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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." A man would think they had something else to do at such a day, when nation rises against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there are pestilences, and famines, and earthquakes. A man would think they should have other employment. No; " Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you/' What is the reason of it? That there may be another symptom of approaching desolation, Matt, xxiii. 34-36.
I could name many other signs; — as, visible apostasy, the love of many waxing cold; God in an eminent manner calling off to rest with himself many of his servants, taking them away from the evil to come : but I have said enough upon this head.
I shall now speak a few words, in the SECOND place, unto the reasons why in such approaching dissolutions all professors ought to be sig nally holy, signally godly. I shall but name one or two things : —
First, Because in every such dissolution, especially where the gospel hath been professed, there is a peculiar coming of Jesus Christ. Christ is in it, whether we see him or see him not. " Be patient, brethren," saith James, chap. v. 7, " unto the coming of the Lord/' How could that generation, to whom he wrote sixteen hundred years ago, " be patient unto the coming of the Lord/' who is not yet come? That is not the coming of the Lord James in tended; but his coming for the destruction of the impenitent, per secuting, obdurate Jews. " Be patient, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord." When will that be? Why, saith he, verse 8, "The coming of the Lord draweth nigh." It will be within a very few years: Verse 9, " Behold, the Judge standeth before the door." This was the coming of Christ in the great and terrible judgment wherein he executed vengeance upon his stubborn adversaries, ac cording as he had said before, " Those mine enemies, which would not have me to reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me." In every signal dissolution and judgment, there is a coining of Christ; and every coming of Christ will be a day of great trial, Mai. iiL 1-3. Their state was then with them, as to the person of Christ, much as it is now with many as unto other appearances of Christ. " The Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come, the messenger of the covenant whom ye delight in." He shall come, yea, he shall come suddenly. ' What could be more welcome? what more desirable? We desire nothing in this world but that he may come !' " But who may abide the day of his coming?" saith he. That people did nothing but cry out, the Messiah would come; and when he came, it proved their utter ruin and destruction. It is a
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great thing to have Christ come. We know not what will come to pass when Christ comes. It is a great thing to stand before Christ when he comes. And pray, brethren, what do you think Christ ex pects of us when he doth come? It is a foolish thing, as the psalmist shows, when men are in expectation of a dissolution, to be engaged in business about earthly matters (I mean beyond what duty re quires), so as not to be prepared for it; but it is a wicked thing, when in that dissolution Christ comes, and men are not prepared for his coming. There is Christ in it. There is no dissolution that at tends us, in our persons, relations, in the world, but Christ is in it. Christ cometh in it ; and how are we prepared to entertain this great guest that cometh? Truly, I am afraid that in regard to many who bear themselves wonderfully high upon the coming of the Lord, when he comes, it will be darkness to them, and not light. Christ comes not to gratify men's lusts ; he comes not to exalt them in the world, nor to satisfy them in their desires upon their adversaries. Christ comes to make us more holy, more humble, more mortified and weaned from the world ; and if we are not so prepared for it, we are no way prepared for the coming of Christ. Oh, what ought to be the frames of our hearts if we lived under this apprehension, that Christ, the glorious, holy one, were coming to us every day !
Secondly, What doth he come for? Why, every such time of dissolution is a lesser day of judgment. I thought to have showed you how Christ in such a season will execute judgment. There are two parts of the judgment that Christ will execute. One is in ven geance upon his adversaries; the other is in trial upon his people. The apostle puts both together, Heb. x. 30, " Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people." The first place is taken out of Deut. xxxii. 35, and the latter place is taken out of Ps. 1. 4. In the first place, God doth eminently speak of his stubborn adversaries, of his enemies : " Vengeance belongeth unto me," saith he, "I will recompense." And in the latter place, he directly speaks of his saints, of his own people, " The Lord will judge his people;" as we may see Ps. 1. 4. Why doth our apostle put both these together, things of so wonderfully different natures, "Vengeance belongeth unto me," and, "The Lord shall judge his people"? The reason is, because though these works are won derfully distant and discrepant one from another, yet Christ doth them always at the same time. When he taketh vengeance upon his adversaries, he judgeth his people. He judgeth the profession of many, and will put an end to it, determine it. He judgeth the mis carriages of others, and reproves them. He comes as a spirit of judg ment in all such trials. Let none mistake themselves. Whenever Christ comes to take vengeance on his people's enemies, he cometh