Poetry. THE END OF THE DAY. COME, for thy day, thy wasted day is closing, With all its joy and sun; Bright, loving hours have pass'd thee by unheeded; And all thy race unrun. Folly and pleasure hast thou still been chasing With the world's giddy throng, Beauty and love have been thy golden idols; And thou hast rush'd along, Still list'ning to their song! Sorrow and weeping thou hast cast behind thee, For what were tears to thee? Life was not life without the smile and sunshine; Did wisdom seem to be. Unclasp, O man, the syren hand of pleasure, Let the gay folly go! A few quick years will bring the unwelcome ending; To endless joy, or woe? Clasp a far truer hand-a kinder, stronger, Of Him the crucified; Let in a deeper love into thy spirit, The love of Him who died, And now is glorified! NOTICE. All readers of this Journal are most earnestly besought to give it room in their prayers; that by means of it God may be honoured and His truth advanced; also, that it may be conducted in faith and love, with sobriety of judgment and discernment of the truth, in nothing carried away into error, or hasty speech, or sharp unbrotherly disputation. BALLANTYNE AND COMPANY, PRINTERS, EDINBURGH. THE QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF PROPHECY. OCTOBER 1859. ART. I.-A PURITAN'S PROPHETICAL CREED.* "In the beginning of this chapter (Zech. xiv.) there is a prophecy that Jerusalem, after it is rebuilt, and the people of the Jews restored to it (as is promised, i. 16, and viii. 3, 4, 5), * We give as an article the following pamphlet, now nearly two hundred years old. Its title is, "The Doctrine of the Kingdom and Personal Reign of Christ, Asserted and Explained in an Exposition upon Zech. xiv. 5, 9. By Ed. Bagshaw. 1669." For a notice of Bagshaw, see Orme's "Life of Baxter," pp. 598-603. We give the author's preface : "I am not ignorant, Christian reader, that the doctrine of the personal reign of Christ, with His saints upon earth (which thou wilt find asserted in the following treatise), is commonly entertained with very great prejudice; the Scriptures, which in plain terms affirm this (and which I have indeavoured to restore unto their true meaning), being ordinarily interpreted in a sense quite contrary to their literal import and significancy; which kind of exposition (under the notion of being misterious and spiritual) having held for many ages, and been embraced, without any further enquiry, by men of the greatest eminence for holiness and learning, even among those of the Reformed religion; together with the tragical disorders occasioned in Germany by such, who in words asserted the reign of Christ, but indeed, under that pretence, indeavoured to set up and establish their own. This hath ever since made the true meaning of the Scripture prophecies, in this matter, to be suspected either of novelty, or else of some design to subvert all civil government; which men, out of their impatience of subjection being naturally apt to throw off, they may be supposed much more easily ready to be incited to it, if they shall be brought to think that they do hereby God and His Christ good service, in attempting to set up His kingdom, exalting themselves, as the robbers in the Jewish nation did (Dan. xi. 14), to establish the vision. "In answer to all these exceptions and prejudices which it is not strange that the truth is attended and received with, no more then that the sun doth ordinarily arise in a cloud, I have this to say briefly, that neither prescription of time, nor authority of persons, nor the error of unstable men, should so shall by their enemies be besieged and taken (ver. 1). Presently after which desolation, the Lord himself will come down from heaven and destroy those nations (ver. 3 and 5). 66 6 Jehovah, or the Lord, whose coming is here spoken of, is no other then the Lord Christ, or God Man, the second person in the Godhead, who is called the 'Branch' (vi. 12, 13); so named, either because he sprung from the stock of Jesse,' as a branch doth from the root of a tree, which is intimated (Isa. xi. 1, 10; Jer. xxiii. 5), and so used by our Saviour (Rev. xxii. 16); or else the Hebrew (here translated branch) may be rendred, as it is by the Greek interpreters, 'AvaToλn-i.e., morning-rise, or day-spring; which very word is used by Zechariah, in his prophetick song concerning our Saviour (Luke i. 78), with allusion to which phrase the apostle saith (Heb. vii. 14), 'It is manifest our Lord sprang (Greek, 'Avaтeтaλкe-i. e., arose as light) out of Judah." To Christ, in both these capacities, for He is not only the Branch of Righteousness' (Jer. xxxiii. 15), but also the Sun of Righteousness,' as He is stiled (Mal. iv. 2), there is a throne and supreme dominion promised, both in that 6th of Zechariah, and more expressly in Dan. vii. 13, 14, where He is called the Son of Man,' which name (as I think principally with reference to that prophecy of Daniel) was by our Saviour, all the while He conversed upon earth, most commonly used; and that we might not doubt but it is the same far prepossess and fill our minds as to make us shut them up against the impression and entrance of Divine truth, which, like the light, shines sometimes more, sometimes less, according as it receives fainter or more vigorous influences from the Spirit of God, its Fountain; and it can be nothing at last but a resolved and peremptory love of darkness, which will deny it admittance, by what imperfect medium soever it be conveighed. The first inquiry, therefore, by persons sincerely desirous of true knowledge, should be to learn whether this state of things (which I have undertaken from the Scriptures to demonstrate) be indeed revealed by God or not, for then His words in this as well as in other misteries must be received according to their plainest sense, in spight both of our own and others' pretendedly rational contradictions. And whoever are impartial and unbiassed in this enquiry, reading the Scriptures in their own light and evidence, and not viewing them through the false perspectives, which customary expositions have made for them, I believe they will be forced to confess that they are not capable of any other interpretation, but what the prophets and godly Jews before, the disciples in, and the Primitive Church, for about three hundred years after our Saviour's time, did understand them in. What that is I have here faithfully and plainly delivered, and as to myself, I can say with the apostle, 'I believed, therefore I spake;' so as to others I thought the truth to be of that importance, and withal the time of its accomplishment so near, that I was easily prevailed with, by publishing this small treatise, to do my duty in stirring up others to a more severe and strict examining and study of the Scriptures then commonly they are accustomed to. I have no more to add, but to recommend it to the blessing of God, who can make small and contemptible means instrumental for the effecting of the greatest works." person who suffered then, that is spoken of to come and to reign here, mention is made (ver. 4) of His descent upon Mount Olivet, which was a place where our Saviour, whilst He was upon earth, did much converse. Upon the Mount of Olives He sate when He foretold the destruction of Jerusalem, and His own coming which was to follow, after the dispersion of the Jews was fully accomplished (Mark xiii. 3). Upon this mount He began His sufferings, feeling here that anguish and grief of spirit which made Him sweat drops of blood (Luke xxii. 39). From hence 'He ascended up to heaven' (Acts i. 9, 12), and hither, according to the angel's promise, is He to come down in the same manner' (ver. 11). The fulfilling of which promise, and the glory which shall follow upon it, is in this place of Zechariah prophecied of. “Two observations are clear in the words. "First, That the Lord Christ will come in person, and take to himself the monarchy or soveraign dominion over the whole earth. "Secondly, That when the Lord Christ comes to reign upon earth, all His saints shall come with Him. "The first observation is, That the Lord Christ shall come in person, and take to Himself the monarchy or soveraign dominion over the whole earth. This coming of Christ, which is His coming to reign upon earth, however it is now decried and spoken against by many, yet (as I shall anon prove) it was the firm and constant belief of almost all the primitive Church, for above three hundred years together after our Saviour's time, and it is evidently prophecied of, not only in this, but in several other scriptures. As, "1. Isa. ix. 6, 7. The Son, who is there said to be 'given to us'-i. e., to the Jews. The government likewise is said to be laid upon His shoulder, of which government there is to be no end, and the exercise thereof is to be, in a visible way of administration, upon the throne of David to order and to establish it which is in effect to say, that the Son there prophecied of shall become a king, and rule His subjects in a visible manner as David did, unto which prophecy the angel, in express words, alludes (Luke i. 32, 33). And this was so understood, as I have explained it, by all those who acknowledged Christ to be the Son of David, or, the King of Israel,' as our Saviour is called (John i. 49). And that confession of Nathanael is owned by our Saviour to be an effect of his faith (ver. 50). And when our Saviour went up to Jerusalem, that solemn acclamation signified no less, when the multitude cried out, Blessed is the kingdom which cometh in the name of the 6 Lord, (the kingdom) of our father David' (Mark xi. 10), whereby they plainly intimate, that they did then at that time expect (and the Evangelist Luke doth, in express words, declare so much, xix. 11) that the kingdom of God (the kingdom which God had promised to one of the posterity of David) should appear, or be made manifesti.e., be then set up and visibly administered in its glory-which, though as to the time, it was not so suddenly to be established as they expected, yet, as to the thing itself, they were not at all mistaken, for our Saviour doth there intimate that He would come in person and destroy His enemies (Luke xix. 27), which is the first preparatory work to the setting up of His kingdom; and afterwards the Evangelist John doth, in a vision, see the actual completion of this, when, upon the sounding of the seventh trumpet, he heard loud voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of the world are become the kingdoms of the Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever' (Rev. xi. 15), which place, comparing it with Rev. x. 7, shows that this was nothing else but a finishing of that mistery of God, which, in all the preceding ages, He had declared by His servants the prophets. Hence it is that, after His victorious and final subduing of His enemies, John sees the Lord Christ attired with a tryumphant robe, and upon it this regal inscription, King of kings, and Lord of lords' (Rev. xix. 16), which is the name that was given to Nebuchadnezzar, the head of the first monarchy (Dan. ii. 37), and is afterwards, upon a much better title, given to Christ when He hath actually made himself the visible head of the fifth and last, for which reason it is called 'a new name' (Rev. iii. 12). 6 "2. Another place wherein the visible and personal reign of Christ is prophecied of is Isa. xi. 1-10, where Christ is called 'a Rod out of the stem of Jesse,' and of Him it is said, that He should bear rule over the nations unto whom they should seek or submit themselves (according to that in Gen. xlix. 10, Unto him shall the obedience of the nations be'). The graces wherewith He should be indued for government are mentioned (ver. 2, 3), together with His actual ruling, judging, and governing according to them (ver. 4); where, to smite the earth with the sword of His mouth is not (as it is commonly understood) barely to convince the world by preaching, but to conquer it by power, as it is particularly expressed (Rev. xix. 13-15); which likewise is principally intended in that excellent song, Ps. xlv. 3-5-the riding, girding on the sword, conquering and subduing of enemies, there spoken of, being only the preparatory work unto the setting up of the |