' Ay, but things in the world may come into such a combination as that they may be preserved from any danger of such a dissolution/ No; Ezek. xxi. 26, 27, "Thussaith the Lord GOD; Remove the diadem, and take off the crown: this shall not be the same: exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high. I will overturn, over turn, overturn, it: and it shall be no more, until he come whose right it is." One dissolution shall come upon the neck of another, until it all issue in Jesus Christ. ' I will overturn it/ saith God. * But men will set it up again/ ( I will overturn it again/ saith God, ' perfectly overturn it. All men's endeavours shall but turn things from one destructive issue to another, till all issue in one whose right it is/ The Jews have a way of remembering things, by a word that one way or other shall direct unto them. Truly, God hath strangely wrapped up all this mystery in one word: Heb. xii. 27, " This word," saith he, "Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which can not be shaken may remain." It is wrapped up in this one word. Carry this about with you as a note of remembrance, that God in dealing about those things hath put a " once more" upon them ; which is a sign they must come to a dissolution. It signifies that they are shaking, movable things, and must be gone. Remember God hath said con cerning every thing, except only theunshaken things of the kingdom of Christ, God hath said of them ' " Once more," and they shall have an end/ That mark is set upon every thing but the things of Christ.
' If we would look about us we might consider what would preserve any thing in this world from a destructive dissolution. A great con sent and agreement would do it. Nations come to be broken and dis-
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solved by differences one with another, and among themselves. If there were but a good consent and agreement, things would stand long enough, at least to the day of judgment/ — I know not but that men were wonderfully well agreed before the flood, they all went the same way ; yet that did not preserve the world ; God marred the world he had made. They agreed so well, they would not destroy the world with their own hands; but God had a way to bring the world to a destructive dissolution.
' But where an empire is mighty and strong, where there is force and power, we need fear no dissolution there/ — Pray what is become of that part of Nebuchadnezzar's image that was like iron, and broke every thing in pieces? what is become of the Roman empire, that dashed the world in pieces at its pleasure ? It is brought to a de»- structive dissolution ; it is brought to the dust, and that dust scattered away before the wind.
' A long-continued title, a long prescription of time in the same state of things, certainly that will secure us from the fear of a dissolution/ — There is not an empire at this day in the world that hath had a life so long as man had before the flood ; and if a prescription of eight or nine hundred years could not preserve men from the grave, will it preserve empires, kingdoms, and nations, when the time of their dissolution is come? God's own institutions, that were not im mediately managed in the hands of Christ, were all liable to a dissolu tion, and had it, that we may be sure to know that there was nothing but should be dissolved, except only what is managed immediately in the hands of Christ. The Lord dissolved all his own institutions, all that glorious worship that he had instituted and appointed under the law.
Let us see our concernment herein, and what use we may make of it. Truly this, that if all our own things, and all things wherein we are concerned in this world, — our lives, our relations, our enjoyments, our interest in public things, — if they are all obnoxious to such a destruc tive dissolution, that waits for them every moment, certainly it is our wisdom to look after an interest in Him that is unchangeable, and in immutable, unchangeable things. Two of the places I mentioned before give us this direction. Ps. cii., the psalmist speaks first of his own condition : Verses 23, 24, " He weakened my strength in the way ; he shortened my days. I said, O my God, take me not away in the midst of my days/' He had apprehensions of his own frailty and mortality, and that in. the appearing midst of his days. He was ready to sink and to fail away. He looked to the creation: Verse 26, " They shall perish/' saith he, " all of them shall wax old like a gar ment/' Whereunto doth he betake himself then? Verses 27, 28 " Thou art the same/' saith he, " and thy years shall have no end
528 HOLINESS URGED FROM THE