world, are proportioned to his providential bounty to them, and are made from proper motives. Since God has assured us his kingdom shall come; since he is giving us signs that it is at hand; since so many means are applied in our day to promote its increase and establishment among men, and since we have calls and opportunities to glorify God with our substance, "let all that be round about him, bring presents to him, that ought to be feared." 8. Time, sufferings and the increase of knowledge in the world, have not produced any favorable alteration in the system of Popery, or in the principles and conduct of its supporters. When God gives men space to repent, and they do not turn from their evil ways, but still persist in their iniquity, their sin is greatly aggravated, and their condemnation will be more awful. When he corrects men for their iniquity, and they still continue in their rebellion, peculiar criminality attaches to their disobedience.When men enjoy the means of improvement, and harden themselves in their opposition to God, they render their sin exceeding sinful, and expose themselves to the righteous judgments of God. All these things may be applied to Antichrist and his votaries. They have enjoyed much time to consider their ways, they have been sorely chastised, and means of information have been administered to them abundantly; "but they repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood, which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk. Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornications, nor of their thefts." They are still mad upon their idol worship, and adhere to all their Antichristian errors. Cruelty, tyranny and persecution, still characterize their administrations. The most wicked decrees of their former councils are still the rule of their government, and their abominable traditions, equally with the Scriptures, if not above them, are the rule of their faith. That most cruel and wicked court, the Inquisition, is again in full operation in many Popish countries. That most destructive order of their clergy, the Jesuits, have been again restored to existence in that church.— Their enmity at the Holy Scriptures is still manifested clearly. The bulls of the Pope against Bible Societies, are a proof of this. Besides, that Popish power which is the image of the Roman Empire, has prohibited the entrance and sale of Bibles from foreign Societies, in some parts of his dominions. In these ways they are increasing their guilt, and hastening their terrible fall. 9. For accomplishing his merciful and righteous purposes, the great God performs very different works among men, at the same time. Of this, the providences of God to the nations, during the last twenty-five years, are a satisfactory demonstration. Those years have been a season of Divine judgments unto men. The cup of God's anger has gone round among the nations, and has produced such effects as should cause our souls to remember the wormwood and the gall of those calamities, and be humbled in us. But in those very years, that glorious and Divine work, of which we have been speaking, has had its origin and a part of its progress. When the councils of the nations were deliberating about war and conquest, many bodies of Christians were consulting about the means of sending the word of God and the Gospel of Christ through the world. When the armies of the nations were attacking one another, and the confused noise of the warrior was heard, and garments rolled in blood were seen, the societies of Christians were "wrestling against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." When the Lord was threshing the nations in his anger, He was at the same time giving birth and energy to a complete work, by which spiritual darkness shall be dispelled, and the whole earth shall be lightened with his glory. These two dispensations of God shall contribute in different ways, to accomplish the same end. This simultaneous movement of Divine providence stamps both dispensations with peculiar grandeur and significancy. It hath pleased him, at the very time when he poured the vials of his wrath upon the earth, to send forth his word and Gospel, the rod of the Redeemer's strength, into all the earth, that his people may be made willing in the day of his power. Since God has put the means for enlightening the world into activity at that time, when he seems to be pouring out on the nations the vials of wrath, it encourages our hope, that these means shall introduce the glory of the latterday. Since he has brought those sad calamities on the earth, at the very time when he stirred up the minds of Christians to exert themselves, in an extraordinary way, for the conversion of the world, it strengthens our belief that those judgments are destined for the destruction of Antichrist. As there was a long preparation for the rise of Popery, in the Church's gradual defection from the truth and purity of Christianity; so there shall be a long preparation for the Millennial day, in the continued use of the means which are now in operation. As the Church still grew worse and worse till the man of sin was placed in his seat, so those means shall become more and more efficient, and our signs shall brighten, till the Millennial day shall break upon the world. Let Christians then work, and wait, and pray, and hope; let them cast out their anchors, and wish for the day; for God's combined operations of mercy and judgment may assure them, that his kingdom, in her Millennial glory, is at hand. CONTENTS. PART FIRST. OBS. I. Nature of Saving Faith, III. PAGE 4 6 Men not naturally possessed of, nor is it in 9 12 16 26 IV. The work of each Person in the adorable INFERENCES. INF. 1. Special respect to the faithfulness of God, 2. Man's deplorable state by nature, 43 |