Generation-work, or, A brief and seasonable word offered to the view and consideration of the saints and people of God in this generation, relating to the work of the present age, or generation we live in wherein is shewed, I. What generation-work is, and how it differs from other works, II. That saints in the several generations they have lived in, have had the proper and peculiar works of their generations, III. That it is a thing of very great concernment for a saint to attend to and be industrious in, the work of his generation, IV. Wherein doth the work of the present generation lye, V. How each one in particular may find out that part or parcel of it, that is properly his work in his generation, VI. How generation-work may be so carried on, as that God may be served in the generation / by John Tillinghast ...

3 EFFECT.

Blaspheming the God of Heaven, because of their pains, and sores.

Vers. 11. And blasphemed the God of Heaven be∣cause of their pains, and their sores, and repented not of their deeds. The marked sons of the Beast shall now yet more evidently see, that their pain, viz. their inward torments, and vexation of mind, by which they are in a manner distracted; and their sores, viz. the ecclipse of their outward glory, causing their friends and ad∣herents to desert their cause and interest, proceed only, and alone from the hand of the God of Heaven, who now is remembring their in quities, and judging of them, yet (as before) they shall now again harden themselves, and blaspheme the God of Heaven to their own destruction, instead of repenting of their deeds to give him glory.

Concerning the time when this Vial shall be poured forth, my thoughts are these:

That the Jews delivery being to begin (as in my first part hath been proved) in, or about the year 56, and that being the Effect of the sixth, or following Vial; it there∣fore necessarily follows, that the Vials upon the Sun, and the Seat of the Beast, must be poured forth sometime in the interim betwixt this, and the yeer of our Lord, 1656. or thereabouts, and therefore although for so much as con∣cerns the particular time, I shall wave it, yet may I safely conclude thus much in the general, that the time is at hand.

Now the Reasons why so little time is allowed to these two Vials, when as every of the former hath taken up much more, are as I conceive:

1 Because God is slow in beginning to pour out his

wrath upon sinners, waiting their repentance; but when wrath hath been poured out upon them, and they by the same grow hardened, then his proceedings are more quick, Hence in the first Vial, a long breathing time to consider their wayes, is allowed to these enemies of God, which they not regarding, but being more hardned under it, God in pouring out the second, cuts the time much shorter; yet because under that they are hardned also, therefore in the third, time is cut shorter yet; and because after God had smitten them three times they still are hardned, and persist to oppose the Lord Jesus; instead of submitting to give him glory, therefore in the fourth and fifth Vials, time is brought to a little scantling, God doing that in a few dayes, which before took up many yeers.

2 Because with the pouring forth of this Vial, the suffering of the Gentile-Churches (as I conceive) draws to an end (though after this the Jews in that interval of time betwixt the sixt and seventh Vials are to have a day of suffering.) Now the nearer the end comes, the faster will Christ go, the finishing of the work shall be cut short in righteousness. And therefore observable it is con∣cerning both these Vials, that the Scripture hath set a mark upon each, to shew that their continuance is not to be long. The fourth Vial under which the Witnesses rise, hath this to note the suddenness of it; The same hour there was a great Earthquake, and the tenth part of the City fell, Chap. 11.13. it is done in an hour, i.e. in a very short time; and of the fifth Vial poured out upon the City Rome, it is said, Her plagues shall come upon her in one day, Chap. 18.8. and in one hour is her judgement come, vers. 10. in one hour so great riches is come to nought, vers. 17. in one hour she is made desolate, vers. 19. The oft repetition of so short a time, plainly teaching thus much, That the work shall bee done in an instant, ere the Papals themselves, or, it may bee,

the instruments God will imploy in doing it, are aware.