feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death," 1 Cor. xv. 23-26.

Thus I have shewed you, that those nations that submitted to the Babylonian yoke stood, and so shall that nation that submits to Christ and his word. Those nations that refused Nebuchadnezzar's yoke were destroyed; and those nations that refuse the yoke of Christ shall be utterly wasted. Those of God's professing people who obeyed the Lord's voice, and fell away to the Chaldeans, lived, and returned again; and those who obey the Lord's voice now, and keep the word of his patience, and be subject to the higher powers, shall be kept from the hour of temptation. The disobedient and gainsaying Jews fell by the famine, pestilence, and sword. And the unruly now, who are disobedient to God, refuse to obey his word, and resist the powers, shall be taken in this hour of temptation, and shall receive to themselves damnation.

Moreover, I have shewed you, that, from the time that the Jews fell away to the Chaldeans unto the time of their return to their own land, was seventy years; and if the man of sin was revealed or manifested to the world, so as to be seen and known to be the son of perdition, in the year 606, as many affirm, it is plain, that as he is to continue but 1260 years, that from the time of the beginning of this hour of temptation to his destruction will be the same date; so that 67 or 68 years more will bring him to his own place:

his time now is within the age of man. But the difference between the eastern way of reckoning and ours, or the difference which the solar and lunar years may make, I must leave to the learned.

When the Jews went into captivity, all the threatenings of heaven against Babylon were sent to Babylon after them in a book, which was to be read in Babylon, and then it was to be bound up with a stone in it, and to be cast into the midst of Euphrates, and it was to be said, Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise from the evil that I will bring upon her, Jer. li. 63, 64. This is repeated against mystery Babylon. "And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all,” Rev. xviii. 21. There were some few even of the false prophets who imbibed Jeremiah's doctrine, and advanced it; but God's word in their mouth was neither a hammer nor a fire; and therefore these did not escape: "I am against the prophets saith the Lord, that steal my word every one from his neighbour." Hence the flying roll pursued these as well as the others; for the curse was not only to enter into the house of him that sweareth falsely, but into the house of the thief also.

The ministry of Jeremiah was to separate the obedient from the disobedient. "Therefore thus saith the Lord, If thou return, then I will bring

thee again, and thou shalt stand before me: and if thou take forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth: let them return unto thee, but return not thou unto them. And I will make thee unto this people a fenced brazen wall, and they shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee: for I am with thee to save thee, and to deliver thee, saith the Lord. And I will deliver thee out of the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem thee out of the hand of the terrible," Jer. xv. 19-21. The vile from the precious were to be known by their subjection or non-subjection to the higher powers. The highest ruling power then in the world was the king of Babylon, and God had made him so, though he was nothing but a poor pagan. Those that believed the word of the Lord, and fell to the Chaldeans, were the precious; and those who rejected the word of the Lord, and fought against the king of Babylon, were the vile. These, and all the heathen nations that disobeyed the Lord, were doomed to destruction. To destroy these rebels afterwards was the work of the Lord; and every one that held back his sword from them was to be cursed of God. "Cursed be he that doeth the work of the Lord deceitfully; and cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from blood," Jer. xlviii 10.

I have had some of the same fighting against me as Jeremiah had against him. There was a knot of young wise men among us, who were great readers and admirers of Tom Paine; and

w en they became strong in the bonds of iniquity, Satan found access to their hearts, and by him they conceived no small degree of envy; and their malice and prejudice began to rise so high against me, that some of them could hardly keep silence in the house of God. My discourse on the Books and the Parchments exasperated them to the highest pitch of desperation and madness; and when that son of Belial came among you from Plymouth Dock, they then thought to seek revenge, or to avenge themselves on me; the secret leaven of malice and wickedness that had long worked within them boiled up, and ran over, the cockatrice eggs were broken, and out came the vipers. "He whose hatred is covered with deceit, his wickedness shall be shewn before the whole congregation," Prov. xxvi. 26. God had shewn me this, nine months before it happened, in a dream, which I then told to Mr. Morgan and Mr. Winkworth. And at this time he gave me also another dream similar to the former, which shewed me what we were to do; God had then discovered the vile, and we were to separate them from the precious, while the Spirit of God in the souls of the righteous, separated them from their affections: and what the Lord of life and glory foretold may be visibly seen in many of them at this day; namely, that they who abide not in the vine are cast forth as a branch, and are withered, and men gather them, that is, wicked men gather them into their company, and they are burned. In less than six months

after the second arrival of the above-mentioned son of Belial, and after a second influence under his alluring through the lust of the flesh and much wantonness, not less than six persons were known to give themselves up to the sin of adultery and are now gone over to the awful tribunal of God: "The whoremonger and the adulterer God will judge."

I know, at this time, several individuals, who lay near my heart, and who have drank into this spirit of disaffection and rebellion, who are visibly smitten of God; the hand of God has gone out against two, in a way of providence, even till they wonder what can be the cause. I know the cause. Three more I know who are, or have been, under the arrests of divine justice in their consciences, and so smitten with the terrors of God, and at the same time cherishing rebellion and madness in their hearts, till their sleep has departed from them; and others have been smitten in other ways, and it must be so: for those who make to themselves crooked ways shall not know peace. Crooked ways are those ways that are contrary to God; and this is resisting his will, and resisting the ordinance of God, and cherishing a spirit of rebellion against the very powers which God hath set up, and which protect us in the worship of God; and such can expect to fare no better than those who conspired with Absalom against David.

I am not alone in my testimony; I have a true yokefellow, whose name stands at the front of this