526 BARTER'S FAREWELL SERMON. for it is malignant, and our professed enemy. For we know that we are of God, and the whole world is inmalign positus, set on wickedness, (or, as some think, because á acovve6s is put for the devil in the foregoing verse, and the article here also used,) is, as It were, planted into the devil, or put under the devil, to war against Christ and the holy seed ; and indeed, Satan seemeth, in this war against the church, to have somewhat like success as he had against Christ himself: as Christ must be a man of sorrows and scorn, and be crucified as a blasphemer and a traitor, before he re- joice the hearts of his disciples by his resurrection, so the church was a persecuted, scorned handful of then, for the firs, three h17n- dred years, and then it rose by Christian emperors to some reputa- tion, till Satan, by another game, overcame them by Judashis suc- cessors ; that for, ' what will you give me' by pride and worldli- ness betrayed them into that deplorable state, in which they have continued these .900 years at least ; so that the Christian name is confined to-a sixth part of the world; and serious, sanctified be- lievers are persecuted more by the hypocrites that wear the livtry of Christ, than by heathens an infidels themselves. And when the church is so low, almost like Christ on the cross and the grave, will not a resurrection be a joyful change? When it crieth out on the cross, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ? " will not Christ, appearing for its deliverance, be a welcome sight ? It was when Adam had brought a curse on himself and his pos- terity, and all the earth, that redemption, by the holy seed, was promised; and when Satan had conquered man, that Christ was promised to conquer him. It was when the world was destroyed by the deluge,. that its reparation was promised to Noah: it was when Abrahamwas a sojourner in a strange land, that the peculiar promises were made to him,and his seed. It was when the Israel- ites were enslaved to extremity, that they were delivered. And it was when the sceptre was departing from Judah, and they and the world were gone fromGod, that Christ, the light of the world, was sent. And when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth? When we see how vast the heathen and infidel kingdoms are, and what a poor, despised people those are that set' their chief hopes on heaven, and how Satan seemeth every where to prevail against them, and most by false and worldly Christians, what a trial is this to our faith and hope ! As thedisciples said ofa crucified Christ, we trusted it had been he that should have redeemed Israel; we are almost ready, in the hour of temptation, 'to say, we trusted that God's name shòuld have been hallowed, and his kingdom come, and his will be done on, earth as it is in heaven. And, O, how seasonable and how joyful will the church's resurrection be after such low and sad distress ! Many a sad
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