SER M. unto the third and fourth generation; That
III. is, Upon a People under a national cove-

nant, and Blessed or beloved (as St Paul
fpeaks) for the Fathers fakes, he would
for their national irreligion, fend down
And
very Long temporal Judgments.
This threatning has actually been ful-
filled upon them in fuch a captivity and
fuch a difperfion, as never happened to
any other nation upon the Face of the
Earth.

AMONG Chriftians, (for the greater part even of Thofe alfo who call themfelves Chriftians, have for many Ages been Idolaters, as the Kingdom of Irael had been before;) Among Chriftians, I fay, the introducing This Vice, has not only corrupted the Simplicity of the Gofpel, but has alfo greatly encouraged all immorality, by making Superftition an equivalent instead of a virtuous Life; and particularly it has been the cause of infinite Cruelties and Perfecutions among Chriftians, in order to fupport tyranny and Superstition; infomuch that even of the Chriftian Church it is prophefied in Scripture, that in her should be found

the

the blood of Saints and of Prophets, and SER M. of all that are flain upon the Earth. For III. our deliverance from this tyranny by the Reformation, we can never be too thankful; nor ever fufficiently careful, to guard against every appearance of approaching towards it again.

SERMON IV.

Of the ETERNITY of GOD.

REV. i. 8.

I am Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the Ending, faith the Lord; which is, and which was, and which is to come, The Almighty.

T

HESE words are a defcrip-SER M. tion of the Perfon of the IV. God and Father of All, from

the Primary Attributes of

his Nature, and from the

Part which he is reprefented to bear peculiarly in delivering This Prophecy.

SERM. In the giving of This Prophecy, he is Alpha and Omega, the First Author and the laft End of all. For the whole

IV.

Prophecy is, The Revelation of Jefus
Chrift, which God, [that is, the Fa-
ther,] gave unto him, ver. 10. And the
manner of his giving it, is very elegantly
defcribed, ch. iv. and v. by a reprefenta-
tion of God fitting upon a Throne,
Supreme over all; and giving unto the
Lamb a Book, which none other but
He, in Heaven or on Earth, was wor-
thy to open.
Likewife abfolutely, with
regard to his Proper Nature, the prima-
ry Attributes of the God and Father of
All, are; He is Alpha and Omega, the
Beginning and the End, the firft Author
and Fountain from whom all things ori-
ginally proceed, and the ultimate End in
whom all things finally terminate; He
is, "which is, and which was, and which
"is to come, "eternal of himself by ab-
folute neceffity of Nature, being deri-
ved from None, begotten of None, pro-
ceeding from None. Laftly, He is, The
Almighty, Supreme abfolutely over all;
For fo the word in the Original Pro-
perly fignifies; including every one of

the