bles, all fears, all difficulties do owe you a safe passage through them : The covenant, yea, Christ, the Mediator of the covenant, stands in the midst of them all to secure you.
(3.) Bless God for casting the lot of your nativity upon such a happy and extraordinary period of time as this is. Many saintg have desired to see the days you are likely to see in a little time, and have not seen them. The whole space of time, from the first to the second coming of Christ, is by the prophets called one day, Zech. xiv. 7. and the greatest part of this long day very doubtful and changeable ; neither light, nor dark, nor day, nor night ; peace and trouble, truth and error taking all along their alternate course?. Bui at evening-time it shall he light. And as the greatest darkness is a little before the dawning of the morning, so here the blackest and gloomiest part of the whole day is to be expected before this lightsome glorious evening : such tribulation, immediately before the fall and ruin of Antichrist, as ages past never saw. Lactantius speaking of this very time, says, ' That a little before it, the state
* of human affairs must necessarily be changed, and all things grow
* worse and worse ; so that these times of ours (saith he) in which
* iniquity is grown, as one would think, to the height, yet in com-
* parison with those days, may even be called golden times : The
* godly shall be every where distressed by the wicked, they shall ' flourish, and the righteous be in contempt : All right and law shall ' perish and be confounded ; no man shall possess any thing but
* what is ill gotten, or valiantly defended ; there shall be no faith-
* fulness in men ; no peace, humanity, shame, or truth left : Wars
* shall rage every where ; all nations shall be in arms ; neighbour- ' ing cities shall make war upon each other ; then shall slaughters be ^ in all the world, mowing down all like an harvest ; of which con- ' fusions and destruction this shall be the cause : I tremble to speak *• it, (but it must be spoken, for it shall surely come to pass) that ^ the Roman name, by which the world is now ruled, shall be ^ taken away from the earth.
These things, in themselves, are exceeding dreadful, and yet I say, let the saints rejoice in that God hath cast their lot upon these times. For,
1. These are the last troubles the church is like to feel from the hands of that enemy ; and there is much comfort in that. God never exercised so great patience and long-suffering towards any enemy of his church as he hath towards this. But the day is come to avenge the blood of the saints upon Babylon, and destructions are come, even come to a perpetual end.
2. The Lord will take care of his people in all these calamities and ijational confusions : They shall be reserved as a seed to con-
tinue and enlarge the church, which is to be the subject of all the promised liberty and glory.
(4<.) Labour to get suitable frames of spirit to those good times you expect. Carnal hearts will not suit them, or find any pleasure in them. We look, according to the promise, for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness ; and seeing we look for such things, O what manner of persons ought we to be ! 2 Pet. iii. 11. You that are parents, how are you concerned not only for yourselves, but for the religious education of your chil- dren : If you hve not to see those good days, in all probability they will ; the hopes of the next generation depends much upon your religious and zealous care and diligence. Never were children born in a more happy and encouraging time than yours is.
And for you young ones, I would leave one word of counsel this day. Get principles of grace implanted in your hearts betime : For the cars are coming in which the world will be no place of pleasure for profane and carnal persons. As serious piety has been hissed at, and ridiculed ia these late debauched times, so will profaneness in future times. " Holiness to the Lord shall be upon the bells of the <' horses,'" Zech. xiv. 20. that is, husbandmen shall have their hearts in heaven, wliilst their hands are on the plow. Merchants and seamen shall drive a trade for heaven as well as earth, Isa. xxiii. 18. Isa. Ix. o. It you be profane and ungodly you shall at once be the contempt of heaven and earth.
(5.) Lastly, Bless God for those instruments by which you are brought out of spiritual Egypt to the borders of Canaan.
You must not ascribe more to instruments than is due to them, nor lean and depend too much on them. Many benumb their own arms by leaning on them. But on the other side, beware of ingra- titude to the instruments by which God works out your deliver- ances, and conveys to you such excellent mercies. Some know no other way of expressing their joy, but by drunken healths and Tiiizzas, a sacrifice suitable enough to Bacchus, but such as God abhors, and his vicegerent will not thank you for. There are other "ways of expressing your joy in the mercy which will be highly acceptable both to God and the king ; viz.
(1.) Pray for your rulers, that God would make kings to be nursing fathers, and queens nursing mothers to the church, ac- cording to that promise, Isa. xlix. 23. That he would preserve and secure the heart of the king by his wisdom and fear, from those dangerous temptations and snares that surround the throne : " That " he may be just, ruling in the fear of God, and so be as the light " of the morning when the sun riseth, even a morning without " clouds ; as the tender grass springing out of the earth by clear " shilling after rain," 2 Sam. xxiii. 3, 4. That the zeal of God
may inflame his soul, and that he may be a second Hezekiah in restoring and reforming the worship of God : That God would leno-then the days of his life upon the throne for tlie peace and pros- perity of his church. In this you will answer the great things God hath done for you and his church at this time.
(2.) Be loyal, peaceable, and obedient subjects. Convince the world that rehgion breeds the best subjects : " Render to Cae- " sar tlie things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are " God's,"" Mark xii. 17. Where you enjoy protection, you owe allegiance. Be not murmurerf}^ as the ungrateful Israelites were, 1 Cor. X. 10. Understand and value the mercies you enjov under the government, and bless God for them ; lest he teach you by sad experience the difference betwixt his service and the service of the kingdoms of the countries, as he did them, 2 Chron. xii. 8. Be- ware you exchange not the golden yoke of Christ for the iron yoke of Antichrist.