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Lord; that the Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished; "that the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and obey not the gospel of his Son, who shall be punished with an everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and the glory of his power;" and that the wicked shall depart or go away into everlasting fire and punishment, where their worm dieth not and their fre is not quenched; and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever. O reader, if thou hast been deluded with the unscriptural idea, that all men will be saved from wrath and endless perdition, I beseech thee to flee from that sandy foundation, and build upon the rock of ages, by repentance towards God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

6th. In reflecting on the foregoing treatise, we are brought to the conclusion, that it will grow more and more difficult for mankind to enter into the temple of the Lord, or to become truly pious, until the mystery of God shall be finished. So we see the folly of procrastinating the day of repentance and of turning to the Lord. The present time and opportunity should be most diligently improved. The three unclean spirits, like frogs, have gone out unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them together unto the battle of the great day. A flood of wickedness and ungodliness seems ready to deluge the earth; the current grows stronger and stronger, and we shall find it more and more laborious to resist its influence-when almost every one seems carried away with the spirit of the world, how difficult it seems for an individual or few, to make their way heavenward. O that sinners would remember that now is the accepted time; that now is the day of salvation-that now there are some Christians who appear to be anxious for the salvation of their souls, and are ready to do all in their power in order to lead them to Christ; but that the time will probably short

ly come, when the saints of God shall no longer have a spirit of prayer for them, those fearful words being then applicable to their case-"Ephraim is joined to his idols, let him alone!" Judgments without grace, will never soften the hearts of the unregenerate, and it is a lamentable state to be in, to experience present afflictions and judgments, and yet be looking forward for greater, without feeling moved to repentance. It seems to be a kind of prelibation of hell and final impenitence; O reader, if God is yet waiting to be gracious to your soul, if the arms of his mercy are yet extended to receive you, if saints and ministers are yet praying for you and exhorting you to come to Christ, "upon your peril don't forbear, lest hell should be your doom!!"

7th. The foregoing treatise, if it be correct, is calculated to support and comfort the children of God at this present gloomy, trying time. Now Zion is almost ready to say the Lord has forsaken me-things are in a bad state, and appear to be daily growing worse; we can hardly lift up the hands which hang down and support the feeble knees-many who once run well, and bid fair for heaven, now linger on the plains, and not a few have manifestly turned back again to the beggarly elements of the world. How the hearts of faithful ministers are pained to see their prospects blasted, and their labour as water spilt upon the ground. O what a melancholy spectacle; what an affecting scene. O that my head were waters, mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people.

But notwithstanding the present gloomy, distressing and heart-sickening circumstances, connected with the state of the church, the Christian has great reason to rejoice in anticipation of better times-the time is evidently not far distant when a change for the better shall take place in the world, yea, such a change as never yet has been. If it shall be the case that the seventh vial shall be poured out, and the battle at the

great day of God Almighty take place within the period of the 1260 years, then it is not at all improbable that many who have now embraced religion, will live to see the accomplishment of that dreadful display of the wrath of God and the subsequent introduction of the glorious Millennium. And if indeed it should be as Mr. Faber* and others suppose the

* Mr. Faber's ideas are in his own words, "At the close of the 42 months, the judgments ofGod will begin to go forth against him [the beast]; and he is then considered, if I may use the expression, as dead in law, although some time will elapse before he is finally slain. There is reason to believe from Daniel, that this time, which he styles the time of the end, which is the period of God's great controversy with the nations, and which synchronizes with the last vial, will occupy a space of at least 30 years. (See Dan. xii. 11, 12.) Indeed the whole time of the end seems to occupy a space of 75 years." And again he observes,

:

"I have stated that the restoration of Judah will commence at the close of the 1260 years, and have intimated it to be probable that it will not be completely effected till a period of 30 additional years shall likewise have expired. This conjecture is founded upon a remarkable chronological passage in the book of Daniel. The prophet teaches us, that 75 years will intervene between the expiration of the 1260 years and the commencement of the Millennium: and these 75 years he divides, without specifying any reason for such a division, into 30 years and 45 years. What particular event will happen at the era of the division, we undoubtedly cannot determine with any degree of certainty; because Daniel has left it wholly undetermined but we must conclude, that the point of the division will be marked by some signal event; otherwise how can we rationally account for its having been made? Now, when we find by comparing prophecy with prophecy, that the restoration of Judah will precede the restoration of Israel, and that the restoration of Israel will not even so much as commence till the restoration of at least the main body of Judah is com. pleted, and till the power of anti-christ is broken; it is at least highly probable, that the 30 years will be occupied in the conversion and restoration of Judah, in the great earthquake or political convulsion that divides the Latin empire into three parts, in the wars of anti-christ with the kings of the South and the North, in his grand expedition against Palestine and Egypt, and in the contemporary naval expedition of the mari. time power undertaken for the purpose of bringing back the

case, that the seventh vial will be poured out after the end of the 1260 years, it will be but about forty years before the battle of the great day will commence, and in a few years will be finished the awful catastrophe of the vintage of the earth-so that at any rate the time of Zion's deliverance is near at hand. And shall we not rejoice in it, although we do not live on earth to realize it? Abraham rejoiced in view of this day, thousands of years ago, and surely Christians now manifest an unwarrantable degree of selfishness and destitution of interest for the good of others, not to be interested in this scene. How anx

ious many worldlings are to heap up perishable riches for their children and grand-children, but how much greater consolation it should be to Christians of the present age, that their children or children's children, at farthest, may witness, live in and be partakers of that blessed day, when the righteousness of Jeconverted Jews; that the thirty years will close with the complete overthrow of anti-christ in the valley of Megiddo, an event than which one cannot conceive one better calculated to mark a signal chronological epoch, and that the 45 years will be employed in the wanderings of those who escaped from the rout of the anti-christian army, and who will carry every where the tidings of God's supernatural interference, and in the subsequent conversion and restoration of the whole house of Israel. I wish this to be understood only as a conjecture; for it would be folly to speak positively before the event.

"When the 45 years shall have expired, when the whole family of Jacob shall have been converted and restored, and when the stick of Judah shall have united itself forever with the stick of Joseph; then will commence the season of millennial blessedness."

I have transcribed these remarks here, that the reader might have a full view at once of the commentator's ideas respecting the time of the commencement of the Millennium; but the reader will observe at the same time, that he wishes not to be understood to speak positively; so also I would beg to be understood. The candid enquirer after truth can compare what is written with the divine oracles, and if he finds any thing incompatible with this infallible test, it is to be hoped that it will be pardoned as an unintentional mistake, and not a wilful or careless misrepresentation.

rusalem shall break forth as the morning, and her salvation as a lamp that burneth. "Then shall the earth yield her increase; and God even our own God shall bless us." "Then shall he give the rain of thy seed, that thou shalt sow the ground withal, and bread of the increase of the earth, and it shall be fat and plenteous: In that day shall thy cattle feed in large pastures. The oxen likewise, and the young asses that eat the ground shall eat clear provender, which hath been winnowed with the shovel and with the fan. And the inhabitants shall not say I am sick. And they shall build houses and inhabit them: and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labour in vain nor bring forth for trouble: For they are the seed of the blessed of the Lord and their offspring with them." They shall sit every man under his vine, and under his fig tree, and none shall make him afraid. The seed shall be prosperous, the vine shall give her fruit, and the ground shall give her increase, and the heavens shall give their dew, and I will cause the remnant of this people to possess all things."*O happy day, when swords shall be beaten into ploughshares, and spears into pruning hooks, and the nations of the earth shall learn war no more--when peace and prosperity, righteousness and holiness shall pervade the universal world, and all kindreds of the earth shall call Jesus blessed. O Christians, lift up your heads and rejoice, your redemption draweth nigh -the night is far spent, the day is at hand Zion will soon leave the wilderness leaning on the breast of her beloved Saviour, appearing bright as the sun, clear as the moon, and terrible as an army with ban

ners.

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"Comfort ye, comfort ye my people saith your God, speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her * See pages 103 and 104.

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