darkness that is gathering, the righteous shall "shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their father," 43rd ver.

But it is a fearful time for the hypocrites in Zion, the false rotten-hearted professors. O, ye traitors in the camp, ye Judases, hearken to the voice of the Lord by his prophet Isaiah, and hear your disgraceful doom, xxxiii. 14, "The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites." Such will be the state of the hypocrites in Zion in the time of judgment, when God will give the people up to themselves, to be filled with their own ways when the iniquity of the Gentiles shall be accomplished. And how soon that may be, we know not. O, it will be a day of trial indeed-concerning which the prophet asks in the same verse, "Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?" Solemn questions, which the three following verses answer," He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil; he shall dwell on high; his place of defence shall be the munitions of rocks; bread shall be given him, his waters shall be sure. Thine eyes shall see the king in his beauty; they shall behold the land that is very far off. Thine heart shall meditate terror."

Thus we see that it is only those who are living in Christ, that can dwell in these everlasting (perpetual) burnings; the hypocrite's hope will melt away like wax at such a time; for, like

Judas, having only professed Christ for the world, he will betray him for the world. In such a time he will throw away all his specious profession of religion, and so make shipwreck of faith. O, then, how needful is it for every man to examine himself, to see how matters stand with him—to be up and be doing--to be zealous for the cause of Christ, not with a blind fanatical zeal, unaccompanied with knowledge, but with a life conformed to the gospel of Christ, shine forth as lights to the world, so that the world may take knowledge of them that they have been with Jesus. For, if we may judge from the present state of the world, the day, the great and terrible day of the Lord draweth nigh, as symbolized by St. John the Divine, as shown to him by vision, which he describes thus, Rev. vi. 12, And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; and the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig-tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind: and the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places and the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bond man, and every

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free man, hid themselves in the dens, and in the rocks of the mountains; and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?"

It is evident, that in the above prophetic vision, is figuratively set forth a most notable revolution in the ruling powers of the world, namely, heathen Rome; when the stone cut out of the mountain, according to Daniel's prophecy, brake in pieces the toes of the great regal image, composed of the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver and the gold (which final blow to that power is described as an earthquake) at which period the sun and the moon, and all the host of heaven, were objects of adoration, in the heathen worship. But, in consequence of the Emperor Constantine being converted to christianity, all that heathenish idolatry was by him abolished, when he removed the seat of government from the site where old Rome stood upon her seven hills, to Constantinople, the present capital of papal Rome, built upon seven mountains likewise. So is she the beast that was and is not, in more than one point of view; and first, (as I have noticed before,) as old pagan Rome was, though under a different form, a cruel and bloody enemy of the church of Christ, but transformed into another shape, and shifted to another place, and set upon seven hills, so papal Rome, the beast transformed into another shape, is essentially the same beast, and possessing the same cruel propensity: and, secondly, she is the beast that was and is not in another point of view, for she is the old beast of Rome who once was for a time reformed, but since has apostatized from pure christianity, and become the mystery of iniquity, the mother of harlots, the scarlet whore, drunk with the blood of the saints. Therefore, as by the victorious career of Constantine the worshippers of the sun, the moon,

and the stars, were abolished, when the political heaven, &c. were swept away, and wrapped together as a scroll-so was that event a true emblem of the final triumph of the true church of Christ, over the popish Babylon, and all the cruel and idolatrous despots of the earth who have committed fornication with her; when all the popish and infidel crew, all the cruel oppressors of the poor, and enemies of Christ and his church, of every description, will have to drink the very dregs of the cup of wrath which they have been filling, as most strikingly set forth by the prophet Isaiah, 34th chap., in the following strong language: "Come near, ye nations, to hear; and hearken, ye people: let the earth hear, and all that is therein; the world, and all things that come forth of it. For the indignation of the Lord is upon all nations, and his fury upon all their armies; he hath utterly destroyed them, he hath delivered them to the slaughter. Their slain also shall be cast out, and their stink shall come up out of their carcases, and the mountains shall be melted with their blood. And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig tree. For my sword shall be bathed in heaven."

Here is apparently set forth the final destruction of the kingly governments of the earth, the mountains (kings) which shall be given to the slaughter; as likewise all the host of the political heavens, the subordinate judges, magistrates, &c. who have not done justly, nor ruled in the fear of God, but according to their own corruptible

will and pleasure. Ah, that will be an awful time indeed, come when it may; and it appears to be fast approaching, for all the monarchs of the earth appear to be tottering upon their thrones-all seem to have a fearful foreboding of some dreadful convulsion close at hand. Spain, Portugal, France, Turkey, and Egypt, are wasting away, in consequence of internal fires burning within them, and preying upon their very vitals and so are expiring by political suicide. Papal Rome appears to be making her last struggle, previous to her final overthrow. Our own beloved nation is convulsed from one end to the other, as the fruits of her unholy alliance with the papistical power; for, ever since the passing of the Catholic emancipation bill, have we been more distracted than ever we were before, since the Reformation; so that to be allied to that abominable church, is to be cursed; and, in consequence thereof, are we as a nation partaking of her plagues, and all which God has suffered to come upon us for our national wickedness; as there never was a time in England, in which the poor were so grievously oppressed as the present, when poverty is considered and punished as a crime; when the cries of the hireling, who is robbed of his wages, and the honest, fair-dealing, toiling tradesman, who is robbed of his lawful and just profits, by the wealthy professing christians, are ascending up to the Lord of hosts; when poor-houses are become prisons; when instruments to degrade and insult the poor are affixed upon the church doors; when husbands are torn from their wives, and parents from their children-the very spirit of popery, only mani