doubt but that whoever lives to fee it, and compare the one with the other, will find this to be true.

Furthermore, the former trial under the golden head was univerfal; Jeremiah was ordained a prophet of the nations. He was to give the cup of the Lord to all nations: For thus faith the Lord God of Ifrael unto me; Take the wine cup of this fury at my hand, and caufe all the nations to whom I fend thee to drink it. And they shall drink, and be moved, and be mad, because of the fword that 1 will fend among them. Jer. xxv. 15, 16. And the trial which befalls the nations, under the ten toes, or ten kings, fhall be as univerfal as that was; for it fhall reach to all thofe who have drank of the wine cup of the whore's fornication. Rev. xvii. 4. And as all nations have been drunk with the wine of her fornication (Rev. xviii. 3), fo all these nations and kings, over whom that great city hath reigned, fhall be caft into great tribulation; for this hour of temptation shall come upon all the world to try them. Rev. iii. 10. But my business lies with the people of God, and therefore I fhall bring in no more of the calamities that are threatened to the nations at large, than what is needful to help me in the things I have in view.

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The trial that I am about to treat of, is called a temptation; which word doth not always mean the

evil

evil fuggeftions of Satan, or the enticements and allurements which he makes ufe of to draw people into fin, but it often means the trials that God brings his people into, and the tests that he puts them to: and the Lord did tempt Abraham. Abraham might have fome godly jealoufies and fufpicions of his own heart, whether he did not indulge too inordinate an affection for this long-looked-for and much expected heir of promife; and therefore God tempted and tried him, not to evil, nor with evil, for in this fenfe God tempteth no man; every man that is tempted in this way, is drawn away of his own lut and enticed. Nor did God tempt Abraham that he might know what Abraham's faith and heart was, for God could not be ignorant of these things; but God intended that Abraham fhould know his own integrity, and the power of that grace that God had put into him. Moreover it is called a temptation on various accounts.

First, because he is ordered to do that which is contrary to reafon, to nature, and to all laws, human and divine, and that was, to murder his own child, without any crime laid to his charge, or without doing any thing worthy of death or of bonds.

2dly, He was ordered to do what God never intended he should do; and this taught Abraham this leffon, that God accepts the will for the deedIf there be first a willing mind, it is accepted; and God received Ifaac in a figure, or as figurative of a better facrifice.

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