people. These feem determined to a& like Barabbas, ferment a spirit of infurrection. I believe the two thieves had fome hand in this; and, if they had, they were honeft, especially one of them, for he declared that they suffered justly, and received the due reward of their deeds. Luke xxiii. 41. But fure I am, that the god of this world must be awfully let loose upon us, when fo many are trying to put the foundations of the earth out of course, and to make the dark places of it full of the habitations of cruelty. If civil magiftrates are taken up in the lips of talkers, and become the table chat and fcorn of women, the fport of children, and the fong of drunkards, we may fear that God and religion will foon be the fame; for if they honour not the king, they will foon tell us that they fear not God. And not a few, who eat the bread of the governors, are in this fpirit of rebellion. These are like Ahithophel and Judas, eat of their masters bread, and lift up their heels against them. But the deceitful, and him that loveth violence, my God hateth.

Once more. It doth not appear, as fome imagine, that civil magiftracy will be destroyed when the univerfal kingdom of Chrift is fet up; for although it is said, that the thrones were caft down, yet it means only the thrones of iniquity, which frame mischief by a law; these shall have no fellowship with Chrift. But the thrones fhall then be established in righteousness, and be upholden by mercy. For the nations and kingdoms that will not serve Christ,

fhall

fhall perish; thofe kingdoms fhall be utterly wafted, as thofe nations were that rejected Nebuchadnezzar's yoke. But as it is, the kings of the earth that fhall hate the whore, and burn her with fire, it is plain that these kings will fight for the Lord against all thofe kings and kingdoms that fight against him for Antichrift. Moreover, when the fulness of the Gentiles come to Zion's light, kings fhall come to the brightness of her rifing; yea, it is added, and kings fhall be thy nurfing fathers, and their queens thy nurfing mothers. Nor will the world be left without princes; for the Father's promife to Chrift is, that inftead of thy fathers (fuch as Adam, Noah, Abraham, Ifaac, Jacob, David, &c.), fhall be thy children, whom thou mayeft make princes in all the earth. Nor fhall the world be without officers, nor yet without taxgatherers. I will alfo make thine officers peace, and thine exactors righteoufnefs. Violence shall no more be beard in thy land, wafting nor deftruction within thy borders; but thou shalt call thy walls falvation, and thy gates praife. The Lerd fhall be unto thee an everlafting light, and thy God thy glory; thy people alfo fhall all be righteous; they fhall inherit the land for ever, the branch of my planting, the work of my bands, that I may be glorified. A little one shall become a thousand, and a small one à ftrong nation: I the Lord will baften it in his time: Ifa. lx. 17-22. Let none of us liften to our charmers, our enchanters, and dreamers, who have got nothing in their heads but anarchy, nor any thing in their hearts but ftrife and

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and contention; for civil rulers fhall rule, in defiance of all the unruly, till Chrift comes to judge the world. But every man in his own order: Chrift the first fruits, afterward they that are Chrifl's at his coming. Then cometh the end, when he fhall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when be fhall have put down all rule, and all authority and power. For he must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. 1 Cor. xv. 23-26.

Thus I have fhewed you, that those nations that fubmitted to the Babylonian yoke ftood, and fo fhall that nation that fubmits to Chrift and his word. Those nations that refufed Nebuchadnezzar's yoke were destroyed; and thofe nations that refufe the yoke of Chrift fhall be utterly wafted. Those of God's profeffing people who obeyed the Lord's voice, and fell away to the Chaldeans, lived, and returned again; and those who obey the Lord's voice now, and keep the word of his patience, and be fubject to the higher powers, fhall be kept from the hour of temptation. The disobedient and gainfaying Jews fell by the famine, peftilence, and fword. And the unruly now, who are difobedientto God, refuse to obey his word, and refift the powers, fhall be taken in this hour of temptation, and shall receive to themselves damnation.

"

Moreover, I have fhewed you, that, from the time that the Jews fell away to the Chaldeans unto the time of their return to their own land, was

feventy

feventy years; and if the man of fin was revealed or manifested to the world, fo as to be feen and known to be the son of perdition, in the year 606, as many affirm, it is plain, that as he is to continue but 1260 years, that from the time of the beginning of this hour of temptation to his destruction will be the fame date; fo that 67 or 68 years more will bring him to his own place: his time now is within the age of man. But the difference between the eastern way of reckoning and ours, or the dif ference which the folar and lunar years may make, I must leave to the learned.

When the Jews went into captivity, all the threatenings of heaven against Babylon were fent to Babylon after them in a book, which was to be read in Babylon, and then it was to be bound up with a ftone in it, and to be caft into the midst of Euphrates, and it was to be faid, Thus fhall Babylon fink, and shall not rife from the evil that I will bring upon her. Jer. li. 63, 64. This is repeated against mystery Babylon. And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great milftone, and caft it into the fea, faying, Thus with violence fhall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and fhall be found no more at all. Rev. xviii. 21. There were fome few even of the falfe prophets who imbibed Jeremiah's doctrine, and advanced it; but God's word in their mouth was neither a hammer nor á fire; and therefore thefe did not escape: I am against the prophets, faith the Lord, that steal my word every one from his neighbour. Jer. xxiii. 30. Hence the

fying roll purfued these as well as the others; for the curfe was not only to enter into the house of him that fweareth falfely, but into the house of the thief also. Zech. v. 4.

The miniftry of Jeremiah was to separate the obedient from the difobedient. Therefore thus faith the Lord, If thou return, then I will bring thee again, and thou shalt ftand before me: and if thou take forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth: let them return unto thee, but return not thou unto them. And I will make thee unto this people a fenced brazen wall, and they shall fight against thee, but they fhall not prevail against thee: for I am with thee to fave thee, and to deliver thee, faith the Lord. And I will deliver thee out of the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem thee out of the band of the terrible. Jer. xv. 19-21. The vile from the precious were to be known by their fubjection or non-fubjection to the higher powers. The highest ruling power then in the world was the king of Babylon, and God had made him fo, though he was nothing but a poor pagan. Those that believed the word of the Lord," and fell to the Chaldeans, were the precious; and those who rejected the word of the Lord, and fought against the king of Babylon, were the vile. Thefe, and all the heathen nations that disobeyed the Lord, were doomed to deftruction. To deftroy these 'rebels afterwards was the work of the Lord; and every one that held back his fword from them was to be curfed of God. Curfed be be that doeth the work

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