Prophetic Expositions Vol. 1

Prophetic Expositions;
or
A Connected View of the Testimony of the Prophets
Concerning
the Kingdom of God
and
the Time of Its Establishment.

BY JOSIAH LITCH

IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. I.

BOSTON:

PUBLISHED BY JOSHUA V. HIMES,
14 Devonshire Street.

1842.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION 3

CHAPTER I. THE KINGDOM OF GOD 9

(1.) Adam and his race, kings - this earth their kingdom, p. 9. - (2.) Jesus Christ is to fill the place of the first Adam, 10. - (3.) The Gentiles now have the dominion of the whole world, 11. - (4.) The person and character of the king, 14. - (5.) His kingly character and dominion, 18. - (6.) The territorial dominion of Christ, 21. - (7.) The metropolis of the kingdom of God, 23. - (8.) The saints of God will be fellowheirs with Christ, 25. - (9.) The time and circumstances when the kingdom of God will be set up. 26. - (10.) The embryotic state of the kingdom, 29. - (11.) The miniature exhibition of the kingdom of God, 33. - (12.) The qualifications necessary to enter that kingdom, 35. - (13.) The millennium after the resurrection of the just, 38. - (14.) The first resurrection, 45. - (15.) Gog and Magog, 48. - (16.) Gog and Magog in the new earth, 45. - (17.) The meaning of the term "judge," 49. - (18.) The trial must precede the execution, 50. - (19.) God, "the Ancient of Days," will preside in the trial, 52. - (20.) The Son of man will execute the judgment, 52. - (21.) The time of the trial of the dead, 53. - (22.) The twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew, 54.

CHAPTER II. THE JEWS 54

(1.) Are the Jews, as such, to be restored to the land of Palestine? 55. - (2.) Are the Jewish nation, as a nation, to be converted to Christ? 58. - (3.) Explanation and paraphrase of Romans ninth, tenth, and eleventh chapters, 59. - (4.) Other remarks on the conversion of the Jews, 75.

CHAPTER III 77

(1.) The vision of the four beasts, Daniel, seventh chapter - The coming of the Son of man and his kingdom to succeed them, 77. - (2.) The condition of the papal power after his dominion was taken away, 89. - (3.) The length of "a time" - or, how much is two times? 91. - (4.) A second argument on the fulfilment of the 1260 years of papal authority - or exposition of Revelation twelfth and thirteenth chapters, 93. - The dragon of the twelfth chapter, 93. - The beast of the thirteenth chapter, 93. - This beast is identical with the little horn of Daniel seventh, 96. - The date of the forty-two months of the beast's power, 97. - The forty-two months' duration of the beast's power, 101. - The deadly wound healed - beast with two horns, 106.

CHAPTER IV. THE CONSUMMATION-OR ERA OF THE SECOND ADVENT 112

The consummation, or era of the second advent, 112. - Various readings of the period, 115. - The import of? the sanctuary" - its cleansing 117. - The last end of the indignation, 124. - Recapitulation of the foregoing argument, 125. - Remarks on "the daily and the transgression of desolation," 127. - The date of the two thousand three hundred days not in the eighth chapter, 127. - The connection between the eighth and ninth, chapters, 128. - Gabriel's appearance to Daniel - the object of his mission, 132. - Explanation of the vision, 133. - Fulfilment of the seventy weeks, 137. - Who is the little horn of the eighth of Daniel? 141.

CHAPTER V. THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES 145

Scoffers in the last times, 146. - Gospel preached in all the world, 147. - The signs foretold in the twenty-first chapter of Luke, 149. - Dark day of May 19, 1780, Recapitulation, 155. - The certainty and definiteness of our knowledge of the time, 160. - The ten virgins - Matthew twenty-fifth, 162. - Another sign - Isaiah xl. 1ñ5, and Nahum ii. 3, 4, p. 170.

CHAPTER VI. THE SEVEN LAST PLAGUES 175

Reasons for believing the seven last plagues yet future, 176. - The vials and their effects, 177. - A synopsis of Ezekiel, thirty-seventh, thirty-eighth, and thirty-ninth chapters, 193. - The close of the plagues, 195.

CHAPTER VII. THE NEW JERUSALEM 197

Introduction of the subject, 197. - Quotations from professor Bush, 200. - Who is the bride, the Lamb's wife? 205.

INTRODUCTION

The great design of this work is to embody and present more compactly and distinctly, a great variety of facts and arguments which bear on the subject of prophecy, and are now scattered and dispersed through many works. We are out upon a wide field; an inexhaustible mine of truth presents itself; new thoughts and arguments are continually coming up and strengthening our positions. For the purpose of condensing, combining, and more strongly, if possible, presenting this light as it now shines upon us, it has been thought important to issue the work now presented to the public.

There has been for some time past a demand for a more full reference to historical and chronological data, to be put into the bands of those who were desirous of thoroughly investigating the Second Advent doctrine. Such a work is especially a desideratum with those, who, at this late day, awake to the subject, and feel an anxious wish to do something to awaken their fellow-men to a sense of the coming events. They feel themselves uninformed, in many instances, on the subject of history, and with the haste with which they must go out, if they go at all, they can hardly spend time to wade through many volumes of history, to select what they need for illustrating the prophecies. The work now offered to the public, is designed in some

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measure to supply this demand. The most important historical and chronological facts necessary to understand and illustrate the prophecies of Daniel and John, are in this work carefully selected, and arranged under their appropriate subjects. The references are also generally given where the historical extracts are found, that with little trouble the original may be examined, as also the context.

It has been a prime object of the writer to give in this work a clear and distinct view of the nature of the Kingdom of God; believing a correct view of that subject highly important to the correct understanding of the Sacred Scriptures. Indeed, so important does it appear that this subject should be understood, that no other qualifications, as a biblical student or expositor, can atone for the want of an understanding of this subject.

The "fall" of the Jews is a subject which is presented, perhaps, in a somewhat new light from what it has been viewed before. The chapter on the Jewish question, it is hoped, will serve to settle some minds, at least, on the points of their national return to Palestine, and their general conversion.

On the fulfilment of the time, times, and dividing of a time, of Dan. vii. 25, and the forty-two months of Rev. xiii. 6, the argument is more full than has before been presented to the public in any of our works, together with more copious historical facts than have before been given.

The argument on the 2300 days, the reader will find presented in some respects in a new light: First, dating the period in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes, and the commission given to Nehemiah to rebuild Jerusalem, following Archbishop Usher, Rollin, and the translators of our Bible, rather than Prideaux, and some modern commentators. But the chronological data is not left to the

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uncertainty of conjecture, or human records, but is demonstrated to have been fulfilled, by the testimony of Christ, and by astronomical calculations. Secondly, predicating the argument of the fulfilment of the vision, not on the import or character of the little horn, but on the meaning of "the last end of the indignation." The new argument given us by the rendering of the word "determined," in Dan. ix. 24, rendering it "cut off,"-seventy weeks are cut off,-presents the connection between the eighth and ninth chapters in a more clear and striking light than heretofore.

The signs of the times-the import of the term "this generation"-the ten virgins-the seven last plagues-and the New Jerusalem, close up the first volume. All these subjects the reader will find to be fraught with interest.

It has been thought advisable to publish the work in two volumes; the first containing the subjects which are of the most general interest, and less incumbered with long historical detail; and then embody the more historical portions of the work in a second volume.

In the second volume will be found a full and elaborate illustration of the eleventh and twelfth chapters of Daniel. The first thirteen verses are taken entire from Bishop Newton's Dissertations on Prophecy:-from that onward a new track is pursued, showing that from the fourteenth verse, the main subject of prediction is the Roman government, rather than Antiochus Epiphanes. From the 36th to the 39th verse, the French revolution is presented: and from the 40th to the 45th, the career of Bonaparte. The twelfth chapter will be fully investigated, and the question so frequently asked, "Did not Christ say, 'Of that day and hour knoweth no man?'" fully answered.

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Also an explanation of the prophetic periods of the twelfth chapter, and the time of their end.

The sounding of the seven trumpets, and the slaying of the two witnesses, will be illustrated by copious historical references and quotations.

That the work will be found faultless, is not to be expected. It has been prepared in the midst of a great pressure of other duties and cares, and in many respects under most unfavorable circumstances. And nothing but a deep conviction that the interests of God's cause demand such a work, and the shortness of time in which we can work, could have induced the present effort. But the work, such as it is, is humbly submitted to the public, with the earnest prayer that God's blessing may attend it, and that in his hand this feeble effort may be the means of awakening some of the slumbering virgins to trim their lamps, procure oil, and prepare to meet the Bridegroom at his coming. J. L.

Boston, Oct. 12, 1842.

CHAPTER I. THE KINGDOM OF GOD

There is no subject in the whole circle of Christian literature which is more important in its bearings on the right understanding of the Bible, than the meaning of the term "The Kingdom of God." This term is sometimes used, perhaps, in reference to God's universal kingdom or government over all worlds and beings: but generally, as used in the Scriptures, it refers to a dispensation of God among men, on earth. In this work it will be my object fully to present and discuss this subject.

I. ADAM AND HIS RACE, KINGS - THIS EARTH THEIR KINGDOM

That God made this earth for man, and man for the earth, is very clear from the account given of the creation, in the first chapter of Genesis. After the creation of all things, God saw that there was not a man to till the ground. "And God said let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowls of the air and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth." Gen. i. 26.

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The evidence is here distinct, taken in connection with Gen. ii. 5-8, that the world was made for man, and man for the world. The dominion given to them constituted them kings. The territorial dominion of Adam and his progeny, was "all the earth," and all that was in earth, air and sea. All was subject to him while he was subject to God; but when he rebelled against God, the whole animate creation rebelled against man; and even the elements of nature themselves, have become his enemy. Man lost the kingdom, and the devil obtained it.

Two causes concurred to deprive man of the kingdom and dominion of the world. 1. The revolt of all creatures from his authority when he sinned; and 2. His own mortality. For, had the inferior creation remained in perfect obedience, he could not continue in authority because of death. But death was not in the original plan. Death entered the world by sin. "So death passed upon all men."

II. JESUS CHRIST IS TO FILL THE PLACE OF THE FIRST ADAM

"The first man, Adam, was made a living soul; the last Adam, a quickening spirit." "The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven." 1 Cor. xv. 45, 47. The first Adam having lost the earth, together with his life, the second Adam came to purchase and restore both the one and the other. Thus the apostle, in Eph. i. 13, 14: "In whom also, after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy

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spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession." Heaven, the heaven of heavens, was never under the dominion of any other but the God of heaven, that it should be purchased. But this earth was lost, and Jesus Christ has purchased and will redeem it. Adam's race were dead in law; Jesus Christ has tasted death for them, that he might bring them forth into second life from the grave; "they that have done good, to the resurrection of life; they that have done evil, to the resurrection of damnation." The one class will come forth to "everlasting life," the other to "shame and everlasting contempt." Then the dominion of Christ shall be from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth.

III. THE GENTILES NOW HAVE THE DOMINION OF THE WHOLE WORLD

In the third year of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the first year of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, (Jer. xxv.) began the famous 70 years' captivity of the Jews in Babylon. In the second year of Nebuchadnezzar, he had a dream, (Dan. ii.,) which none of his wise men could either tell or interpret. But Daniel, being divinely instructed, did both. He said, "Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee, and the form thereof was terrible. This image's head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, his legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay.

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Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing-floors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.

"This is the dream; and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king. Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory. And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field, and the fowls of the heaven, hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all." Dan. ii. 31-38.

The universality of a kingdom could be no more strongly asserted in human language than is this dominion of the king of Babylon. No spot on the round globe, where an animate being dwells, that is not included in his ample dominion. The Jews had previously enjoyed an independent government from the world; but then the Jewish and all other governments were merged in this one government. Whatever historians may say to the contrary, it is certain that, according to inspiration, God looked on that monarchy as being the head and representative of all governments on the globe. The church has never, from that hour to this, either in her Jewish or Christian form, enjoyed an independent government, free from dependence on, or tribute to the Gentiles. Nebuchadnezzar was only the beginning of a series of just such universal monarchies.

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"Thou art this head of gold." "After thee shall arise another kingdom (the breast and arms of silver) inferior to thee;" (Medo Persian;) "and another third kingdom of brass, that shall bear rule over all the earth." This was the Macedonian kingdom, under Alexander the Great and his successors. Here is the same universality again declared as in the Chaldean kingdom.

"The fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise." This fourth kingdom is the Roman empire, and was to succeed to the same great government of the world which its predecessors had enjoyed. And to gain that empire, it was to break in pieces and bruise all the former kingdoms. The latter part of the kingdom, shadowed forth by the feet and toes which were to be of iron and clay, was to be of a divided character, partly strong and partly broken. But even in this divided and weakened state, it was to be the great leading government still.

In its last extremity, while its feet were in existence, a stone, cut out without hands from the mountain, was to smite the image on his feet, that were of iron and clay, and grind them to powder; iron, clay, brass, silver and gold together, like the small dust of the summer threshing-floors, and the wind carry them away, and no place be found for them.

The image is to be annihilated before the stone and wind; for that which has no place cannot exist. To exist, a thing must have place. Hence, that which has no place cannot exist. The governments of this globe, all of them being included

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in and shadowed forth by the image, will be annihilated by the fall of the stone, and leave the earth vacant or destitute of government, unless some other is provided to fill its place. The reign of these four monarchies is called by the Saviour, (Luke xxi. 24,) "the times of the Gentiles;" and by Paul, (Romans xi. 25,) "until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in."

This image is to be destroyed, it should be observed, not by the rolling of the stone until it grinds it to powder, increasing its own size as the image decreases; or in other words, rolling up Anti-Christ, the image, into Christ, the stone, until it becomes a great mountain and fills the whole earth; but by dashing in pieces the image, sweeping it all away; and then, by a sudden expansion, filling the earth. This process of demolishing the image and enlarging the stone, is thus explained in the 44th verse: "In the days of these Kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever." But if it dashes them in pieces and annihilates the Gentile kingdoms, and fills the earth which they now fill, then the two cannot be contemporaneous, but must succeed each other; the last of them to endure eternally. In examining the nature of this kingdom I shall notice-

IV. THE PERSON AND CHARACTER OF THE KING

1. The person of the king. We learn this from Rev. xi. 15: "There were great voices in heaven, saying, the kingdoms of this world are become

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the kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever." The event here described is the sounding of the seventh and last trumpet. The kingdoms of this world are the great image of the king of Babylon, to be broken by the stone, and make way for the kingdom of God. The king, then, is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the stone, and "on whomsoever He shall fall, he will grind them to powder." Malt. xxi. 44.

2. The character of the king. "And he shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest." the Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee; therefore that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." Luke i. 32, 35. The great king is here called the Son of God, and the reason why he is so called is distinctly stated. He is the only begotten Son of God. That holy thing or creature which was born of Mary, is the Son of God. This can only refer to the humanity of Jesus Christ, not to his uncreated, eternal nature. He was also the Son of David, because the son of Mary, a daughter of David's line. Through Mary, his mother, of the race of Adam, he partook of Adam's blood or life, (for his blood is his life.) yet without the contamination of Adam's nature, because brought into being by the Immediate "power of The Highest." Thus, he was at once in his human nature, both the Son of God and the Son of man. (See Dr. A. Clarke on the sonship of Christ.)

As the Son of God, the only begotten of the Father, he is also possessed of a self-existent living principle, distinct from the blood of Adam. "The dead shall hear the voice of the Son of

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God, and they that hear shall live. For as the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself." John v. 25, 26. That self-living principle was, not blood, such as quickens Adam's race, but a quickening spirit, essential to the very being of Christ's humanity, derived from the Father; but supplying the same place as the blood of Adam, and producing the same effect on its possessor. The natures were blended in one, and yet distinct. "The last Adam a quickening spirit." In this mysterious being "dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." The Word or Logos which was in the beginning with God, and was God, dwelt in the Son of God, the man Christ Jesus. So that, although he is the "child born," and the "Son given," yet he is "the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, and the Prince of Peace." "Such a high-priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled and separate from sinners; made higher than the heavens." "The children being partakers of flesh and blood, himself also took part of the same." It was not altogether flesh and blood, but spirit, a self-living spirit, which he possessed, as a part of his humanity; "that through death he might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death, were all their lifetime subject to bondage." If Christ had been entirely dependent on his self-living spirit for life, and had been only the Son of God, he could not have died; because that spirit is undying and immortal. But without the shedding of blood there could be no remission of sins, no resurrection. The penalty of the divine law was death. It was absolute

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and irrevocable in its nature. One sinned, and by that one sin death entered into the world, and is passed upon all men. Adam, becoming mortal by sin, could not transmit to his posterity what he did not possess, immortality in the body. They, partaking of and living by his blood, must be subject to the same late, death: cessation of life by the action of Adam's blood. There being no provision in the law by which this penalty could be commuted, the culprit must remain forever in death, unless some atonement could be made. Such an atonement Christ made when "he bore our sins in his own body on the tree, and tasted death for every man."

"But," it may be objected, "you said that the penalty of the law was an interminable death; and if so, how could the death of Christ for only three days, atone for such a sin and redeem the sinner from the penalty?"

The answer is, Jesus Christ laid down his life derived from Adam, eternally. When he arose from the grave, he was quickened, not by the blood of Adam, but by the spirit, that self-existent principle derived from the Father, by which he had life in himself. "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but quickened by the spirit." 1 Pet. iii. 18.

Being the Son of man, and partaking of the blood of Adam, he laid down that blood or life forever. But being also the Son of God, and possessed of that quickening spirit, he rose triumphant from the grave, spiritual; and because spiritual, immortal. His resurrection body, although

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though of flesh and bones, and not spiritual in the sense of etherial, but spiritual as opposed to carnal, or natural and corruptible, as is the human body while it is animated by the blood of Adam. The spirit or nature of Jesus Christ, by which he was raised from the dead, is imparted to every true believer in the Son of God; and "if the spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit which dwelleth in you." Rom. viii. 11.

The king, then, is a perfect human being, the Son of man and the Son of God; now possessed of flesh and bones, but not of blood, because that he shed for the race of Adam; but of an immortal, quickening spirit, by which he is alive forever-more, and will raise all his saints at the last day. In him dwells also the Logos or word; all the fulness of the Godhead. In this perfect nature he is in heaven, and will so come again in like manner as he went into heaven.

This being the character of the king, I shall now consider-

V. HIS KINGLY CHARACTER AND DOMINION

1. He is the promised Son and heir of David. That Christ is David's Son, and the Son of promise, and his Son "according to the flesh," is abundantly established by Peter, Acts ii. 30: "Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne." This

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promise and oath to David is found, 2 Samuel vii. 12, 16: "And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. And thy house and thy kingdom shall be established forever before thee: thy throne shall be established forever." According to these strong testimonies, David's throne and house is to be perpetuated eternally in Christ. The temporal succession of kings of David's line have tailed. But the everlasting succession has not failed, nor will it; this, David foresaw, and spoke before of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in. hell, neither did his flesh see corruption. The same flesh that went into the tomb came up, and is now in heaven. And he has "the key of David," (Rev. iii. 7,) signifying that he only has the heirship of that house so long shut, and can open and no man shut, and shut and no man open. That house was shut when Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem and carried Zedekiah captive to Babylon. God pronounced the doom thus, by Ezekiel, (xxi. 25, 27:) "And thou profane, wicked prince of Israel, whose day is come, when iniquity shall have an end." "I will overturn, overturn, overturn it; and it shall be no more, until he come whose right it is; and I will give it him." From Zedekiah's captivity and the ruin of Jerusalem, there has been no king of David's line reigning in Jerusalem. There never will be, until he comes whose right it is, and takes the kingdom. "The Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever,

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and of his kingdom there shall be no end." Luke i. 32, 33. "Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David and his kingdom, to order it, and establish it, with justice and judgment, henceforth and forever."

2. His reign is to be personal and visible. This is clear from the fact that Christ is the Son of David according to the flesh, and is to sit on David's throne. That throne was on earth and at Jerusalem. And "The Lord of Hosts [is to] reign in Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously." Isai. xxiv. 23. "The tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them." Rev. xxi. 3. Were he, in his peculiar kingly character, a pure spirit, like the infinite God, without body or parts, his reign like God's, might be a purely spiritual reign. But not so; for, although all the fulness of the Godhead is in him, he is a man; and in his humanity consists his peculiar and everlasting kingly character; and a period is to arrive in the history of his existence, when in some subjected sense he is to reign as the Son, "and God be all and in all." 1 Cor. xv. Being then, a king "according to the flesh," and of David's line, and his reign being over the saints, it must be a personal and visible reign.

And for this purpose he is to come again on earth, just as he went into heaven, which was bodily and visibly; with a body of flesh and bones. Luke xxiv. 39. If it be objected to this, that Christ did not go into heaven with the same body in which he arose from the dead, but that it was spiritualized when he ascended to heaven; I

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reply, I shall grant it when the law and the testimony can be produced which declares it. But the Bible not only affords no intimation of such a change, but the whole tenor of its testimony is, that he went up as he arose from the grave, and will come again in the same manner.

VI. THE TERRITORIAL DOMINION OF CHRIST

1. It is to be all the territory now occupied by the great image of Nebuchadnezzar's dream. "Wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of heaven hath he given into thy hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all." Dim. ii. 38. "A stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image." "Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver and the gold broken to pieces together," "like the chaff of the summer threshing-floors, and the wind carried them away." "And the stone that smote the image became a great mountain and FILLED THE WHOLE EARTH." Dan. ii. 35. Then, in verse 44, when the explanation is given, it is said, "In the days of these kings the God of heaven shall set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed. It shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever." The stone is to break these kingdoms, and the kingdom of God is to do it. Then the stone, Christ, and the kingdom of God, are the same. The enlargement of the stone will be by gathering together, in the fulness of the dispensation of times, all things in him, whether they be things in heaven, or things in earth, or things under

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the earth, even in him. Eph. i. 10. Thus will his body be perfected and his kingdom organized. Then the meek will inherit the earth. The second Psalm is also another testimony on this point: "Yet have I set my king on my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree: the Lord hath said unto me thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession." The testimony here is decisive on the point, that the Son of God is to possess the uttermost parts of the earth. He adds, "thou shalt break them [the heathen] with a rod of iron, and shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel." This is all the conversion of the heathen promised in the second Psalm.

2. The Saviour himself has taught us the same thing in Matt. xxv. 34: "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." There was a kingdom prepared for and given to man as soon as he existed, and even before he was brought into being. That kingdom or dominion was "all the earth;" and also all that earth, air, and sea contained. Gen. i. (See Sec. 1.) The Bible furnishes us with no hint that God ever prepared any other kingdom for man when he laid the foundation of the world. This kingdom, then, Christ is to restore and give to his saints.

3. A text already noticed, (Rev. xi. 15,) teaches the same doctrine: "There were great voices in heaven, saying, the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever." Numerous

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other texts might be presented, all showing the same thing. But these must suffice for the present.

VII. THE METROPOLIS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD

1. Its locality. It is Mount Zion and Jerusalem. Ps. ii. 6: "Yet have I set my king on my holy hill of Zion." Isai. xxiv. 23: "Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed. when the Lord of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously." The throne of David, which Christ is to inherit, and on which he is to reign forever, was established there, and is forever to be there. Ps. cxxxii. 11-18: "The Lord hath sworn in truth unto David, he will not turn from it, of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne. If thy children will keep my covenant, and my testimony that I shall teach them, their children shall also sit upon thy throne forevermore. For the Lord hath chosen Zion; he hath desired it for his habitation. This is my rest forever: here will I dwell; for I have desired it. I will abundantly bless her provision; I will satisfy her poor with bread. I will also clothe her priests with salvation; and her saints shall shout aloud for joy. There will I make the horn of David to bud: I have ordained a lamp for mine anointed. His enemies will I clothe with shame; but upon himself shall his crown flourish." Nothing can be more clear and strong than this declaration of the Lord that he will dwell there forever, and the throne of David be there, and his horn (kingdom) flourish there.

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2. The city. Not "Jerusalem that now is, and is in bondage with her children," "but Jerusalem that is above, and is free, and is the mother of us all." Gal. iv. The "New Jerusalem, which cometh down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband." Rev. xxi.

It is the city for which the patriarch Abraham looked, (Heb. xi. 10,) "which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God." For this city he looked as the promised inheritance of the land of Canaan. And a city twelve thousand furlongs, or fifteen hundred miles square, as is the city described in Rev. xxi., would require all the territory promised Abraham, for its location. And if all the saints of God are to "have right to the tree of life, and enter in through the gates into the city," such a city would be none too large for their ample accommodation. This is "the city of the living God;" the tabernacle of God which shall be with men, in the new earth.

Until that time comes, Jerusalem is to be trodden down of the Gentiles, even until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled; or until the great image is dashed in pieces, and no place is found for it, and the stone fills the whole earth. Then there will be a race at Jerusalem who shall say, "Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord." They will be the redeemed from the east, west, north and south, who shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, in the kingdom of God; while the unbelieving Jews will be cast out into outer darkness, where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

VIII. THE SAINTS OF GOD WILL BE FELLOW-HEIRS WITH CHRIST

The inheritance, by purchase and by promise, belongs to Jesus Christ, the Son of God. "But as many as receive him, to them he gives power or privilege to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name." God sends forth the spirit of his Son into their hearts, crying, Abba, Father. And the Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God; and because children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ. Rom. viii.

Christ is the head, and the church the body composed of the members of Christ. He is the true vine for whom the goodly vineyard, the land promised to Abraham, and once occupied by the men of Judah, (see Isai. v.) was prepared, and to whose use it is now soon to be devoted; his believing people are the branches of that vine, and with the vine and root, or good olive tree, they will be transplanted into that holy soil, to flourish in immortal bloom and vigor forever and ever. In the explanation of the vision of the four beasts, (Dan. vii. 18,) it is said, "But the saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever." Also, in the 27th verse of the same chapter, "The kingdom and dominion and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High." Again, (Matt. xxv. 34,) "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom." These constitute the seed of Abraham. "If ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the

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promise." Gal. iii. These, too, constitute the house of Jacob, over whom Jesus Christ is to reign forever and ever. Luke i. 33. They will reign with Christ as his subjects, and assist, under him their king and head, in the government of the kingdom; and enjoy all its immunities. The kingdom will be the same as when God originally gave it to Adam and his family. They had dominion, but Adam, by virtue of his relation to them, was their superior and head; but they were all children, and were to reign with him. "Let them have dominion." Christ is the last Adam, and sustains a similar relation to the church as Adam did to the race. Adam gave them mortal life; Christ eternal life. Now if we suffer with him we shall also reign with him.

IX. THE TIME AND CIRCUMSTANCES WHEN THE KINGDOM OF GOD WILL BE SET UP

1. It will be when the times of the Gentiles shall be fulfilled. The governments of the Gentiles, shadowed forth in the great image, (Dan. ii.) have certain predicted changes to pass through, and cannot pass away until they have fulfilled the prediction. When they have done that, the stone, Jesus Christ, will demolish them, and the God of heaven set up [or cause to stand] his kingdom.

2. It will be when one like the Son of man shall come with the clouds of heaven. "I saw in the night visions, and behold one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him, and there was given him dominion,

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and glory and a kingdom," etc. Dan. vii. 13. This kingdom is not to be given to the Son of man until he comes in the clouds of heaven. He cannot set up his kingdom until it is given him. But he has not yet come with the clouds of heaven. Hence, his kingdom is not yet setup. But it will be when he so comes.

3. It will be when the seventh trumpet sounds. The seventh is the last trumpet; and at it the dead are to awake. "In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we be changed." 1 Cor. xv. Thus also the Revelator, chap. xi. 15: "The seventh trumpet sounded, and there were great voices in heaven, saying, the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever." "Saying, we give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty," "because thou hast taken to thee thy great power and hast reigned; for the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great, and shouldest destroy them that destroy the earth." Until that time comes, Christ is not to receive the kingdom.

4. It will be when the Nobleman (Christ) who is gone into a far country to receive a kingdom, returns. The object of the parable, (Luke xix. 11)-27, was to correct the false notions of those who "thought the kingdom of God should immediately appear." The parable taught them that Christ, the nobleman, would first go away and receive

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his kingdom, and in the meantime leave his servants in possession of his property to occupy till his return; that at his return, he would reckon with and reward his servants if faithful, and cast them off if unfaithful: and then bring forth and slay his enemies. Such a return of the nobleman has not yet taken place, nor have the servants of Christ yet received their reward in his kingdom. Nor have his enemies yet been destroyed. Then he has not yet received his kingdom or set it up.

5. It will be at the end of this world (or age.) The parable of the tares of the field, (Matt. xiii. 24-30, 36-43,) is designed to teach us the same great doctrine, "The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man that sowed good seed in his field: but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way." Both the tares and wheat sprang up, and the servants came and inquired, "Sir, didst not thou sow good, seed?"-"from whence then hath it tares?" "An enemy hath done this." "Shall we go and gather up the tares?" "Nay, let both grow together until the harvest," etc. "Declare to us the parable of the tares of the field." "He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man; the field is the world;" (kosmos) the globe and its creatures. "The good seed are the children of the kingdom," its heirs. "The tares are the children of the wicked one; the enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; the reapers are the angels. As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so shall it be at the end of this world. The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall

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gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father." Now the tares grow together with the wheat in the world, or what is promised to Christ for his kingdom; then the tares will be cast out, and the righteous be glorified in the kingdom of God. It cannot take place until the end of the world, or age, which began with the preaching of John the Baptist, until which time the law and the prophets continued. But since then the kingdom of heaven is preached. That was the last age, or dispensation, of probationary time. When it ends, the tares and wheat will be separated, and the one be burned up, and the other glorified. Until that takes place, there can be no such state on earth as that wherein all shall know the Lord, from the least to the greatest. Then it will be thus; for they shall see, not through a glass darkly, as now, but face to face.

X. THE EMBRYOTIC STATE OF THE KINGDOM

There are various texts in the Bible which seem to convey the idea of the present existence and the progressive character of the kingdom of God. It is from such texts the notion has been derived that Christ set up his kingdom at the time of his first advent. Some of those texts we will consider.

1. The parable of the mustard seed. Matt. xiii. 31, 32: "Another parable put he forth unto them,

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saying, The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field: which indeed is the least of all seeds; but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof." The usual construction of this parable, is, that the seed represents the smallness of the church in its beginning, consisting only of the twelve apostles of Christ sent out to evangelize the world; that this little beginning is to eventuate in the universal triumph of the church of Christ, and the conversion of the world and introduction of millennial glory.

But is not the meaning obviously this, that Christ is the mustard seed; that in his death he was planted, and in his resurrection he germinated into new life; and that every soul saved through his death and resurrection is an additional branch to the tree? The branch of the mustard tree no more literally lives and flourishes and bears fruit by its union with the stock and root, and the sap it receives from that root, than the Christian has spiritual and eternal life from the indwelling of that quickening spirit which raised up Christ from the dead. It is to the church the sap of life. The indwelling of the quickening spirit of Christ in the believer is the mystery of godliness. It is religion; so that each believer can say, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life that I now live in the flesh is by the faith of the Son of God. It is the resurrection, power and eternal life. The blood of Adam, which all men derive by natural generation, does not give them second life, or raise them from the

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dead to eternal life! But the spirit of him that raised up Christ from the dead, if it dwell in us, will quicken our mortal bodies also. This being the case, it will readily be perceived that the perfection of the tree cannot consist in its universal triumph, all over the world in any one age of probationary time. For while there is yet one more member to be added to the tree, or while death reigns in the world, the tree must of necessity be in a state of imperfection and immaturity. But in the dispensation of the fulness of the times he shall "gather together in one, all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth, even in him." Eph. i. 10. Then there will be a perfection of the tree, and each branch will by in its place, mature and perfect. It cannot be before.

2. The parable of the leaven. Matt. xiii. 33: "Another parable spake he unto them: The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened." This, like the former parable, has been supposed to predict the ultimate and universal triumph of Christianity in this world. The leaven is the gospel, the three measures of meal the world of mankind; the leavening process the increase of the means of grace and conversion of sinners through those means, until the whole world shall be converted.

But does it not rather express, by a figure, a definite for an indefinite number of persons; each one of whom receiving the spirit of Christ, will, if the leaven be permitted to work there, be conformed, when Christ appears in glory, to his glorious image.

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"And when Jesus doth appear, Soul and body, soul and body, Shall his glorious image bear."

"But those measures of meal, (persons,) which do not receive this spirit, have no life in them; they can have no hope of glory. Reader, have you that blessed spirit dwelling in you? Examine yourself and see whether you be in the faith. Christ is in you except you are a reprobate. But if the three measures of meal mean the whole world of mankind, then the leavening process will go on till all are saved; and Universalism is true. But it is not so; but each of Adam's race is a measure, and each must receive the spirit for himself, or not be saved.

This spirit is what I call the kingdom of God, or the germ of that kingdom in the believer. It was in Abel, as well as in Paul and the beloved disciple. So were Abel and Enoch, and a host of worthies in Old Testament times, in Christ by faith, as well as apostles and martyrs under the gospel; the embryotic kingdom was begun when the great plan of redemption by Jesus Christ was first promulged. It was no new kingdom which Christ established when he came on earth. He introduced a new dispensation or age, and the last one which the world will enjoy before his kingdom comes.

Christ was born to be a king; but his kingdom is not of this world. That is, say some, it is not an outward and visible kingdom; but a spiritual reign. Nay, but Christ has nowhere taught us that his reign is spiritual; but, it is "according to the flesh" he is David's son, and is to sit on David's throne. His kingdom, although to be a

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visible one, and on the renewed earth, yet is not of this world, under its present organization, and while the Gentiles have the dominion of it, but in the world to come. Christ is now exalted to his Father's throne, to be "a Prince, and a Saviour." He is an heir to, and expectant of a throne; and will come to it at the time appointed of the Father. But a prince, although an heir to a throne, is not de facto, a king. He is to set on his Father's throne until his foes be made his footstool. Then he will come to dash his enemies in pieces, and give his saints the kingdom.

XI. THE MINIATURE EXHIBITION OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD

The transfiguration. Luke ix. 27-36. The Lord Jesus had just told his people of their sufferings and self-denial, if they would follow him, and also the consequence of being ashamed of him before men; viz., that he will be ashamed of them "when he shall come in his own glory, and in his Father's, and of the holy angels." Then, that they might have the assurance of his so coming, and know that it was not a fable, he told them, "I tell you of a truth, there be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the kingdom of God." This promise he fulfilled about "an eight days after," in his transfiguration on the mount, in the presence of Peter, John and James.

1. Jesus Christ appeared there in his own personal glory. His countenance shone like the sun, and his raiment was white as the light.

2. The glory of the Father was there; it was

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"a bright cloud" of the divine glory, out of which came the Father's voice, saying, "this is my beloved Son; hear him."

3. The glory of the holy angels, (messengers,) was there. Two men, which were Moses and Elias; the one from the dead, the representative of those saints who shall be raised at Christ's coming, and clothed with glory; the other, Elias, the representative of those who will be alive and be changed at the appearing of Christ.

4. This scene was revealed on earth, not in heaven: thus teaching the disciples that the kingdom of God will be revealed on earth at the appearing of Christ.

5. The use the apostles made of the scene. The apostle Peter was one of the witnesses; and in view of the importance of the kingdom of Christ, he, in his 2nd Epistle, has given the church of all coming ages instruction how they may ensure an abundant entrance "into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ." "For we have not followed cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eye-witnesses of his majesty: 2 Pet. i. 16. This he says was "when we were with him in the holy mount." The scene was a demonstration of the reality of Christ's second, personal and glorious appearing, to reward every man according to his works."

When this kingdom is set up, then it will be true that the least saint who shall enjoy its glories will be greater than ever John the Baptist was in this world of temptation, sufferings, sorrow and death. Then Peter-when in Christ's kingdom, with his fellow apostles, he shall set on his

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throne with his master, to judge the world-then Peter can with safety be entrusted with the keys of the kingdom of heaven. But it does appear to me, that, in this world of passion and prejudice, it would be rather hazardous to entrust the keys of the kingdom of heaven either with Peter or the Pope. There, under the immediate eye of the great Master, and with passion and prejudice removed, and a rectified judgment, it will be safe, if it so seem good to the Lord, to place Peter at that post.

XII. THE QUALIFICATIONS NECESSARY TO ENTER THAT KINGDOM

The Lord Jesus himself has settled this question, by his own divine authority. Matt. xviii. 3: "Verily I say unto you, except ye be converted, and become AS little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." As the little child is, such must all be, or they can never enter that kingdom. Hear the Saviour again: "Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not; for of such is the kingdom of God:" Luke xviii. 16. How are they? Answer. 1. They are innocent, and God loves them. 2. They possess a fallen and corrupt nature, but are not guilty on that account. Christ has cancelled the guilt of Adamic transgression, and in the resurrection at the last day, all the effects of the fall on the innocent, or justified, will be removed, not before. 3. They are branches of Christ, by the indwelling of the spirit of Jesus Christ; and are in a slate of grace. They transgress the letter of the law, but not knowingly; they have a continual justification

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through the blood of Christ for all those unknown violations of God's law. But when they know the right and the wrong, and yet voluntarily forsake the right, and commit the wrong, they become guilty, and must repent, believe, and be converted, in order to enter the kingdom of God. It may be to some a startling proposition that infants are in a state of grace, and have the spirit of Christ dwelling in them; but I can draw no other conclusion from the declarations of Christ respecting them. No one can be Christ's unless he has the spirit of Christ. No one can be quickened from the dead and raised up to eternal life unless he has the spirit in him which quickened Jesus Christ from the dead. But little children, being the subjects of the kingdom of heaven, must have a resurrection from the dead to eternal life, in order to inherit it. But if that spirit be not in them they cannot be so raised; then they must have it and be Christians. I cannot see that it is necessary that the child should ever be anything else but a Christian. If they are under the necessity of sinning voluntarily when they come to years, it cannot be accounted to them as sin; for they only do what they must. That they do usually follow their evil nature, rather than the teachings and strivings of the Spirit, is freely granted; but not that there is any necessity that they should ever become voluntary offenders, or be anything else but true Christians. They come into being under the covenant of grace, and they may remain so. To enter the kingdom of heaven, all men must become what the little child is.

1. We must become innocent. This can only be by obtaining pardon of God through the atonement

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of Jesus Christ. We are told very distinctly how this may be obtained. 1 John i. 9: "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Such a confession as is here required is a penitent, believing, and obedient confession of all our sins and sinfulness. When we do this the pardon is sure. He is faithful and just to grant it. He cannot do otherwise; nor can he fail on the same condition to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The innocent, God loves; and whom he loves, to them he grants his spirit to dwell in them, and cleanse the thoughts of their hearts, that they may perfectly love him, and worthily magnify his name. They are as innocent in his sight as though they had never sinned; and immediately become partakers of the spirit of Christ, to govern and direct them in all they do. And while they are led by the spirit of God they are the sons of God.

2. But grace no more destroys nature in the adult believer than in the infant. That is not its design. Grace, which is nothing but the indwelling of the Holy Ghost in our mortal bodies, governs, regulates, and keeps nature in subjection; but glory is the grand antidote for poor fallen nature; and by that grand specific, the whole image of God shall be restored. All, both children and adults, will be glorified together.

There is no state of grace to which we may attain in this life where our old nature derived from Adam will expire; but every true believer in Jesus Christ is in a state where he does not serve sin; it has not dominion over him. The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made him

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free from the law of sin and death. And while his faith continues in exercise, by which he is united to Christ, he has victory over all sin and does not commit sin. Tempted we always shall be; a war with nature we always shall have; but the victory, through the power of an indwelling Christ, is certain. The love of God dwells in the believer, because the Holy Ghost dwells there; and is a spirit of love. Where God dwells, love dwells; "for God is love." The love of God dwelling in us, it will be the moving motive power of all our acts. An action flowing from love may be erroneous, wrong in itself, but it cannot be imputed to the believer as sin, nor can he be condemned for that ignorant violation of God's law. He rests, not in his own obedience for justification, but in Christ alone; and through him has a continual justification, and the witness abiding of his sonship. God is both faithful and just to cleanse from all unrighteousness all whom he forgives. We cannot obtain forgiveness until we confess our sins; when we do that, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. It is only unbelief which says he is not thus faithful.

XIII. THE MILLENNIUM AFTER THE RESURRECTION OF THE JUST

The doctrine of the universal triumph of the gospel for a thousand years before the second advent of the Saviour, thus making the reign of Christ on earth as king of saints, purely spiritual, and saying that the Lord delayeth his coming for at least a thousand years, next demands our attention.

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The doctrine of the world's conversion will first be examined in the light of Scripture.

1. It is argued that there must be such a state of universal holiness on earth, and before the second advent, to fulfil such promises as the following. Heb. viii. 11: "They shall not teach every man his neighbor and every man his brother, saying, know the Lord; for all shall know me from the least to the greatest." Again, Isa. xi. 5-9: "And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins. The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fattling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice's den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." Also, Isa. ii. 4: "And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plough-shares, and their spears into pruning-books: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more."

It is alleged that these promises can never be fulfilled, if they are not fulfilled before the second coming of the Lord. And that a fulfilment of them implies a state of universal holiness. In replying to this argument, I would remark, it is impossible to fulfil them in this world unless there is an entire change in the constitution of

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both man and beast. For while man remains under his present depraved constitution, and comes into the world as he does now, there can be no such thing as an universal knowledge of God without instruction. But in that promised state they will need none, but all, from the least to the greatest, will know the Lord without it.

But it is said in reply, by most persons who adopt the theory, "we do not expect that every one will be pious, but the great mass will." Then you have no right to claim the text in question for the support of your cause; for it proves too much for you, and you abandon it when we apply it to your theory. If it proves aught for you, it proves the universal knowledge and holiness of the human race on earth at that time. The constitution of brutes must be changed. For it is now the nature of "the wolf" to devour "the lamb," and for the leopard to tear the kid. It is the nature of "the lion" to eat flesh, not straw; and for the cockatrice and asp, to bite, sting, and poison the hand that approaches their den. But it is answered, "We do not expect that it will be literal; but that the wolfish and ferocious passions of the human heart will be subdued; and that these strong expressions are used to represent the great change which will be apparent in human society." Indeed! And have we not just the same right to the figures, if figures they are, to express our millennium, and the universal peace of the heavenly state, the kingdom of God, under the great Prince of peace? But we are willing, if its shall so please the great Deliverer, that he should bring back Paradise, with all its beasts, birds, and reptiles. And, as we know nothing of that state

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but what is revealed, if God has revealed the fact that they will be there, and has nowhere said they will not, it will be the part of wisdom to believe God, and not man's tradition.

The Psalmist, in the eighth Psalm, has ascribed to "the Son of man" universal dominion over all creatures, beasts, fowls and fishes, and declares he was made a little lower than the angels, to have dominion over the works of God's hands. Paul has taken up the Psalm, in Heb. ii. 5, and onward, and says that it is the dominion of Jesus Christ in "the world to come," (literally, the oikoumine, the habitable earth to come,) "whereof we speak." That now, although "we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels," "crowned with glory and honor," yet, "we see not yet all things put under him," It is in the world to come, that the 8th Psalm will be fulfilled; when the kingdom given to man, and prepared for him from the foundation of the world, will be given to the saints, by Christ. All there is in the Bible, is in favor of the restitution of the brute creation; but I know of nothing, from Genesis to Revelation, to contradict it, and say it will not be thus. I have long looked on Mr. Wesley's argument on this subject, viz., the restitution of the brutes in the new earth, as conclusive and irrefutable, and do so still. The reader will find his view in his sermon on the general deliverance.

If these texts are to be understood in a literal sense, it must carry us forward to a state when there will have been a radical change in the constitution of human nature above what grace can do for it; and a change in the brute creation, such as we are not authorized to expect until the

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great deliverance from the unwilling vanity to which they are now subjected. That will be, in the restitution which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.

"Learn war no more." This cannot be the spiritual reign of Christ in the millennium, and so sustain that theory; for according to it, there will be at the end of that period such an apostacy from Christ, and array of armies of the nations against the beloved city, as was never known before. The nations, on this hypothesis, will learn war again then. But on our view of the subject, although the wicked in their resurrection will be gathered and brought up around the camp of the saints by the deceptive pretence of a battle, yet not a blow will be struck, but the divine vengeance interpose and execute on them his just judgment. Universal and everlasting peace will prevail among all the inhabitants of the earth, for the meek only shall inherit it forever. This, then, must also be fulfilled under the reign of the great Prince of peace, in a state of glory and blessedness.

2. I object to the doctrine of a universal triumph of the church of God, because it contradicts the express declaration of God's word.

That word teaches us that the servant is not above his master. "If they have not heard me they will not hear you; if they have kept my sayings they will keep yours also." The time never was in Christ's ministry when all the people heard him and received his instructions. Although at times, as in modern revivals, under some strong influences the multitude were moved, and it

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seemed for the time they were all about to embrace him, yet how soon the same multitude were ready to stone him!

This is a fair sample of human nature, according to the experience of six thousand years. It is all the dependence which can be placed on it. If the Master himself succeeded no better, how can his servants hope to?

It contradicts the parable of the sower in Matt. xiii. There were four kinds of ground on which the seed, the word of the kingdom, fell. And from only one of those grounds was fruit received. Universal experience has shown how true the parable is to the facts in the case. Christ has nowhere told us that it will ever be otherwise while the "word of the kingdom" is preached.

The parable of the tares of the field teaches also the same doctrine. The field is the world, the globe with its human inhabitants, where the tares and wheat will grow together until the harvest, or end of this world, (age,) the Christian age which began with John and will end with the second advent of the Saviour. Then, not before, "he will gather out of his (territorial) kingdom (the world) all things which offend, and them which do iniquity, and cast them into a furnace of fire; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father."

3. I object, thirdly, to the doctrine of the universal conversion of the world as the introduction to the millennium, because the Bible throughout represents the universal kingdom of Christ as to be introduced by the violent destruction of the wicked, and the everlasting reward of the righteous.

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(1.) The second Psalm is one of the passages often quoted to prove the conversion of the world, as the introduction of the glorious spiritual reign of Christ. "Ask of me and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession." And here they stop and infer the world's conversion. Why do they not go on through the passage, and read what he is to do with them when they are given up to him? "Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; and shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel." Is this a promise of the conversion of the heathen? What then would be the language in which their destruction could be expressed?

(2.) The stone is to smite the image, grind it to powder, and the wind sweep it away, before God's kingdom fills the whole earth.

(3.) In the vision of the four beasts, of Daniel vii., the beast, the last of the four, is to be slain, his body destroyed and given to the burning flame; and then the Son of man come in the clouds of heaven, and there be given him dominion, glory, and a kingdom, to endure forever.

(4.) Anti-Christ, that wicked, that man of sin, spoken of by Paul, (2 Thess. ii.,) is only to be destroyed by the brightness of Christ's coming. Until Christ comes, Anti-Christ will reign and oppose the saints.

(5.) The kingdom of Christ is not to be universal until the seventh trumpet sounds. Rev. xi. 15. The seventh is the last trump, and at it the dead will be raised incorruptible, and the living saints be changed. 1 Cor. xv.

(6.) The idea of such a state contradicts the declaration of Christ to his church, that in the

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world she shall have tribulation; as also the doctrine that through much tribulation we must enter into the kingdom of God. It would disqualify those who enjoyed the state, to join the innumerable company of the redeemed who will have come up out of great tribulation.

(7.) I object to such a view of the millennium, because the only scriptural account there is of the thousand years' reign of the saints with Christ, is, that it will be-

XIV. THE FIRST RESURRECTION

The only passage in the Bible which speaks directly of the thousand years, is in Rev. xx., where it is said, "I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them; and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark in their foreheads or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he which hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power; but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years."

This is the true millennium, and the only one found in the word of God.

From this we learn that the "blessed and holy" will be raised a thousand years before the rest of the dead.

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No doctrine is more distinctly taught in the Bible than that of two distinct resurrections of the dead. Some of the numerous passages where it is either directly or indirectly taught, will be noticed.

1. The conditional promises of Christ, John sixth chapter, of "raising up at the last day" those who comply with those conditions; clearly implying, that if they did not do so, he would not then raise them.

2. The promise of the Saviour to those who should, in making a feast, call in the poor, who could not recompense them, that they should be recompensed at the resurrection of the just. Luke xiv. 13, 14. If there is to be but one resurrection, why name the resurrection of the just? Why not say, as is generally said at this day, "At the resurrection?"

3. Jesus Christ has said, (John v. 28, 29,) "The hour is coming when all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation." There are in this text, two distinct resurrections recognized: "of life;" "of damnation." They that have done good will enjoy the former; they that have done evil, endure the latter. It is objected, the whole is said to take place in the same literal "hour." "The hour cometh." To this, it is replied, that the term "hour" merely signifies, the time will come when all will hear his voice, and live or come forth from the grave; but each in his own time. The word is manifestly used thus, in John v. 25. where it is said "The hour is coming and now is,

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when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live."

Even while Christ was on earth, the time was coming, yea, had come, that the dead, Lazarus, the widow's son, etc., should, and did hear his voice, and those that heard, lived. Were all these instances in one literal hour, or at one time? Clearly not. But, says the objector, it does not mean the dead in a literal but spiritual sense. Very well, we will look at its meaning then. The hour is coming and now is when the dead in trespasses and sins shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. Was this true, I ask, only that very hour in which he spoke; or is it true of all subsequent time to the end of the world? The latter is true, most clearly. Then the hour signifies, in verse twenty-five, the whole gospel dispensation; why, then, may it not, by the same rule, signify, in the twenty-eighth verse, a thousand years? It must be understood, in the twenty-fifth verse, in some other than its literal acceptation; then why not in the twenty-eighth verse? It is not necessary to go beyond the fifth chapter of John to settle the controversy, on the import of the term hour, as used in reference to the time of the resurrection.

The true millennium of Revelation, twentieth chapter, is not until the first resurrection, or the resurrection of the just. Rev. xx. 4-6. The classes enumerated in this text who live and reign a thousand years before the rest of the dead live again, include the "blessed and holy."

There is no such thing as a conversion of the world taught in the twentieth of Revelation, but only the thousand years between the two resurrections.

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The term resurrection is never used in the Bible in any other than its proper sense of bringing to life the bodies of the dead. I would dwell longer on this point, but so much has been said upon it that the fable of the spiritual reign is well nigh dissipated from the mind of the great mass of the church. The clergy and theological professors, it is true, still hold on upon it. But it will not go; the people are opening their eyes to look for themselves.

XV. GOG AND MAGOG

Who are Gog and Magog, says one, whom Satan is to deceive at the end of the thousand years, if there are to be none but the raised and glorified saints on earth during that time? I answer, the same mentioned in verse 5, who are not to live again until the thousand years are finished; clearly implying they will live again then. If they are raised then, and Satan is loosed at the same time, he will find a great abundance of subjects of his deceptive pretence of a battle with Christ and his saints. And this is the only point of deception. There is no battle between the devil and the saints; but "fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them." The fire of God's wrath will sweep them from the earth into the lake of fire.

XVI. GOG AND MAGOG IN THE NEW EARTH

But it is asked, do you suppose Gog and Magog, or the wicked dead, will rise out of the new earth, and come upon it and defile it? I do suppose

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they will be raised out of the new earth, 1. Because they are to be burned up (Mal. iv.) at the great day when God makes up his jewels, and burns the earth; and be ashes under the saints' feet. So, if they come up at all, as they assuredly will, it must be from the new earth. 2. It is in the new earth they are raised, because they will come around the camp of the saints and the beloved city. But the New Jerusalem is only to come with the new earth. Rev. xxi.; Isai. lxv. 17, 18.

"How can these things be?" is only an infidel inquiry, and shows the same error of which the Sadducees were guilty, "not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God." I do not suppose they will defile the earth by treading on it, any more than the devil defiles the human mind by throwing in an involuntary wicked thought, which is instantly rejected. We have only to believe God's testimony, and all difficulties vanish. What he has promised, he is able also to perform.

XVII. THE MEANING OF THE TERM "JUDGE."

1. It is used in the Bible in the sense of a trial according to law and evidence; the idea being drawn from a civil or criminal court. The term is used in this sense in Luke xix. 22, in the parable of the nobleman and his servants. "Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant." This is clearly a trial.

2. It signifies a penal judgment; or the execution of judgment; and is so used, Acts vii. 7. "And the nation to whom they shall be in bondage will I judge, saith God." This judgment

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on the Egyptians, when God delivered Israel, was clearly a penal judgment.

The terms are both used in reference to the judgment of the human race. 1. All men will be brought to trial, or into judgment, and all their deeds and their moral characters will be examined, and their everlasting states will be determined by the evidence produced from God's books, including the book of life, which will decide the moral character and everlasting destiny of each individual of Adam's race. If their names are found in "the book of life," they will be saved; and if not found there, they will be cast into the lake of fire, the second death. But the degree of reward or punishment will be graduated by what each one has done. If they have built on Christ, they will have their names in the book of life, and will be saved; if not, they will be lost. If they have built on Christ, of gold, silver, precious stones, they will receive a rich reward; if of wood, hay, stubble, they will have their work burned up, and suffer a great loss, but themselves be saved, so as by fire.

XVIII. THE TRIAL MUST PRECEDE THE EXECUTION

This is so clear a proposition that it is sufficient to state it No human tribunal would think of executing judgment on a prisoner until after his trial; much less will God. He will bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good or evil.

But the resurrection is the retribution or execution of judgment; for "they that have done good shall come forth to the resurrection of life."

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"We look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus, who shall change our vile bodies, and fashion them like unto his glorious body." "In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed." Here is clearly a retribution in the resurrection. It will be administered when the saints are raised. But no more certainly than they that have done evil will come forth damned, or "to the resurrection of damnation." They will come forth to shame and everlasting contempt. The saints will be raised and be caught up at once to meet the Lord in the air, to be forever with the Lord. There can be no general judgment or trial after the resurrection. The resurrection is the separating process, and they will never be commingled again, after the saints are raised. No matter how long or short the period to elapse between the two resurrections; it is all the same so far as the separation which the resurrection produces, is concerned. If there is no more than a second which elapses between the two resurrections, the separation it makes is final.

These two senses of the judgment are recognised in Rev. xx. 12, 13. "And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works." This is the trial of the dead in the invisible and spiritual world, before Jesus Christ comes in the clouds of heaven. The only evidence on which the trial proceeds, is, the books and the book of life.

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They tell the whole story, and we must abide the issue of the trial on that testimony. The dead, as dead, were judged. Then follows, in the next verse, the penal judgment, in connection with the resurrection. "The sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them, and they were judged (judgment was executed on them) every man according to their works." There is no reference here to a trial or the opening of the books; but simply a penal judgment. Judgment will be executed finally, on each party, the righteous and the wicked, each one at the time of their resurrection; the righteous at the first resurrection, and the wicked at the final resurrection.

XIX. GOD, "THE ANCIENT OF DAYS," WILL PRESIDE IN THE TRIAL

1. Daniel vii. 9, 10, presents the Ancient of days coming on his throne of fiery flame; the judgment is set and the books opened. He is distinct from the Son of man, spoken of in the 13th verse, when he comes to the Ancient of days.

2. Revelation xx. 12, tells us it is God, before whom the dead stand and are judged.

XX. THE SON OF MAN WILL EXECUTE THE JUDGMENT

Thus the Saviour declares, John v. 27: "And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man." Also, 2 Cor.

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v. 10: "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things in body according to that he hath done, whether good or bad." Also, Paul's testimony in the Acts of the Apostles: "God hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath given assurance to all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead." What we are assured of by the resurrection of Christ, is, the execution, in the resurrection, of a righteous judgment on all men.

XXI. THE TIME OF THE TRIAL OF THE DEAD

It is under the opening of the sixth seal of Revelation seventh chapter, where the servants of God are sealed preparatory to the resurrection. And under the seventh seal, (chapter viii. 1,) when there is silence in heaven about the space of half an hour; when the great Mediator ceases to plead for sinners, the day of grace ends; then the judgment or trial will proceed on the living inhabitants of the earth. That done, Christ will appear in the clouds of heaven, and come to the Ancient of days and the scene of trial, to announce the verdict with a shout, and deliver all his saints as soon as they are declared innocent or justified, and raise them to eternal life in the twinkling of an eye. We are now justified by faith; we must, however, be declared justified at the day of judgment, before the effects of the fall will be taken away, and the saints be restored to God's perfect image and glory.

XXII. THE XXVTH CHAPTER OF MATTHEW

This chapter does not, as has been supposed, describe the great trial, but the separation between the righteous and wicked, which will be accomplished by the resurrection of the just. And when the separation is accomplished, Christ will address each party, and show why he has made this separation. But through the whole scene, he acts the part of the executor of judgment. All nations will be before him, not in the body to be separated, but the living in the body and the dead in the spirit. They will be "judged, (tried) according to (by the same rule of) men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit." [Query. Did the judgment, or trial of the dead, begin or sit, when they took away the papal dominion in 1798? See Dan. vii. 26, compared with Dan. vii. 9, 10.]

CHAPTER II. THE JEWS

I. ARE THE JEWS, AS SUCH, TO BE RESTORED TO THE LAND OF PALESTINE?

This question is of so great moment, in the estimation of many people, that, until it is met and fully disproved, no argument can avail with them in proving the speedy coming of Christ. I shall endeavor to meet the question in as brief a manner as possible and do it justice.

1. They will not go back to Palestine as a nation, because they have no good title to the land.

The Jews profess to be the proprietors of that land, first, on the ground of the title given by promise, to "Abraham and his seed." This, of course, is a good title, if they can prove themselves the subjects of it. If they cannot do this, their title to the land fails; it is null and void.

Let us test this question. Gen. xvii. 8: "And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God." Abraham and his seed are the heirs, and the undoubted heirs of that land. We will now turn to Gal. iii. 15, 16: "Brethren, I speak after the manner of men; though it be but a man's covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no

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man disannulleth or addeth thereto. Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made: he saith not and to seeds as of many, but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ." If there is any strength or point in the argument of the apostle, it is, that Christ, not the Jews, is the heir to the inheritance of Canaan.

If man had made and confirmed the covenant, it could not be altered; but it was God who did it; how much less, then, can it be changed. It was made to and confirmed in Christ; then Christ must possess the inheritance it gives, and not the Jews. But Christ is not the alone heir, but all the members of his body are a part of himself, and will share his glory and his inheritance. "For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither bond nor free; there is neither male nor female; but ye are all one in Christ Jesus; and if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." Gal: iii. 27-29.

Every Christian, is, therefore, a rightful heir to the land of promise, with Abraham and Christ.

But, secondly, the Jews claim a right to the soil, on the ground, that, under the law of Moses, God brought them in, and put them in possession of the land of promise. This, Paul also meets as he did the other claim. He shows that if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by promise. And having given it to Abraham and Christ by promise, the law which came four hundred and thirty years after the promise was made, could not break or

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disannul that promise, by taking the promised inheritance from Christ to give it to the Jews.

But the Jew again asks, Wherefore then serveth the law, if it does not confer a title to the inheritance? Why was it given? See Gal. iii. Paul answers, "because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made." "Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith." The true heir had not come, and God placed the Jewish nation in possession of the land until he should come. When he came, the husbandmen said, this is the heir, come let us kill him; and they cast him out of the vineyard and slew him. What shall the Lord of that servant do unto those wicked husbandmen? He will miserably destroy those wicked husbandmen, and let out the vineyard to other husbandmen. The Pharisees saw that he had spoken this against them. If there is any point to this parable of the vineyard, it teaches the doctrine of the forfeiture of the possession of that land by the Jews. The true seed has now come, and it belongs to him, and all who are in him by faith, and are thus Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. But as yet, Jerusalem is trodden down of the Gentiles, and will be until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. Abraham, in his life-time, never had enough of the land that be could call his own, by virtue of the promise, to set his foot on. Acts vii. Christ, the true seed of Abraham, while on earth, had not where to lay his head. Abraham, together with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise, by faith sojourned in the land of promise as in a

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strange country. These all died in the faith, not having received the promises. They looked for a city, the New Jerusalem, which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. They sought a better country, that is a heavenly; wherefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he hath prepared for them a city. The new earth and the New Jerusalem will be their portion, and Christ and his saints will have it with them.

The land of Palestine belonging to Christ and his saints, and not the Jews,-all the unfulfilled promises of a return of Israel to their own land, or the land God gave to Abraham, must refer to the true Israel, in the resurrection, as they most clearly do in the 37th chapter of Ezekiel. There, God has promised to bring up the dry bones, "the whole house of Israel," from their graves, to bring up flesh and sinews upon them, to cover them with skin, and to put his spirit into them and they shall live; and he will bring them "into the land of Israel," "their own land."

Then, in the resurrection, Abraham and all his seed will come in possession of the land together; and they will possess it for an everlasting possession: a thing they cannot do while death reigns.

II. ARE THE JEWISH NATION, AS A NATION, TO BE CONVERTED TO CHRIST?

It is alleged by many that they are; and in proof of it, we are directed to the eleventh chapter of Romans. As this chapter is the strong-hold

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of Judaism, I shall go into it at length, and for the purpose of presenting more clearly my views of its meaning, I shall give a paraphrase of the chapter.

III. EXPLANATION AND PARAPHRASE OF ROMANS NINTH, TENTH AND ELEVENTH CHAPTERS

Paul commences his argument on this subject by expressing (Romans ix. 1-5) his strong desire for the salvation of his Jewish brethren, the natural blood relatives, through Abraham, of Christ.

Verses 6, 7. He comforts himself with the fact that the word of God has taken some effect among them, and that it was all he had a right to expect. "For they are not all Israel who are of Israel;" that was not the promise of God; "neither, because they are the seed of Abraham are they all children: but in Isaac shall thy seed be called."

Verse 8. "That is, they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of promise are counted for the seed."

From the 9th to the 24th verse, ho shows that God has always reserved to himself the prerogative of choosing his instruments both of mercy and judgment, according to his own will and wisdom.

1. Of the family or children of Abraham, he chose Isaac to be the holy family, or church; and through him to bless the world; and Ishmael was rejected.

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2. He chose Jacob of the sons of Isaac for the same purpose, and Esau was rejected from that peculiar blessing or privilege. Is God unrighteous, thus to choose one to such an honor, to the neglect of another? "God forbid;" he only does as he has a perfect right to do.

Then, again, in selecting the instruments of judgment, God has acted on the same principle. He made choice of Pharaoh, a wicked and incorrigible man, and "raised him up" to the throne of Egypt, that he might show his power in the deliverance of Israel from his oppression, and thus his name he declared throughout the earth. He did not raise or bring Pharaoh into being, to make him a wicked man; but he having been brought into being, and proving himself a fit instrument, by his wickedness, for such a work, God made use of him to serve his own glory.

Just so the potter; he takes a lump of clay, puts it on the wheel and attempts to make some fine and honorable vessel of it. But the clay being unsusceptible of such a shape and polish as he designed to give to it, after a long effort he gives up the enterprise; and the vessel is marred in his hand. Will he throw away the clay? In no wise. But the potter will take the clay, the same lump, and put it into another vessel, of a coarser and more ordinary cast; a vessel unto dishonor. Now what if God does just so? He has endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath, the Jews, and done what he could to make them obedient and believing; but they were incorrigible, and he has fitted them for destruction, and will make his wrath known on them. And he will make known the riches of

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his glory on the vessels of mercy, the believers, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles. All who obey his call, will share that mercy.

3. Having thus always exercised the prerogative of choosing out of Abraham's seed, the church, he has still the right to do so. And this he has promised to do, in verses 25, 26; "As he saith also in Osee, I will call them my people, which were not my people, and her beloved which was not beloved. And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said unto them ye are not my people, there shall they be called the children of the living God." Who is the people who were not once, but are now the people and the children of the living God? The 24th verse answers: Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles. All believers. How are they the sons or children of, the living God? The question is answered, Gal. iii. 26-28: Ye are all the children of God by faith, baptized into Christ; and there is neither Jew nor Greek known in the matter. "And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." God calls his church still of Abraham's seed; but not all of them the children of the flesh. The word of God had taken some effect among the Jews and some among the Gentiles. But whether Jews or Gentiles, all who believed were the seed of Abraham according to promise, and the children of God.

4. From verses 27-29, he proves that God had never promised that any more than a remnant of the Jews would be saved. This was the fact in the days of Isaiah as well as in the days

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of Paul. That remnant, even in the days when the Jews constituted the exclusive church, was all that God considered "his people."

5. From the 30th to 33rd verse, the apostle shows why the Jews had failed to continue to be the church of God, and be "his people;" and why the Gentiles had received that character and privilege. The Gentiles had obtained the righteousness of faith, although while the types and shadows of the law were in force they had not, by observing the ceremonial law, sought righteousness; but now Christ is come and the law disannulled or become of no force, they believe in Christ and obtain righteousness. But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness by observing the ceremonial law, hath not attained it, because they sought it not by faith, but by the deeds of the law. "For they stumbled at that stumbling-stone; as it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumbling-stone, and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed." Christ is the stumbling-stone. The Jews were unwilling to give up the faith of their dispensation, faith in a Saviour to come, to believe in one already come and offered for them; and thus failed of righteousness. The Gentiles who believed, obtained that which the Jews, failed to obtain, viz., salvation.

6 The apostle proceeds, in the 10th chapter, from verse 1-11, to show the difficulty in the way of the Jews, and how they stumbled over Christ. It was not the want of zeal, but of knowledge of the way of exercising that zeal. They went about to establish their own righteousness by performing the duties of the dead ceremonial

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law, and would not submit to the righteousness of God, which is Christ; faith in Christ. For "Christ is the end of the [ceremonial] law for righteousness to every one that believeth." The faith in Christ which is requisite to salvation is, "if thou shalt believe in thy heart in the Lord Jesus, and shalt confess with thy mouth that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." Faith, and confession of that faith, is the condition and only condition for either Jew or Gentile.

7. Verses 12, 13. The apostle lays down the broad principle, that now, since this faith is come, and the law ended, "there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek." The law once made a distinction, and gave the Jew the preeminence, so that the Gentile could only come into the church through the door of Judaism and by the consent of the Jews. But now the scene is changed. The middle wall of partition is broken down, the law of commandment contained in ordinances; thus abolishing the enmity, nailing it to his cross, of the twain to make one new man, so making peace. Now, therefore, "the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him." Who, then, with this plain declaration from God's word, that there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek, will dare to say, there is a difference still existing, and God has in store for the Jewish nation or race peculiar blessings, which are not common to the Gentile world? I dare not. "Whosoever," then, "shall call on the name of the Lord, shall be saved."

8. The next point; from the 14-18 verse, he goes on to show that in order to their salvation

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by faith, they must hear the gospel, "for faith cometh by hearing." "But they have not all obeyed the gospel." What is the difficulty? Where does the fault lie? "Have they not all heard?" Are they excusable for not having all obeyed the gospel, on the ground that they have not heard it? This is not the case. For "their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world." Then the difficulty is not there; they have heard.

9. But have not the Jews a knowledge of the fact that Christ is the Saviour, and that men are saved through his name? Verses 19-21. They certainly do know it. For Moses saith, "I will provoke you to jealousy by no people, and by a foolish nation I will anger you." That is, by calling the Gentiles into the Christian fold and making them my people, I will provoke the Jews to jealousy, and cause them to hear the great things the gospel does for the world. "But Esaias is very bold, and saith I was found of them that sought me not, I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me. But to Israel he saith, all day long have I stretched out my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people." They might have come if they would, but they would not. They stumbled wilfully, at that stumbling-stone, Christ; and refuse to believe when they have heard and known.

10. I come now to the 11th chapter, the strong hold of Judaism. In verses 1st and 2nd, Paul shows that God hath not cast away his people, the Jews, so that they are shut out from the covenant blessings of God to Abraham. The proof he offers, is, "I also am an Israelite, of the

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seed of Abraham, and of the tribe of Benjamin." "God hath not cast away his people whom he foreknew. "It is now, as in the days of Elias. When he thought none were left on the side of God but himself, the Lord assured him, "I have reserved to myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal. Verses 3, 4.

Verse 5. "Even so, then, at this present time, also, there is a remnant according to the election of grace."

They were not God's people then on account of their being under the law, but because they looked through the law to its author and end, Christ.

Verse 6. "And if by grace, it is no more of works." It was the election of grace then; and is so now. There was only a remnant then that were thus elected; there was the same in Paul's day; and in our own day, it is the same. It has been thus in every age of the world since Moses. Some have not believed; others of the Jews have.

Verses 7, 8. "What then?" What is the conclusion we are to draw from this fact? Why, that "Israel," the Jewish nation as a whole, "hath not obtained that which he seeketh for," viz., righteousness or salvation, because they sought it not by faith; "but the election hath obtained it; and the rest were blinded, according as it is written" in Isaiah xxix. 10: "God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes, that they should not see, and ears, that they should not hear, unto this day." God has blinded the wilfully unbelieving Jews, according to Isaiah's prediction, but has saved the penitent and believing, whether Jew or Gentile.

Verses 9, 10. David predicted the same judicial

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blindness in Psalm lxix. 22, 23: "Let their table," the law in which they so much glory, "be made a snare and a trap, and a stumbling-block, and a recompense unto them. Let their eyes be darkened that they may not see, and bow down their back always."

The Jewish people stumbled at Christ. He was the stumbling-stone laid in Zion; and then the law, because of their rejection of the Saviour, was to be made a trap; they should be led into ruin by cleaving to it.

Verse 11. The apostle inquires, "I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall?" Has God given Christ, the stumbling-stone, for the purpose of making them fall irrecoverably, so that there is no hope for them? "God forbid: but through their fall," the death of Christ, the promised Seed of Abraham, in whom all the families of the earth were to be blessed, "salvation is come to the Gentiles." The Jews had, up to that point, constituted the holy family, because the blood of Abraham and of Christ flowed in their veins. That, blood being shed, for the salvation of the world, and Christ being quickened into new life by the Spirit, the bond of union between him and them ceased. They were broken off from Christ by the pouring out of his blood, and can only be united again by partaking of his Spirit. The Jew and Gentile are alike, by nature, aliens from Christ; but may both come on the same condition, and constitute one new man, the body of Christ. Thus, through the fall of the Jews, the death of Christ, "salvation is come unto the Gentiles."

Verse 12. "Now if the fall of them," the sheding

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of Christ's blood, "be the riches of the world," has made the Spirit of Christ free for the world; "and the diminishing of them," by casting off all who do not by faith receive the Spirit of Christ, "be the riches of the Gentiles," has opened the door of mercy to the Gentiles, "how much more "rich the Gentiles would be in "their fulness," if they would all come in.

Verses 13, 14. "For I speak to you, Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office; if by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh, and might save some of them." As if he had said, being especially sent to the Gentiles, it is not consistent with my calling to turn aside to preach specifically to the Jews, but I will do my utmost while preaching to the Gentiles, to save some, at least, of my Jewish brethren. Paul did not expect a general or universal conversion of the Jews, but he did desire that all should be brought into the fold of Christ, who could be persuaded by any possible means.

Verses. 15, 16. "For if the casting away of them," as a nation, from their church privileges, on the ground of their natural relation to the fathers, by the coming of Christ, and his constituting his church, not of any one nation anymore, but of believers in Christ of all nations, "be the reconciling of the world," has provided a Saviour for all nations, and brings them nigh to God and proffers them pardon and eternal life, "What shall the receiving of them" again into the church "be but life from the dead?" This may be understood in two ways. 1. "What shall the receiving of them into the church be, but their con-version from spiritual death to spiritual life, by the

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indwelling of the spirit of Christ, the seed of eternal life? 2. What shall the receiving of them be but the resurrection of the dead? The first of the two senses appears to me the most easy and natural. I much prefer it to the last. Then, although the body of the Jews fell from their church privileges by their rejection of Christ, when he came, yet every converted Jew, or each one who receives the seed of eternal life, and has eternal life abiding in him, is received again into the church.

"For if the first-fruit" of the church, Christ, "be holy," a partaker of the Holy Ghost, "the lump is also holy;" the whole church must of necessity be like the first fruit. Christ was not the first-fruit of the church, merely because of the seed of Abraham, but because he is quickened into eternal life, and lives by the indwelling of the Holy Ghost. "If the root be holy," be a partaker of that holy nature, "so are the branches." They will all share the same nature with the root. True, they were the natural blood relatives of Christ, the good olive tree. But after the Saviour had shed or poured out the blood of Abraham from his veins, and was raised up from the dead by the quickening spirit which was in him, they, in order to continue branches, must partake of that same spirit. Failing to do so, they, by their unbelieving rejection of Christ, were broken off, or rather ceased to be branches of the tree. They cannot now be partakers of Christ, or claim relationship to Christ on the ground of blood-relation, for he has shed that blood, and does not now possess it If they now become his brethren, it must be by being partakers of his new principle of life.

Verses. 17, 18. "And if some of the [natural]

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branches be broken off," or cease to be in Christ, "and thou, being a wild olive-tree, wert grafted in among them," who of the Jews still remained in Christ by a believing reception of his spirit, "and with them," who believingly remain branches, such as the apostles, evangelists, etc., "partakest of the root and fatness of the olive-tree," Jesus Christ, "boast not against the branches," the old Jewish branches, as though you were now better by nature than they. "For if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee." Thou art not independent of Christ, and secure, so that thou canst never fall from thy present gracious state. For thou art still dependent on the root.

Verses 19-21. "Thou wilt say, then, the branches were broken off that I might be grafted in;" and for this reason I am better than those rejected branches. "Well, because of unbelief" in Christ as already come, "they were broken off," or ceased to be members of Christ; "and thou standest" in him as a branch, or partaker of his spirit, "by faith." "Be not high-minded but fear: for if God spared not the natural branches," when they refused to believe in Christ as crucified for them, "take heed lest he also spare not thee."

Verses 22-24. "Behold, therefore, the good-ness and severity of God. On them which fell severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness; otherwise thou also shalt be cut off. And they," the Jews, "also, if they continue not in unbelief, shall be grafted in again; for God is able to graft them in again. For, if thou wert cut out of the olive-tree, which is wild by nature," not a descendant from Abraham, to whom the promise was made, "and art grafted contrary to nature," by partaking of Christ's spirit by faith, "into a

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good olive-tree; how much more shall these which be the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive-tree," their brother after the flesh of Abraham? If he has power to do the former, there certainly can be no good reason why he cannot do the latter. But is there any authority for believing that the Jewish nation, as a nation, ever will be grafted in by believing in Christ? This the apostle answers in the negative.

Verse 25. "For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery," how long the Jewish people are to be in their present state of blindness and consequent rejection, "lest ye should be wise in your own conceits," and think they will some time or other be brought in, as a people; "that blindness in part is happened to Israel," the Jewish nation, "until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in."

What is "the fulness of the Gentiles?" Clearly, the same as "the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled," in Luke xxi. 24: "The times of the Gentiles" is the time allotted to the four great Gentile monarchies of Nebuchadnezzar's dream, in Dan. ii. and in Daniel's vision of the four beasts, or Gentile kingdoms, of the 7th chapter; at the end of which the Son of man is to come in the clouds of heaven to receive his universal and everlasting kingdom. This blindness, then, must continue through all time until the coming of Jesus Christ, and the destruction of the wicked.

The subject receives more ample illustration from Isai. vi. 8-10: "And I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, here am I, send me. And he said, go and tell this people, hear ye, indeed,

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but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their cars heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed." In this text we have the doom of blindness, which God by the mouth of his prophet, denounced on that faithless race. In the 11th verse the prophet enquires, "How long?" How long shall this blindness continue? And was answered, verses 11-13: "Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant." Until there is not an inhabitant in the cities, therefore, the blindness must continue. "And the houses without man." As long, then, as there is a man in any house, they will remain as they are. "And the land be utterly desolate." Until there is no one left in all the land or earth. "And the Lord have removed men far away," even taking his saints up to meet him in the air during the conflagration of the world, "and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land."

I would now ask the reader most earnestly and seriously, can such a desolation and forsaking of city, house, and land, ever come before the final conflagration of the world? How can entire, perfect desolation be more vividly described than it is in this passage? Then the blindness must continue until that event. "But yet it shall be a tenth." For although this blindness has happened to that race through all time, yet all will not be lost; "for yet it shall be a tenth;" a tithe, or remnant will remain true to Christ, and be living branches; "and shall return," after men are removed far away from the earth, and it is

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burned up and renovated; "and be eaten, as a teil tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them when they cast their leaves." The bleak winds of autumn sear the oak, and we should be almost inclined to pronounce it dead; but the substance or sap is still there. And when the vernal sun warms it into new life, the green foliage will again appear. "So the holy seed," the believers in and partakers of Christ's spirit, "are the substance" of Israel. They will come back, and with Abraham and Christ inherit the land of promise, and be heirs of the world.

If it be objected, that the expressions, "cities, houses, land," etc., do not refer to the whole world, but only to the holy land and its cities and houses, I ask, if it has ever yet happened? If it has, then the blindness pronounced on them is already ended; and must have ended whenever the cities, houses, land, etc., were desolated as described. But if it be yet future, I ask when will that land be desolate, except when all the earth beside shall share the same fate?

Verses 26-27. "And so, all Israel," the holy seed, as above, who shall return, as the substance of the seared oak, "shall be saved," in the kingdom of God and unto eternal life. "As it is written" in Isai. lix. 20, "There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob." This is nearly a literal rendering of the Septuagint version; while the reading of our translation of the passage is a literal rendering of the Hebrew, as follows: "And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob." The obvious meaning is, that the Redeemer will come to set up

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the throne of his father David on Mount Zion, and begin his glorious reign; and he will come to all the Jewish people who turn (now, have turned, then) from transgression, and receive the Saviour; and will raise and glorify them with himself.

Or, if we follow the rendering in Romans, then it means, the Deliverer came out of Zion, was the son, according to the flesh of David, the king of Zion. He shall, then, when the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled, "turn away ungodliness from Jacob;" and from all Jacob's true seed, by removing all the effects of the fall which the best of Christians endure. "For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins." We are now justified by faith; but the fruits of original sin, and of our own acts of disobedience, are not removed; nor will they be, until God justifies us at the day of judgment; and removes all these direful effects. He will then take away all the sins of his people, and their effects will cease; and in the twinkling of an eye, at the blast of the last trump, announcing that justification, every saint will spring into immortal life. This is God's covenant to his people.

Verses 28, 29. "As concerning the gospel, they [the Jews] are enemies for your sakes." Because you, Gentiles, are permitted to come in and share in the blessings of the gospel, the unbelieving Jews are enemies to the gospel. "But as touching the election, they are beloved, for the fathers' sakes." Although the Jews for your sakes are enemies to God and his gospel, yet, the election or believers are beloved of God, whether they be Jews or Gentiles by nature. "For the

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fathers' sakes." For the sake of God's covenant with the fathers, that in them all the families of the earth should be blessed. "For the gifts and callings of God are without repentance." He does not change his promises to justify, love, and save all who are of the faith of our father Abraham.

Verses 30-32. "For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief;" through Jesus Christ, the stumbling-stone, the cause of their fall and unbelief, you are admitted into the church, and to union with Christ. "Even so have these also, now, not obtained mercy," are broken off from Christ and the church, that through your mercy, your earnest efforts to bring them to Christ, "they also may obtain mercy," may be brought into Christ's body, the true church, and be saved forever.

"For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all;" that he might save them by his mere mercy, through faith, and not by the deeds of the law. They must all come on one common ground, whether Jews or Gentiles, and be saved by the mercy of God, or they must perish.

Verses 33, 34. "O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how un-searchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor?"

I have thus given what I conceive to be the true meaning of this most difficult and important portion of God's word. I have not written for strife or debate, but if possible to arrive at the

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truth on the great question of the ingathering of the Jewish people as a people, to the fold of Christ. It must be admitted that the doctrine, if taught at all in the New Testament, is taught in the 11th of Romans. But I ask the attentive reader of these pages, if it can be found there? If not, then the doctrine nowhere exists in the New Testament, or in the Bible. Every Jew is as free to come to Christ as the Gentile; and God will just as surely have mercy on him if he will come, as he will on a Gentile. And when they shall turn to the Lord, the veil that is over them shall be taken away. Probably as many Jews, in proportion to the whole number, have been converted since Christ, as there have been of the Gentile world. They are but a speck compared with the multitude of Gentiles; and so the number of conversions among them is apparently small. But I know of no age when there were none who professed to be of the stock of Abraham, who believed not in Christ. They have had an equal opportunity with the Gentiles to obtain gospel blessings.

IV. OTHER REMARKS ON THE CONVERSION OF THE JEWS

The idea that either Jew or Gentile will obtain mercy after Christ appears, is most preposterous. It would violate some of the most plain declarations of God's word. We have already learned, from the 6th of Isaiah, that the blindness of the Jews is to continue until the Lord have removed men far away, and the earth is desolated. This will not be until the day of judgment and perdition

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of ungodly men. Then the saints will be removed, and the wicked destroyed; a new heavens and earth be made, and the holy seed return and possess it.

The Lord Jesus, in the 13th of Luke, taught the Jews, that when once the master of the house has risen up and shut too the door, that they, the Jews, the children of the kingdom, they who were the natural heirs to it through their relation to Abraham, should be cast out into outer darkness, where will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, and see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God. More; they shall come from the east and from the west, from the north and south, and sit down with patriarchs and prophets in the kingdom of God, while themselves are thrust out. They will then seek to enter in, but shall not be able. They will plead, but find no admission.

Again; Paul teaches the same thing in Romans, 2nd chapter, where he declares that God will render to every man who doeth good, glory, honor and peace, to the Jew first, and then also to the Gentile; but to every soul of man that doeth evil, indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile; "in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Christ Jesus, according to my gospel." Keep in, remembrance, reader, that the doom of blindness is on them until the day of judgment. And then indignation and wrath is their portion.

CHAPTER III

I. THE VISION OF THE FOUR BEASTS, DANIEL, SEVENTH CHAPTER. - THE COMING OF THE SON OF MAN AND HIS KINGDOM TO SUCCEED THEN

The prophecies of Daniel, relating to the successive events of time, are, above all the other prophets, consecutive and full, taking up long chains of events from his own day, and carrying us down the stream of time to the coming of the everlasting kingdom of Jesus Christ. So full is he, in his delineations of the characters of governments, and their relation one to another, that it would hardly seem possible for us to mistake the governments intended. In none of his visions, however, is he more clear than in the vision of the four beasts, in the 7th chapter.

This vision of Daniel is peculiarly striking, from the manner in which it is given; the leading events being three times repeated. 1. A series of emblematic representations passed in vision before his eyes. 2. He repeated what he had seen, in the form of an inquiry as to the meaning; of the imagery. 3. A divine messenger explained, in order, each of the emblems seen in the vision. Each of these three repetitions of the events winds up by introducing an universal triumph of the saints, which shall never end.

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1. The prophetic imagery of the vision.

The substance of the vision is as follows: The four winds strove upon the great sea, and four great beasts arose from the sea, diverse one from another. The first like a lion, with eagle's wings. The second like a bear, with three ribs in the mouth. The third like a leopard, with four wings and four heads. The fourth was a dreadful and terrible, and exceeding strong beast, with great iron teeth; and it had ten horns. Then there came up among the ten another little horn, before whom three of the first ten fell, or were plucked up by the roots. In this little horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things. Then appeared the Ancient of Days on a throne of fiery flame: ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened. He saw also in vision the Son of man, coming in the clouds, of heaven, and receiving an universal and everlasting kingdom and dominion.

2. The inquiry respecting the meaning of the imagery.

(1.) The meaning of the four great beasts; verse 16. (2.) The meaning of the fourth beast, diverse from all which were before it; verse 19. (3.) The meaning of the ten horns that were in his head; verse 20. (4.) The meaning of the other which came up, and before whom three fell; even of that horn that had eyes, and a mouth which spake very great things; and which made war with the saints, and prevailed against them, until the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints, and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom.

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3. The answer of the explaining messenger to the foregoing inquiries.

(1.) The answer to the first inquiry is found, verses 17 and 18: "Thus he said; these great beasts, which are four, are four kings which shall arise out of the earth; but the saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever."

This text is a general explanation of the whole vision, and gives a comprehensive view of the course of events from then to the end of time. This course was comprehended under the reigns of four great kingdoms, or human governments, here called kings. But that the meaning of the term here is kingdom, is evident from verse 23: "The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth."

Beginning, then, with the days of Daniel, in the first year of Belshazzar, the last of the Chaldean monarchs, have four great kingdoms successively arisen, and followed each other, so as to form a perfect chain of events from Daniel to us? And does the last of them now exist?

The Chaldean monarchy was founded by Nimrod, the mighty hunter before the Lord. He was the great-grandson of Noah. "And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar." Gen. x. 10. This kingdom continued to flourish, and in the time of Nebuchadnezzar it had extended its conquests over the then known world. See Dan. ii. 37, 38. "Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory. And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts

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of the field and the fowls of heaven hath he given into thy hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all." All this was addressed to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Chaldea, in the second year of his reign. His kingdom continued to flourish, until that night when Belshazzar saw a hand-writing appear on his palace wall, announcing that his kingdom was divided and given to the Medes and Persians. "And in that night was Belshazzar, the king of the Chaldeans, slain, and Darius the Median took the kingdom." Daniel, fifth chapter.

Thus ended the first kingdom upon earth, and at the same time the second began.

The Medes and Persians continued to maintain their dominion until the time of Alexander the Great. The history of his conquest of the Medes and Persians is given, 1 Macc. i. 1: "Alexander, son of Philip the Macedonian, conquered Darius, of the seed of the Medes and Persians, and reigned in his stead, the first king over Greece." The writer then proceeds to tell us of the conquests of Alexander, and finally of his sickness, the division of his kingdom among his servants, his death, and their reign as his successors.

But before the birth of Christ, all the dominions of Alexander, or all the Grecian empire, had been conquered by the Romans, so that, at the time of Christ's birth, the world was tributary to them. In Luke ii. 1, we are informed, that Cesar Augustus issued a decree, that all the world should be taxed.

We have now found the four great kingdoms of the earth; and beginning with Nimrod, the great-grandson of Noah, the Roman government

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is the fourth kingdom upon earth. And this government yet exists, and exerts its influence in every land, whether civilized or savage; and in every land has its sworn liege subjects.

(2.) The answer to die second inquiry. The meaning of the fourth beast is given, verse 23rd: "Thus he said; the fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, and shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces."

Sufficient has already been said on this point, to show conclusively that it predicts the Roman government, which had devoured the whole earth, and trod it down, and broke it in pieces, at the time of Christ's birth.

(3.) The answer to the third question,-the ten horns which were in his head,-is found, verse 24: "The ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings which shall arise."

Did ten kings, or kingdoms, as above predicted, arise out of the fourth beast, or Roman government? When, and where?

That ten kings did arise and concurrently exist in the western Roman empire, is a matter too notorious to be disputed, and too plain to need proof. The only difficulty in the way seems to be this,-what ten kingdoms are intended? for, since their first establishment, they have continually been changing their names and location. Some have been plucked up or subverted, and others have arisen to take their place. This point, however, I think, may be settled by the text. Verses 7, 8: "And it had ten horns. I considered the horns, and behold, there came up

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among them another little horn, before whom three of the first horns were plucked up by the roots." Observe, first, there were to be ten kings contemporaneously flourishing, before any of the number were plucked up; and, second, that three of the first ten horns were to be plucked up by the roots, before the little horn's establishment. The kingdoms must then be the first ten established in western Rome. According to Marchiaval, the historian, (Hist. of Florence, book 1,) and Bishop Lloyd, an excellent chronologer, (in Lowth's Commentary on the Prophets, pp. 381-2,) and Dr. Hale's Analysis of Chronology, (vol. 2, b. 1, pp. 536-8,) the first ten kingdoms were as follows:-1. The Huns, in Hungary, A. D. 356. 2. The Ostrogoths, in Mysia, A. D. 377. 3. The Visgoths, in Pannonia, A.D. 378. 4. The Franks, in France, A. D. 407. 5. The Vandals, in Africa, A. D. 407. 6. The Sueves and Alans, in Gascoigne and Spain, A. D. 407. 7. The Burgundians, in Burgundy, A. D. 407. 8. The Heruli and Rugii, or Thuringi, in Italy, A. D. 476. 9. The Saxons and Angles, in Britain, A. D. 476. 10. The Lombards, in Germany, A. D. 483. If in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established, then this point is abundantly proved.

(4.) The answer to the fourth inquiry is given verses 24-26,-the meaning and history of the little horn, etc.: "Another shall rise after them, (the ten kingdoms,) and he shall subdue three kings. And he shall speak great words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to change times and laws; and they shall be given into his

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hand until a time, and times, and the dividing of time. But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end."

From this passage we learn the character of the little horn.

1. He was to be a blasphemous power. "Speak great words against the Most High." Such has Popery always been. To go back no farther than Sept., 1840, we shall find sufficient evidence of his arrogancy and blasphemy in his Encyclical letter. Title of the letter: "Encyclical Letter of our Most Holy Lord, Gregory XVI., by Divine Providence Pope." No being but Deity can claim and appropriate to himself such titles, or permit them to be applied to him by others, unreproved, without robbing God of the glory he has declared he will not give to another, and incurring the charge of blasphemy. His arrogancy is also manifest in the same letter:-"Hence it is easy to conceive the state of anguish into which our soul is plunged day and night, as we, being charged with the superintendence of the whole fold of Jesus Christ, and the care of all the churches," etc. There is no title which Jehovah has ever claimed, or prerogative he has professed to exercise, but what the Roman pontiff has, at one time or other, professed to bear and exercise. "Sitting in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God."

2. He was to be a persecuting power. And how fully this trait has been exemplified in the popes of Rome, church history must tell. More than fifty millions of innocent, unoffending Christians, it is estimated, have suffered martyrdom

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at the hands of that bloody power, during its dark reign. Thus were the saints worn out.

3. He was to think to change times and laws. He shall assume to dictate laws to the world. This will be illustrated too by some extracts from the letters and bulls of the popes. Pope Innocent III. writes, "So hath Christ established the kingdom and the priesthood in the church, that the kingdom is sacerdotal, and the priesthood is kingly. He hath set one man over the world, him whom he hath appointed his vicar on earth; and as to Christ is bent every knee in heaven, in earth and under the earth, so shall obedience and service be paid to his vicar by all, that there may be one fold and one shepherd." [Croley on the Apocalypse, p. 153.]

But the authority of the popes over kings is still more strongly asserted by Pope Gregory VII. in his epistles. "The Roman Pontiff alone is by right universal. In him alone is the right of making laws. Let all kings kiss the feet of the Pope. His name alone shall be heard in the churches. It is the only name in the world. It is his right to depose kings. His word is not to be repealed by any one. It is to be repealed by himself alone. He is to be judged by none. The church of Rome has never erred; and the Scriptures testify, it never shall err." [Croley, p. 154.]

Again, the bull of Pope Pius, against Queen Elizabeth, reads, "This one he hath constituted Prince over all nations, and all kingdoms, that he might pluck up, destroy, dissipate, overturn, plant and build." [Ibid.]

4. He was to have dominion over the saints, or

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church, a time, times, and dividing of time. This period, it is generally agreed, is three and a half years, of three hundred and sixty days each; each day standing for a year: the whole being twelve hundred and sixty years. The difficulty is to determine with certainty that it is so; and if so, when the period was to begin. The only certain means by which we may know that the period means twelve hundred and sixty years, is its accomplishment. But to determine whether it is accomplished, we must understand what was to precede, fill up, and immediately follow the time. The date of the last of the events which were to precede the period, will mark its commencement; and the date of the first event which was to follow or close the period, will mark its end.

Events which were to precede the period.

1. There were four great kingdoms successively to arise in the earth, and fill up all the time from Daniel to the coming of the Son of man in the clouds of heaven. All this has taken place, and the last now exists, and awaits the coming of Christ.

2. Out of the fourth and last of those kingdoms, ten kingdoms were to rise. They did so.

3. Another, a blasphemous, persecuting power was to rise after the ten kingdoms, and wear out the saints. Such a power, Popery, did so arise.

4. The saints were to be given into his hand. In A. D. 533, Justinian, the Greek emperor, passed an edict constituting the Bishop of Rome the head of all the churches; thus giving the saints over into his hand.

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Mr. Croley, speaking of the acts of Justinian, says that he, in "the fullest and most unequivocal form, declared the Bishop of Rome the Chief of the whole ecclesiastical body of the empire." "His letter (of A. D. 533) was couched in these terms:"

"'Justinian, pious, fortunate, renowned, triumphant, emperor, consul, etc., to John, the most holy Archbishop of our city of Rome, and patriarch.

"'Rendering honor to the apostolic see, and to your holiness, (as always was and is our desire,) and, as it becomes us, honoring your Blessedness as a father, we have laid without delay before the notice of your holiness, all things pertaining to the state of the church. Since it has always been our earnest study to preserve the unity of your holy see, and the state of the holy churches of God, which has hitherto obtained, and will remain, without any interfering opposition. Therefore we hasten to subject and to unite to your holiness, all the priests of the whole East. As to the matters which are presently agitated, although clear and undoubted, and, according to the doctrine of your apostolic see, held assuredly resolved and decided by all priests, we have yet deemed it necessary to lay them before your holiness. Nor do we suffer anything which belongs to the state of the church, however manifest and undoubted, that is agitated, to pass without the knowledge of your holiness, who are the head of all the holy churches. For in all things (as had been said or resolved) we are prompt to increase the honor and authority of your see.'"

If the pope was not here entitled the head of all the holy churches, then he never can be.

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This title was confirmed and acknowledged by Justinian in his epistle to Epiphanius, bishop of Constantinople, of date 25th March, 533. He acknowledges his epistle to the Roman pontiff, and maintains that he is the head of all bishops, and that "by decisions and right judgment of his venerable see, heretics are corrected."

The same power, Justinian, in his NovellÊ, gives to Rome the supremacy of the pontificate, and gave to the pope the precedence of all the priesthood:

"The authenticity of the title," says Mr. Croley, "receives unanswerable proof from the edicts of the 'NovellÊ' of the Justinian code. The preamble of the 9th states, 'that as the elder Rome was the founder of the laws; so was it not to be questioned, that in her was the supremacy of the pontificate.' The 131st, on the Ecclesiastical Titles and Privileges, chapter ii., states: 'We therefore decree that the most holy pope of the elder Rome is the first of all the priesthood, and that the most blessed archbishop of Constantinople, the new Rome, shall hold the second rank, after the holy apostolic chair of the elder Rome.'"-[Croley, pp. 114, 115.]

5. Three of the first horns, or kingdoms, were to be plucked up by the roots before him. (1.) In A. D. 493, ten years from the time of the establishment of the last of the ten kings, the Heruli, in Rome and Italy, were subverted by the Ostrogoths. (2.) In 534, the Vandals, another of the ten kingdoms, were conquered by the Greeks, for the purpose of establishing the supremacy of the Catholics. (3.) In 538, in the month of March, the Greeks conquered the Ostrogoths,

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in Rome and Italy, ¹1 and opened the way for carrying into effect the decree of Justinian, constituting the Bishop of Rome head of all the churches: for the Ostrogoths were Arians, and bitter enemies of the Pope and the Catholic faith; hence, while they held Rome, the decree could not be carried into effect. But when the same power that issued the decree conquered and possessed Rome, it could be established.

These are all the circumstances predicted to precede the period specified. We must, therefore, begin at that point, or we must leave a vacuum in the series of events; the chain will be broken.

Predicted events during the period.

1. Blasphemy. "He shall speak great words against the Most High."

2. Persecution. "He shall wear out the saints of the Most High."

3. Assumption of authority. "Change times and laws."

All history of those ages testifies as to the accomplishment of all these by the papal power.

4. Dominion over the saints. "They shall be given into his hands."

The event to end the period.

"They shall take away his dominion." In the month of February, 1798, Berthier, a French general, by order of the French republic, entered Rome with an army and took it; deposed the pope, abrogated his government, and in its place set up an entirely new form of government, viz., a republic, and then carried the pope a prisoner to France, where he died.

From 538, the date of the last circumstance

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predicted to precede the period, to 1798, the date of the event which was to terminate the period, was twelve hundred and sixty years. A more perfect demonstration than this cannot be desired,-

1. That the prediction of the reign of the little horn is a prediction of the great anti-Christian or papal apostacy.

2. That a time, times, and dividing of time, is twelve hundred and sixty years.

3. That the period has already passed by, and we are forty-three years this side its termination.

II. THE CONDITION OF THE PAPAL POWER AFTER HIS DOMINION WAS TAKEN AWAY

"To consume and destroy unto the end." The great error of most expositors, in calculating "the time, times, and dividing of a time," and explaining the prophecy, seems to have been, in supposing that popery would cease to exist after the close of that period; whereas, the prophecy gives us most clearly to understand that it was to exist after that period, and undergo a consuming process, even from its fall "to the end." This consuming process has been realized in its history.

1. One of the fundamental principles of popery was the suppression of the Scriptures. But since 1798, the word of God has been translated into more than one hundred and fifty different languages in which it was never before published; and is now scattered among nearly all nations, in their own languages. This work of Bible distribution is not confined to Protestant communities

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alone: it has gone among Jews, Mahomedans, Pagans, Greeks, Catholics, and, finally, infidels. Yes, Catholic-infidel France, is receiving the blessed volume of truth. According to the report of the Bible Society, there were distributed in France, last year, 250,000 copies of the holy Scriptures; and also that eighty, out of one hundred and fifty colporters or Bible distributers were but a short time since, Roman Catholics. The very fact of the universal spread of the word of God is one of the heaviest blows that the papal superstition could receive. Under such a stroke it can but writhe and languish.

2. The Inquisition has been abolished since that period. The light of the 19th century will not tolerate such an engine of torture.

3. Monastic institutions in some of the darkest papal countries of Europe have been abolished.

4. Protestants are tolerated in all papal countries. Even in the city of Rome, the church of England has had a place of worship, and regular services each Sabbath for some thirty years.

5. The pope acknowledges his own weakness and want of power to suppress heresy. He feels the smart of his mortal wound and the weakness of his broken arm, as the following extract from his Encyllical Letter of September, 1840, will abundantly show.-[Signs of the Times, Feb. 15, 1841.]

He says, "Indeed, are we not compelled to see the most crafty enemies of the truth ranging far and wide with impunity?" Again;-"We refer you to facts, venerable brethren, which not and are known to you, but of which you are witnesses; even you, who, though you mourn, and,

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as your pastoral duty requires, are by no means silent, are yet compelled to tolerate in your dioceses these aforesaid propagators of heresy and infidelity." "Hence, it is easy to conceive the state of anguish into which our soul is plunged day and night," etc.

Once, the Holy Inquisition could quickly check the audacity of heretics and infidels, and the pope and his priesthood were not "compelled to tolerate" them in their "dioceses;" but now they have no alternative but to submit.

6. Another heavy stroke in the consumption of that little horn, is, the recent quarrel between him and the Spanish government. That government, provoked at the audacity of the pope, has issued an act, declaring the supremacy of the Roman pontiff to be at once and forever abolished in the kingdom of Spain. Can we ask for a more explicit fulfilment of prophecy than we have of the consumption of popery from 1798 until now?

True, the pope is making gigantic efforts for the propagation of his system, but it is all done by Jesuitical trickery, not by the authority he once derived from Justinian to correct heretics, by decision and right judgment of his venerable see.

III. THE LENGTH OF "A TIME" - OR, HOW MUCH IS TWO TIMES?

"A time" is an arbitrary period given by the Lord to measure the duration of prophetic events. It is used both in a literal and figurative sense; and the nature of the prophecy in connection with which the period is given must determine

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its import. For instance, in the prediction and history of the banishment of Nebuchadnezzar from among men until "seven times" passed over him, the nature of the prediction shows that it must be understood literally. But when it occurs in the seventh and twelfth chapters of Daniel, it is so used as to show it must mean something beside literal time.

The length of a time is three hundred and sixty days, or twelve months of thirty days each; times, is seven hundred and twenty days, or twenty-four months of thirty days each; and a dividing of time, half a time, or six months of thirty days each.

This time is not, as most expositors say, Jewish time. The Jews reckoned their time by moons; 291/2 days to a month, and twelve months or 355 days to a year. Two years of 355 days and the third year of thirteen months or 383 days. Once in nineteen years, one year of 355 days and two of 383 days. So that nineteen Jewish were equal to nineteen solar years. I have been utterly unable to find any evidence except bare assertion, that the Jews ever reckoned 360 days to a year.

But we are asked, "how do you know how long a time is, and how much is meant by times?" I answer, the Holy Ghost has defined it. In Rev. 13th chapter, the same power predicted under the emblem of the little horn in Dan. 7th, is brought to view under the emblem of a beast. Daniel has given the time of his power, "a time, times, and dividing of a time." John has given it, forty-two months. In forty-two months there are three and a half years. The

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forty-two months are reduced, Rev. 11th and 12th chapters, to days; 1260 days. We are not, therefore, left to vague conjecture as to the import of the time, for the Holy Ghost has defined it. The seven times of Nebuchadnezzar's banishment would be 2520 literal days. The reign of the pope was fulfilled, as already proved, in 1260 full solar years. I call the time, then, neither Jewish time nor Chaldee time, but divine time; each day being the representative, either of a day of twenty four hours, or, if used figuratively, of a full solar year.

IV. A SECOND ARGUMENT ON THE FULFILMENT OF THE 1260 YEARS OF PAPAL AUTHORITY - OR EXPOSITION OF REV. TWELFTH AND THIRTEENTH CHAPTERS

The Apocalypse, although of a highly figurative character, yet is a part of the revelation of God to man, and as such is worthy of our careful and prayerful study.

And the study of it is greatly facilitated by the great similarity existing between the prophetic characters of Daniel and this book. The two chapters before us, especially, receive great light from the visions of Daniel. The Roman government being one of the principal subjects of prophecy with him, it is very fully described in all its various changes and phases. The same characteristics again occur in Revelation, and must apply to the same powers.

THE DRAGON OF THE TWELFTH CHAPTER

There are some traits in the chronology and

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history of the dragon which cannot fail to fix his identity.

1 He was the government which existed or had jurisdiction at the time of the birth of "a man-child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron," and who "was caught up to God and his throne." Who this power is, there is no room for doubting. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is the person who is to rule or break all nations with a rod of iron, even as he has received of his Father. See Ps. ii. 9; Rev. ii. 27. The Roman empire was the then reigning power, and under it Christ was crucified; and from its face was caught up to God's throne, until his foes be made his footstool.

2. Before the imperial Roman government the church in the east fled into her wilderness state, where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the face of the serpent. At the same time the papal government in the west persecuted and made war on the saints, the eastern church was plunged into a state of darkness by the old imperial government, which still remained in the east, first in the Greek and afterward in the Turkish empire. The final casting out of the old dragon from the holy land, the inheritance of Christ, will be when Christ and his kingdom come; and the wrath of the dragon and his war on the seed of the woman, will be the battle of that great day of God Almighty, in the place called Armageddon.

The dragon was located in the west until the days of Constantine. He removed the seat of empire from Rome to Constantinople in A. D. 329. After his death the empire was divided

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among his three sons; but in a very few years was again united under the eastern emperor, A. D. 353. In 356 commenced the conquest of the empire by the Huns. The imperial power, however, was variously disposed of; sometimes being entirely in the east, and at other times enjoyed by both the east and west. In 476, imperial power expired in the west by the conquest of Rome by Odoacer, the king of the Heruli; and by a vote of the Roman senate, imperial power was removed to the east. So that the eastern emperor was properly and legally the emperor of Rome, by vote of the Roman senate; and whatever shape or phase the empire assumed, it was properly a part of the dragon. Hence it is said the dragon had seven heads and ten horns, in allusion to the seven forms of government which Rome was to assume; and ten horns, in allusion to the ten kingdoms of the barbarians within the empire. These ten horns have already been given. The seven heads, or forms of government, are as follows, viz.-1. Regal or kingly power of the Latins.-2. The dictatorship.-3. The prÊtors.-4. The consulate.-5. The triumvirate.-6. The imperial.-7. The papal government. These forms of government have existed in the Latin kingdom, or masters of Rome.-[See Clarke on Rev. xvii. 10.]

THE BEAST OF REVELATION THIRTEENTH CHAPTER

The beast is represented as coming up "out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns." This beast is clearly a perpetuation of the dragonic government. The government of Rome had long been in the

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hands of the imperial power; but at length that power was removed to the east, and another power came up amid the troubled elements of party strife which aspired to the supremacy of Rome, and ultimately obtained it. That power was popery. To this beast the dragon gave his power, his seat, and great authority-and of course the beast assumed all the characters and attributes of the dragon, when he received not his power only, but also his seat and great authority. He was a beast of seven heads and ten horns. The dragon giving his power and seat to the beast, the papal form of government thus created, became an appendage of the dragon, the seventh head; and the beast receiving the power and seat of the dragon, partook of all his characteristics: he became the offspring and image of the dragon.

THIS BEAST IS IDENTICAL WITH THE LITTLE HORN OF DANIEL SEVENTH

The similarity between the two emblems of Daniel and John is most striking.

1. The little horn (Dan. vii. 25) was to be a blasphemous power. "He shall speak great words against the Most High." So also was the beast of Rev. xiii. 6, to do the same. "He opened his mouth in blasphemy against God."

2. The little horn (Dan. vii. 21) "made war with the saints, and prevailed against them." Thus the beast of Rev. xiii. 7, was also "to make war with the saints, and to overcome them."

3. The little horn (Dan. vii. 8, 20) "had a mouth which spake very great things." So likewise

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wise there was given the beast of Rev. xiii. 5, "a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies."

4. Power was given the little horn of Dan. vii. 25, "until a time, times, and the dividing of a time." To the beast also, (Rev. xiii. 6,) "power was given to continue forty-two months."

5. The dominion of the little horn (Dan. vii. 26) was to be taken away at the termination of that specified period. The beast of Rev. xiii. 10, who led into captivity and put to death with the sword so many of the saints, was himself to "be led into captivity and be killed with the sword," at the end of the forty-two months.

With these points of similarity in the two emblems, the little horn and beast, who can doubt their identity?

THE DATE OF THE FORTY-TWO MONTHS OF THE BEAST'S POWER

The date of the twelve hundred and sixty years of the pope's reign, is a matter of a good deal of doubt and uncertainty in many minds. But why should it be so? No argument was ever more clearly made out, than the argument on the time of the little horn's reign, from 538 to 1798, as already given. But I will here give another argument, based on the thirteenth chapter of Revelation.

1. The beginning or origin of his power. Verse 2: "And the dragon gave him his power, his seat, and great authority."

The power of the dragon was transferred. The dragon, the imperial government, from the

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days of Constantine to the time of Justinian, had been supreme head of the church. The councils and bishops had been under their control. The Greek or eastern emperors had the supremacy in the eastern third or division of the empire; so that the tail of the dragon drew a third part of the stars of heaven and did cast them unto the earth. What, then, I ask, did Justinian, the Greek emperor, do, but give his power to the beast, and cast the third part of the stars to the earth, when, in 533, he "hastened to subject and unite to [his] holiness all the priests of the whole east." And also when he determined not to "suffer anything which belonged to the state of the church, however manifest and undoubted, that [was] agitated, to pass without the knowledge of [his] holiness, [whom he declared] the head of all the holy churches?" Also, when in his letter to the Bishop of Constantinople, he declared that the pope of Rome "is the head of all bishops," and that by decisions and right judgment of his venerable see, heretics are corrected." Likewise, when he decreed that "the most blessed bishop of the elder Rome is the first of all the priesthood."-[See Justinian's Letters and Decree, pp. 86-7.]

It is all vain, after such a plenitude of power as was here given to the pope by the dragon or imperial power, to talk of the grant of Phocas, 606, of the title of "universal bishop," as the beginning of his supremacy. What was that grant compared with this? Just nothing. Mr. Croley, speaking on the subject, says:

Page 117: "The highest authorities among the civilians and analists of Rome spurn the idea

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that Phocas was the founder of the supremacy of Rome; they ascend to Justinian, as the only legitimate source, and rightly date the title from the memorable year 533. (Gothopredus Corpus Jur. Civ., etc.)"

Page 9: "The entire transaction was of the most authentic and regular kind, and suitable to the importance of the transfer. The grant of Phocas was found to be a confused and imperfect transaction, scarcely noticed by the early writers, and, oven in its fullest sense, amounting to nothing beyond a confirmation of the grant of Justinian."

The seat of the dragon was transferred to the beast.

"Extinction of the western empire, A. D. 476, or A. D. 479. Royalty was familiar to the barbarians, and the submissive people of Italy were prepared to obey without a murmur the authority which he should condescend to exercise as the vicegerent of the emperor of the West. But Odoacer resolved to abolish that useless and expensive office; and such is the weight of antique prejudice, that it required some boldness and penetration to discover the extreme facility of the enterprise. The unfortunate Augustulus was made the instrument of his own disgrace; and he signified his resignation to the senate; and that assembly, in their last act of obedience to a Roman prince, still affected the spirit of freedom and the forms of the constitution. An epistle was addressed, by their unanimous decree, to the emperor Zeno, the son-in-law and successor of Leo, who had lately been restored, after a short rebellion, to the Byzantine throne. They solemnly

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disclaim the necessity, or even the wish of continuing any longer the imperial succession in Italy; since in their opinion the majesty of a sole monarch is sufficient to pervade and to protect, at the same time, both the east and the west. In their own name, and in the name of the people, they consent that the seat of universal empire shall be transferred from Rome to Constantinople; and they basely renounce the right of choosing their master, the only vestige which yet remained of the only authority which had given laws to the world. The republic (they repeat that name without a blush) might safely confide in the civil and military virtues of Odoacer; and they humbly request that the emperor would invest him with the title of patrician, and the administration of the diocese of Italy.-The deputies of the senate were received at Constantinople with some marks of displeasure and indignation; and when they were admitted to the audience of Zeno, he strongly reproached them with their treatment of the two emperors, Anthemius and Nepos, whom the East had successively granted to the prayers of Italy. 'The first,' continued he, 'you have murdered; the second you have expelled, but the second is still alive, and, while he lives, is your lawful sovereign.' But the prudent Zeno soon deserted the hopeless cause of his abdicated colleague. His vanity was gratified by the title of sole emperor, and by the statues erected to his honor in the several quarters of Rome; he entertained a friendly but ambiguous correspondence with the patrician Odoacer; and he gratefully accepted the imperial ensign, the sacred ornaments of the throne and palace, which the barbarian was not

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unwilling to remove from the sight of the people." ²2

By this proceeding, Rome passed into the hands of the barbarians, and the imperial power was legally transferred by emperor, senate and people, to the east. Thus it continued until, in 536, the emperor of the east sent against Rome his general, Belisarius, who took the city from the Ostrogothic king, and after a defence of the city for two years, was left, March, 538, by the Ostrogoths, in full possession of that ancient seat of power. Thus the west and east were again united, and the imperial authority again existed in Rome.

The objection frequently arises, why not date the supremacy of the pope in 533, when Justinian gave him supremacy in the church? The plain answer is, the dragon was to give his seat, as well as his power. But while the Goths held Rome, the emperor could not give it to the pope. But in 538, when the city came again under the power of the emperor, the power was in his hands to give his ancient seat to the beast. And he did it. For after the retreat of the, Goths from the walls of Rome, and the complete conquest of the city by Belisarius, Justinian called home that general and his army; leaving the pope and Rome to protect themselves. From 538, therefore, the supremacy of the pope in Rome, the seat of the dragon, properly commences.

But it is again objected, that "the Goths again returned, after the recall of Belisarius, and retook the city." True, but this only presents another evidence

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of the supremacy of the pope in Rome, and that he looked upon himself as the master of the city. For Gibbon informs us that on this occasion the pope made a personal journey from Rome to Constantinople, to arouse the decaying energies of Justinian, and induce him to send another army to repel the invaders. And at the instigation and importunity of the pope, it was done. Narses the eunuch, the successor of Belisarius, defeated the Goths A. D. 552, and achieved the conquest of Rome.

"As soon," says Gibbon, "as Narses had paid his devotion to the author of victory, and the blessed virgin, his peculiar patroness, he praised, rewarded, and dismissed the Lombards. Neither the fortifications of Hadrian's mole, nor of the port, could long delay the progress of the conqueror; and Justinian once more received the keys of Rome, which under his reign had been five times taken and received." During the reign of the barbarian kings in Rome, both the senatorial and consular power of Rome had been perpetuated; and Justinian, in his laws of 534, recognized them as then existing. But in a transcript of them, made in 540, says Ruter, (Church Hist.) no notice whatever is taken of the consuls. So that between 534 and 540 it expired. Keith, in his Signs of the Times, vol. I., pp. 260-61, gives us the following history:

"But, in their prophetic order, the consulship and the senate of Rome met their fate, though they fell not by the hands of Vandals or of Goths. The next revolution in Italy was its subjection to Belisarius, the general of Justinian, emperor of the East. He did not spare what barbarians had

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hallowed. 'The Roman consulship extinguished by Justinian A. D. 541,' is the title of the last paragraph of the fortieth chapter of Gibbon's History of the decline and fall of Rome. 'The succession of consuls finally ceased in the thirteenth year of Justinian, whose despotic temper might be gratified by the silent extinction of a title which admonished the Romans of their ancient freedom.' ³3 The third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the noon, and the third part of the stars. In the political firmament of the ancient world, while under the reign of imperial Rome, the emperorship, the consulate, and the senate, shone like the sun, the moon and the stars. The history of their decline and fall is brought down till the two former were 'extinguished,' in reference to Rome and Italy, which so long had ranked as the first of cities and of countries; and finally, as the fourth trumpet closes, we see the 'extinction of that illustrious assembly,' ⁴4 the Roman senate. The city that had ruled the world, as if in mockery of human greatness, was conquered by the eunuch Narses, the successor to Belisarius. He defeated the Goths, (A. D. 552,) achieved 'the conquest of Rome,' and the fate of the senate was sealed."

Both the consular and senatorial power of Rome having thus expired, we should be led to inquire, where was the supremacy of Rome vested? In the emperor, or his general? No. For the army of the emperor, under Narses, was withdrawn

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to Ravenna, and the civil government of the emperor over Italy was located in that city under the title of Exarch of Ravenna.

If the pope was not left supreme in Rome, what was the supreme power? Twice Justinian conquered Rome, but neither time did he attempt to establish a civil government in the city.

But we are told that the pope did not receive his supremacy as a civil power until Pepin, king of France, conquered the Exarch from the Greeks in 755, and gave it to the pope in perpetual sovereignty; thus constituting him a civil prince. But what, I ask, had that gift of Pepin to do with the gift of the dragon, of his seat, Rome, to the beast? France was not the dragon, nor was Ravenna, Rome, the seat of the dragon and afterwards of the beast. The possession of Rome by the pope, in 538, and onward, as the conquest of Justinian, was a gift of the dragon, to the beast, who already possessed the dragon's power as head of the church, and "the true and effective corrector of heretics."

THE FORTY-TWO MONTHS' DURATION OF THE BEAST'S POWER

It has already been shown that the "time times, and dividing of time," of Daniel vii. 25, continued 1260 years. The power of the beast was to continue forty-two months, the same number of prophetic days as the above period.

That period was to end by taking away the dominion of the little horn, to consume and destroy unto the end. The forty-two months of the beast were to close by leading him into captivity,

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and putting him to death by the sword. Has such an event occurred? It most certainly has. It is a most notorious matter of history that on Feb. 10, 1798, General Berthier, at the head of the republican army of France, entered the city of Rome and took it. On the 15th of the same month, the pope and his cardinals were taken prisoners, and shut up in the Vatican. The papal government was abolished, and Rome and Italy, at the request of the people, was erected into the Roman republic. The pope was carried a captive to France, where, in 1799, he died a prisoner and an exile. [See Dr. A. Clarke, on Dan. vii. 25. Croley on the Apocalypse. Thiers' History of the French Revolution.]

The government was, in its administrators, led. into captivity, and itself abolished by the power of the French sword.

A more distinct and literal fulfilment of prophecy never was recorded than we have in this instance. From 538, when the dragon gave his seat to the beast, to 1798, when that beast was led into captivity and killed with the sword, was 1260 years.

But, say our opponents, "this could not be a fulfilment of the period, for popery now exists." What if it does? Is it not in accordance with the prophecy, that it exists? Did not the Revelator foretell the history of this government subsequently to its captivity, as well as the captivity itself? He most certainly did, as we shall see by following the prophecy through.

THE DEADLY WOUND HEALED-BEAST WITH TWO HORNS

Revelation xiii. 11: "I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake like a dragon." Was there any beast or government, just emerging from obscurity and coming into notice just as popery went down in 1798? Observe, John says, "I saw another beast coming up." He was not already up at the time, but was just appearing. Just such a government we have in Bonaparte, who, in the winter of 1798, was appointed by the French, commander-in-chief of the foreign armies of the French nation. Up to that time he had "been a subordinate, but from that period enjoyed an independent command in all his enterprises. "He had two horns like a lamb." This was the only lamb-like characteristic he possessed: "two horns."

A horn is a kingdom. Dan. viii. 20: "The ram which thou sawest having two horns, are the kings of Media and Persia." The two kingdoms of this beast were the French empire, and kingdom of Italy. He was crowned emperor of the former in 1804, and of the latter in 1805.

"He spoke as a dragon." The dragon was the imperial power of Rome. Let the following extract from from a circular mandate of Bonaparte, under date of July 13, 1809, illustrate this point. "Though our Lord Jesus Christ sprang from the blood of David, he sought no worldly empire; on the contrary, he required that in concerns of this life men should obey CÊsar. His great object was,-the deliverance and salvation

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of souls. We, the inheritors of CÊsar's power, are firmly resolved to maintain the independence of our throne, and inviolability of our rights." [See the whole mandate, pp. 109, 110.]

If Bonaparte did not here speak like a dragon, it is difficult to see how he could.

Verse 12: "And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them that dwell therein, to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed." That Bonaparte healed the deadly wound of popery, is clear from history. After the revolution of the 11th of Nov. 1799, when Bonaparte, Sieyes and Ducos, were appointed a provisional consulate, one of the first acts of reform accomplished by them was, "the discarding of the HEATHEN RITUAL, and the re-opening of the churches for Christian wohship; and of this the credit was wholly Napoleon's, who had to oppose the philosophic prejudices of almost all his colleagues."-[Lockhart's Napoleon, Vol. I., p. 154.]

The same month the college of cardinals was convened and entered on the election of a new pope; succeeded in the election of pope Pius VII., March 1, 1800. Thus Bonaparte exercised, as the pope had done, supreme power in the church, overruling all his associates, and restoring popery. He caused the earth, by this exercise of power, to worship the beast whose deadly wound was healed.

Verses 13, 14: "He doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire to come down from heaven on earth in the sight of men; and deceiveth them that dwell on the earth, by means of those miracles

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which he had power to do, in the sight of the beast."

That Bonaparte performed wonders or prodigies and imposed on the credulity of men, none who have read his history will doubt. The following extract from Scott's life of Napoleon, will illustrate the reference to fire.-[Vol. I., pp. 297-8.]

"On entering the sepulchral chamber in the pyramid of Cheops, 'Glory be to Allah!' said Bonaparte; 'there is no God but God, and Mahommed is his prophet.' 'Thou hast spoken like the most learned of the prophets,' said the Mufti, who accompanied him. I CAN COMMAND A CAR OF FIRE TO DESCEND FROM HEAVEN,' continued the French general, 'AND I CAN GUIDE AND DIRECT ITS COURSE UPON EARTH.' 'Thou art the great chief to whom Mahommed gives power and victory,' said the Mufti." * * * "'Sheriffs,' he said, 'Ulemats, Orators of the Mosque, teach the people that those who become my enemies shall have no refuge either in this world or the next. Is there any one blind enough not to see that I am the agent of Destiny, or incredulous enough to call in question the power of Destiny over human affairs? Make the people understand that since the world was a world, it was ordained, that having destroyed the enemies of Islamism, and broken down the Cross, ⁵5 I should come from the distant parts of the West to accomplish the task designed for me; show them

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that in more than twenty passages of the Koran my coming is foretold. I could demand a reckoning from each of you for the most secret thoughts of his soul, since to me everything is known; but the day will come when all shall know from whom I have my commission, and that human efforts cannot prevail against me.' It is plain, from this strange proclamation, that Bonaparte was willing to be worshipped as a superior being, as soon as altars could be built, and worshippers collected together."

Also, the following, from Lockhart's Napoleon, (vol. I., p. 118.) After relating the story of the Battle of the Pyramids, he says,-"Such were the immediate consequences of the Battle of the Pyramids. The name of Bonaparte now spread panic through the East; and the Sultan Kebir,' (King of Fire, as he was called, from the dreadful effects of the musketry in this engagement,) was considered as the destined scourge of God, whom it was hopeless to resist."

Verses 14, 15: "Saying to them, that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast which had the deadly wound by the sword and did live. And he had power to give life to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast, should be killed."

Bonaparte, at a subsequent period, after the restoration of the pope, remodelled the papal system until it suited him, and required of the pope to acknowledge it, and gained his reluctant assent; of which, however, he-most heartily repented when it was too late.

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Bonaparte did profess to alone have power to restore popery, as the following circular mandate of his will testify:

"Though our Lord Jesus Christ sprang from the blood of David, he sought no worldly empire; on the contrary, he required that, in concerns of this life men should obey Cesar. His great object was,-the deliverance and salvation of souls. We, the inheritors of Cesar's power, are firmly resolved to maintain the independence of our throne, and the inviolability of our rights. We shall persevere in the great work of the restoration of the worship of God;-we shall communicate to its ministers that respectability which we alone can give them;-we shall listen to their voice in all that concerns spiritual matters, and affairs of conscience. We shall not be drawn aside from the great end which we strive to attain, and in which we have hitherto succeeded in part,-the restoration of the altars of our. divine worship; nor suffer ourselves to be persuaded that these principles, as Greeks, English, Protestants, and Calvinists affirm, are inconsistent with the independence of thrones and nations. God has enlightened us enough to remove such errors far from us. Our subjects entertain no such fear."-[Wesleyan Methodist Magazine for 1810.

Why I ask, do our opponents object to 1798, as being the termination of the 1260 years, when the prophecy has throughout had a most literal fulfilment? Had popery ceased to be, in 1798, or since that time, the word of prophecy would have been broken. If the 1260 years yet remain to be fulfilled, the same scenes must be acted over again,

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word for word, that took place in 1798 and subsequently, or it will not be a fulfilment of prophecy. But have we a right to look for another series of events of the same order?

NAY, VERILY. The 1260 years of papal rule have been accomplished precisely according to the prediction, and it is all we have a right to expect.

If our opponents are dissatisfied with this evidence, we ask them what they would have; or what evidence would be sufficient to satisfy them of the fulfilment of the 1260 years of papal rule? Can they produce an argument of one fourth part the strength, proving the period to have begun at any other time? They cannot do it. Then why find fault with this, until a better and more perfect one can be produced?

CHAPTER IV. THE CONSUMMATION - OR ERA OF THE SECOND ADVENT

The grand question, Is the time of the second advent of the Saviour revealed in the word of God? seems to lie at the foundation of our investigations of the prophecies. If it is not revealed, we shall labor in vain to ascertain it; if it is matter of revelation, it is a proper subject of discussion and examination until we arrive at the truth on the subject. That there is a diversity of opinion on the meaning of the prophecies, is no reason why we should not study and endeavor to understand the subject; for there is probably not a subject in the Bible which is not controverted, and on which great and learned men do not disagree. If this fact is a valid reason for the neglect of the prophecies, it is a good reason why we should throw away the whole Bible.

The great argument usually urged against the investigation of the prophetic periods is, that the Saviour declared (Matt, xxiv.) of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels in heaven, but my Father only." To this objection I shall for the present only reply, that what was not known either to men or angels 1800 years ago, may, for all that, be a matter of revelation, and be

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understood at the time and by the age for whose benefit the prediction was specially given. In the proper place this objection will be more fully met.

I shall now endeavor to show, 1st, that the fact and lime of Christ's second coming are both revealed in the 8th chapter of Daniel; and 2nd, when, according to that revelation, the event will take place.

The question and answer contained in Daniel viii. 13, 14, has so often been examined and put to the torture, that one would be almost inclined to the opinion that nearly all has been said upon it that can be said. But yet I have a disposition to try it once more. I shall give the text without the italicised or inserted words.

1. The question. "How long the vision, the daily and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot?"

It is presumed no one will dispute that this is the true and correct reading of the original. First, "How long the vision?" What vision? The true answer to this question will be a decision of the dispute, whether the days are to be understood literally or figuratively. If the vision includes only the little horn, and that little horn is Antiochus, then the days are literal, or rather general and indefinite. But if the vision includes the ram with his two horns, the tough goat with his great horn between his eyes, and the four horns, together with the little horn out of one of the four, then, let the little horn be what it may, the days must be figurative, and mean something more than literal days. Now, reader, just read

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the text again, together with the context. "How long the vision, the daily and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot?" What is the vision? Reader, think. Were not the ram and goat a part of the vision? Does not Daniel, when relating the vision, commence it with the ram having two horns? Does not Gabriel, when told to make Daniel understand the vision, begin his instruction on the import of the imagery, by saying, "The ram which thou sawest, having two horns, are the kings of Media and Persia?" Then the ram was a part of the vision. If this be correct, then professor Stuart, professor Chase, and a host of others who follow in their wake, are incorrect in restricting the vision to the little horn out of one of the four notable horns of the goat.

2. The answer. "Unto two thousand three hundred days, then shall the sanctuary be cleansed." The literal rendering is, 2300 evening morning, the Hebrew mode of expressing a day; as in Genesis 1st chapter:-"The evening and the morning is the first day," "second day," etc.

Mr. Dowling contends that the period is only 1150 days. That the number relates to the Jewish sacrifices; and there being two Jewish sacrifices a day, there would be only half as many days as there were sacrifices. According to him, it was fulfilled by Antiochus Epiphanes, by his taking away or prohibiting the Jewish offerings 1150 days. Professor Stuart, however, allows them to be 2300 literal days, and finds them fulfilled in the same person. But one thing is very

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unfortunate for their cause; neither of them have yet been able to show from history the fulfilment of the period either in whole or part. I assert it without fear of contradiction, that it has never yet been shown that the time was fulfilled in Antiochus.

VARIOUS READINGS OF THE PERIOD

It has been sometimes urged, as a reason why we cannot depend on the calculation of this period, that there are various readings, and it is uncertain which is the correct one. The reading of all the Hebrew manuscripts is 2300. The Septuagint, or Greek version, is 2400. The Latin of Jerome, 2200.

The Hebrew copies being the oldest, and all the copies agreeing in the reading, it is but a reasonable conclusion that it is the correct reading. As for the reading of Jerome, there are few who place any confidence in it. On the reading of the Septuagint, I beg leave to introduce the following extract from "Begg's Connected View," p. 3:-

"It is in mercy to His people, although it will and to the condemnation of the wicked, that God has given such clear and determinate intimation of the 'things that are to come hereafter;' and any attempt to throw unnecessary doubt upon the certainty of the 'times' revealed, calls for severe reprehension. To this charge there is reason to fear the Examinator of Mr. Irving's Opinions, in the Edinburgh Christian Instructor for 1828, (p. 476.) has exposed himself, when, in order to strengthen his argument for the impossibility of determining

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the commencement of 'the mighty year of God's glory,' he fixes upon a misprint of one of the dates in our version of the Septuagint translation of the Old Testament. 'In regard to the long period of Daniel,' there is, in reality, no reason for its being 'disputed, whether we should read, with the Hebrew, 2300, or with the Septuagint, 2400 years.' Although all our common editions of the Septuagint have this typographical error, being printed from an edition into which it had crept, yet the manuscript in the Vatican, from which that very edition was printed, has 2300, and not 2400. And of all the principal standard editions of the Septuagint, that alone from which ours are taken has this error. Let not, then, the carelessness of men be charged upon the Most High, nor the errors of copyists on the Spirit of inspiration.-For a full statement on this subject, see 'The Scheme of Prophetic Arrangement of the Rev. Edward Irving and Mr. Frere critically examined by William Cunninghame, Esq. of Lainshaw.'"

The 2300 days being the correct reading, and "the vision," including the ram, the goal, and all the horns, they must be understood, not as days, but years. It is perfectly immaterial to my present purpose whether "the little horn" is Rome, entire, pagan and papal; or whether it is popery alone; nor yet whether it is Mahomedism. The question will not turn on that point, but on the import of "The last end of the indignation," and "the cleansing of the sanctuary."

THE IMPORT OF "THE SANCTUARY" - ITS CLEANSING

Verse 13: "How long the vision,"-"to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot?" Verse 14: "Unto 2300 days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed."

The first time the term sanctuary occurs in the Bible, is in the Song of Moses, when God had delivered his people from Egypt and the Red Sea, and was about to introduce them into the land of promise. Ex. xv. 17: "Thou shalt bring them in and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, in the place, O Lord, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in; in the SANCTUARY, O Lord, which thy hands have established." I ask the reader to pause, and inquire, and settle the question most distinctly, before he goes farther-What was the sanctuary here spoken of? Was it not the land of promise, which God gave (Gen. xvii. 8) to Abraham and his seed for an everlasting possession? That land, according to Paul, (Gal. iii. 16,) is Christ's, not the Jews'. It is the mountain of the Lord's inheritance; the place he has made for himself to dwell in. It is the sanctuary which his hands have established.

If any doubt remains as to the import of the text and term sanctuary, it is settled by the psalmist, Ps. lxxviii. 54: "And he brought them to the border of his sanctuary, even to this mountain which his right hand had purchased." If the Bible anywhere designates the mountain where Christ will dwell, in the land of promise, that spot is emphatically his sanctuary. Mark Ex. xv. 17, again; "Plant them in the mountain

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of thine inheritance, in the place, O Lord, which thou hast made FOR THEE TO DWELL IN." It would seem by this, that there is a peculiar, chosen spot, which the Lord made for his own dwelling-place; and that is his sanctuary. That spot or mountain is designated more distinctly in Ps. lxxviii. 67-69: "Moreover, he refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim; but he chose the tribe of Judah, the mount Zion which he loved. And he built his sanctuary like high palaces, like the earth which he hath established forever." His sanctuary which he built like high palaces, was the mount Zion which he loved.

We have also yet another distinct testimony on this point, in Ps. cxxxii. 13, 14: "For the Lord hath chosen Zion, he hath desired it for his habitation. This is my rest forever; here will I dwell, for I have desired it." That place is the only sanctuary that remains, or will ever be "cleansed," or "justified," as the margin reads. The term sanctuary, is used (Lev. iv. 6) to signify the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle in the wilderness. But that sanctuary has long since passed away. It is used also to signify the temple at Jerusalem, as in 2 Chron. xx. 8. But that temple has long since been laid in ruins, and cannot be cleansed. But mount Zion and Jerusalem in Judah remain, and is the Lord's chosen rest forever.

The treading under foot of the sanctuary. The meaning of the treading under foot of the sanctuary, is the next point. 2 Chron. xxxvi. 11-21 will give us a view of the treading

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down of the sanctuary and host;-the holy place and church of God.

"Zedekiah was one and twenty years old when he began to reign; and reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord his God, and humbled not himself before Jeremiah the prophet, speaking from the mouth of the Lord. And he also rebelled against king Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God: but he stiffened his neck and hardened his heart from turning unto the Lord God of Israel. Moreover, all the chief of the priests, and the people, transgressed very much after all the abominations of the heathen; and polluted the house of the Lord which he had hallowed in Jerusalem. And the Lord God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up betimes and sending; because he had compassion on his people, and on his DWELLING PLACE: but they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, till there was no remedy. Therefore he brought upon them the king of the Chaldees, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their SANCTUARY, and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man, or him that stooped for age: he gave them all into his hand. And all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king, and of his princes; all these he brought to Babylon. And they burnt the house of God, and brake down the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all the palaces thereof with fire, and destroyed all the goodly

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vessels thereof. And them that had escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon; where they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia: to fulfil the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she kept Sabbath, to fulfil threescore and ten years."

This desolation existed in the days of Daniel, under Belshazzar, king of Babylon. The bondage of Jerusalem and the church, whether Jewish or Christian, has never ceased from that time to the present. True, under the Medo-Persian kings, the city, temple, and worship of God were restored; but neither place nor people were emancipated from tribute or dependence on the heathen nations. The Medes and Persians, Grecians, Syrians, Egyptians, or Romans, ever after the Babylonian captivity, were, to the church of Jerusalem, a continual source of affliction and oppression. After the crucifixion of Christ, according to the prediction of Daniel, (chap. ix. 26,) the people of the prince came and destroyed "the city and sanctuary." Or, according to Christ, (Luke 21st chap.,) "Jerusalem was compassed with armies," and its desolation "came." "There (was) distress in the land, and wrath on (that) people; they fell by the edge of the sword, they (were) led captive into all nations, and Jerusalem (is) trodden down of the Gentiles," and will be "until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled."

The amount of it is this; God chose Jerusalem as the metropolis of his kingdom, and there established the throne of royalty on mount Zion, in the family of David. See 2 Chron. vi. 6; Ps.

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lxxxix. also cii. and cxxxii. But the royal family of David were driven, or rather carried into captivity by the king of Babylon. Since that captivity, no descendant of David has reigned on mount Zion. And the word of God declares there never will until he comes whose right it is, and the Lord will give it him. Ezek. xxi. 27.

The cleansing of the sanctuary. The marginal reading is much preferable, to that incorporated in the text. "Then shall the sanctuary be JUSTIFIED." Throughout the Scriptures, we find Jerusalem and Zion personified and addressed as a living, sentient being-as being guilty-condemned-punished-pardoned.

We have an example of this mode of address in Isaiah, throughout the entire book. It is entitled the vision of Isaiah, the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. "Judah," the people, and "Jerusalem," the city, are the subjects of this vision. From the second to the twentieth verse, the people of Judah are addressed and described. The 21st verse begins a description of the city, her unfaithfulness and perversity, together with her punishment. The 25th to the 27th verses present God's promised mercy to her after he has avenged himself, so that she shall "be called the faithful city," "the city of righteousness." Zion shall be redeemed with judgment, and her converts with righteousness. "Zion," the city, "shall be redeemed with judgment." She will endure God's judgment for all her crimes, or the crimes that have been committed in her. But not so her "converts," who will constitute her future glory

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and inhabitants. They will be redeemed "with righteousness;" a believing acceptance of the offering made by Christ. There will be no such provision for them as to endure God's judgment, and then, because they have suffered it out, be pardoned or justified, and saved. Again: Isa. iv. 4, the same sentiment is again repeated. "And when the Lord SHALL HAVE WASHED AWAY the filth of the daughters of Zion." The Lord is to wash away the fifth of the daughters or inhabitants of Zion. "And shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst of thee, by the spirit of JUDGMENT and the spirit of BURNING." "And the Lord will create upon every dwelling-place of mount Zion, and upon all her assemblies a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for upon all the glory there shall be a defence."

This deliverance of the daughters of Zion, the converts, will never be until the resurrection of the just, when this corruptible, through the death and resurrection of Christ, will put on incorruption and glory. The glory of Zion also must be referred to that day when the New Jerusalem, Mount Zion, the city of the living God, shall descend; and the glory of God lighten the city of the great King. It was for the sins of Manasseh, which he did in Jerusalem, that this punishment was begun, or the certain infliction declared, so that God declared, though Moses and Samuel stood before him, his mind could not be toward that people. "Let them go forth," he said. Jer. xv. 5, he addresses Jerusalem: "For who shall have pity upon thee, O Jerusalem? or who shall

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bemoan thee? or who shall go aside to ask how thou doest?" Verse 6: "Thou hast forsaken me, saith the Lord, thou art gone backward; therefore will I stretch forth my hand against thee, and destroy thee; I am weary with repenting." the justification of Jerusalem is foretold, Isa. xl. 2: "Speak ye comfortably unto Jerusalem, and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, and her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins." The Psalmist predicts the building up of Zion and God's mercy to her. Ps. cii. 13: "Thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Zion. For the time to favor her, yea, the set time is come." Verse 16: "When the Lord buildeth up Zion, he shall apfear in his glory." According to these texts, Zion can never be built up until the Lord, whose everlasting dwelling-place is at Jerusalem, shall appear in his glory. He will do so when he comes in the clouds of heaven, in his own glory, in the glory of the Father, and all the holy angels.

Listen a moment to the Saviour, while he pronounces the doom of Jerusalem. Luke xix. 41-44: "And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side. And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee: and they shall not leave in thee one stone

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upon another: because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation."

But he will come again to Jerusalem and be greeted by a race who "shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord." "Then shall the sanctuary be justified."

THE LAST END OF THE INDIGNATION

"And he said, Behold, I will make thee know what shall be in the last end of the indignation: for at the time appointed the end shall be."

The indignation is God's anger or displeasure against the church, for which her civil polity has been broken up, and she dispersed among the nations of the earth, and destroyed from being a people. Had the church, when placed in the land of promise, remained obedient to God, it is evident, from a multitude of, promises, they never would have been removed. But proving disobedient, and forgetful of God, they were driven out, to return no more until human nature is radically and constitutionally changed. But the consumption decreed shall overflow with righteousness. Speaking of the final return of the remnant of Jacob to the mighty God, the Lord says, Isa. x. 25: "For yet a very little while and the indignation shall cease, and mine anger in their destruction." When the indignation ceases, Jerusalem's warfare will be accomplished, and her iniquity will be pardoned.

The Lord, in addressing himself to Israel, at the time Nebuchadnezzar came against Jerusalem, declared why he came, and how long the

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desolation of the throne of Israel should continue on account of their iniquity. Ezek. xxi. 24-27: "Therefore thus saith the Lord God; because ye have made your iniquity to be remembered, in that your transgressions are discovered, so that in all your doings your sins do appear; because, I say, that ye are come to remembrance, ye shall be taken with the hand. And thou, profane, wicked prince of Israel, whose day is come when iniquity shall have an end, thus saith the Lord God; remove the diadem, and take off the crown: this shall not be the same; exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high. I will overturn, overturn, overturn it; and it shall be no more, until he come whose right it is; and I will give it him."

When he comes, therefore, who is the heir of David's throne, the indignation will cease, Zion be built up forevermore, and all the redeemed of the Lord will return and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy on their head; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall all flee away. One characteristic more, in the explanation of the vision by Gabriel, is important in this place. Dan. viii. 17: "Understand, O son of man; for at the time of the end, the vision." The time of the end began, as is demonstrable, and will be shown in another place, in 1798, at the fall of popery, or the end of the 1260 years of papal rule.

RECAPITULATION OF THE FOREGOING ARGUMENT

1. The vision. It begins with the ram having two horns, while both horns were high, but the

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last of the two the highest. And also, while no beast could stand before the ram. This is said (verse 20) to be the kings of Media and Persia. It includes the goat; his great horn between his eyes his conquest of the ram, and the breaking of his great horn. It also presents the four notable horns which came up for the great horn; also the little horn which came out of one of the four horns. The goat is said (verse 21) to be the king of Grecia; the great horn between his eyes, the first king. That being broken, whereas four stood up for it, four kingdoms shall stand up out of the nation. And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance shall stand up, understanding dark sentences. This power is to stand up against the prince of princes, and be broken without hand. All these events could not take place either in 1150 or 2300 literal days; and hence, the time must be understood figuratively, a day for a year, 2300 years.

2. The sanctuary, is mount Zion, or Jerusalem, the capital of the kingdom of God, where David's throne was established; but which in Daniel's day, and ever since, was and is desolate, and in the hands of the Gentiles. It is now under condemnation, but will be justified or pardoned, and built up at the end of the 2300 years. It is yet desolate; therefore the period is not expired.

3. The "indignation," is God's manifested displeasure against his people, by which he has broken up their civil polity and dispersed and scattered them abroad among all nations, from the land of promise. The vision extends to "the last end of the indignation." But they are yet

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scattered and oppressed; therefore the indignation has not ended. But it will end with the 2300 years; "for at the time appointed, the end" of the indignation "shall be."

REMARKS ON "THE DAILY AND THE TRANSGRESSION OF DESOLATION"

"The daily sacrifice" is the present reading of the English text. But no such thing as sacrifice is found in the original. This is acknowledged on all hands. It is a gloss or construction put on it by the translators. The true reading is, "the daily and the transgression of desolation," daily and transgression being connected together by "and;" the daily desolation and the transgression of desolation. They are two desolating powers, which were to desolate the sanctuary and host; the church and her metropolis. They are paganism and popery, as will be shown at large in another place.

THE DATE OF THE TWO THOUSAND THREE HUNDRED DAYS NOT IN THE EIGHT CHAPTER

The date of the 2300 days is the most important point to be settled in the whole controversy. We turn to the instructions of Gabriel and search for it, but search in vain. He concluded his communication by saying, "The vision of the evening and the morning which was told is true; wherefore; shut thou up the vision, for it shall be for

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many days." Bp. Newton remarks, "An evening and morning being in Hebrew, the notation of time for a day," "in allusion to it, it is said, the vision of the evening and morning (2300 evening and morning) which was told is true."

But Daniel remained ignorant of its import, for he was told to shut it up, for it shall be for many days. That is, as Bp. Newton observes, "the shutting up of the vision implies that it should not be understood for some time." "And," he continues, "we cannot say as it was sufficiently understood so long as Antiochus Epiphanes was taken for the little horn." "I Daniel fainted, and was sick certain days; afterward I rose up and did the king's business; and I was astonished at the vision, but none understood it."

The whole subject remained to him in impenetrable obscurity.

THE CONNECTION BETWEEN THE EIGHT AND NINTH CHAPTERS

It is obvious, from the last verse of the eighth chapter, that Daniel felt the most intense anxiety in respect to the vision, and yet had no light. But, according to the ninth chapter, he learned, immediately after the death of Belshazzar, (see Dan. v. 25, and onward,) in the first year of Darius the Mede, that Jeremiah had foretold seventy years' captivity of the Jews in Babylon, and the same period of desolation of the land by the hand of the king of Babylon. From the beginning of Daniel's captivity, in the third year of Jehoiakim, and the first of Nebuchadnezzar, there had been

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seventy years accomplished. Daniel, knowing this fact, and also misunderstanding the real import of Jeremiah's prophecy, as well as his own vision, supposed the time for cleansing or justifying the sanctuary had arrived. But the prediction of Jeremiah (xxv. 9-11) was, that God would bring Nebuchadnezzar against that land and nation, and "utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and a hissing, and perpetual desolation." "This whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years." The Babylonian captivity was to be seventy years, but, the land was to be "perpetual desolation." "And it shall come to pass when seventy years are accomplished,"-not that the desolation of the holy land and oppression and bondage of the church cease, but-"I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations." The seventy years ended, and God sent the handwriting on the palace wall of Babylon, "Mene," "God hath numbered thy kingdom and FINISHED IT." That night Belshazzar was slain, and Darius took the kingdom. But the desolations, both of Judea and Chaldea, yet continue.

But with the conviction that the period of deliverance, both of the church and her inheritance, had arrived, Daniel began his prayer, confessing his own and his people's sins. "O Lord, according to all thy righteousness, I beseech thee, let thine anger and thy fury be turned away from thy city Jerusalem, thy holy mountain; because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people are become a

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reproach to all that are about us. Now, therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of thy servant, and his supplications, and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord's sake. O my God, incline thine ear, and hear; open thine eyes, and behold our desolations, and the city which is called by thy name; for we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousnesses, but for thy great mercies. O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken, and do; defer not, for thine own sake, O my God; for thy city and thy people are called by thy name."

There is clearly an earnest importunity for the sanctuary, God's holy mountain, in this prayer. But God did not suffer him long to labor under the mistake; but sent a divine messenger with all speed to stop him in his prayer, and instruct him in reference to the vision.

This prayer of Daniel is the true connecting link between the vision of the ram and goat of the 8th chapter and the prophecy of seventy weeks, or the seventy sevens, as the Hebrew, according to Professor Stuart, reads. Daniel thought seventy years' captivity in Babylon was the indignation. Gabriel told him, not so. But "seventy sevens are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression and to make an end of sins." As though he had said, You think the punishment of your people and city is filled up with the seventy years; but not so: the transgression for which they are to be finally desolated is not yet finished or filled up. Seventy weeks, or sevens, are determined, or cut off, for them to accomplish the national "transgression, and make an end of sins," etc.

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After Messiah is cut off, the people of the prince that shall come, shall destroy the city and sanctuary, and the end thereof shall be with a flood. It will be swept as with a mighty deluge. Messiah shall confirm the covenant with many for one week, and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease; and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate; or as in the marginal reading, "the desolator," which was the Roman government; and the desolation determined on that, is, to slay and burn it. Dan. viii. 11.

This is not, then, a simple prediction of the seventy weeks; but it is an explanation of the vision of the desolation of the sanctuary,-1. When the sin for which the city and people were to be destroyed, would be finished. 2. That a people would, after that, come and destroy the city and sanctuary. 3. That it would afterward, for the overspreading of abominations, remain desolate until the consummation. 4. That at the consummation and the end of the sanctuary's desolation, that which is determined by Divine Providence shall be poured upon the desolator. The appointed ruin to come on the fourth or Roman beast of Dan. vii., is, that at the coming of the Son of man, "the beast will be slain, his body be destroyed and given to the burning flame." A more plain recapitulation or statement of the vision could scarcely be given in human language. There can be no mistake but that this communication was designed to explain the previous one.

GABRIEL'S APPEARANCE TO DANIEL - THE OBJECT OF HIS MISSION

While Daniel was praying, in the midst of his prayer, Gabriel appeared to him, being caused to fly swiftly by, and touched him, to attract his attention. Daniel remarks, "Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning;" thus directing the mind of the reader back to the vision of the desolation of the sanctuary. Mr. Dowling says, the article "the" does not belong there. Other Hebraists say it does; that the points require it. But whether "the" is inserted or not, is immaterial; for if we read it, "whom I had seen in vision at the beginning," it carries us back to the same vision. For the vision of the eighth chapter is the first vision in which Gabriel is introduced.

Gabriel informed Daniel, "I am NOW come forth to give thee skill and understanding." The direction for him to do so came as soon as Daniel began his prayer; he was beloved of God, and he would not suffer him to be deceived on the subject of his prayer. "Therefore understand the matter." What matter? The treading down or desolating the sanctuary and host. "Consider the vision." What vision? The vision of the daily and transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and host to be trodden under foot. If "the vision" does not mean the one in the 8th chapter, who can tell what it does mean? There is no vision in the ninth chapter for him to consider; it is an open communication between Gabriel and Daniel; and is an explanation of the vision.

EXPLANATION OF THE VISION

Verse 24. "Seventy weeks are determined." These weeks are weeks of years, or jubilees; seventy sevens. Seventy years of Jewish bondage had just been filled up. Gabriel now informed Daniel that seventy sevens of years were determined, or as some Hebraists ⁶6 render it, seventy sevens are 'cut off', for thy people and for thy holy city," to finish the transgression, for which the city and sanctuary is to be desolate to the consummation. See Lev. xxv. 8.

"Determined." If "separated" or "cut off" is the real import of the term, then they must be separated from the 2300 days' vision; there is nothing else from which to cut them off; and the seventy weeks are a part of the vision. But if the word signifies "decided" seventy weeks are decided upon thy people, or for thy people, to "finish the transgression," still it is an explanation of the vision, and of course gives it a date.

"To finish the transgression." The reader will observe that it is not the transgressions, in the plural, but "the transgression;" "a word," says Joseph Benson, "which is derived from a theme which signifies 'to revolt, to rebel, to be contumacious, to refuse subjection to rightful authority, or obedience to a law which we ought to observe.'" The Jews and Jerusalem finished their transgression, or rebellion, for which God sealed their national doom, when they refused to receive Christ. Christ then pronounced their doom: "O that thou hadst known in this thy day

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the things which belong to thy peace, but now they are forever hid from thine eyes. The days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee," etc.

"And to make an end of sins," to fill up their national sins.

"And to make reconciliation for iniquity," by the offering of Christ as a sacrifice for sin.

"And to bring in everlasting righteousness." The offerings of the Jewish ceremonial law were continually repeated. "There was," says Paul to the Hebrews, "a remembrance of sins every year." "But Christ, by one offering, hath perfected forever them which are sanctified."

"And to seal up the vision and prophecy." To seal, is, 1. To shut up and make fast. 2. To confirm as a legal instrument, or as weights and measures are sealed and legalized by the government seal. So by the fulfilment of the seventy weeks, the vision of the 8th and prophecy of the 9th chapters of Daniel should be ratified or confirmed, and the measure of time sealed: a day for a year.

"To anoint the most holy." Hebrew, literally "holy of holies." Heaven itself, which Christ consecrated, when he ascended and entered it sprinkling or consecrating it with his own blood for us.

Verse 25. "Know, therefore, and understand" where the vision is to commence; "from the going forth of the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem." Which of the four orders of the Medo-Persian monarchs, whether that of Cyrus, (Ezra i. 1,) or that of Darius Hystaspes (Ezra iv. 6,) or that of Artaxerxes Longimanus, (Ezra vii.) in the seventh year of his reign, or that which was given to Nehemiah by Artaxerxes, in the

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twentieth year of his reign, (Neh. ii. 1-8,) has been matter of doubt and uncertainty. There are few persons, however, left at present, who have not abandoned the first two orders, as not answering: to the description given of it by the prophet Daniel. That given by Artaxerxes in the seventh year of his reign, is the one usually adopted by commentators, as the date of the seventy weeks. Following the great body of the commentators, I have formerly inclined to the same opinion, and adopted it without a very critical examination. But I confess my confidence has been shaken in that date, by a more careful examination of the various decrees, and the chronology since that decree. The marginal reading of Dan. ix. 24, shows the opinion of the translators to have been, that the decree of the twentieth year of Artaxerxes was the date of the seventy weeks. I find, also, on a critical examination of Rollin's chronology, he has given us 457 years from the twentieth year of Artaxerxes, to A. D. 1.

The following chronological table is made out from Rollin's Chronology. He allows 47 years for Artaxerxes: 19 years from this, which will bring us to his 20th year, leaves 28 years after the decree by which Nehemiah went up to build Jerusalem, to the end of Artaxerxes reign.

Yr. Mo. D.

Artaxerxes, after his 20th year, reigned 28

Xerxes and Sogdianus, " 7 15

Darius Nothus, " 19

Anaxerxes Mnemon, " 43

Ochus, " 24

Arses, " 3

Alexander the Great, " 12 8

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Yr. Mo. D.

From Alexander's death to the division of his kingdom by his generals, 22

Ptolemy Soter, king of Egypt, according

to Ptolemy the astronomer, reigned 20

Ptolemy Philadelphus, " 39

Ptolemy Euergetes, " 25

Ptolemy Philopater, " 17

Ptolemy Epiphanes, " 24

Ptolemy Philometer, " 35

Ptolemy Physcon, " 28

Ptolemy Lathyrus, " 10

Alexander I., brother of Lathyrus," 26

Alexander II., " 16

Ptolemy Aulutes and Berenice his daug'r, 14

Cleopatra and her brother, 21

The Romans became masters of Egypt B. C. 30

Total from the 20th of Artax's to 1 B. C. 457 3 15

It is certain, also, that the commission or grant given to Nehemiah to go up and build "the city of his fathers' sepulchres," agrees better with the prediction than any which preceded it. There is abundant evidence also, in Neh. i. and ii., that Jerusalem was a heap of ruins up to the time of Nehemiah's going up to built it up and restore it. The wall also, was built under Nehemiah, even in troublous times. From all these circumstances, I think the 20th year of Artaxerxes' reign to be the true date of the seventy weeks, according to the opinion of king James' translators.

But whichever year it was, is perfectly immaterial to my purpose in showing the fulfilment of the prophecy; for that does not rest on the fallible

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testimony of either profane history or chronology; but on the infallible testimony of Christ.

The prophecy declared, "From the going forth of the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem to Messiah the Prince, shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks; and the street shall be built again, and the wall even in troublous times."

Seven and sixty-two are sixty-nine weeks. Then Messiah was to come; but it was not his birth or death which was here foretold, but the beginning of his ministry. For the 27th verse adds, he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week, which gives the entire seventy.

FULFILMENT OF THE SEVENTY WEEKS

Christ entered on his ministry, according to Luke iii. 23, when he was about thirty years of age. Mark i. 14, 15, records the introduction of his ministry as follows: "Now when John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God and saying, THE TIME IS FULFILLED; the kingdom of God is at hand; repent ye and believe the gospel." What time was then fulfilled, if it was not the 69 weeks foretold by Daniel, which was to introduce the very event which was to introduce the very event which was then taking place? No other time had ever been predicted for that event except the 69 weeks; hence they must have been fulfilled. It is on this authority I base my argument of the fulfillment of the period, let it begin at which decree it may. Christ says it is fulfilled; that is enough for me.

Verse 27. "He shall confirm the covenant with

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many for one week." By covenant, I understand the Scriptures, the law and the prophets. Confirming of the covenant would be to preach it and show its truth and fulfilment. This was Christ's business through his whole ministry. He began by preaching a sermon on the fulfilment of time, and ended his ministry after his resurrection, (Luke xxiv. 27,) by beginning at Moses and all the prophets, and expounded to his disciples, in all the Scriptures, the things concerning himself; and as he was about to go into heaven, (Acts i. 3,) he spoke to them of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. Christ began his ministry at the age of thirty, and was crucified at the age of thirty-seven; allowing seven years for his ministry. It is now universally conceded, I believe, that Christ was born four years before the vulgar era of our Lord began; and thus was four years old when it began. This has been established by astronomical calculation, as follows:

1. Christ was crucified the day before the Jewish Sabbath, (Mark xv. 42,) that is, our Friday.

2. That day was the Jewish Passover. (John xviii. 28, and xix. 14.

3. The Jewish passover was always the first full moon after the vernal equinox.

Ferguson, in his astronomy, remarks: "The Jews reckoned their months by the moon, and their years by the apparent revolution of the sun; and they eat the passover on the 14th day of the month Nisan, which was the first month of the year, reckoning from the first appearance of the new moon, which at that time of the year might be on the evening of the day next after the change, if the sky was clear. So that their 14th

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day of the month answers to our 15th day of the moon, on which she is full. Consequently, the passover was always kept on the day of full moon.

"And the full moon at which it was kept, was that one which happened next after the vernal equinox. For Josephus expressly says, (Antiq. B. iii., ch. 10.) the passover was kept on the 14th day of the month of Nisan, according to the moon, when the sun was in Aries. And the sun always enters Aries at the instant of the vernal equinox; which, in our Saviour's time, fell on the 22nd day of March.

"The dispute among chronologers about the year of Christ's death, is limited to four or five years at most. But as we have shown that he was crucified on the day of a paschal full moon, and on a Friday, all that we have to do, in order to ascertain the year of his death, is only to compute in which of those years there was a passover full moon on a Friday. For the full moons anticipate eleven days every year, (twelve lunar months being so much short of a solar year,) and therefore once in every three years at least the Jews were obliged to set their passover a month farther forward than it fell by the course of the moon on the year next before, in order to keep it at the full moon next after the equinox. Therefore, there could not be two passovers on the same day of the week, within the compass of a few neighboring years. And I find by calculation, the only passover full moon that fell on a Friday, for several years before or after the disputed year of the crucifixion, was on the 3rd day of April, in the 4746th year of the Julian period, which was the 490th year after [Nehemiah] received the above

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mentioned commission from Artaxerxes Longimanus, and the year in which the Messiah was to be cut off, according to the prophecy, reckoning from the going forth of that commission or commandment: and this 490th year was the 33rd year of our Saviour's age, reckoning from the vulgar era of his birth; but the 37th, reckoning from the true era thereof."

The chronology of these 490 years, therefore, rests on the most solid basis; Christ's testimony settles the 69 weeks, and astronomical calculation the last week, or week of Christ's ministry. And the process of determining the day of Christ's death, settles also the chronology since that time; viz., that 1809 years had elapsed the 3rd of last April since Christ's death. One year fills up 2300 years since the decree,-that occurs in 1843.

The matter stands thus:-According to the preceding chronological table, from, Rollin, there were 457 years from the decree given to Nehemiah by Artaxerxes, to A. D. 1. Christ was crucified A. D. 33, at the age of 37; being born four years before A. D. 1.

457

33

490

The same period is gained by taking Christ's testimony of the fulfilment of the 69 weeks, or 483 years, when he began his ministry; and the one week or 7 years of Christ's ministry. And this is the true basis of the chronology.

483

7

490

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2300 being the whole period,

490 taken from it,

leaves 1810 years after Christ's death or ascension.

Of these 1810 years, 1809 are already fulfilled, and the remaining one ends in 1843.

Because I believe God's word, therefore, and only for that reason, I believe that in 1843 the Lord will appear in his glory, justify the sanctuary, deliver the host, and build up Zion. On this subject I have no misgivings, and nothing to conceal. I feel myself bound by every possible means to warn the world and persuade my fellow men to prepare to meet God. In answer to the oft-repeated question, "What if it don't happen?" I refer to Hab. ii. 1-4: "I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved. And the Lord answered me and said, write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry. Behold, his soul which is lifted up, is not upright in him; but the just shall live by his faith."

WHO IS THE LITTLE HORN OF THE EIGHTH OF DANIEL?

Having gone through with my argument on the 2300 days, I will spend a few moments on the little horn; not because I think the decision essential to the argument, but for the sake of those who may wish light in reference to it.

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I. Some say it is Mahomedism. To this I object,-First; because Mahomedism did not come out of one of the four horns of the goat, but out of Arabia, which Alexander never conquered. Secondly; the little horn "became great, but not by his own power;" but Mahomedism became great by its own efforts and prowess. Thirdly; the little horn waxed great toward the south, toward the east, and toward the pleasant land; whereas Mahomedism arose in the south and increased toward the north. Fourthly; the little horn waxed great even to the host of heaven, the church, and magnified himself even to the prince of the host. But Mahomedism neither professed to be the only church of Jesus Christ, nor to be Jesus Christ, and exercise his prerogatives and fill his place.

II. Some say the little horn is Rome, both pagan and papal. They contend, 1. That Home came out of Greece, as the ten horns, or barbarian kingdoms came out of Rome, by conquering and establishing their power there. 2. That Rome became great, not by its own power, but by the power of God. God gave them their dominion, as he did Nebuchadnezzar. Dan ii. 3. 3. They did wax great to the host of heaven, the church, when Constantine embraced and adopted Christianity as the religion of the empire, and finally, when Rome became the papal church. 4. Rome papal, magnified himself even to the prince of the host, Jesus Christ, in the pretensions of the pope. 5. Rome waxed great toward the south, and toward the pleasant land, Palestine. 6. Rome cast down some of the host and of the stars (saints and Christian ministers) to the ground, and stamped upon them, during both the pagan and papal

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form. It also destroyed the mighty and holy people, whether we understand either Jews or Christians. 7. They who apply it to Rome would explain "by him the daily was taken away, and the place of his sanctuary was cast down," by adopting the marginal reading; and FROM him (Rome) the daily, paganism, shall be taken away and the place of his, the daily's sanctuary, the city of Rome, was cast down. "A host, an army was given him, Rome papal, against the daily, and it (the host or army of popery) cast down truth to the ground, and it practised and prospered. 8. Rome has ever been Anti-Christ, and will, in the final issue, in the battle of that great day of God Almighty, stand up against the Prince of princes, Jesus Christ, and be broken without hand: that is, by Almighty power, like the great image of Daniel, second chapter.

III. To the foregoing interpretation I have no very particular objections, except that the character of the little horn appears to me to be more perfectly met in popery alone, than by including pagan Rome. 1. Popery came out of Greece, one of the four horns of the goat. 2. It became great by the power of the Greek emperors, who gave the Pope his supremacy, and conquered and gave him Rome. 3. Popery has spread to the south, into Africa; to the east, all over the eastern world; and in the time of the crusades, the banner of the cross waved on Mount Zion. 4. Popery boasts itself the exclusive church of Christ; and the pope professes to be the vicegerant of Christ on earth. 5. Popery has murdered her 50,000,000 of the saints of God. 6. The daily was taken away by or for popery,

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to make way for it; the same as three of the ten horns are said to be plucked up by the roots by the little horn, in chap. vii. They were plucked up to make way for him. So the daily was taken away by or for him, etc. 7. He is to stand up against Christ in the last great battle. 8. And finally, the strongest reason I have to urge in favor of understanding the little horn to be popery, is, that it is "a little horn;" the same emblem which is used in the 7th chapter, where it most clearly means popery.

One or the other of these powers it must mean. Which one, it is immaterial, so long as the Roman beast and little horn will be destroyed together, as being parts of the same whole; or rather, the one being a whole, and the other a part of it. I am as willing it should be understood of one as the other. Only I rejoice that the time is so near when the whole man of sin will be destroyed by the brightness of Christ's coming.

Note 1. On the import of the word rendered, in our common translation of Dan. ix. 24, "determined," in addition to the authorities cited page 133, for rendering it "cut off," I find also that Leigh's Critica Sacra, a learned and critical work, published in 1650, gives it the same definition.

Note 2. On the date of the seventy weeks of Daniel, ninth chapter, since writing the preceding argument in favor of dating them in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes, I find, by reference to the Annals of the World, by Arch-bishop Usher, that he dates them at the same point.

CHAPTER V. THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES

One of the marks of hypocrisy in the Jews of our Lord's day, was, that in the midst of his numerous and astonishing miracles, performed in their midst and before their eyes, they came to him and asked of him a sign;-"Master, we would see a sign from thee." "O ye hypocrites," said the Saviour, "ye can discern the face of the sky; how is it that ye cannot discern the signs of this time?" How much like the present generation! In the midst of a flood of light, and some of the most astonishing wonders of the world, how perfectly blind are men to the fact that just these signs were foretold to precede the great and terrible day of the Lord! But thanks be to God, there are some left who have faith enough in God's word to believe that when he promises signs of the second advent of the Saviour, he will be as faithful to fulfil them as he was in the case of his first advent. There are many, however, and some of them profess themselves believers in God's word too, yea, and teachers of that word, who are ready to scoff at us when we point at the very things in real life, or as matters of authentic history, and profess to believe them a fulfilment of God's word. But we

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are not to be scoffed out of our faith; a more powerful instrument than ridicule will be requisite to drive us from it.

Some of the predicted signs I design to notice, and inquire if they have been fulfilled.

1. "There shall be scoffers in the last times." 2 Peter iii. 2. This is one of the first signs laid down by Peter. "Knowing this first, that there shall come," etc. To guard the church against them he wrote both his epistles. "This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you, in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance, that ye may be mindful of the words spoken before by the holy prophets; and the commandments of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour." He foresaw what an effort would be made to cast the prophecies into the shade, and persuade the people and the church that the prophets gave no light on the second advent; that Daniel only predicted the overthrow of Antiochus, and, in the ninth chapter, came down to the destruction of Jerusalem; the greater prophets foretold the Babylonish captivity and return, the birth and death of Christ, together with the glory of the gospel dispensation, and occasionally alluded to some local circumstance of their own day. And so also of the minor prophets. Do we hear and witness any such, effort to throw the doctrine of Christ's coming, into the shade in our own day-"Saying, where is the promise of his coming?" Are there any who do this as a sect of modern origin, who are notorious for gathering in their ranks the profligate of every description, and who comfort them with the assurance that the bad effects of their crimes will only be realized

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in this life; thus inducing them still to walk after their own lusts, and scoff at the judgment day? Mr. Ballou, the father of modern Universalism, knows this sect is not half a century old. But I will not enlarge on this point. The same thing is predicted by Paul, 1 Thess. v. 3: "When they shall say peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them." They are now saying it most emphatically. Universalists do it openly and unequivocally. Many evangelical (professedly so) ministers and Christians, like the Jews of old, are ready to say, "his blood be on us;" or, we take the responsibility to say he will not come in 1843, nor for a thousand years at least. This doctrine of a thousand years' peace and universal holiness before the coming of the Lord, is itself a most effectual anodyne to a sleeping church and perishing world.

2. "This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness to all nations, and then shall the end come." Matt. xxiv. 14.

This sign is fulfilled. There is no known nation which has never, to a greater or less extent, had the gospel preached to them. Rev. J. O. Choules, author of a voluminous work, a History of Missions, from the Apostolic age down to the present day, being asked, last May, (1842,) if he knew of any nation which never had received the gospel, replied that he did not; but he thought the promise implied something more than its being barely preached in each nation.

The same question was proposed to Rev. Mr. James, general financial agent of the American Bible Society, and nearly the same answer was elicited. Dr. Nathan Bangs, for many years at

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the head of the Methodist missionary operations, was asked the question last July, and after reflecting some time, replied, that he believed there was a tribe, somewhere upon the north-west coast of North America, to whom it had never been preached. But, in answer to this, we have only to say, that it is in no way probable, if there was one solitary tribe in that country when the Doctor had his information, that, with the gospel in all the surrounding tribes, and the spirit of revival which has prevailed in that quarter for some years past, and the rapid spread of the gospel among the tribes, the tribe remains now without it. It is alleged by some, that there is no evidence that the negro tribes in the interior of Africa have ever heard the gospel. To this it is replied, it is a well authenticated fact, that the gospel was planted in Africa, and flourished there, from the apostolic age, for many centuries; and that even after the church in Europe and Asia went into the wilderness. It is true, also, that it extended far up into the interior of Africa, in Ethiopia. Modern missions have surrounded Africa, and their labors have reached the interior. The Wesleyans have sustained missionaries in the south and east of Africa, and have successfully prosecuted their work for many years. Every successive year has extended their operations into the interior. Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, Congregational, and Episcopal missions have all been established on the western coast. The single revival at Heddington, it was reported, some two years ago, had extended for five hundred miles up into the interior, and induced whole tribes of natives to burn their gods,

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and seek for Christian instruction, and the work was still rapidly spreading, through the influence of native converts. We know that God has, in a most wonderful manner, poured out his Spirit on the heathen world for years past, and awakened and prepared their minds to receive the gospel; and when it has been sent to them they have embraced it with greediness. The probability is, that the revivals at different points on the coast of Africa have reached every tribe on the continent ere this day. Asia has had the gospel, from Tartary to Hindostan, and from Palestine to China. So far as the islands are known, all of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Ocean islands have had the gospel of Christ preached to them. With these facts before us, and the concession of such men as Mr. Choules, Dr. Bangs, and Mr. Janes, and many others of a like character, that they know of no nation which never had it,-and either of them would gladly show that such existed if they could,-are we not fully authorized in believing that every nation has heard the word of life; or, at least, that it comes so near to it, that, with the facilities for spreading it at present in operation, and the spirit of revival which prevails at present, they will have it within the next year?

But when it is preached in all the world, for a witness to all nations, "THEN SHALL THE END COME." There is no such thing as a millennium after it is preached in all the world. Why cannot the Doctors see this? That end, then, must be just upon us.

3. The signs foretold in Luke, twenty-first chapter. This chapter is parallel to the 24th of

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Matthew; and as the events appear more consecutive and distinct, I shall follow this account, and examine it, rather than that of Matthew.

Luke xxi. 6, 7: "As for these things which ye behold, the days will come, in the which there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down. And they asked him, saying, Master, but when shall these things be? and what sign will there be when these things shall come to pass?"

In answer to these questions, Christ proceeded to tell them (from verses eight to twenty-four) what signs there would be which should precede the destruction of Jerusalem. The language is so plain that it cannot well be misunderstood. "Let them which are in Judea flee to the mountains." "For there shall be distress in the land, and wrath upon this people. And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations; and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled." All these predicted events have most certainly come on the Jews and Jerusalem. That devoted city is yet trodden down of the Gentiles; therefore, the prophecy has not yet expired. This, then, is my answer to those who would contend that the prophecy ended with the destruction of Jerusalem; it is not so, for it is yet in a course of fulfilment. In order to show that the prophecy ended then, it must be proved that Jerusalem ceased then to be trodden down of the Gentiles.

"Times of the Gentiles," is the period of their triumph over the church, holding it in bondage. It is shadowed forth by the metalic image of Daniel,

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second chapter, beginning with the Chaldeans, and ending with the Romans, in the entire destruction of the Gentile governments of the earth and the setting up of the kingdom of God to fill the whole earth. Their times end with the 2300 days. Then, in verse 25, and onward, follows a prediction of the signs that should indicate the kingdom of God at hand, with the same certainty that the budding of the fig-tree indicates approaching summer.

Verse 25. "There shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon." What these signs are, we learn from other parts of the Bible. Matthew, in referring to the same signs, says, "the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light." Joel, ii. 31, that "the sun shall be darkened and the moon shall be turned to blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord come."

Has the sun been darkened in these days, as predicted by Joel and the Saviour? It has; and that within the memory of many now living. I refer to the dark day of A. D. 1780, May 19th. That was a day of supernatural darkness. It was not an eclipse of the sun, for the moon was nearly at the full. It was not owing to a thickness in the atmosphere, for the stars were seen. The darkness began about 9 o'clock, A. M., and continued through the day, and also into, if not through the night. Such was the darkness, that work was suspended in the field and shop, beasts and fowls retired to their rest, and houses were illuminated at dinner time. Such a day of darkness has never been known, so far as I can learn from history, (and I have searched for it most diligently,) since the crucifixion of our Saviour.

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There have been several such events since, in different countries. If any can produce evidence of such an appearance before 1780, I will thank them most heartily for the information, and make a correction of this statement.

"And in the moon." At the time of the dark day, May 19, 1780, there was a full moon, or nearly so, [the moon fulled the 18th,] yet the night was as dark as "Egyptian darkness." "The moon (did) not give her light."

The following extract from Gage's History of the town of Rowley, Mass., on "the dark day" of May, 1780, will set this point in a clear light.

DARK DAY OF MAY NINETEENTH, 1780

Mr. Gage says, "The sun rose clear, and shone for several hours; at length the sky became overcast with clouds, and by ten o'clock, A. M., the darkness was such as to occasion the farmers to leave their work in the field, and retire to their dwellings; fowls went to their roosts; and, before noon, lights became necessary to the transaction of business within doors; the darkness continued through the day; and the night, till near morning, was as unusually dark as the day."

Rev. Mr. Tenny, of Exeter, N. H., quoted by Mr. Gage, in some speculations upon the cause of the darkness, forwarded to "The Historical Society," in which he says that "no satisfactory solution of it has yet appeared,"-in remarking upon the following evening, says, "The darkness of the following evening was probably as gross as

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has ever been observed since the Almighty first gave birth to light. I could not help conceiving at the time, that if every luminous body in the universe had been shrouded in impenetrable darkness, or struck out of existence, the darkness could not have been more complete. A sheet of white paper held within a few inches of the eyes, was equally invisible with the blackest velvet."

"The moon to blood." The following extract of a letter from Mr. Beadle, at Aleppo, and published in the Missionary Herald of June, 1842, page 234, will illustrate this point. It is an account of an earthquake at that place in 1822. He says, "On the night of the earthquake there was something peculiar in the atmosphere, the moon appearing as red as blood. This greatly alarmed the inhabitants, who were continually crying out, 'Now we shall hear the trumpet sound! and the dead will rise! the day of judgment has arrived!'"

The following description of the forementioned earthquake is from the same writer:

"About ten o'clock the earth began suddenly to move, as if it had been placed upon the waves of the sea. This rapidly undulating motion continued for some seconds, but produced no very serious injury. Some walls cracked, but resumed their places when the earth rested. A moment after the undulating motion ceased, came the dreadful shock. It was strictly vertical, seeming to strike directly beneath the city. The confusion and ruin which succeeded that awful moment, are beyond all description. The crash of falling houses, the shrieks of the dying and wounded, husbands calling for wives, and wives searching

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for husbands, children entreating help from parents, and parents vainly seeking for their lost children, mingled with prayers and groans in many languages, presented a scene of suffering and wo from which the mind turns instinctively away.

"The first impulse of the surviving inhabitants seemed to be to rush to the gates of the city. Many were crushed in their flight, and those who were permitted to reach a place of comparative safety outside the walls, were compelled to pass over mangled and dead bodies, and fly amid

--'ten thousand deaths on every side.'"

"And in the stars." The sign in the stars is, that "the stars shall fall from heaven as a fig-tree casteth her untimely figs when shaken of a mighty wind." Rev. vi. 13, and Matt. xxiv. 29. Has such a phenomenon taken place? The remembrance of the shower of meteors, on the night of Nov. 13, 1833, is fresh in the minds of the present generation. The scene could not be more truly described than it is by the Revelator. Such a scene I find described as having occurred in 1779, on the 12th of November, and as having been visible from South America to Germany and Greenland. From where they were witnessed in South America, on the coast of Brazil, to Weimer, in Germany, is 10,800 miles; and from the same place to Herrenhut, in Greenland, 7,000 miles. This was the earliest shower of meteors, of any considerable magnitude, I can find on record. This was about six months before the dark day. There are several instances of the kind on record since that. Indeed, the 12th

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and 13th of November seem to be their anniversary. But, it is objected, meteors are not "stars." I would ask the objector, then, what it was which went before the wise men and guided them to the place of the Saviour's birth? Was it a fixed star? Can one of these fiery orbs fall on the earth, and not destroy it? Certainly not. Then they must be meteors.

But, admitting it to refer to the fixed stars, will not the conflagration of some of those bodies within a few years, as recorded by astronomers, answer the prediction? The signs have most certainly appeared in the stars.

Recapitulation. 1. The sun has been super-naturally darkened from morning to night: in some places it being cloudy, and the sun entirely invisible, and in others it being visible, but having the same appearance as when totally eclipsed; and the stars being visible. I have both these accounts from many living witnesses, in different parts of the country. It being cloudy in the north and clear in the south of New England.

2. That the moon, although it fulled the 18th, the day before the dark day, and must have arisen soon after sunset, gave no light at all. Also the bloody hue of the moon has appeared.

3. That signs in the stars have appeared, whether it be understood of the showers of meteors, or of the burning of the fixed stars.

Observe:-Each of these events has made a deep impression on the world that it presaged the great and terrible day of the Lord; some in each time believing it had come; others that it would soon come. It was thus on the dark day, when the moon was turned to blood, and during

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the showers of meteors. To the people, generally, at the time they were witnessed, they were a sign. If they do not fulfil the prophecy, it cannot be fulfilled. For if it is ever done, it must be by just these appearances. If this does not accomplish the prediction, the repetition of the same thing again would not do it, hut would rather produce infidelity by the commonness of the phenomena. I must, therefore, believe the signs to have already appeared.

"Upon earth distress of nations with perplexity." Beginning with the French Revolution, in 1789, to the close of Bonaparte's career, in 1815, it is notorious that a time of dreadful trouble prevailed in the four quarters of the globe,-Europe, Asia, Africa, and America. That war, which began in France, ere it ended, involved nearly the whole civilized world. Almost all the governments of Christendom were shaken to their very base. It was the declaration of Bonaparte, at the time of the revolution of Nov., 1799, that "nothing in history resembled the close of the 18th century." Europe was deluged with blood, and millions of her sons fell upon the field of battle. Almost every sovereign on the continent of Europe was hurled from his throne, or obliged to purchase a dishonorable peace of Europe's scourge. The intestine broils and civil commotions of the Ottoman empire, were fast bringing it to ruin. There was emphatically "on earth distress of nations, with perplexity." No nation could foresee for a day, what would be its doom by the next day. All was fear and dismay. More than once, in the midst of the perplexity of the age, and of our other distresses, our own country was startled by

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the report of Bonaparte's intention of crossing the Atlantic.

Hear Sir Robert Peel, in the British parliament, on the close of the last and beginning of the present century:-

"We live in an important period in the annals of human events. There may be a natural tendency to overrate the magnitude of the crisis which we witness, or to increase the importance of those occurrences with which we are encompassed; but it is impossible to deny that the period in which our lot and the lot of our fathers have been cast-that period which has elapsed since the first outbreak of the French Revolution-is one of the most memorable periods in the history of the world; and the course which we pursued during that period will attract, for ages to come, the contemplation, and I trust the admiration of posterity. (Loud cheering.) It may be divided into two periods of almost equal importance. First, twenty-five years of continued conflict, the most momentous that ever engaged the energies of a nation; and next, twenty-five years of profound European peace, purchased by the sacrifices which we made for years in maintaining the contest that preceded it."

"The sea and the waves roaring." The almost universal testimony of mariners, is, that for a few years past, the sea has been to an unparalleled degree, boisterous. One captain, who crossed the Atlantic for the one hundred and sixth time, last February, declared that he had never experienced anything to be compared to the roughness of the ocean during that voyage. In one storm which happened last winter on the

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coast of France, between two and three hundred dead bodies were found after the gale, washed up upon the shores of France, beside the multitude who were never found.

The terrible gales of 1839 and 1841, upon the coast of New England, will long be remembered by merchants, whose property perished by millions; and mother, widows, sisters, and orphan children, whose earthly prospects were blasted by the ocean's rage. The "terrible shipwrecks" of 1841, were altogether unprecedented in the history of New England. From the small town of Truro, on Cape Cod, in one gale, nine vessels were lost, and fifty-six seamen perished; almost from a single neighborhood. The sudden rise of the water among the islands of the Pacific Ocean some three years since, covering, and almost desolating some of the islands in a perfect calm, is another instance of the waves' roaring.

At the time of the terrible earthquakes in the "West-Indies, last May, a vessel of the United States, a few days out, from Java, in the Indian Ocean, was overtaken by "an earthquake at sea." The vessel was going at about the rate of one mile per hour, it being almost a perfect calm. Suddenly, the vessel began to shake; and shook, as the captain describes it, as if it would shake out the masts of the ship. Supposing they were upon shoals, they sounded, and by casting out one hundred and twenty fathom, or seven hundred and twenty feet of line, could find no bottom. Thus, on one side of the earth, in the Atlantic, God shook the dry land; and on the opposite side, in the Indian Ocean, the sea.

Verse 26. "Men's hearts failing them for fear,

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and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth." Literally "the habitable earth."

That there is a great excitement at the present time, on the state of the world and the prospects of the future, is undeniable. That some great revolution is soon to take place, all are disposed to concede, whether they belong to the political, civil, commercial, literary, philanthropic, benevolent, moral, or religious organizations and associations of the age. But what that revolution is to be, they are not so well satisfied. It is now, much as at the time of Christ's first advent; expectation is on tiptoe, looking; for something. The interest on the subject of the second advent is almost universal. From every quarter of the globe from which we hear, it is a topic of interest. It is a theme which excites universal interest in our own country, insomuch that scarcely a paper of any description appears without alluding to the subject; most of them, it is true, with contempt. East, west, north, and south, the press is teeming with books illustrative of the prophecies; so that probably not a week passes without a new work from some quarter on this subject. Thus the world is looking after those things which are coming on "the habitable earth."

"The powers of heaven shall be shaken, and then they shall see the Son of man coming in a cloud, with power and great glory."

"Shall be shaken." This is the last sign of the series, and is to take place in immediate connection with the second advent. "Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven." It signifieth the removing of things that can be

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shaken, and the leaving a kingdom which cannot he moved.

The signs have all appeared, and it only remains that the coming of Christ should close the scene. "I shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land; I will shake all nations, and the Desire of all nations shall come."

THE CERTAINTY AND DEFINITENESS OF OUR KNOWLEDGE OF THE TIME

Verse 28. "And when these things BEGIN to come to pass, then look up and lift up your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh."

"These things," must refer to the signs he had just uttered: signs in the sun, in the moon, in the stars, etc. "When these things BEGIN to come to pass:" as though they would have a very marked beginning. The first sign in the sun was in 1780; and at the same time, a full moon did not give her light. The shower of meteors was six months previous. Thus sixty-two years and little over have passed, since the series of signs began. "Your redemption draweth nigh." How near? As, when the trees put forth their leaves, the summer is soon to follow; so these signs shall immediately precede Christ's advent.

Verses 29-32. "And he spake to them a parable; Behold the fig-tree, and all the trees; when they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand. So likewise ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand. Verily I say unto you, this generation shall not pass away till all be fulfilled."

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"The kingdom of God is nigh at hand." The Son of man is to come in a cloud, as in Dan. vii. 13. 14, to establish this kingdom. But how near will it most certainly be, when these signs begin? Answer. Within one generation. "This generation" who see these things begin to come to pass, "shall not pass away till all be fulfilled." It is certain: "heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away." That this is the true import of the passage, is to my mind clear, from the fact that the events here specified, did not take place during the lifetime of those who heard him; and that to call it this race, whether Jews or Christians, and say they should continue on earth until Christ should come, would be no sign of his near or speedy coming. For it was as true 1800 years ago, that both races were on earth as it is now. But if it is understood of a generation of threescore years and ten, the age of man, and applied to those who saw the beginning of these signs, sixty-two years ago, then seventy years, or a generation, will not pass away before the last event will take place. About seven years more remain of the generation; but they cannot be fulfilled before Christ comes, without destroying his word of promise. For the budding tree is not so sure a precursor of summer, as these signs are of the coming of the kingdom of God.

On the ungodly, after all these positive admonitions, that day will come as a thief, as did the flood on the old world, and the storm of fire on Sodom; but not so, God's people; they will, like the disciples when they saw Jerusalem compassed with armies and fled, be found watching for

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the hour, and at every successive sign, lift up their heads and rejoice that their redemption draweth nigh. Reader, are you ready?

THE TEN VIRGINS - MATTHEW TWENTY-FIFTH CHAPTER

Verse 1. "Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins which took their lamps and went forth to meet the bridegroom."

When shall the kingdom of heaven be likened, etc.? When the foretold signs are taking place;-within one generation of the second coming of Christ. For this condition of the kingdom of heaven is as much one of the signs, as any of the foregoing signs.

"The kingdom of heaven." By the kingdom of heaven, I understand here, the earth and its inhabitants. It being promised to Christ as the theatre of his everlasting kingdom, but yet suffering violence and being held of the Gentiles by force; but it is his promised inheritance. Thus, in the parable in Matt. xiii. 47-50: "The kingdom of heaven is like a net that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind; which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away." The net is the world or earth which contains and receives all the inhabitants who come into it, good and bad. Like the tares and wheat which grow together until the harvest, or end of the world, the net is also to gather good and bad to the same period. Then Christ will send his angels to separate between the good and bad. "They shall gather out of his kingdom all things

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that offend, and them which do iniquity, and cast them into a furnace of fire." "They gather the good into vessels, and cast the bad away." All the inhabitants of the earth are citizens of the kingdom of Christ, as occupying the territory he is to possess, when he comes in his glory. The inhabitants of the earth are like the ten virgins, five wise, and five foolish. When the predicted signs were taking place, they, like the virgins, took their lamps and went forth to meet the bridegroom.

Verses 3, 4. "They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them. But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps."

"Their lamps." The lamp is a light-bearer. The light-bearer of the moral world is the word of God. It is not light of itself, but bears light, and is a means of communicating it to us. The Infidel has the Bible as well as the Christian, but it affords him no light; he cannot see that there is a God, a future state, a Saviour, a devil, and angels. The Christian finds all these things plainly revealed. A lamp will give no light without a wick. The wick is the capacity to read. We may have the lamp, the Bible, and be able to read it, but if there is no oil in the lamp to feed the flame when once the wick is ignited, it will be but a meteor glare, and all will expire. That oil is faith. The word of God can do us no good unless we have faith in it. This is the difference between the Christian and Infidel; one has light from the Bible, the other has not: because the one believes it, and the other does not. The world is being rapidly supplied with the Bible, and have been for many years spreading it abroad.

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But not all who have the Bible are wise unto salvation, because they have not faith; they are the foolish virgins. The pious are the wise; they do believe God's word and rejoice in it.

"Went forth to meet the bridegroom." Was there any special movement in the world during the last and present centuries, in reference to the coming of the Bridegroom? Answer. There most certainly was. Toward the close of the last century, and during the career of Bonaparte, a very unusual excitement prevailed on the subject of the fulfilment of the prophetic Scriptures. More was written and said on the subject than had been before for ages. In 1775, John Fletcher, the bosom friend of Wesley, wrote a long epistle to Mr. W. on the second advent, and the prophetic times. He declared it, as his firm belief, that the second advent would be pre-millennial; and thought the periods would expire during the last century. "But come," he adds, "it most certainly will, before three generations have passed off."

It was the age that drew forth a host of writers on the prophecies, in England, and other European countries. It was the age that called forth Spaulding and Smith, with a long list of others, in our own country. The dark day, the French revolution, the fall of Popery, and wars of Bonaparte, unquestionably awakened the public mind, in an unusual degree, to the fulfilment of prophecy. Many were in expectation that every successive battle would be the battle of the great day. "But when," said an eminent British writer, "the battle of Waterloo was over, and peace was restored to Europe and the world, we were

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thrown back fifty years, and knew not where we were."

From that time it is true "that while the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept." The world went to sleep together on the subject. He did not come as they had expected; they knew not when he would come, or the prophecies would be fulfilled.

The cry was then made that the prophecies were obscure and uncertain; and that while so much was plain and practical, we had better attend to it, instead of troubling ourselves about the prophetic Scriptures. The efforts of the Bible and Missionary Societies came into operation, and their success was great, and excited the strong hope that the world would be converted, and a long period of peace and triumph ensue. This syren song fairly put the world to sleep on the second advent. And most sweetly they slumbered; aye, and dreamed too! The expectation of the speedy coming of Christ, a few years ago, was scarcely named in the pulpits of this land.

But "at midnight," when sleep was most profound, "a cry was made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh, go ye out to meet him." That such a cry has been made cannot be denied. That it came at a time when it was little expected by most, is also true. It was about twenty-four years ago, 1818, that persons in different parts of the world, and entirely unknown to each other, made the discovery that the 70 weeks and 2300 days of Daniel's prophecy began together; and, of course, that the 2300 days would end in 1810 years after the end of the seventy weeks. Some, thinking the 70 weeks did not end until four years after

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Christ's death, carried the end of the vision to 1847. Those who take the ground that the 70 weeks ended with the death, or at most, the ascension of Christ, end it in 1843. Among those who, about the same time, saw this point and began to teach it, were Mr. Davis, of South Carolina; A. J. Krupp, of Philadelphia; William Miller, of New York state; David McGreggor, now of Falmouth, Me.; Edward Irving and Rev. Mr. Way, of England; Joseph Wolff, the Jewish missionary; and a great many others of more or less note. So that, within the last fifteen or twenty years, the cry that is being made, "Behold, the bridegroom cometh," has been most distinctly announced in both hemispheres. In Wolff's journal of his missionary labors, we learn that he proclaimed it all through the east, where he travelled and awakened public attention to the subject. At most of the missionary stations in the east, he preached the doctrine in 1831-2-3-4; had free conversation with most of the missionaries on the subject, as also with both Jews and Mahomedans. Some of his discussions with the Mahomedans are very interesting. More than twenty years ago, as we learn from a missionary in Tartary, in a letter published in an English magazine, a Tartar priest discovered from the Bible that the prophetic times were nearly run out, and fixed on 1844 as the time. "Within the last three years, there have been sent from our office in this city, second advent publications to nearly all the English and American missionary stations on the earth. They have been sent to China; to Burmah; to Hindostan; to the East Indies; to Persia, Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Asia Minor, Greece,

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Constantinople; into Africa, the W. India Islands, the Islands of the Pacific; the Indian missions both sides of the Rocky Mountains. They have also been scattered broadcast all over these States, and in the Canadas, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, etc. There are now probably five or six hundred ministers of the gospel in the United Stales who are engaged more or less in preaching the doctrine of the speedy coming of Christ, and a large number who are devoted entirely to the work. The doctrine has made more progress within the last four months than in all previous time. Is not this the midnight cry?

"Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps." To trim a lamp, is to put it in order to burn and give light. Has the world been aroused to the study of the Bible on the subject of Christ's coming? This is undeniable; the time never was when there was so universal a searching of the Scriptures as at present. All are at it, whether Christians or Infidels, professors or profane. Are these things so? is the great inquiry; but some scoff.

"But the foolish said unto the wise, give us of your oil, for our lamps are gone out." Take a lamp with a wick, and ignite it, and it will blaze for a moment without oil, but must soon expire. So with the unbelieving world; they hear and read what is preached and written, and are almost ready to yield to their convictions of its truth. It is the fact with a great part of the congregations who hear a course of lectures on the subject. But they go away, meet with scoffers, their unbelief sets in, and they lose all interest

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in the question and go into the dark. There is another class who have faith in whatever the Bible teaches; they are simple of heart, and willing to obey God. When they find it in God's book, however against their former opinions, they receive it; they are the wise virgins. They have oil as well as a lamp. "Give us of your oil." Nothing is more common than for believers to be accosted in this way: "Well, now if you can see it so plainly, why, cannot you tell me, so I can see it?"-or, "Do you believe in Christ's coming in '43?" "What do you think of this new doctrine? "etc. "Give us of your oil." "Our lamps are gone out." How many tell us, "I did feel interested for a while, but lately I have not thought much about it. I can't believe it. There is more to be done before Christ comes!"

"Not so; go to them that sell, and buy for yourselves." Those who believe cannot give faith. If it is obtained at all, God must give it. Ask of him, then, who gives to all liberally, and upbraideth not, and it shall be given.

"While they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and they that were ready went in to the marriage, and the door was shut." Some have concluded, from this text, that there will be no time for obtaining oil after the cry is made; but if so, why direct the foolish virgins to go and buy? There is time. But two difficulties are in the way of obtaining oil in season. First, they wait too long before they go to buy, and have not time after they start. The second is, they go to the wrong shop. Our citizens do not go to a hard-ware store to purchase dry and fancy goods. If some of the awakened virgins should happen to mistake Newton,

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Andover, New Haven, and other such schools of the prophets, for the very place where they have the oil of faith to sell without money and without price, very likely while they are gone the bridegroom will come, go in, and shut the door. Reader, take care that this case be not yours. Go direct to Christ, and you may be sure you will obtain it in good time.

The question is frequently asked, "Do you think a belief in this doctrine essential to salvation?" I answer, I believe a love for the glorious appearing of the Saviour is essential to salvation. I do not believe that those who dislike the idea of his appearing, and are unwilling he should come, are in a state of readiness for his coming. But to come more to the point; the Scriptures do distinctly teach that Christians are all of the light and of the day, and that they are not in darkness, that that day should overtake them as a thief. God has promised, by Daniel, (xii. 10.) that "the wise shall understand." The parable before us teaches that all the wise virgins had oil and went in. But none of those whose lamps were gone out, so that they had no light, went in. They came, but too late. They believed when they saw; they would not before. I must believe, if I believe God's promise, that every true Christian, at the time of Christ's coming, will be in expectation, looking out for his appearing; every moment. Nor do I believe one soul will go in who is not found thus watching. There are, undoubtedly, a great many of the wise virgins who are yet asleep to this subject, who are to be awakened, and will be, before that day comes. Faith in the doctrine is not now a test of Christian character,

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but the time is coming when it will be. Reader, on which side of the line are you? Are you awake or asleep? Are you wise or foolish in this business? Time is short for you to awake, trim your lamp, and get oil. Begin without delay, and prepare for the coming of the Lord.

This sign has been most strikingly fulfilled. And I cannot but regard the midnight cry, which is now being uttered long and loud, as one of the most striking of the foretold signs of the Redeemer's speedy appearing.

ANOTHER SIGN - ISAIAH XI. 1-6

"Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins. The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it."

The chronology of the fulfilment of this prediction, is, when Jerusalem's warfare is accomplished, and her iniquity pardoned; and when she has received her full measure of ruin and desolation. But she is yet trodden down of the Gentiles, therefore she is not yet pardoned. The sign

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which is to precede the pardon of Jerusalem, and the end of her warfare, is a voice crying in the wilderness, speaking comfort to God's people, and also declaring to the world the termination of that warfare. Does any such sign us this appear at the present time? Look at the ten thousands who congregate in the wilderness, and have been doing so for some four months past, to listen to this very theme. The Second Advent Camp-meetings have excited the deepest interest in the community.

But the facilities for congregating the people in the wilderness, and for transporting with rapidity the bearers of this message, are to be noticed:-

"Prepare ye THE WAY of the Lord." But how is the way of the Lord to be prepared, for giving speedily the midnight cry? The answer is,-"Make straight in the desert A HIGH-WAY for our God." The highway is to be made in or through the desert. Through pastures, swamps, morasses, and woods; through waste and by-places. Is such a thing as this done? But how is this peculiar highway to be prepared?

"Every valley," through its length, not every valley in the world, "shall be exalted;" each valley shall be filled up:-"Every mountain and hill" in its course "shall be made love," so that it shall be a level highway:-"The crooked" places "shall be made straight," in order to have a straight way:-"And the rough" cragged places "plain." And when this sign appears, the next thing which will happen, is, "The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together." Have we such highways now prepared? and do they facilitate the gathering of

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immense multitudes in the wilderness, for the very purpose of hearing words of comfort to the saints and the peace of Jerusalem? Some may think this view fanciful-but it is in the book of God, and has a meaning. What is that meaning? all have aright to ask. It is clear, that whatever partial reference it had to John the Baptist, it was not all fulfilled in him; for the warfare and desolation of Jerusalem yet continue; nor have all flesh yet seen the glory of the Lord together. John was the fore-runner of the Lord at his first advent-he came as the friend of the bridegroom, and rejoiced because of the bridegroom's voice: so also the bridegroom still has friends to proclaim in the desert, "Behold, he cometh."

Look also at this description. Nahum i. 15, and ii. 3, 4: "Behold, upon, the mountains the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace! O Judah, keep thy solemn feasts, perform thy vows: the wicked shall no more pass through thee, he is utterly cut off."

The idea that this prophecy relates to the destruction of old Nineveh, is the opinion which generally prevails. But a few moments' reflection will set this matter right. Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian empire, as was Babylon of the Chaldean. Both capitals have long been laid in ruins. The Assyrians were God's instruments ⁷7 of vengeance, and first carried the house of Judah captive to Babylon, while the Assyrian king had dominion of that city. God has a cup of indignation both for Babylon and Nineveh, which they have not yet drunk at the Lord's hand. The burdens of different lands, as proclaimed by the

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prophets, have not yet been fulfilled; nor will they be until the seventh vial of God's wrath is poured out, and Great Babylon comes into remembrance before him, to give her the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. The chronology of Nahum's prophecy is, when "the mountains quake at him, and the hills melt; and the earth is burned at his PRESENCE, the world and all that dwell therein." Verse 5. Has this taken place? Was it fulfilled at the destruction of Jerusalem? Again, in the 15th verse, the wicked is no more to pass through Judah, when the prophecy is realized, but is to be utterly cut off. Is this done? The feet of him that publisheth these good tidings, is to be seen upon the mountains before it is fulfilled. Rev. Mr. Nicolayison, a missionary at Jerusalem, is a firm believer in the speedy appearing of Christ at hand. A friend of the cause was at Jerusalem last spring, and had several most interesting conversations with him on the subject, and supplied him with our books and publications. So that upon the mountains of Jerusalem, stand the feet of him that bringeth glad tidings, that publisheth peace.

Chap. ii. 3, 4: "The chariots shall be with FLAMING TORCHES in the day of his preparation; and the fir-trees shall be terribly shaken. The chariots shall rage in the streets, they shall justle one against another in the broad ways; they shall seem like torches and run like the lightnings." Do we have any chariots, wheeled carriages, at this day, propelled with fire, or a flaming torch? Do those chariots seem, when at full speed, in the night, like torches? Do they rage in the streets and justle one against anothers?

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And finally, "DO THEY RUN LIKE THE LIGHTNINGS?" If so, then it is the day of God's preparation "to burn the earth and the world, and all that is therein." Reader, look at this point carefully, and see if the prophecy does not have a literal fulfilment in our own day. Put Isaiah 40th chapter, and Nahum ii. 3, 4, together.

CHAPTER VI. THE SEVEN LAST PLAGUES

The first question to be settled, in reference to the seven last plagues, is, are they, any or all of them, past, or are they all future? It is the opinion of most expositors of the Apocalypse, that there are at least six of them already executed. The time has been when I was disposed to fall in with the prevailing opinion; but more recently have been constrained to dissent from that view, and consider them what they are emphatically said to be-"The seven LAST plagues," in which "is FILLED UP the wrath of God." The chronology of their execution seems to me to be in the future, and after the second advent. Some of the reasons for this opinion are the following:-

1. They are introduced after the Son of man comes on a white cloud to "reap the harvest of the earth,"-the saints,-for they are the wheat. Then the vintage will come, and the vine be cast into the great wine-press of the wrath of God. Rev. xiv. 14-20.

2. The redeemed are represented as standing on the sea of glass, having the harps of God, and

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singing the song of Moses and the Lamb, before the vials are poured, out. But the song of Moses is the song of triumph and deliverance. See Ex. xv. So also is the song of the Lamb. "Thy judgments are made manifest." See Rev. xv.

3. Another reason for considering them all future, is analogy. In the destruction of the old world, God secured Noah in the ark, before the flood came on the ungodly. Before the storm of fire came on Sodom, God, by a special interposition, and the ministry of his angels, brought righteous Lot out of the devoted city, to a place of safety.

When destruction was to come on Jerusalem, the Saviour took care to deliver those that trusted in him, and they were led to a place of safety before the dreadful siege began, and not a Christian perished there.

4. Yet again, the very first vial, when it is poured out upon the earth, will affect the men who have the mark of the beast, and them that have worshipped his IMAGE. Rev. xvi. 2. The image of the beast did not exist until the present century, (see Chapter III. of this book,) and could not be worshipped before it existed. And also those who gain the victory over the image of the beast are to stand on the sea of glass before the vials are poured out.

Although the saints are to stand on the sea of glass, as it were mingled with fire, before the vials are poured out, no man can enter the temple of heaven until all the plagues are fulfilled. Rev. xv. 5-8. The saints will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, to be forever with

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him, in a moment, at the last trump. But the New Jerusalem will not come down and the saints enter it, until the earth is desolated, and the new heavens and earth appear, and the New Jerusalem comes down. Then the saints shall have right to the tree of life, and enter in through the gates into the city.

The vials, I must regard, as producing: the same literal effects ascribed to them in the 16th chapter of Revelation. The plagues are almost identical with those which came on Egypt when God delivered his people, and I can see no reason why these will not be as literal as those.

THE VIALS AND THEIR EFFECTS

Rev. xvi. 2: "The first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men who had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image." Some of those will be alive who had the mark of the beast in his day; and those will be alive who "worshipped his image." The beast will have passed and the image be alive.

"Noisome and grievous sore." This will be best illustrated by referring to Ex. ix. 8-11: "And the Lord said unto Moses and unto Aaron, Take to you handfuls of ashes of the furnace, and let Moses sprinkle it toward the heaven in the sight of Pharaoh. And it shall become small dust in all the land of Egypt, and shall be a boil breaking forth with blains upon man, and upon beast, throughout all the land of Egypt. And they took ashes of the furnace, and stood before

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Pharaoh, and Moses sprinkled it up toward heaven; and it became a boil breaking forth with blains upon man and upon beast. And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boil; for the boil was upon the magicians, and upon all the Egyptians." Why will not the antitype be as teal and literal?

Verses 3-7: "And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man; and every living soul died in the sea. And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters: and they became blood. And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord, which, art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus. For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy. And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments."

In illustration of these two vials, read Ex. vii. 17-21: "Thus saith the Lord, In this thou shalt know that I am the Lord: behold, I will smite with the rod which is in mine hand upon the waters which are in the river, and they shall be turned to blood. And the fish that is in the river shall die, and the river shall stink; and the Egyptians shall loathe to drink of the water of the river. And the Lord spake unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Take thy rod, and stretch out thine hand upon the waters of Egypt, upon their streams, upon their rivers, and upon their ponds, and upon all their pools of water, that they may become blood; and that there may be blood throughout

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the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood, and in vessels of stone. And Moses and Aaron did so, as the Lord commanded: and he lifted up the rod, and smote the waters that were in the river, in the sight of Pharaoh, and in the sight of his servants; and all the waters that were in the river were turned to blood. And the fish that was in the river died; and the river stank, and the Egyptians could not drink of the water of the river: and there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt." This judgment will be a retribution for "the blood of the saints."

Verses 8-11: "And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory. And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain, and blasphemed the God of heaven, because of their pains and sores, and repented not of their deeds." The scorching of fire in the midst of their trouble, will be terrible in the extreme.

Ex. x. 21-23, will illustrate the fifth vial: "And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch out thy hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt. And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven; and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days: they saw not one another, neither rose any from his place for three days: but all the children of Israel had

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light in their dwellings." What a terrible scene! with all their grievous sores, blood to drink,-stagnant blood,-and putrid fish filling the waters, scorched with burning heat; and then, to crown the whole, the whole kingdom of Anti-Christ is to be full of darkness. O, what a picture of wo! Reader, make haste to escape it. "Watch ye, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things, and to stand before the Son of man."

Verses 12-16: "And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared. And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth, and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon." The sixth vial is to prepare the way for the battle of that great day of God Almighty. The three unclean spirits like frogs, go forth from the beast, popery; the dragon, Mahomedism, (for the Mahomedans now possess the imperial power of the east;) and the false prophet, infidelity. These all are the spirits of devils, working miracles, or prodigies, like the magicians of Egypt, by which Pharaoh was deceived and fought against God and his hosts, even to the last. So

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the world of the ungodly will be deceived, and gathered against him that sitteth on the horse and his army, with the vain hope of triumph. They will go to gather the kings of the earth, and of the whole world, to the battle of that great day of GOD ALMIGHTY. The great river Euphrates will be as literally dried up, to make a highway for the nations to come to that battle, as the Red Sea was for the Israelites to pass over dry-shod.

That the kings of the earth and of the whole world will be gathered together to battle against Christ when he shall appear in his glory, appears to many to be exceedingly incredible; because they must know, it is said, that they cannot prevail. So might Pharaoh have known that he could not conquer Israel, after all the manifestations of God's power which he had witnessed; but yet he rushed madly on, with his eyes open, time after time, into ruin. Why did he do it? I answer, "the spirits of devils," in his magicians, deceived him. "The magicians did so with their enchantments." So "the spirits of devils," with their miracles and prodigies, will deceive the kings of the earth and of the whole world, not to pursue the saints into the Red Sea, but to go up to battle with the great KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS, HIMSELF.

The Lord has declared this gathering of the nations by the mouth of his prophets. Joel iii. 1, 2: "For behold, in those days, and in that time, when I. shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people, and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered

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among the nations, and parted my land." Also, verses 9-16, of the same chapter: "Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles: Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near: let them come up: beat your ploughshares into swords, and your pruning-hooks into spears, let the weak say, I am strong. Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together round about; thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O Lord. Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about. Put ye in the sickle; for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for the press is full, the vats overflow; for their wickedness is great. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining. The Lord also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the Lord will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel." The same great event is likewise predicted by Zephaniah, iii. 8: "Therefore wait ye upon me, saith the Lord, until the day that I rise up to the prey; for my determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them mine indignation, even all my fierce anger: for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy."

From these, and many other passages which might be quoted, it is clear that God will gather all the nations of the earth together to the battle of the great day. The kings of the earth and their

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armies, will be "gathered together, to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army." Rev. xix. 19.

"The great river Euphrates" will be as literally dried up to make way for the kings of the eastern world to come up to Jerusalem and Palestine to that battle, as the same river was dried up before Cyrus, when he entered and took the city of Babylon; or as the Red Sea and river Jordan were dried up to make a highway for Israel through their bed. The effects of the sixth vial will be, first, to dry up the waters of the river, to make a highway; and, secondly, to send forth the spirits of devils to deceive, by miracles, the kings of the whole earth, and their armies, and gather them.

Being gathered by the sixth vial, under the seventh vial the battle will be fought.

Verses 17-21: "And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done. And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great. And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great."

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Let us now carefully mark the instrumentalities by which the battle will be fought, on the part of the Lord and his saints.

"Into the air." Denoting an all-pervading and universal judgment.

"Saying, It is done." It is the last vial, and under it all the judgments of God are to be consummated,-the wicked be swept from the earth, and the conflagration of the world take place.

"There were voices." The voice of the Lord is to be heard in that day, declaring his wrath upon his enemies. Joel iii. 16: "The Lord also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the Lord will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel." Jer. xxv. 30, 31: "Therefore prophesy thou against them all these words, and say unto them, The Lord shall roar from on high, and utter his voice from his holy habitation; he shall mightily roar upon his habitation: he shall give a shout, as they that tread the grapes, against all the inhabitants of the earth. A noise shall come, even to the ends of the earth; for the Lord hath a controversy with the nations; he will plead with all flesh; he will give them that are wicked to the sword, saith the Lord."

"And thunders, and lightnings." Ex. ix. 23: "And Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven: and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and the fire ran along upon the ground." As truly as the thunders and lightnings of Jehovah came on Egypt, and destroyed the Egyptians and the produce of the field, so truly it will come on the

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ungodly world, when God fills up the cup of his fury.

"A great earthquake such as never was since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great." The terrors of an earthquake are more easily experienced than described. The account given of the earthquake at Aleppo, as found on page 153 of this work, will afford some faint idea of its terrors. What can exceed the terrors of such a scene? But O, when it shall not desolate a single city only, but desolate the globe!!! For "the great city," Rome, "was divided into three parts, and the CITIES OF THE NATIONS FELL." They were laid in a heap of ruins. Think of ten thousand human beings buried in the ruins of the earthquake of St. Domingo last spring! But what is that to the time when all the cities of the earth are destroyed at a stroke, by the power of Omnipotence; when "every island shall flee away and the mountains are not found!" What a picture is presented of this scene of destruction in Ezek. xxxviii. 19, 20: "For in my jealousy, and in the fire of my wrath, have I spoken, Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel; so that the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the field, and all creeping things that creep upon the earth, and all the men that are upon the face of the earth, shall shake at my presence; and the mountains shall he thrown down, and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground." It is at that time God will fulfil his promise, to "shake not the earth only, but also heaven;" that what can be shaken may be removed; and that the

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things which cannot be shaken may remain, even the kingdom of the saints, which cannot be removed, but must endure forever and ever.

"And there fell on men a great hail out heaven." This is the most dreadful of all God's judgments. Alter the cities fall, the islands flee away, the mountains, walls, fences and steep places, are all thrown down, and no place of refuge is found; then the overflowing hail-storm follows on the naked heads of a guilty race. Think, reader, for a moment, of this terrible scene. Think of Egypt again. Ex. ix. 22-25: "And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch forth thine hand toward heaven, that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt, upon man, and upon beast, and upon every herb of the field, throughout the land of Egypt. And Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven: and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and the fire ran along upon the ground; and the Lord rained, hail upon the land of Egypt. So there was hail, and fire mingled with the hail, very grievous, such as there was none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation. And the hail smote throughout all the land of Egypt, all that was in the field, both man and beast; and the hail smote every herb of the field, and brake every tree of the field." And is God less faithful to fulfil his threatened judgments now than in the days of old? Or is he less able to do it? No, in no wise. For the treasures of die hail are still his. And to the wicked God has given the assurance (Isa. xxviii. 17) that he "will lay judgment to the line and righteousness to the plummet, and the hail shall sweep away your refuge of lies." It will satisfy you that God is

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in earnest in his denunciations of wrath. How awful too, the view given of the same scene, Ezek. xxxviii. 22: "And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hail-stones, fire and brimstone."

"Every stone about the weight of a talent." Richard Watson, in his Bible Dictionary, says a talent is a hundred and twenty-five pounds. Others say ninety-six pounds, and some sixty pounds. Whichever it may be, nothing could stand before such a shower. A hailstone falling from heaven, would produce all the effect of a lead or iron ball of the same weight What could endure a shower of cannon balls falling from heaven, each one weighing one hundred and twenty-five, or even sixty pounds? Yet God's mouth hath spoken this word. The following account from Fisk's Travels in Europe, will give the reader some faint idea of the power of such. a storm; and how perfectly easy it will be for the Almighty to prepare such, an engine of destruction:-

"The University of Padua once had 18,000 scholars, but like all the other universities of Italy, it is greatly fallen. It has able professors, however, and lectures in the various departments, with a library of 100,000 volumes. The most prominent department is that of medicine.

"There is a beautiful public square in this city, surrounded with statuary, all of which is now, from an extraordinary cause, in a very mutilated. state. In 1835, there was a violent hail Storm of

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stones as large as cannon balls, which fell, in twenty-seven minutes, to the depth of one foot and a half. It broke in the tiles of the roofs of a great many edifices, and made great havoc of the trees, and broke off the fingers, arms, noses, etc., of this extensive company of statues."

Such a storm of hail as this must be dreadful, the stones the size of cannon-balls. But what are such hail-stones when compared with those spoken of under the seventh vial? Reader, have you found a refuge from such a storm? The only place of refuge is the name of the Lord of hosts.

"The battle of that great day of GOD ALMIGHTY. "It is not man's battle; but God's. Let us look again at its terrors, as described by Jeremiah, xxv. 15-17, 26, 30-33: "For thus saith the Lord God of Israel unto me, Take the wine-cup of this fury at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send thee, to drink it. And they shall drink, and be moved, and be mad, because of the sword that I will send among them. Then took I the cup at the Lord's hand, and made all the nations to drink, unto whom the Lord had sent me. And all the kings of the north, far and near, one with another, and all the kingdoms of the world, which are upon the face of the earth: and the king of Sheshach shall drink after them. Therefore prophesy thou against them all these words, and say unto them, The Lord shall roar from on high, and utter his voice from his holy habitation; he shall mightily roar upon his habitation; he shall give a shout, as they that tread the grapes, against all the inhabitants of the earth. A noise shall come even

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to the ends of the earth; for the Lord hath a controversy with the nations; he will plead with all flesh; he will give them that are wicked to the sword, saith the Lord. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Behold, evil shall go forth from nation to nation, and a great whirlwind shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth. And the slain of the Lord shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth: they shall not be lamented, neither gathered nor buried; they shall be dung upon the ground." Such a war of extermination God has declared; and he will accomplish it. There will be no refuge then left. It is the day described in Proverbs i. 24-33, when the wicked shall call, but God will not answer, but will laugh at their calamity, and mock when their fear cometh; when their fear cometh as a desolation, and their destruction as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon them. The Lord have mercy on the impenitent now, and save them before the terrible day overtake them!

The same great battle is described in the 38th and 39th chapters of Ezekiel. Gog and Magog are all the devil's armies, whether before or after the second or final resurrection. After the Lord has taken his people out from the earth, all who are left constitute Gog and Magog.

The 37th chapter describes the first resurrection, the gathering of the whole house of Israel from their graves, bringing flesh and sinews upon them, covering them with skin, putting his spirit within them, as the vital principle, and bringing them into the land of Israel. Then David, or Christ, the heir of David's throne, is to be king over

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them forever. They shall never more be dispersed, or plucked up out of the land of the saints.

Then follows, after thus harvesting the wheat by Christ in the resurrection of the just, the vintage, when the wicked are to be destroyed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we be changed. See 1 Cor. xv. All these will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. See 1 Thess. iv. They are to stand on the sea of glass mingled with fire; having the harps of God, and sing the song of victory and deliverance, as did the Israel of God, when they stood on the eastern bank of the Red Sea, and their enemies were forever left behind, overwhelmed in ruin. It was not until they had passed the sea that the tribes were marshalled according to their tribes, and their government organized under Moses. So now our prophet, like Moses, will bring his people from their enemies' land, to a place of safety; then organize his kingdom on the sea of glass. This kingdom, thus organized, will smite the image of Dan. ii., on his feet, and grind the whole to powder. First it is said the stone will do it; then that the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall do it The stone and kingdom then are identical. The kingdom of Christ, thus organized, will come down according to the prediction of Enoch, the seventh from Adam. Jude's Epistle: "Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds, and hard speeches," etc.

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Then, too, the second Psalm will be fulfilled, where it is promised Christ that he "shall break" the kings of the earth, the rulers, the Gentiles, or heathen, together with the unbelieving people of the Jews who rejected him, "with a rod of iron, and shall dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel."

He will then, also, as he has promised in Rev. ii., give to them that overcome, power over the nations to rule and break them with a rod of iron, as he has received of his Father. The saints are to be joined in judging the world, with Christ. "This honor have all his saints." They will not sit to try and pass sentence on the world; this is not their prerogative, but the Lord's; but to execute the judgment written, is the prerogative of the saints. Ps. cxlix. 5-9: "Let the saints be joyful in glory; let them sing aloud upon then beds. Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand, to execute vengeance upon the heathen, and punishments upon the people; to bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron; to execute upon them the judgment written: this honor have all his saints. Praise ye the Lord."

The Lord, and all his saints with him, is to come down on the Mount of Olives to fight the battle and drive out all the wicked from Jerusalem, and take possession of the place and fight the battle spoken of by Ezek. xxxviii. and xxxix. The scenes of the last day will not be filled up instantaneously, as we have been accustomed to think The old Israelites were seven years, after entering the land, in subduing their enemies, before

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they enjoyed their sabbath, or year of rest. SoEzekiel tells us, that the whole house of Israelwill be seven years (literal years) in burning upthe weapons of their enemies; and seven monthsafter the battle in burying the dead bodies of thewicked, on which both beasts and fowls havefeasted at the supper of the great God; and thenmen of continual employment will be appointed tocleanse the land of dead bodies and bones.

But, says an objector, you do not suppose theglorified saints will be set at work to bury thewicked? That is too absurd and humiliating athought! Indeed! why so? If God has thoughtthat "it shall be to them a RENOWN," as he hasdeclared it shall be, (Ezek. xxxix. 13,) why shallwe be displeased? We can know nothing of thefuture, except what is revealed; and if God hasrevealed that Israel, when brought back fromtheir graves to eternal life, shall bury the deadbodies of the wicked, it will be so. That it is revealed, cannot be denied, until we deny the wordof God.

If the saints are to remain on the earth untilthe judgments are all executed, it is more reasonable that they should bury the dead, than thatthey should be left upon the earth to pollute it along time.

The same great battle is described in Rev. xix.11-21. The two scenes, as described by Ezekiel and John, are so nearly alike, that we cannotfail to perceive that they refer to one and thesame event.

A SYNOPSIS OF EZEKIEL THIRTY-SEVENTH, THIRTY-EIGHTH AND THIRTY-NINTH CHAPTERS

1. The 37th chapter, from the 1st to the 10thverse, presents Ezekiel's vision of the dry bones.

2. The 11th to the 14th verse is an explanation,in literal terms, of the import of the emblems ofthe vision; showing it to be the resurrection of thebodies of the whole house of Israel:-not of allthe Jews; nor yet of all the believing Jews alone.For they are not "all Israel," that is, do not constitute "all Israel," who are descended from Israel,or "are of Israel." "But the children of the promise are accounted for the seed." "If ye beChrist's, ye are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to promise." They will be raised up andbrought into the land of promise

3. From verse 15th, through the chapter, follows a view of the unity of all the saints in thehouse of David, under Messiah's reign, forevermore; also the perfection and immutability oftheir holiness, and the glory and happiness whichshall forever attend them

4. Then follows, chapter xxxviii. 1-7, an enumeration of the company of Gog and Magog

5. From verse 8-13, the time of the gathering of Gog, and the motive by which he will be induced to go up against the land of Israel

First, the time. "In the latter years." "Whenthe mountains of Israel are brought back from thesword." When those who are, brought back fromout of the nations, all dwell safely-all of themdwelling without wall and gates or bars.

Under these circumstances, the army of Gog will come like a storm to cover the land

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Secondly, the motive. "Things shall come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought." The evil thought is to go up and take a spoil and prey and riches, gold, silver, cattle and goods. Sheba, Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, will be inspired with such a thought to join the company, together with all the young lions thereof.

6. Then, from verse 14th, to the 20th verse of the 39th chapter, follow a description of the great battle, and the means by which they shall be destroyed, together with the time to be occupied by Israel in destroying their enemies, burning up their instruments of war, not for culinary purposes, but to destroy them; and also the supper of the great God, prepared for the beasts and fowls.

7. From verse 21 to 29, we have the effect which this battle and its accompanying scene will have on both the saints and the heathen First, the heathen shall see God's glory, and know why the house of Israel went into captivity; that it was for the abuse of peace and independence when they enjoyed it, that God hid his face from them and gave them into the hand of their enemies.

Secondly, Israel is to learn by it that the Lord is their God, from that time forward. All God's mercies, hitherto have been insufficient to convince the church effectually that God is their helper and deliverer. The Jewish church went after idols, even amidst the thunders of Sinai; and while the meat God gave them, was in their mouth, they murmured. The disciples rose from the feast of the loaves and fishes while the Saviour

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was with them, and were troubled because they had taken no bread. But they will now be convinced, and never more forget, that the ALMIGHTY GOD is theirs. They shall know too, that their God has gathered them from among the heathen into their own land and has poured out his spirit upon the whole house of Israel, and constituted them glorious and immortal.

THE CLOSE OF THE PLAGUES

The conflagration of the heavens and the earth, will close the dreadful scenes of judgment. The heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements melt with fervent heat; the earth and the works that are therein shall be burned up. But is the conflagration the conclusion of the plagues? Certainly. "For in them is filled up the wrath of God." But "the earth is defiled under the inhabitants thereof, because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinances, and broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate. Therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left." "The earth is utterly broken down; the earth is clean dissolved; the earth is moved exceedingly. The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and be removed like a cottage; and the transgression shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall and not rise again. Isa. xxiv. Until the earth falls, therefore, the wrath of God is not filled up."

Then we look for a new heaven and a new earth; and for Jerusalem a rejoicing. When the

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new earth appears, and not before, the new Jerusalem will come down from God out of heaven, and the saints enter into it. But we are taught, in Rev. xv., that no man will be able to enter the temple until the seven plagues are fulfilled. When they are fulfilled, then the paradisical earth will come, and the bride appear, the guests enter her gates, and the marriage feast be celebrated for a thousand years.

In view of these dreadful plagues, well might the prophet Daniel say, "there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation to that same time." God is in earnest in these declarations of wrath; and they are made in mercy to a perishing world. But if men will not believe and be moved to seek a refuge from the stormy blast and the windy tempest that will sweep over the earth, they must suffer the consequences. No doubt, to many, the writer of this will seem as one that mocks! So, also, seemed Lot to his friends in Sodom, in the day of their ruin; but their unbelief did not disannul the word of Jehovah, nor will it now. God's judgments will surely come, perishing mortal, whether you believe or not. O come to Christ, and seek a refuge without delay. Can you still determine to resist God's proffered grace until his day of vengeance comes, and his wrath is poured out without mixture? Think of that scene of anguish which has been but feebly portrayed in these pages. My heart yearns over you, dear reader. If you are still resisting God's grace, casting off fear, and restraining prayer, I tremble for your fate! O, forsake your sins, that your soul may live. Like the wise man, build on the rock.

CHAPTER VII. THE NEW JERUSALEM

Old "Jerusalem, which now is, is in bondage with her children."-"But Jerusalem which is above, is free, and is the mother of us all." Galatians, fourth chapter.

It has already been remarked (Chap. I.) that Jerusalem is the great metropolis of the kingdom of God, or the kingdom of the house of David. That kingdom, for its abuse of privileges, was sent into captivity, was scattered to the winds, and Jerusalem is to be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. Then the sanctuary, the hill of Zion, is to be justified; Jerusalem's warfare will end, because her iniquity is pardoned. But although Zion has been long desolate, yet, says the Psalmist, (Ps. cii. 13, 14,) "Thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Zion, for the time to favor her, the set time, is come; for thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and favor the dust thereof." Verse 16: "When the Lord shall build up Zion. he shall appear in his glory." Until then, it must be desolate, and her children be in bondage. Both the Old and New Jerusalem are personified and addressed as being the mother of their inhabitants. Thus Christ addressed the

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city: "How oft would I have gathered thy children." Matt. xxii.

Here the city, Jerusalem, is addressed as the mother, and the inhabitants as her children. So, in Galatians, as quoted at the head of this article, both the Old and New Jerusalem are thus personified, and their inhabitants are called their children. The Old Jerusalem is the mother of the Jews; the New Jerusalem, the mother of the glorified saints. The Old Jerusalem is in the old earth, under the curse; the New Jerusalem is in the new earth, when there will be no more curse. Isa. lxv. 17, 18; Rev. xxi. 1, 2.

The Old Jerusalem was built by human power; but the builder and maker of the New Jerusalem, is God. It is the city for which the patriarchs looked as the fulfilment of the promises of God to them. Heb. xi. 8-10, 16: "By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise, For he looked for a city which bath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. But new they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly; wherefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he hath prepared for them a city. God is to build that city. So Isaiah, (lxv. 18,) "I create Jerusalem." Christ also, (John xiv. 2, 3.) "In my Father's house, are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to. prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again,

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and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." This place is now in God's house, in heaven; the mansions of the saints, are now there, and Christ is preparing them. But he is coming again, and the glorious inheritance of the saints is to be revealed from heaven. 1 Peter i. 3-5: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which, according to his abundant mercy, hath begotten us again unto a lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time." The idea which many have obtained from John xiv., that the saints are to be taken up to those mansions and inherit them forever, is here rectified. The incorruptible inheritance is to be revealed from heaven in the last times. So also the Revelator, chap. xxi. 2, 10: "I John saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband." "And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending OUT OF HEAVEN, FROM GOD." When this city appears, then, Abraham will receive the answer of his faith, "a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God." There are few persons at present, but what admit that the New Jerusalem of Rev. xxi. is the heavenly state, and in the new earth. But then they deny that the Jerusalem spoken of by Isaiah, in almost the same words, is the same city. I find in the Hierophant, punished

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in New York, by Professor Bush, the parallel passages of Isaiah and Revelation, collated, which I will here insert The descriptions are identical.

QUOTATIONS FROM PROFESSOR BUSH

Professor Bush says, p. 8: "Assuming this then as a point unquestioned, we advance to another position equally certain, as we conceive, and fraught with the most momentous consequences to the whole scheme of prophetic interpretation. We affirm that the beatific state of things announced in the above-mentioned predictions of Isaiah-when the desert shall bud and blossom as the rose-when the valleys shall be exalted and the mountains and hills made low-when the crooked, shall be made straight and the rough places plain-when the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together-when the Gentiles shall come to the light of Zion, and kings to the brightness of her rising-when instead of the thorn shall come up the fir-tree, and instead of the brier the myrtle-tree-when for brass shall be brought gold; for iron silver, and for wood brass, and for stones iron-when Jerusalem shall be created a rejoicing and her people a joy-when the voice of weeping shall no more be heard in her, nor the voice of crying-when the wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock, and they shall no more hurt nor destroy in all the Lord's holy mountain-that this state is identical with the New Jerusalem of John. The proof of this can only be made palpable by a tabellated

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display of the parallelisms occurring in the two prophets, which we now present to the reader, with intervening remarks.

Rev. xxi. 1, 2.

And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more see.

And I John now the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

Rev. xxi. 19, 20.

And the foundation of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald;

The fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chryaslite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a chrysoprasus; the eleventh, jacinth; the twelfth an amethyst.

Isaiah lxv. 17, 18.

For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the formal shall not be remembered, nor come in to mind.

But be ye glad and rejoice forever in that which I create: for behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy.

Isaiah liv. 11, 12.

O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted! behold. I will lay thy stones with fair colors, and lay thy foundations with sapphires.

And I will make thy windows of agates, and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders of pleasant stones.

"The description in John is amplified, it will be seen, into more minute detail, but the identity of the subject discloses itself at once. Whether this graphic scenery is to find its accomplishment in a literal city, as well as in, a spiritual polity, is wholly immaterial to the point which we have especially in hand, although for ourselves inclined to the opinion that it will.

Rev. xxi. 23.

And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to a shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.

Rev. xxii. 5.

And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign forever and ever.

Isaiah lx. 19, 20.

The sun shall he no more thy light by day: neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory.

Thy sun shall no more go down; neither shall thy moon withdraw itself: for the Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended.

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"We are not, perhaps, required from this to suppose that at the period to which the spirit of prophecy points, either the natural sun or the natural moon will have ceased to shine. The import doubtless is, that in that favored age the transcendant brightness and glory of the divine presence, which shall be then enjoyed, will, as it were, supersede and eclipse the light of the luminaries of heaven, though they may continue to shine on as usual. There can be no doubt that there is, in the lustrous 'glory' which is here predicted, an allusion to the Shekinah which rested over the tabernacle in the wilderness.

Rev. xxi. 24, 25, 26.

And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor into it.

And the gates of it shall not be but at all by day: for there shall to no night there.

And they shall bring the glory and honor of the nations into it.

Isaiah lx. 3, 11.

And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.

Therefore thy gates shall be open continually; they shall not be shut day nor night; that men may bring unto thee the forces of the Gentiles, and that their kings may be brought."

That such a city as is here described will come clown on the earth and rest on the holy land, or in the same latitude and longitude, as promised to Abraham, for an everlasting possession, I must believe.

"No need of the sun." The divine glory will be so prevalent as to eclipse the glory of the sun, so that perpetual day will be enjoyed. Yet it does not follow that the sun will cease to shine, or that any of the luminaries of heaven will be blotted out. On the contrary, there is reason to believe that the planetary system will continue on as it now is, forever. There is no promise that every part of the earth will be illuminated continually by the glory of God, but only the glorious city.

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"The nations of them that are saved." The redeemed of all the nations of the earth. Not that they will then be in the same sense that they are now, "nations," but in reference to their having been redeemed and saved among the nations. That the saints will be divided into tribes according to the tribes of Israel, under the twelve apostles as judges or leaders, while Christ is the great king, is probable.

"The glory and honor of the nations into it." The redeemed of the nations is the glory and honor of the nations; and they shall have a right to the tree of life, and enter in through the gates into the city.

"Bring unto thee the forces of the Gentiles." This, too, must be understood conformably to the parallel passage above; that all the wealth and glory of all the Gentile kingdoms will be in possession of the saints, the children of the New Jerusalem, and all who have opposed and despised them here in their poverty and humiliation, will utterly perish. But all the kings of the earth and their subjects, who have chosen Christ for their portion, and have served him in time, will have right to the glories of that heavenly city.

Rev. xxi. 4.

And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

Isaiah lxv. 19, 20.

And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people: and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying.

There shall be no more thence an infant of days nor an old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die an honored years old: but the sinner, being an hundred years old, shall be accursed.

The two states described in these two passages

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must be identical. In that of John, there shall be no more death. Then the death spoken of in Isaiah lxv. 19 must be here, in this mortal state; and there, those who die here in youngest infancy, shall be a hundred years old, or shall be without age.

The following extract from the works of Ben Ezra is so important, and sets the matter in so clear a light, I will give it in full:-

"For, behold, I create new heavens, and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. But be you glad and rejoice forever (or in seculum seculi, for the age of the age, as Pagnini and Vacablo read it) in that which I create; for behold I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy; and I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people: and the Voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying. There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath net filled his days; for the child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner being an hundred years old. shall be accursed. And they shall build houses, and inhabit them, end they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them, (or as Pagnini, after the Seventy, more clearly hath it, non egredictur inde ultera ad sepulchrum infans durum, sive immaturus et senex, qua non impleverit tempus suum, erit enim adolescens centum annorum, etc., i. e., there shall not be any more carried out from thence to burial an infant of days, or a youth, or an old man who hath not filled his time; for the man of a hundred years shall be a youth, etc.) They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat; for as the days of a tree, are the

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days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labor in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; (or, according to the Seventy, neque filios generabunt in maledictionem; i. e., nor shall they beget children for a curse:) for they are the seed of the blessed of the Lord, and their offspring with them. And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear. The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock; and dust shall be the serpent's meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the Lord. Isa. lxv. 17-25."

WHO IS THE BRIDE, THE LAMB'S WIFE?

John answers, Rev. xxi. 9, 10: "Come hither and I will show thee the bride, the Lamb's wife." "And he showed me that great city, the HOLY JERUSALEM, descending out of heaven from God." Did the angel fulfil his promise? If so, the holy city is the bride.

This view is confirmed by Isaiah, liv. 5, where he addresses the New Jerusalem, and says: "For thy maker is thy husband; the Lord of hosts is his name: and thy Redeemer, the holy One of Israel; the God of the whole earth shall he be called." That this is the heavenly Jerusalem is clear from Gal. iv. 26, 27: "But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children

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than she which, hath a husband." Paul has here expressly applied the 54th of Isaiah to the Jerusalem which is above, and is the mother of the saints, the children of promise. The multitude, therefore, which are to flock to Jerusalem as her children, are the redeemed saints. Jerusalem is now a widow, but will then remember the reproach of her widowhood no more. She is forsaken of God for a small moment, but will be gathered with great mercies, and her stones be laid with fair colors.

The children of the bride chamber are the saints of God. They are the children of God, "begotten of him again to a lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and which fadeth not away," and which is "ready to be revealed in the last times." To that inheritance we are now begotten by the spirit of Christ, by which he was raised from the dead, and shall be born to it as soon as he, who is our life, appears.

Isa. lxvi. 7, 8: "Before she travailed she brought forth" Jesus Christ, the first fruits from the dead, and the sure pledge of the resurrection of all the saints. Who hath heard such a thing? A man-child, a child of the resurrection, brought forth before the pain of Zion came! But what is that to what will be? "Shall the earth be made to bring forth in a day? Or shall a nation be born at once?" The implied answer is, no. "Yet," says the prophet, although this cannot be, "as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children." In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump. It is certain as it is that

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Christ is raised from the dead to die no more. All these shall be the children of the New Jerusalem, and will inherit it forever.

The saints raised-the wicked destroyed-the earth burned and renovated-the New Jerusalem brought from heaven-the marriage of the Lamb in the New Jerusalem will be celebrated. "For as a young man marrieth a virgin, so shall thy God marry thee."

In reading the prophecies, it is important to understand Jerusalem and Zion, literally; and to understand her widowhood, mourning, desolation, condemnation and punishment, as her present oppressed and desolate condition, as the fruit of the sins which have been committed in her; her gathering, being built, multiplying and gathering her children, as being the glory of the New Jerusalem with the resurrection saints.

That the New Jerusalem comes before the millennium, is clear, from the fact that she is addressed, (Isa. liv. 15,) and told of the gathering of her enemies against her. "Behold, all they gather themselves together against thee, but not by me." That is, I will not be the agent who will gather this innumerable multitude against thee, but some other agent will. The devil, according to Rev. xx., is the agent. "Whosoever shall gather together against thee, shall fall for thy sake." Here is the same gathering of the enemies of Jerusalem described in Rev. xx. 7-10. And the same defeat attends them in each instance. Destruction from the Almighty overwhelms them.

¹ See Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

² Gibbon's History, Vol. VI., pp. 226-228.

³ Gibbon's History, Vol. VII., p. 153.

⁴ See the Index to Gibbon's Hist., under the name Senate.

⁵ "Alluding to the capture of the island of Malta, and the subjection of the pope, on which he was wont to sound as services rendered to the religion of Mahommed."

⁶ Mr. Fulsom, in his new work, admits this reading; also Professors Bush and Seixas, of New York.

⁷ Isa. x. 5; xii. 14.