that may bow the vastest desires and fill and satisfy the most enlarged hearts and expectations surely if there be so much beauty in this first creation in this natural image which is but the first draught but the rude lineaments as I may say of that glorious image of God then what must there be in the very life-image it self if the shadow be so beautiful on what is the person As it is said he that made the eye shall be not see so I may say in this case he that hath by a shadowy relation that he hath given the creature put so much beauty upon it as in the first creation before it was marred by sin which had a great deal of beauty in it hath he not a choicer beauty hath he parted with any thing from himself and hath he not retayned better things with himself But I shall not go on to expatiate upon this for it would quickly engulph us and take up all our time but that which I would further say is this and it will arise out of the arguments of the text which will shew us the greatnesse of this glory we wait for the glory of this image which we shall be conformed unto there are several arguments in the text and in the context v. 1. Behold what manner of love c. And it doth not yet appear c. The first argument is the present non-appearance of this-life of this glory some philosophy makes privation a principle and so here in the text This non-appearance which is in a sort a privation is a principle or a demonstration of the glory of our future hope and expectation It doth not yet appear now when the Apostle says it doth not et appear you must not take him as speaking of a saint when he is at the worst only when he is at and under in his spirit but you must take him as speaking to or taking in within the extent or compasse of his affirmation the best state that ever any saint did appear in that it was rather a non appearance then a proper appearance of this glory it doth not yet appear take it from Adam and all the first creation-glory take it from Abraham and all the new creation-glory that ever yet appeared it is a non-appearance it is a hyding rather then a displaying of this glory it doth not yet appear None of the saints in their attainments in their most lively and raised apprehentions or actings ever did or could give any tollerable account of this glory I shall make forth to you my meaning by a Scripture resemblance the present state of the saints is but as the state of most rich and beautiful flowers in the seed or of a most flourishing and fruitful tree in the kernel you know what the Apostle says in the 1 Cor. 15.36 and so on As much as this that the natural body take it in a saint himself that hath the highest communications of God it is but the seed of the spiritual body and of the true appearance into which he shall break forth and so our Saviour calls himself in that present state of his in the flesh in Job 12.24 a single seed In all his ministries and miracles he calls himself but a single seed now what may we learn from this why that the present state of a Christian bears no greater proportion to the future it bears no greater similitude and resemblance of the future then a seed or a single grain or kernel doth of the flower the plant the tree the fruit There are three things in a seed which do forbid it to glory first it is a narrow contracted thing it is a dark thing and confused it is also a dead thing except it fall into the earth it abides alone I shall speak of these three a little that so we may from the disadvantages of the present state be a little enlightned into the glory of our future and enlarged hope 1. A seed is a contracted thing what is a kernel to a tree a poor little narrow thing you know what our Saviour says of the mustard seed that it is the least of all seeds but the true body of that seed when it is grown up the birds may rest in the branches of it so are we in the present state narrow and contracted Oh! we have neither room for God nor room for one another in our hearts we are such pittiful poor narrow contracted things as single seeds abiding alone I have lately been thinking touching the resurrection how we in the present state do espouse mark ye but a few dusts of the earth as our peculiar bodies and we are seperated and divided from all others as well as from the globe the Masse and body of the earth and this body we not only live in but live to it all our care and concerns is for it and let all the earth be miserable if we can be happy This is the pittiful narrownesse and contractednesse of man in the present state and although the seed of God which is cast into us is as the Lord says of his people a noble vine a noble seed and is witnessing and testifying in us of a greater largeness and breathing after it yet we cannot break from our prison but here we are confyned and shut up in the narrow bounds of self yea shut up against God and we would be content to be a vail upon God though he did loose his glory thereby Oh! there is this pitiful narrowness in this present state but when the body is sown in the earth then it mingles and incorporates with it's mother earth into the dust of the whole creation then it marries them all so will it be in our risen state oh then there will no more be a particular concern a particular life a particular glory but we shall have the body in communion be in fellowship with all our fellow-members we shall stand in one body in one joy with our head and all our fellow members as you see in a seed of corn when it hath dyed in the earth it comes up in an ear of corn wherein there are many seeds 20.30 a hundred fold living in fellowship together Secondly a seed is a dark thing dark and confused there is in a seed radically vertually the tree the plant the flower in that poor little seed but if you will go to finde out the arms of this tree it is not the most skilful Anatomist that can finde them out but there they lye wrapt up together in a dark state not explicate not brought forth so is it in the present state of the saints There is heaven yea what do we say heaven there is God and Christ and the spirit yea there are all the Angels of God there is all the train all the Retinue all the gory of heaven in every saint so as that they do dwell mutually in one another and every spirit is a house and habitation for all
of the Angels when Christ comes from heaven the spirit is that power by which it is done and that being with us what advantage might we make to this day of God through the affistance of the spirit It is possible for men to have the name of the new Jerusalem written upon them before the new Jerusalem comes down from God out of heaven else what means that promise Rev. 3.12 Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the house of my God and the name of the Citty of my God even of the new Jerusalem c. The overcomer is the person to whom this promise is made we must fight the good fight of saith we must be over coming all our spiritual enemies and this is the work of this present day let the Dutch and others grapple with their enemies we have other enemies to deal with though we desire that God would fight the battels of his people every where and give them the advantage in every battle ye I say we have other enemies that we are engaged with I tell you this overcoming is only by the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ he is the overcomer that hath suffered in the flesh To this overcomer is the promise made of writing on him the name of the citty of God what is the meaning of that why he shall walk in the name in the power in the spirit of that new state An APPENDIX to the Former Discourse Of the 5th Trumpet with a general view of the four precedent trumpets THat the 5th trumpet is not to be ranged so high into the ages past as most interpreters do applying it to the incursions of the Saracens soon after the 600 year of Christ and allowing the space of 700 years well night between that and the 6th trumpet which they place upon the beginning of the 13th century There are many reasons to disswade as First from the general doctrine of the trumpets it is agreed by all that the man of sin or Antichrist hath as well his growing as his judgement and fall under the trumpets it must also be affented to that his sin must be full before his fall and judgment comes accordingly the four first trumpets are the time of his fin and corruption rising to the height and breaking forth and though those trumpets are applyed by most expositors to the judgment of the beast gradually destroying him and may with some fitness of allusion find ground and matter for such application for God though he gave up the Antichristian world to that Apostacy did not forbear to witness all along against gainst their growing corruptions in such manner as may answer the language and expressions of the 4 first trumpets yet I humbly conceive they properly set forth to us the gradual growth of corruption and degeneracy in that sinagogue of Satan and the occasion and means thereof which was 4 fold 1. The waxing cold of their love and the breaking forth of contentions about outward things exprest by the haile and fire mingled with blood and cast on the earth the generality of professors under the first trumpet The 2d degree ambition and burning desire of rule and supremacy in the clergy as they will be called exprest by the burning mountain cast into the sea under the 2d trumpet The 3d corruption in their administrations by a malignant star falling on the Rivers and fountains under the 3d trumpet 4ly A corruption of their light exprest by singling the 3d part of the sun the moon the stars under the 4th trumpet and here by this time things are come to that pass that the Lord sees it time to give a stop and to take in hand to judge this abominable state and therefore sin being finished so far as was ordained to be before for the rest of their sin breaks forth under their judgment and it is not the least of their sin there is an Angel sent to fly through the midst of heaven to denounce wo wo wo to the inhabitants of the earth i.e. to the worshipers of the beast by reason of the other voices of the trumpets of the 3 Angels that are yet to sound now these three last trumpets being of a classis ranged thus together distinguished from the 4. preceeding it is a strong presumption that they are of a different nature and import and that as the former trumpets discover the growth of Antichrists sin so these acquaint us with the steps of his judgment under the 4 first he was climbing up higher and higher in his state and in his sin under the 3 last he is declining still more and more and sinking into the wrath of God under judgment till at last he is cast into the lake both head and tail this is my first Reason My 2d is from the non-quadrature of the application of the 5th trumpet to the Saracens in respect of time the Saracens I grant were a sore judgment and infested the Roman world exceedingly by courses and by times from the year 60 till the time of the Turks prevailing which was for many hundreds of years and were that hand and judgment whereby God testifyed against those growing corruptions of Rome all along while they were springing up but these Locusts under the 5th trumpet are bounded and limited within their 5 months which take a day for a year make but 150 years how this time can give an account of the incursions of the Saracens by the space of 6 or 700 years I cannot see nor am I satisfied with Mr. Medes falve for it having I think good reason to dissent from him and to understand these Locusts under the 5th trumpet of the 1st times of the Turks from the beginning of the 13th century while by the space of 150 years they were very noisome and offensive tormenting the men that had not the seal of God in their foreheads but not killing them as after that time they did for about the year 1450. or 53. as Mr. Mede hath noted out of History was Constantinople taken by the Turks which was a killing or an extinguishing of the Roman name in the East where you have the 5 months exactly from the 1st uniting of the 4 families of the Turks under the Ottoman family My third ground is from the mother text as I may call it from whence this allusion of the Locusts is taken which is from the prophecy of Joel as Mr. Mede hath observed to my hand which prophecy throughout is a celebrating of the day of the Lord or the day of his judgment in a prophetical strayn as is in so many words expresly owned more then once or twice in that prophecy chap. 1.15 chap. 21.11.31 and chap. 3.12 And in this day of the Lord judgment begins at the house of God and that takes up the one half of the prophecy unto the 18th verse of the 2d chapter and from thence to the end is the judgment of the enemy and God brings this judgment
acknowledge it those that are offended with their brethren because they cannot build them up nor say a confederacy with them if they were humble Christians they would consider and enquire and say is there not a cause Is there not a cause why some walk at a distance why they dare not touch with us Why truely if you ask what cause I will tell you what cause you say why will ye not come among into the Sion of God I tell you that is enough to turn ones stomack you make as if you were come to your rest you are haughty because of Gods holy mountain Zeph. 3.11 thou shalt no more be haughty this intimates they were haughty before and I tell you that is cause enough to set Christ and his spirit at a distance from men when they are haughty haughty because of the Lords holy mountain and alas what is the Lords mountain if the Lord be not in the holy mountain T is true Christ calls Jerusalem to the last the holy city when it was a most abominable place and the temple his house but Christ calls it in another place your house it was my house indeed but now it is your house you have made it your own you have fill'd it with your own spirit and therefore it is your own now I shall come off from this theam and I shall conclude with a little further evidence that this is an extraordinary day that we are in they are the days of the son of man wherein the son of man must have his time things must be managed to his interest and according to his will the man of sin hath had his day and his time Now because I would relish your mouth with this at the close I will give you my evidence to this that the man of sin hath had his time he hath had his day then what should hinder but that the son of man should have his day now that the man of sin hath had his day I tell you either he must have more time then God hath allotted him or else his time is out for the Lord hath allotted him but 42 months All the business is where to begin these months now I say either we must begin them at the going off of the old dragon which was the enemy that did infest the Church before the rising of the beast or else we must leave so much time from the expyring of th Dragon to the rising of the beast without any assignation of it whereby so much time must run out in waft and for nothing Now that were to reflect on Christ and upon the spirit either that the Lord should loose so much time and let it run out in waft or that he should not give us an account of that time when he undertook that work not to acquaint us with all the times of the Church and all the occurrences thereof it were to impute insincerity to Christ which were blasphemy to think Whereas he tells his people the man of sin hath but 42. months and then shall he down mean time I will come in with faith and patience to you that so you shall weather the point some would not begin the 42. months till Boniface the 8th when Phocus murdered his master and was set up in his room but by that account there should be 200. years that would have no name whereas it is clear that the beast was in being and in working 200. years before and did give manifest proofs of his being up that he might be known what creature he was And therefore I know not what authority any have to contradict when the spirit says it is but 42. months for them to say they are not to begin till the Beast was in his full height when the spirit hath not said so Therefore I say the time of the Beast is expired and all that we find of the beast now which is exceeding much of his rage they are but the effects of his wounds he is dying and would save himself but i say this day is Christs day Michaels day and the Lord is going on conquering and to conquer And therefore it concerns the Saints to reflect upon these things for the upholding of them that so they may not faint look for breakings and desolations more and more but let your eyes be upon the designe that the Lord hath in all these come and behold the desolations that he hath made in the earth it is all upon the account of his own interest and his dear spouse and therefore let us open our hearts to these days of the son of man And say to the Lord whatever t s not consistant with thy interest O take it from the midst of my bowels be can did be sincere have no interest in your eye but Christs he must have his will now oh comply with him and it will be your own case say as Mephibosheth said let him take all for as much as my Lord the king is come again in peace unto his own house Sam. 19.20 Oh that the Lord would bow the hearts of the Churches of officers and members that they might carry on no interest but Christs I would you were all in fellowship but I would have it in the spirit do not shut out the spirit nor draw a veil nor a curtain before the spiritual glory of Christ These days of the son of man as they import great things to the publike so they import spiritual advantage to every particular saint for in these days a fuller discovery of Christ is to be expected and some have experienced it Christ hath been manifested much in my time comparing the discoveries of Christ with former times with an age before what a difference you will find and yet they were holy persons and accepted then but what high discoveries are there now this place was attended with one that had not only the tongue of an Angel but his discoveries was as sublime as his language his spirit was in the carrying up of Christs interest that was the eye of his ministry I would not glory in men but it is meet to be acknowledged unto God that it hath been an age of light and reckon upon it that whatsoever stands in the way of the interest of the Lord Jesus of his spiritual and powerful discoveries and manifestations it will down let it be Church or ordinances or what it will down it must go therefore let us take heed of setting our shoulders to uphold the interest of any thing that is obnoxious to that of our Lord Jesus The Fourth Sermon Luke 17.26 And as it was in the days of Noah so shall it be also in the days of the son of man I Am very sensible that I have not finished my former text there is a great deal yet to be spoken to upon it and therefore I must make a little apology for changing my text at this time But though I change my text and remove a little
ascention there was 40. days wherein he was as I may say preparing himself for his ascention to heaven I might give you twenty Parallels of it but now I come to the application of these things to these days and as for the standing up of Michael that is the first thing I would assume that Michael is raised up Michael hath stood up for several years if others in other parts of the world do question this yet we in those parts have no reason to doubt of it it is much if we are not convinced of it of the Lord Jesus his standing up and addressing himself to promote and serve in his own and his Churches interest above all interest and all kingdoms of the world that interest of the kingdom of God that hath lain hid in the faith of the Saints and in the promises unto this time if you say what evidence can be made of this it is a question not becoming those that have seen the great works of God as we have done have we not seen Michael standing up have we not seen him rousing himself have we not seen three nations bowing in his name have we not seen an heaven and an earth passing away have we not seen a dissolution of the Church and state have we seen all this and do we question whether Christ hath set a foot his title or no you know that kings when they are proclaim'd in this land they begin in the Palace yard they are not all over proclaimed in one moment So I say the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ is to be a rising and a growing kingdom of the increase of his government and of peace there shall be no end and why may we not say that this Island or these three nations may resemble the palace yard where Christ is first proclaimed he hath been brought to the Ancient of days by clouds of witnesses who have pleaded his interest with God you know it hath been the subject of the saints prayers these 30. years yea nothing hath relished upon the spirits of the saints that hath not related this way if Christs kingdom hath not been at one end of it it hath been no prayer no sermon if it have not had that at one end of it yea hath not the Lord Jesus exercised his kingly power hath he not made many overturnings hath he not dealt with many Adonijahs how many would have set themselves up in his room This is the account of all these quick revolutions these overturnings this is exceeding declarative of his being near whose right it is I shall therefore conclude with a word of use or application and it is this Let us lift up our heads for the day of our redemption draws nigh I have already formerly once and again told you that these 45 days from the end of the 1290. days spoken of in Dan. 12. are that generation as I conceive in which our Saviour says all things shall be fulfilled for so were the generations from David to Christ those 14 generations 43 years one with another So in those 45. days in Daniel wherein Michael shall stand up Daniel is told that all should be fulfilled in that time and I say these times began in the year 1650. and we are now in the middle of them we are very forward and I do more suspect my self for the setting my post too far off from Christs appearing then of setting it too near I say I more suspect my self for that and the Lord knows i.e. if you subdivide this last watch or space of 45 years into lesser watches in which of the watches of this last watch he may come in the second or in the third watch but we are neer to it let us look up and lift up our heads You see what evidences have been given of these days Obj. But if Christs coming be so near would the times be so evil may some say I answer was not Sodom at the worst when Christ came with the other two Angels to destroy them and so the old world Yea but you will say the people of God would be better then they are if Christs coming were so near Answ They shall be made better by his coming the summer spoken of is the very appearing of Christ you know that when the trees puts forth summer is night but it is the appearing of Christ is the summer would you have fruit before summer your fruits are growing in the winter and in the spring they are coming forwards but you have not your fruit till the summer Christ is preparing his people by the present dispensations and they shall shine but all that Christ doth now is emptying work cleansing work as when a man pulls down his old house in order to building it anew Christ is removing house and he is taking away joy from the earth the old joy trade is going the joy of the earth and the very husbandman may loose the fruits of the earth this year And if you look within O what desolations are there alas though the Lord give us our wits and our sences yet we hear of one in one place under a spirit of dispondency Gods fire is in Sion in this day and his furnace in Jerusalem and there is none of us but have our back burdens if it be but being companions of suffering ones it cannot but go to our hearts this is the sowing time yea but you will say possibly Obj. There is a promise of the spirits pouring forth and therefore these cannot be the days of the son of man I answer the spirit is not the first grace the leading grace as in those promises made to Israel in the letter of bringing them back to their own land Ezek. 36.24.32 They must be in their own land and setled there before the spirit is poured forth lest they should reflect too much upon their own qualifications least thy may be ready to say it is for our reformation that God hath visited us Therefore will the Lord at he t last as at the first take his people in their blood and in their unworthiness Obj. But you may say we see nothing of the Jews being called and Antichrist destroyed Answ Antichrist hath but a mystical destruction till Christ comes and there will be a Pope for ought I know till Christ appears but his time is legally out and determined and when a time is out what is done afterwards is an usurpation and Antichrist shall pay dearly for all at the last But as for the Jews it is a material objection we cannot look for the appearance of Christ till they come in though on this occasion let us be aware that there is a mistical Jew that needs to be turned to the Lord as well as a litteral Jew but as to the litteral Jew though we see him not come in yet we know not how soon we may for it shall be very suddenly a nation shall be born at once mark the expression
though we do not see yet have we heard nothing of the ratling of these dry bones let others take it for what they please for my part I take it for a truth and the rather the more because it is the time for them to appear and though they may be hid in the deserts for some time it is not more then what their fathers were in their day who lay still by the space of 37 years in the wildernes of Cadesh and the people of the nations little concerned themselves with them nor they with them Besides what we heard in the year 1665. when there were reports of their stirring it is not impossible to shew you earlier stirrings as we have it recorded of the year 1650. that there was a very great meeting of them in the plains of Ageda where they set up tents and there was a confluence from all parts no lesse then 300 Rabbies that were able to shew their Genealogy and in a very large tent there was an orderly dispute where they did with great ingenuity and candor put the question whether the Messiah was come or not Then came in the Priests and Jesuites with their vicar and their breaden God and made them break up in disorder nay what if I should say unto you that Christ hath shew'd himself to that nation distinctly it is crebly related that he shewed himself in the year 53. in Frankenland upon the cross and that he was there so seen by thousands of spectators with his Angels about him as if that very word of Daniel were in fulfilling and that the Angels were presenting him to the Ancient of days representing that in a visionary way then which is the work of the day still in the hearts of the saints through the intercession of the spirit I speak it only for this my beloved friends for that I know I feel that we need the quickning of this consideration we are amused with the times that we are in and do not know what Israel is to do because we do not know nor discern the times look to it and take heed of security take heed of an unwatchful frame of spirit for these are the days of the son of man The Fifth Sermon Luke 12.35.36 And ye your selves like unto men that look for their Lord when he will return from the wedding THe influence of Christs coming deriving it self from the nearness of it things though great that are remote seem but small and work but little upon us things that are not to be in our day nor in the days of our children we are apt to put off therefore I made it my business in two or three discourses to shew you the nearness of this coming of Christ I shewed it you first by the expiration of the times of the man of sin and Secondly by the signes of Christs coming being fulfilled pitching chiefly upon those signes in Math. 24. And in two other of the Evangelists of the suns being darkned and the moon being turned into blood The third time I shewed you that these are the days of the son of man by several particulars and by something I had spoken devolving our discourse to that point I pitcht upon those words in the 17 of this Gospel Where our saviour speaks of the days of the son of man and paralels them with the days of Noah and Lot which I told you doth intimate to us that there is a tract of time from the expiration of the 42 months of the man of sin to the glorious revelation of the son of man in person from heaven and that this tract of time is called the days of the son of man wherein he is preparing to set forward unto this glorious expedition Now in these days of the son of man I did partly open to you what was to be done and shewed you some figurative delineation of this work by former types and especially in the investing of Solomon into the kingdom I shewed you that before Davids death Solomon was set upon the throne and in opening of those passages we sound them to cast a great light upon some prophetical passages that we meet with in Daniel As about the bringing of the son of man to the Ancient of days which I told you doth very aptly agree with that type of Solomon to David bringing him unto remembrance as I may say which was done by Bathsheba by the advice of Nathan the prophet she goes to David and puts him in minde of his oath and she is seconded by Nathan and thereupon David doth send to anoint Solomon and to set him upon the throne and all this was in Davids life time Now the observation I made from these things was this David you know was a figure of the militant state of Christs kingdom his setting Solomon upon his throne before his own death doth intimate to us that before the militant state is swallowed up as I may say of victory or of the triumphant state of the Church Christ is to be set upon the throne as the succeeding links in a chain do enter into the former links so doth Christs time take hold of the former times even as Jacob took hold of Esau his brother From thence I came in the winding up to shew you that Christ was entred upon his kingdome and that there were many acts passed in order to Christs glorious raign and that he had laid his claim in partionlar to these three nations and had been proclaimed here as in the palace yard as I might say of his dominions I gave you also many concurrent passages that have faln in to strengthen our faith and answered some objections touching the calling of the Jews which although we do not yet see called to the knowledge of Christ is not to trouble us forasmuch as their calling is not to be expected untill they be setled in their own land For so the promise seems to cast things in that order that God will as freely look upon them even in their blood as he did at the first when they were in Egypt that so it may not be said that their turning to God did lead the Lords turning to them Yet I told you that we have heard of the ratling of those dry bones which because the time is come should make us take heed of saying there is nothing in it though we are not acquainted with the posture of their affairs how they stand since that only I told you that we may have this reserve of hope that as when they came out of Egipt they lay 37 years in the wilderness of Cadesb and probably were as much out of the eye of the nations for a great part of that time as they are out of our eye now So I say God may be forming that people secretly in the dark and may be carrying on his intended goodnes towards them and we may see the sun of their redemption and restitution suddenly break forth of the clouds
a day wherein he will judge the world it is not now but it is appointed so the Apostle directs the hope of believers to another day and you will not say but that Christ was come to them in the spirit yet they waited for a further day the Apostle himself says he had not yet attayned nor was as yet perfect so that I say this doth strike at the order of Gods working and appearances and as the Apostle says concerning the resurrection those that say the resurrection is past destroy the faith of some It is a destroying of our faith and of our comfort to hold forth this to be the day of Christ to be the time of Christs appearance the all that we were to expect I confess it is not to be wondered at in the Prelatical Church that they would have us to expect nothing but tribulation in this world and persecution the Church of Christ say they must travel under the cross nntil the last judgment until they come to heaven though they minde not to do so themselves nay this they preach to others that they themselves may ride upon the high places of the earth they would keep the people still in ignorance and blindness of that day of Christ which when it comes will abase all the pride and loftynes of man as you have it in Esay 2. It will abase things that are high and exalt things that are low the vallyes shall be exalted and the mountains and hills shall be brought low But that any that are spiritual should go to destroy the faith of themselves and their brethren by taking the present dispensation for the full performance of the promise is that which may be justly wondered at and it is not certainly without a great designe of Satan thus to beguil them and through them to endeavour to beguil others of the comfort and the hope of Christs appearance and of the redemption of the body It is true there may be a revelation of the day of Christ in the spirit and this may be given forth at any time Abraham saw Christs day though he lived many ages before Christs time and so John was in the spirit on the Lords day but yet notwithstanding John tells us that this day of Christ was to come on orderly there is such a series of times and providences so many scenes that are to be presented before that concluding scene before Christs sitting on the white throne There were so many seals to be opened so many trumpets to be sounded it is true there was a glorious day in the primitive times but that was but the first fruits And it is called I conceive the first fruits because it was answering to the first fruits under the law for there were three seasts three times in the year all the males in Israel were to appear before the Lord there was the feast of the passover and the feast of the first fruits which was at Pentecost the very time when the spirit came down upon the Apostles as fulfilling that feast and there was the feast of ingathering or the feast of tabernacles and it was in the feast that you finde written in Joh. 7.37 In the last day that great day of the feast Jesus cryed and said c. This feast of tabernacles held several days there were 7 days that it was kept and so this feast that in the Antitype answers to the feast of tabernacles may take in all this generation that I speak of the 45 years of this last generation the days of the son of man But mark ye in the close of this time that is the great day then will Christ appear in his glorious equipage with all his holy Angels then will he come both in his own glory and in the glory of his father and of all his holy Angels and till Christ hath his full glory we cannot expect the full effusion of his spirit The spirit will not be poured upon all flesh the earth will not be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea till that great day of the feast till that last and great day of the feast So that I say take heed of taking part of payment for the whole t is true these are the days of the son of man and I do believe that from this time you shall see the interest of the son of man riseing and growing more and more all things shall work unto that glorious issue those that are wise shall see it every day to them day unto day will utter knowledge I say the interest of Christ is on the rising hand still and all opposite interests are in the way of declyning and therefore let us prepare for him we have seen something already of the day of the Lord upon things that have been high and lifted up let us look to see it yet more the Lord will abuse the loftyness of man both of one sort and of another I tell you there is a great deal of haughtiness which the Lord will abuse even in his own people and in their spiritual affairs it is said in Zeph. 3.11 In that day shalt thou not be ashamed for all thy doings whorein thou hast transgressed against me for then will I take out of the midst of thee them that rejoice in thy pride and thou shalt no more be haughty because of my holy mountain this Scripture doth hold forth unto you the process of the day of God or of these days of the son of man they are humbling days to all God by these dispensations which have passed over us hath been bringing his people to this passe he hath been working upon them that necessarie qualification of making them an afflicted and poor people I remember very well that the first time I spake here when your desires gave me a call to make a little supply of that place that was destitute by the removal of that eminent help that did appear usually in this place before I told you then that for my part I was one that was spoiled by this day of the Lord and I must own and confess unto you that there is nothing doth relish nor can relish with me of the old glory of the excellency of man though I know that all of us have a young tooth in our heads as the proverb is and we should willingly be something among men but the Lord hath mercifully shut the door against any such hope or expectation and therefore let it not enter into our hearts for God hath forbid the banes we must never touch with any such things more for God is stayning the pride of all glory though spiritual discoveries have all along unhorsed and I may say unmanned us I mean the Lords people yet 't is now the work of the day more eminentlie What was Paul in his time rude in speech I come not to you in excellency of speech or in mans wisdom he accounted all those things dung