and Plague, and Tribulation, and Anguish, are Sent as Scourges for amendment, but for all this they shall not turn from their Wickedness. One People shall stand up against another with Swords in their Hands: There shall be Sedition amongst Men, and invading one another; they shall not regard the Kings, nor their Princes, and the This is enciCourse of their Actions shall stand in their Pow-nently the a City, and Case now in

er.

A Man shall defire to go into Shall not be able; for because of their. Pride the Cities shall be troubled, the Houses shall be de-France & stroyed, and Men Shall be afraid: A Man Shall Handers. have no pity upon his Neighbour, but shall destroy

1798,

their Houses with the Sword, and spoil their 1789. winte Goods, because of the lack of Bread, and for much mal great Tribulation. The Cities shall be broken down, and the People shall perish with the Sword 10 in 1702 in the Field. They that be in the Mountains Shall die of Hunger, and eat their own Flesh, and drink their own Blood, for very hunger of -Bread, and thirst of Water. The Dead shall be cast out as Dung, and there shall be no Man to comfort them; for the Earth shall be wasted, and the Cities shall be cast down. There shall be no Man left to till the Earth and to fow it. The Trees shall give Fruit, and who shall gather them? The Grapes shall ripen, and who shall tread them? For all places shall be desolate of Men; So that one Man shall defire to see another, and to hear his Voice. For of a City there shall be ten left, and two of a Field, which shall bide themselves in the thick Groves, and in the Clefts of the Rocks. As in an Orchard of Olives, upon every Tree there are left three or four Olives, or as when a Vineyard is gathered, there are left fome Clusters of them that diligently feek through

the

A Remnant SaDed.

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the Vineyard; even so in those Days there shall be three or four left by them that search their Houses with the Sword. The Virgins shall mourn, having no Bridegroom; the Women shall mourn, having no Husbands; their Daughters shall mourn, having no Helpers. In the Wars shall their Bridegrooms be destroyed, and their Hufbands shall perish of Famine. Compare 2 Efdras 15, and 16. with Isaiah 17, 24, 33 Chapters.

§7. Bur in this great Destruction God will preserve a Remnant, even the sealed Number upon Mount Sion. These are they who by a Holy Severity have been continually dying to the animal sensitive Life; who, though willingly submitting to the Neceffities of Nature, yet made no Provision for the Flesh, to fulfil the Lufts of it; but their Meat and Drink was to do the Will of their Father which is in Heaven. They laboured not so much for the Meat that perisheth, as for that Bread which came down from Heaven; even that spiritual Meat and Drink which fustained the Fathers in the Wil derness, 1 Cor. 10. and which our Bleffed Lord gave his Disciples in the Institution of his laft Supper, which has in all Ages been the Spiritual Food of the inward new Man; and of which (we are told by Chrift himself, Joh. 6. 53.) that They which do not eat and drink, have no Life in them. They had throughly learned that Divine Lesson of St. Paul, Phil. 4. 11, 12. To be content in every State; They know both how to be abased and how to abound, to be full and to be hungry, to abound and to [uffer need. And accordingly,

ly, whensoever it pleased God to lay his afflicting Hand either upon their Perfons, Families, or Countries, by reducing them to the Neceffities of Want and Poverty, they still offered up their Souls to him in deep Refignation, being fatisfied that he that knew their Neceffities, would infallibly relieve them in his due time: Nay, fo firm was their Confidence, as that they hoped even against Hope, i. e, when there was no visible Means of Escape left; contentedly fubmitting all to the Will of God, whether he would please to be glorified by their Life, or their Death; making that indeed their only Aim and End, that God might be glorified, and his Will be done in Earth, as it is in Heaven. This Divine Temper was, as it were, the Soul of their Souls; which, like an Holy Ferment, imparted a Sacred Warmth and Vigour to all their Actions; flaming out, upon every Occafion, in Heroick Acts of Charity to all their Brethren: So that whensoever it pleased their Heavenly Father to bless them with plenty of this World's Goods, they took special Care not to abufet them to Luxury and Intemperance, but employ them to relieve the Neceffities of their Brethren. They liberally dealt their Bread to the Hungry, and fatisfied the Souls of the Afflicted: They brought the Strangers, and them that were cast out, into their Houfes; and whomsoever they saw naked, they covered with Garments, Ifa. 58. They never with-held the Poor from their de. fire, or caused the Eyes of the Widow to

fail; they never eat their Morfel by themfelves alone, without fuffering the Fatherleis to partake with them. They could never endure to fee any perish for want of Cloathing, or any Poor without Covering, but warmed them with the Fleece of their Sheep, Job 31. They were none of those who made any trifling Excuse serve to juftifie their love of Mammon, and who thought to relieve the Wants of the Needy with Compliments and fine Words; but as living Members of Chrift's myftical Body, they thought themselves obliged to mourn with every one that mourned, and to rejoyce with those that rejoiced, viz. with so strong a Sympathy, as to make the Sufferings of others their own, and to endeavour by comfortable Words, generous Alms, and affectionate Prayers to God, to procure them Relief and Comfort in their Afflictions. Such was the Charity of Job, David, Elijah, Tobit, Cornelius, and other great Saints and Servants of God. Such as these shall be delivered in fix Troubles, yea in seven there shall no Evil touch them; in the time of Famine God shall redeem them from Death, and in War from the Power of the Sword; at Deftruction and Famine they shall laugh, yea they shall lift up their Faces without spot. They shall be steadfast and shall not fear: For the Eyes of the Lord are upon them to deliver their Souls from Death, and to keep them alive in Famine: Though the greedy Lions should lack and suffer Hunger, yet fuch as these shall want no man

ner

ner of thing that is good. The Lord shall guide them continually, and shall fatisfie their Soul in Drought, or in the great Droughts )בְצַחְצָחות( fays the Hebrew; which may, I think, not unfairly be understood in the Sense before us; though I freely acknowledge, that the LXXII understood it of Spiritual Hunger and Thirft, rendring it καθάπερ ἐπιθυμεῖ ἡ ψυχὴ σε, Ifa. 58. 11. which may very well be reconciled, that being indeed the most deep and intimate Sense of the Place, of which the other is only a Type or Shadow. Compare it with Pfal. 42. 1.

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§8. As to the Manner how, or the The ManMeans whereby it will please Almighty ner how. God to interpose for their Preservation, the Scriptures are filent; saving that they shew us how God has dealt with many of his Servants in the Days of Old; how when the Famine has been fore in one Land, he has moved them to fly to another; and has commanded others to sustain them there. So by a strange Series of providential Occurrences, Jofeph was advanced from being a Prisoner to be Vice-Roy of Egypt, only for this Reason, as he himself tells his Brethren, (Gen. 45.5, 7, 8. and 50. 20.) that he might make a Provision for his Father and his Family, who were at that time the Peculium, the Heirs of the Promises, out of whose Loins all the Families of the Earth were to be Blessed. He being instructed by the Spirit of the Moft High God that was in him, to foretel to Pharoah what was coming upon his Coun

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