generation, should encourage you to ask, and to expect him as the latter rain, to the end of life: who, as certainly as he hath laid the first, will bring forth the top-stone with shouting, not the Arminian shout of free will, but that of free grace unto it. To war, as well as to worship, in the Spirit, is what all the followers of the Lamb are called to: Satan is sure of victory whenever you go forth against him in your own spirits; look unto Christ, your Head, for a fresh anointing, is of the utmost consequence, when we are called forth to battle.

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6. I may add, this is suffered, to baffle and confound the enemy, who have missed the mark, as oft as they have bent their bow, and shot their arrows. Thus they missed it, in putting Pharaoh upon destroying the males in Israel as soon as born; for then was Moses, Israel's deliverer, born, who had not been taken up by Pharaoh's daughter, and educated in all the learning of the Egyptians, had not his parents been forced to expose him. Never was Satan more desirous to accomplish any thing than the death of Christ; who, by dying, destroyed him that hath the power of death, who is the devil: where the enemy hoped to have triumphed over him, he spoiled them; whose cross prov ed their overthrow, and his resurrection their entire defeat. Thus in the pit which they dug for Christ, were their own feet taken.

III. I shall now give you some memorable instances of the enemy's coming in like a flood; and let you see how victoriously the Spirit of the Lord hath, all along, lifted up a standard against him.

1. How like a flood did the gates of hell come in upon all mankind, when the old serpent had artfully drawn our first parents into sin? Then, if ever, was there joy in hell; but hell's joy was but like a flash of lightning; for in the evening of that dark and gloomy day, did the glorious light of the Gospel first break forth. That the old serpent was by, when the threatening was pronounced, is very manifest, he being the first

that was sentenced: to whom the first promise, if it was understood by him, must have been like a clap of thunder, before which he fell; who, as he had gained his point, so he was to receive his death's wound, by the instrumentality of a woman; for it was her seed, and not the man's, that was to bruise his head. The standard of the first promise virtually contained in it all after-promises; for the incarnation, death, and resurrection of Christ, are all three plainly hinted at, and foretold thereby: his incarnation, in his being called the seed of the woman, who was to be born of a virgin; his death and sufferings, by which his heel is most aptly and elegantly said to be bruised; his resurrection and victory, by which he effectually bruised the serpent's head.

2. How like a flood did the enemy come in, first in oppressing, and then in pursuing Israel! That Israel's name might be extinguished, Israel's males were ordered to be drowned, as soon as born; and though God had, by a high hand of power, delivered his people out of Egypt, Pharaoh resolved to pursue, with a prospect of overtaking and dividing the spoil: but how awful, as well as remarkable, was the standard which the Spirit of the Lord lifted up against Pharaoh, and his host, by drowning them in the Red Sea, who were first infatuated, and so destroyed!

3. How like a flood did the Assyrians come in against Judah! Their defenced cities were taken, and Jerusalem besieged by an army of a hundred and fourscore and five thousand men, all full of rage and rancour against Israel, if any judgment may be formed of them by Rabshakeh's railing letter. But good Hezekiah, instead of returning railing for railing, gave himself to prayer, in answer to which, the Spirit of the Lord lifted such a standard, as effectually brought about Israel's deliverance; for the angel of the Lord went forth, and smote, in one night, a hundred and fourscore and five thousand of the Assyrians.

4. How like a flood did the enemy come in, in the reign of king Ahasuerus, when wicked Haman resolved,

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by way of revenge, on the destruction of all the Jews! Not only they in Shushan were to be killed, both young and old, little children and women, in one day; but they from India to Ethiopia, even all that were to be found residing in any part of the king's dominions, who reigned over a hundred and seven and twenty provinces. But how remarkable was the standard which the Spirit lifted up against him! Wicked Haman was hanged on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai; and the Jews every where were victorious over their blood-thirsty enemies, of whom they slew seventy-five thousand.

5. How like a flood did the enemy come in, in that hour of darkness, of which Christ speaks, Luke xxii. 53. "But this is your hour, and the power of darkness !” In it the enemy got Christ betrayed, denied, and crucified; and to make all sure, requested Pilate that the grave might be secured; accordingly they sealed the stone, and set a watch. But how glorious was the standard which the Spirit lifted up in the early resurrection of Christ! Mat. xxviii. 2, 3, 4. “Behold, there was a great earthquake; for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it; his countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow; and for fear of him the keepers did shake and became as dead men."

6. In the ten bloody persecutions raised by Rome Pagan, Satan came in like a flood, hoping to crush the church in its infancy; but such and so glorious was the standard which the Spirit, in those early days, lifted up against him, that the blood of the martyrs became the seed of the church. As in Egypt, the more the Israelites were oppressed, the more they multiplied; so the primitive Christians propagated the Gospel, by their sufferings for it: The patience they acted, and their praying for their persecutors, overcame many of them; and the sealing of their testimony with their blood, made their testimony but the more regarded.

7. How like a flood did the enemy come in, in the

rise and progress of Antichrist, who is drawn and described to the life in the prophecies of the New Testament! Hardly a circumstance of any consequence is there omitted, from the word MYSTERY, writ on his forehead, to his making merchandise of the souls of men. But how glorious and successful was the standard which the Spirit lifted up in the Reformation ! Though the man of sin was then in his height of power, saying, in his heart, he should never be moved; the first Reformers were in Christ's hand an over-match for him, by whose ministry he received such a wound, as will never be healed.

8. To conclude this head. A little before Satan's binding, and immediately after his being loosed, he is to come in like a flood. A little before his binding, he is to come in like a flood in latter-day darkness; of which you have a very humbling account: 2 Tim. ii. 1, &c. "This know, that in the last days perilous times shall come; for men shall be lovers of their ownselves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce-breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God, having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof;" and likewise in getting the witnesses slain, who are the saints and faithful in Christ Jesus; such as bear their testimony against error, to the truth, as it is in Jesus, who are to prophesy in sackcloth, during the long reign of Antichrist; towards the close of which, the beast out of the bottomless pit is to make war with them, and to overcome and kill them; and the dead bodies are to lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified: which great street seems to me to be Europe, which is the most trading, populpous, and improved part of the first Adam's world, which is the great city that is deservedly called Sodom and Egypt, into which Christ was born, and in which he was crucified. But how glorious is the standard

which the Spirit, in those last days, will raise up against the enemy Of which you read, Rev. xi. 11, 13, After three days and a half, the Spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet, and great fear fell upon them that saw them. And the same hour there was a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell. Rome's downfall seems to be the immediate consequence of their resurrection; which is followed by latter-day glory, chap. xi. 15. And the seventh angel sounded, and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ.

After Satan is loosed, he will be suffered to come in like a flood; which will be his last effort, and, of consequence, his boldest and fiercest onset; of which you read, chap. xx. 7, &c. "When the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations, which are in the four quarters of the earth, (here America, which is the fourth quarter of the earth, is plainly pointed at,) Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle; the number of whom is as the sand of the sea: and they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city; and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them." By which fire, it is highly probable, the first Adam's world will be burnt up; which the apostle Peter speaks, 1 Pet. iii. 7; for, in the close of this chapter, you have an account of judgment, and of the perdition of ungodly men; and at the beginning of the following chapter, of a new heaven and of a new earth.

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IV. I shall next observe what the standard is, which we, who preach the Gospel, should now be lifting up.

1. Negatively. Not the standard of a Plato, nor of a Seneca, which is that of carnal reason, supported by philosophy, and varnished over with a shew of morality; which can no more supply the place of the Gospel, than the dim light and shine of the moon and stars can sup