will terminate, and the proper kingdom of Christ will commence, he himself did not know, either before his death and refurrection, or afterwards. When he was queftioned on the subject, he expressly faid, Mark xiii. 32, But of that day, and that hour, 'knoweth no man, no not the angels which are in ' heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.' When, after his refurrection, the disciples asked him, saying, Acts i. 6, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Ifrael?' he replied, 'It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.' It is enough for us to know the certainty of these great events, that our faith may not fail on the approach of the predicted calamity, confident that it will have the happiest iffue in God's own time. For the fame Being who foretold the evil which we shall see come to pass, has likewife foretold the good that is to follow it.

That the second coming of Chrift will be coincident with the commencement of the millennium, or the future peaceable and happy ftate of the world (which, according to all the prophecies, will take place after the restoration of the Jews) is evident from what Peter said, in his addrefs to the Jews, on the occafion of his healing the lame man at the gate of the temple, Acts iii. 19. Repent ye, therefore, ⚫ and be converted, that your fins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the prefence of the Lord. And he shall fend Jefus

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Chrift, who before was preached unto you, whom the heavens muft receive until the times of the ⚫ restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by

the mouth of all his holy prophets fince the world 'began.' Now nothing is more evident than that the only period that can be called the time of the reftitution of all things, or the paradifiacal and happy state of the world, foretold by the antient prophets, will follow the restoration of the Jews to their own country. This, and nothing elfe, is the great burden of all antient prophecy.

That this will be a joyful event to the Jewish nation, when they will be convinced, perhaps by his perfonal appearance among them, that he is their promised Meffiah, actually coming in the clouds of heaven, appears from what our Saviour himself says, Mat. xxi. 9. Luke xiii. 35. Verily I fay unto you,

ye fhall not fee me until the time come when ye 'fhall fay, Bleffed is he that cometh in the name of

the Lord;' the very cry at which the Scribes and Pharifees were fo much offended in the children, when Jefus entered Jerufalem. This very cry would then be that of the whole nation.

But though our Saviour could not fix the time of his fecond coming, or the commencement of his proper kingdom, he sufficiently forewarned his disciples of the figns of its approach, and of fome circumstances that will immediately precede it, to which it certainly behoves us to be attentive.

Before this great event the gofpel is to be preach

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ed to all the world. Mat. xxiv. 4. And this gospel of the kingdom fhall be preached through all the ' world, for a witnefs to all nations, and then fhall the ' end come.' If by the whole world, we mean the Roman empire, this was accomplished before the destruction of Jerufalem, and therefore may refer to that event. But it may have a farther reference, and now there is hardly any nation that has not had an opportunity of having the gospel preached to them; and the late wonderful extenfion of navigation, by which the whole of the habitable world has been explored by Christians, though this was by no means the object of the navigators, will, no doubt, be the means of carrying the knowledge of the gospel to a greater extent than ever; and the troubles of Europe will greatly contribute to the fame end. Times of trouble make men ferious. With thefe ferious impreffions on their minds many will fly to diftant countries, and carry the knowledge of the gofpel with them; and, it may be hoped, in greater purity, and confequently more worthy of their acceptance, than it has hitherto appeared to them,

Another preceding event, and of a more definite kind, is the great prevalence of infidelity, Luke 'xviii. 8. When the Son of Man cometh, fhall he find faith in the earth. Now the prevalence of infidelity of late years has been very remarkable in all countries in which antichriftian hierarchies have been eftablifhed. And certainly all civil establishments of Chriftianity, in which power is claimed to prescribe articles

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articles of faith, to make laws to bind the confciences of Chriftians, and inflict temporal punishments for the violation of them, are properly antichriftian. For, as Chriftians, we are commanded to acknowledge no man master upon earth, fince one is our mafter, even Christ.

Moreover, fuch abfurd doctrines have been eftablished by human authority, and fuch horrid punishments have been inflicted upon men for obeying the dictates of conscience, under all those hierarchies, proteftant ones not excepted, that the minds of men have revolted at them; and, fhocked at fuch enormities, have thrown off the belief and profeffion of Chriftianity altogether. This was long ago the cafe in Italy, where the enormities of the court of Rome were the most confpicuous; and many of the cardinals, and fome of the popes themselves, are well known to have been unbelievers.

That this has long been the cafe in France, is what no perfon acquainted with that country the last fifty years will deny. It is now become more generally known, because it has had a better opportunity of fhewing itself. That, in fimilar circumstances, the fame, or fomething approaching to it, would not appear to be the cafe with us, is more than those who are acquainted with the state of things in this refpect will vouch for.

When I was myfelf in France in 1774, I faw fufficient reason to believe, that hardly any person of eminence, in church or ftate, and especially in the leaft degree eminent in philofophy, or literature, (whofe

(whofe opinions in all countries are, fooner or later, adopted by others) were believers in Christianity and no perfon will fuppofe that there has been any change in favour of Christianity in the last twenty years. A perfon, I believe now living, and one of the best informed men in the country, affured me, very gravely, that (paying me a compliment) I was the first person he had ever met with, of whofe understanding he had any opinion, who pretended to believe Christianity. To this all the company affented. And not only were the philosophers, and other leading men in France, at that time unbelievers in Christianity, or deifts, but atheists, denying the being of a God. Nay Voltaire himself, who was then living, was confidered by them as a weak-minded man, because, though an unbeliever in revelation, he believed in a God.

When I asked these gentlemen what it was that appeared to them fo incredible in Chriftianity, that they rejected it without farther examination (for they did not pretend to have employed much time on the fubject) they mentioned the doctrines of tranfubftantiation, and the trinity, as things too palpably abfurd to require any difcuffion. It is, without doubt, the civil establishment of fuch Chriftianity as this, at which the common fenfe of mankind will ever revolt, that makes fo many unbelievers of perfons who will not take the trouble to read the fcriptures for themfelves, or who have not fagacity or patience to fee through the falfe gloffes that have been so long put