even as they are found to be implicated with one another in all revolutions of power, and knowledge, and prosperity, which are but the visible accomplishments of prophecy. Which being taken into the account, it will be found, that the knowledge of the world hath always been over-canopied with such a starry firmament of prophecy; whereto the Lord, by prophet after prophet, did turn the attention not of his people only, but also of his enemies, if happily they might repent. Insomuch, that if we may judge by his dealings with the old world, with the cities of the plain, with the Egyptian, the Babylonian, and the Persian, and by whatever else is recorded in Holy writ concerning the heathen nations, we may conclude, that no kingdom or nation hath come to its end without having had extended to it the warning voice of prophecy, and many opportunities to return unto the living and true God; until, being deaf and impenitent, the judgment came down and bowed their stiffnecked obduracy, leaving them long to welter in the wo from which their stout-heartedness would not be warned. And doubt have I none within my own mind, that whenever any of these people, delivered up and given over to their own rebellious minds, came to listen to the witness which God still preserved with them, inwardly in the admonitions of conscience, outwardly in giving them rain and fruitful seasons, and came to acknowledge their ignorance, to bewail their misery with an humble lamentation, or in any other way to express a longing after a better condition; the Lord was at hand to hear the voice of their distress, and to raise up amongst themselves, or send from afar, messengers who might testify anew the word of his providence and grace. But over the history of God's dealings with the heathen nations in this respect, antiquity hath drawn its impenetrable veil, and we must leave all, besides what is written in his word, to the knowledge of the great assize, when God shall stand justified in his ways, and clear in his dealings with the sons of men.

With respect to the church, however, there can be no doubt, that over her head the canopy of prophecy hath ever been extended, and that prophets of the Lord have been constantly raised up to turn her wandering and unsteady eye to the sure light thereof. For the first revelations all wear the form of prophecy; and when afterward

the law was given, it was supported by prophecy of good and evil as its sanction, and was in truth but the enclosing bud of the gospel; which, when it came, the prophecy of life and immortality came along with it to all who should believe. For promise is nothing but prophecy, there being between these two no difference in the ends for which they are given, in the evidence upon which they rest, or in the fruits which the faith of them produceth in the soul. They are both for the use of the future, given to entertain and edify the speculation, and hope and desire of the spiritual mind, as the histories and narratives of the word of God, (which are but prophecies fulfilled,) are given to entertain and edify the faculties of memory and reflection which do business in the past, that the man of God might have principle and precepts of faith for the present, exemplifications of faith for the past, and anticipations of faith for the future, and so rest, brooding with his whole soul extended over the revelation of God. Or if there be a distinction between the prophecies and promises, which are one in spirit, this is the only distinction, that the former bear the same relations to the providence of God, which the latter bear to his grace; the former pertaining to the church situated in the midst of outward worldly enemies; the latter pertaining to the church, as she is vexed by invisible spiritual enemies: the former ending in her triumph over the world, and secure possession of the kingdom; the latter ending in her triumph over the devil and the flesh, and the secure possession of the life eternal. For God's purpose came forth at first like a seed, the seed of redemption, and expanded itself in the soil of future time, shooting along and giving the promise of much fruit, and hath continued to grow, and is growing on progressively till the end of the world;-as Christ himself hath figured it in the parable of the mustard seed; by whose growth he expressed the progress of his kingdom. To look forward, therefore, hath been constantly the true attitude of the church of Christ, to expect the fulfilment of the prophetic word, and to desire it. He that runneth may read this in every page of the history of the church, recorded in the Holy Scriptures. Insomuch, that Paul and Peter had to guard the churches against over-eagerness of expectation, and when they refer to their own teaching, we gather that

it was their custom (as indeed we see in all the Epistles) to found the primitive churches upon the expectation of things which were to arrive in this present world. And of what main service to the church prophecy was, after the day of Pentecost, Peter's discourses in the Acts do testify, of what in the days of our Lord's flesh the gospels testify. And can any thing be so strong a proof of the estimation of prophecy, as that the WORD of God in the mouth of Zacharias, the father of the Baptist, begins the New Testament in the very language of that prophecy with which the Old Testament concluded in the mouth of Malachi, as if the echo of the harp had not died away during the four hundred years of intervening time; a thousand years being but as one instant in the mind of the Lord, to whom indeed time is not a condition of being, even as it is not to the pure reason of man, but only to our sentient nature.

One other instance indeed there is, more striking still of the value and estimation of prophecy to the church, that when the gospels concerning the incarnation of Christ, and the Acts of the Apostles concerning the plantation of the church, and the epistles concerning their doctrine, and discipline, and practice, were all completed, and the last of the apostles remained, the sands of his glass almost run out, and the hoary man exiled far away from the habitation of the church, to a lonely island of the sea, the Spirit of the Lord did seize upon his remnant of life, and possessed him with a prophecy concerning the history of the church from that time forward to the consummation of all things: which being finished, the Spirit, in words of awful and terrible solemnity, closed the canon of revelation, with entreaties that all men would look forward and encourage each other to expect the time of the second coming of the Lord. "I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star. And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book. And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy,

God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book. He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly; Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus."

The events contained in the prophecies are, therefore, not only a most important, but, if there be any difference, the most important part of the revelation of God; as the time of the harvest and of the vintage is the most important season of the year. For as yet the seed of the great mus tard tree, which is to cover with its boughs all the beasts of the earth, and shelter in its branches all the fowls of heaven, is but as it were rooted and a little sprung above the earth, and hardly findeth a shelter for itself against the inclement and stormy weather. The daughter of Zion is still left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city; and hath only these prophecies to rest the hopes of her deliverance upon; to which therefore she doth well to look, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn and the day star arise on her heart. But I know not how it hath come to pass, that a spirit of scepticism and faithlessness, concerning this portion of the Scriptures, hath grown upon these times, which treat every inquirer into prophecy much as the scoffer is wont to treat the believer, as a dreamer, visionary, and helpless enthusiast. And if you press them for the reason of this strange blindness which hath come over them, they are wont to treat you with such answers as these,

First, That the interpreters of prophecy have differed so widely from one another, that there is no reliance to be placed upon any of them;-which, by a change of the word prophecy for scripture, is the very speech that every scoffer hath in his lips concerning the Scriptures, and with an equal show of truth; though in neither case with the reality of truth. For as the scoffer at scripture would find, that in the church there has been, amongst many heresies, a unity of faith held in all ages, for which saints testified and died; so will the scoffers against prophecy find that, amongst many errors, there hath been a constant consent upon the interpretation of the great heads of prophecy amongst the people of God. The coming of Messiah, the great event of the former dispensation, was not only expected at the

time of its arrival, but the prophecies which appertained to him were known, and are to be found in the rabbinical writers set apart for him to fulfil;-a diligence concerning the first coming of Christ, which may well put to shame our supineness concerning his second coming. The next great event to the church was the downfal of Jerusalem; and how well they were prepared for it by the prophecies of Christ is a matter of history. The next great event was the downfal of pagan Rome, prefigured the four first apocalyptic seals; and whencesoever their information was derived, it is also a matter of history, that the Christians were preserved from fire and sword by taking refuge in the churches. The papacy no sooner arose out of the bishoprick of Rome, than the true church at once recognised it to be the beast of the apocalypse, and testified against it, with a more uniform consent than in these accommodating days we are willing to do. And now that the downfal of that power is hard at hand, which is the next great event of revelation, there is beginning to prevail a great consent among the exact interpreters of prophecy concerning the same, and a constant expectation amongst the spiritual, of the second coming of the Lord, which is to follow. There was no difference of opinion in the primitive church concerning the infidel antichrist, who was to arise in the latter days, and go into perdition, and as little concerning the millennial kingdom of the saints. So that if there be an orthodox faith in doctrine, to which the church payeth a high regard, I have as good a right to infer that there is an orthodox faith in the great matters of prophecy, to which the church heretofore hath and ought still to pay a high respect; yea, and WOULD, were it not that her chief and leading men are ploughing with other oxen, and wishing to reap other harvests than appertain to the true and spiritual church of Christ.

And they will answer for themselves again, that the prophecies were not intended to be known till the event should reveal their applications; as if you would say, that the cask was not to be opened till the liquor was all evaporated. Which notion is contradicted by the whole testimony of scripture. First, with respect to time. Daniel knew by books when the captivity of Babylon was to be accomplished. And he revealed by date when Messiah the prince was to come. And we shall see in the sequel of

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