like manner abandoned and debauched SERM. persons, on the other fide, seem indeed XIV. fometimes for a season, to have full Eafe and Satisfaction in their Folly : But This Eafe, never is the Acquiefcence of Reafon : It is the Stupidity only, of a Lethargy or Mortification: Not at all a Freedom from the Disease, but merely a Senfelessness of the present Destruction. Sooner or later, Reason will be heard ; and Truth will force itself upon them. For, what is the Hope of the Hypocrite, when God taketh away his Soul? Job xxvii. 8. I speak not here of the Punishments in a future State, but of the Just Apprehensions which attend Wickedness in the present. The Spirit of a man will fustain bis infirmity, but a wounded Spirit who can bear? Prov. xviii. 14. And Is. lvii. 20; The Wicked are like the troubled Sea, when it cannot reft, whose waters caft up mire and dirt : There is no Peace, faith my God, to the Wicked. ! [34] SERMON XV. 'The Character of oppressive Power [Preached on the 5th of November.] DAN. vii. 23. Which shall be diverse from all Kingdoms, Y Design in This Place, is notSERM. M to enter into a particular In- XV... terpretation of the Prophetick Language; much less to propose any uncertain Conjectures, concerning the Times and the Seasons which the Almighty has put in his own Power; but SER M. to confider only a general Character, which XV. runs through a long Series of Prophecy ch.vii.21. ver, 25. both in the Old Testament and in the New, of a certain great Power, formidable and lasting, of large Extent and of long Duration, and in its Nature and Kind, different from all Other Powers and Kingdoms in the World. The Character is such, as shows plainly one principal End and Design of the Prophecy to be This; to give men repeated Warnings to take great Heed, that they neither fall (if poffible) under the tyrannical Oppreffion of this dreadful Power, nor Themselves have any Share in exercising it over Others. THE Character or Description given by the Prophet, of this fingular and extraordinary Power, is in the following words. He shall make War with the Saints, and prevail against them: And ke Shall Speak great Words against the most High, and shall wear out the Saints of the most High, and think to change Times and ver.26 27 Laws; And they shall be given into bis ch. xi 36, hand for a long Seafon, even till the &c. Judgment shall fit. He shall exalt kim Self, Gods: XV. felf, and magnify himself above every God, SERM. and shall speak marvellous things against the God of Neither fhall be regard the God of his Fathers, for he shall magnify himself above All; and Shall divide the Land for Gain. FROM this defcription given by the Prophet Daniel, is plainly taken the character St Paul sets forth, of a Man of Sin 2 Thes. ii. to be revealed, the Son of Perdition: Who 3, &c. opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped: So that He, as God, fitteth in the Temple of God, shewing himself that he is God: Whose Coming is after the working of Satan, with all Power, and Signs, and Lying Wonders, and with all Deceivableness of Unrighteousness: Teaching men to give 1 Tim. iv. beed to feducing Spirits, and doctrines of 1,3. νίων, Souls * Devils:-Forbidding to marry, and Δαιμο commanding to abstain from Meats, which departed, God bath created to be received with Sainte. Thanksgiving, of them which believe, and know the Truth. THE same character is likewise evidently intended by St John, when he prophecies of a wild Beast, or Tyrannical Power, Z4 |