supplications, it is a ground for them to rest upon. And here I dare appeal to all who with any diligence have inquired into the things of the kingdom of Christ,-that have any savour upon their spirits of the accomplishment of prophecies and promises in the latter days,— who count themselves concerned in the glory of the gospel,—whether this thing of consuming the mystery of iniquity, and vindicating the churches of Christ into the liberties purchased for them by the Lord Jesus, by the shaking and translating all opposing heights and heavens, be not fully in their expectations. Only, the time is in the hand of God, and the rule of our actings with him is his revealed will.

(4thly.) Whether the fears of his adversaries have not their lines meeting in the same point, themselves can best determine. The whole world was more or less dreaded at the coming of Christ in the flesh. When, also, the signs of his vengeance did first appear to the Pagan world, in calling to an account for the blood of his saints, the kings and captains presently cry out, "The great day of his wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand?" Rev. vi. 17.

I am not of counsel to any of the adherents to the man of sin, or any of those who have given their power unto the beast,—I have not a key to the bosoms of the enemies of Christ,—I am neither their interpreter nor do they allow me to speak in their behalf; yet truly, upon very many probable grounds, I am fully persuaded that, were the thoughts of their hearts disclosed, notwithstanding all their glittering shows, dreadful words, threatening expressions, you shall see them tremble, and dread this very thing, that the whole world as now established will be wrapped up in darkness, at least until that cursed interest which is set up against the Lord Jesus be fully and wholly shaken out from the heavens and earth of the nations.

And thus, without leading you about by chronologies and computations (which yet have their use, well to count a number being wisdom indeed), I have a little discovered unto you some rules whereby you may come to be acquainted with the work of God in the days wherein we live, and also what that work is; which is our first use. The next shall be for direction to guide you what you ought to do, when you know what is the work of your generation.

Use 2. Be exhorted to prepare to meet the Lord, to make his way straight and this I would press distinctly,—(1.) As to your persons; (2.) As to your employments.

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(1.) As to your persons. Give the Lord Jesus a throne in your hearts, or it will not at all be to your advantage that he hath a throne and kingdom in the world. Perhaps you will see the plenty of it, but not taste one morsel. Take first that which comes not by observation, that which is within you, which is "righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." Take it in its power, and you will be

the better enabled to observe it coming in its glory. "Seek first this kingdom of God, and the righteousness thereof, and all these things shall be added unto you." Oh, that it were the will of God to put an end to all that pretended holiness, hypocritical humiliation, selfinterested religion, that have been among us, whereby we have flattered God with our lips, whilst our hearts have been far from him! Oh, that it might be the glory of this assembly, above all the assemblies of the world, that every ruler in it might be a sincere subject in the kingdom of the Lord Jesus! Oh, that it might suffice that we have had in our parliament, and among our ministers, so much of the form and so little of the power of godliness; that we have called the world Christ, and lusts Christ, and self Christ, working indeed for them, when we pretended all for Christ! Oh, that I could nourish this one contention in your honourable assembly, that you might strive who should excel in setting up the Lord Jesus in your hearts!

You may be apt to think, that if you can carry on and compass your purposes, then all your enemies will be assuredly disappointed. Do but embrace the Lord Jesus in his kingly power in your bosoms, and "ipso facto" all your enemies are everlastingly disappointed. You are the grains which, in the sifting of the nation, have been kept from falling to the ground. Are you not the residue of all the chariots of England? Oh, that in you might appear the reality of the kingdom of the Lord Jesus, which hath been so long pretended by others! -that sound righteousness, not a pharisaical, rigid, supercilious affectation, not a careless belief and comportment, the issue of novel fancies, might be found upon your spirits!—that you may be thought meet to rejoice with the Lord in his kingdom! Otherwise this day of the Lord which we have described, however desired and longed after, will be "darkness to you, and not light."

(2.) In reference to your great employments, whereunto the Lord hath called you. And here I shall briefly hold out unto you one or two things.

[1] That you would seriously consider why it is that the Lord shakes the heavens and the earth of the nations,-to what end this tendeth, and what is the cause thereof. Is it not from hence, that he may revenge their opposition to the kingdom of his dear Son?— that he may shake out of the midst of them all that antichristian mortar wherewith, from their first chaos, they have been cemented, that so the kingdoms of the earth may become the kingdoms of the Lord Jesus? Is not the controversy of Zion pleaded with them? Are not they called to an account for the transgression of that charge given to all potentates, "Touch not mine anointed?" And what is the aim of the Lord Jesus herein, whose mighty voice shakes them? Is it not to frame and form them for the interest of his own king

dom?—that he may fulfil the word he hath spoken to Zion, “I will make thy officers peace, and thine exactors righteousness?"

Consider, then, I pray, what you have in hand. Wait upon your King, the Lord Christ, to know his mind. If you lay any stone in the whole building that advanceth itself against his sceptre, he will shake all again. Dig you never so deep, build you never so high, it shall be shaken. Nay, that there be no opposition will not suffice: -he hath given light enough to have all things framed for his own advantage. The time is come, yea, the full time is come, that it should be so; and he expects it from you. Say not, in the first place, this or that suits the interest of England; but look what suits the interest of Christ, and assure yourselves that the true interest of any nation is wrapped up therein. More of this in the treatise annexed to my sermon of January 31.1

[2.] Be encouraged under all those perplexities and troubles which you are or may be wrapped in. Lift up the hands that hang down, and let the feeble knees be strengthened: "It is but yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry." The more you are for Christ, the more enemies you shall be sure to have; but the Lamb shall overcome. He is come to revenge the blood of his slain upon this generation, and to free the residue from the jaws of the terrible. He is our rock, and his work is perfect. What he hath begun, faster or slower, he will surely accomplish. It is a thing of the utmost imaginable indifferency whether any of our particular persons behold these things here below or not. If otherwise, we shall for the present have "rest with him, and stand in our lot at the end of the days;" but for the work itself, "the decree is gone forth," and it shall not be recalled. Receive strength and refreshment in the Lord.

Use 3. Wonder not, when the heaven is shaken, if you see the stars fall to the ground. We had some who pretended to be church stars, that were merely fixed, to all men's view and by their own confession, in the political heavens. The first shaking of this nation shook them utterly to the ground. If others also tremble like an aspen leaf, and know not which wind to yield unto, or sail backwards and forwards by the same gale, wonder not at that neither. When men lay any other foundation than the immovable corner-stone, at one time or other, sooner or later, assuredly they will be shaken.

Use 4. Let the professing people that are amongst us look well to themselves: "The day is coming that will burn like an oven." Dross will not endure this day: we have many a hypocrite as yet to be uncased. Take heed, you that act high, if a false heart, a defiled heart be amongst you, there shall be no place for it in the mountain of the Lord's house. "The inhabitants of Zion shall be all righteous," Isa

1 Vide Discourse concerning Toleration, &c.

lx. 21. Many that make a great show now upon the stage, shall be turned off with shame enough. Try and search your hearts; force not the Lord to lay you open to all. The spirit of judgment and burning will try you. Tremble, I pray; for you are entering the most purging, trying furnace that ever the Lord set up on the earth.

Use 5. Be loose from all shaken things:-you see the clouds return after the rain,-one storm in the neck of another. Thus it must be, until Christ hath finished his whole work.

"Seeing that all these things must be dissolved, what manner of persons ought we to be in all manner of holy conversation?" Let your eyes be upwards, and your hearts be upwards, and your hands be upwards, that you be not moved at the passing away of shaken things. I could here encourage you by the glorious issue of all these shakings, whose foretaste might be as marrow to your bones, though they should be appointed to consumption before the accomplishment of it; but I must close.

Use 6. See the vanity, folly, madness of such as labour to oppose the bringing in the kingdom of the Lord Jesus. Canst thou hinder the rain from descending upon the earth when it is falling? Canst thou stop the sun from rising at its appointed hour? Will the conception for thee dwell quietly in the womb beyond its month? Surely thou mayest with far more ease turn and stop the current and course of nature than obstruct the bringing in of the kingdom of Christ in righteousness and peace. Whence comes it to pass that so many nations are wasted, destroyed, spoiled, in the days wherein we live?— that God hath taken quietness and peace from the earth? Doubtless from hence, that they will smite themselves against the "stone cut out of the mountain without hands." Shall not "the decree bring forth?" Is it not in vain to fight against the Lord? Some are angry, some troubled, some in the dark, some full of revenge; but the truth is, whether they will hear or forbear, Babylon shall fall, and all the glory of the earth be stained, and the kingdoms become the kingdoms of our Lord Jesus Christ.