CHAPTER I. THE God of Love, with pitying eyes, surveys Is known to Him-who feeds "the birds of air:" ;-An unworthy servant of him who appeared to Moses in the uncomsuming burning bush; in the fervent hope, as it is there written, that-" the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has surely seen the affliction of his people," who are scattered among the nations, even the great and grievous afflictions, dishonours, deprivations, and cares of the Remnant of Israel, who, although they stood not there with Moses, as in Deuteronomy, were, down to this very time, made under that very covenant and oath of confirmation, into the which all Israel, as to flesh, then entered; in the fervent hope, that the time is at no great distance, but that it may be viewed, as a messenger hastily coming up the side of the mountain of Sion, or as the hour hand of the prophetical clock of one thousand two hundred and sixty divisions of time, steadily approaching to pass the last few remaining,—that the time is not far distant when the Lord will come down, and deliver, in his choice favour and never dying love, his own Israel, from the hand of them that oppress them, and that give points and arrows, swords and daggers, to the denunciation of Moses for the transgression of Israel of the great covenant of mercy and oath of God, still, in remembrance of the Lord our God; to all the chosen remnant, whenever, and wherever they will heed the voice of the Lord God, calling unto them still out of the bush at the back part of this desert; that he may have mercy on them, and deliver them. For his mercy is for the eternities. First.-I may well have great grief of mind for the great and grievous oppressions long time endured by all the faithful sons of Israel, whether the natural offspring, or such as are the true and spiritual sons of the promise, under the usurpations on conscience in force in the world; and pretended, by some, to be respectively, that perfection of truth, as of the faith of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and of the true prophets in - all ages of prophecy: instead of which they are, by the divine writings, and by any textuary selections from them, not only foretold of and described, but rightly proved, by the exact manner in which they answer to and verify their progressive fulfilment,-to be incongruous monsters of an amphibious, or, to be plainer, of an hypocritical habit; being, in themselves, suitable for no state but that of perdition. Apocalypse, 12. 9. and 13. and 17. 11. These are monster-idolatries which, from time to time, have surrounded you in the world, and would hug you, for the sake of wealth, in their unclean embrace which, having wrapped themselves in stately apparel, esteem and vaunt themselves in a mangled revelation. Daniel, 7. So did Pharaoh think, in state, to cross the Red Sea no, not so bad either was he, who was, at the proper time, drowned in it for opposing the power of the Lord God; for as an earthly king he oppressed, by hard labour, a people already in his power. But these styled themselves supreme: usurpers though, in fact, trampling on the conscience; and they essay to "lick up the nations with their tongues, yet can never have enough." And for man against men to assume a position intended to be above God, evinces a presumptuous endeavour to hinder both God and man. Apocalypse, 13. 5, 12. Daniel, 7. 25. On account of which some of you, O afflicted and despised remnant, assert, and with truth, that these live not within the moral bounds of their pretensions, nor to their profession: but this will not excuse you. It will be for you to look about you, and to scrutinize the numerous professions of reli |