This

happiness of the new Christian world. space of time, when viewed in perspective, appears to us a long one; but to the high and lofty One inhabiting eternity, 'tis but as yesterday. Mankind, during this happy era, there is good reason to conclude, will be blessed with abundance not only of spiritual, but of temporal blessings (though they still will have to combat with the lusts of a tainted nature, and the pride of life.) "For it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths; for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people. And they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the Lord.” Isaiah ii. 3—5.) "And the Spirit shall be poured upon you from on high, and the wilderness shall be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest. Then judgment shall dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness remain in the fruitful field. And the work of rightcousness shall be peace, and the effect of righteous

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ness quietness and assurance for ever. people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting-places." (xxxii. 15-18.) Every man shall sit under his vine and under his fig-tree, and none shall make them afraid; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." (Micah iv. 4.)

But notwithstanding these transcendent blessings, spiritual and temporal, there is much reason to fear, from the sure word of prophecy, that the blessed fruit of faith will become again much adulterated. After the lapse of centuries, and mankind have been familiarised to the incontestable evidence to the truth of the Christian religion, demonstrated by the calling in of the Jews, together with an uninterrupted series of temporal prosperity, Jeshurun again will kick, and iniquity abound, proving that a long continuation of worldly happiness was not designed for man; lusts will war in his members, and bring forth wars and fightings.* (James iv. 1.) "Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places;" (judgments effected by natural causes, though brought to pass by miraculous interference, to awaken mankind from out of the sins into which

*The prophecy just inserted, and which declares that they shall learn war no more, must mean, we conceive, during that happy era, when Satan will be bound up for a thousand years; as the predictions are very clear as to the period immediately preceding the end of the world being filled with wars and rumours of wars.

they had relapsed :) "all these are the beginning of sorrows. Then shall they deliver you up, our blessed Redeemer adds, "to be afflicted, and shall kill you; and ye shall be hated of all nations, for the Saviour's sake;" and then shall many be offended, and their love wax cold. They shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And at this melancholy juncture, it is highly probable, that the evidences of the truth of that religion, in the belief and practice of which their ancestors so long had prospered, will be again confirmed by miraculous attestation; because in the next verse it is said, that many false prophets should arise: and in verse 24th, that there would arise false Christs, as well as false prophets; and that they should show great signs and wonders, insomuch that, if it were possible, they would deceive the very elect, even those righteous persons, whom God by his foreknowledge knew would stand the ordeal of these trying days.

And immediately subsequent unto this tribulation, we know that the world will be visited with supernatural appearances. The common laws of nature, no longer supported by him who had ordained them, will cease to fulfil their functions.

The sun will be darkened, the moon of consequence will cease to give her light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven, and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn;" (Matt. xxiv;) all those that have apostatised from religion, in faith and in practice; "for as the days of Noe were,

so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” In the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying, and giving in marriage, sunk in luxury and sensuality; so will they be again, when Christ comes to judge the world. And as we know with certainty, that the great evil spirit will be, previous to this awful juncture, for a short space let loose from out his prison, and be allowed to go out and deceive the nations, (Rev. xx. 7,) his power will be most likely opposed by the power of God and his miraculous interposition. But previous to this (as measured by human comprehension, no very distant era,) there is every reason to believe, that the power of working miracles and foretelling future events, will not be renewed. The very powerful external evidence to the truth of our religion with which we now are blessed, consists therefore not in seeing new miracles wrought before our eyes, but, as before remarked, in the incontestable miraculous manifestation given to the truth of Scripture by fulfilled prophecies.

The evidences to the truth of the Christian religion are, as that very eminent writer Dr. Johnson observes, very strong; but some of its doctrines are contrary to reason;* which remark was stated at the commencement of this work; and was a principal stimulus to the undertaking.

* Boswell's Life of Dr. Johnson.

It does, we think, supply a very strong and almost incontestable evidence to the truth of the Christian religion, that some of its doctrines are generally considered as utterly beyond the

of human comprehension. And while we continue to faith, not by sight, in their full extent they undoubtedly

Should its feeble writer have proved, even in ever so small a degree, the means of removing this impediment to the reception of divine truth, all that can be said is, that God has made his strength perfect in weakness.

Dr. Horne tells us, that "nobler and more extensive ideas than time allowed him to express, arose before his view; that he stands at the door of the temple with his torch; but that if we would view its glories, we must enter in and dwell there for ever."*

Should any of the observations contained in these pages contribute to irradiate our view, a momentous point is gained, as we do in all humility conceive that a right understanding of the Christian religion can never be attained without just conceptions being formed of the religion which was dispensed by its initiatory schoolmaster, when through these appointed means we become rooted and grounded in that holy

are so. But this fact, as was formerly observed, certainly propounds a very unanswerable argument in attestation of its truth because what unassisted reason could not have discovered, unassisted reason could not have invented. For where could he be found, or who could ever have been the human being, whose own imagination suggested that Deity comprised a plurality of persons? Yet the sacred pages are uniform and consistent in asserting that the Divinity is composed of a plurality of persons. Even those Scriptures that are handed down to us by the avowed enemies to Christianity, are equally express on this astonishing revelation, as are those which we receive from its early proselytes. And how could such information have ever been collected from such discordant quarters through a series of ages, and ultimately imparted to mankind, but by the interference of God?

*Preface to Horne's Sermons.