the judgment of their God; were they but acquainted with it, fo far as it is evidently revealed, they would quickly fee all things working together to the appointed end.

3. Sinful follies. Toil and labour in vain, is of all follies the greatest folly; like the Jews under Julian, building of their temple in the day, God cafting it to the ground in the night. When a man labours, toils, wearies and fpends himself, for the accomplishing of that which fhall never come to pafs, and that, which if he would but enquire, he might know fhall never come to país, he cannot well want the livery of a brutish man. How ma

ny poor creatures that think themfelves wifer than thole of Temon and Dedan, and all the children of the Eaft, do spend and confume their days and time in fuch ways as this, labouring night and day to fet up what God will pull down, and what he hath faid fhall fall. Come on, let us deal wifeby, faith Pharaoh to his Egyptians, Exod. i. 1o. to root out and defroy thefe Ifraelites. Poor fool! is there any wisdom or counfel against the Most High? I could give inftances plenty in these days, of men labouring in the dark, not knowing what they are doing, endeavouring with all their Arength to accomplish that whereof the Lord hath faid, It fall not profper; and all, because they difcern not the feafon.

4. Sinful negligence. You are no way able to do the work of God in your generation. It is the commendation of many faints of God, that they were upright, and ferved the will of God in their generation. Befides the general duties of the covenant, incumbent on all the faints at all feafons, there are special works of providence, which in fundry generations the Lord effecteth, concerning which he expects his people fhould know his mind, and serve him in them. Now, can a fervant do

his

his master's work, if he know not his will? The Lord requireth, that, in the great things which he hath to accomplish in this generation all his fhould. clofe with him. What is the reafon that fome ftand in the market-place idle all the day? Some work for a feason, and then give over, they know not how to go a step farther; but after a day, a week, a month, or year, are at a ftand? Worfe than all this, fome counter-work the Lord with all their ftrength. The most neglect the duty which of them is required. What is the reafon of all this? They know in no measure what the Lord is doing, and what he would have them apply themfelves unto. The best almoft live from hand to mouth, following prefent appearances, to the great neglect of the work which the Lord would have haftened amongst us: All this comes from the fame root.

Quest. But now, if all these fad and finful confequences attend this nefcience of the mind of God, as to the things which he is doing in the days wherein we live, fo far as he hath revealed himself, and requires us to obferve his walkings; by what. ways and means may we come to the knowledge thereof, that we be not finfully bewildered in our own cares, fears, and follies, but that we may fol. low hard after God, and be upright in our gene

ration?

-Anf. There be four things whereby we may come to have an infight into the work which the Lord will do and accomplish in our days:

1. By the light which he gives.

2. By the previous works which he doth.
3. The expectation of his faints.

4. The fear of his adverfaries.

1. By the light which he gives. God doth not ufe to fet his people to work in the dark; they are the children of light, and they are no deeds of dark

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nefs which they have to do. However others are blinded, they fhall fee. Yea, he always fuits their light to their labour, and gives them a clear difcerning of what he is about. The Lord God dotl nothing but he reveals his fecrets to his fervants. The light of every age, is the fore-runner of the work of every age.

When Chrift was to come in the flesh, John Baptift comes a little before. A new light, a new preacher. And what doth he difcover and reveal? Why, he calls them off from refting on legal ceremonies, to the doctrine of faith, repentance, and gofpel ordinances; tells them the kingdom of God is at hand; inftructs them in the knowledge of him who was coming. To what end was all this? only that the minds of men being enlightened by his preaching, who was a burning and a fhining lamp, they might fee what the Lord was doing.

Every age hath its peculiar work, hath its peculiar light. Now, what is the light which God manifeftly gives in our days? Surely not new doctrines (as fome pretend), indeed old errors, and long fince exploded fancies. Plainly, the peculiar light of this generation is, that difcovery which the Lord hath made to his people, of the mystery of civil and ecclefiaftical tyranny: The opening, unravelling and revealing the antichriftian intereft, interwoven and coupled together in civil and fpiritual things, into a state oppofite to the kingdom of the Lord Jefus, is the great difcovery of thefe days. Who almoft is there amongst us now, who doth not evidently fee, that for many generations, the western nations have been juggled into fpiritual and civil flavery, by the legerdemain of the whore, and the potentates of the earth, made drunk with the cup of her abominations? how the whole earth hath been rolled in confufion, and the faints hurried out of the world, to give way to

their combined intereft? Hath not God unvailed. that harlot, made her naked, and difcovered her abominable filthinefs? Is it not evident to him that hath but half an eye, that the whole prefent conftitution of the government of the nations, is fo cemented with antichriftian mortar from the very top to the bottom, that without a thorough fhaking --they cannot be cleansed? This then plainly difcovers, that the work which the Lord is doing, relates to the untwining of this clofe combination against himself, and the kingdom of his dear Son, and he will not leave it, until he have done it.

To what degree in the feveral nations this ba king fhall proceed, I have nothing to determine in particular, the fcripture having rot expreffed it: This only is certain, it fhall not ftop, nor receive its period, before the intereft of antichristianity be wholly feparated from the power of thofe nations..

2. By the previous works he doth. How many of thefe doth our Saviour give, as figns of the deftruction of Jerufalem, and fo confequently of propagating the gospel more and more to the nations? Matth. xxiv. Luke xxi.. How fearful and dreadful they were in their accomplishment, Jofephus, the Jewish historian, relateth; and how by them the Chriftians were forewarned, and did by them understand what the Lord was doing, Eufebius and others declare.. When (faith he) you fhall fee the abomination of defolation (the Roman eagles and enfigns) Standing in the holy place, Matth. xxiv. 15. or, Jerufalem compaffed with armies, as Luke xxi. 20. then know by that, that the end thereof is come, and your deliverance at hand.

The works of God are to be fought out of them that have pleasure in them: They are vocal, fpeaking works, the mind of God is in them: they may be heard, read, and understood; the road may he

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heard, and who hath appointed it. Now, generally he begins with leffer works, to point out to the fons of men what he is about to accomplish. By these may his will be known, that he may be met in righteoufnefs.

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Now what, I pray, are the works that the Lordis bringing forth upon the earth? what is he doing in our own and the neighbour nations? Shew me the potentate upon earth, that hath a peaceable mole-hill, to build himself an habitation upon? Are not all the controverfies, or the most of them, that at this day are difputed in letters of blood among the nations, fomewhat of a diftinct conftitution from thofe formerly under debate? thofe tending merely to the power and splendour of fingle perfons, these to the intereft of the many. Is not the hand of the Lord in all this? Are not the shaking of thefe heavens of the nations from him? Is not the voice of Chrift in the midft of all this tumult? and is not the genuine tendence of these things open and visible unto all?

What speedy iffue all this will be driven to, I know not; fo much is to be done as requires a long space. Though a tower may be pulled down faster than it was fet up, yet that which hath been building a thousand years, is not like to go down in a thousand days.

3. The expectation of the faints, is another thing from whence a discovery of the will of God, and the work of our generation, may be concluded. The fecret ways of God's communicating his mind unto his faints, by a fresh favour of accomplishing prophecies, and strong workings of the Spirit of fupplications, I cannot now infift upon. This I know, they shall not be led into temptation, but kept from the hour thereof, when it comes upon the whole earth. When God raifeth up the expectation of his people to any thing, he is not unto

them