chael, here Chrift fays, I will keep them from being taken and destroyed) in this hour of temptation; even those that keep the word of my patience. Once more. Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die; for I have not found thy works perfect before God. Remember therefore bow thou haft received and beard, and bold faft and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what bour I will come upon thee. Rev. iii. 2, 3. Both thefe paffages of fcripture mean one and the fame time of trouble, called an hour: thofe that keep the word of his patience, he will keep from this hour of temptation; but thofe that do not repent, and remember how they have received and heard, thofe that do not hold faft, nor watch, he will come on them as a thiet, and they shall be so much taken up with other things, that they fhall not know what hour he will come upon them; and this is exactly the cafe with thoufands in our day. But it may be objected, the church that is exhorted to watchfulness is the church of Sardis, but that which is to be kept from the hour of temptation is the church of Philadelphia. To which I antwer, the interval is not long between the fetting and rifing of the fun. The fhadows of the even.ng have been long ftretched out over us, and we are got far into but there is a glorious day

night and into darknefs; before us, and what is faid to us in the night,. vibrates in their ears who are to rife in the dawn of

the following morning; the feed, or the young daughter of the prefent church, will be the mother of the next. The darkest hour that this church will come to, will be that in which the witneffes will be flain; then this prefent dark state of the church paffes away, and the brighter fucceeds. But many of the fame witneffes, which will be figuratively flain in that night, will, after three days and a half, rife again, in the morning of the next church state, and go on with their ufual work as foon as the Holy Spirit raises them up again. (Read Rev. xi. 7-11.) But to proceed with the parallel.

What was God's declaration to the heathen nations? Why, it was this: I have made the earth by my power, and I have given it to whom it feemed meet to me to give it; and I have given all thefe nations into the hand of the king of Babylon my fervant, to ferve him, and they shall serve him and his fon, and his fon's fon; and I have given him the beafts of the field alfo: and the nations that ferve him fhall ftand, and they that do not fhall be destroyed by his hand. This time of trial was a

lively type of ours.

And what was God's command to his own profeffing people? Why this: he that falls away to the Chaldeans fhall have his life for a prey, and I will fet mine eyes and my heart upon him for good, and he fhall live and return again; but them that will not put their necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, they fhall be purfued by the fword, by

famine,

famine, and by peftilence; they fhall be for an aftonishment. a hiffing, and a curfe.

And now, what is the declarative will of God to us, upon whom this fecond trying hour is come? Juft the fame as it was to them. By me kings reign, and princes decree juftice. By me princes rule and nobles, even all the judges of the earth. Prov. viii. 15, 16. This is the revealed will of God to us, that there is not a king that reigns, a prince, noble, or judge, that rules in all the earth, as civil magiftrates, but what reign and rule by him.

And what is his command, his watchword, and his warning, to us? Juft the fame as it was to the Jews of old. Let every foul be subject unto the higher powers; for there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whofoever therefore refifteth the power, refifteib the ordinance of God: and they that refift fhall receive to themselves damnation. Rom. xiii. 1, 2. This warning to us under the present time of trial (by Paul), is exactly the fame as that by the prophet Jeremiah. All nations, fays God, fhall ferve the king of Babylon; let every foul be fubject to the higher powers. I have given all these nations into the hand of my fervant the king of Babylon: the powers that be are ordained of God. He that did not fubmit his neck to the yoke of the king of Babylon, adhered to a lie, and was feduced and ruined as a rebel against God: he that refifteth the power, refifteth the ordinance of God. The rebels were delivered up of God to le a reproach

C 4

a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curfe, in all places whither God drove them. Jer. xxiv. 9. Yea, fays God, I will make this city a

curfe to all the na

These rebels were

tions of the earth. Jer. xxvi. 6. curfed according to the law; and those that refift fhall receive to themselves damnation according to the gofpel, Thofe that obeyed the Lord's voice by the prophet, lived, and he promised them, faying, Surely I will cause the enemy to entreat thee well in the day of evil: and his word and promife to us is, rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil: do that which is good, and thou shalt have praife of the fame. For he is the minister of God to thee for good. Rom. xiii. 3, 4.

But that which made it a fore trial in the days of old was, the curfed work of the minifters of Satan. The magicians pufhed Pharaoh and all his hoft to destruction. Among the nations, dreamers, diviners, and enchanters, drove many of them upon the thick boffes of God's buckler. And among the Jews lying prophets brought thousands to perifh by fword and famine, who were cut off with a lie in their right hand, in the very act of rebellion, and under the curfe of God; and fo it is now. Among the nations there is that felf-deifier, that enchanter, that hath bewitched and deftroyed thoufands; I mean Tom Paine; who not only oppofes the fervants of the Lord, as the falfe prophets did in the days of old, but ridicules and blafphemes both God and the Bible. No wonder that he

ridicules

ridicules the powers on earth, when he hath fet his mouth against the heavens, and his tongue walks through the earth. Pfalm lxxiii. 9. And this monster in human fhape hath not a few profelytes in his bonds of iniquity and thofe who die holden in thefe cords of their fins, fhall receive to themselves damnation, faith our great apoftle. Wherefore ye muft needs be fubject, not only for wrath, but also for confcience fake, Rom. xiii. 5. Ye must needs be fubject, not only through fear of wrath, but ye must be subject to those civil powers that are of God, or you cannot keep a confcience void of offence toward God. Tom Paine was aware of this, and therefore was under the neceffity of ridiculing, blafpheming, and exploding the Bible, and all the light of divine revelation, in order to make room for the Age of Reason, or for the age in which deified reafon is exalted. However, this is not a new god, or a god newly come up; this high thing, this vain imagination, was brought forth, and fet in oppofition to the King of Jacob in Ifaiah's days, Ifa. xli. 21. This fame god was brought forth by Zedekiah and Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire.”

Thus the nations now are furnished with an enchanter, as in the days of old. And if we come nearer home, we fhall find falfe prophets among us, as the Jews had among them."

Mr. Brothers has told us what he is, and what he was appointed to do; what calamities were coming upon us; and, like Bar Co-cab, the faife meffiah,

he