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rity in the Earth, may more or less spread and dilate this Fire of Contention; which when it comes to its heighth, produces always bloody Wars and Defolations. Under this Signature or Form, Babylon seem'd to ftand among the Ancient Prophets, as Jer. 49. may be feen at large*; as did alfo, in a 50. lefs degree, Affyria and the Philistines, Egypt Ifa. 13.14 and Syria. Thefe, like fo many Fires breaking out in different Quarters of a City, did ever now and then fet the World in a Blaze, and put all the neighbouring Nations into Confufion; whofe End was this, that when they had fufficiently executed the wife Counfels of God (who often turns the Fiercenefs of Men to his own Praise and Glory) they quickly fell by the fame Fate; fo faith the Lord to the King of AfSyria by the Prophet, Ifaiah 10. 12. When the Lord fhall have performed his whole Work upon Mount-Zion and Ferusalem, I will punish the Fruit of the frout Heart of the King of AfSyria, and the Glory of his high Looks. And fo in this Senfe alfo, they that drew the Sword perifhed by the Sword, even as the Prophet Habakkuk affures us in the aforecited Chapter, v.7.8. That there fhall arife up fuddenly thofe that shall bite them, and awake that shall vex them, and they shall be for Booties unto them; and because they have spoiled many Nations, all the Remnant of the People Shall Spoil them.

2. That

S2. THAT this Judgment of the Sword this Fudgfhall be more General and Univerfal in the ment shall latter Days, is plainly foretold by the AnSurely come cient Prophets, as alfo by our Lord and

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his Apoftles; by our Lord particularly in the above-mention'd place of St. Matthew and St. Luke; and by the Holy Apoftles, when they Prophecy of the perillous Times that fhall come in the latter Days; where they tell us, that Men fhall abound in all thofe evil Qualities, which, as we before obferv'd, are the Seeds and Fuel of all the Strife, War, and Bloodfhed, that so often difturb the Peace of Mankind, and put the World in Confufion. Thus St. Paul to Tim. 2 Ep. 3. 3, 4. tells us, that in the laft Days, Men fhall be lovers of themselves, covetous, proud, disobedient, truce-breakers, falfe accufers; or (as the Margin reads it) makebates, fierce, traiterous, headstrong, and highminded. Such are the Scoffers walking after their own Lufts, whom St. Peter, 2 Ep. 3. prophecies of; and the Mockers, Murmurers and Complainers, of St. Jude 16. 18. By which I understand, that thefe Vices were to be more common and prevailing in the Times here prophecy'd of, than ufual; otherwife it were no great wonder if it were only meant that there fhould be fome fuch Perfons in the World; for that hath been in every Age and Period of it. And whenfoever Mankind fhall be thus corrupted; when Men fhall be difcontented with their Conditions, and covet what does not belong to them; when Men fhall defpife and difobey their Superiours, violate their Oaths and Promifes, delight in railing Accufations, and flanderous Stories, be rebellious, ftubborn, and headftrong, what can be the Confequence, but War, Contention, Vio

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lence, and Defolation? The Circumstances of which muft differ, according to the Quality and Authority of the first Movers, and the Grounds and Principles upon which they act. Thus fome Quarrels fhall be only Domestick or Oeconomical, confin'd to one or more Families, dividing the Members or Relatives of the fame House; as when the Father is divided against the Son, and the Son against the Father; the Mother against the Daughter, and the Daughter against the Mother; the Mother-in-law against the Daughter-inlaw, and the Daughter-in-law against the Mother-in-law, Matth. 10. 34. Luke 12. 51, Others fhall be Political, betwixt Members of the fame Society or Body Politick, or betwixt the Members and the Head: Such are the bold Infults of Traytors and Rebels, The Laft is National, when Kingdom fhall rife up against Kingdom, and Nation against Nation, which in this place we particularly regard.

3. That it 3. THAT this latter Kind fhall be Unihall be U-verfal in the latter Days, is, I think, abunBiverfal. dantly foretold by the Prophets, who do in many places tell us of Univerfal Defolations by the Sword, which fhall come upon all the Earth; which, tho' fome Interpreters do understand only of the Land of Judea, and fo confine it to that Destruction which was brought upon the Land by the Chaldeans, Babylon, or the Romans, rendring h the Words *not all the Earth, but all the 38 Land, or the whole Land: Yet I believe it is poffible to produce fome Prophecies, that are utterly uncapable of fuch a Limi

tation,

tation, and muft by confequence be taken in a greater Latitude; in many of which, I doubt not, but the Holy Prophets did principally and chiefly intend a general and univerfal War in the laft Days, which fhould engage all Nations, and of which all the leffer Defolations brought upon any People, but especially Judea, by the Sword of an Enemy, were Types and Prefigurations. The firft of this Kind that I fhall mention, shall be the 25th Chap. of Jeremiah, v. 15. where God commands the Prophet to take the Wine-cup of his Fury, and cause all the Nations (whom he afterwards enumerates) to drink of it. And he is commanded to begin at Jerufalem and the Cities of Judah, to make them a Defolation, an Aftonishment, an Hiffing and a Curfe, v. 18. Thence he is order'd to proceed to Ægypt, v. 19. To all the mingled People (that is the Arabians) to all * the Kings of the Land of Uz, (probably con- any jectur'd to be that Tract of Land that lay mifcuit. South of Damafcus, comprehending Palestine, the lower Parts of Calefyria, and the adjoyning Borders of Arabia Petræa, and Deferta) and all the Kings of the Philistines, (suppos'd to inhabit the Western Parts of the Land of Canaan, bordering upon the Mediterranean) v. 20. Then to Edom, Moab, and Ammon, (lying Eaft of Judea) v. 21. The + so the Kings of Tyre and Zidon, (lying North, or Words rather North-West of Jerufalem) and the 197 Kings of the Ifles that are beyond (or befides) the Sea; that is, the Great Sea or Mediter- egy ba ranean. If it be the former, it must be dwns in understood of the Western or European

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Continent and Iflands; if the latter, it may not improbably be meant of the leffer Afia or Agean Ifles, which may be properly faid to lye befide, or on one fide of the Sea, v. 22. Thence to Dedan, Tema, and Buz, and all that are in the utmoft Corners; or as the Words may be rendred, and as the LXX understood it †, that have the Cortay m-ners of their Head polled or fhaven; who Innapi are fuppofed to be the Arabians, i. e. The VOX Ishmaelites, Madianites, and Amalekites, who αυτό. inhabited great part of Arabia, efpecially Deferta and Petraea. Which is expreffed again in the next Verfe, by all the Kings of Arabia, and all the Kings of the mingled People that dwell in the Defert, V. 23, 24. Then all the Kings of Zimri, or the Zamareni, a bafe ignoble People mention'd by Pliny; and which may be mention'd to fhow us, that there is no Nation or People, however little, mean, or contemptible, but fhall be of fome Account at that time, and fhall accordingly bear their Part in that laft dreadful Scene. Then the Kings of Elam, i. e. Perfia, and the Kings of the Medes, v. 25. Thus far all feems pretty agreeable to the fore-mention'd Hypothefis, That this Judgment doth only intend the Destruction brought upon these Countries by the King of Babylon, who conquer'd all or most of them. But let us look farther to the two next Verses, which are thefe; And all the Kings of the North far and near, and all the Kingdoms of the World, which are upon the Face of the Earth; and the King of Shefhach fhall drink after them. Therefore thou shalt Say unto

them. 2

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