lmost razed to the foundation, by those to whom they
committed the custody of the word of their great Lord's patience; they
in the mean time sheltering themselves under the shadow of a rotten lump
of fig-tree leaf distinctions, which will not sconce against the wrath
of an angry God in the cool of the day, &c."

And _Finally_, What can have a more gloomy aspect in the midst of these
evils, (with many more that might be noticed) _when our pleasant things
are laid waste_, than to see such a scene of strife and division
carried on, and maintained among Christ's professing witnesses in these
lands, whereby true love and sympathy is eradicated, the very vitals of
religion pulled out, and the ways of God and godliness lampooned and
ridiculed, _giving Jacob to the curse, and Israel to the
reproaches_.--And it is most lamentable, that while malignants (now as
well as formerly) from without are cutting down the carved work of the
sanctuary, Christ's professed friends and followers from within are
busied in contention and animosities among themselves, by which means
the enemy still advances and gains ground, similar to the case
(exteriorly) of that once famous and flourishing city and temple of
Jerusalem, when it was by Titus Vespasian utterly demolished[17].--All
which seem to prelude or indicate, that the Lord is about to inflict
these long-threatened, impending but protracted judgments[18] upon such
a sinning land, church and people. And as many of these worthies have
assured us, that judgments are abiding this church and nation; so our
present condition and circumstances seem to say, that we are the
generation ripening for them apace.--How much need have we then of the
Christian armour that made them proof against Satan, his emissaries, and
every trial and tribulation they were subjected unto? _Wherefore take
unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in
the evil day._

But by this time somewhat might have been said concerning the testimony
of the church of Scotland, as it was carried on and handed down by these
witnesses of Christ to posterity, in its different parts and
periods--But as this has been somewhat (I may say needlessly)
controverted in these our times, it were too large a subject (for the
narrow limits of a preface) to enter upon at present, any further than
to observe, that,

(1.) The testimony of the church of Scotland is not only a free, full
and faithful testimony, (yea more extensi