As the last times will have their signs in the general apostasy and opposition to the truth that shall be in those days, as also in the severe judgments of God throughout the world : So likewise may we look for comfortable signs of the approaching blessed kingdom in extraordinary dispensations of grace among the appointed heirs of it, and that as the man of sin is to have his full revelation in the subjects of his government, so the man Christ Jesus in the power of his Divinity, will reveal himself in the hearts of many sons and daughters through uncommon measures of his sanctifying and enlightening Spirit, far beyond what was ever known upon earth. Thus at the very time when wickedness in general shall abound in the earth, grace and truth shall abound also, not so much in any particular church, as in particulars of all churches. Daniel prophesying of the last times says, “ Many shall “ run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased,” Dan. xii. 4. And yet Amos speaking of the same. times, foretells a famine of the word, (Amos viii. 11.) and that men shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it. Now both these predictions, notwithstanding their seeming contrariety, may meet in the same days, for they respect different runners, and different seekers, and different preachers. Men that run only in their own will and their own way, and not according to the will and way of the Lord, may run long enough before they reach the mark; and they that seek him only for their own ends, and that by such sort of seeking they may give a little false quiet to their consciences, whilst they pursue the things of this world with their whole hearts (which the Prophet calls making God to serve with our sins, Isaiah xliii. 24.). such seekers will be no true finders, but according to the idols that are in their hearts, will their answer be, Ezek. xiv. 4. The Prophet Daniel in the same chapter hath given us ‘the distinction betwixt the true and false seekers : ” None of the 166 wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand.” Now who are the wise here meant ? Not the wise in their own conceit, nor the wise to dispute and criticize, but the wise in heart, even the man that feareth the Lord; him shall he teach: in the way that he shall cause, Psal. xxv. 11. Nay,the fear of the Lord is called the beginning of wisdom. All such shall know him from the least unto the greatest, (Jer. xxxi. 34.) whilst the wise of this world with all their head-knowledge and learned lumber shall meets with darkness in the day-time, and grope in the noon-day as in the night, Job v. 14. Therefore the knowledge that shall be increased, according to the Prophet Daniel, means nothing less than a fruitful, influencing knowledge, a knowledge of things. pertaining to God and true godliness, even a saving knowledge of the Lord our Righteousness, as meant in that exhortation of the Apostle, “ Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ,” 2 Pet. j. 18. Now it must be confessed, that amidst all the darkness of critical, political, polemical, and other i unedifying kinds of divinity so called, which have pestered and tormented the church of Christ for so long a time, to the sport of Infidels and the growth of Deism, much light of sound doctrine hath risen up in this darkness, both at home and abroad, within a century past; and perhaps nothing has more hindered many from seeing and acknowledging this truth, than a blind obedience to custom and prejudice in favor of a certain set of authors, erected into a standard of orthodoxy by the bigots of a system. Thus the doctrines of original sin through the corruption of our nature by the fall; the insufficiency of a mere moral righteousness for our acceptance with God; the necessity of the internal light and influences of the Holy Spirit; the nature of regeneration, &c. have been more insisted on, and evinced from a clearer knowledge of the Scriptures in this and the foregoing age, than has been done since the early times of Christianity; and though on this foundation many have built a superstructure of human inventions no better than wood, hay and stubble, to be consumed by the fire that trieth and purifieth ; yet others have held these great truths in righteousness, and a sound understanding : So that amidst all the darkness and strife of a contentious theology, and the dead formality of an outward worship, doctrinal knowledge has increased with many throughout the several churches as a sign in its gradual progress towards the opening of the kingdom in due tine : Light has been in their Goshen, whilst others have wraped themselves up in the thick cover of their own darkness.
