TO CHRISTIANS.. Beloved Brethren! IT is witneffed of David that he served the will of God in his generation. Every generation has its peculiar work. The present age is distinguished you know by the progrefs of infidelity. We have long been exempted from perfecution; and he whose fan is in his hand, perceiving his floor to stand in need of purging, seems determined by new trials to purge it. The prefent is a winnowing time. If we wish to ferve the will of. God in it, we must carefully attend to those duties which such a state of things imposes upon us. In the first place, Let us look well to the fincerity of our hearts; and fee to it that our Chriftianity is vital, practical, and decided. An army called to engage after a long peace, requires to be examined, and every one should examine himself. Many become foldiers when danger is at a diftance. The mighty host of Midianites were overcome by a felected band. A proclamation was iffued through the army of Ifrael," Whofoever is fearful and afraid, let him return :" and after a great diminution from cowardice, the reft must be brought down to the water, to be tried. Such, or nearly fuch, may be the trials of the Church: thofe who overcome may be reduced to a small company in comparison of thofe who have borne the Chriftian name. So indeed the Scriptures inform us: They Finally, Let not the heart of any man fail him, on account of the high tone and scornful airs affumed by infidels. The reign of infidelity may be extensive, but it must be fhort. It carries in it the feeds of its own diffolution. Its immoralities are fuch, that the world cannot long fuftain them. Scripture prophecy has clearly foretold all the great governments of the world, from the time of the Jewish Captivity to this day the Babylonian, Perfian, Macedonian, and Roman; together with the ten kingdoms into which the last of these empires has been divided, and the papal government which fprang up from amongst them; but it makes no explicit mention of this. It has no individual fubfiftence given it in the fyftem of prophecy. It is not a beaft; but a mere putrid excrefcence of the papal beaft; an excrefcence which, though it may diffuse death through every vein of the body on which it grew, yet fhall die along with it. The beast and all which pertains to him goeth into perdition.* There is no space of time allowed for this government : no fooner is it faid, Babylon is fallen, than voices are heard in heaven declaring that the marriage of the Lamb is come.† No fooner does the judgment fit, to take away the dominion of the little horn, to confume and to deftroy it unto the end, than it follows, And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the faints of the Moft High.t Dan. vii. 26, 27. The writer has fince read a very able difcourfe by Mr. Nathan Strong, of Hertford, Connecticut, entitled Political inftruction from the prophecies of God's word; in which the above fentiments are ftated with great force of evidence. * Popery is not yet deftroyed, though it has received a deadly blow; and from what is faid of the little horn, that they fhall take away his dominion, to confume, and to deftroy it unto the end, it fhould feem that its overthrow will be gradual. While this is accomplishing, the reign of infidelity may continue, with various fuccefs; but no longer. Only let us watch, aud keep our garments clean, a caution given, it is probable, with immediate reference to the present times,† and we have nothing to fear. It is a source of great consolation that the last of the four Beafts, which for more than two thousand years have perfecuted the Church, and oppreffed mankind, is drawing near to its end. The government that fhall next prevail will be that of Chrift, whofe kingdom is an everlafting kingdom, and all dominions fhall ferve and obey him. Even fo, amen. Blessed be his glorious name for ever; and let the whole earth be filled with his glory; amen, and amen! + Rev. xvi. 15. FINIS. |