their connexion with the divine will, men are characterized believers or unbelievers; and in them is fet before us good and evil, life and death, bleffing and curfing. Moreover, the ordinances of the word of God, exhibiting the doctrine of Chrift, are the only bond of union among men, which, in a ftrift fenfe, is of God, and which he will own and blefs; and every other principle of fociety, and all that is done upon any other ground than that of the ordinances, to unite and bind men together, is in its nature oppofition to Christ, and muft ultimately fail of fuccefs.

By the infpired apoftles and prophets, we are informed, that in the laft days the ordinan ces will be moft daringly violated; and they inflance, efpecially, in relation to those two of the inquifition for blood, and the inflituted government. Great Babylon, which will then be the metropolis of the world, and the principle feat of government, will be filled, and, as it were, drunken with innocent blood; and the hand of the brother, the magiftrate, or fovereign people, will either be flack, or tied down by defpotic chains, and inquifition will fail; whilft the earth will drink in blood freety as the rain, and clofing it up within her regions of forgetfulnefs, will wipe her mouth like the harlot; until the piercing cry have reached unto heaven, and come up very great before the Lord, and he be moved, by his own truth, and his moft folemn declaration, Surely your blood of your lives will I require, to appear and make the inquifition himfelf. For behold, the Lord cometh out of his place,

punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth alfo fhall difclofe her blood, and fhall no more cover her flain. Ifai. xxvi. 21. The mighty God, even the Lord hath Spoken, and called the earth from the rifing of the fun, unto the going down thereof. Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath fhined. Our God fhall come, and fhall not keep filence: a fire fhall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him. He fhall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that he may judge his people. Gather my faints together unto me: thofe that have made a covenant with me by facrifice. And the heavens hail declare his righteousness: for God is judge himfelf. Pfal. 1. 1—6.—And the great city was divided into three parts, and the ci ties of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. And every ifland fled away, and the mountains were not found. Rev. xvi. 19,

20...

This know alfo, that in the last days perilous times fhall come. For men fall be lovers of their own felves, covetous, boafters, proud, blaf phemers, difobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce breakers, falfe accufers, incontinent, fierce, despilers of thofe that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleafure more than lov ers of God; having a form of godlinefs, but denying the power thereof. 2 Tim. iii. 1—5.— But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the Jufs of uncleanefs, and delpife government;

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prefumptuous are they, felf-willed, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities. 2 Pet, ii, 10. -Likewife alfo these filthy dreamers defile the flef, defpife dominion, and speak evil of dignities. Jude 8th verfe. In these perilous times the bonds of parental, filial and fraternal duty will be broken-the ftrongeft bonds of natural affection will be burft afunder, and men will act unreftrained like NATURAL BRUTE BEASTS. But unto the wicked God faith, What haft thou to do to declare my fatutes, or that thou fhouldeft take my covenant in thy mouth? Seeing thou hateft inftruction, and cafteft my words behind thee. When thou fawell a thief, then thou confentedeft with him, and haft been partaker with adulterers. Thou givet thy mouth to evil, and thy tongue frameth deceit. Thou fitten and fpeakest evil against thy brother; thou flandereft thine own mother's fon. Thefe things baft thou done, and I kept filence: thou thoughteft that I was altogether fuch an one as thyfelf but I will reprove thee, and fet them in order before thine eyes Now confider this ye that forget God, left I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver. Pfal. 1. 16-22.—Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loveth gifts, and fol.oweth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the caufe of the widow come unto them. Therefore faith the Lord, the Lord of Hofis, the Mighty One of Ipael, Ah, I will eaje me of mine adverfaries, and avenge me f mine enemies. Ifai. i. 23, 24:-The good man is perijked out of the earth: and there is none upright among men they all lie in wait for blood: they

hunt every man his brother with a net. That they may do evil with both hands earnefly, the prince afketh, and the judge afketh for a reward. and the great man he uttereth his mifehievous defire: jo they wrap it up. The best of them is a briar: the most upright is sharper than a thornhedge: the day of thy watchmen and thy vifitation cometh; now shall be their perplexity. Trust ye not in a friend, put ye not confidence in a guide: keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bofom. For the fon difhonoreth the father, the daughter rifeth up against her mother, the daughter-in-law againft her mother-in law; a man's enemies are the men of his own houfe. Micah vii. 2-6.-Now the brother fhall betray the brother to death, and the father the fon and children fhall rife up against their parents, and fhall cause them to be put to death. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's fake; but he that fall endure to the end the fame shall be faved. Mark

xiii. 12, 13.

The laft attempt that will be made to turn this ftrong and overflowing current of apoftacy, if poffible, to fave the world from the impending curfe, will be to turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the chil ren to their fathers. The angel-man, the meffenger of the covenant, will now vifit the earth, as the angels afore time went to So. dom; but, inftead of effecting a reformation, generally, it appears, that this kind and most gracious attempt will but enflame the brutal paffions, which now have the command, and raife the wrath of men into a furious burft of

madness. Some few, indeed, like Lot, will open the hofpitable door to the heavenly meffenger. The covenant people, at that moment, will be fnatched as a brand from the burning flame.

But, even among the families of the righteous, there will be many fons in law, who will turn a deaf ear to the call to separate themselves from an untoward generation, and to haften their escape from the fiery deluge, now no longer lingering; fo, that in this laft extremity, there will not be found the five righteous in the city, that it might not be de ftroyed for their fakes! When the Son of Man cometh, fhall be find faith on the earth? Alas! it is manifeft from the fcriptures, that this final overture of mercy, like that towards Sodom, will be but too unfuccefsful.

CHAPTER IV.

OF BABEL, ZION, AND BABYLON, THE
GLORY OF KINGDOMS.

Section 1. The Confufion of Tongues.

The covenant of the ordinances of grace, in the new establishment, had been publicly violated as to the leading article of the inftituted government, in the conduct of Ham to