There are three principal seasons of the Lord's eminent appearance to carry on the kingdom of Christ and the gospel, and all attended with dreadful providential alterations: and unto one of these heads may all particular actings be reduced.
1. The first is, the promulgation of the gospel among the Jews by the Lord Christ himself and his apostles. What tliis was attended withal is graphically described. Matt. xxiv. 6, 7, " And ye shall hear of wars, and rumours of wars ; for nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes in divers places." And the close of it you have, verse 29, " Immediately after the tril)ulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven shall be shaken." The Judaical state, in all the height and glory of it, Avas utterly con- sumed ; so that all flesh, all the Jews, were in danger of utter destruc- tion, verse 22; their own historian, himself a Jew, afiirming, that from the foundation of the world never was there such destruction and desolation brought upon any nation. Which words of his are a comment on that prediction of our Saviour, Matt. xxiv. 2L And the reason of this eminent desolation you have, Isa. ix. 5, 6.
2. The second is, in the farther carrying on of the gospel, after the destruction of Jerusalem, throughout the world of the Gentiles, sub- ject then in a great proportion to the Roman empire. And Avhat is the issue hereof? The opening of the six seals immediately follows thereon. Rev. vi ; which, after manifold and various alterations, end in that dreadful dissolution of the Pagan empire which you have de- scribed from verse 14 to the end.
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3. The most sicrual is the coming of the Lord Christ to recover his people from antichristian idolatry and oppression : which, of all others, is, and shall be, attended with the most astonishing alterations and desolations, — pulling down of high trees, and exalting them that are low. Thence is that war described Rev. xvii. 14, and that mighty vengeance poured out by the Lord Christ on the nations, their kings and captains, chap. xix. 11 to the end; which the Holy Ghost describes by a collection of all the most dreadful expressions which are any where used to set out great devastations in the Old Testament.
And this is the head vvhereunto the present actings of Providence in this nation are to be referred ; they all tend to the accomplishment of his main design therein. He that thinks Babylon is confined to Rome and its open idolatiy, knows nothing of Babylon, nor of the new Jerusalem. The depth of subtle m3'stery doth not lie in gi'oss, visible folly. It hath been insinuating itself into all the nations for sixteen hundred years, and to most of them is now become as the man-ow in their bones. Before it be wholly shaken out, these heavens must be dissolved, and the earth shaken ; their tall trees hewed dowTi, and set a howling, Rev. xviii., and the residue of them transplanted from one end of the earth to another. This, I say, then, is the work that the Lord hath now in hand; and this is a day of thankfulness in reference to what he hath done for us in this nation. I know no better way of praising God for any work, than the finding out of his design therein, and closing with him in it. God hath gone with you, I hope, now to the end of your work; leave him not until he comes to the end of his. He hath compelled you " to go with him one mile" for your own good, — go with him two for his glory. The two tribes and a half sat not down in their o^vn possessions until the whole work of the Lord was done. I speak not with respect to any engagements of war with foreign nations ; — what have I to do with things that are above me? You will find work enough for your zeal to the kingdom of Christ at home; and this is the work of thankfulness which you are called unto.
Now, the reasons of this are, —
(1.) Because amongst all men, where the kingdom of Christ is to be set up, there is something or other possessed that he alone must and will have ; and, therefore, the Lord giving Jesus Christ but his own inheritance, it miist needs be attended with gi-eat alterations. I dare say, until of late (whatever now is) there was not any state or nation in the world, where the name of Christ is kno^vn, but that there was an intrenchment upon that which is the pure portion and inheritance of the Lord Christ, and that detained with falsehood and force. Yea, such is the folly and blindness of the most of men, that they think their greatest interest lies in holding that ftist which Christ
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will take from them ; — Pharaoh-like, that thought it the great advan- tage of his kingdom not to let the people go, when it proved the ruin of him and his land. This, I dare say, will, in the issue, be the ruin of all or most of the tall trees of Europe; they have grasped much of the power of Christ, and endeavour to impose on the consciences of his in the Avorship of God, or otherwise oppress them in what he hath purchased for them : and, by a dreadful mistake, they suppose their own interest lies therein ; which makes them hold fast until Christ hath shaken them all to pieces, and taken away even that also which was their o^vn. The late king had learned a saying from his prede- cessor, " No bishop, no king." Hence he supposes his main interest to lie in holding fast Prelacy ; whatever he seems to part withal, that he will not let go, — that is his main interest. And what is this Prelacy? A mere antichristian encroachment upon the inheritance of Christ. Christ coming to take his OAvn, shakes the other to pieces. Those who would have been our oppressors in Scotland, but that God hath crushed the cockatrice in the shell, and filled the pit with their dead bodies which they had digged for us, — they also had prepared a Pro- crustes' bed, a heavy yoke, a beast that, had it grown to joerfection, would have had horns and hoofs ; and in maintaining this they think their great interest to lie. And in holding this fast, are they, after all their associations, broken in pieces. And this is one cause.