And with the refurrection of the witnesses shall the glo rious Millennium commence, 2dly, In the deftruction of Gog and Magog, Reflections on the fourth Part, 1. The excellency of holy fcripture, 3. We must be witnesses for him, 299 307 310 310 ibid. 311 4. Adverfe and profperous fcenes are ftill awaiting the church, ibid. 5. We must seek to have understanding of the times, 316 6. A reviving profpect of the glory of the latter days, from the lxth chapter of Isaiah, A verfion of the lxth of Isaiah in metre, 325 339 The Veffel in Diftrefs: or, the Church in Danger. A Sermon, preached on a Faft-day, Feb. 3d, 1780. from Ezek. xxvii. 26. Thy Rowers have brought thee into great waters, The propofition illuftrated in feven particulars, Six Reflections deduced from the fubject, 345 348,-357 358,-371 The prayer and the purpofe; a facred Hymn, in two parts, adapted to the preceding discourse, 371 Page line ERRATA & CORRIGENDA. 21. 24. f. ii. r. xi. 43. 18. f. faith.--Thro', r. faith, thro'. ibid. 19. f. iron: as, r. iron. As. 46. 49. 1. f. does, r. do. 12. f. deliverence, r. deliverance. 51. N. 7. f. give, r. giving. ibid. 11. f. Halfyon, г. Halcyon. 63. penult, dele but. 65. 28. f. faith. 97. 98. ibid. Condemning, I. faith, condemning, 14. after fenfuality, put a period. 177. 29. f. fo be, r. be fo. 261.N.7. f. his manger, r. the manger. 197. N. 2. f. Hornbeckii, r. Hoornbeckii. | 362. The SPIRIT of the LORD lifting up a Standard against the Enemy coming in like a Flood. ISA. lix. 19. When the enemy fhall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord fall lift up a standard against him. I INTRODUCTION. N the preceding part of this chapter, the prophet exhibits a most affecting picture of the degeneracy of the times to which he refers. Iniquities, as a partition-wall, feparating between a people and their God: their fins making him to hide his face from them, that he will not hear.He finishes the awful catalogue of crimes, wherewith the people were covered, in observing, that truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter : Yea, faith he, truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil, maketh himself a prey; or, as the margin hath it, is accounted mad. C After defcribing fuch a torrent of wickedness, the prophet adds, And the Lord faw, and it difpleafed him that there was no judgment. And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no interceffor: therefore his arm brought falvation unto. him, and his righteousness fuftained him. For he put on righteoufnefs as a breast plate, and an helmet of falvation upon his head; and he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloak. The Lord having, as a man of war, prepared himself for the battle, we firft fee his fuccefs: According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay, fury to his adverfaries, recompence to his enemies; to the islands he will repay recompence: and next, the glorious confequences of his victory; So, fays our prophet, hall they fear the name of the Lord from the weft, and his glory from the rifing of the fun: when the enemy fhall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord fhall lift up a standard against him. It is a queftion of fome importance, to what time these things refer; whether to Isaiah's, to fome period betwixt that and this, or whether it is yet to come. Attending to the prophet's defcription, it is obvious, that he ufes the different tenfes. From the beginning of the chapter, to the middle of the 15th verfe, he speaks in the prefent; addreffing the people of that generation. Your iniquities have feparated between you and your God; your hands are defiled with blood, your fingers with iniquity: your lips have spoken lies; your tongue hath muttered perverfenefs. Nay, fometimes he laments the apoftacy, fpeaking in the firft perfon; Judgment is far from us, neither doth juftice overtake us: we wait - for light, but behold obfcurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness. Our tranfgreffions are multiplied before thee, and our fins teftify against us: for our tranfgreffions are with us; and as for our iniquities, we know them. Sometimes he speaks of the great defection, as if it had been in fome period, previous to that wherein he lived. The Lord faw, fays he, and it difpleafed him, &c. He faw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no interceffor: his arm brought falvation unto him, and his righteoufnefs it upheld him. He put on righteousness as a breastplate, &c.-Sometimes he speaks in the future tense; According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay ;to the ifles he will repay recompence: fo fhall they fear. the name of the Lord from the west, and his glory from the rifing of the fun. And in the fame tense run the words of our reading, When the enemy SHALL come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord SHALL lift up a standard against him. It is undeniable, however, that all these speeches respect one and the fame fubject: an awful apoftacy obferved and punished by God; and the exemplary judgment followed with a flood of glory, as it had been preceded by a deluge of vice. These things are clofely connected as caufe and effect. That the prophet ufes the past tense, in speaking of them, is no argument that they took place before his time. Seated high on the mount of revelation, and seeing far into futurity, he often fpeaks of things far diftant, as if already past: witnefs the fifty-third chapter of his prophecy, where he mentions the Saviour's fufferings, not as future, but as paft: He was wounded for our tranfgreffions, &c. As little, I apprehend, will the use of the present tense prove, that the prophet had only that generation in his eye wherein he lived. Great corruptions, indeed, did then abound; and hence, in the beginning of his book, he addreffes the grandees as the rulers of Sodom, and the populace as the people of Gomorrah, chap i. The deluge of immorality here defcribed, was to be followed with fweeping judgments from the Lord; and these with a flow of glory that should fill the earth. For, no fooner has the prophet mentioned the recompence repaid to the enemies of the Lord, but he immediately adds, So fhall they fear the name of the Lord from the west, and his glory from the rifing of the fun. But fuch an extenfive fpread of genuine religion was never known under the Old-Teftament: that was referved to be the glory of the New.-I therefore conceive, that the time to which our text refers, belongs to the NewTeftament dispensation, not to the Old. But ftill the question recurs, Is that time already elapfed; or, is it yet to come? Does it belong to the primitive age of Christianity; or to the glory of the latter days? The venerable Vitringa*, whofe praise is in all the churches, thinks that the time to which our text relates, is yet to come. He lays down an hypothefis, and supports it with no contemptible arguments, that both the preceding chapter, and this where my text lies, have a refe rence, not to the people of Ifaiah's times, but to the Proteflant churches brought forth from myftical * Vitringa in Jefaim, cap. lviii. 1. and lix. 1. |