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ish woe is not passed away, &c.— and before this work is done the outer court must be given to the Gentiles, and the witnesses slain."

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2. There will follow, after the outpouring of the vials, (as the author conceives,) a general spread of the Gospel. "Now there are but few that preach it in its purity, and the period is apparently arrived which Dr. Owen had in view, of whom it is reported he should say, that the time is coming, when a faithful minister would be more precious (i. e. scarce and rare) than fine gold, even than the golden wedge of Ophir." But ere long (the author adds) the gospel will have a free course, and run and be glorified. This will be when the angel-not any particular minister, as Luther, or any other, but a set of gospel ministers in the latter day, so called from their office,shall fly in the midst of heaven, discharging their office in the most public manner in the church of God," and with a commission to preach it to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people: (Rev. xiv. 6,) they will be many and will run to and fro and by this means knowledge will be increased. (Dan. x11.) The doctrines they preach are the living waters which are to go out of Jerusalem (the church) towards the former and hinder seas. (Zech. xiv. 8.) There will be large conversions in different parts of the world, and the ten kings which have been associates of antichrist shall withdraw from him, and embrace the pure gospel.† "In the Mahometan nations, the Turkish woe being past, and that empire being destroyed,

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' and way made for the gospel to be 'carried into the eastern kingdoms, great and large conversions will be made by it. There is a most glaring prophecy of this in Isa. LX. 7, 'which whole chapter concerns the spiritual and personal reign of Christ; All the flocks of Kedar 'shall be gathered together unto thee, the rams of Nebaioth shall minister 'unto thee; they shall come up with acceptance on mine altar, and I will 'glorify the house of my glory. Now Kedar and Nebaioth were the sons of Ishmael, (Gen. xxv. 13,) who 'settled in Arabia, the country now possessed by the Turks." Moreover in all pagan countries the gospel will make its way (Isa. xxv. 7,) and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven shall be given to the saints of the Most High (Isa. LX. XLIX. Ps. LXXII. Dan. vII.) Not that there will be any change or alteration in the form and order of civil government; for it will not be until the personal reign of Christ that all rule, authority and power will be put down. (1 Cor. xv. 24.)

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But I must not forget the conversion of the Jews, who have been preserved a distinct people for so many hundreds of years for this purpose: the conversion of these will be sudden and all of them together. (Isa. LXVI. 8.) It looks as if their conversion would be like that of the apostle Paul, and he seems to hint that he was a pattern (προς ὑποτυTwo) of it in 1 Tim. 1. 16. Be this as it may "all Israel shall be converted and saved; " (Rom. xi. 26) of which there is a famous prophecy in Hos. III. 4, 5; which is to take

* He therefore must in this instance have expected the forty two months of Rev. XI. 2, to be literally fulfilled. How else could its treading down for 1260 years be future? ED.

+ We see a falling away from the pope and from Romish institutions of some of these powers but alas! it is to infidelity rather than to "the pure gospel." We must wait for the Millennial era before we can expect to see these events, or those which he immediately afterwards describes as affecting Turkey and the heathen, fulfilled. ED.

place in the latter days, or the spiritual reign of Christ, as is hinted at in Rev. 111. 9; and then great will be the day of Jezreel. (Hos. 1. 2.)

He considers that there will also be at this time a large effusion of the Holy Spirit; and that Acts 11. 17—— 20 was only partly fulfilled at Pentecost; but that in the spiritual reign the Lord will pour water out of his bucket, and his seed shall be in many waters. (Numb. xxiv. 7.)

To this period he likewise fixes many of those texts, commonly referred to the Millennium and personal reign; (as Isa. LIV. 11-13; Rev. XI. 19; Isa. XI. 13; Ezek, xxvIII. 24; Zech. XIV. 20, 21; Ps. LXXII. 7; Isa. XI. 9; LX. 18,) so that there will be great light of the gospel, great purity of gospel worship, great prevalence of holiness, and great peace and prosperity.*

3. He next however proceeds to describe the glorious things which are spoken of and will be done in the personal reign of Christ.

Towards the close of the spiritual reign things will be on the decline; the Laodicean church-state will take place; men will be boasting and bragging of their works and gifts, supposing themselves rich and increased with goods and needing nothing; and the wise, as well as the foolish virgins, will slumber as the approach of the bridegroom is near : immorality and profaneness will again overspread the world, as in the days of Lot and Noah; and in this condition will Christ find the

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Church.t There will then be a glorious appearing of the Son of God, who will himself personally descend; (1 Thess. IV. 16;) every eye shall see him; (Rev. 1. 7;) and he will stand on the Mount of Olives, (Zech. xiv. 4,) on that spot from whence he ascended to heaven. (Acts. 1.2,9—12.) “Job seems to have this descent of his in view when he says He shall stand in the latter day upon the earth;" which seems to respect not so much his first coming, as his second; since it is connected with the resurrection of the dead." He refers to this event and its attendant circumstances, Tit. II. 3, Luke 1x. 26, and says that he will be attended with his holy angels, "whom he will employ in one kind of service or another, and who will make a considerable figure in this apparatus: to which may be added that all the saints will come along with Christ-the souls of all that have departed from the beginning of the world, who will rise together with their bodies." (Luke xiv. 14; Rev. xx. 5, 6; Phil. III. 21; 1 Cor. xv, 14-44; Matt. XIII. 44.) After this will the living saints be changed.

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This is the mystery the apostle says he would show the Corinthians; and perhaps he was the first man that was led into it, or at least the first that shewed to others, that we shall not all sleep or die, but we shall all be changed." (1 Cor. xv. 51.)-" I have sometimes thought that that change which passes upon the saints at the time I speak of,

* Dr. Rudd, a contemporary dissenting minister, divided the 75 years between the destruction of the beast and the personal coming of Christ thus-30 years for the conversion of the Jews, and 45 years for the spiritual reign. ED.

The author has apparently been deceived by what is said of the spread of the gospel in Rev. XIV. 6, 7 ; not perceiving that that preaching is not to follow the judgment on the beast, but to announce it; and thus he has confounded together the calling out of the election, and the consequent spiritual revival previous to the coming of the Son of man, with the universal prevalence of that gospel which is to follow on it. Making allowance for this, his view of the subject is remarkable, and has been strikingly fulfilled; and is fulfilling (we fear) now, by security, declension, hollowness and deadness in multitudes of professors.-ED.

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when hearts so full of sinful lust and pollution and wickednes will be at once cleared of all, is a greater evidence and display of the power of God, than the change that passes upon their bodies.—This being done these changed living saints shall be caught up together with the raised ones to meet the Lord in the air; (1 Thess. Iv. 17,) where it seems as if he and they should stop awhile, until an after event is accomplished."

This is the general conflagration (2 Pet. 1. 7, 10,) when there will succeed new heavens and a new earth, (2 Pet. III. 13, Rev. xxi. 1,) in which the Lord will display his glory. To this period he also refers, Isa. LX. 21, and Rev. xx. 6. During the thousand years will this state continue;-for so long will Satan be bound;-for so long will the saints live and reign with Christ. But at the close of these years Satan will be loosed again, and the wicked dead will be raised, which with the whole posse of devils will make the Gog and Magog army, 'who shall be in the four quarters of the world, and go upon the 'breadth of the earth; and whose ' number shall be as the sand of the sea, being all the wicked that have 'been from the beginning of the world, a large army indeed, such a one as never was before, con'sisting of enraged devils, and of men raised with all that malice and wickedness they died in, with Sa'tan at the head of them; by whom

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they will be animated to make this last feeble and foolish effort, for

their recovery and liberty; in or ́der to which they will compass the camp of the saints about the 'beloved city; who will be in no manner of pain or uneasiness at the appearance of this seeming, formidable army; being clothed with immortality, secured by the 'power of God, and Christ being in

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This will issue in the ultimate glory; when the saints shall be for ever with the Lord; " but my intention being only to give you an account of the glorious things that shall be in the spiritual and personal reign of Christ, here I stop, observing-that all this shews that the Church and people of God are the objects of his love ;-that the church of Christ is lasting and durable and cannot be destroyed;—and seeing such glorious things are spoken of it, and that by the Lord, we should not doubt but believe, that there will be a performance of them; and we should be looking for them; and when things are at the worst, should lift up our hands with joy; since our redemption draweth nigh."

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Happy are those that belong 'to this city, who are fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the 'household of God; whose citizen'ship is in heaven, and they have a

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Original Essays.

ON THE PROPHETICAL CHARACTER OF THE PSALMS.

No. II.

PSALM II. Verses 1-3. Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed, [or CHRIST;] saying,-Let us break their bonds asunder, and cast away their cords [or yoke, see Septg.] from us.

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Here is further declared the character and tendency of that counsel of the ungodly," spoken of in v. 1 of the previous Psalm : it leads to the denial of the Father and the Son,the very character of the Antichrist of the last times mentioned by St. John : 66 He is Antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son." And from what follows-" whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father,"-it seems that many of these will not proceed to the length of atheism, denying God altogether; but like the Socinian or Unitarian, they deny the mystical and hypostatic union of the two; to do which betrays that they have not the Father.

from all religious bonds. A specimen has been given already, in a neighbouring nation, at the breaking out of the French Revolution; and the spirit manifested by many of our senators on the bill for the better observance of the Sabbath, and the shrinking from the subject of many others, shews how little the rulers or legislators of this country are in general disposed to submit to the bonds of Christ, to take his yoke upon them, and to learn of him.

We know further, that this dislike of the yoke will at last grow to a "rage" against godliness; that they will proceed to kill the witnesses of God; r (some think they are already killed, but I cannot fully concur in the opinion;) and make war on the Lamb.s

vv. 4, 5. But they imagine a vain thing-" He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath and vex them in his sore displeasure."

It is the character of the last day apostasy, that though the ungodly, who abet and promote it, will cause much inconvenience to the saints, and much evil to prevail in the world for a time, yet they shall not succeed; but as the Lord will make a short work upon the earth,t so will he speedily make manifest their folly unto all men." He will expose the absurdity of their plans and principles, making them a derision; and instead of their procuring that happiness and that liberty to mankind, s Rev. xvII. 14; xix. 19. t Rom. ix. 28. u 2 Tim. III. 9.

Acts iv. 25, shews, that there has been a primary fulfilment of this Psalm at the first Advent in the unnatural union of the Gentile and Jewish rulers, the apostate Herod and the infidel Pilate,—against the holy child Jesus. But the context shews, that there is to be a further fulfilment; and a time is to come when "the nations are to be angry" against Christ, and will rage against him, becoming impatient of his yoke, and endeavouring to break away q 1 John II. 22. r Rev. XI.

which they promise to them, the Lord will bring upon them and their followers distress and perplexity, vexing them with various judgments, brought on by the influence of their own principles, especially the sword; and likewise visiting them with pestilence and those other chastisements, which are the usual tokens of God's speaking in wrath.

But chiefly will they be foiled in the attempt to extirpate Christianity. Many are not aware at present, that they are fighting against God in this matter. They do not purpose to deny either the Father or the Son; they are moved only by hostility to the prevalence of particular forms of christianity. But in their measures they are confederated with those who do not disguise their enmity to religion altogether; and these "evil communications will corrupt the good manners' of those who are not rooted or grounded in the faith, and lead them into a conviction, (at which many have arrived already,) that the fertile source of strife and animosity in the world, is the religion of Christ. Some will tolerate a sort of Deism or natural religion (as they call it ;) but not the divinity, neither the priesthood and atonement of Christ. Others will become practically Atheists; not indeed in all instances actually denying God, (for many will maintain the "form of godliness ;"w) but in works they will deny him ; and practically, by throwing him out of consideration in all their counsel," say in their heart that there is no God."y

v. 6. Yet have I set my KING upon my holy hill of Zion.

It has been observed, under the last two verses, that some will not endure the priesthood of Christ: the

verses now under consideration lead to the further inference, that there will likewise have grown up a special dislike to Christ's claim of regal power. For here he is called king : and the expression,-" Yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Zion,"-obliquely intimates to us, that there will be opposition to his royalty; but that in spite of the rage of men against him, he shall nevertheless be established as head over the Church in his Melchizedec character of King and Priest; for the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David ;a and he shall be manifested in glory as " King of Salem.'"

It is remarkable, that the hostility of "last day murmurers and complainers,"b is especially directed against Christ in his two-fold character of king and priest; they hate all those, who as kings and priests on earth are types and representatives of his majesty, standing as anointed ones before him; "They are not afraid to speak evil of dignities,"d but bring railing accusations against them; and as they act upon the principle in religion, that all men ought to be left to follow their own notions and opinions, and spurn the authority of the priesthood, so do they act upon the principle in politics, that the people are the only legitimate source of power, and that kings are but their ministers and servants. Thus they aim only to have those as rulers and ministers who will comply with this levelling and infidel principle, and over whom they can practically assert the sovereignty and majesty of the people, and thus become really the rulers and kings.*

In addition however to the asv Luke XXI. 25. w 2 Tim. III. 5. x Tit. I. 16. y Ps. XIV, 1; LIII. 1. a Luke 1. 31. b Jude XVI. c Isa. XLV. 1; Numb. III. 3; 1 Sam. xxvI. 9; Zech. IV. 14. d 2 Pet. II. 10; Jude 8.

* See this point well set forth by a writer on this Psalm in the Investigator, Vol. IV. p. 41.

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