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people, as he expresses it," to grow enthusiastically mad, as if they were possessed by some spirit, or demon." Let us, therefore, my brethren, take heed, that no man deceive us; that we be not tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive. God is best sought in his word by prayer, and in the ordinances of his own appointment: and he will certainly be found of those, and by those only, who seek him in truth and soberness, and in the way of his own commandments; for, saith our Saviour, "If a man love me, he will keep my words; and my father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.” We cannot but remark finally, how just a judgment it was of God, to deliver up that people into the hands of false Christs, who had so perversely rejected the true one. And let us beware, my brethren, lest by resisting the astonishing weight of evidence we possess, that the Gospel is a revelation from God, we also come under a similar condemnation, and be given up to the delusions of infidelity. "See

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then, saith the apostle, that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not, who refused him that spake on earth; much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him, that speaketh from heaven."

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SERMON VI.

THE SUBJECT OF PROPHECY CONTINUED.

"And ye shall hear of wars, and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled; for all these things must come to pass but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you : and ye shall be hated of all nations, for my name's sake. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. And this Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world, for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come."-MATT. xxiv. 6-14.

It was remarked in our last discourse, that the signs or circumstances which our Lord predicted, should accompany the destruction of

Jerusalem, might be divided into those that preceded, those which attended, and those that followed this awful dispensation. The first sign that was to precede the coming of our Lord, in judgment upon the Jews, viz. the appearance of false Christs, has already been considered, together with its fulfilment: we shall now proceed to the remaining signs, or circumstances, that were to usher in this great event. These are included in our text. "And ye shall hear of wars, and rumours of wars; for nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom." Wars and commotions then compose the second sign that was to precede our Lord's coming. Accordingly there were 66 wars and rumours of wars ;' appears in all the historians of those times. especially in Josephus. To relate the particulars would indeed be to transcribe a great part of his history of the Jewish wars. I must therefore refer you to the work itself. One historical fact, however, which produced at that time rumours of wars, as it occasioned so exact a fulfilment of this part of the prediction, deserves particularly to be noticed. Caligula,

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the Roman emperor, having ordered his statue to be set up in the temple of Jerusalem, the Jews resisted, and persisted in their resistance; which occasioned such an apprehension of a war from the Romans, that the rumour of it produced so great a consternation, as to suspend for a time even the tillage of their lands.

Our Lord proceeds to declare, that there should not only be" rumours of wars," but that "nation should rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom :" which, by a reference to the history of the Jewish wars, you will find took place in the latter times of Claudius, and in the reign. of Nero. It is. further added, " and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places." Suetonius, Tacitus, and other pagan historians referred to by Eusebius, record the particulars of a famine which came to pass in the days of Claudius Cæsar. Josephus also records the same event, and adds, that the famine was so severe at Jerusalem, that many perished for want of food. Pestilences are the usual attendants upon famine. The historians above mentioned also record several instances of earthquakes which

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