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by which thefe Witneffes are defcribed is, SERM. that they have Power to deftroy their Enemies by Fire, and to fhut Heaven that it rain not in the Days of their Prophecy, Rev. xi. 5, 6. which exactly agrees with the Character of Elijah, who fhut up the Heavens from raining in the Days of Ahab, three Years and fix Months, 1 Kings xvii. 1. compared with Luke iv. 25. and James v. 17. (the very Period of Time which thefe Witneffes are to prophesy ;) and twice brought down Fire to deftroy the Captains and their Fifties whom Abaziah King of Ifrael fent to apprehend him, 2 Kings i. 10, 12. And further that Elijah is to usher in our Saviour's Coming to Judgment is what the Holy Scriptures seem plainly to affert; particularly that famous Prophecy in Malachi, with which the whole Old Teftament concludes; where fpeaking of that Day which shall burn like an Oven, and wherein all that do wickedly fhall be burnt like Stubble; God promises to fend Elijah the Prophet, (or, as the Septuagint reads it, Elijah the Tifbbite) before the Coming of that great and dreadful Day of the Lord, Mal. iv. I, 5. Now if the Day here described be not interpreted of the Day of Judgment; there is hardly any Defcription of that Day in the

2

Old

SER M. Old Teftament but what may be evaded. ¡XV.

But if it be; it is plain that the second Coming of our Lord is here intended, and confequently that Elijah the Prophet, or Elijah the Tifhbite is to make his Appearance before him.

If it be objected to what I advance that our Saviour exprefly affirms that Elias is come already, Matt. xvii. 12. and plainly points out that John the Baptift was He; it may be answered, that what our Saviour fays of John the Baptift, may mean no more than what the Angel Gabriel told his Father Zacharias; viz. that he should go before the Lord in the SPIRIT and PowER of Elias, Luke i. 17. However that Elias fhould alfo come before the fecond Appearance of our Saviour, may be inferred from our Saviour's own Words just before. He faid unto them, Elias truly SHALL first come and restore all Things, Matt. xvii. 11. Which Words being feemingly spoken of a future Coming, and not of one that was paft, can't be certainly applied to John the Baptift, who was both already come, and, when our Saviour fpake, dead and gone. Nor does the Reftoring of all Things, which our Saviour attributes to the Ministry of Elijah, seem to be

fully

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fully and finally verified in the Miniftry of SER M. John, who, we can't find to have done fo much as those Words feem to imply. Nor indeed was that the Time for doing it. For the Reftoring of all Things is what St. Peter attributes not to the first, but to the second Coming of Chrift, whom the Heavens (faith he) must receive until the Times of the Reftitution of all Things, Acts iii. 21. If then the Times of the Reftitution of all Things be not till the fecond Coming of Christ, it is plain that the Baptift could not restore all Things at his firft Coming. And if the Mafter come not to restore all Things till then we may affure, ourselves his Harbinger, who is to prepare his Way for reftoring all Things, is not to be looked for or expected before.

These Testimonies and Arguments make it probable that Elijah the Tifhbite, who went up to Heaven by a Whirlwind, is again to make his Appearance upon Earth. And if fo; it is not improbable but that his Bufinefs may be to prepare the Way for our. Bleffed Saviour in the Deftruction of Antichrift, and confequently, as the Character feems to intimate, that he may be one of the two Witneffes which are to bear their Testimony in Behalf of Jefus, and at last by the Oppreffion

SERM. Oppreffion and Tyranny of the Beast, to lay XV. down their Lives in Confirmation of it's

Truth, and to have their dead Bodies expofed three Days and an half in the Streets of Jerufalem. And if Elijah be one of these Witneffes, why may not Enoch be the other? He was tranflated from the Earth much the fame Way, and therefore may probably be referved for the fame Commiffion and Office. And if this be true; the Apostle's Affertion will then be univerfal: viz. that it is appointed unto all Men to die, or at least to undergo fuch a Tranfmutation or Change as fhall be equivalent to Death. But if it be not true; it will still be a general Affertion, from which but two Exceptions have been known fince the Creation of the World; and from which we are affured there will be no more till the Day of Judgment.

With the utmost Truth therefore might the Apostle say, as it is here expreffed, It is appointed unto Men once to die. So that I need not detain you to prove what I believe there is no Body that denies. We fee with our Eyes, and are convinced by the Experience of every Day, that one Generation suçceeds another, and that the longest Livers fubmit at last to the fatal Stroke,

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It will be a more proper Enquiry and a SER M. more useful one to us, to look into the Reafons of this common Fatality, and to examine how Men came firft to be left in this Condition. Though indeed were we only to take a View of our Compofition, it would not seem to need an Enquiry, how a Body that was originally taken out of the Dust, should disfolve in Time into Duft again. For how could it be expected that a Body compounded of Flesh and Blood, fhould always continue in Youth and Vigor, without being fubje to Change and Decay? But yet we learn from the Hiftory of our Creation, that as frail and brittle as thefe Bodies are now, they were once defigned to laft for ever: and that, if Man had not by his own most voluntary Tranfgreffion broken the Condition, on which Immortality was promised him; an external Remedy was provided for his Support, whereby all that concerned his natural Frame fhould have been preferved, if perfect, or re-established, if impaired.

In the midst of the Garden where Adam was placed, there was planted, we know, a Tree of Life: Of this Tree amongst the reft, Adam was allowed and indulged to eat, fo long as he abftained from another Tree that