Elias Boudinot's 1815 book

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Elias Boudinot
(1740-1821)
The Second Advent...
(1st ed., Trenton, NJ, 1815)

Title Page Preface Contents

Introduction (pp. 01-07)

Scriptures, &c. (pp. 08-142)

Inferences, &c. (pp.143-186)

The Witnesses (pp. 187-265)

End Times, &c. (pp. 266-346)

Roman Empire (pp. 346-486)

Present Age, &c. (pp. 487-512)

Short Summary (pp. 513-578)

transcriber's comments

Age of Revelation (1801) | A Star in the West (1816) | Biographical Info.

This web-document is still under construction

THE

SECOND ADVENT.

OR,


COMING  OF  THE  MESSIAH  IN  GLORY,



SHOWS  TO  BE


A  SCRIPTURAL  DOCTRINE,


AND


TAUGHT  BY  DIVINE  REVELATION,


FROM  THE  BEGINNING  OF  THE  WORLD.



BY  AN  AMERICAN  LAYMAN.






"Oh! scenes surpassing fable, and yet true
"Scenes of accomplished bliss!
"Praise in her streets, and in her spacious courts,

"Is heard Salvation.

"One song employs all nations, and all cry,
"Worthy the Lamb, for he was slain for us." -- Cowper.





TRENTON, (N. J.)
PUBLISHED  BY  D. FENTON, & S. HUTCHINSON.

............
1815.

[ ii ]

District of New-Jersey, ss.

{ SEAL} BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the second day of March in the thirty-ninth year of the independence of the United States of America, A. D. 1815, Daniel Fenton and S. Huchinson, of the said district, have deposited in this office, the title of a book, the right whereof they claim as proprietors, in the words following, to wit:

"The Second Advent, or coming of the Messiah in glory, shewn to br a Scriptural doctrine, and taught by Divine revelation, from the beginning of the world. By an American laymen.
"Oh! scenes surpassing fable, and yet true
"Scenes of accomplished bliss!
"Praise in her streets, and in her spacious courts,
"Is heard Salvation.
"One song employs all nations, and all cry,
"Worthy the Lamb, for he was slain for us." -- Cowper.

In conformity to the Act of the Congress of the United States, entitled "An act for the Encouragement of Learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned." And also, to the Act entitled, "An Act supplementary to an Act, entitled 'An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned;' and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving and etching historical and other prints."

ROBERT BOGGS,
Clerk of the District of New-Jersey.

[ iii ]

PREFACE.

TO have a better understanding of the following work, it is necessary that the reader should be informed of the circumstances attending its commencement, and the manner in which it has been carried on to the present period. Some time about the year 1790, the important events of that day made a deep impression on the author's mind and led him to examine the Scriptures with great attention, from Genesis to the Revelation of St. John. The solemn exhortation of the apostle to his readers to hearken to what the Spirit saith to the Churches; and repeated six times within the bounds of two chapters, fixed his attention to the important call. -- He made the prophetic declarations in the Scriptures, for a while, the peculiar object of his daily studies; at the same time humbly supplicating for aid from, and looking to the Spirit of God, who dictated those prophesies, for being led into all necessary truth, in enquiring into their genuine meaning. He must acknowledge that the passing of the day alarmed him; and he thought he saw the signs of the latter day, foretold in the sacred record, thickening upon him. But here his fears arose, lest he might unwittingly slide into the error of judging of the prophecies altogether by the events, instead of comparing the events with the prophesies. To prevent this, he determined to guard against error, by forming a short compendium of what, on great consideration, comparing those prophesies yet to be fulfilled, with those which had already taken place, he verily believed was the meaning of the Spirit of God in the revelation of his will to his Church, as to what was to take place, as the signs of the second coming of the Saviour, to this our world.

In doing this he was surprized to find that this glorious event, at the end of Daniel and John's 1260, 30, and 90 days, or years, was the great and leading object of the sacred volume from the beginning to the end. This is the latter days and the day of judgment of Daniel -- The great day of judgment, or the judgment of the great day of the Jews, and the kingdom of Heaven, the kingdom of God, and the times of refreshing and the restitution of all things of the New Testament. In short, it appears to be like a thread running through the whole web, and in which all the lesser objects seem like the woof of the web, to give a complexion and character to the whole system of divine grace and mercy.

After consulting the Sacred Text, with close attention and critical precision, and comparing the result with the opinions of the

iv PREFACE.

most judicious writers on the important subject, he reduced to writing what he concluded was the design and meaning of the predictions and forewarnings of the Prophets, compared with those of Christ himself and his apostles. He then waited to see how far he was warranted in his conclusions by the events which were about to take place, if his construction was right.

To accomplish this he was obliged to keep a short diary of what was passing on the theatre of Europe. The many instances of exact conformity with the words and spirit of the Scriptures, convinced the author that the wonderful transactions daily passing in the kingdoms of Europe, were an exact fulfilment of the predictions of the Sacred record. That the antichrist foretold, as coming on the earth after the Man of Sin, had literally appeared in the new government of France, having Napoleon Buonaparte for her head, can scarcely be denied by any observing mind, who has become acquainted with the late history of that nation since the year 1790, and compared it with the language of holy writ. -- The emphatic calls of Christ and his apostles on his Church and followers, to be watching and well prepared for this important era, which was to be of such essential and interesting consequence to their eternal welfare, appeared to be the author in so strong a light that he thought it an important obligation to continue his attention to the subject till almost the year 1798, or beginning of 1799, when he was taken off from the subject by avocations that could not be well avoided. Some years afterwards, his convictions on the subject being strengthened by the continuance of important events, corroborating all his views of the prophetic declarations, he was tempted to communicate his ideas, and the observations he had made, to a few judicious friends, whose approbation encouraged him to think of making them public. But the state of his health and other imposing circumstances, leaving him small hopes of ever seeing them printed, he, for a time, determined to leave them in manuscript to those who should come after him, to act as they thought best.

However, he has lately been prevailed on to make the attempt, from a hope that it will call man's attention to a subject he has convinced himself is all important to the Church of Christ, and to exert himself to do what lay in his power towards completing the work, that it may avail, so far as is plainly and clearly founded on the written will of God.

[ v ]

CONTENTS.

PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. Fol. 1.

The Scriptures contain a well organized system through the whole -- It is manifest in all the conduct of the great author -- It can only be accomplished by the establishment of the kingdom of Christ -- To this end the apparatus of nature and Providence hastens -- In this world Christ received insult, sufferings and reproach -- In this world also, as mediator, he shall receive glory, homage, adoration and praise -- Hence the earliest dawn of hope to our first parents was ushered in, with the promise, that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head -- Enoch prophesied of his coming -- Noah a strong figure of this event -- The promise more explicit to Abraham -- References to the second coming of the Messiah, in almost every Book of the Old Testament

THE PSALMS. Fol. 8.

David does not explicitly distinguish between the first and second coming -- the greatest part of his language, can only apply to the last -- Instances given -- The 67th Psalm, a prayer for this kingdom -- As the time hastened on, most of the inspired prophets speak of this great event, in an explicit manner

ISAIAH. Fol. 12.

Styled the evangelical prophet, foreteld the first coming in express terms -- The second coming plainly foretold by the circumstances and glory attending it here on earth -- The Jews and Israel are again to unite and become one people -- Israel, Egypt and Assyria together to be acknowledged as the people of God -- The earth to be covered with the knowledge of God -- The happiness of that kingdom -- Jehovah will call from the East his Eagle -- and from a far distance land the man of his council -- A sign will be given to the nations -- The prophet's joy at the prospect of this great event -- A standard lifted up against the enemy -- The reason given for this charge -- The Jews to be brought as an offering to the Lord, out of all nations.

EZEKIEL. Fol. 25.

Alsp goves a prophetic declaration of the second advent of the Saviour -- Clearly shews the return of the Jews -- God will be their king, and David their prince -- The land of Israel again to be inhabited

vi CONTENTS.

and became one nation -- God will make a covenant of peace with them -- a new temple to be built in Jerusalem, different from the former one -- a new division of the land, differing from that of Moses and Jishua -- God to dwell in Jerusalem, in the midst of the children of Israel forever -- Just before this great event, uncommon distress to take place, by which God will manifest his glory.

ZECHARIAH. Fol. 31.

These wonderful predictions are repeated by this prophet, who lived 80 years after Isaiah -- He describes the Messiah and asserts that he shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem -- Points out the time, ascertained by certain events that will take place -- In the issue God shall come, and all his saints with him -- The manner and means by which the great event is to be brought about -- Holiness to the Lord, to be inscribed on the bells (rather bridels) of the horses -- Elijah's coming as his fore-runner.

DANIEL. Fol. 36.

Is (with Isaiah) the only exception to the observation, that no express distinction is made between the first and second coming of the Saviour -- The second advent pointed out with precision -- Revealed to him as being a type of the Jews, -- but to Nebuchadnezzar who was a type for the Gentiles, both revealed to him -- Daniel's vision interpreted to him -- Jews' mistakes on this subject -- Probable causes of them -- These events the firm objects of Abraham's faith -- Greatly influenced the pious Jews -- The first authors of the materiality of the soul, silenced by Origen -- Resurrection of the saints at the second advent, confirmed by the practice of Judas Maccabeus -- The Jews under a difficulty arising from the double views contained in the prophecies -- Instances -- Daniel's prophesy leaves no doubt of the meaning -- Daniel's weeks and their calculation -- Events that will introduce these great objects of Hope -- The king or government of a fierce countenance -- Sir Isaac Newton's opinion -- The angel repeats his instructions to Daniel -- Great trouble and disress will precede the glorious kingdom of Christ.

MICAH. Fol. 72.

Gives a prophetic view of the same joyous event.

ZEPHANIAH. Fol. 73.

Does the same.

OBSERVATIONS. Fol. 74.

There appears a continued series of analogy and design carried on by divine prescience relative to the second coming of Christ in glory -- Objections of minute philosophers, vain -- God's dealings

CONTENTS. vii

with the Jews, left on record for important purposes -- In general, divine revelation only regards the actions of kingdoms and nations, so far as they respect his Church and people -- The folly of pretended philosophers ...

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viii CONTENTS.

THE THESSALONIANS. Fol. 114.

His subject more particularly leading to this event, he dwells on it with great earnestness ...

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CONTENTS. ix

He asserts that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, had foretold this great and awful period ...

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x CONTENTS.

THE 11TH CHAPTER OF THE REVELATION. Fol. 177.

The 15 verses recited -- The first vision of the apostle ...

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CONTENTS. xi

THE CONSEQUENCES OF THEIR RESURRECTION. Fol. 249.

A great Earthquake, or overturning the political state of the government ...

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xii CONTENTS.

THE TIME OF THE CHURCH'S PURITY. Fol. 280.

Till 360 or 400 years after John's vision, or till somewhere about the year 500 ...

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CONTENTS. xiii

THE GOVERNMENT OF THE BEAST ARISING OUT OF THE
BOTTOMLESS PIT. Fol. 330.

This government full proof of the time of witnesses finishing their prophesy ...

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xiv CONTENTS.

The state of the Herman Literati, a confirmation -- By these means France prepared for a revolution ...

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CONTENTS. xv

-- The French armies under the direction of the Girondists every where successful ...

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xvi CONTENTS.

-- Emigrants murdered, said to be 2700 ...

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CONTENTS. xvii

in a manifeso of the emperor of Germany -- Nobility and clergy reduced to beggary -- The empress of the world, carrying on the secret designs of Almighty God -- forming a prophetic chronology, when the promised kingdom of Christ begins and ends -- False Messiahs -- Archduke Charles of Austria, his character of Bonaparte -- Here the work is left.

THE PRESENT AGE OF THE WORLD. Fol. 487.

Difficulties in chronology -- Arise from copies of the Pentateuch and the Hebrew Bible -- Mistakes in the genealogy of the Jews from Abraham -- Obviated by the zeal of archbishop Usher, in obtaining the Samaritan pentateuch -- State of the reckoning of each -- The world rather older by one than the other -- Mr. Faber's work on prophesy.

THE IDEAS OF THE ANCIENT JEWS AND GENTILES. Fol. 491.

The judgement day, &c. &c. all Jewish terms -- Most of the expressions in the New Testament taken from the same source -- The kingdom of Christ and of God have the same meaning and refer to the second advent of Christ -- The Jewish liturgy -- Chaldee paraphrase, Talmud, the Jewish writers and their traditions, with the house of Elias confirm the same -- The Jewish opinions, manifest from the questions by the disciples, particularly James and John -- Peter calls it the times of refreshing and the restitution of all things -- Confirmed by the writers of the Apocrypha -- The opinion of the whole orthodox ancient Christian Church, by Justin Martin in his dialogue with Trypho the Jew -- Enoch and the descendants of Noah held the same doctrines -- Must have been handed down to their children after the flood -- Thus the heathen received it -- Origin in his tract against Celsus mentions it -- Several instances from Heathen writers -- So the whole system of Divine Revelation -- Polycrates's Observations -- Edward King's do. -- The doctrine confirmed by John -- Extract from Warner on the common prayers.

CONCLUSION: OR, SHORT SUMMARY OF THE WHOLE Fol. 513.

Conclusion from what has appeared -- If it has been shown that revelation has been made, opening up the purposes of God for reconciling the world to himself -- to which end different dispensations have been ordained -- Fixed ages or eras established -- At the end of the present age a more glorious state of things foretold -- Beginning with the second advent of the Messiah -- Edward King's observations -- If certain duties are required, essential to our happiness -- We have been warned of the rise of a government uncommon in all its parts -- From the bottomless pit -- The slaying and resurrection of the witnesses -- And other signs of the times -- Do not these call aloud on the servants of God to discern these

xviii CONTENTS.

signs of the times -- The children of God to share in these sufferings encouraged to hope -- Awful address of St. Paul to the Thessalonians -- The destruction coming on the world to be political as well as religious -- Therefore, every character to consider -- Address to friends, of the Roman hierarchy -- Mr. Mede on the the seventh trumpet -- When this beast destroyed, the rest will soon follow -- The great day of the battle of Armageddon -- The great city divided into three parts -- The cities of the nations fall -- The beast and the kings of the earth make war against him who sat on the throne -- The Old Testament bears witness to this awful period -- Mr: Mede on the fourth and fifth vial -- How far this prophesy has been fulfilled -- Particulars of the destruction of Rome by John -- Mystical Babylon to have her Euphrates -- These facts sufficient to alarm European governments -- Protestant nations also deeply concerned -- These governments belong to the Heaven and earth of Papal Rome -- They have the mark of the beast -- Slave trade -- Observations of a pious writer -- The United States of America have also reason to fear~Congress establishing their seal and flag -- America has greatly departed from original principles -- Address to her citizens -- William Penn, a servant of Christ -- Maryland settled by the persecuted -- They also to answer for the slave trade -- Antichrists in America -- The latter times of the Roman government nearly accomplished -- They have the free use of Revelation -- The witnesses of God with them in a living state -- Blessed with political freedom -- The ordinances of the Gospel -- Public worship a most complete exmple of genuine freedom and equality -- Mrs. Barbauld's elegant description of it -- Are favoured with the Scriptures and Men of piety and learning -- Prophesies now closig to a point -- What prophesy is -- Jerusalem trodden down of the Gentiles -- State of the Jews -- The times of the Gentiles drawing to an end -- Pretended philosophers laugh at these doctrines -- Peter's admonition to them -- The question of the second advent herein fully established -- Porteus, bishop of London, his opinion -- No pretensions to determine the time with precision further than it will not exceed the year 6000 -- Have no knowledge but from the Scriptures -- Sufficient has appeared to assure us that many of the preliminary steps have taken place -- The Roman government the fourth kingdom -- Jerome's assertion -- Mr. Mede has put the question out of doubt -- Rome has received her death wound -- Extract from Sharpe's essays -- Events to come on very fast till the seventh vial -- Agree with bishop Newton relating to the unfulfilled prophesies -- The doctrine of the Millenium, steers clear of extremes -- Address of Christ to his people -- the nations of Europe particularly interested in these events -- Calculated to rouse the friends of Zion, both Christian and Jew -- The last deeply interested -- Jonathan Ben Uzziel's opion of the four kingdoms -- The present generation no excuse for infidelity -- Christ the prince of the kingdoms of this earth -- Address to the Jews -- Philo's character of the Messiah -- Objections to

CONTENTS. xix

Christ's personal appearance on earth, founded on metaphysical arguments, passed by as unworthy of notice -- The object in the situation of Moses -- Dr. Doddridge's comment on Matt. 19th ch. 28th v. -- Whatever Almighty goodness has promised, Almighty power will effect -- The union of the soul with a glorified body, the perfection of human nature -- Kett's opinion on the sleep of the soul -- Words of Scripture repeated -- This work finished with a repetition of the 34th and 35th ch. of Isaiah -- And Lowth's notes And a Psalm of David -- Hymn by an unknown hand.

[ page xx is blank ]

[ 1 ]

PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS,

RELATIVE TO THE

PLAN OF REVELATION

THROUGHOUT THE BIBLE.

In contemplating the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, a careful observer will necessarily remark, not only an uniformity of design, but also one continued well organized system of conduct, established from the beginning of the world, and predicted to continue to the end of it.

This authentic history of God's providence throughout, points with an uniform direction to one great object. It is kept constantly in view, amidst all the dark and mysterious, or bright and luminous conduct of the supreme and adorable Creator of the universe, relative to the government of the world; and the final disappointment and overthrow of the powers of darkness, in the restoration of our guilty race, to the favor of God our maker.

If the scriptures be true, this can only be done by the establishment of the glorious kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, the mediator between God and man, on his second coming, to the glory of God

2 PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS.

the Father, and the joy and comfort of his faithful people, of all nations, languages and tongues.

To this end, all the vast apparatus of nature and providence, from the beginning of the world, has constantly hastened. -- All the partial or particular dispensations of the governor of the universe towards individual nations or people, have been merely so many necessary steps or means to elucidate, foretel, or accomplish this all important event.

In short, to use the words of an eminent writer, * "the history of the Old and New Testament," hath a secondary or prophetical sense in many instances.

Its great events, are signs and figures of things not seen as yet, and many of them are in force as such, at this hour. -- Great things are still to be expected, of which we can form no conception, but as they are set before us in the figures of sacred history.

God shall descend, and this earth be on fire; and the trumpet shall sound; and the tribes of mankind shall be assembled, as formerly the Jews were at Mount Horeb -- "Distress shall come on a wicked world, when its iniquity shall be full, as destruction did on devoted Canaan, proud Babylon and apostate Jerusalem.

In this world, the blessed Redeemer, God's only begotten son, -- the express image of his substance †

__________
* Jones.

† Person, as mentioned in our translation, is certainly not the meaning of the Greek word Uposaseos. vide Parkh in loco and Campbell on the gospels, Diss. x. part v. Sec. 9, &c.

PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. 3

received insult, contumely and reproach. -- In this world, he was cruelly scourged, mocked at and spit upon -- In this world, he was condemned at Pilate's bar as a common malefactor -- crowned with a crown of thorns, and crucified between two thieves -- In this world, since his resurrection and ascension, he hath been despised, rejected of men, crucified afresh, and his blood shed for the remission of the sins of ungrateful men, denied by those who profess his name, and treated as an unholy thing.

How consonant to reason then is it? How analogous to all the dispensations of the righteous governor of the universe? How agreeable to the terms of the covenant of grace, and the promises to the suffering redeemer, that in this world, and by its redeemed inhabitants, for which he has given himself up to affliction and death, he should also receive honor and glory, power and dominion, homage and adoration? Thus he shall see the blessed effects of the travail of his soul and therewith be satisfied.

The Lord Jesus Christ could only suffer in his human nature -- He was never despised or rejected in heaven, as to his divinity -- He was always, as God and the lamb, loved, adored and worshipped by all the heavenly host. -- St. John, the beloved disciple, testifies, "that he heard the voice of many angels round about the throne; and the living creatures and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, worthy is the lamb that was

4 PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS.

slain, to receive power and riches, and wisdom and strength, and honor and glory and blessing! and every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard he saying, blessing, and honor, and glory, and power; be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the lamb for ever and ever! * And the four living creatures said amen! and the four and twenty elders fell down and worshipped him that liveth for ever" † After this "he beheld and lo a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the lamb, clothed with white robes and palms in their hands, and cried with a loud voice saying, salvation to our God who sitteth on the throne, and unto the Lamb. ‡

The angelic host esteemed it their highest honor to attend him, in his first advent in the flesh, to this our world; and did joyfully recount the glad tidings to the wondering shepherds of Bethlehem.

They also, with wonder and amazement, attended his temptation in the wilderness; and comforted him in his agonies in the garden of Gethsemane. They devoutly attended his resurrection, and with hosanna's ascended with him to glory. Indeed, legions of angels were always ready to obey his commands,

__________
* This is exactly thc description given of the throne of God by Daniel.

† Rev. v. 11. to end.

‡ Ibid vii. 9 and 10.

PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. 5

even while sojourning in the flesh. It was daily their anxious solicitude to look into the mysteries of his incarnation and sufferings.

It was, then, in his flesh as mediator -- as the substitute and propitiation for the sins of men, that he received all the obloquy and abuse. It was in the flesh he suffered and died.

In the flesh, therefore, as our mediator and great high-priest -- the captain of our salvation; and in this same rebellious world, and from this same guilty race, must he receive the glory, honor, power, majesty, praise and dominion, that are so justly due to him, for all that he has done and suffered for the sons and daughters of Adam.

Hence we find the earliest dawn of grace and hope to our guilty and despairing; first parents, was ushered in, though obscurely, with the blessed promise, that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head, while he should only bruise his heel. The next encouragement given to them, and which has been preserved on record by the apostle Jude, in his 14th and 15th verses, is more encouraging: -- "And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold! the Lord cometh, with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of their ungodly deeds, which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches, which ungodly sinners have spoken against him."

6 PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS.

After this, a strong figure of the deliverance of mankind by the great captain of our salvation, was given to the world, in the preservation of Noah and his family, with a portion of every species of living creatures, in the ark, during the universal deluge.

Soon after, we find the promise more explicitly made to Abraham, who had been obedient to the call of God, and left his father's house and his country (which was sunk in idolatry, having forsaken the worship of the one only living and true God) to go whither soever God should lead him. To him the plan of salvation by the mediator, was further opened, by showing him the Messiah, his humiliation of suffering, and his coming in glory. Thus; Abraham saw his day, and was glad, for it was then that God did promise that he would assuredly give to Abraham, as the reward of his faith and obedience the whole land of Canaan, in which he then sojourned (a type of the heavenly inheritance,) but of which he held not the least possession; and though at that time a private individual, without power, influence or authority -- in a strange land; yet in him, God did promise, that all the nations of the earth should be blessed; still directing the eye of his faith, to the glorious and triumphant state of the Messiah, who, according to the flesh was to proceed from his loins.

"Thus he who was promised to Adam immediately on the fall, under the more obscure description of the seed of the woman, who should bruise the head,

PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. 7

of the serpent, was now announced to the world, as the seed of Abraham, in whom all the families of the earth should be blessed. And henceforward we have prediction upon prediction -- ordinance upon ordinance -- promise upon promise -- event upon event, leading to, rising above, improving and enlarging upon each other, like a gradual light of the ascending sun, from the early dawn to the perfect day. We perceive types, shadows, ceremonies, and sacrifices, disappearing little by little; patriarchs, priests, prophets, lawgivers and kings, retiring one after another, and giving place to the Lord our judge, our lawgiver, our king to save us, as the twinkling fires of the night hide their diminished heads, and as the vapors disperse, before the glorious orb of day. *

There are particular and express referrences to the Messiah, as well to his incarnation, sufferings, death and resurrection, as to his second coming in glory, in almost every book of the Old Testament, particularly in the numerous types and shadows of the law given to Moses in the Holy Mount, till we come to the Psalms; and sir Isaac Newton, who, though so great a philosopher. thought the study of the scriptures among his highest honors, says, "That there is scarce a prophecy in the Old Testament concerning Christ, that doth not, in something or other, relate to his second coming." †

__________
* 2d. Vol. Sacred Biography, 17.

† On Daniel fol. 122.

[ 8 ]

T H E P S A L M S.

_____

WE shall now begin a more particular examination into the revelation of this mysterious truth, from the Psalms inclusive, to the end of the apocalypse of St. John.

In that book of divine poetry, called the Psalms, David and the other authors of them, under the inspiration of the holy spirit, speak indefinitely of the Messiah's coming into this our world, not particularly distinguishing between his first and second coming. They describe not only his state of humiliation in the flesh, but in the most exalted language, the victorious reign of the Messiah, which in its nature and extent, as there foretold, when compared with what we now know of his first coming, can only be true as it refers to his second coming.

It is expressly foretold therein, "that the Heathen are to be given to him as an inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth as a possession -- He is to break them with a rod (or sword) or iron, and to dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel -- He is to judge the world in righteousness, and to minister judgment to the people in uprightness. -- His throne, as then established, is to be forever and ever; and the sceptre of his kingdom a righteous sceptre -- A fire is to burn before him, and it is to be very tempestuous round about him. All the earth is to worship him, and sing

THE PSALMS. 9

unto his name. Princes and ambassadors are to come to him from Egypt. Ethiopia is to stretch out her hands unto God. He is to judge (or vindicate) the poor of his people, -- to save the children of the needy, and break in pieces the oppressor. -- The promised Messiah "is to have dominion from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth," that is, from the Mediterranean sea to the Persian Gulf, and from the river Euphrates to the ends of the earth; figurative expressions, to typify the whole habitable earth. They who dwell in the wilderness are to bow before him, and his enemies are to lick the dust. The kings of Tarshish * and of the Isles, shall bring presents: the kings of Sheba and Seba, shall offer gifts: yea all kings shall fall down before him -- all nations shall serve him -- his name is to remain forever and forever; to be continued (or propagated) as long as the sun and men are to be blessed in him. All nations are to call him blessed -- his seed are to be established forever, and his throne built up to all generations -- he is to subdue the people under him, and the nations under his feet -- he is to choose out an heritage for his people, even the excellency of Jacob whom he loved -- all the ends of the earth are to remember and turn unto the Lord, and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before him, for the kingdom is to be the Lord's and he is to be governor among the nations. -- The Psalmist in an ecstasy of joy, on a prophetic view of this glorious event, cries

__________
* That is, Spain or some great commercial country.

10 THE PSALMS.

out -- "Clap your hands all ye people, for the Lord is to be a great king over all the earth: he shall subdue the people under him, and the nations under his feet. -- God is king of all the earth; -- and over the heathen. -- Through the greatness of thy power, shall thine enemies submit themselves unto thee -- All the earth shall worship thee, and sing of thee -- they shall sing unto thy name."

The whole 67th Psalm is a prayer for this great kingdom -- "that the way of God may be known on the earth and his saving health among all nations -- All nations whom thou hast made, shall come and worship before thee, O Lord, and shall glorify thy name." -- In the 110th Psalm, it is expressly asserted of the Messiah, "The Lord upon thy right hand shall strike through kings in the day of his wrath -- He shall judge among the Heathen -- He shall fill the places with the dead bodies -- He shall wound the Heads over many (or great) countries" literally in the Hebrew, "the Head over much Country." *

Thus the inspired Psalmist foretels in emphatic language, the kingdom of the Messiah, which has never yet been verified, although we have seen his first coming in the flesh; and if it is ever to he made good by the event, it must be in some future time, and of course, at the second coming of our glorious Immanuel, as he has himself foretold in his word.

But it appears, as time advanced, and the end drew nearer, that the declarations of many successive

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* Horn.

THE PSALMS. 11

and inspired prophets, gave the most explicit and exact predictions of this blessed event, and particularly Isaiah, Ezekiel, Zechariah, Daniel, Micah, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi, as well as the other prophets, who have also been very minute on this subject.

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I S A I A H.

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ISAIAH, who is with great propriety stiled "the evangelical prophet," speaks very expressly on this head, and foretels, in sublime terms, "that a virgin was to conceive and bear a son and his name was to be Immanuel, (or God with us.) For unto his people a child was to be born; unto them a son was to be given --The government was to be on his shoulders -- His name was to be called Wonderful -- Counsellor -- The mighty God -- The Father of the everlasting; age, or the age to come -- The Prince of Peace -- Of the increase of his Government and Peace there was to be no end. A rod was to come forth out of the trunk of Jesse, and a cyon to grow out of his roots; and the spirit of Jehovah was to rest upon him; the spirit of wisdom and understanding -- The spirit of counsel and strength -- The spirit of the knowledge and fear of Jehovah."

The same evangelical prophet, distinguishes what was to happen in after times, when he says, "that in the latter days (afterwards explained by Daniel more particularly) as meaning the latter end of the 4th kingdom mentioned in his visions that is, the Roman empire or government, (as it was always understood by the Jews before the coming of Christ) the mountain of the Lord's House, should be established in the tops of the mountains, and exalted

I S A I A H. 13

above the hills, and all nations should flow into it -- and many people should go and say, come ye and let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah; to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us of his ways; and we will walk in his paths; for from Zion shall go forth the law; and the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem, and he shall judge among the nations, and work conviction in many people, -- and they shall beat their swords into plough-shares, and their spears into pruning-hooks. Nation shall not lift up their swords against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

The wolf is then to take up his abode with the lamb and the leopard lye down with the kid -- and the calf and the young lion and the fatling shall come together, and a little child shall lead them.

The heifer and the she-bear shall feed together. Together shall their young ones lie down, 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 den -- They shall not hurt nor destroy in all the holy mountain, for the earth is to he full of the knowledge of Jehovah, as the waters cover the depths of the sea. -- The root of Jesse is to be an ensign to the people, and to him shall the nations repair and his resting place shall be glorious."

About this happy period, in fulfilment of the promises of his word, the dispersed Jews are to be

14 I S A I A H.

collected together a second time, from the nations of the east, and from the western regions (called in our translations, the islands of the sea) -- "And he shall lift up a signal to the nations; and he shall gather the outcasts of Israel, and the dispersed of Judah shall he collect from the four extremities of the earth. -- And all animosity and envy of the tribes with one another, are to cease.

They shall together invade the borders of the Philistines westward -- together shall they spoil the children of the east.

Jehovah shall smite with a drought the tongue of the Egyptian sea, and be shall strike his hand over the river with his vehement wind, and he shall strike it into seven streams, and make them to be passed over dry shod; and there shall be a highway for the remnant of his people, which shall remain from Assyria, as it was unto Israel in the day when he came up out of the land of Egypt -- And his people are to return unto their own land, for he is to have mercy on Jacob, and yet to choose Israel, and give them rest in their own land; and strangers shall cleave to the house of Jacob, and bring the them into their own place; and the house of Jacob shall possess them in the land of Jehovah, as servants, and hand-maidens to his people in their own land; and they shall take them captives, whose captives they were, and they shall rule over their oppressors -- a present is at that time to be brought to him of a people scattered and peeled; and that from a nation

I S A I A H. 15

terrible from their beginning; a nation meted out and trodden under foot, whose land the rivers have nourished, to the place of the name of the Lord of hosts, the mount Zion.

In that day, there shall be a high way from Egypt to Assyria; and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria -- and the Egyptian shall worship with the Assyrian -- at the same time Israel is to be reckoned a third, together with Egypt and with Assyria, even: a blessing in the midst of the earth, whom the Lord of hosts shall bless; saying blessed be Egypt my people and Assyria the work of mine hands, and Israel mine inheritance.

The earth shall then be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea; and God will destroy the covering cast over all people and the vail that is spread over all nations, and the reproach of his people shall be taken away from the earth -- Every valley is then to be exalted, and every mountain and hill are to be made low; and the crooked paths are to be made straight; and the rough places plain, and the glory of the Lord is to be revealed, and all flesh are to see it. The desert and the waste shall then be glad; and the wilderness shall rejoice and flourish, and the well-watered plain of Jordan shall also rejoice: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it; the beauty of Carmel and Sharon -- these shall then behold the glory of Jehovah; the majesty of our God.

The eyes of the blind are to be unclosed; and the ears of the deaf are to be opened. The lame are to

16 I S A I A H.

bound like the hart; and the tongue of the dumb is to sing; for in the wilderness shall burst forth waters, and torrents in the desert; and the glowing sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty soil, bubbling springs. No lion shall be there; nor shall the tyrant of beasts come up there; but the redeemed of the Lord shall walk there; and the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads, and all sorrow and sighing shall flee away. The voice of weeping is no more to be heard in her, nor the voice of a distressful cry -- There is no more to be in her an infant short lived; nor an old man that has not filled his days; for he that dieth an hundred years old, shall die a boy; for as the days of a tree, so shall be the days of his people. The wolf and the lamb shall feed together; and the lion shall eat straw like an ox; but as for the serpent, dust shall be his food. For God will pour out his spirit on the seed of Israel, and his blessing on their offspring; and they shall spring up as grass among the waters, and the willows beside the aqueducts.

One shall say, I belong to Jehovah, another shall be called by the name of Jacob; and this shall inscribe his hand to Jehovah, and shall be surnamed by the name of Israel. All the remote people of the earth shall look unto him, and be saved.

Jehovah will call from the east the Eagle; * and from a far distant land, the man of his counsel, to

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* If you suppose the north-west parts of America, are near the north-east parts of Asia, near Kamschatka, as the late

I S A I A H. 17

bring to pass the design he has formed, and he shall execute it; for the Messiah shall raise up the cions of Jacob and restore the breaches of Israel. He shall be a light to the nations, and salvation to the ends of the earth -- Kings shall see him and rise up, princes shall worship him.

Jehovah will lift up his hands to the nations, and to the people will he exalt his signal; and they shall bring his sons in their bosoms, and his daughters shall be borne on their shoulders -- Kings shall be their foster fathers, and queens their nursing mothers.

They from the west shall revere the name of Jehovah; and they from the rising sun, his glory; when he shall come like a river, strengthened in its course, which a strong wind driveth along; and the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and turn away iniquity from Jacob.

In that day (when the Jews shall be about to be restored to their former prosperity) Jehovah shall summon on high the host that is on high (or the ecclesiastical polity of the nations, perhaps both the Popish and the Mahometan) and on earth the kings of the earth; (or the civil polity or constitutions of the Roman earth or

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discoveries seem to give reason to believe; and if the lost tribes of Israel passed over this strait to America and are to be found there, as Messrs. Elliot, Penn, and others have supposed; then it is possible the Eagle and the man of his counsel may come from that far distant land, and by passing over the same strait to the north-east part of Asia, may be said to come from the east.

18 I S A I A H.

monarchy) and they shall be gathered together as in bundle (or body) for the pit, and shall be closely imprisoned in the prison (alluding to the practice of crowned heads, casting their prisoners into dungeons, and leaving them in a miserable condition, without examining speedily into their respective deserts) but after many days, account shall be taken of them; (that is, God shall remember them and restore them to a state of comfort) -- and the moon shall be confounded and the sun shall be ashamed for, (or because) Jehovah God of hosts shall reign on mount Zion, and in Jerusalem; and before his ancients shall be glorified"

So glorious is this event to be, that the prophet breaks out, as in an ecstasy of joy, "O Jehovah, thou art my God: I will exalt thee: I will praise thy name, for thou hast effected wonderful things. Counsels of old times! promises immutably true! -- For thou hast made the city an heap (perhaps the city of Rome, or some other large city of Europe) the strong fortified citadel, a ruin -- the palaces of the proud ones, that it should be no more a city -- that it never should be built up again -- Therefore shall the fierce people glorify thee -- The city of the formidable nations shall far thee: for thou hast been a defence to the poor, a defence to the needy in his distress: a refuge from the storm, and a shadow from the heat! And Jehovah God of hosts shall make for all the people in this mountain a feast of delicacies, exquisitely rich, and of old wines perfectly refined;

I S A I A H. 19

and on this mountain shall he destroy the covering, that covered the face of all the people, and the veil that was spread over all the nations." *

The seed of Jacob are (then) to be brought from the east, and to be gathered from the west -- The north is to give up, and the south not to keep back. His sons are to be brought from afar, and his daughters from the ends of the earth.

Having sworn by himself, the word went forth out of his mouth in righteousness, that unto him every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall swear.

And when the enemy shall come in as a flood, the spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him, and the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and to them who turn from transgression in Jacob. The nations are to walk in his light, and kings in the brightness of his sun-rising -- The riches of the sea are to be poured in upon him, and the wealth of the nations is to come unto him -- The nations are to wait, and the ships of Tarshish † among the first, to bring the sons of Israel from afar, their silver and their gold with them, because of the name of Jehovah their

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* From this it is pretty evident that there is a veil at present on all nations with regard to the 2d coming of Christ, which the restoration of the Jews will have a tendency to remove. This is typified by the veil that, even to this day, it is said, that the readers in the Jewish worship have, hanging over their faces while they read the law of Moses to the congregation.

† If the Spaniards in South America should ever proper as a commercial people, they may be meant.

20 I S A I A H.

God, and of the holy one of Israel, for he hath glorified them. -- And the sons of strangers are to build the walls, and their kings shall minister unto them: their gates are to be opened continually: not to be shut day nor night, that men may bring in the wealth of the nations; and that their kings may come pompously attended; for that nation and that kingdom which will not serve them, shall perish.

The glory of Lebanon is to come unto her: the fir tree, the pine and the box together, to beautify the place of his sanctuary, and to glorify the place whereon he shall rest his feet.

The sons of their oppressors shall come bending before them; and all that scornfully rejected them, shall do obeisance at the soles of their feet. --Jerusalem is to be made an everlasting boast; a subject of joy, for perpetual generations -- She is to suck the milk of the nations, and at the breast of kings to be fostered; and to know that Jehovah is her saviour and redeemer, the mighty one of Jacob -- For brass, she is to have gold, and for iron, silver -- for wood, brass, and for stones, iron. -- Her inspectors are to be peace, and her exactors, righteousness.

Violence will no more be heard in her land, nor wasting or destruction in her borders. Her walls are to be called salvation and her gates praise -- The sun will no more be her light by day, nor the brightness of the moon by night; but Jehovah is to be to her an everlasting light, and God her glory -- Her

I S A I A H. 21

people are to be all righteous and to inherit the land forever, that God may be glorified. -- His ancient people the Jews (though now dispersed to the very ends of the earth, and a hissing and a bye word to all nations) shall then build up the ruins of old times: they shall restore the ancient desolations, repair the cities laid waste, the desolation of continued ages.

Strangers shall then feed their flocks, and the sons of the alien shall be their plough-men and vine-dressers.

They are to be named priests of Jehovah -- ministers of God shall be their title. They shall eat the riches of the nations, and in their glory they are to boast -- Their seed shall be illustrious among the nations, and their offspring in the midst of the people. -- All who see them shall acknowledge that they are the seed, which the Lord hath blessed -- The Lord is to comfort Zion -- He is to comfort all her waste places, and make her wilderness like Eden; and her desert like the garden of the Lord.

As the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth, so the Lord will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all nations.

The command of God is to go through the gates -- to prepare the way for his people -- to cast up the causeway -- to clear it from the stones -- lift up on high a standard for the nations -- for behold Jehovah

22 I S A I A H.

proclaimeth unto the ends of the world; say ye to the daughters of Zion, lo! thy Saviour cometh -- behold his reward is with him and the recompence of his works before him; and they are to be called, the holy people -- the redeemed of Jehovah; sought out, a city not forsaken."

The reason is clearly given, for this wonderful change in the state and circumstances of God's people, so unlike what they are at present, scattered over the earth, with scarcely a spot to place their feet, which they can call their own; excluded from their city and promised land, which are now in the possession of a powerful nation, and so despised by all the inhabitants of the earth,, that they have scarce a ray of hope left, but from faith in the word of God by his prophets; this alone keeps up their spirits in this day of gloomy darkness to them. God having declared most expressly by his prophet, "that he will create new heavens and a new earth, and that the former shall not be remembered or come into mind any more;" by which it is to be understood throughout the scriptures, the political forms of government in the world, with the grandeur and lustre of their dominions, their political heights and glory.

But his people shall rejoice and exult in the age to come, which Jehovah creates; for he will create Jerusalem a subject of joy, and her people of gladness, and Jehovah will exult in Jerusalem and rejoice In his people. -- The key of the house of David, shall be then laid on the shoulders of the Messiah, "as an

I S A I A H. 23

ensign of royalty and government, so that he shall open and no man shall shut; and he shall shut and no man shall open."

"Jehovah is to come (as introductory to this glorious day) with fire and with his chariots like a whirlwind to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire; for by fire and by his sword, will Jehovah execute judgment on all flesh, and the slain of Jehovah shall be many. -- Jehovah shall come and gather all the nations and tongues together, and they shall come and see his glory; and he will impart to them a sign -- and those who escape will be sent to the Heathen, and the isles afar off, that have not heard of his name, neither have seen his glory; and they shall declare his glory among the nations.

The Jews are then to be brought for an offering unto the Lord, out of all nations, on horses, in chariots and litters; and upon mules and dromedaries to his holy mountain Jerusalem; and of them shall be made priests and levites -- so that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath, to another, all flesh shall come and worship before the Lord."

So explicitly and particularly has this evangelical prophet promulgated the glorious state of Christ's victorious kingdom on earth, at his second advent; as nothing any ways answerable to this transporting description, has yet happened in the world since his first coming in the flesh, it must be yet to come.

24 I S A I A H.

But this joyous event, has not been left to the testimony of one, or two witnesses; the prophet Ezekiel is not far short of the happy Isaiah, in his views of what God has designed for his people in the latter days.

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E Z E K I E L.

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IT has been owing to an unfortunate propensity of allegorizing or spiritualzing only, the express and comforting promises of a God of truth, that this book has given so little comfort to the people of God. -- According to Ezekiel's prophetic declarations at the second advent of our Saviour, God is to sanctify his holy name (which had been profaned by his ancient people the Jews) among those nations, with whom God had scattered his people (the Jews) for their sins, and the heathen were thereby to know that he was God, when he should be sanctified in them before their eyes; for he will take his people the Jews from among the nations, and gather them out of all countries, and bring them into their own land. -- "Then he is to sprinkle clean water upon them, and they shall be clean -- He is to give them a new heart and put a new spirit within them; to take away the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh. -- They shall dwell in the land that he gave to their fathers, and they shall be his people, and he will be their God. Their now desolate land is to be tilled and to become like the garden of Eden, and the waste, desolate and ruined cities are to become fenced and inhabited, whereby the heathen shall know the Lord.

26 EZEKIEL.

The Lord is to gather the house of Israel from the people among whom they are scattered, and will be sanctified by them in the sight of the heathen, and they are to dwell in their land that he has given to his servant Jacob.

They are to dwell safely therein, and build houses, and plant vine-yards. Yea they shall dwell with confidence, when God has executed judgment upon all those that despise them round about, and they are to know that he is the Lord.. their God. -- God is to search for his sheep, and to seek them out: as a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that his sheep are scattered, so will God seek out his sheep (the people of Israel) and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day -- He will bring them out from the people and gather them from the countries; and will bring them to their own land and feed them upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers, and in all the inhabited places of the countries.

God will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even his servant David, and the Lord will be their God, and his servant David a Prince among them -- God will make a covenant of peace with them, and will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land, and his people shall dwell safely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods -- and they shall be safe in their land, and shall know the Lord, when he shall have broken the bands of their yoke and delivered them out of the hands of

EZEKIEL. 27

those that served themselves of them; and they shall no more be a prey to the heathen, neither shall the beast of the land devour them, but they shall dwell safely and none shall make them afraid. -- The mountains of Israel are again to shoot forth branches, and yield fruit to his people Israel, for they are at hand to come -- Men and beasts are to be multiplied, and the cities to be inhabited, and the wastes builded. His people are to be settled after their old estates, and God will do to them better than at the beginning. -- God will open their graves and cause them to come up out of their graves, and he will bring them into the land of Israel; and they shall know that he is the Lord, when he shall have opened their graves, and brought them up therefrom, and he will put his spirit in them, and they shall live; and he will place them in their own land -- He will make them one nation in the land, upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be to them all, and they shall no more be two nations; neither shall they defile themselves any more with idols, so they are to be his people, and he will be their God, and David will be their prince forever -- and he will make a covenant of peace with them, and multiply them, and set his sanctuary in the midst of them for ever more." -- A new temple is to be built in Jerusalem according to the measures of the angel in the prophetic vision, "and the glory of the God of Israel is to come into it from the way of the east; and his glory is to fill the house."

28 EZEKIEL.

This is to be "the place of his throne, and the place of the soles of his feet, where he is to dwell in the midst of the children of Israel forever. The Levites are to be ministers in the sanctuary, or keepers of the charge of the house; but on account of their going astray with Israel, they shall no longer do the office of priest, or come near to any holy things; but the sons of Zadock who kept the charge of the sanctuary, when the children of Israel went astray, they shall be priests and ministers unto the Lord, and keep the charge and be judges in controversies between the people."

A different division of the land of Canaan among the tribes, than that ordered by Moses, is to take place; with a special allotment for the use of the sanctuary and provision for the princes -- Joseph is to have two portions, and the stranger who sojourns there is to have an allotment also in the tribe in which he lives -- Special provision is likewise to be made by means of a river, that heads in the temple, and runs through the desart into the sea; by which the seas, wherever the waters of this river shall come, are to be healed; and thereby all these waters shall produce fish in the greatest plenty, for the use of the inhabitants; and its borders are to be covered with trees, which are to bear fruit every month, for food; and their leaves shall not fade, neither shall their fruit be consumed. -- The fruit is not only to be meat, but their leaves are to be medicinal, because the waters issue out of the sanctuary.

EZEKIEL. 29

The city is to he four square, with three gates on each side, to be called after the names of the twelve tribes of Israel -- It is to be round about 18,000 measures; and the name of the city from that day shall be, "The Lord is there."

But previous to and just before this great event, the peculiar distress foretold in almost every other part of scripture, must take place. "For God calls on every bird of prey, and the wild beasts of the field, to gather together from all places to his sacrifice, which he has slain for them on the mountains of Israel, and they shall eat flesh, and drink blood -- They shall eat the flesh of mighty men and drink the blood of the rulers of the earth; rams and calves and goats and all stalled calves -- And they shall eat fat till they are satiated; and drink blood (till they are intoxicated) of my sacrifice which I have slain for them -- And they shall be filled with, (and devour) at my table, horse and charioteer, mighty men and every man of war, saith Jehovah the Lord -- And I will manifest my glory in them, and all nations shall see my judgment which I have executed upon them. And the house of Israel shall know that I am Jehovah their God, from that day and forward. And all nations shall know, that because of their sins, the house of Israel went into captivity; by means of which (sins) they acted deceitfully towards me, and I have turned away my face from them, and have delivered them into the hands of their enemies, and they all fell by the sword According to their uncleannesses,

30 EZEKIEL.

and according to their iniquities have I done unto them -- For this reason, saith Jehovah, God, now will I turn again the captivity of Jacob, and have mercy upon the house of Israel, and I will be zealous because of my name, my holy name. Ad they shall receive their ignominy and (the reward of) all their iniquity, which they iniquitously committed when they dwelt in their land in peace -- But there shall not be any one making them afraid, when I shall bring them again from among the Gentiles, and when I shall gather them together from the countries of the nations -- and they shall know that I am the Lord their God, on my appearing to them among the Gentiles. And I will gather them into their land, and will not forsake them any more." *

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* King's translation.

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Z E C H A R I A H.

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THE account of these prophetic wonders, are also continued by Zechariah, who lived 50 years after Ezekiel.

He says, "the man whose name is the Branch, shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the Lord, and bear the glory, and sit and rule upon his throne. -- And he shall not only be a king, but a priest also on his throne; and the council of peace shall be between them both."

The Lord is to return to Zion and dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, and she is to be called a city of truth, and the mountain of the Lord of hosts, the holy mountain. -- Old men and women are yet to dwell in the city of Jerusalem, and every man with his staff in his hand for very age. -- And the inhabitants of one city, shall go to another city saying, "let us go speedily and pray before the Lord, and to seek the Lord of hosts: I will go also. -- Yea many people and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem, and to pray before the Lord.

The daughter of Zion is called on greatly to rejoice; and the daughter of Jerusalem to shout; for her king cometh unto her. -- He is to speak peace to the heathen, and his dominion shall be from sea to sea; and from the river to the ends of the earth."

32 ZECHARIAH.

And in order to ascertain the period of time with certainty, and to distinguish clearly between the first and second coming of this glorious prince; the prophet declares "that in that day, whenever it shall be, the Lord will destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem; and will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and supplication; and they shall look upon meLord God shall then come, and all the saints with him; and in that day living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them towards the eastern sea, and

ZECHARIAH. 33

half of them towards the hinder sea, in summer and winter shall it be; and the Lord shall be king over all the earth; and there shall be one Lord, and his name one."

All this is too descriptive, and too minute, to suppose them designed, as merely allegorical -- the language being so frequently express and positive.

This would be unworthy the grandeur of the subject, and the dignity of the kingdom of God so expressly revealed in his word. -- The promises of God are yea and amen -- not a tittle of them shall fail, but all things written in the prophets and the psalms concerning him, shall be fulfilled -- even where the language in scripture is plainly and necessarily figurative as to part of its principal object, often it carries a double reference, and the literal is fulfilled, as well as the figurative.

The prophet proceeds to foretel the manner in which these great events are to be brought about -- This was necessary, as it had been foretold, that previous to this glorious day, there should be a great falling away among the professors of the gospel, and that the enemies of Christ, and his faithful people, should greatly prevail, even so as to endanger the safety of the elect or church of God, had it been possible.

Zechariah therefore further informs us, that this "will be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite all the people that shall fight against Jerusalem --

34 ZECHARIAH.

their flesh shall consume away, while they stand upon their feet -- their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongues shall consume away in their mouths -- There shall be a great tumult from the Lord among them, and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbor; and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbor; and Judah shall fight at Jerusalem and the wealth of the heathen shall be gathered together, gold and silver and apparel in great abundance -- And so shall be the plague of the horse, of the mule, of the camel and of the ass, and of all the beasts that shall be in their tents -- And every one that is left of all the nations which shall come against Jerusalem, shall afterwards go up from year to year to worship the king, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles; and who so will not come up, of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the king the Lord of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain."

The prophet concludes the descriptive scene, by declaring; with great certainty of expression, that in that day which he had been speaking of, so greatly should a spirit of righteousness prevail, "that holiness to the lord, should be inscribed on the bells (or rather bridles, as it is in the margin of our bibles) of the horses." -- And I will here add in addition to these prophetic declarations under the old testament dispensation, that Malachi finishes his prophecy with, "behold I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful

ZECHARIAH. 35

day of the Lord; and he shall turn (or restore) the heart of the fathers to the children; and the heart of the children to the fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse."

It is remarkable that John the baptist came in the power and spirit of Elias, and was the harbinger of Christ's first coming, but he did not restore the heart the fathers to the children; and the heart of the children to the fathers -- this is reserved for the real Elijah, the great harbinger of Christ's second coming in glory, here called the great and dreadful day of the Lord, when all that the prophet has predicted shall be literally fulfilled.

Our Saviour himself tells his disciples, in Matthew xvii. 11. after John was beheaded, "that Elias truly shall first come," and to distinguish him from John, as Malachi did, adds, "and shall restore all things."

In all these prophetic declarations, throughout the old testament, the coming of our Lord and Saviour is foretold indefinitely, without distinguishing in express terms between his first and second coming; but leaves the devout enquirer to the nature of the prophecies, and what their peculiar terms suggest.

Pages 36 to 129 have not yet been transcribed.

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J U D E.

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Jude tells us that Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, in that early day, had foretold this great and awful period, which so substantially occupied the faith and hope of God's people, saying, "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, which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him."

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conceived which those who are unlearned and not well settled in the faith, like unto these scoffers, stumble, as they do at the other scriptures, taking occasion thereby to stagger and doubt of the truth of God; so perverting the scriptures from their right end, by making them the means of your destruction, which were given by God as a means whereby they might believe and be saved."

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142 THE APOCALYPSE OF JOHN.

distress and misery that must come on the ungodly, before the nations of the earth can be thoroughly purged, and the glorious kingdom of the Messiah be completely established, yet I do most sincerely pray, that thou wouldst thus come quickly, as thou hast said, that a speedy end may be put to all moral evil, and the knowledge of God cover the earth as the waters cover the seas; to which every real christian, when in the exercise of a lively faith, will also add his hearty "amen! and even so come Lord Jesus!"

[ 143 ]

I N F E R E N C E

FROM WHAT HAS BEEN SAID.

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Having thus, in as brief a manner as the subject would admit, taken a general view of the scripture testimony, as contained in the old and new testaments, to this essential doctrine of the christian revelation; and attended to the many uniform prophetic declarations concerning it, as the grand leading event on which all the rest depend; holding it up as the chief object of our faith and hope, we are prepared to draw the natural conclusion, that Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to day and forever, has been the great subject of all the revelations, made by God to his people from the beginning of the world; and that all the provisions for the general instruction and support of the church and people of God, during their pilgrimage in this world, have tended to the same end, as clearly appears from the nature and compliction of the whole taken together. It is now pretty generally agreed, that, the very particular and express communication of things that were certainly to come to pass, supernaturally made to the beloved disciple John, when under a cruel and severe banishment to the desert island of Patmos, was made, and ordered to be written for the support and comfort of the servants of Jesus Christ, during the fiery trials

144 INFERENCE FROM WHAT HAS BEEN SAID.

they were to undergo for almost two thousand years...

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[ 168 ]

ON THE

FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE

OF THE

SCRIPTURES.

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When the eternal God, who is the great first sovereign cause of all things, and who is not obliged to give an account of, or reason for, his conduct to any of his creatures, condescends of his own mere good pleasure, to instruct and teach mankind, his infinite wisdom takes the surest and most likely method of accomplishing his divine purpose, in a way consistent with the free agency of man, and the great plan of his original creation. -- The divine scriptures contain this mode of instruction, which the great author of nature has adopted for the recovery of the fallen race of Adam; and as they were designed for all times and for every nation, as a universal instructor, it was necessary they should be conceived in a universal language; this could be no other, than that of nature; and as the design of the scriptures is to teach us the invisible things of God, which are not the objects of our senses, but of faith and hope; it became absolutely necessary that they should be communicated by the medium of natural things, which are the objects of our senses; by which means every

OF THE SCRIPTURES. 169

sensible object becomes a letter or syllable, of this profitable language, and that to all nations, languages and tongues, teaching the invisible things of God, by the things that are made. Therefore, as Mr. Taylor says, hieroglyphics which represent the sense of the mind, by outward figures or actions, were the first and most ancient literature.

"The prophetic style (says the late learned bishop of Gloucester) was constructed on the symbolic principles of the hieroglyphics, which were not vague, uncertain things, but fixed and constant analogies, determinable in their own nature, or from the steady use that was made of them; and a language formed on such principles, may be reasonably interpreted upon them." * And in another place, he says, "For as in hieroglyphic writing, the sun, moon and stars were used to represent states, and empires, kings, queens and nobility; their eclipse and extinction, temporary disasters, or entire overthrows, &c. so in like manner the holy prophets call kings and empires by the names of the heavenly luminaries; their misfortunes and overthrow are represented by eclipses and extinction; stars falling from the firmament are employed to denote the destruction of the nobility, &c. In a word, the prophetic style seems to be a speaking hieroglyphic. †

Dr. Johnson of Holywood says on the subject, "alphabetical characters and words are not

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* Divine Leg. of Mos. vol. 2, page 90.

† lbid, Lib. 4, sect. 4.

170 OF THE SCRIPTURES.

natural, but are only arbitrary signs, and therefore do change, with the changes of times and of men; but hieroglyphics and symbols, are either pictures of things actually existing, or of ideas which these things naturally excite, and therefore not arbitrary, but natural signs, fixed and permanent as the things themselves -- For the same reason, the symbolical is a universal language -- Every alphabetical language, is loose and changeable, for instance, the Greek, Latin, Italian, Spanish, French and English languages were, or are, each the language of a particular district of territory, and are altogether unintelligible to the illiterate inhabitants of any other district; and they have all undergone such changes, that the language of one period, is scarcely intelligible to the inhabitants of the same country in another period of time: since then prophecies are intended for all countries and ages, the symbolical language being universal and unchangeable, must for such a purpose, be the best adapted. *

Hence the figurative language of the holy scriptures, is the only language that could possibly answer the purpose, as extending to all mankind in every generation; and as an elegant writer expresses himself, "we find it assisting and leading our faculties forward, by an application of all visible objects to a figurative sense, from the glorious orb which shines in the firmament, to a grain of seed which is buried in the earth."

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* Introd. fol. 5.

OF THE SCRIPTURES. 171

When Epaminondas was opposing a number of confederate nations, united with the Spartans as their head, he wished to convince his soldiers of the necessity of their greatest exertions against the Spartans particularly, as the only effectual means of accomplishing their design of full and complete victory, he took a great serpent, in the presence of his army, and bruising its head, shewed them, that thereby, the rest of the body was of no force. *

The story of Joseph's dream of the sun, moon and eleven stars doing ibeisance to him is full in point. Which see.

The tribe of Judah is represented by a young lion. Issachar by a strong ass. Dan by a serpent lurking in the road, and so the other patriarchs.

This may serve to shew the nature of this hieroglyphical language. The Jews understood this manner of writing, being the learning of that age; and it made a greater impression than abstract reasoning, however well conducted. So the government of the world by divine providence and his extraordinary interposition in favor of good men, is represented by a ladder, standing upon the earth, and reaching to heaven, with angels ascending and descending on it, to receive and execute the orders of God.

Thus our Saviour himself "taught the people in parables, and without a parable taught he them

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* Polyoen, Stratag. lib. 2.

172 OF THE SCRIPTURES.

nothing." The scriptures then are a universal teacher...

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186 THE 11th CHAPTER, &c.

express declaration, that when the time does arrive, it will be to the world at large, as a thief in the night, though it should be well known to his people, who should diligently attend to his word. "for yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord cometh as a thief in the night." *

We are expressly encouraged, as before observed, to search into the meaning of the spirit of God in these scriptures, when the time of the end shall be near approaching; and are called upon to hear what the spirit saith unto the churches; and as this time of the end, or dissolution of the Roman hierarchy and government, is apparently drawing nigh, it may not be amiss to enquire how the scriptures themselves, have determined the circumstances of these witnesses, as connected with the finishing their prophecy or the end of the 1260 years, by which "the wise may understand." This may be hastened by every one casting in his mite, though in many circumstances he may be mistaken -- a single idea from each, may at last lead to the great truth.

* 1st Thess. v. ch. 2d verse.

[ 187 ]

THE WITNESSES,

WHO OR WHAT THEY ARE.

These witnesses then, are spoken of by St. John, as known subjects, and who were then in being. -- They are particularly said to be Christ's witnesses; and therefore who had been in habit of testifying to the truth. These were to receive a special power from him, to continue their teachings for the term mentioned, in opposition to the powers of the earth, and especially the man of sin in the temple of God, presiding over the churches, notwithstanding all the persecutions they were to undergo.

I humbly conceive, however I may differ from many great and learned men, that these were not to be a succession of witnesses, but the same specific witnesses, and who had been so from the beginning. -- Had the meaning been of a succession of witnesses, they could not with propriety have been said to have been two, and that they should continue for 1260 years, for it is not the continuance of testimony that is the jet of this subject, but the power given to "his two witnesses" personally to continue during this period; and it is their prophecy or testimony or teaching by virtue of that power that is also to be continued during that period; for a succession of

188 THE WITNESSES.

witnesses teaching would not have been so remarkable an event...

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OF THE WITNESSES 265

life? Is all pure gold to be condemned and rejected, because the dishonest and unprincipled, have invented a thousand ways of debasing it? -- Do men act thus in human affairs? Will a host of dishonest men, tarnnish the character of one of known integrity, and uprightness? It is by their fruits ye shall know them. "Do men gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles."

[ 266 ]

THE TIME OF THE END,

OR, THE LATTER TIME OF THE LAST TIMES.

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Rev. ch. 11, verses 15, 16, 17, 18, and 19. "And the seventh Angel sounded, and there were great voices in Heaven, saying, the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever. And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God, on their seats, fell upon their faces and worshipped God, saying, we give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come, because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned." &c. &c.

THESE verses have been quoted for the purpose of shewing to the Church of Christ, the great importance of the slaying and resurrection of the witnesses, with regard to enabling the wise among her children, to discern the signs of the times, and the blessed consequences of the apparent confusion and disorder of 1290 years. As the death and resurrection of Christ, from the dead, brought to life and immortality to light; so will the death and resurrection of his faithful witnesses, open up to the Church, the whole economy and plan of the Gospel, as it relates to her deliverance, from her depressed and suffering state, with the resurrection of the Prophets, Saints, and those who have feared God, both small and

THE TIME OF THE END, &c. 267

great, and the introduction of the latter day glory, under the immediate and visible government of her King...

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[ 282 ]

THE TIME OF THE DESTRUCTION
OF THE POWER, OR

GOVERNMENT OF ROME PAGAN,

OR, THE TAKING AWAY OF THAT WHICH HINDERED, AND THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE POWER OF THE MAN OF SIN, AS RECEIVING AUTHORITY OVER THE CHURCH OF CHRIST; FROM WHENCE THE BEGINNING OF THE 1260 YEARS, AND THE WITNESSES PROPHESYING IN SACKCLOTH, SHOULD BE RECKONED.
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It has been justly remarked by Mr. Mede, that to fix the duration of the Church's purity, or the beginning of the reign of the man of sin, we ought not to look so much for the commencement of the power of the Pope as an individual, as upon the apostasy of the Church from the purity of Christian worship, by means of spiritual fornication or the worshipping of idols, of which the Pope was to be the head, and his city (spiritually called Babylon) the metropolis; but the body was to be the Roman empire, divided into ten kingdoms, and reunited under this head, preserving the image of the former Roman government. * This new idolatry, is that treading

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* Therefore the beginning of that apostasy, or spiritual idolatry and fornication, by the worshipping of images, and the doctrine of the intercession of saints and angels, instead of the one mediator, Jesus Christ, as involving every other heresy, must be looked for, as the commencement of the great aera from which all others must be reckoned (and not the temporal power of the Pope,) notwithstanding those other heresies may have preceded it, "for the devising of idols was the beginning of spiritual fornication, and

THE TIME OF THE DESTRUCTION, &c. 283

down, or profaning the court of the Temple of God; that is, of his visible worship in the Church of Christ, by this kind of new Gentilism, unto which the forty-two months are attributed, as well as to the beast.

the invention of them, the corruption of life, for the worshipping of idols, not to be named, is the beginning, the cause, and the end of all evil." * The apostle foretels this event. † Speaking; of the mystery of Godliness in the 16th verse, which should be connected with the 1st verse of the next chapter, which was "God manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory," says "yet the spirit had expressly foretold, that in the latter times, (notwithstanding all this) some should depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils," or rather, as it is in the original, of Demons; that is, that there should be a departing from the faith of the assumption of Christ to the right hand of the throne of glory and incommunicable majesty in Heaven, whereby he hath a name given to him above every name, and whereof no creature in Heaven or earth can be capable. What then, is the essence of this dreadful evil, so denounced by the Spirit of God? It is the doctrine concerning demons, or demon Gods. These among the Pagans, were an inferior sort of deities, existing between the Gods and men, as mediators. Plato says, "every demon is a middle being between God and mortal men. God is not to be approached by men, but all commerce and intercourse is performed by the mediation of demons." So says Apuleius -- "Demons are middle powers, by whom both our desires and merits pass unto the Gods. They are carriers between men on earth and the Gods in Heaven, Hence of prayers, thence of gifts! Vide Park. Lexicon, title Deimonion, page 139,140. So the apostle, 1 Cor. 8 ch. 5 & 6 -- "for though there be that are called Gods, whether in Heaven or in earth, (as there are Gods many and Lords many,) but to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in

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* Wisd. of Solom. 14 ch. 12 & 27 v.

† In his first epistle to Timothy, 3 ch. 16 v. & 4 ch. 1 v.

284 THE TIME OF THE DESTRUCTION, &c.

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294 TIME OF THE DESTRUCTION OF THE POWERS.

temple of God, shewing himself that he is God." And this power of the Roman emperor as Pontifex Maximus, was that which St. Paul mentions "only he who now letteth, will let, until he be taken out of the way," as if he had said, the established power and authority of the Roman emperor, as Pontifex Maximus, will prevent the rising of the man of sin in power, till the Roman empire shall be shaken to its centre, and "then" taking advantage of that important period, "shall that wicked one be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the breath of his mouth, and shall destroy by the brightness of his coming: even him (that is the man of sin) whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all powers, and signs, and lying wonders, and with all deceiveableness of unrighteousness, in them who perish." We shall be exposed to be misled, if we do not attend to the character of the Pontifex Maximus under the Roman government; it being generally conceived by the translation into the English word High Priest, that it was the same office, as that of Priest with us. But the real signification of the word is the great sacrificer. The word Priest is a modern word, derived from the Saxon word Priester, Presbyter or Presbuteros, in the Greek, and so answers to the Presbyter or Bishop of the New Testament. But there is no officer in the Church of Christ, that comes up to the idea of a Pontifex Maximus of the ancient Pagans, whose duty it was to slay and offer continual sacrifices, and to foretel future events from the appearance of the entrails of the beasts, from whence their title was taken, and should have been translated into English, the great or chief sacrificer.

I am aware of the danger of indulging a visionary spirit in tracing and calculating times and periods, not expressly

OR, GOVERNMENT OF ROME PAGAN. 295

revealed in the Scripture: therefore in any attempt that has been made, to show when the prophesy of the witnesses in sackloth commenced, no pretensions to knowledge on this subject are presumed, farther than what is set forth by the Holy Spirit. But, as has been already observed, there are duties enjoined to be performed, and certain evil consequences to be avoided in those times called the last times, the latter times, and the last times of the latter times, it becomes therefore the duty of every Christian to inquire of their approach, while there can be no necessity of knowing absolutely the very precise moment. We have but barely looked back to facts that we know have come to pass, and have compared them with the words of prophesy, in the best manner we are capable; at the same time claiming, as has been before hinted, a great latitude and every proper indulgence for, or on account of our ignorance of precise dates of chronologic truths, the manner of reckoning time, &c. &c.

If what has been said shows sufficiently, that the purity of the Church continued but 360 or 365 years, or thereabouts, from the prophesy of St. John in 96, or 100, and that from the end of that period, to wit, about 460 till the year 500, the apostasy of the Church was completed, by the establishment of idolatry in the worship of images, saints, and angels, which is the whoredom of the Church in forsaking the true God, or rather having other mediators than the Lord Jesus. Then the time of the reign of the man of sin, or the commencement of the 1260 years, being also that of the witnesses prophesying in sackloth, follows of course, and continued till about the year 1760; and as the rise of the man of sin appears to have been progressive from 460 to 500, so, it may be supposed, his fall will also be progressive from 1760 to 1800. This

296 TIME OF THE DESTRUCTION OF THE POWERS.

may, in some measure, account for Daniel's remarkable addition of 30 days to the number of 1260, which will bring us to the year 1790. Daniel goes one step farther, and declares those peculiarly blessed, who shall live to see the end of 1335 day or years, which brings us to the year 1835, as a period of great joy and exultation. *

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* This addition of 45 years to the 1290, seems to be prefigurative of the space between the commencement and finishing the signs of the times, or the remarkable events immediately ushering in the advent of the Saviour, as the burning of Rome -- the total destruction of the man of sin -- the return of the Jews, &c. &c. -- The children of Israel were 45 years from their leaving, Egypt, to their taking actual possession of Canaan: it was about 45 years from the birth of Christ to the calling of the Gentiles.

Since writing this, I have taken up Dr. Priestly's comparison of Moses and the Hindoos, where, in page 402, he says, of Daniel's other prophesy of 2300 days or years, "that having neglected to mention the date from which it is reckoned, it ought to be accounted from the time of the vision, in like manner as the prophesy in Gen. xv. 13. of the 400 years service of the Israelites in Egypt, which was literally fulfilled, if reckoned from the time of the vision, but did not exceed 215 years, of actually dwelling, in Egypt." If this is done, he says the prophesy will end in 1760; and if the promise to Abraham, of the last return of the Jews to their own land is taken in, (or at the beginning of) the fourth generation, an) each generation to have intended 1000 years, as is contended by some able writers, then it will happen about the year 1835. And it is worthy of notice, that the angel, when communicating with Daniel, says, "these things," which he was about to reveal to him, "were noted in the Scripture of 'Truth:" the Scripture could be no other, than those parts of the Old Testament then written. Vid. Dan. x. and 21.

It is remarkable, that when the prophesy relates to the Church of Christ the period is mentioned by 1260 days, according to the measurement by the Sun, the author of light, but when it relates

OR, GOVERNMENT OF ROME PAGAN. 297

These several periods seem to be remarkably important in Daniel's prophesy, and promise to be productive of extraordinary events to the Church of Christ; and particularly to be the latter times of the last times, when the great wonders related in his prophesy will be more clearly understood by events that may then happen, when the wise shall begin to understand.

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to the Heathen emperor, or the power of the Dragon, it is mentioned by months which are governed by the moon, as ruling the night. In Daniel it is called a time, times, and half a time -- that is three years and an half, or 1260 days. The time of the Gentiles treading under foot the holy city, was to be forty and two months, equal to 1260 days. The time of the witnesses prophesying in sackloth was 1260 days. The woman fleeing into the wilderness, was to be fed 1260 days. When she fled into the wilderness from the power of the Dragon, where she was nourished for a time, times, and half a time, equal as before to 1260 days, from the face of the serpent. Power was given to the Dragon to speak great things and blasphemies, forty and two months.

The children of Israel, in passing through the wilderness, also had precisely 42 encampments, predictive of the 42 months or 1260 days of the Church or woman being in the wilderness. All these terms refer to one and the same period.

Still I would not be contentious about precise times. There is but one other construction that, in my opinion, has much weight with it -- that is the year 606, at which time the Pope was more formally vested with temporal power, though he was well established in it before -- and at the same time the impostor Mahomet appeared in the world, who might be the star falling from Heaven. The difference of time is but trifling, when considering events on so great a scale -- the necessary consequences will be the same, and mankind are equally interested in observing a conduct, highly proper in either case.

[ 298 ]

THE

STATE OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH,

DURING THIS PERIOD OF 1260 YEARS, FROM THE YEAR 500. -- PARTICULARLY WITH RESPECT TO THE PURITY OF PUBLIC WORSHIP AND ATTENTION TO THE INSTITUTIONS AND ORDINANCES OF THE GOSPEL.

IN the beginning of this century, Theodoric, the successful king of the Ostrogoths, having removed the emperor of Rome out of the way, and seized the throne, determined to settle his new government in peace, so as to render it durable in his family; he therefore did not hesitate to acknowledge the supremacy of the emperor at Constantinople, though in reality it was vox and praetrea nihil, being barely in words, and a mere pretence.

The next great object he turned his attention to, was the Bishop of Rome, whom he found best calculated to give a permanent degree of stability to the new acquired authority of the purple. This idea he formed with great judgment, on the knowledge he had of the entire subjection of the people to the authority of the bishops in general, and particularly of him who sat in the chair of St. Peter, and who they generally considered as the chief pontiff and vicar of Christ himself, and who began to assert his independence on every human power, and on whom all the other bishops were in a manner becoming dependent. Theodoric accordingly took this important engine for the accomplishment of his purposes, but oppressed

THE STATE OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH, &c. 299