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Les diagrammas sulvants illustrant la mAthode. 1 2 3 4 S 6 mm w 1 t A '-fT-/l,^- 4 ^C M^ /Itt/^t^ VOICE O F /e^ ^P"^ ^t^. WARNING AND INSTRUCTION CORCCRNINO THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES, 1 ' ' -.'•l >►.♦ .' i i AND THE COMIIfO OF THE SON OF MAN, TO JUDGE THE NATIONS, AND RESTORE ALL THINGS. UY THF: rev. ADAM HOOD BUDWfiliL, JU I S 8 I O N A R Y F R O 1^1 THE S O C I F. T V P. O. 1. P. AND AUTHOR OF " Doctrine of the Holy Spirit." •! BYTOWN, UPPERCANADA. Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraidl Shall there be eyil ill a city, and the Loro hath not done itl Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealcthhis secret unto his servants the prophets. The Lion hath roared, who will not fearl The Lord God hath spoken, who can but prophesy? Amos iii. 6, 7, 8. Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times ; and the turtle and (he crane and the swallow observe tl*c time of their coming ; but my people know not the judgement of the Lord. Jeremiah viii. 7. KINGSTON, Printed at the Upper Canada Herald Offlcc* 1836. PREMONITION. Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing 1 The Kings of the earth set themeelves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LoKD, and against his Anointed, saying, let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. 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*. Yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree: The Lord hath said unto me, Tnou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for titine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy pos- session. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Be wise now therefore, Q ye Kings: be instructedi ye that are judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that pot their tnist in him> A VOICE OF WARNING AND INSTRUCTION, &c. Kings ist the r, and i: the vrath: 1 holy ou art Je the pos- m in ictedi with when him- /. Explanation of some of the terms used in Prophecy. I shall begin by explaining a few of the symbolical terms used in Holy Writ, especially in prophecy, for the better un- derstanding of this treatise in connexion with reading the Scriptures: and first, of the number Seven. The number pre?«3nt dispensation of tiie Holy Ghost is divided in- to seven aij^es, as we see by the seven epistles of the Lord Jesus addressed to the seven angels of the seven churches of Asia; v/hich paint to the wholeness or completeness o^ the ch.urcli in its universality and totality: the seven churches typing- the church ujiiversal in its seven. age&, and the seven epistles be- inq a brief prophetic view of the state of the cliurch under each. The seven angels of the seven churches are typical of the whole christian ministry from Pentecost till the Day of the Lord. "The seven spirits of Giod" which the Son of Man had (Rev. iii. L) signify the Holy Ghost in all his fulness and completeness of wisdom, power, and operation as given to the church under the character of the Comforter. And this view is confirmed by the fact, that the three first verses of Revelation do address the whole book to the universal c'lurcli in generjil and unrestricted terms, and not to a partoi" it, as the separate epistles are addressed: for though all is profitable to all, yet some parts are more profitable for some ages than some other parts. After the seven epistles are given, containing prophetic notices of the future history of the Church, tlic Lamb with the book of seven seals is introduced, the opening of which more fully expands the propiietic his- tory, as also does the sounding of the seven trumpets and the pouring out of the seven vials. But though the epistle pe- I'iods, the seals, trumprt,:. :i' <1 v'cA; 9 heads and ten horns, and ten crowns upon bis horns. These crowns denot* kingly government. But in chapter xvi. 2, pre- sently after the gieat and mighty earthquake, the beast ap- pears without crowns upon his horns, scarlet coloured, and full of names of blasphemy. This denotes the blasphemous and bloody character of democracy, which hates kingly gov- ernment because God is a King, and delights even more in blood and blasphemy than ever did the blaspheming bloody horn of Daniel (vii. 2). On this bloody blaspheming beast the papal harlot is at last seated, arrayed in gaudy gorge- ous trappings, and drunk with the blood of saints and mar- tyrs. The papacy is now in the act of mounting this bloody atheistic beast of democracy, in the mad hope of riding him into that universal dominion which she has ever claimed and still dreams of regaining: and this is manifest enough by the labours of the popish priesthood and agitators both in Britain and America, to disseminate infidel politics, and pull down church and state under pretence of religious liberty and llie rights of conscience, in order that the world maybe again subjugated to the pope. Their efforts and success in the ,%nerican republic are surprising. It is after atheism has, as it lliinks, abolished royalty and driven it forever out of the world, that He comes forth who is Faithful and True, and on his head many croicns, while he is clothed with a vesture dipt in the blood of his enemies, to destroy finally the beast and the false prophet, and to give their dominions to " the people of the Saints of the Most High." .. ^ . .> The image of Nebuchadnezzar represents as it were per- sonally embodied the four great monarchies; while the four beasts of Daniel give them as they succeed to each other, and in part describe the actings of each. These are the jrrophetic tootld. Augustus decreed that " the whole world should be tax- ed." Of this the prophetic earth is but a part, namely, the western part of the i^loman Empire, which in Revelation is the beast with seven heads and ten crowned horns, afterwards uncrowned. This lies chiefly south of the Rhine and the Danube, and comprises the ten papal kingdoms. Beyond this "world" prophecy rarely extends, except aa prospective of events which lie beyond the period of the judgment of the great whore. When Iiiaiah calls the nations to judgment (xxxiv.), ]-«•'; cites the earth and the whole world; and Ezekiel calls uji Gog and his confederates "from the north parts." — And this may suffice for ny present purpose. . i: Im w !'•: m 10 //, Objections to the study of Prophecy considered. In the next place I deem it proper to examine a prevailing^ objection by many most confidently brought forward, namely, that it is presumption, as they are pleased to term it, to think of interpreting and understanding prophecy, or any part of it, or the time and mode of its fulfilment, until after it is fuU filled. If this canon of the Doctors of Ignorance be the true one, I can see no possible advantage derivable from prophecy as prophecy, or why prophecy is given at all: for after fulfil- ment, it is mere history. But of what use is the history of the past? The students of profane history will tell us, that even it is made to perform the office of prophecy, in that it serves as warning for the future. In this sense almost all the world appeals to history fulfilled as admonitory, that is, pro- phetic, of history unfulfilled. Even those who deem it so great presumption to take God for our prophet, namely, by means of his revelations of things yet to come — his Apoca- lypse or uncovering of future events, — will take past history in its secular and profane character, — as a thing independent of God and revelation, and from it they will " forecast devices," — divine and predict concerning the future. This is downright infidelity, inasmuch as it is rejecting God as our prophet, and making prophets of ourselves. They pretend there is great danger to be apprehended from any attempt to act upon the information contained in unfulfilled prophecy given us of God; but they see no such danger in attempting to carry into effect their own predictions, by acting upon thfir own judg- ment and view of things to come. No man likes to leap de- liberately in the dark in regard to any matter, except the most desperate of all men, that is, gamblers; and even they prefer to know beforehand, or they would not endeavour to take their '■'■ luck" out of the hand of chance by their various de- vices to deceive and overreach each other. God hath given a revelation to Jesus Christ, that he may shew unto his ser- vants things which must shortly come to pass, and hath pro- nounced a blessing upon those who read, hear, and keep the things written therein: but our Doctors of Ignorance pro- nounce a curse upon ail who shall attempt it, and recommend to us the conduct of gamblers, as if we could take our " luck" out the hand of God, whose counsel we reject, by acting up- on the dreams of our own vain minds. Mr. Irving has well said, that *' this notion v/hich generally prevails concerning prophecy, that it is not to be searched in- to with the desire of understanding, nor set forth with the \ Objections to the study of Prophecy considered. II •;: spirit of interpretation, but left to the discovery of time, and the fulfilment of events, not only contradicts all the declara- tions of Scripture which concur in commending it to our utmost heedfulness; but, in the end, works the baneful effect of withdrawing the faith of all, except a few, (who are by the rest straightway accounted fools) from a large portion of Holy ScripturCj whereof every part was given for doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness. From which, as no part of Scripture can be wanted for the complete fur- nishing and perfect strength of the man of God, it cometh to pass, that when these divine land-marks, and loading sig- nals of the future, are removed out of sight, he is obliged to look out, by the help of his own natural foresight, and to cal- culate by the rules of political sagacity, those things which are to happen to the church. For it is as impossible that we should cease to expect, as that we should cease to remember, and that which we expect; must be either after a spiritual or a carnal way expected; after a spiritual, when vi^e submit our hopes to the teaching of the Spirit; after a carnal, when we subjnit them to the teaching of human wisdom. So that eve^ ry man must either be a prophet unto himself, or God must be his prophet; for prophesy every man doth who hopeth, pro- phecy being but the object for hope, as history is for memory. Whence, the churcli, if she be not looking steadfastly unto the sure word of prophecy, whif'h God hath given as the fixed polar star to guide her through the anxious night, till the day dawn, and the day-star arise, will surely be trusting in the fluctuations of state policy, and her own skill and manage- ment in the midst thereof, or resigning herself wholly to the ebbs and flows of things, the chances and occurrences of the world ; verily in Providence she cannot be trusting, if she re- fuse to study, and care not to understand the comfortable words which the kind foresight of Providence hath accorded to her." — Irving on Prophecy, page 30. These observations are remarkably applicable to the pre- sent times; and in fact the church, now that Infidel Liberal- ism js sweeping all before it, and demolishing all the old fix- tures of human polity, which owed their existence to the feel- ing, more or less full and reverential, that the powers that be are ordained of God, in rejecting the " sure word of prophecy, whereun.o she would have done well to toke heed as to a light shining in a dark place," as her guide through this *' hour r>nd power of darkness," must of necessity attempt to sieer 12 Objedions to the study of Prophecy considered. i il: way by her own wisdom and foresight, — by calculation upon the docrine of chances and probabilities of things. And here- in she must act solely upon the assumption, that, in thus re- jecting all guidance by divine proj)hecy, and trusting in her own cleverness and ability in foresight of coming evil and its remedy, her measure of success will be just no less than God is willing she should enjoy, and just what it would be did she walk by his special prophetic direction. She must acknow- ledge that God has accorded to her all sufficient means of gui- dance, or she will charge God foolishly: and she must also feel that she needs not God for her prophet, and that he never in- tended her so to regard him, or.she would cease from her own ways, and be willing to acknowledge him in that character, and both take written prophecy as her guide, and, if it were not plain to her, pray the Comforter to lead her into all truth, and shew her things to come, according to her Lord's promise and gift. And to this as an abiding principle in the church St. Paul alluded when he said to tlie Philippians, (iii. 15), "Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be oihendsc minded^ God shcdl reveal even this unlo you.'''' She does not charge God with leaving her destitute of suffi- cient means of guidance; yet she rejects the prophetic word as her guide, under the plea that it is presumption and impi- ety to pry into the counsels of God in regard to the future, even while acting the prophet to herself ; and thus she in full effect declares her own prophetic vision entirely sufficient in tiie divine estimation The atheistic dogma I am combating amounts to this, or it amounts to nothing; and it is, in fact, a virtual and full denial of divine Providence: for in that the Church goes about to foresee and provide for herself, just as if God liad not prophesied, she excludes the Providence of God altogether; — unless indeed she understands him as insen- sibly necessitating all her measures regarding the future; which no one claims that I am aware off. The church in Great Britain and Ireland is now driven to fight her way against the hungry and fierce wolves of Infidelity, Popery, and Schism, and to battle with all sorts of Liberalis'^i, and the Utilitarian novelty-seekers and experimenting magi- cians : but she has truckled and compounded and conceded on the one hand, buying off the forbearance of her hungry and faithless enetnies for a time with the best part of her outward munitions; and on the other, devising politic expedients for shaping her thorny course through the turmoil of revolution, I Objections to the study of Prophecy considered. 13 55 , impi- ■ ilure, 1 full nt in ating" LCt, a t the >t as ;e of isen- [ure; n to Jitr, is Ml, itigi- 1 on and I'aid for ion, raised in part and encouraged and strengthened by I>er own misconduct. Her counsellors are now all tlve enemies of God, speaking and acting by the House of Commons ; and she hath brought herself under the just reproof of the prophet: " Woe to the rebellious children, sailh the Lord, that take counsel, but not of me ; that cover with a covering but not of my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin : that walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked counsel at my mouth ; to strengthen them- sehes in the srtrength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shac'^w of Egypt ! Therefore the strength of Pharaoh, shall be your shame, and the shadow of Egypt your confusion. "-—Mr. Irving continues: — " Now, if any individual membei of Christ will remain in the dark with respect to the future condition of the Church, he must be the prey of a thousand fears and false apprehen- sions, of a thousand hopes and false anticipations, from which a little light would have altogether delivered him ; and if he have any thing in hand or in mind towards the advancement of the church, he ma; , in his ignorance, be working or designing against ihe purposes of God : which are revealed for this very end, to give a right direction to our hopes, and thereby a right scope to our undertakings. For the prophecies, being never so minute as to point to individual members of the church, and therefore said by Peter not to be of any private interpretation, can never supplant those personal principles of faith, which arc the rule of our present action. They do but affect U3 in our common incorporated capacity, as members of Christ's body, and being impressed upon the Church, give a steadiness to her expectations, a consent and harmony to her ideas and schemes, which sustain her much in the difficult and tedious warfare she iiath to carry on. Opening and clearing more and more, as they approach to fulfilment, they come at length to be indeed princiules of ciction, and sanctuaries of safety, which the church experienced at the destruction of Jerusalem by the ar- mies of Rome; and, as if the Lord w^^e preparing her for some signal judgments again, he is beginning to stir up the su- pinencss of her mind with respect to the prophecies still unful- filled; attention is becoming awake, and expectation is excited concerning the second coming of Christ, and the kingdom of the saints, which is to abide for a thousand years." — But the church, as a body, has never acted upon the prophetic word, in shaping her measures for the future, since the beginning of the 14 Objections to the study of Prophecy considered. m fourth century if as late ; and therefore these observations will onlj partially apply, except as to what her conduct should have been. But as this is a subject of the greatest importance, and as the clearing of it up will set before us in a bold and striking light the magnitude of the sins of Christendom contracted by this wilful ignorance of the counsels of God, and the awfulness of the judgments that hang over our heads in consequence thereof, let us be more particular as to what the Holy Ghost hath said concerning our duty to study, understand, and act upon the di- vine prophetic word, rather than gather our estimate of duty herein from inferences. Our Lord, when delivering a prophe- cy (Mat. xxiv. XXV.) concerning the judgments soon to be exe- cuted on the Jews, and at the same time predicting and in part describing the awful judgments that will attend his second Ad- vent, uses this caution : '' Whoso readeth, let him understand" (xxiv. 15): and further he saith : " Now learn a parable of the iig-(ree ; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that the summer is nigh : so likewise ye, when ye see all these things, know that it is near even at the doors." The parallel passage in Luke (xxi.) runs thus: "And then shall they see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and jjreat glory. And when these things [the signs of the times] begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads ; for your redemption draweth nigh. . . . Behold the fig tree, and all the trees ; when they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand. So like- wise ye, when ye see these things come Co pa«s, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand." These premonitory signs are : " Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars ; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity ; the sea and the waves roaring ; men's hearts failing them for fear, and for look- ing after those things which are coming on the earth : for the powers of heaven shall be shaken." Whether within the last half century these things have not many of them come to pass, I leave the reader to judge. Whether at this time while 1 write, Sep. 23, 1835, there is not a great fear ani looking after the things that are coming on the earth, I leave also to the reader's own observation, as I safely may. And our Lord adds, that the generations witnessing these things shall not pass away till ! inl inl le Objections to the study of Prophecy considered. 15 ipon the look- the last Mtc, the let's that till ' all be fulfilled ; and then he cautions all to watch and pray that they may escape those things, and stand before the Son of Man, taking heed to surfeiting, drunkenness, and the cares of this life. He so frames his discourse as to give the necessary instruction to the true church then, and to true believers now ; instructing them how to escape from the destruction of Jerusa- lem, which was a type of the judgment of the great day ; and instructing us how to escape in that day which as a snare shall fall upon the earth, with the promise that not a hair of our heads shall perish if we are found watching. But all this is ut- terly impossible by the canon of the Doctors of Ignorance and Blindness to the Future. Indeed, I have heard it said, that we ought not to speculate even upon the probable time of the Lord's Second commg ; and I am ashamed to add, and would not do it but for the truth's sake and the love of souls, that one told me nothing could more strikingly show the absur- dity of preaching that " the Lord is at hand," than the obser- vation of some loose fellow, that then men need not go about their business any more. But our Lord commands us to watch the signs of his coming, expressly that we may know when he is near ; which command demonstrates the miserable delusion of those blind leaders of the blind who occupy the place of watchmen, and teach the people to disbelieve and de- ny the very words of the Lord, and to treat with contempt those who lift the warning voice in their ears. Certainly such can have no desire for their Lord's coming in his kingdom, or they would not be drunken with the wisdom of this world, nor beat their fellow servants who fear the word of the Lord, but would be willing to examine every evidence of the Lord's near- ness, and be all alive to so important an event. What these pastors ni" -in by using the Lord's Prayer and our Burial Service I know not, provided they take the trouble to examine their con- tents. The book of Revelation begins thus : " The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his ser- vants things which must shortly come to pass. . . . Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein : for the time is at hand." Every one of the seven epistles to the churches in Asia, which are prophetic of the seven ages of the Christian church, contains this admonition: *' He that hath an ear, let him hear what the spirit saith unto the churches." St. Peter, wri- i \ 16 Objections to the study of Propheeij considered. I ill! w I ting of "the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Chrii^t," which he saw in the holy mount, and which was aforeshewing of the glory of the second Advent, saith: " We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take lieed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, ?nd the day star arise in your hearts." This " dark place" cannot surely be the past, but the future, upon which the sun of time has not shined, but on which the lamp of pro- phecy was given to shine in the way of instruction and warn- ing. But of what use arc these in regard to things j)ast ^nd gone? None whatever. Suppose I was warned ten years ago, that within nine years, without certain precautions, my house would be burnt and my family consumed in it : of what con- ceivable use to me is the warning if I disrep;ard it, after that my house and family are consumed with fire ? Or does a man go out on a dark night with a lighted lamp in his hand, and holding it behind his back, and looking over his shoulder o» the road behind him, blunder on this way in darkness? Even so is he who can see no use in prophecy except as an old alma- nac of time past or cataloj^ue of worn out garments. And of the texts quoted above I may confidently say, that if thoy do not establish the paramount duty of studying unfulfilled pro- phecy with a view to being guided by its instruction, comparing past and passing events with the whole of prophecy, and no- ting the Signs of the end as they unfold, it is hard to conceive in what terms of clearness that duty should be expressed to make it intellisiiblc. " But since an evil heart of unbelief" is exceedingly fertile in finding means for resisting the truth, and as the above quoted words of St. Peter are open to a cavil upon the words "until the day star arise in your hearts',^^ whereby the passage may be turned awny from contemplating the second Advent of the Lord, I shall anticipate any such objection by a few remarks. — Peter was addressing " them that had obtained like precfou.i faith with us through the righteousness of our God and Savirur Jesus Christ." Of course, in the sense of the Gosj^el accept- ed and obeyed, the gift of laith received, the hope of glory en- tertained, and joy in the Holy Ghost experienced, the day star had already risen in their hearts ; and therefore it is perfectly absurd to say that they were to take heed to the light of unful- filled prophecy until they should come to be nhat they were when he gave the charg •. Besides, tho Doctors of Ignorance Objections to the study of Prophecj considered. n TFith whom I am contending, do exclude prophecy in a manner from the Gospel, by forbidding us to understand it : for that cer- tainly cannot be good news to us of which we ought to remain in ignorance. But let us still further try this canon concerning prophecy. — We are grcfatly mistaken if we imagine that all Scripture in- volving obligation to act upon the information it conveys, is de- livered in the form of doctrine and moral precept, without res- pect had to time and place, like the elementary truths and prin- ciples of the arts, sciences, and literature. P^r what we call moral truths, duties, and obligations, are given for all times and places alike, whenever and wherever men come within the sphere of their dominion, and are properly not prophetic in any other sense than the law of the land is prophetic, or the obliga- tion to love God and our neighbour. In regard to prophecy, which is equally with all other scripture given for our learning and instruction, the very term itself contradicts such a notion ; for prophecy, by word, is the foretelling things to come, and by vision, foreshewing them. Bus. the burden of prophecy, (and indeed so does law) crrries a double aspect, and generally con- tains both promise and threatening to those to whom it is ad- dressed : promise of good if they obey its warning ; of judg- ment if they disregard it. Part of a prophecy may be absolute, such as will most surely come to pass legardless of human con- tingencies. S"ch is the coming of Christ in the flesh to work our redemption ; and such will be his second coming in glory to establish his kingdoru. Part may not be of that absolute char- acter, namely, the promise of good to those who act on the prophetic information, and the threat of judgment to those who disregard it. Such was the prophecy of Jonah against Nine- veh, which repented ; and of Jeremiah against Jerusalem, which repented not; and of our Lord against all the cities of Judea, which also repented not, and were overthrown. Such again on the one hand was tlie escape of those Jewish Christians who came out of Jerusalem at the approach of the Roman army; and on ♦he other, the sufferings of Jerusalem, which rejected her King, and was destroyed : whereas, had the Christians reject- ed the prophecy concerning that calamity, all that were in the city would have shared in its fate. And as the gospel has a double aspect and application — is a savour of death* unto death in them that perish, and of life unto life in them that are siived *, ■0 prophecy also, being of the gospel, has the same double as-: B 18 ObjecUons to the study of Prophecy considered. h if pect and application to the time-state of the church now : as the law also had before Christ came. The first coming of Messiah did not necessitate the miserable overthrow of the Jewish church and nation : for he expressly charges their pending cal- amities, of which both he and their prophets forewarned them, upon their obstinate wickedness and spiteful treatment of their King. He would have gathered them but they would not. He would have falsified, if I may so say, his own predictions of their ruin, as he had afore done with repentant Nineveh, but they, more rebellious than Nineveh, madly rushed upon their own destruction. And so also shall it be when the Son of Man cometh tie se- cond time with power and great glory. But when he cometh, will he find faith on the earth in his coming ? Will he find one nation "looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appear- ing of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ ?" No, verily ! He will find the nations of the earth and of the whole world combined and gathered to make war with the Lamb, collected for the war of the great day of God Almighty : and he will ex- ecute the most fearful judgments on those Christian nations ; for judgment must begin at the house of God. He will smite them with his iron rod, and dash them in pieces like a potter^s vessel: for which reason he exhorts them all to be wise in time, and kiss the son, while yet the long-suflfering of God may lead them to repentance. But it is not merely because these things are foretold that they are to be so fulfilled ; but because the na- tions despise the warnings and expostulations of God, refuse hira as their prophet, walk by the sparks of their own kindling, and wilfully, as did Pharaoh, go on more hardened in their evil ways. And God saith by the prophetic Spirit: "I gave her (namely Jezebel, the papacy, the papal nations) space to repent of her fornication ; and she repented not. Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit fornication with her into great tribulation, except thev repent of their deeds. — And I will kill her children with death." (Rev. ii. 21 ). There is not a judgment coming that they upon whom it will fall are ndt fairly warned of by prophecy, and told expressly before- hand that it shall come because of their wickedness persevered in, in defiance as it were of God's threatenings. This is God's constant method ; for he comes not reaping where he has not first been sowing. Did he not warn the old world for the space of one hundred and twenty years while Noah was proi- sol Objections to the study of Prophecy considered. 19 but paring the ark for the saving of himself and his house ? Did not Noah's building the ark for his own preservation, " by which he condemned the world," Heb. xi. 7, warn that pres- ent generation of the coming event on themselves during his lifetime ? Had not Enoch prophesied of it nine hundred sixty and nine years before it came, by preaching, and by naming his son Methuselah, which signifies, at his death it shall break forth or come? (see Brown's Concordance:) for Methuselah died the year of the flood. The lifetime of Methuselah was the term of God's long suffering with the old world : and as he drew near the period of his life he was a living warning of the approach ot the dire event. His death, as well as the finish- ing of the ark, told that the flood was even at their doors ; but they knew it not until the flood came, and took them all away. Did not Moses in the law warn Israel of all the judgments that have yet befallen the nation ? Did not Jeremiah warn Judah and Jerusalem of the destruction of the city and temple and the captivity in Babylon, at the same time that he assured them that if they would repent, and ** serve the King of Babylon", these things should not come upon them ? But if it be true, that it is presumption to think of under- standing prophecy, and, when signs and dates are given, know- ing the time of its fulfilment before it is fulfilled, those upon whom the judgments are executed could have no warning giv- en whereby they might escape. Yet God saith by Jeremiah : ** At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and con- cerning a kingdom, to pluck up, to pull down, and to destroy it ; if that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that 1 thought to do unto them." (xviii. T, 8). In Isaiah xxiv. and xxxiv., the judg- ment upon " all nations" is set forth in terms declaring their utter destruction ; and the period of time within ^hich it is to be executed upon " all the nations" comprehended within the great Image and the four monarchies, is bounded by the ending of the 2300 days of Daniel. In Revelation, God gives that woman Jezebel, the Mother of Harlots, who calleth herself a prophetess, and the infallible teacher of all men,, and teacheth bis servants to commit fornication, time and space to repent, and she repenteth not. She hath made the Kings and people of the earth drunk with the wine of her fornication. Rev. xvii. 8 ; and Jeremiah speaks thus of her plagues therefor : "Flee out of (he midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his soul : 'iii-.i ! ( 1 iJtPi |: 20 Objections to tKe study of Prophecy considered. V \ii be not cut off in her iniquity ; for this is the time of the Lord^s vengeance ; he will render unto her a recompence. Babylon hath been a golden cup in the Lord's hand, that made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunken of her wine; there- fore the nations aie mad. Babylon is suddenly fallen and des> troyed : howl for her ; take balm for her pain, if so be she may be healed. We would have healed Babylon^ but she is not healed.''* [li. 6, 7, 8]. And why is she not healed ? I .^ave her ppace to repent, saith God, and she repented not. Again : The fulfilment of prophecy involves the destruction of many nations. If then it is unlawful for them to understand it till after its fulfilment in their destruction, of wliat possible use can it be to them in any sense whatever? If they are to wait till they are destroyed before they presume to interpret the prophecies foreshewing their destruction, why doth God yet deal with them as with those who had despised all his warnings, and set at nought his prophetic word ? Hear what he saith to Israel by Moses, Deut. xxx. 18, 19,20: '' I de- nounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, and that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land, whither thou goest over Jordan to possess it. I call heaven and earth to re- cord against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live : that thou mayest love the Lord thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him : for it is thy life, and the length of thy days : that thou mayest dwell in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them." Finally, this dogma enjoining ignorance and unbelief con- cerning the revealed prophecico (;f God, I denounce and anath- ematize as a delusitn of the devil ; and 1 do declare before God and the Church, that they who teach it do perform the devil's ministry of deluding and deceiving the people. They be blind leaders of the blind, crying Peace, peace, when there is no peace ; for when they shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, and they shall not escape. And to the people I say, " Cease mv son, to hear the instruction which causeth to err from the words of knowledge." Prov. xix. 27.-^" The ancient and honorable he is the head ; and thcv prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail. For the leaders of this people causfe them to errr and they that are led of them' are destroved." Isaiah ix. 15, 16. I Ignorance of Prophecy a sign of the Times. 21 to ///. The teaching of this false doctrine concerning Prophecy a sign of the times. The very confidence with which they teach this pernicious doctrine is a sign of the times most worthy of observation. — They teacli that the time of the Lord's second coming is a thing not to be speculated upon, or sought to be known at all, because it is a presumptuous prying into the hidden counsels of God. But this is Satan^s method of teaching humility, to the end of blinding the minds and hardening the hearts of them that believe not. God saith by Hosea, iv. 6, " My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge : because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest unto me : Seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children." We are not only frequently admon- ished to be " looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God," but this state of unbelief in it is expressly fore- told. We know how unbelieving the old world was in regard to the coming of the flood, notwithstanding the long and strik- ing warning they had of the time of its coming. This our Lord sets before us as the type and foreshewing of alike state of unbelief in regard to his second Advent. " For as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of Man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and knew it not until the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded ; but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. Even so shall it be in the day when the Son of Man is reveal- ed," But moreover Peter, referring the reader to other scrip- tural and prophetic warnings, has expressly foretold this state of unbelief in the Lord's coming ; for which cause he wrote his second epistle. " This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you ; in both which I stir up yoiii* pure minds b}' way of remembrance ; that ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandments of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour; knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scofr fers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the cre^- > '■ i'' m SM li'ij 22 Ignorance of Prophecy a sign of the Times. tion." Yes, in the last days ; the same last days in which St. Paul tells us [2 Tim. iii. 1 — 5] perilous times shall come : and if these are not perilous times ; — if the sending over Commis- sioners to treat with a rebellious faction in Canada ; — if the sudden outhreakings of mob lawlessness all over the American States ; — if the severe measures taken by France, after the at- tempt upon the life of Louis Philippe, to muzzle the public press, and to garrison as it were the whole kingdom, and to de- clare it felonious cither to avow republican principles, or to mention or allude even to the name of the king in any political disquisition ; — if the present condition of Great Britain ; — if in short the spirit of lawlessness and disorganization now at work with mighty energy all over Christendom, do not tell of PERILOUS TIMES, and of men fearing and caring for the THINGS THEY SEE COMING ON THE EARTH, I hardly kuOW what we should call " perilous times", or why we should not refer them to the " last days." Our Lord also foretells this state of general unbelief, in the para- ble of the unjust judge, Luke xviii. " Shall not God avenge his own clect,which cry unto him day and night, though he bear long with them ? \ tell you that he will avenge them speedily. — Nevertheless, when the Son of man cometh," for that express purpose, *' Shall he find faith on the earth ? If he found faith in his coming, he would not find the vine of the earth ripe to be trodden in the winepress of the wrath of God. He does not execute vengeance on the faithful, who are looking, and watch- ing, and longing for his coming quickly. But who are those elect whom he cometh to avenge? They are not merely the saints and martyrs of Jesus slain by the bloody papacy ; but they are also the Jewish nation : for that race stands in eternal election, which is the cause of its restoration, according to the everlasting covenant made with Abraham, and so often renew- ed to the fathers. For the great day of God Almighty is the " day of the Lord's vengeance, and the year of recompences for the controversy of Zion." Isa. xxiv. 1 — 8. And when in Isaiah Ixiii., he is treading the wine press of wrath, he says : *'For the day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come." And that the Jewish race stands thus in election, St. Paul testifies in Romans xi. " As concerning the Gospel, they are enemies for your sakes : but as touching the election, they are beloved for the father''s sakes. For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance." For ti^at end was Pi t( Chronology of Prophecy. 23 Abram first called, and for that end is his seed now kept until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in ; and then Israel shall be saved with an everlasting salvation. IV. The chronology of Prophecy as furnished by Daniel and John. The church having a corporate form and capacity uninter- rupted by human mortality, and so continuing down to the eve of judgment, has also a life, personality, conscience, will, mem- ory and accountability similar to an individual person ; and so prophecy doth address her in this character with words suited to the seven ages of her life set forth in the seven prophetic epistles addressed to the seven typical churches of Asia : and like an apostate individual she is finally judged and punished with death. I do not say the analogy is perfect in all points ; but it is near enough to shew the truth of a comparison. Pro- phecy is addressed to tiie church as bearing this personal char- acter just stated ; and the Chronology of Prophecy is given for the purpose of teaching the faithful within what period of time the purposes of God in relation to this lifetime and the conduct of the church will be accomplished. The prophet Daniel and the apostle John are the only pro- phets who give d?tes and times and periods lower down than the end of the first captivity in Babylon. Daniel's prophecy of the seventy weeks contains internal marks by which its commencement and end could be determined by the Jewish church some time before Messiah made his appearance ; be- cause the assumption of the date of the second commandment for restoring Jerusalem as the date of the beginning of the seventy weeks, would conclude the seventy weeks thirty years before Messiah was born. The year or time of his birth pro- ])hecy did not foretel ; only the year of his cutting off, and the duration of his public ministry : and the Jews, at the conclu- sion of four hundred and ninety years respectively from the dates of the 2 first commandn^ients for res. >ring the city, seeing no signs of his having come, were necessarily thrown upon the date of the third decree, namely, that of Artaxerxes [Ezra vi. 14] for the beginning of the seventy weeks. At the time of his birth there was a general expectation that he would soon appear ; and the events attending it no doubt satisfied many that the child Jesus was he. But prophecy had fixed the very year of his cutting off, at least seventy years before the crucifixion ; and therefore the whole Jewish nation ought to have known II 1^ i' ? 24 Chronology of Prophecy. what they were ahout when they were rejecting and slaying him. JJe told them that had they believed Moses, who wrote, that is, prophesied, of him, they would have believed him ; and there were prophets who v ' e far more particular in regard to his actings and time than Moses ; who indeed gives no note of time. Isaiah described his character, parentage, actings and sufferings ; D jvid his resurrection ; Mic h the place of his birth; and Daniel the time of his cutting off. Daniel also describes him as the Son of Man ; a title which he uniformly used in speaking of himself. .\nd hence is demonstrated the perfec- tion of prophetic chronology for all practical purposes in regard to the time of Messiah's tirst Advent. Daniel's period of the 2300 years, within the completion of which Messiah is to be brought into the world the second time, the nations judged, the Jews restored and the sanctuary cleans- ed, doth limit and fix the time within which the predictions of all the other prophets concerning these same things are to be fulfilled : and this rule applies also to the Revelations of St. John : for that book being an unfolding of the visions of Daniel, which where '"closed up and sealed to the time of the end"", the times of which it treats are necessarily included and bound- ed by D^miel's great period of 2300; and therefore St. John gives no dates by which we can find the ending of that period. Daniel names the papal period during which the little horn should "speak great words against the Most High, and wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to cliange times and laws : and they shall be given into his hand until a time, and or " fo;* a time vii. 25 times and the dividing of time ;" Dan. times, and an half", xii. 7, Of this period John thus writes : And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent. Rev. xii. 14. In verse 6 it is stated to be 1260 days, i. e. years. It was while she was in the papal wilder- ness that Satan changed his mode of warfare from the heathen to the papal persecutions : one being open brute force and vio- lence ; the other a refined system of murderous cruelty and ex- termination under the pretence of a necessary and wholesome discipline. The prophecy of Daniel did not enable the Jews exactly to ascertain the ending of the seventy weeks until they were drawing to a close [and the ending was found by the beginning] : and neither he nor John enables the church to kni til er ch^ evi of thii un( Doctrine of the Great Day of God. H •x: I know the beginning and ending of the 1260 days, until some- time after the event which delivered the church into the pow- er of the little horn, and the horn had manifested itself by its character and actings as foretold in all the prophets. This event was the edict of Justinian in 533, constituting the Bishop of Rome the supreme judge in all matters and qi^estions of faith throughout the empire. But timely notice is given of the end- ing of all the periods, namely, the seventy weeks, the 1260 days, and the L:.300 days; so that the church was laid of God under no disahility of knowing the important times of the ter- minations of these periof^ , and of noting the signs of the com- ing of the Son of Man in glory, one of which is the conclusion of the 1260 days, and another the earthquake of the French Revolution which followed it. And it is on the ground of the clearness of the warnings and admonitions of prophecy, joined to the total disregard of them, that the judgments and excision of all nations proceeds. On this ground the foi jier judgment and dispersion of the Jews proceeded : on this ground the judgment of the flood proceeded : and so shall it be when the the Son of Man comcth. V. Scr'iplure doctrine and declarations concerning the judgment of the great day of Jilmighhj God. There is nothing more certain than the fact, that God hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteous- ness, by the Man whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath given all men assurance in that he hath raised him from the dead. There is therefore a day, or a time, or a period, or a season cf judgment in which the world is most deeply interest- ed, and for which it has need to be in a state of due prepara- tion. I write not now of that iudsment of the dead to take place some time or otlier after death, but of that great judg- ment upon the nations of Christendom in the flesh, concerning which so much is foretold in all the Scriptures, and which is still most evidently future. These two judgments are separated from each other hy the whole period of the Millennium, though by many they are frequently confounded : lor notwithstanding there is to be a judgment of the quick and the dead at his ap- pearing and his kingdom [2 Tim. iv. 1], yet this is not of all the dead upon whom judgment shall pass, but only a part ; for after this first judgment, "the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrec- tion" [Rev. XX. 5.] Ul; tni If m U SG Doctrine of the Great Day of God. The theatre of prophecy is almost entirely laid within the hounds of the four great iTionai*chics of Daniel, represented in vision hy the great image of four different metals, and by the four beasts ; and it rarely passes beyond their geographical lim- its in view of things to he fulfilled before the coming of the Son of Man in his kingdom. " The Earth", in prophecy, is properly the ten papal kingdoms into which the Western Roman empire was divided after the Ciothic invasions from the north, namely the Jl'atcrs which the Serj)ent cast out of his mouth in a Hood to destroy the woman ; which waters were poisoned with the Aiinn heresy; and by these Arian barbarisms, who persecuted the orthodox as furiously as the heatbeiis had per- secuted the early Christians, (he Serpent sought to destroy the whole church. ISlahomedanism is a branch of the same deadly heresy; and another braiicli under the name of Rational Chris- tianity has overrun nearly the wluile ot' Protestant Germany aiid S\,'it;!crland, besides its prevalence in Great Hritain and America under dilVerent disguises. Those ten kingdoms are symbolized hy the ten toes of the fourth and last division of Nebuchadnozzar's Imoi^e, and bv the ten horns of Daniel's i'ourth beast niui the ten horiKMl beast of Sairit John. This beast is properly the aggregate of tlie ten kingdoms, all anima- ted by tlie ^(pirit of the papacy lifter its rise, and shewing the same hostility to the faithful servants of Jesus as the same beast shewed while pagan, and before his ten horns sprung up. When Jobi\ wrote, the (hnninion of Daniel's three tirA beasts had passed away ; and his visions, therefore, in as far as they relate to INtystery Habylon, had respect onlv to tlie fourth and last beast, that is, the Uoman. " The World" has a larger sig- nification, extending as I believe, to all parts comprehended un- der Nebuchadnezzar's Image, or the four great monarchies, and perhaps, in some instances, to "the north paits" [Ezek. xxxviii. 15], north of the Rhine and Danube to the polar seas. 1 believe it includes the Russian Empire as well as the Turk- ish : for Russia being O^o, head of the Greek apostacy, as Tur- key is of the Mahom ian, it must also come in for its share in the judgment : and there is no reason for excluding one apostf.jy from judgment, while upon the other it is poured out. The (Treek church is in many things cpiitc as corrupt as the papacy. The chief difference lies in her not assuming that blasphemous mockery of the ISfelchisedec kingdom and priesthood of the Lord Jesus which has distinguished the papacy from all other I Doctrine of the Great Day of God. n ithin the eiited in by the licnl lim- Ji of the 7lif»cy, is I Romnn e north, louth in |)oisoned ns, who bad per- itrov the [) deadly d Chris- icrniany tail) and oms arc vision of Daniel's This I animn- ving the le same ling up. beasts s thev th and .cr sig- d tin- 's, and Ezek. ir seas. Turk- le s Tni- are in osta.;y The apacy. emous of the other II forms of wickedness, and which makes it even to exceed in enormity the lie of Mahomet. This accounts for the chief place the Mother of Harlots and Abominations holds in the transactions of the day of wrath. It was this mockery of the kingdom io come which led to the assumption of infallibility, and of her right to shed the blood of all who would not bow down and worship her. As all former judgments have been for the wickedness of man, which hv^d come to the fall in defiance of all God's gra- cious warnings and severe threatcnings ; so it will be in that which is yo.i to come : lor God never executes judgments upon nations ai)d bodies of men, until their wickedness has bpcqmc incurable, and their reformation hopeless. This in substance is stated in the following scriptures: "Heboid, the Lord mak- eth the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scatterePli abroad the inhabitants thereof The land shall be u'terly emj)ticd and spoiled: for the Lord hath spoken this word. The Earth mournclh and fadetli away, the icurld languisbelb and fadeth away, the haughty people of the (!arth do languish. The earth also is defiled under the inhab- itants thereof; because they have transgressed tlie laws, chang- ed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore the curse bath devoured the earth, aiid they that dwell therein arc desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceed! 'y. The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be remov- ed like a cottage ; and the lrans!J!;rcsswn thereof shall be henry up- on it; fiND IT SHALL FALL AND NOT RISK AGAIN. A 0(1 it sliall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall punisli t!ie host of tiic high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth. And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit." Lsaiab xxiv. This gathering toge- ther appears to be the same as the gathering of the kings of the earth, and of the whole world, to the war of the great day of God Almighty by the three unclean spirits in Rev xvi. 13, 14. Both jHopheoies seem to conteniplate countries without the bounds of the Roman earth ; for, besides the earth, one men- tions the world, and t!d with Jom as rolling np tying in the h utter And a cast it Doctrine of the Great Day of God. 29 into the sea. saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all :" and with 2 Peter iii. 10 : "The Day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night ; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, [the heat of popular frenzy], the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up." — 5. The desola- tions indicated in these prophetic notices are wholly without a parallel in the history of the past, if we take into view their great extent, their awful severity, and the completeness of the wreck and ruin left behind them. And what so much adds to the awfulness of its character is, that God makes these wicked nations the executioners of his righteous vengeance upon one another. Indeed, I feel warranted in believing, that when it is finished, there will not be a remnant of a people standing in government, institutions, and ordinances within the bounds of the four great monarchies ; for the whole Image, when smitten by the Stone, was ground to powder [Luke xx. 18], and be- came as chaft' of the summer threshing floor. The same things are foretold in the second Psalm, in which the Father saith to the Son, " Ask of me, and 1 shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them in pieces with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a pot- ter's vessel." And in Psalm ex. to this effect: " The Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou on my right hand, until 1 make thine enemies thy footstool .... The Lord at thy right hand shalj* strike through kings in the day of h.o wrath. He shall judg«^ among the heathen, he shall fill the places with the dead bodies ; he shall wound the heads over many countries." This is an evident allusion to Jesus sitting on the right hand of the Majes- ty on high, from the time of his ascension from mount Olivet, until that time " when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ." 2 Thess. i. 7. — I further have ground to believe, that the heathen nations, which have never acknow- ledged the Gospel, will also be affected more or less by the judgment of the great day : for the Gospel has been preached *^for a witness^^ to them all, and they have all rejected it : but they are not guilty of the aggravated sin of apostacy ; an^ hence I conceive they will be " beaten with few stripes" in noniparison of the piofessing Christian nations. V>v^ vi m M '■ ' [ft s& Doctrine of th6 Great J)ay oj God. ■! w if;! H:'iil .lli ! : i I M Nebuchadnezzar^s Image gave a combined and kind of per- sondl view of the four great monarchies ; the Babylonian being the head of gold, the Medo-Persian the breast and arms of sil- ver ; the Graeco-Macedonian the belly and thighs of brass ; and the Roman, the last, with its ten-toed division into the ten pa- pal kingdoms, the legs and feet of iron. In a subsequent vision of Daniel, the same things are shewn to him under the symbol of four beasts, the last of which had ten horns, corresponding with the ten toes of the Image. In Revelation, this last beast appears with seven heads, denoting the seven forms of govern- ment through which Rome passed since its foundation by Rom- ulus, together with the seven hills on wh^ch the city was built : and it has also the ten horns. Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar, that the smiting of the Image on the feet by the Stone, " the Stone of Israel;" its instant annihilation; and the consequent increase of the stone into a great mountain filling the whole earth, did surely signify, that *^ in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be des- troyed : and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever:" thus agreeing with Isaiah as to the utter dissolution of all nations, and their irrecoverable destruction. In the seventh chapter, before the final destruction of the fourth or Roman beast, and en account of the blasphemies against the Most High uttered by the papal little horn, and for his awful cruelties against the saints, *'the judgment was set, and the books were opened. Daniel beheld then because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake : lie beheld even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame." This relates to the whole Roman earth or rFes/crii empire of the ten horns or kingdoms, and is identical with the destruction of " all nations" or " Idumea" in Isaiah x^cxiv. 5, 6; and of Babylon and the beasts in Rev. xvii. xviii.; and with the harvest and vintage of the earth in Rev. xiv. 14 to end. When the Store, in Nebuchadnezzar's vision smote the Ro- man part or feet of the Image, the whole Image went to dust. — In the seventh chapter, as ^^ concerning the rest of the beasts," namely, the Babylonian, Persian, and Grecian, ^4hey had their dominion taken away: yet their lives were prolonged for a sea- «on and a time." This signifies, that when the Image receive! it3 4eath^blow from the stone, the whole of it will be in ^;u9- J)octnne of the Great Day of God. 31 tence, though not enjoying " their dominion.'' This ^' domiD- ion" I understand of the chief power holding in captivity the two tribes and the great body of Christ's followers: for under the symbol of one beast of prey, the whole Roman earth is rep^ resented as one pmcer of Salan during its whole history. Ac- cordingly we find, at this " time of the end", the Babylonian existing in the Turks, who came originally from the region of the literal Babylon, and now hold it in title ; the Persian king- dom existing within its ancient limits; and the Greek kingdcMB raised up in these our days by Divine Providence to take its part in tne judgment of the great day : which exhibits the com- plete Image now standing and waiting to receive its final death stroke, after the papal harlot shall have been trodden down. — At the time the Image is smitten, he has the feet and toes of a man ; and at the time the last beast is destroyed, he has his ten horns. This shews that when the judgment falls upon them, the ten papal kingdoms will all be in being: and St. John informs us, that these shall make war with the lamb : that is, they shall all have become anti-christian and infidel, and shall be engaged in wars and policies subversive of the gospel, and calculated to banish it out of the world. *'The horns which thou sawest are ten kings. ...These shall make war with the Lamb and the Lamb shall overcome them." When the image vanishes, — when the beasts are finally de- stroyed, then the The Fifth Monarchy comes upon the theatre of prophecy, and this which follows shall be fulfilled : " I saw in the night visions, and behold, One like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought him near before Him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, na- tions, and languages should serve him : his dominion is an ev- erlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdrm that which shall not be destroyed." Dan. vii. 13, 14. This is one and the same with the great event under the seventh trum- pet. " And the seventh angel sounded ; and there were great voices in heaven saying. The kingdoms of this world are be- come the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ ; and he shall reign for ever and ever," Rev, xi. 15. It is the same also with the events under the seventh vial, when, on pouring it out, ** there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done ! And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings ; and there was a great earthqake, suqh If M4l • " ■''31 ,. l;., I.' I,: I- 1 r ifei' i; ' H' I i':| i;': III: I'U'f ! 1 If S2 Pcnod 0/2300 days. as was not since met were upon the earth, so mighty an earth- quake and so great. And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. And every Island fled away, and the mountains were not found," Rev. xvi. 17 — 20. This is immediately after the three Uiiclean spirits had done their work of gathering together the kings and their armies " to the battle [or war] of the great day of God Almighty." VI. Scripture proof of the time when . «; 1 priests, and an holy nation." This covenant, though for a time suspended, is not abolished. When the Messiah was born, wise men came from the east as a parly canccrnedy saying, ^* Where is he that is born king of the Jews ?" Is it probable that heathen people would have come on such an errrand ? I say no, when we consider that he was not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and that to no Gentile did he offer the Gospel of the kingdom till after his own people thrust it from them in scorn. Besides, is it probable that heathens at that time were looking to the despised Jews for a king ? But the ten tribes are to be restored to their own land, and at this junc- ture the God of Israel needs the presence of his long banished ones in his holy mountain, seeing that the year of his redeemed is come. Another sign of the times is the going forth of the three un- clean spirits, which event takes place under the sixth vial, and is contemporaneous with the drying up of the Euphrates. — *^ And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spir- its of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the bat- tle of that great day of God Almighty." Rev. xvi. 13, 14. — These three unclean spirits are believed to be, 1. The spirit of iron-hearted arbitrary power and absolute despotism, which neither fears God nor regards man. It is this which gave rise to " the Holy Alliance" among the Continental powers of Eu- rope, and has dictated various and severe precautionary mea- sures, at different times, to restrain and fence out of their do- minions the wild-fire of revolution and anarchy, of which France, since the first revolution, has been the grand maga- zine. The same spirit has, since the accession of Louis Phil- ippe to the throne of France, rivetted upon the necks of the French a yoke ten times more galling to them than the yoke of an eastern despot is to his subjects, on account of the untamea- ble spirit of democracy that animates so many of the French people. The powers of Europe "repented not to give glory to God" after their respite and restoration on the ruin of him who had been to them so terrible a scourge ; and instead of re- penting of their wickedness, of their infidelity, and of their fornication* with the papacy, they returned again to their old wicked ways, and went about fortifying themselves by their Penod of 2300 Days. 35 own devices against a recurrence of the scourge of the Ahnigh- ty. — 2. The second evil spirit is that of Infidel Lawlessness, the fierce antagonist and deadly enemy of the first. It came into manifestation at the PVench Revolution ; was curbed and diverted by Buonaparte, and again by the European powers af> ter his downfall ; and now lies like a wild beast ensnared, gnawing off his chains, and preparing to leap forth and destroy his keepers. It is that which has carried all the revolutionary measures in England from the repeal of the corporation and test acts down to the present hour ; — which has caused all the dif- ficulties in Lower Canada ; which has so much agitated Upper Canada within ten or twelve years past; which has armed the terrible "Judge Lj-^nch" with extemporaneous legislative and executive powers in so man v jnii tj of the United States ; and which bids fair to demolish every thing worth preservation. — It is that spirit which is the demon of the public press, which has of late become one of the deadliest curses that ever af- flicted f;dlen man. There is now a fair proportion of newspa- per Editors who, in a well ordered state, could hardly be per- mitted to live. They are infinitely more dangerous to the pub- lic weal than a hundred times their number of armed despera- does. — 3. The third unclean spirit is that of Superstition in the Papacy, labouring to conquer the other two, and again subju* gate and enslave mankind in chains of darkness and death. Its assumption of InfiUlibility cuts it off from repentance to the ac- knowledging of the truth, and precludes the retraction and sur- riender of a single claim it has ever set forth, however absurd or wicked ; and hence all its claims to universal dominion live in hopes by the power of satanical delusion as undying as those of the Jew to the land of promise. The papacy was never more active and sanguine than at this present time. Her exer- tions and her successes within a few years past are both won- derful and instructive to those who are not stone blind to the signs of the times ; and to many have caused most serious alarm on both sides of the Atlantic. The important lodgment she has made, by means of Protestant Treason and Infidelity, in the British Legislature, has greatly encouraged and strength- ened her delusive hopes. Perhaps I should have ranked under the second head the fanatical rage for societyships and voluntary associations which has invaded England and America under the sixth yial; but on this point I cannot here enlarge* I can only ol»erft in pass- ■■■ . i'ii' I p. II S! pi'' r; 11 P'f 1^^ i|ig, that theif natural result is, tl»e setting aside of God's or* 4inWes to m^e rooin for human inventions. God has oiidai«r ed two ordinances, the chi^rch aiod the state ; the first for all n^ral instruction and discipline ; the second to be '* a tenor ^ evil doers, am) a praise to them that do well." These two, ih God's estimation and design, are am:ply competent (or every thing that ought to be done either in church or state. But our new discovery qnd adoption of society ships and political unioDS and other voluntai-y associationa, dp declare these two ordinan* ces of God to be utterly unfit for the ends he had in view in giving them to roan, ami placing man under their control; and so v/e have hewed out to ourselves these new cisterns to contain the water of life, and deserted the old. This accounts for a large portion of the Radicalism that is abroad. The king's cabinet is superseded by the daily press, and so forth and so forth down to the end of the chapter. — The Temperance Soci- ety in the United States is about abolishing an ordinance of our Lord in the use of wine in the Eucharist. A paper now lying before me contains an extract from a Temperance Journal, which describes the use of wine in the Holy Communion as *' liquid damnation administered in the consecrated chalice ?" — Surely such monstrous blasphemy growing out of this delusion of Satan ought to open our eyes to the danger of going after other gods which our fathers have not known. The following account of the three unclean spirits is extract- ed from a small volume on the Apocalypse : " The sfHrits of three devils are gone forth to the kings of the parth, and of the whole world, to prepare them for the last mighty Antichristian confederacy, by undermining every righteous and holy princi- ple, and possessing mankind with every species of demoniacal delusion. The spirit coming out of tha mouth of the dragon, represents the brutal tyranny and oppression of the rulers of the Roman earth, struggling to retain in their convulsive grasp their tottering power and authority. That out of the mouth of the infi lei beast, describes the revolutionary spirit of anarchy and revolt, of insubordination and resistance to all rule, and im- patience of every moral and religious restraint, which has been foisted upon Europe, as the result of increasing knowledge, speciously demanding a more extended and enlightened liberal- ity. The nations of Christendom are eaten up with this false principle : it is making its insidious progress into the most sa* tred precincts. But if it be a light, it is, as the text describes^ Pitiod bf tSOO />djf*. t'i i a ^leftm borrowed from the deepest hell. 'The papacy iis meaht by the false prophet : which designatioft is retailed in chap. xix. to distinguish this superstition fr6m the infidel power, who is henceforth denominated the bea«t. This describes the ef- forts of the Papal Hierarchy to re-establish ilself ; and sUrefy no period of its history exhibits more extended or indefatiga- ble exertions to re-constitute its lost influence, than has been put forth since its resumption of politieal and ecclesiastical power. This she has effected through the assistance of this spirit of demoniacal liberality, and has acquired a footing in this Protestant «ountry, which she never could attain unto since the Reformation. But it is like those dyniisties which were suc- cessively swept from their base, and have now received tem- porary restoration, in order to their utter demolition at the battle of Armageddon. The whole of Europe is one vast the- atre of these conflicting spirits of absolute rulers, liberals, and apostaticals, and men's hearts seem conscious of some indefinite change about to happen, some mighty crisis near at hand, which shall alter the features of society, and develope some momen- tous era in the history of the world. And thus it is — but none of the wicked shall understand — though * the wise shall under- stand' " Page S3; printed^ London, \S29. But there is another and surer means of ascertaining that we are near " the time of the end : " I mean by the prophetic numbers given to the prophet Daniel* In his vision, ch. viii., which relates to the desolations of Israel, the treading down of Jerusalem by the Gentiles, theil* final deliverance by the com- ing of Messiah, and their perpetual establishment in their oWh land, he ^* heard one saint speaking, £md another saint said unto that certain saint which spake. How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, and th6 transgression of desola- tion« to give both the sanHuary and the host to be trodden un- der foot ? And he said unto me, unto two thousand and three hundred days ; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed,'' verses 13, 14. That a day is here set for A y^^r I hardly heed at- tempt to prove ; for if literal days of tWehty^fdur hours takih are to be understood, then thid whole 6f fhem would li^ ^ntount to ftix years and a half ^ dnd still we S^ JerU^dem ^^ trodden down of the Gentiles^ unto thii 6ky, By the stiAt- ginal date, this nuniher WHi^ glveii to Dekhiel 65a year^ hefortt the birth of Chr^t : ai}4 if we ditte the «oikl»aelitetttent Of th« period 1ft that year} we tthskl fihd it fO hat6 been vder, and scattered before the wind ; and the fourth beast "destroyed, and his body given to the burning flame." If it be obiected, That we cannot be sure that the great pe- riod of 2300 yeais begins with the lesser period of seventy Aveeks, or the going forth of the last commandment for restor- ing Jerusalem, because it is not expressly said it shoii'^d then begin, I answer : We have seen tiiat it could not possibly have begun either when Daniel saw the vision, or at the giving of either of the two first commandments ; for then all the events mentioned as to transpire within the 2300 years, must have been completed more than forty years since. For the date of Daniel's vision, B, C. 553, being deducted from the 2300, leaves A. 'D. 1747 as the end: the date of the first commandment, 53G, being deducted, leaves 1764 : and that of the second, 520, being deducted, leaves 1780. The third decree for finishing the city, given B. C. 453, therefore, furnishing the only remain- ing hint given in Holy Writ for the commencement of the 2300 years, we must adopt that or none ; and that being the year 453 B. C. leaves the year of our Lord 1847 as the year of the r mpletion of that great period, and the fulfilment of all the events foretold in all the prophets, down to the giving of the kingdop? ot the whole world to " the people of the saints of the Most High ;" and to make room for that kingdom, the Im- age and the Beasts and the Scarlet Whore must all be judged and destroyed. Furthermore, it is evidently as necessary for the church to kiiow the commencement of the 2300 years, as it was to know that of the Seventy Weeks, which were a part of them, or that of the 430 years oppressions in Egypt ; otherwise there would be no limit of time presented to us within which to bring the events of time, ana the great end of prophecy would be defeated, which is, to warn the church of coming events and the neighborhood of their approach, and to have a true ground of judgment on which to convict her of apostacy and unbelief in turning aside from the prophetic word after her own wisdom. Prophecy is given also to keep alive expectation, that when the church sees the premonitory signs coming to pass, she may lift up her head, knowing that her redemption draweth nigh. Luke xxi. 28. Dates are given tn the prophetic periods, and signs whereby some of them may Le ascertained during the progress M IM rKi*: ■I 'i 40 Period of 2300 Days. m ■ ■k V: !lt , ;'i ill t m Sir?! : )|.r;,i : ••ill; In I ■hi IliVl'li II I of fulfilment, to inform th& church when they begin and when they will end. If such is not the end of the dates and periods and signs, or the actings of prophetic personages, it is hard to conceive what is their object in being given. If the prophetic announcements were thrown out into the limitless void of time indefinite, as they are in all the prophets except Daniel and St. John, the things predicted could never appear as things to fall within the experience of any particular generation of men, — as tangible realities, and we should float down the stream of time witliout chart or compass or waymarks ; and therefore, that prophecy might be to us a light shining in a dark place, God was graciously pleased to furnish us with the chronology of prophecy by Daniel and John. The giving of periods were little elsfj than a mockery if the means of ascertaining their beginning and ending were not also given ; and hence the giv- ing of dates and waymarks is just as necessary as the giving of periods, God was careful to furnish these dates and waymarks so early in the course of events foretold, as that the church should have ample time of preparation for the approach of the ro^re important ones. It was so of the seventy weeks : and the thing itself shews that it is as needful to know within what period the Lord^s seco.id coming to judgment is comprehended, as within what period his first coming and sulTering were com- prehended ; inasmuch as a great and fearful judgment is the an- nounced attendant upon each event. Each period is a definite period, having a beginning and an ending, and containing a giv- en number of years. The Jews knew when th6 lesser period began and when it ended for a considerable time before it did end; and there is now no dispute with us concerning it, because it lays upon us of this day no claims for the performance of any duty against which the natural man would be roused to rebel- lion ; for it is a thing past and gone : and by parity of reason there is nought why we of this day should not in like manner have the means of knowing the time of the opening and close of the longer period. The Jews were not more concerned, as a nation and a church, in the events of the seventy week^ and their closing circumstances, than the christian nations are with the events and closing circumstances of the 2300 years. But the Jews as a church and nation rejected the evidence of pro- phecy which went hefoire on Messiah ; and there are causes urging U9 to reject the evidence of dates, and disbalieve and deny the prophecy, aoc^dii\g to the ei^ample of th^ Jews : m^A IH; Period cf 2300 Days. 41 these are, that the prophecies call upon us £or laith, obedience, prepar^ofi, trust in God, walking in the Holy Ghost, and ^' looking tor and hastily; unto the coming of the day of God", to which the rebel will of man refuses submission. There were mighty events connected with the first consing of the Son of Man, of which God was pleased to warn the Jews before- hand. There are also events still more stupendous coib- nected with his second coming, — events of tremendous inter- est both to Jew and Gentile, of which botli are distinctly warned in all the prophets : and I repeat it, — there is the same reason why ail parties concerned should have the means of knowing the very year of the completion of the 2300 days, in order to oe prepared for these mighty events, that there was for the Jews to have the means of knowing the year of the ending of the seventy weeks. God judged the Jews, destroy- ed their city, and sent them into a long and painful captivity until the times of the Gentiles shall be fulfilled, because, refu- sing to understand the prophecies, they knew not the time of their visitation by their King, and rejected him. And so also the mighty destruction about to fall upon Christendom will come because of the same evil heart of unbelief m refusing to believe the prophetic word declaring these things. The Jews expected their Messiah when he first came, and even down to the very day the Romans took their city, they confidently expected his manifestation on their behalf, to set up his kingdom, and subdue the world : and in fact he is still to be m 'Aifested to them at a crisis much like that when Titus tooL Jr • irmler as we learn by Zechariah xi v. 1 , 2, 3 : " Behold, the (v jf the Lord cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the miUi t of thee. For I will gather all nations against Jeru- salem to baUle ; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished ; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city. Then shall the Lord go forth, tud fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day c5 battle. t^nd his feet shall st'ind in that day upon, the mount of Olives, which is ^y:fore Jerusalem or, the east,'''' — the very spot of his Ascension. hid >ey eatirely overlooked his humiliation, and fixed the eye of hope upon him in the character and style of his second Advent, when he comes as the " Man of War ;" — for "The Lord is a Man of war : the Lord is his name." Exodus xv. 3. The QUpiMlei are now enaeting a like aeene of unbelief, roversing im '•'4 II ■; 'i.a m m . • J 42 Period of 2300 Days. It -I!' U- i; \il II I'' wi m the tragedy, and rejecting him in his second coming : for now that the time draws nigh in which he shall smite the great Image, and destroy the beastly wicked powers, and cast out Satan, and purify all nature, and purge away the sin of men in the flesh, and establish his righteous ^nd everlasting kingdom on the ruins of the wisdom and works of Satan and of Man, the great majority disbelieve the prophecies, and mock and ridicule the notion of his coming at all within any given time cogniza- ble by man ; for which cause he will come upon them unawares, and with tenfold severity in comparison of his treatment of the Jews : for he will find every nation in Christendom in open re- bellion against him ; not one of them all looking or caring for or desirihg his c* ning ; but all taking their measures just as if God had no existew -nd the earth and men were eternal in their present sinful, u* ursed, and miserable condition. It is true, we hear among Christians much about the Lord's spiritual coming, or coming in the Spirit: but what meaneth this ? Cer- tainly nothing is to be found in Holy Writ as a thing still future in regard to this dispensation of the Holy Ghost : for he came spiritually, or by the Spirit, on the day of Pentecost to abide forever ; and to the believer so doth he ever come, proceeding from the Father and the Son, and bringing both the Father and the Son into the hearts of the faithful. Nay, by the Spirit he walketh continually up and down among the seven golden can- dlesticks, that is, all the churches without exception, taking note of the love and works of all. But if his second coming, on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory, when ev- ery eye shall see him, is to be considered as a Spiritual in op- position to a personal bodily coming ; then must we believe that his ascension in his risen body is a mere fable ; that he never did ascend up on high : for the angels told the disciples, that ** this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall 80 come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." But in this manner he has not yet come ; no, nor ever will, if these Spiritualizers are to be believed. What I wonder would they make of the clouds on which he is to come, and of his vi- sibility to the eyes of man9 Or how would they manage to spir- itualize the passage just above quoted from the prophet Zecha- riah ? But the Jews in their turn have grown wiser. They are now looking to the completion of the 2300 years as the era of Xhe'xr final deliverance, — and as all their prophets have declared. if ; for now the great 1 cast out of men in ; kingdom Man, the d ridicule s spiritual is ? Cer- till future • he came ; to abide "oceeding ather and Spirit he Iden can- 1, taking coming, ivhen ev- lal in op- ieve that he never )les, that en, shall leaven." r will, if ?r would )f his vi- to spir- i Zecha- hey are \e era of eclared, % Period of 2300 Days. of the utter destruction of the nations their cruel oppressors. Believing they are to be restored at a Jubilee, that season of deliverance, ("The year of Jubilee is cone; Return, ye ransomed sinners home") : and expecting, by chronology, that a Jubilee will occur on or near the year 1842, they look to be restored about that time* They believe as I do, that God would not mock them with a prophecy ol' their final deliverance at the end of a given period, and yet withhold from them the means of knowing its beginning and ending until after its completion. When they went into their first captivity, they were told it would end at the end of seventy years from its beginning ; and it was a knowledge of this fact which led Daniel (ix. 2), in the first year of Darius, to prefer his earnest prayer that God would hasten to put an end to all IsraeVs tribulations. But that was only a partial return of barely two tribes : and as to their deliverance from the oppres- sions and cruelties of the great Image and the beastly powers, it was no deliverance at all. In reality, the captivity has con- tinued, of the ten tribes, from the fall of Samaria by the king of Assyria, and of the other two, from the carrying away into Babylon unto this day. And since God was pleased to fore- shew the very year of their partial return to their own land, to enjoy the privileges of their temple worship, and that they might be in a condition to receive their Messiah at his own house ; should he not also inform them as particularly of the time when their universal and final deliverance shall be com- pleted, and the sanctuary cleansed ? He has done so, in this prophecy of the period of 2300 years captivity, which will surely be ended in the year of our Lord 1847. If again it be objected, 1 hat so many and so great events cannot be expected to come to pass within so short a period as yet remains of the 2300 years, and that the aspect of the world by no means favors the supposition, — I answer : When Moses first went to Pharaoh, there was nothing in the visible world to indicate the great events about to be unfolded, — though doubt- less Moses was not ignorant of the promise of God to Abra- ham, that at the end of four hundred and thirty years his seed should experience a great deliverance, and see great judgments inflicted on their oppressors : — yet within two years after were all those wondrous things accomplished upon Egypt, the Red Sea passed, the Law given, the tribes organized and marshalled, 1 1.:-'' m M i: i k 1^ i If'.' il if i; r-; m. h 44 Panod of 2300 Days. the tabernade reared, and the nation ready to go up and pos- isess the land of Canaan. When the French Revolution first commenced its operations, no one could have believed that in a few short years it was going to overturn almost every throne in Europe. In 1789 there was little or no appearance of the workings of that power which so suddenly started forth as a giant from the bottomless pit, armed with the weapons and the energy of hell and destruction. But now the agency of the disorganizing power, — the march of lawlessness and infidel rad- icalism, which came then into extensive operation, are visible and prominent in the eyes of all men. But we forget that the hand of God is in it all ; and when He works, who shall pre- sume to limit his power, or prescribe his actions by the bounds of time ? It is the Lord himself who sets his hand again the sec- ond time to gather his people and punish their enemies, and who shall say. What doest thou ? We are so leavened with in- fidelity, that we are unwilling to admit that God can work fas- ter than man, or that his ways are not as our ways, or that be can work at all unless we please to allow him. The policy of all nations has now become as atheistic as the dogmas of the philosophers and political experimenters, and the faith of the million has come down to the same level. N. B. — The seven heads of the Roman beast are believed to be seven forms of government, namely, 1, Kings : 2, Consuls : 3, Dictators: 4, Decemvirs: 6, Military Tribunes: 6, Emperors; 7, The Infidel Head set up in Buonaparte. The angel said to John, Rev. xvii. 9, 10, "The seven heads are seven moun- tains, on which the Woman s'tteth. And there are seven kings : five are fallen, one is, and the other is not yet come ; and when he Cometh, he must continue a short space." Mountains are eminences of power. The seven heads or mountains are pres- ently called kings, that is, powers or heaca of rule. Five of these had passed away when John saw the vision ; the sixth, or Imperial head was then in being, and the seventh was to suc- ceed to it as head of the whole beast. The sixth was wound* ed to death in Augustulus : bis deadly wound was healed in the Emperor Charlemagne, and continued down in the Emperor of Austria until, in 1806, he resigned his name, title, and author* ity of Emperor ; and Buonaparte, assuming the title, and adding Kome soon after to his dominions, constituted the seventh or Infidel Head. This infidel head grew out of the French Bet^ o4iitlon, and subjected the papacy and papal kingdoms to its (ma Prmnises of permaneni ReHwaHon to th« Jews. 46 authority .-^l m •iSt, if.'f \'S^ III: m 54 Pf&mis&s of permanmt Rist&ratim to the Jtwrn ary shiatt be lA the midftt of them fbrevermore.?' Thi^Fako de^ eisrttes their delitmranee fmm- tUe contipttoii of original sin m tertBS too strong to be mistakeii^ The same* iff declareck m Isafah xxxiii. 20, 24; *' Look upon- Zion, the city of oUr sot- leninities : thine eyes shail se«f^ Jerusalem a quiet habitatioiiy a tsbernaele that shall ncft be taben down ; not one of the staked thei^of shall ever be removed^ neither shall airy of the eoTdS! thereof be broken .... And iiie inhal 'tant shall not say, I am sick : the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their ini- quity." This also declarers the entire cleansing from sin, the eause oi sickness. See also Psalm cxxi., and hundreds of pas^ sages more. Let us now turn to the New Testament. In the first chapter of Luke we read, that when the angel Gabriel came to the Virgin Mary, he said unto her : " Fear not, Mary : for behold thou hast found favour with God. And, behold, thou shalt con*- ceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be groat, and shall be called the Son of the Highest ; and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: and he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end." As saith al- so Isaiah a Jew : " For unto us a child is born, unto vs a Son is given : and the government shall be upon his shoulder : and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the in- crease of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David ^ and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to es- tablish it with judgment and with justice, from henceforth even for ever." Now, has Christ ever yet ascended the throne of his father David ? And if he never will, in the literal sense of the words, how in the name of wonder are all these prophecies and promises to be fulfilled ? How w ill our spiritualizers and per- veriers of plain language manage to place Jesus upon the throne and kingdom of David, as David's promised heir, if we are not to understand these words according to their only apparent meaning ? Ezekiel, reproving the wickedness of the Kings of Israel saith : " And thou profane wicked prince of Israel, whose day is come, whose iniquity shall have an end, thus saith the Lord God ; Remove the diadem, and take off the crown : this shall Lot be the same : exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high. I wilt overturn, overturn, overturn, it ; and it shall be no more, until he come whose right it is : and I will give it Promises of permanent Restoration to the Jews. 5» Mp hiic," xxi. 35-^2.7. Tho laat of David's line that sat upon the throne was Zedekiah, who lived when Ezekiel prophesied ; and not another shall '* until Shiloh come,*' '* whose right it is." The eighty ninth Psalm was given concerning David's house, in which complaint is made of the removal of the diadem, for the cause stated by Ezekiel; " I will make him my first born, higher than the kings of the earth. My mercy will I keep for him for evermore, and my covenant shall stand fast with him. His seed also will I make to endure forever, and his throne as the days of heaven. If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments ; if they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments ; then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless ray lov- ing kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing, that is gone out of my lips. Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David. His seed shall en- dure forever, and his throne as the sun before me It shall be established forever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven. But thou hast cast off and abhorred, thou hast been wroth with thine anointed. Thou hast made void the covenant of thy servant : thou hast profaned his crown by casting it to the ground. Thou hast broken down all his hedges ; thou hast brought his strong holds to ruin. All t1 pass by the way spoil him: he is a reproach to his neighf ois. . ..Thou hast made his glory to cease, and cast his throne down to f Vic ground." But his throne shall again be set up no more to fall; and these scriptures demonstrate the provision made of God for the ful- filment of all the recited promises. But to proceed. Guided of God, the wise men came from the east at his birth, inquiring, " Where is he that is born king of the Jews?"*"^ And wheii Herod enquired of the priests and scribes, where Christ should be born, they answered " In Bethlehem of Judea : for thus it is written by the prophet, and thou, Bethlehem, in th< land of Judah, art not the least among the princes of Judah : for out of thee shall come forth a Governor, who shall rule my people IsraeV^ The song of Zacharias is in the same full strain of testimony : for Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost, and prophesied, saying. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel ; for he hath visited and redeemed his people, and hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in tli£ house of his servant David ; as he spake by the mouth of hia Holy prophets, which have been .' , ." If- 56 Promises of permanent Restoration to the Jncs, w ,;■ 4 "tt-"" .since the world began : that we should bo saved from our ene- mies, and from the hand of all that hate us ; to perform the mercy promised to our faihers, and to remember his holy cove- nant ; the oath which he sware to our father Abraham, that he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life." As Daniel had thought at the close of the captivity, so now thought Zach- arias, that the time of final deliverance to Israel had come : and indeed it was near, had Zion but known the time of her visita- tion : for when He began to preach, he went forth " preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God, and saying. The time is FULFILLED, AND THE KINGDOM OF GoD IS AT HAND *. repent yC and believe the Gospel," Mark 1, 15. Aged Simeon also de- clared of him : " Mine eyes have seen thy salvation which thou hajt piepared before the face of all people ; a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel ^''^ in distinction from all other peoj)le. Though he has been a light for the Gentiles of which they have availed themselves but little, and are now on the point of rejecting him in his glorious appearing; yet to the house of Israel he has heretofore been only a stone of stumb- ling and rock of offence : and as to their being a people^ he nev- er can be a glory to them according to the heresy I am contend- ing against. But his people Israel shall be willi^ig in the day of his power ; not during his humiliaiion, nor yet durine; his mediation at'the right hand of the Father ; but when he cometh on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. Again : *' The superscription of his accusation" when he was crucified bore the same testimony ; for, as he was " born king of the Jews," so was he crucified under that title. The resur- rection of Christ is also set forth by Pet( r (Acts ii. 29, 30), as having a special bearing upon the final restoration of Israel ; for he saith that David, " being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit upon his throne ; he seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ." In good faith towards plain statements, T can make nothing of the throne of David and his kingdom but the throne of David and his kingdom, the latter being the literal land of Canaan, and the former the seat of royalty on Mount Zion. — The same relation to his people Israel is maintained, furthermore, during his session at the right hand of God, until '•'' his appear- Promises of permanent Restoration to the Jews, 57 [ore, lear- ing and his kingdom ;" for *^ Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel^ and forgiveness of sins" (Acts v. 31); to make them willing in the day of his power. This declaration wa&t made to Israel as Israel, and not to Gentiles, or Jews as mem- bers of the Gentile church ; for it was made before the Apos- tles knew of God's purpose of turning to the Gentiles for a season, and leaving Israel in unbelief until the fulness of the Gentiles should be come in. The ex. Psalm runs thus : " The Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool. The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion : rule thou in the midst of thine ene- mies. Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power," namely, the Jews, when he turneth his hand again the second time to gather Israel out of all nations. And as to his giving repentance to Israel, and putting away their sin, it is fully sta- ted in texts already quoted, besides many more, one of which I shall here add from Zechariah xii. 9, 10 ; "And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all nations that come against Jerusalem. And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and supplication : and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for hitn as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bittern. ;ss for him as one is in bit- terness for his first born." They shall feel when they see him as the sons of Jacob felt on a somewhat similar occasion, " when Joseph made himself known unto his brethren." But this is after the city is taken and plundered by the army of Gog. Compare Zech. xiv. 1 — 4, with Ezek. xxxviii. xxxix. That the dispersion was with a view to restoration is man- ifest from Luke xxi. 24 : " And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations : and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled :" which is equivalent to asserting their restoration. In Acts xv. 14, it is broadly announced by James, who said, " Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them (not all of them) a people for his name. And to this agree the words of the pro- phets ; as it is written, After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down ; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up : that the re- sidue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, m i '-ill r:m m ft*.: irf f M ■V*:' :«;■> ■1- J ■ Mil}' I** i ■idi! I'* l|iv :*;■ * m m PromUw of permanent Reetoratum to the Jews, upen^whom my name is called^ saith the Lord." This ib a hard text for the SpirittMUzers; for Lsee not how they can con* vert the tabernacle of David here, which was fallen into ruins, intathe Christian Church, which was just then emerging fr.om: the ruins of the JewishChurch; and especially as the re-build- ing, of the tabernacle of David) which lies in ruin» during the times of the Gentiles, is to be after the election from among the Gentiles is completed. Moreover,. James makes the in- gathering of the remainder of the Gentiles, to depend upon the restoraition of the Jews. That restoration is also thus stated by- St. Paul, Rom. xi. S5. " For I would not brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this m} iry^ lest ye should be wise in jour own conceits ; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written. There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. — For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.'^ This again declares the full purging of the house of Israel from all ungodliness, vis. from original sin, and the making them a new lump. There is also this promise made to the twelve apostles. Mat. xix. 28, " Verily I say unto you. That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration, when the Son of Man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Isra- el." And when they asked him, " Wilt thou at this lime re- store again the kingdom to Israel," his answer evaded the di- rect question, but contained nothing condemnatory of their full belief that he intended to restore it at some time : a course in- consistent with truth had God determined never to restore it. — They afterwards learned that the fulness of the Gentiles must first be come in ; and indeed his answer signified as much, for he told them that they should go forth and be witnesses unto him in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth. He had before told them that Jerusalem should be trodden down of the Gentiles wntil their fulness were come in^ Now the sum of the matter is thi^ ; That the name and ti- tle and memorial unto everlasting, which God derived unto himself from the people with whom he came into everlasting covenant, namely, The God of Abraham, as God of the fa-f ther of many nations ; the God of Israel, as God of a peculiar people, his peculiar inheritance forever 'j^^Fw the Lord hath chosen. Jttdgmentr ori tkt JttiPs Oppre9»&n'i S9' re- di- full linto ting fa- lliar 7i^ ; h6 hath desired it' for his^ habitation. This i» toy rest' ((3itriiLoverthrow the char- iota aodlhose that ride in them; and the horses and their riders ^hall come down, every one by the sword of his brother." — (See also Zech. xiv. 1 — 4, and other passages too numerous to transcribe. Such is the testimony of the Holy Ghost to the fact, that at !the final cestoration^f Israel, ev«ry nation in ChristeDdom shall lie utterly destroyed, as far as institutions and government are eoneerned, for their apostaoy from the Gospel, and their .wick- .ed oppressions of God's people, many of them by far exceeding the cruel bondage of Egypt. Of this God. thus complains by Zechariah, i. 14: ^^Thjs saith the Lord of hosts, I am jealousfor Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy. I am very sore xiispleased with the heathen that are at ease: for I was but a lit- tle displeased, and they helped forward the afiliction. There- fore thus saith the Lord ; I am returned to Jerusalem with.mer- cies: my house shall be built in it, saith the Lord of hosts, and a Jine shall be stretched forth upon Jerusalem." Some of the na- 4ion»hav«>pretend«d,of late years, to shew kindness to the J«'vVs; ,but the spirit in which it is done is vastly more profane and wick- ed > than that in which they were persecuted ; for itis doneinconi* ;tempt of >the kingly authority of our Lord over all nations,!by .that levelling beastly spirit of infidelity which has oyertumeid ;t- »)>:■ ,. f. Sufferings of Ike JewsferHmr will walk in his paths : for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusa- lem," Isa. ii. 1,2. Again: ** And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem ; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea : in summer and winter it shall be. And the Lord shall be king over all the earth : and in that day there shall be one Lord, and his name one. . . . And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles," Zech. xiv. It will be remembered that " living waters" are the Gospel, and that the "seas" are peoples and nations. x\gain : "And they shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desohttions, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolp^^oits of many generations. And strangers, shall stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of the alien sliall be your plowmen and your vine- dressers. But ye shall be named the Priests of the Lord : men shall call you the Ministers of our God : ye shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, and in their glory shall ye boast your- selves. . . . .And their seed shall be known among the Gentiles, and their offspring among t^he people : all that see them shall ac- knowledge them, that they are the seed which the Lord hath blessed," Isaiah Ixi. This is after they have become " trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glo- rified." The finishing of the Gentile dispensation completes the election taken out from among them, and then the Jews are "graffed in again" and made the head of the heathen ; as saith James, Acts xv., "God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name. And to this agree the words of the prophets, as it is written, After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David which is fallen down ; and I will build up again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up: that the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles." XI. Jill thinfs shall be made neic, and the antedeluvian age restored. The restoration and purification of Israel is the preparatory step to the restitution and purification of all things, because Is- rael is made the head of all nations in the flesh. When the Jill things made neto. 69 Gentiles see and acknowledge God's judgments, both against themselves and the Jews, and see the Jews so wonderfully preserved and restored, they will acknowledge the hand of God in it all, and be made willing converts to God. '^ And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them ; and the heathen shall know that I am the Lord, saith the Lord God, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes.... Then the heathen that are left round about you shall know that I the Lord build the ruined places, and plant that which was deso- late," T^zek. xxxvi. 23, 38. "And the heathen shall know that I the Lord do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them forevermore," xxxvii. 28. Thus are we prepared for the restitution of all things ; and thus Isaiah an- nounces God's design of it: "I have put my words in thy mouth, and I have covered thee in the shadow of mine hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, Thou art my people," li. 16. The great day of God Almighty had caused the former heavens and earth in which sin had so long lorded it, to be rolled together and pass away with a great noise, and all their elements to melt with a fervent heat ; and now he saith ; " Behold, 1 make all things new," Rev. xxi. 5. " For, behold, I create new heav- ens and a new earth : and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. But be ye glad and rejoice forever in that which I create : for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people ; and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying. There shall be no more thence an in- fant of days, nor nn old man that hath not filled his days : for the child shall die an hundred years old ; but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed. 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 inha- bit ; they shall not plant, a.d 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." And the pain and misery of child- bearing shall also cease ; for " 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," Isa. Ixv. 17. It appears from the above that men will die during the Mil- r 70 Curse removed ffMt the Mitral Creation mi lenial age, but that they shall *^ live long on the earth/' and come to a good old age, seeing " their ehildrei^'s children, and peace upon Israel," and dying without pain or sickness. It al- so appears that they will not be infallibly preserved against sin; for ^^ the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed.'' But original sin being done away, **In those days they shall say no more, The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the chil- dren's teeth are set on edge. But every one shall die for his own iniquity : every man that eateth the sour grape, his teeth shall be set on edge," Jer. xxxi. 29. In my judgment, every one who sins will be struck dead by the power of God, as An- anias and Sapphira were for lying to the Holy Ghost. XU. The whole earth loill then be delivered from under the curse and bondage of corruption^ and the ground shall be exceedingly fruilfuL The curse came for man's sake, and for the sake of the sec- ond Man, the Lord from heaven, it shall be removed : for all things being made new, there is no place for cursing and bar- renness. " There shall be no more curse," Rev. xxii. 3. — '* For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, because the creature itself also shall be delivered into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation {margin, every creature) groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. — And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body," Rom. viii. 19) namely, from death and the grave ; which glori- ous event he places at the time of the deliverance of the other creatures into the liberty of God's children. "Then shall the earth yield her increase," Psa Ixvii. 6. " Say among the hea- then that the Lord reigneth : the World also ^hall be establish- ed that it shall not be moved : he shall judge the people righte- ously. Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad ; let the sea roar^ and the fulness thereof. Let the field be joyful, and all that is therein : then shall all the trees of the wood re< joice before the Lord : for he cometh, for he eometh to judge the earth : he shall judge the World in righteousness, and the people with bis truth ;" Psalm xovL 10. *' And I will set up one •^poetacy and Judgment of Chmtendom, 71 shepherd over theni) and he shall feed them, even my servant David ; he shall feed them, and he shall be their Shepherd. — And I the Lord will be their God, and my servant David a prince among them ; I the Lord have spoken it. And I will make with them a covenant of peace, and will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land : and they shall dwell safely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods. And I will make them and the places round about my hill a blessing ; and I will cause the shower to come down in his season ; there shall be showers of blessing. And the tree of the field shall yield her fruit, and the earth shall yield her increase, and they shall be safe in their land, and shall know that I am the Lord, when I have broken the bands of their yoke, and delivered them out of the hand of those that served themselves of them. And they shall no more be a prey to the heathen, neither shall the beasts of the land (sec Daniel's four beasts) devour them; but they shall dwell safely and none shall make them afraid," Ezek. xxxiv. 23. *' I will also save you from all your unclean- ness : and I will call for the corn and increase it, and lay no fa- mine upon you. And I will multiply the fruit of the tree, and the increase of the field, that ye shall receive no more reproach of famine among the heathen," Ezek. xxxvi. 29. — Israel being made the head of nations, and they subjected to her in peace, they shall also partake abundantly of her blessings. The reader may observe, that the above scripture scheme is a death blow to all the blasphemous pretensions of the pope to the universal sovereignty of the earth, under the chains of pa- pal darkness and idolatry. XIII. t^postacy and judgment of the Gentile church. The ending of every dispensation of God to man since the creation has been in an Apostacy and a judgment. This is true of the creation state of Adam, if that state was a dispensation. His fall was certainly an apostacy ; and for it be was visited with expulsion from Eden, and through him a curse passed both upon his posterity, and upon the inferior creation, of which he was constituted lord. The ante-deluvian dispensation ended in an apostacy and judgment. At the end of the patriarchial period there was a sore judgment upon Egypt and upon the sev- en nations of Canaan for their aggravated sins ; and even Israel did not escape, as we learn by the heavy judgments upon tha rebellious generation which came out of Egypt. The Jewish m i ■ ■m m K ■;>■{. 72 Aposiacy and Judgment of Christendom. h' ' bi. dispensation ended in a fearful judgment for apostacj from their religion, which was rendered of none effect by their traditions, by which the majority of the nation became so blinded and hardened in sin, that they were incapable of understanding the scriptures and the signs of the times, and so of knowing their Messiah when he came to them. That dispensation was pre- paratory to another, and pointed to it ; and by the Psalms and the Prophets especially, as well as by the promises and the law, the nation ought in a body to have been prepared to part with Moses for Moses' Master, who, when he came, said to them: "If ye had believed Moses, in whom ye trust, ye would have believed me : for he wrote of me." By analogy, then, or by predicting the future by the past, even if there were no prophecy directly announcing it, it were to be expect- ed that the Gentile dispensation would also end in an apostacy and a judgment. Even the Millenium is so to end : for " when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to' deceive the nations which are in the four qunrters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them to battle : the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city; and fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. Rev. xx. 7 to end. In almost every instance, if not all, the apostacy and judg- ment is foretold, and the parties concerned fairly and fully warned thereof; so that God, as David confesses. Psalm li. 4, is justified when he speaks, and clear when he judges. Adam knew what awaited him when he should eat the forbidden fruit. The old world was warned nine hundred and sixty nine years before the flood came that it was coming; for Enoch named his son Methuselah in reference to the coming of the flood at his death, the name signifying. At his death it shall break forth ; and Noah was an hundred and twenty years building an ark in which to escape the flood which was to take them all away." — Neither the Egyptians nor the Canaanites could have been des- titute of the means of knowing of the judgments that awaited them, nor of the time of this execution ; for God had said to Abraham concerning the Egyptians, that they should afflict Is- rael four hundred years ; *' and also that nation whom they serve will I judge.... but in the fourth generation they shall come hither again : for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet Jtpostacy dnd JudgmerU of Christendom, 1$ in full, Gen. XV. This was foretold, in the land of Canaan, two hundred years before the family of Abraham left it to go down to Egypt, and was in fact woven into the religious creed and national expectation of the Hebrews, of which neither the Ca- naanites nor the Egyptians could well have been ignorant. Mo* ses, the other prophets, and our Lord, foretold to the Jews all their apostacies, and all the judgments which were to follow, in terms not to be mistaken unless by wilful and wicked unbe> lief : and as to the timewhen the most eminent judgments would be poured out upon them, sufficient notice was given, as by Je- remiah previous to the first captivity ; nay, even by Isaiah to Hezekiah, Isa. xxxix. 6, 7; and by Daniel concerning the cut- ting off of Messiah. And even now is the last judgment also foretold ; for it is to be at the end of the Millennium ; so that when the Millennium shall have begun, the time of that final apostacy and judgment will be positively known by the whole human race in the flesh. This is true whether the Millennium shall continue only for a literal thousand years, or as some have thought for 360,000 years. Judgment has never, and will nev- er come, either upon an individual, a church, a nation, or the whole race, without sufficient and timely warning, both of the fact and time of the judgment, and of the sins for which it shall be executed. — The way being thus prepared to speak more particulaily of the present dispensation of the Gentile church, I proceed to observe, that, God hath placed us Gentile Christians under the same con- ditions, and given us the same means of knowing beforehand our apostacy in all its parts, our judgment, and the time of its execution. For why should he deal with us in a way diverse from his dealings with all other peoples and dispensations ? — Many of our Lord's parables, particularly those recorded in the thirteenth chapter of Matthew, expressly state, that, at the end of this world (age or period, — which I think extends from the Flood to the Millennium, — from the baptism of the earth with water to that with fire, and not the extinction of this earth, as many ignorantly suppose) there is to be a terrible judgment. — The twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth chapters of Matthew relate principally to the events attendant on it; though in giving them it is in part by Jerusalem as a type; the horrors of Jerusalem's downfall being a prophecy of the great Day of Wrath. He fore- told the apostacy, not only in foretelling the tares about to spring up in his field, and the offences to come, but in the very fact of the 74 Apostaey and ,MgmefU of Chrittendom, w. 1 judgment itself, which comes not but for apostacy. The New Testament informs us that, during the very first generation after Christ the mystery of iniquity b^an to work, and that many false prophets had gone out of the church into the world. Paul told the elders of Ephesus, that after his departure grievous wolves should enter in among them, not sparing the flock ; and that of their own selves should men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. His epistles abound in such warnings, of which I shall select a few, more fully to convict this gainsaying and blaspheming generation of their wilful ad- herence to the sins of their fathers, and of adding thereto their own measure of wickedness ; and to shew that it may be justly said to them, ^' Ye are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief,*^ 1 Thes. v. 4, except by your own des- perate choice, — if peradventure God will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth. Jesus when he comes would gather you to himself; but ye will not: therefore shall your house, O ye Gentile Churches, be left unto you desolate ! Paul saith to TimotI _ : " The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine ; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears ; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned into fables," 2 Tim. iv. 3. This predicts the heresies and schisms that so much abound in Christendom, especially among Protestants, and the fables into which the spiritualizers and ne- ologists have converted the plain literal scriptures, especially the prophecies and miracles : for the neologists, who have over- run Protestant Germany, deny the miracles of Scripture alto- gether. The same state of things is predicted in Paul's address to the elders of Ephesus. Again : " This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lov- ers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural af- fection, truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, des- pisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high minded, lov- ers of pleasure more than lovers of God ; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof, 2 Tim. iii. 1. That all these characteristics do meet in this age in an unprecedented degree, must be manifest to every careful observer. Whenev- er was there such an age of contempt of all authority and set- tled order of things ; of such fierce, heady highmindedness ; of such speaking evil of dignities, reviling and slandering, espe- toti rat ^ '. JlposUuy f Satan, Satan is uniformly described as being the great antagonist power, the mover and instigator of all these apostacies and re- bellions, while men act as his willing agents and devoted ad- herents, under, perhaps, a wilful ignorance of himself, but a wonderful attachment to his cause. He began the work in Eden, and he has ever since been engaged in it, by means of Ms seed or his. children. " Ye are of your father the devil," said our Lord to the Jews, " and the works of your father ye will do." So it has been ever since ; and it is by "giving heed to seducing spirits and the doctrines of devils", and being under the power of " the spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience", that all these frightful delusions come. And finally, it is Satan who, at the close of the Millennium, gathers the apostate powers of Gog and Magog to put down forever the supremacy of the Jews, as the Gog of Ezekiel goes against Je- rusalem newly restored for the same wicked purpose. And as the wicked have had Satan for their father and leader, with him and his angels they are to take their final portion. All of which they are fully warned of ages before they experience it. God has never sought or arbitrarily imposed this order of things, namely, to end all his dispensations preparatory to the eternal unchangeable state, in judgment and excision. I shall assume that it was not so with Adam in Paradise, by what I find in subsequent cases : and first of the flood. " By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house ; by which he condemned the world" (Heb. xi. 7.) of unbelief, and prov- ed that their destruction was of themselves. Next ; " by faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not., when she had received the spies in peace," verse 31 ; by which she also condemned the Canaanites of a wicked opposition to Israel, and proved, that had they also submitted in faith, God would have adopted and not destroyed them. For some object of faith must have been presented to them, or there is no propriety in this that is said of them; and this must have been the same with the object of Israel's faith. This is manifest from what passed between Rahab and the spies, to whom she said, " I know that the Lord hath given you the land, and that your ter- ror is fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land do faint because of you." And she assigns this reason: ** For the Lord your God, he is the God in heaven above, and in the earth beneath;" which made her desirous of sharing his covenant with m 78 Jipoatacy and Judgment of Chnaiendom. IsraeL By faith she perished not with them that believed not in the Lord God of Israel and his holy covenant. ^' A mixed mul- titude" went up out of Egypt with Israel. The house of Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, joined with Israel, and are a people unto this day, as eastern travellers inform us. See Judges i. 16 ; 1 Chron. ii. 55 ; and Jer. xxxv., which assures the Rechabites of their continuance as a people before God forever. The Gibeon- ites made peace with Israel and were preserved : and the law provided for the incorporation of heathen converts into Israel. Our Lord, at the close of the Mosaic dispensation, pressed up- on his people Israel their peaceable transition and translation as a nation standing in its corporate ordinances, out of that dis- pensation which was no longer needed, into the one which, as a better thing, was to supply its place, and bring them a stage nearer to that final state which shall not be removed for any other. But they would not accept it, and sought to destroy it from oif the earth ; for which cause their city was burned with fire, and they driven away captive into all lands until the times of the Gentiles shall be fulfilled, and their iniquity also be come to the full. This shall be when the election from among the Gentiles, mentioned by James in Acts xv. 14 shall be comple- ted, — the church of the first-bom, — the mystical Christ, — the house of Melchisedec Royalty which the Holy Ghost is prepa- ring to be joint heirs with Christ as sons of God (Rom. viii. 14 — 17; John i. 12, 13), builded together in their Head for an habitation of God through the Spirit (Eph. ii. 21, 22). This is that elect portion of the human race which is to be glorified together with Christ in the spiritual body of the resurrection, and made in all things like unto himself, with the single excep- tion of his peculiarly constituted Person in regard to the In- carnation of the second Person in the Trinity ; — that " people for his name^\ mentioned by James (Acts xv.); — those of whom Peter thus writes ; " Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifi- ces, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar peo- ple : that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath call- ed you out of darkness into his marvellous light." 1 Pet. ii. 5, 9. These are to be manifested in the resurrection, as we read in Rom. viii. 19, and other scriptures. *^ God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ ;" and when he has no longer any use Jipostacy and Judgment of Christendom, 79 n5 net in d mul- etbro, e unto 16; 1 »ites of iibeon- ke law Israel, jcd up- tslation liat dis- lich, as a stage for any jtroy it ed with le times be come ong the comple- st, — the prepa- viii. 14 for an This is rlorified Irection, excep- Ithe In- people If whom ]lt up a sacrifi- I chosen iv peo- lith call- )t. ii. 5i read llvation my use for this present dispensation of the Holy Ghost, the end and object of which is to prepare the *' lively stones " of that won- derful spiritual building for the habitation of God through the Spirit, he would be perfectly willing that the whole of existing Christendom should pass out ol it in peace into that Millennial dispensation which he is now preparing to bring in, in order to purge sin out of the whole world, and make the race of man a holy stock, and place all nations under the royal supremacy of the Jews in the kingdom of righteousness and peace, under de- liverance from sin, suffering, and sorrow. But against this good counsel of the Lord there is now a general combination of rebellion among all sects and parties of nominal Christendom, except one, — on the whole surface covered by Nebuchadnez- zar's Image and the four beasts of Daniel. The excepted class is those who are looking for the restoration of the Jews, and the coming of the kingdom with itR King. The Jews look for the kingdom to be restored to Israel, but the veil is still unta- ken from their hearts in reading the Old Testament, and they do not understand it. But this they understand, that when they are restored, the Gentiles will be dreadfully punished — But let us enumerate the parties which now do set themselves against Christ, and endeavour to hinder the kingdom. 1. There is a party, and a rapidly growing one, of downright Deists and Atheists, who are bent upon exterminating Chris- tianity root and branch. This party has on its side the infidel kingdom of France; all the infidel revolutionists on the conti- nent Europe; all of the same class in the British Empire and in the United States. 2. The whole army of infidel political economists wherever found, especially those Liberalists who, in their political creed, regard all possible modes of faith as equally intilled to state patronage and encouragement; These are, to all practical pur- poses, sheer infidels, be their speculative opinions in religion what they may. These are an efficient regiment in the army of Satan. 3. Those christian sects which, as Christian communions and professed followers of Christ, do yet combine and agree with the declared infidel against the scripture standing of dl kings and governments, and do deny and reject the Headship of the Lord Jesus Christ over all kings and rulers, and their ob- ligation to glorify him alone in the ordinance of «ivil govern- ment as holding entire accountability to Him alone, and not to H 80 •^postacy and J^j^dgment of Christendom. m if any human tr''3unal. This class is a mongrel of Christian and Atheist, and a powerful auxiliary to the Prince of Darkness. 4. The old tory and high church party in the British Em- pire, who seek to uphold and perpetuate, under what modifica- tions and limitations they know not, the old institutions of roy- ally and church and state. These are labouring to save a part from the wreck and ruin of the infidel reforms going on, and dreaming of a long day of prosperity when the ff rment of infi- del spoliation has subsided; a;.d these correspond, in some fea- tures, to the Chief Priests, Scribes and Pharisees of our Lord's lime, and seem to be prophesied of in Isaiah ix. 10: " The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones : the S}'camores are cut down, but we will chanjie them into Ce- dars." This paiiy has all along;, from the commencement of the infidel spoliations in the repeal of the Corporation and test acts, acted against the clear convictions of theii own mind, in all the concessions they have made to Satan for the sake of peace; and now that »hey find the infidel spirit unappeasable, some of them grow desperate, but yet turn not to God for re- lief. As do the otheri',so do these rf^ject the coming kingdom. 5. A fifth division, if such it can properly be termed is form- ed among all the governments of the earth, in tha*t they are all under the infidel policy of administering governiHent upon atheistic principles, as in the United Staces and France. 6. Another division is the Pa])acy. This great section of the Gentile Aposlacy is expecting to see the Pope arise as a Sun of Righteousneps abov(> the wreck and ruin caused by the united powers of Infidelity and Liberalism; and then to rivet his chains ot darknes upon a prostrate world, in the proud mim- ickry and wretched mockery of a Melchisedec Priesthood in a sinful man! — both an anticipation and a frustration of the king- dom. To this end the Papacy is now directing all her ener- gies and resources; and for this cause, in Great Britain, Ire- land, and the United States, she has taught the doctrines of Infidel Radicalism, and joined the infidel faction that is leagued against the supremacy of Christ in the civil state. The popish faction is looking for the recovery of the Protestant and Infidel parties; and for the subjugation of the Greek Church, the Ma- homedan apostacy, and the pagan nations. 7. And lastly, the Mahommedan faction is a party combined against the Lord and his Christ, to prevent the establishment of the Millenial dispensation under the kingdom of God. j)pQatg4!if md fitdgmnt ef Chmf4ff4m* 31 I and )S. Em- ifica- roy- . part , and infi- e fea- iord's ' The 5 ; the :> Ce- mt of id tebt ml, in ike of jsable, for re- igdom. 3 forni- are oil upon ion of le as a jby the rivet II mim- lood in king- ener- , Ire- ne tap Ipopi 9 of jague (i llnlidtl Ma- \bine(l ;nt of uot^mbo^i^ tbi«|g, se^ilter^^ ^p m^ iow^ m^n^ the ^o^w^ Protestap^s : J mi^9Xi those whp truAt m their 3ociety^hips and their various contrivance? for p^oduicjing a Millennium of son^ indefutite but very long duration before the second Advent of the Lord, and during man'3 fallen sinful condition. This is among professedly religious people ; and it has its parallel in the poUtical world anoong tho^e who supplant the true poUti!p>ai standing of a people, and set .asi^e the true functions of tl]^ powers ofdained of God, by their voluntary political unions, constitutional clubs, "Judge J^ynch,' ypd their newspaper cab- inetis for ruling and instructing the nominal rulers. It is curious and instructive to see how all these parties in the army of antichrist esteem this present evil world in all its sin- fulness and wickedness quite good enough either as an everlast- ing inheritance for man as now constituted under ain, or as one of so long continuance that the race should not think of prepa- ring to relinquish their hold of it for, perhaps, thousands of ages to come. The infidel thinks that, by annihilating Christianity and perfecting the aits and sciences, a glorious golden age Avill at once begin and never cease, in which the race has an eternal interest, but in which individual persons have none at all, if we compare eternity with the short span of human life : for annihi- lation is to be, in their estimate, their everlasting portion. On such grounds do they go forth as the emancipators of an oppress- ed race ! — unless indeed they expect, by the discoveries of sci- ence, to render man immortal. But immortality with them can be an object neither of hope nor desire, because rejecting all belief in the eternal God, they reject all personal immortality- whatever, as a thing irrational and impossible. Disbelieving the Bible, they disbelieve the fact of longer life to man than the modern term of life, and cannot consistently desire its ex- tension to the primitive age ; for that would be conceding that the Bible is not altogether a fable, but does speak to the wants of man. — The views of the Deists hardly deserve a separate consideration. — Those who adopt the reigning political doc- trines and practices, can have no apprehension that God will ever alter the moral and physical constitution of man and of the world he lives in. They calculate and act as if the present con- stitution of things were eternal or no otherwise changeable than by the powers of man or some wonderful accident in natv-re. Thoac who look to the ipde^nite and very loi^g continua^iQe of m 82 Jlpostacy and Judgment of Christendom. this present dispensation, among whom are those who declare that the time of its end and the coming of the Lord are not sub- jects of examination and hope, do in effect reject the Gospel of the kingdom, on the ground that this present world needs not to be replaced by a better, and that a new dispensation is un- called for. This appears to me a cold and cruel creed, heed- less of human happiness : for both scripture and observation do teach the observant christian, that, as the world now is, under the powers of darkness, and man in league with the devil against God, but few of the adult called are saved — perhaps not over one in ten of nominal Christendom: whereas the gospel of the kingdom contemplates the purification of the world from all sin, and the reinstating of the human race in purity and holiness, that the will of God may be done on earth with what holy obe- dience it is done in heaven of the holy unfallew angels ; and that the present warfare between sin and holiness, between Sa- tan and Christ, in which such multitudes are slain, may be put an end to and the kingdom of Righteousness and Peace be es- tablished upon immoveable foundations: when "the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance forever : and my people shall dv/ell in a peaceable habitation,- and in sure dwellings, and in quiet rest- ing places," Isa. xxxii. 17, 18, The Gospel tells us that this present world is to be utstroyed, and succeeded by new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness;— new political and ecclesiastical heavens and earth, in which the Sun of High teousness Himself shall rule and enlighten all, and Mie righ- teous shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of God, an(i be in no sense subject to the powers of wickedness and evil. — But thes'e dreamers teach us that we must patch and mend this present evil world, and remedy its defects and restrain its wickedness by our multitudes of polite devices and new in- ventions for a pToat many thousands of years at least, and not ]n\\y to the Lord Jesus, as he hath commanded, to come quick- ly and restore all things. One division of this party looks for a Millennium produced in part by atheistic political economy and government, as it is now in the United States ; while another expects the re-building of the old order of things when the ap- proaching tornadoes and oarthcpiakes have subsided. The Pa- pal party thinks this present sinful world, constituted under the Papal Man of Sin, the Melchisedec of Satan's right hand, quite worthy of the love and attachment of the human race, and a Jlpostacy and Judgment of Christendom. 88 an(i il.— this in its |v in- not luick- ifor a and )ther le ap- Pa- the luite a sufficient inheritance for an indefinite time to come; while the Mahommedan and Greek apostacies entertain similar i^ews correspondent to their respective delusions. There is yet another point in which Christendom may be contemplated in regard to the age of prosperity they see. behind tiie coming storm, which is, in thai': it is a great Babylon of schism and confusion throughout, in which they cannot under- stand one another's speech, nor build in concert. It is split up into *' all the different denominations," each of which, as a sect, is hostile to all other sects, and seeks their destruction. Some in- deed are mad enough to regard this as the greatest of Christian privileges, namely, for each man to worship God according to the dictates of his own mind and con'='f'i?rco, on the ground that, con- trary to the express word and commandment oif God, God nev- er intended that we ought all to be joined together perfectly in the same mind and in the same judgment, and all to think the same thing, 1 Cor. i. 10. Many others, less profane and aban- doned to strong delusion, confess this Babylonish condition to be antichriotian and wicked, and acknowledge that it must cease before the expected day of prosperity can advance. They see thnf i\\ must adopt one uniform system and interpretation of divine revelation, in which all can agree, meet in peace, and be of one heart and mind. But no sect can see the way of ef- fecting thin but by one sect subduing all other sects, or for all to rcnounf e their respective differences and embrace a negative system ol unhelief. This last has been actually proposed by a party in the United States, under this monstrous and revolting form : " Mr Girard believed (and we think not without rea- son) that a reiisiious ec'ucation may be obtained independently of nil the principles and doctrines vvhich divide ami distract the Christian world. Indeed, we know not but the principle on which our own institution is based, might have suggested such a thought to his mind ; for it is well known, that the promi- nent essential feature in the organization of the American Sun- day School Union is substantially, that denominational differ- enrcs do not necessarily enter at all into a religious education ; that such a religious education as Paul, or Timothy, or Peter, or John, or Stephen, possessed, may be formed without knowing a single point on which the Christian world is divided." See Philadelphia Protestant Episcopalian for March 1832, in which this damnable heresy is ably e\\ jsed. Mr. Girard was the founder of the Philadelphia Orphan Asylum, and the following yyu ^ JipimHeyiMd ^dgmerittf -OhrieMidm, ) ii sdntekide occurs in his Vill^ cdnceniing its |it6Vi^i tmd jfltc^Meat of Gkn^k»Am» U the iBap- lians, his- It di- vading 8^v6raUj to, eack meaiheDof the bodjr andwockiog aUi in •U^ ta have utterly ceased. They seem ta ingani the pAriod a]ioye that time, as ai^ ^itoFuiediate dispenisatipa between, tb^ Jewish and the one imw existing) with ij^hiehit is aaunJewfiil for us to meddle as it is wijth literal Judaism ; and thatit i&preAUi?iip- tion to esteem the fulness of the church's pcivileges as recocd* ed in the New Testament objects of desire now. Not one is willing to ascend into that region of Ught and liberty for his ^^ first principles" in which the Holy Ghost himself directed 11 and taught the church in known distinction kom man. They can say, ^^ We must relinquish all that is novel, and revive all that is old, in religion. We must repair the many breaches that have been made in the walls of Zion, and restore her to her original simplicity and purity. For, in divinity, a moment's reflection should satisfy us, that the course of inquiry must be directly the reverse of what it is in natural science. It must be backward and not forward ; backward to the fountain head and last revelation of God, and not forward, busied in a vain search for new light and new doctrines." Chapman's Discourses, page 312. But the instant they come to the least sign of an evident miraculous power working in and by the church, they shrink back as if tliey had come to the mount that might not be touched on pain of death, and was terrible beyond endurance by the fire and tempest and blackness and darkness that envel- oped its awful summit. They cannot bear to drink of the stream until the Spirit that was in it is grieved and quenched and driven away, and it has become fouled and muddled by the craft of man. And at this point tho "niMl prhiciple" men arc equally contentious with the men of new meuaures: and they all agree to refect the guidance of the Holy Ghost into all truth, as he is set forth to our faith in the Lord's last Will and Tes- tament, with what assurance they might did God pronounce our present heretical and schismatical condition one vastly superior to that of the church under the Spirits' own guidance and in- fstruction. This is the consistency of all parties, whether " first pviupi- ple" men, or the men of new inventions. But of late they have been reminded of their apostate standing and condition on these points, and exhorted to cease from their own inventions, and to cr% mightily unio God to come again by the spirit into his ehurch as he did in the time of '"■ first principles,^' in all his di- verMfted gifts and operations . hut €mi« and all they treat thusf) 86 ^postacy and Judgment of Christendom, who thus exhort as men of disordered intellect, or of gross dis- honesty, or under satanical delusion : and those to whom this good counsel is given, do right valiantly persevere in their pre- sent delusions, as if they were the only sure remedy of their present delusions, and it were grievous presumption to pray to God ^' to come again among us, and with great might succour us" as he succoured the New Testament churches. The church of England uses a book, the Whole Duty of Man, in which is a prayer that God will restore to our I3ishops the gift of pro- phecy, that by divine inspiration thoy may interpret scripture ; that he will restore to the church all the bountifulness of the first gifts, and be with the King as with Moses in the bush, Joshua in the camp, and Gideon in the field : and when I asked one what the church meant by circulating such prayers, to my amazement he replied, that it only showed the neglfgence of the Bishops in permitting such things to be circulated ! Oh ! tell it not in Gath, that modern christians do estct^m it heresy to acknowledge a God revealing and directing as the Bible church- es acknowledge him ! In Scotland and in England, the clergy who have ventured to bear testimony to " first principles" have been cast out as heretics ; and I was told by one, that had he been my Bishop, I should have shared the same fate on the ap- pearance of my tract on the " Doctrine of the Spirit." But I bless God that the church in Canada has not as yet lifted the standard of revolt against the Gospel in this manner. Thus are our " all denominations of Christians" situated at this aw fill crisis, when " the Judge standeth at the door," fight- ing and contending and dreaming tbat tbcir "wars and fightings^' are bringing in a INIillennium ol" their own fabrication : a position like that of t\\{\ Jews when shut up in tbeit city by the Ro- mans, destroying each other by bloody factions, and expecting all tlu' uhile their Messiah to come and destroy the Romans as he had done the Assyrians. The following from an article in the English Eclectic Review intitled " /n^f/ch7jy," will show bow some men can regard the reign of Infidelity as a purifier ot the ciiurch and a dcvourer of heresy and sujwrstition ; — "There is nothing to alarm us in the spread of infidelity : it is to be looked for. It i'^ the unavoida- ble effect oi that spread of knowledge which dispels the dark- ness of superstition, lays open to the day tbe refuge of lies, and, destioying false religions, leaves no alternalive but cither to embrace the truth as it is in Christ, or openly to reject Chris- ■ 'r^l Apo8tacy and Judgment of Christendom. 37 Ition Ro- tinp; s as liew the irof jthc lida- irk- jincl, to iris- tiaDity. Infidelity is now ' swallowing up other errors': its office is that of the ichneumon, the vulture, and the crane. It has ever been a pioneer to true religion." Indeed, Mr. Reviewer ! Then is it a part of the Gospel, or a John Baptist sent of God to prepare (he way. It has ever been a pioneer to true religion ! Was there no true religion in the World till after the Devil had been in Eden and pioneered the way for it? And will ye have the Devil and his hosts of darkness to usher in your i\iillen- niuin which you see in the rear of Infidelity ? — " But although alarm is needless and unwarrantable, there is rauch in tlie signs of the times to enforce the duty of union, simple-mindedness, and activity on the part of the chris.tian church" : and com- plaining of the small success attending great talents in the pul- pit and in " biblical criticism," he adds : " Unquestionably, the neglect of a sound religious education on the part of the peo- ple, is one cause of the want of success, and of the decay of the spirit of piety. With regard, however, to that large mass of the population who, by their own indifi'erence to religion and the licensed desecration of the Sabbath, arc placed almost out of the reach of the Christian ministiy, the press, that migh- ty engine for good or evil, affords the only instrumentality by which to bring the truth of religion to bear upon them. Tract Societies and Bible Societies have effected more good than can be hrought under calculation ; but their efficiency, together with the immense apparatus for instruction now in operation, is not inherent, not ex opcre operate^ as we are in danger of imagining ; and there is reason to fear that it has been of late on the de- cline. In the mean time intelligent infidelity, popery, and the mass of unreached ignorance, have been making head, and reli- f;ious knowledge is decidedly losing ground among us. Look- ing at the general character of our popular Literature, of the most influential literary journals, and of the dailv press; — looking again at the proportion of intellect exerted, of know- ledge displayed on the one side and the other, — we must come, we fear to the conclusion, that the Press is at this moment more against us than for us, — that the preponderating influence is not on thv3 hide of Christianity. We have a Society for the pro- motion of Christian Knowledge disseminating heresy, a Soci- ety for the diffusion of Useful Knowledge excluding Chris- tianity, a London University professing an irreligious neutral- ity and countenancing neologism ; and what have we to oppose an active counteractive force? Never did the religious World «ft Jpfdstdty and Mg^iiitU &f ChfiHenim. it: i iM foresight, to dUn^tri iti^ sigM dt ih^fttatSy Ati6 icr^eti thd ihorM energies Md resourt^^ o( the ^faarch. For #attf of these, we are in dartgef df bein^ oufselves thrown into cli96r- der by the I'ai^hnesS dnd immeaSurabie conceit of a few wi'ong- headed sectariati fanatics, ft is all vety well to go on reprint- ing Owen, and Baxter, and Doddridge, although to the reproach of the feebleness and poverty of modern theological literature ; but what We now mofe especially stand in need of is, that the Author of all wisdom would be pleased to raise up some master minds gifted with the heavenly knowledge, who should be able to create a new liUralute adapted to iht times and impressed with the characters of sanctity, — to introduce also a reform in our schools of religious knowledge, and to reinfuse the vigour of ge- nius into Christian Theology. ^^ This is a curious piece. The writer is all for new inven- tions, and the powers of human intellect, and the vigour of ge- nius, to do the Work of the Holy Spirit in the church. Paul tells us it pleaseth God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe : this authority saith it must be by a newly created literature after the power and wisdom of the natural man in- fusing vigour into the Gospel! The literature of prophets and apostles has became stale and vapid, and fallen far in the rear of "the march of intellect," and God must raise up some Levia- than of Genius to create a new literature adapted to the times, or Infidelity and Radicalism Will subdue the world ! ! And further this mighty Giant must be a great Prophet also, *' en- dued with the spirit of tioisdom and foresight, to discern the signs of the times,^'* and a great leader also, a might}- Joshua, " to di- rect the moral energies and resources of the church." And yet " there is nothing to ahrm us in the spread of infidelity." because " it is the unavoidable effect of that spread of knowledge which dispels the darkness of superstition." The spread of knowledge fenvelops the world in the darkness of infidelity in order to tekpel the darkness of superstition, and thus pion- eers for true religion ! ! — But let it also be noted, that while the Review is for raising up a great prophet to foresee and dis^ cetn the future, it is the reViler and calumniator of those per- sons who study the prophets of God in order to discern the Signs of theise times, ahd especially of the Rev. Mr.'Irving, Whxi took so milch painfe tb tall the church's attention to " first Jitltteiplfe^" Ki they stand i^ecorded in the book of God. I.! i ^Mtocf dud Juigmeat tf (SiritUttiem, SO *tittA we now fttm 1M9 nieitrtfid exhibkio» of hmmut foll^ to tifibtfier peiitapd fiftiH More so. It is i project for estaUisIr^ ing '' Universal and Permanent Peaee ^ amongst this sfnftil', wiokedy rebeUiou«t eontentious, cruelty deceitful, treachevous, bloody-minded race during this its doleful and devil-possessed condition of essential *' enmity against God." It is copied from the New York Churchman, of Feb. 21, 1835, a paper in many respects valuable and respectable, and a judicious diefender and setter forth of much sound and healthy doctrine : — but the ol>- servant reader may easily perceive that both the editor and au- thor he commends do act the part of lying prophets by turning the expectation of their readers to things that God hath never promised according to the form and manner of 'their predic- tions, nor by any of their boasted means of accomplishment. Rejlectiom on the Nature and Dignity of the Enterprize for establishing Universal and Permanent Peace. December, 1834. 8mo. pp. 16. A WELL written and timed pamphlet. If universal peace \» ever to he estahhshed, it must be by applying to the intercourse of nations the same principles and spirit of Christianity, wliich elevate private char- acter and purity domestic life. CItristianity annihilates the very dis- positions that lead to war. It reveals the will and the promise ot God that war shall cease. On this too as on other sui))ects, it is susceptible of demonstration, that what the Gospel presents as the duty, reason and experience discover to be the interest of men. The Ie9st)iis of Politi- cal Economy are making this truth manifest to statesmen of all nations, and the blessings of commercial prosperity bring home the same truth " to men's business and bosoms." With increasing faith then may we pray. "Thy kingdom cornel" Only let us press forward to scatter abroad the seeds of instruction, especially in tlie minds of the young, and we may be sure the time will ultimately arrive, when "vi- olence shall no more be heard in our borders, nor wasting and destruc- tion in our palaces." In giving the following quotation wo mean to express no opinion on a political question, but merely to illustrate the design of the pamphlet and the kind of influence which its author seeks to diffuse. "It has occurred to the writer, since he has learned in what attitude we now stand toward that nation, [France,] to inquire what would be ttie eifectifthe United States should adopt a course something like this; France has acknowledged herself indebted to the UnitedStates in the sum of five millions of dollars. She has stipulated by .solemn treaty to discharge this obligation. The debt then is fairly liquidated. It is too late to dispute it« justice. Suppose, now, France neglects to make any provision for its pay n? en t notwithstanding we Aave made every tf fort to induce her to regard her honor. What means of coercion have wel Shall we resort to warl That will cost, to say the least, more than the debt, and perhaps will not, after all, enforce the payment. — Suppose, tiMn w« should resort to public opinion. Is not public opin- on in regard to matters of national faith and honor, sufficiently enlight- ened and sufficiently potent to awaken France to a just sense of her lionor ^'n I i I 90 »Spostacy and Judgment of Christendom. and her duty 1 Suppose an officiiil circular ishould be made by the Uni- ted States' Government, show intr the amount of the debt as liquidated, and the stipulation of the Treaty to disuharge it. Let this circular state in a tone of amicable feeling towards France, but still of prop- er self-respect, her absolute refusal to discharge an acknowledged obligation. Let this circular be addressed to the different powers with which we have relations, as an explanation uf our conduct in withdratv- ing our relations from a nation wiiich utterly refuses to regard her trea- ties, and jn whose good faith — that which is indispensable as a basis of intercourse between nations, we can no longer repose confidence. — Then let us, not in a spirit of anger or of resentment, but us a measure, necessarily resulting from the very nature of the case, formally withdiaw all our relations with France, and declare them suspended until she shall make it compatible with our dignity, our safety, and our interest, to renew them. Would not tlie opinion of the wliole civilized world, thus made to operate upon her, be far more eflicacious tiian any phy- sical energy which we can wiekll" " If universal peace is ever to be established, it must be" by such and such means as man aheady possesses applied to that end ! I grant that but one thing has ever hindered universal peaoe, and that is, the rebellious and wicked nature of man, which is essentially " an enemy to peace," *' enmity against God," and prone to all hostility, *' hateful and hating one ano- ther." The Gospel has now been in the world nearly two thousand years, during which time there surely has been room for making the experiment in the way above set forth, and lit- tle impression has been made on the race at large. Christian nations haye been as little disposed to peace as their heathen neighbours; and past experience furnishes not the shadow of a presumption that " Universal and Permanent Peace" could ever be established while man continues, as he ever hay been, sold under sin, in league with the grand adversary of all peace and goodness, and constantly given to all manner of trans- gression. A more grievous delusion never existed than is to be seen in this mad project : but it answers Satan's purpose of drawing away the minds of men from the hopes and promises of the Kingdom, and of rivetting their affections on this present world. It teaches the race as a race to rest its hopes upon that world against which the sentence of death and dissolution has long since been passed, and which, as long as it remains, must keep back the glorious kingdom of the Son of Man. It teach- es man to look upon himself as his own peace-maker, instead of directing his longing eyes to his absent Lord, the Prince of Righteousness and Peace. The Editor tells us that " Chris- tianity annihilates the very dispofitiona that lead to war." This Jlpostacy and Judgment of Christendom. 91 ir has of all trans- is to >se oi" pes of iscnt that h has Imust iach- idof le of Ihris- 'his is signally an heretical position, inasmuch as it teaches us that the acting upon certain moral principles doth " annihilate^' the hody of sin in him who acts on them. Sin is not abolished in a believer until death passes upon the sinful flesh ; after which the Holy Ghost builds up the body pure and holy in the resur- rection of life. During his warfare in the flesh, the Holy Ghost enables him to bind the wild beast in his den of sinful flesh, and to restrain and overcome his evil propensities; but he remains unslain till the last gasp of life. He is nailed to the cross and crucified by grace given ; but he dies not till the flesh ceases to live and breathe. " It is susceptible of demonstration, that what the Gospel presents as the duly, reason and experience discover to be the interest of men. The lessons of Political Economy are making this truth manifest to statesmen of all nations, and the blessinp;s of commercial prosperity bring home the same truth ' to men's business and bosoms.' " It is also " susceptible of demonistration''' that the Political Economists of the day, such as Jeremy Bentham, Daniel O'Connell, " Judge Lynch," and the whole tribe of In- fidel Radicalism, care no more for such puling sentimental trash than a wolt cares for the cries of the lamb he is devouring. — What has a christian to look for from that Political Economy which sets God and the Gofipel at defiance.' Well ma} the Lord say, > 'w thoughts are not as my thoughts, nor your wavs my ways. lii. t how different is his account of the means oi establishing "Universal and Permanent Peace!" — " Come behold the works of the Loivl, what desolations he hath made in the earth. Me raaketh wars to cease unto the ends of the earth; he broa' eth the bow, and citteth the spear in sunder, and burneth the c harjot in the fire. Be still and know that 1 am God: I will be exalted anions; the ht.tthen, I will be exalted in the earth," Psalm xl\ i. 8 lie is going to make peace by destroying his enemies and forever annihilating their power by restoring the Jews, and setting up the throne of Da- vid's Son on the K^aev ed earth, of the increase of whose gov- ernment and pcac^ tii re shall be no end ; and he is going to reign with his sainis iiver a race purged from sin and all rebel- liousness, and made peaceable and governable, so that they shall not be made the jailers of the race in its present sinful, wicked, and rebellious lawless condition. They are contriving to rob him of this glory, and establish " Universal and Permanent Peace" by the power of " public opinion " — of man's opinion IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 I.I 1^128 |25 ■tt Uii 12.2 IJ& |||l.25 1 1.4 lliii^ ^ 6" - ► 'J' 7 '/ /A ffiotographic Sciences Corporation ^.V 23 WIST .MAJN SIRIIT WIUTM.N.t. K-.V< (716) •/^-4S03 " I/. K^ > ^%. f; I I' «f hiBfliriil H# i» gti^g*t» out out Sttan, dvsliDjr tko ^mtkft ol th« dlitil^ )Niriiy alt er«atioBt Mid rekftas it i» wiitten of Jiim Id tli» Mvmttj^MMnd Ftulm tml all Oie teriptuiiak Tbey ave Mttkig u|> tbair idol oi a P^ace Secietjr; wkibh ia to keep tk» peace of God hi a deviKpowcsBed nvorld bj tlie loiroe of ^ public opinion " brongbt to bear upon an attieistical public in possession of physical force and all poUtieal macbineiy. The pabUc is to resulate itself by its own opinion of itself; and when public opinion all over the world has done its 0^ce, then shall have arrived the predicted Millennium under the mild sway of infidel political institutions and christion education from which is carefully excluded all disputed christian princi- ples and doctrines ! righteous Godf I wonder not that thou bast given them up to strong delusion that they should believe a lie, even the most foolish of Satan^s inventions ! But men's projects are absurd and preposterous in proportion to their de- parture from the Word and ordinances of their Maker.^-lt is worthy of remark that tl^e article from tho Churchman is ex^ pressed in language suited to the denial that the Lord Jesus will ever return to this earth, and to the assertion that this present dispensation shall never end : and yet with a strangeness of in- consistency and contradiction, after a flourish about the lessons of Political Economy mak'ng manifest to statesmen of all na- tions the truth, that what the Gospel presents as the duty., rea- son and experience directly discover to be the interest of men, the sanguine editor continues, ^* With increasing faith then may we pray, I'hy kingdom come ! only let us press forward to scatter abroad the seeds of instruction, especially in the minds of the young, and we may be sure the time will ultimately ar- rive when ' violence shall no more be heard in our borders, nor wasting and destruction in our palaces,' " I must here again remind the reader of what is said above of the Orphan Asylum, the Sunday School System of education, and the Legislative and Executive System of the famous *^ Judge Lynch" or mob law. It is, however, due to many in the United States, and the Episcopal church in particular, that they are clear of these direct anti«christian projects ol education, and are only impli- cated in them in their advocacy of atheistical civil government ; which of itself is sufficient to destroy any nation within half a century. To these I must add another testimony to the fearful delu- sions of the times, and shew how they act the part oihjingpra' ^^^mr^V^^U^^W^^m WBb^^^P W^'^V^K^^H^rV^^^ ^»P ^B^WW ^^^^^^^M^I^^^^^PV 93 J jWbeIr fvyfo AmyAun awlty tR ceoteaipt Iron tht verity «f UnA 'Siire ^vratd of |)rQ|Aiecgr« iv»lier««tito thef nveuU 4o meXi Mt take lieed. The Hollowkigextffiujtrw 4i«m^ JPitalogues leniPfa*^ phecy," Vol. ii. page 329 : * '^ '* i^tlofefA««.-^The bad feeliDg grou have^bseryed arises «b- ly when |>rophecy is introdiiced into meetings oH SocisAiet with which tliey have nothing ^o do. ^^^ua»Mu8- — TlHSi, { ? '* Anastanus. — ^^If you doubt the extent ef the prpjihesying which takes place at public meetinga, read these passages ta- ken fromithe reports of speeches made I at the London Misabn- ary and Traet Soekities, as given in the fivangelicctl Magaaine. The Treasurer, as the organ of the former, avows their object to be ^' for evangelizing the heathen,'' and assents that thece are ^^indications of ultimate success;"* The first speaker '* The Gospel ^tsprenly rieeliivt ttnt '*tlM>midu«irtf men/^mairoly ofipagvm, will' not be Ciinmeirtcd 'Until »after tin declion it Ukaniodt m m 94^ •Spostacy and Judgment of Chmlendom. said, " we are fast advancing towards the accomplishment of that prophecy which says that the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. This prophecy will be accomplished. I know it will. We have never had so good a right to say so as we now have. ... I trust the pro- phecy of 6g i >^ill be fulfilled more and more until you have se^n the glorious day, when your prayers shall have been an- swered, and all the wishes of your hearts accomplished ; when our Lord shall have received that which has been promised to him, viz : the heathen for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession.^' "Another speaker says, " f^Fhat we, my friends, contemplate is the subjugation, not of one country, hut of human nature, of the whole world ; every part of \ohich has been already placed in pro- mise; and must at length be placed, in fact, under the dominion of the Saviour. The prophets spoke not in measured terms when looking into futurity, they described a kingdom that should cover the whole earth, and declared that all nations should serve the Lord. The great object then is set before you, and your aim must be to subjugate a world, . . . You will unite soul with soul, and blend nation with nation, and at length form one universal church and brotherhood over the whole globe. ''^ " Another speaker says, " He recognized in it a society whose operations loill not be terminated until all the whole world is united to its maker On loill it proceed, till the Saviour himself is seat- ed on the throne of universal empire ; till his crown is submitted to by all nations, and his sceptre swayed over a redeemed, an enlighten- ed, a regenerated^ and happy toorW." * of the Gontiles for the mystical Christ or church of the first born,toAo share as joint heira with Christ the Melchisedec priesthood of his resur- rection glory, and this present dispensation which was instituted for that end, shall be completed, and the Jews restored to their own land, and the kni^dom of God be actually come. Then and not before shall all the world be converted : for "Siaieon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for hie name. — And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written, After thin I will retnrn, and vfiW build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it op: that the residue of men might seek after the Lordt o^d all the QentileSt npon whom my name is called, saith the Lord," Acts xv. 14. So that when that election is completed, God will have no more use for thi^ present dispensation, but will finish it, and bring in the kingdom, and take in all nations under it. A. H. B. * These nighty conquerers contemplate subjugating the whole world ChemMlves, exterminating heresy and ichiim, and uniting " loul with Jlpostacy and Judgment qf Christendom. 96 ■3 XiyVOhO resur- ted for land, shall at tbo " At the meeting of the Tract Society, as reported in anoth- er Journal, one speaker declared that ^* the reign of infidelity had passed away ! ! I " and then proceeds as follows : " Thus then when we looked back, and saw what had been, might we not confidently expect that all which God hath promised shall surely be accomplished, that the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth, as the waters cover the sea. As our fathers, fifty years ago, could not possibly have expected, or even ho- ped for, what our eyes had beheld, and our ears had heard : so no man in this age, in which the providence of God was has- tening with rapidity like the flight of the angel, having the ev- erlasting Gospel to preach, could tell what half a century would produce." (Hear, hear.) " Another says, " Therefore God in an age of Missions, has raised up a spirit of education, that the work might not die when this generation passed mcay, but that it might be continued from gen- eration to generation, till that prophecy was accomplished^ " The kingdmn of this world shall become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christy (But God tells us, Dan. vii., that this present world is to be judged and destroyed before that glorious event will take place ; and then the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High —A. H. B.). ^Mt is useless to multiply more passages; all speakers pro- phesy the coming of a better state of things than that which we now have, but — without Christ in it. ^^ Philolethus. — You- seem to think that those persons who agree with us in our opinion, are wrong in not introducing them at all meetings of religious Societies. ^^ ^nastasius. — They who think that judgments are coming Upon the world are undoubtedly to blame in allowing the So- cieties to wrap themselves up in the delusion that the world is to be converted before these judgments come. M. Way, Mr. Stewart, Mr. Marsh, Mr. Noel, and Mr. McNeile have sever- ally published works, in which they declare that the end of this our Gentile dispensation is to be by judgments. The Societies loul, and biendinf^ nation with nation'* in perfect unity and peace, and seating the Saviour on the throne of univerHal empire, ai it would teem by tbeir prophociea; and all this to be done without the personal return <»f the Lord, and under the dominion of atheietical political institutions and government ! ! ! "The prophets prophesy falsely, and ^he priests bear an«: my people love to have it so: and what wiSi ye do role by their means: ioUieendtheieof." I :%^^ i ;< ' Jeremiah ▼• 81. A. H. 0. wm. m. m }ii M ApoUoey 4Ufd JkiSgmmi <^ Chridmdtm' cNie ftnd all believe, and the epedLeri «t them fropiiesjr, fhat tbeir ^fMleavouro are to centvert 4iIm World : -wffhibt in the Midtt of this fake ^xpecftation the last trump win sound. If these GenCkmen 'thei^fore were to kstea to 'taoli expressions of fake expectations, without «ither contradieting 4hem, or lifting up their testimony on the other «ide, through *fear of disturbing the peace of 1^ meetings, the j would prove ^fhat the i^^dause of platforms was more precious in their eyes than the itruth lot God ; end thiey would act on the principle on whidh Pope Gai^ ganelH did, when seeiHg the people kneel before him, in the yam supposition that he could benefit thetn by iUessing them, be said Si mtmdus'vult decipi, decvpiatur [If the worJd will be /de- ceived, let it be deceived] : but such a principle is contraiy to every sentiment of genuine Christianity, love of God, or love of man. Mr. Stewart openly declares for himself, that '^ the more I seareh the Scriptures, and the more I compare them with the events which are now occurring, the more 1 feel it to be a duty to bring before you thi^ part of the oracles of God. p. 408.'^ — ^Thus ftff from the ** Dialogues.'* Our Lord informs us in the thirteenth chapter of Matthew, that the tares and the \\4)eat will grow together in the field un- til the end of this world or dispensation ; and that then he will send forth his reapers to gather out the tares and east them into the fire; — that ''they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity ; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire : there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then" (and not before) *' shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of tbeir Father." This is to take place about the period of the second Advent, ^' when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty an- geU^, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God." But thes Gentlemen are going to do his work for him by entirely different means, by methods entirely their own. — They are going to save alive and convert those whom he hath for their sins devoted to destruction. Thus we have an outline of the means Satan is employing to keep back and frustrate the kingdom of the Son of Man. After the Jews are returned to Jerusalem, and settled in their own land, he will make a mighty and dying effort to destroy them and frustrate the kingdom by means of the confederate army of Gog, who:shaU,go up against Jerusalem, and take it, and then be destroyed in the mountains of Israel by the A-rm of the Lord, m J^Qdmif Jmd MIgmmi if ChrUttndom . Wt •8 18 aet forth in Eiiekiel Juxviii. xsxin, ; in Daniel 9u. 36 to end ; in Joel iii. ; in Zechaciah xiv. I — 4. aad in many other parts of both the Old and New TestMaents. After the Fall, God re-constituted the earth and the world of man, vlth a view to successive transition out of one dispensa- tion into another, until that which is perfect shall come, and which will render further change unneeessory, that that which canjiot be shaken may remain. Under each one of these, man aims at the icistijation of Satan, " the Prince of this VVorld,^' to prevent the introduction of a new dispensation, and to perpetu- ate the existing one, after he has almost oompletely corrupted It, and after God has no further use for it, even if it were not corrupted. The oM world, with its great length of human life, «(Hight the perpetuation of that state ; whereas God had design- ed to bring in another as preparatory to the incarnation, and the manifestation of 4he God-Man. He took occasion by their wickedness and unbelief to cut them off, and bring the world, under a more decided state of death and corruption by the bap- tism of the flood,-^a baptism into death, by which the world became more deeply tainted, to the manifestation of numberless diseases, and the great shortening of human life. And I con- jecture that the old world had been admonished of this intend- ed alteration, and disbelieving it, they rioted in all wickedness IS if they were forever assured of that state of plenty, health, and long life, which the then constitution of the material world gave them. I conjecture that their unwillingness to come un- der the new state and condition of things formed the basis of Iheir apostacy, for which they were judged and cut off; and I think this conjecture will be strengthened by the examination of the other cases. This present constitution of things is, doubtless, in many respects inferior and worse than that before the flood, namely as regards the vitiated earth and elements, and the disease, poverty, and misery consequent thereupon, if by these things alone we are to be guided in the comparison. — But there are other things to be considered. It was an appoint- ed step in the advance towards complete recovery from the fall, and therefore should have been submitted to in all humility and thankfulness. Besides, this worse condition was not rivet- ted upon mankind as by an iron-hearted unrelenting fate. It was held in the hand of a merciful God and Father, to be res- trained or commissioned to destroy according as man carried himself in faith and obedience towards his God, or was unbe- o 1 '■3 4 ■MIPIII ■M 98 dpostacy Mid Judgment rf OariMtendom. W- lieving and rebeliious. This we see stated in God's covenant with Israel on giving them the land of Canaan. " And he said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to ihe voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians : for I am the Lord that healeth thee," Exodus XV. 26. ** And he will love thee, and bless thee, and multiply thee : he will also bless the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy land, thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep, in the land which he sware unto thy fathers to give thee. Thou shalt be blessed above all people : there shall not be male or female barren among you, or among your cattle. And the Lord will take away from thee all sickness, and will put none of the evil dis- eases of Egypt, which thou knowest, upon thee ; but will lay them upon all them that hate thee," Deut. vii. 13 — 15. These things, taken in connexion with everlasting life after death, and the rest and peace and joyful expectation of those who die in the Lord, go from under the deviPs persecutions, and rest from their labours, combine to recommend this present world to the faithful as a condition not to be murmured at, and a very good one in com- parison of what we actually find it in consequence of the abound- ing wickedness of men. For well am I assured, that, had all men obeyed God as he has uniformly offered them grace to do, the whole world, even since the flood, would have been as healthy as God promised to make Judea, and free from famine and poverty. Faith and obedience would have made it little in- ferior to the old world, and have saved it all the horrors of sick- ness, plague, poverty, and famine which have ever lain heavy upon it. Our miseries of every kind proclaim upon the house- tops the exceeding corruption of our ways, and the wickedness that is in our bands. O Righteous Father ! how forbearing art thou in mercy ! how long suffering in goodness to thy unthank- ful, unholy, and rebellious children ! When wilt thou cleanse us from our pollutions, and put thy Holy Spirit within us ! The next in order is the dispensation under the Law. This dispensation we know that Israel refused, choosing rather to re- main in the slavery of Egypt, and to go back again after deliver- ance therefrom, rather than enter the promised land under it ; for which rebellion God destroyed that unbelieving generation '* Yea, they despised the pleasant land, they believed not his ^postacy and Judgment of Christendom. 99 enant saidt I thy t give ill put upon xodus iltiply ruit of iase of ich he )le8sed barren LI take vil dis- m lay These ith, and e in the »m their faithful i in coin- Eibound- had all .e to do, teen as famine iitile in- of sick- |n heavy house- Ikedness iring art nthank- cleanse |us! This ler to re- deli ver- ider it; [Deration not hifi word," Psalm evi. 24 : " So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest," Heb. iii. 11. We have also every reason to believe that the inhabitants of Canaan knew of this dispensation, of which their land was to be the theatre, and to which their gods and their abominations must give place ; be- cause the patriarchs so long sojourned in Canaan, the very soil they expected to possess within a given period— at the end of four hundred and thirty years from the calling of Abram. If the Canaanites knew not this, I know not with what propriety St. Paul saith that through faith Rahab perished not with them that believed not. She, by her faith, became *^ a mother in Is- rael," and Messiah's line passed through her. Mat. i. 5. The Canaanites resolved to hold fast their corruptions of the patri- archal faith, and their false gods, as a good and sufficient inherit- ance for them and their posteiity ioiever, at Satan's instigation sought to destroy Israel, and frustrate the design and grace of God. When Messiah came to the Jews, they enacted precisely the same tragedy of unbelief and wickedness. Foolishly and wick- edly taking it for granted, that their corruptions of a system which God had from the beginning designed to abolish when the time came for Messiah'*s manifestation in human flesh, was a good and sufficient inheritance for their race for ever, they killed the Prince of Life, and spared no pains to exterminate root and branch all means of bringing in the new dispensation, and so forever prevent it. As they could not bear the thoughts of leaving their slavery and the flesh pots of Egypt for the new dispensation in '^ the pleasant land :" so when the time came for them to pass out of '^ that which decayeth and waxeth old, and is ready to vanish away," they could not think of surrendering their corruptions of this old thing for a new and better than it ever was. ** For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. For finding fault with them, he saith. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Is- rael and with the house of Judah : not according .to the cove- nant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt ; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord ; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts : and I ^Ranaiiii loo JSpoHacy and Judgment of Chriittndom, •i It 'V will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people : and thej shall net teach every man his neijghbour, and every man his brother, saying, Enow fhe Lord : for all shaU know me froni the least to the greatest. For I will be nierciiful to their un- righteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remem- ber no more. In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is rea- dy to vanish away," Heb. viii. 7. This is that ** better cove- nant established upon better promises," ver. 6, alluded to so of- ten by the prophefs, and thus spoken of in Zephaniah ii;. 13: "The remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity, nor speak lies; neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth :" and the reason is, all sinfulness sliall be purged out of them, and they shall become a new, pure, and holy lump, in ereation pu- rity, and in much more than creation steadfastness, because God will also give them the Holy Ghost, Ezek. iLXXvij 5!7, "I will put my Spirit within ypu, and cause you to walk in my statutes." Their unwillingness to forsake a condition actually become use- less, and a hindrance to one so much better, St. Paul alludes to in 2 Cor. iii. 13, "And not as Moses, which put avail 6 ver his faee, that the children of Israel could not look to the end [ccfs- sation] of that which is abolished." They could not think of its removal, because of the vail of unbelief upon their hearts. God would have given them the exclusive honour of taking from among them the " people for his name," that is, the mys- tical Christ, or church of the first born, without turning aside to the Gentiles, to which the election from the Jews attained, while the rest were blinded, Rom. xi. 7 ; and then he would peaceably and lovingly have brought the stock of Israel in the flesh from under this present dispensation into that which is to come when the kingdom is established. The reasons that this present dispensation is better than the Jewish are, 1. That it delivered men from the burdensome ri- tual of the law. — 2. Christ having come into mortal flesh, in it conquered sin and Satan, died for the redemption of man, rose for his justification, and ascended on high to give gifts unto men, did shed down the Holy Ghost from his risen and glorified per- son upon the church, " that the righteousness or the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the fleSh, but after the spirit," Rom. viii. 4. — 3. In that, in addition to the high privilege of being governed by God revealing and directing the nation as a body politic, he bestowed on the church the various Jlpostactf and Judgtneni of ChristendonL 101 gifts of power from on high, as recorded in the New Testament at large. — 4. In that this dispensation has the lionour of fnr- nishing the members of the mystical Christ, by regeneration of the Holy Ghost, of which he is the Head and First-born among many brethren. — 5. In that all the wordly blessings under the law would also have been poured out upon this dispensation, men continuing to obey the Gospel, as is variously hinted at therein. See Mat. vi. 33 : Eph. vi. 1—3 ; 1 Tim. iv. 8. The same tragedy is about to be again enacted by the delu- ded partizans of Satan, in order, as he intends it, to prevent the restoration and establishment of the Jews, the bringing in of the kingdom, the casting out of Satan, and the purification of the whole world, which shall surely follow in order after the cleansing of the Jewish Sanctuary, which sanctuary has a ref- erence to all nations. All parties are combined together to frustrate this grace of God to the World at large, esteeming this present sinful world worthy of all their love, affection, and care, after it has become so exceedingly corrupted by heresy, schism, superstition, radicalism, infidelity, and utter lawless- ness, and after that God has no further use for it, eyen if it were not corrupted. Against this the Gentile Church is cau- tioned by St. Paul in Hebrews iii. iv., by the example of Israel in the wilderness ; and again in Rom. xi., by the example then before their eyes, of Israel rejecting the Gospel and being cast anew into the furnace of affliction therefor. And he warns us against the pride of boasting against the Jews, and denying to them the sure promise of God, that as a nation, they shall be graffed in again, and come under the Millennial Covenant, while the Gentile churches and nations who had received the Gospel shall be annihilated for their apostacy and their mad projects for frustrating the grace of God, first towards Israel, and next through and by Israel restored towards " the residue of men, and all the Gentiles" remaining after the Great Day is past. *^ Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee. Thou wilt say then. The branches were broken off" that I might be graffed in. Well ; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not high-minded, but fear : for if God spared not the natural branches, takp]j it to miin'S' business and bosom^* I shall therefofe, since all sculpture is given for our instruqtji^P upon whom the ends of the world are come, take all advantage of it in regard to the Gentile apostacy, as sealing to the doc*" tnne, that the Gentile church has ever been held accountable, and will be so held to the end, for all the gifts and privileges that passed out of the patriarchal church into the Jewish, and for all that passed out of that into the Christian in addition to those peculiar to the Christian, down to the very hour of the Lord's Second Advent. The soundness of this principle all persons skilled in constitutional law will at once recognize : but whether they will have the honesty to act upon it in a case wherein the acknowledgement convicts them of sin and re- quires their repentance and confession, is quite another thing. No instance can be brought in which God has instituted a dis- pensation upon all parts and times of which he has not bestow- ed the same privileges, laid the same duties, and required the same responsibilities. Thou shalt add nothing thereto : thou shalt take nothing therefrom : thou shalt cast away none of thy privileges : thou shalt bury none of thy talents in the earth, but occupy all till 1 come : thou shult claim no exemptions nor take no privileges which 1 have not granted, is the language of the New as well as of the Old Testament, uniform and perempto- ry. Thou shalt turn neither to the right hand nor to the left, in all that 1 command thee in all thy generations. God did constitute and endow the Church as we read of it in the New Testament, while'it was exclusively of Jewish material, standing on the stock of Israel ; and when he opened it io the Gentiles, and cut off the Jewish nation, he brought them under all the conditions and privileges and duties and responsibilities that the Jewish converts were under before them, making no difference. *' God which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us ; and put no dif- ference between us and them," Acts xv. 8, 9 But God did not constitute Christendom as we now find it : he did not make it that Babel of heresy, schism, superstition, and infidelity, we now find it. He did not by any visible act constitute the pope- dom, nor the Greek apostacy, nor the churches of the Reforma- tion, nor any of the sects that have sprung out of them. If he did, let us see a history of the miraculous interference and '* mighty working " whereby alone such a thing could be done. Nay, the boa^t of many in this infidel age is, that God has nev- GentiU JipoHaxy m towhihtg Ike 9VMy. 909 eormanifested'htinscflf by any supernataral act since (%e days «f ihe twelve apostles: and this I suppose they are foolish enomjh to claim as a great christian privilege : for if we are under me $ame diipeMation with the twelve apostles, how can you make it appear that the Gospel charter gives us less privileges than it gave them? This denial and rejection of the gifts and privile- ges connected with the manifestation of the Spirit, which Paul tells us was given to every me to profit withal, is actual rebellion against the Holy Ghost ; and Christians are so mad as to glory in it. Therefore night is unto them that they have no vision; it is dark unto them, and they cannot divine: yet they ci^ Peace, and bite with their teeth ; and if one tell them of their rejected privileges, they even prepare war against him. Joseph Wolf, the Jew Missionary, well remarks in his*Jour- nal of January 31, 1831, that ^'The Syrian, Maronite, Chal- dean, Roman Catholic, Greek, and Abyssinian Churches be- lieve that the Lord Jesus Christ glorifies himself, and has glo- rified himself, in every age, by leaving in the church the Spirit of prophecy and miracles. Protestants alone deny this fact. — Yea, Jews and Mahommedans are not such infidels as the Evan- gelical party in England are. Jews and Mahommedans have never limited so much the power of God as the Protestants, and especially the Missionary Sx)cieties, do. I foresee great, very great judgments coming over the Protestant churches. They may succeed in converting some among the savages, who have no books, but certainly they will never be the instruments of the conversidn of the Jews. There is no such godless nation in the world as the Protestants : they have more confidence in their steam-boats than in the power of God. The Turk, when he perceives an earthquake, he exclaims 'This is the Lord^ the Protestants ascribe it to some cause in the atmosphere. The Arab, on seeini^ ~ comet, concludes that the decrees of the Lord are issued upon his creatures: the Protestant laughs at it. The Syrian Christian lays his hand upon the sick person : the Protestant, sm'Iing, declares it to be superstition.^' We do not believe in God as the Bible uniformly exhibits him to our faith. From the first of Genesis to the last of Rev- elation, we see him a God revealing, guiding, directing, mani- festing and controling in the church, and testifying against the wicked, except during some interval of the withdrawal of his grieved Spirit. In this his multiform character we do deny him. We confess that he was such from the creation to the establish- es;: no Gentile •ApostI am truly amazed : if this be not a sin against ^e Holy Ghost it is hard ta say vvhat is.'* — Vol. ii. p. 3&6. This is ^^ spiritual wickedness in high places" with a ven- geance. I doubt whether a dogma of such enormous wicked- ness and blasphemy can be found even in the Papacy itself, which the word of God designates as speaking blasphemy a- gainst the Most High- It strikes at our relation and responsi- bility to every Person in the Trinity ; fir^st against God the JPa- Iher as Universal Lord of all things : secondly, againat God the Son, who by the Father is constituted heir of all things and Prince of the Kings of the EUirth : and thirdly, against God the Holy Ghost the Sanctifier and preparer of sinful men for the aervioe of Christ, and the worker in them when they do his will. Anaetasius has rightly said it is exalting the Devil to a full and absolute equality with the Holy Ghost. I say again, it is no wonder that God has let loose Atheism to scourge and torment those professors of the Gospel of his Son who degrade it to the level of Atheism ! — The following extract from Mr. Ir- ving's Discourses on the Incarnation, strikingly sets forth the same apostacy from the Holy Trinity, the materialism, atheism, and idolatry of science, political economy, &c., which so sig- nally distinguish this age from all others. " But to ascend a little higher still, his will, his absolute will, his will not to be predetermined by any thing without itself, were also unseen, and being unseen were unacknowledged, if there was no creature sustained thereby against the disposition of its own being, and the condition of the other creatures whereof it is a part : and if the will of God were not to be manifested by a continuity of such instances, breAren, we should all rush headlong into Atheism. To me, it is a neces- sary thing, a thing it is most necessary to my loyal obedience to God's will, to see in the church a holy generation maintain- ed by the Divine Will against the law of corruption, which the world underlieth ; and in respect to the sinful world, which is working on in its wickednes, it is necessary for me to believe most surely, that in the good time of God that wicked order of things shall, by an act of the Divine will be destroyed ; and in respect to the heavens and the earth, whose regular and un- changed motions have made them to be Worshipped in all ages, from the Chaldeans of old down to the scientific men of GerUik ^postacy as touching the Trinity. 113 W6 Jneces- Idience intain- |ch the lich is relieve *der of land in kd un- in all lenof the nineteenth century, it is necessary for me to believe that there is a time coming when they shall, of mere will, be chang- ed and removed like a scroll ; for new heavens, and^ a new earth, and a new condition of men and things, which shall come into being when our glorious Head is revealed from the place of the rignt hand of God, where he is at present hidden. Oth- erwise for want of manifested Will, we should all become A- theists. For all astronomers, who have looked upon the stea- dy and unchanging motions of the heavens, from the time of the Chaldeans to that of the French Institute, have in the end become idolaters and worshippers of them. Why? Because they seem unchangeably fixed under the law of cause and ef- fect, and the spirit of man acknowtedgeth unchangeableness to be an attribute of God only : and to guard against this, it is re- vealed not only that they were created but that they are to be changed in the time of bringing in the Great Head of creation. So have the Chemists done in these latter times, and, I may say, the physiologists, and all manner of natutalists, who have no other god than the piece of matter, the constancy of whose law of cause and effect they are observing ; and thus hath sci- ence become to them a religion. And why ? Because, being under the law of cause and etlect, it exhibits no unaccountable changes or vicissitudes * no acts of simple will : it makes no discoveries of a will without a cause ; an absolute and uncon- ditional will the cause of itself. And therein a religion is dis- tinguished from a science, that it proceedeth out of a Will, and addresseth itself to a Will. And this wretched Arminianism, by putting out of sight the absolute unconditional acts of the Divine Will in the decree of election, doth hasten to make Christian religion into a moral science ; and to bring the Almighty Will under the moral law, instead of making all law to flow from his • Here the observant reader may see the reed of a God oonthiually revealing and manifesting by snpeTnatnral power, as ihe scriptures tini- formly exhibit him, namely, to preserve men ffvm atheism : and hence we may see the use even of pretended miracle', and pag< rial Service, and from the Collect for the third Sandny in Advent, which teaches n« to pray that (he Christian Ministry may cnntinnally prepwe and Make re^dy an acceptable people to receive their Lord when be comes to JMda;f the world. But if, as 1 have heard said, tho time when he will route i^ not to be inquired into, but left iiidefiuite in the mind, as if it mi!!))t be a million of a^es di.^tant as well as ot:e, I know not how a people cm be prepared for that event, ^eeiit^ all men are so prone (o say, " Mv Lord delayeth his comini;," an«I to eat and drink, and smite tlieir f«.'tlovv-servants. The old EngliHli B<)pti-ts alfo maJe a coniiistent confession of the Lord*s coming and kin«>;d(Mn, It is p:iTen in the Dialoiues on Prophecy, Vol. ii. p 267, as an "extract of the Confes^iion of Faith of the English B^iptists, extracted from Ciosby," OS f(>Uow«: '* VVe believe that there will be an order in the Ue«nrrection ; Christ' is the First'Fruits, and then next or after, they that are Christs; at hit' cominjT: ihcn or afterward*, comrth the end ** Concerning the kingdom and reign of our Lord Jesus Christ, at em li Clirisv at hit at tr* OmtHe *Qpostacy as touching the Trinity, 115 These things mark a grievous apostaey from God the Fath> er as the God of Providence over ali things: — material nature, the affairs of nations, and of the church, and the Lawgiver and Judge (Isa. xxxiii. 22) of both. The entire political standing a?)d principles of Christendom is apostaey against God the Son, as opposed to his coming to take the kingdom and dominion. — The same is observable of " the Religious World,-' in that it abandons the political woild to the dominion of the devil <'ind atheism, and goes about to bring in a Millennium of its own con* trivance by its regiment of ^^ Societies," which go to pull down the Church and abolish Christ's ordinances. 1 here especially allude to the Temperance Society, for the sake of which, Dr. Sprague tells us, as quoted by the New York Churchman of July 18, 1835, that Professor Stuart ^* tells us that neither bread nor wne is essential to the acceptable celebration of the Lord's Supper j and hence another individual with whom I have con- versed, more than intimated his willingness to have the ordi- nance entirely abandoned, rather than it should stand in the waj of the cause of temperance." This infidel spirit is a serious sign of the times, in regard to the doctrine of the Second Ad- vc»t and the kingdom. " The New Testament in my blood " relates to that which comes by the death of the Testator, name- ly,. *^ the inheritance of the saints in light," their possessing the kingdom : and the continual celebration of the Holy Eucharist do- believe that he is now in heaven at his Path«r*ii right hnnd» to we do believe, lli»t, at I lie time appointed of the Father, he shall come a- {[ikin in power and great ^iory ; and that at, or after hiti coming the ne^ cond time, he wiU not only raise t!ie dead, judge and retitore the woiId, but will also take to himicU hh kinj^dom, and will, accnrding to the Scriptures, reign on the throne of his father David, on Mount Zion, in Jerusalem, forever. •* We believe that this king^lom of out Lord will be an universal kih^dom, and thvu in this kingdom the Lord Jesus Christ himself will bethe aldne visible supreme Lord and King of the whole earth. ** We believe that »« this kingdom will be univers»l, 8o it will aTso be an everlasting kingdom, that thall have no end, nor oMinot l»e sha- ken ; m which kingdom the saints and fitithful in Christ Jesus shall re- etive the end of their faith, even the salvation of iheir soul* ; to/ier« ths Lord is they shall be iitso "We bet iev« that the New Jernsilem, that shall rorne down from Qod out of hear en, when the iabernnete of Gjod shall be with them, ami he irill dwell auionu: thorn, will hi* t'emetrop^ditan city of this kngdom^and will be the glorious place of residence of both Christ and his saints forever aud will be an oiuiatrd, an thril the kingly ptf/acs Wiilbe anMonnt Ziofit, ttkfkdUf hkl of IMvkT, iithere'his throm^at*** '■it.> •/. ■tV; 116 Gentile Apostacy as touching the Trinity, 11 .' it.. is to " shew forth the Lord's death till he come :" so that this is one of the deviPs wills to make us forget our inheritance, and cease to desire our Lord's return to introduce us into the kingdom, to cast out Satan, and purify the world. Another feature of the Gentile apostacj, and one of long standing, relates to the exercise of supernatural power in the discipline of the church ; and its object is God the Holy Ghost, who exercised it on special occasions, to the end of maintain- ing a holy reverence for the living God in the minds of men. — It is first noticed in the case of Abimelech, who had taken Abra- ham's wife. God threatened to kill him and his people if he restored her not. Perhaps the case of Sodom should fall under this head ; though these two have a national rather than an in- dividual character. To this belong the plagues of Egypt, &c. It was introduced under the law, and appears in the cases of the plagues in the wilderness ; of Miriam's leprosy ; of Nadab and Abihu ; of Korah and his company ; of Achan ; of Uzza ; of the disobedient prophet; of King Uzziah, and others. It appears Again in the New Testament, in the case of Zacharias, Luke 1. 20 ; of Ananias and Sapphira ; of Elymas the sorcerer ; of Herod, Acts xii. 23 ; and, as I think, in case of the incestous Corinthian, whom Paul delivered to severe chastisement : and of Hymeneus and Alexander, whom Paul saith, 1 Tim. i. 20, he had delivered unto Satan, that they might learn not to blas- pheme. In Acts V. 11, it is said that great fear came upon all the church, and upon as many as heard of the fate of Ananias and his wife ; so that " of the rest durst no man join himself to them : but the people magnified them. And believers icere the more added to the Lord^ multitudes both of men and women," >n consequence of this very act of most severe discipline : and if any man should say that the like effect would not now fol- low from an exhibition of the same discipline, if there was faith in the church sufficient for its exercise, I should tell him he does not believe the testimony of the Holy Ghost. Men are always disposed to treat with contempt a slumbering power, as is just now most manifest in tiie utter contempt in which the re- bellious faction in Lower Canada hold the authority and power of the British Government. But God transferred this severe and terrifying discipline out of the Jewish into the Christian church : and it appears that it was exercised by the hands of the rulers in the church, under authority, as occasion called for it. And herein lay its chief- Gentile »^po8tacy as touching the TrinUy. 117 blas- )on all nanias self to ere the men," and w fol- faith im he en are as is he re- power Ine out Ithat it under chief- est value, in that the faithful and holy church could exercise Divine Power for the restraint of presumption, hypocrisy, and jnrickedness. But it is plain enough that no such discipline could be exercised in a church of Sadducees and semi-in6dels, who believe in no such thing. That this gift of discipline in Divine Power was given for continuance in the church till the Lord comes again is manifest from *^ the analogy of faith" al- ready brought from the former dispensation, and almost direct- ly so stated by Saint Paul in 1 Cor. x. 8 — 11, as follows: *''' Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them commit- ted, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand. Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents. Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer. JSow all these things happened unto them for ensamples, and thev are WRITTEN FOR OUR ADMONITIGir, UPON WHOM THE ENDS OF THE WORLD ARE COME." To whom is this language addressed ? To all baptised men, or to a few dozen at Corinth ? And if God had determined that the exercise of this discipline should cease ^vith the lives of the first generation of the church ; and if the like might not occur in any age of tl\,e church, how could those cases be ensamples to ms, upon whom the ends of the world are come ? Why should those be admonished by such exam- ples who are not placed under such discipline ^ The church was at first placed under it ; and it remains for those who deny its intended continuance to shew, not that God has suspended its exercise, but that he has revoked and taken it out of the church's charter, and thus made it unnecessary. God warns all men against the danger of incurring such miraculous judgments: but God never warns men against what cannot or may not hap- pen to them. The various gifts of power to the church, St. Paul calls the earnest of an inheritance future to this time-state of the church. " In whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our in eritance until the redemption of the purchased possession," Eph. i. 13, 14. On this I observe, 1. After faith received, as in the case of Cornelius the centurion and his family, and of those whom Paul mentions in Gal. iii. 2, 5, as receiving the Holy Ghost " by the hearing of faith ;" — or by the laying on of the Apos- tles' hands, the Holy Ghost fell on them, and miraculously sealed them to the promise of the future inheritance of some- , ,1- . te.' 116 Gentile ^ostacy as touching the Trini4y. r m il,., thing. 2. This gift pf power in the ehurch was the earnest 4^ the inherUance. The earnest of a thing is a part ol it given be- forehand as surety for the remainder at some future time. 3. Therefore the inheritance itself is on^ of power in the Holj Ghost — " the powers of the icorld to come^^'' — divine power over all things to be given to the " heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ." 4. Given to the church to be exercised in a small measure, until the redemption of the purchased possession : un- (ii the I.ord comes in power and great glory, and redeems all nature from under the curse and »he power of the devil, and gives all things into the hands of his members. " For all things are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; and ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's." 1 Cor. iii. 20 — 22. This was committed in measure to the church on the day of Pentecost, to be kept in faith and obedience, and used for the glory of Jesus — *' for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ ;" but she has not kept it. This fact also of the gift of power is witnessed by the Lord himself in these words : " All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye there- /oi'c, and teach all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, an J of the Holy Ghost. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever 1 have commanded you : and, lo, 1 am with you always, even unto the end of the world.". ..."And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name they shall cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues ; they shall take up serpents ; and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them ; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover." And i( any should say that these ought then to follow in the church irrespective of her faithfulness in that particular trust ; then I say : tlath not God the liberty to withhold and suspend the promise for a time in case of unbelief, as well as to say to that rebellious genera- tion to whom he had sworn to give the land, " Ye shall know my breach of Promise ?" The church now claims under the commission to the extent of preaching, administering the sa- craments, and discipline : but why not claim also to its whole extent as well as stop short at a part, for no apparent reason but unbelief and distrust of God ? This supernatural discipline continued in the churah down to near the end of the third century, if not later. In proof of GerUile ^postacy as touching the Trinity. 119 amest ^ ;iven be- ime. 3. le Holy vver over int heirs ised in a non : un- •eems all levil, and all things e world, ; all are 1 Cor. hurch on nee, and he saints, e body of be gift of ds: "All » tye there' le of the Teaching ded you : jd of the believe ; eak with ey drink ay hands lould say ective of lath not or a time genera- all know nder the the sa- ts whole \i reason •ch down proof of this I give below an extract from a learned and most valuable work, published in London, in the year 1713, and republished in 1832, intitlcd, " The General Delusion of Christians touch- ing the ways of God's revealing himself to and by the Pro- phets." It demonstrates the gross ignorance of Christians on all subjects connected with the ways of the prophetic Spirit, and demonstrates, from the writings of the primitive fathers, that the prophetic Spirit continued in the church till about the year 400, and was driven out by the violent persecutions of an *' anti-prophetical" faction which arose during the rocond cen- tury, and continued to gain stren^:h till the time of Constan- tine, when he, becoming Christian, persecuted the prophetical party by an Imperial Edict, and destroyed all their books which could he found. He shews that " the falling away or apostacy in the Christian church went on increasing IVom the Apostolic age," until the prophetic Spirit was almost entirely driven out. But to the extract concerning discipline. " There are persons who will argue the certain existence of the powers extraordinary continuing in the church unto the time of Constantino, from the natural impossibility without them of keeping the strict discipline upon manners and errone- ous principles which was remarkable in the communion of Christians before they had any thing of secular rules, measures, or penalties to enforce it by. And though I believe this way of argument is valid so far as to produce a strong presumption that those gifts and powers were much more numerous among them, either immediately by the prophets or immediately by the Divine hand exercised, than we have clear and authentic records to prove ; yet we must content ourselves to go on in what appears, and is handed down to us from these, of that kind. — And methinks it is not a little hint of these matters that St. Cyprian gives us in several of his epistles, even in the declen- sion of that primitive discipline which soon after him had a pe- riod, but which was never afterwards matched by all the sever- ities and coercivp methods that the imperious pride of man could impose, or the councils of the clergy invent : for says St. Cyprian, " Some that were received into the church by bap- tism, when afterwards they began to fall away into sinful cour- Bes, they used to be possessed and torn by an evil spirit ; (which may possibly be in part what the Apostle means by de- livering such a one t(> Satan ;) and concerning those who fell aw&f from this profession of faith in time of perseeation, he If 130 Gentile JSpostcicy as touching the Trinity, t' i adds, One of those who ivent to the magistrate to renounce his faith, after he had done so, was struck dumb. Whereas also in some cases they were forbidden to frequent the public baths for pleasure ; a woman (says he) that would go thither was sur- prised on the spot by an evil spirit, and dropping down, she tore that tongue with her teeth wherewith she had either im- piously talked or fed : nor could she outlive it long, but died with torments in her belly and bowels. Thus ^Iso Cyprian gives an account of *wo persons who had for clandestine ends sacrificed to idols, and yet presented themselves to the commu- nion of Christians, to their miserable sorrow, in his presence. One of them was a woman, who as soon as she had received the bread, and had scarce swallowed it, feeling as if she had taken some deadly poison, or a sword had pierced her, fell into dolorous anguish and faintings, and, sinking under the load of her own guilt, with ilutterings and tremblings she fell down dead. The whole church were spectators of this latter trage- dj' ; and the former, with a third, though very dismal, I omit for brevity. And, indeed, far beyond a few particulars was the church discipline of these ages guarded as with the aveng- ing sword of a cherubim : for, says Cyprian, there are many at this day who, in the want of due humiliation and repentance for thsir faults, are possessed by impure spirits, and are driven into melancholy despair, and even downright madness." How- ever tremendous, yet so common were such like judicial strokes from the immediate hand of heaven, that the same author says they were equal in number to that of delinquents all over the Christian world. Nay, Tertullian's Apology, p. 39, says, that "whosoever did prove to be such a delinquent as to be exclu- ded from a participation in the public assemblies for prayer and the communion, he was certain to meet with, from the presence of the Lord, evidence of a foregoing sentence to the future judgment." " We find, by St. Cyprian's declaration of a vision to him, a threatening denounced ; and those forementioned terrors of the Lord (begun by the stroke upon Ananias and Sapphira) were doubtless insisted on, and threatened by the Spirit of prophecy, whilst He continued in any sort publicly owned, and submitted to. Indeed, that gift of discerning the latent vileness in the heart does seem to imply that the Searcher of it was then sometimes the openly Avenger too, upon the contumacious and impenitent, for the honor of his Spirit, whose office it was to Gentile Aposiacy as touching the Trinity. 121 convince the world of sin, and of judgment consequent. Even thus it was true that our Saviour came not only to hring peace to believers, but a sword upon the head of the abominable in his eye. Nevertheless, this way of the Divine Theocracy, or immediate superintendency of God over hfs church, was a priv- ilege expressive highly of his favour to it ; whilst thereby the societies of Christians were preserved and fenced, as well from hypocritical deceivers as from the contagion of members open- ly corrupt and vieious ; but this was the peculiar glory of the times of the Spirit, which continued as long as men were wil- ling to submit to his leading and presiding over them, and would endure to be taught, reproved, and governed by the immediate voice of the Lord. But though these things were never so manifestly open to view, those who had a secret declivity to vile affections and passions, and to the love of wordly pleasure, profit, and honor, must of necessity be weary of so strict an Inspector and Superintendant over them, who was a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart, and struck his terrors 2ven to between the joints and the marrow. Thus therefore, while we find such men as Tertullian and Cyprian celebrating and recording the glory of God on that account, Eusebius the courtier was quite of another turn ; and therefore we find him not only unwilling in his history to perpetuate the memory of their still surviving and immortal writings, but omitting the ve- ry mention of them, that they might be buried in obscurity as much as in him lay." Part ii Chap. iv. Sections, 32, 33, v*>. 202, 203, 204. While Editor of the Christian Sentinel, I was furnished with an article by Dr. Mountain, Archdeacon of Quebec, of which the following is an extract : — '* There are, I believe, various instan- ces satisfactorily attested, of facts closely similar to that which is selected in the following Extract from PinnocWs County His- tories, as having occurred at the town of Devizez, in Wilt- shire : — " • In the market-place is a Monumental Stone, on which is recorded a most awful instance uf Divine Vengeance, almost immediately inflict- ed on an unhappy wretch, who had repeatedly called God to witness the truth of what she advanced, al!houg;h it waH a fat8eho.>d. She solemnly affirmed that she had paid the money fur some corn she had bought, and wished God would strike hei dead if she had not. She died, and the money was found in her hand.' " I have been more immediately led to the consideration of this sub- ject by some luch occurrences witliin the sphere of my own observation. Tliey were noticed incidentally from the pulpit in a passasre which I ^f!:' :iii^ if ?' if J fl^ Chntik Spostttey as touthing Ike Trinity. . '.m >am enaMed to cnminMoicate, and with which 1 clnsv the article subdiit- ted t«> y(Mir arc i-j laim- : — " ' lit our owtt day, 8»mI in r>:ir own ne»4:hb<»urhoot!, our f«-Hn\v sinners arc 80tni'tiiiie»> cut i>lf in n warnii.}; tnHitiii.-r in thu very him the hi-tl ot'tUMih. i\H(\ his death has hocii cince fol- lowed hy th;«» *'f unolher who was kiHi'd, accident all'/, i\< wv call it, in the act ot thefV*... .'A jiMoaik.iblf adilinon whirli 1 h.ivc iiiard to (hit Kad histdiy \\ is, the dL'ttit «>t d w<i't)it(t lit the: road i much more after, were so fallen away generally from their rev- erence to and love of the Spirit that, by the contrary and op' posing principles* they had admitted and imbibed, they were morally incupable of owning what was truly prophecy and revelation from God, according to the rul^s of Scripture, thfe< iodelicicnt touchstone to judge by^ and even according to' the The principles lirre »pok«n of are those now carrent amonp Protein- Is. KuaiUr, will ynn a«k yourself how tlie Chrlslinns of the third tury ciurie by (hum: wlit^lipi'lhcy fonn'l them in Canonical Seiipture,. ~. jrhetlier the Spirit, when Hbout tr> be silent in the churcli, (telivered tlYvm, or whe'luT they came by pride and the temptatron of tlipdevlf. ?»' iltwratien^l SHnrtiite, thartlie Holy Ghnot wnuld, of Diviuo CottnMlt tS* •JMMid«>o Gkvitt'sfbtfdy; uaUin fvr epotftaey! T- flints cent or wheth Gentile t^poslacij as touching the Trinity, Wt it III' at it andi rev- op- Ivere and ttie third turey rered U rules whereon the Christians themselves, in the second oentu^ ry, hod admitted them/* Part ii. c. iv Sec. 30. Again : *^ The testimonies before given, we conceive to have reached unto the year .iGS ; and for the small terra remaining to fill up the third century, these ensuing relations may be abundantly sufficient; the chief of them, indeed, will be drawn from the works of St. Cyprian, bisiiop of Carthage, the chief city of Af- rica, who died before that period. liut his evidences are sa numerous and express as may, however, well sufiice alono by themselves because they include the acknowledgement of sev- eral churches which died not with him. But because of his. eminence for piety, he dying a martyr for the faith of Christ* and by reason of his learning that makes him to this day ol great esteem, aiid by reason of his unblemished character, tOr add an energy to the certainty of whatsoever be gives a posi- tive testimony of, they deserve a more ample relation here. — Wherefore, from the volume of his works it appears, among other like things, tliat *^ Celerinus, a minister at Carthage, being bjr that church appointed to some particular office which he through' humility scrupled to accept of, he was thereupon adinonished by a vision in the nighty and forced by that Divine command not to refuse the charge tendered him." This instance of Di- vine revelation to Celerinus is related in the Thirty-fourtbt Epistle of Cyprian : and in the Fifty -second Epistle he gives, another in the person of Cornelius, who had from God and Christ immediately a designation to the office of a public minis- ter in the church. And this pai'ticular point of the extraordif nary inspection of God in the Government and comforting di- rection- of his people, was so common in those days, or at leasts in those parts where Cyprian was conversant, that not only he himself openly professed to hold by tiiat title^ but, judging of things in general by those he had within his view, he does in- many places intimate, that no one was rightly constituted to the public ministry who was without some extraordinary signiiica- cationW the Spirit to confirm it to him. And therefore, from the authority of a prophetic vision to himself, he says (Ep* 69). He that refuses to believe Christ when he constitutes a minis- ter, let him be^in then to believe it when Christ aver^es thai minister." Ditto, sec. 31. This doctrine concerning the appointment of (ninistcrs* and' the Divine Superintendency of tlie church, is laid dewrt from< Scripture in my tracts oq the Dootcine of tJi£ Ii(»ly Spirit,, (wiiicik* ■v:: ■i,M • ■]■<- ■! : v.. ' Its ChntUe •Spostaey as touching the Trinity. was written and published before I had seen the General De- lusions) , in sections xxv. and xxvi., beginning at page 54. Read- er, does the Doctrine agree with or contradict the letter of Scripture ? And do you esteem the church obligated to abide bj it, or authorised of her Head and Lord to reject it as a fanatical delusion ? One making much profession of the Gospel, told me he could not conceive how a Christian believer could have writ- ten my tract, or how I, as an honest man^ could consent to re- main in the church after embracing such doctrines ! ! But the Scribes and Pharisees of old entertained the same sentiments concerning this same heresy, though they were in general free from the sin of the infidel Sadducees, revived in these days in the denial of all intercourse with the invisible world, except by influences^ exerted in a manner resembling the laws of the mate- rial world, gravitation, and the like; but yet so secret as to be totally unperceivable by man. Every thing must be done by ihe power of human intellect; by which it comes to pass that hu- man intellect hath usurped so many of the Officers of the Holy Ghost in both church and state. But again: ^' I have, in the last instance of prophetic vision,'' (not here given) ^' mixed a little of that admirable instruction of doctrine joined usually with those celestial vouchsafements granted to this illustrious prophet in the Christian church: that title is giv- en him, because I know not how the distinction of a prophet can be denied to a person who published neaily twenty visions received by him for the instruction, comfort, and edification of the then church, and gave them out in the name and charac- ter of the word of che Lord to him. To recite all these visions here, as they are in the circumstances described, and with the doctrine wherewith they are applied and enforced, would be beyond the measures used in any part of this compendious tract; the design whereof is but to show the certainty of the Spirit of prophecy's existing in those ages wherein some patterns and precedents of it are exhibited. And I think the number of these Divine communications, recorded by St. Cyprian to have been granted unto many others, is so plentiful that they are competent proof of the continuance of such for some time be- yond that of his own life; for the Spirit which liberally gave forth these, as he publishes them, cannot be thought extin- guished, and to expire, in those exertions on others, with his mortal breath. There needs but little exercise of the same reason for deduction and inference that is allowed among men GentUe Apostacy as touching the Trinity. 129 M ■if ' r m in all other cases, to make the premises laid down from the tes- timony of this author valid in this point also of the continuance of those graces as above; notwithstanding the wilful silence of the historian Eusebius after this terra." — Ditto, Sec. 35. — Again: " If any will deride the visions of this prophet, they cannot do it upon principles other than such as must equally weaken the authority of revelation in the Scripture in the same way ; for we have fully proved, that prophecy in general is there call- ed Vision; and a great part oC the Sciipture prophets, we ad- mit, had no other authority for their eommission (that we know of) but what St. Cyprian had. "But having given a specimen of one of his at large," (concerning his marlyrdom a year before- hand, which is not here given) " we may by ihe prolixity of it the better be-excused from particularizing all of them that are related by himself, because it would exceed the purposed bound and even design of this recital: some few, therefore, we shall content ourselves herein to note, as that ** wherein he saw iwQ Christian ministers consulting with the heathen mogistrates how to draw and issue a proclamation for a persecution of the believers in Christ ; which very ministers afterwards proved deserters of the faith, and encouraj^ers of multitudes to revolt from it, which appears in several of his epistles, and in parti- cular the 40th. In the 54th, 56th, and others, he fays, We receive often warnings from the Lord, which in conscience we feel ourselves bound to communicate to you (writing then to entire churches *), that a hiore terrible conflict of contending by suffering for the iaith than ever hitherto has been is just now at hand. Therefore, since I l^ave these frequent heaven- ly admonitions by vision, we ought net to be disobedient to the heavenly voice in them ; and thus I exhort you, pastors, not to forsake the sheep in their imminent danger ; but, as \ continu- ally inculcate unto those by the Divine appointment committed unto me, so when the Holy Spirit and the Lord is pleased by repeated visionary manifestations to set before me the enemy coming on to assault us with utmost violence, I beseech you that ye may be arrived and prepared, ani| that ye will also duly admonish your flocks." Thus, it seems, did this man of God * Let the Bishop of Quebec, for instanci*, addretis «iicb an Epistle to his Clergy, ami si>e in what manner it would he rereived. Nine out of ten would regard him as absolutely iivsane. This i« the necessary re- sult of our Sadduceeism. ■fel '''kltu '^m ISO OentUe Jipostacy (is touching the Trinity. tfi acquit himself of the trust by express command from the Hea- enly King vested in his hands, that in the very provincial assem- blies, or synods of the Bishops, he laid these things revealed to him before them, to be more publickly known, and in testi- mony against them who should neglect the declaration. " As to the guidance of the flock at Carthage, unto which he was made an overseer, it appears, that he conducted himself as directed by the Spirit of prophecy ; for one Pupianus, a per- son under some sentence for his crimes, signifying his repen- tance and earnest desire to be re-admittcd to full communion with the church, Cyprian answers, in Ep. 69, that " though he might give satisfaction competent for a re-admission, yet whilst there remains among us, says he, a reverence and regard to the Divine censure (intimated upon Pupianus) I daro not per- mit you to communicate with his chviroh bol'ore I consult .my God upon it, and do receive the direciii.ii ,.r some discovery from him whether I shall do it or not ; for I remember what Christ (the Great Shepherd) did once signify to his servant, who is fcarlul of disobeying his sovereign commands, how that among other things which he was pleased to honour me with the communication of, he added this ; Whosoever docs not give credit to Christ when he constiliitcs a mimslcr^ ioi!l afterwards l)cgin to believe ichen that minister is avenged bij hini.'*^ In which sort of expostulation and conclusive determining of himself we arc not to understand thit St. Cyprian depended only upon Divine rev- elations to himself for his direction ; but, as divers otherr. have been already, in hij writings, specified by name or special de- finition to enjoy the extraordinary communications of the Spirit of prophecy as well as himseli', so ho expresses it to be, in his church at least, much more common than Oie instances of a few persons would mako it, as v.ill fully anpe;ir by the fol- lowing section." — Sections 37, 38, c. iv. Part ii. What a different picture would the Christian church present at thi? day, were it taught, guideiic ]vm- \\ and in- u by this enticles *, I yt- were we com- u\ suptr- atc hous- ng which e Monta- that the , pulled hat more convert- vhich law Constan- vell corn- not one Objections answered. 133 society, either of heretics or schismatics, left any where sub- sisting in the world;'" notwithstanding "that historian himself gives us a large account of the hurly-burly broils and confusions of churches, and open scandalous contestations of the clergy ; one bishop against another, and one city and prov- ince against another ; at this very juncture far and wide raging, between the Orthodox and Arians ; so that the rent made in the church was never precedently greater. There is no way therefore, to understand this new brightness, stamped upon the church by the aforesaid edict of the emperor, than by granting the doctrine of Arius to be.no heresy., and allowing the dis-. sentions about it to be no violation of her v.oll compacted union." pp. 337—341. In concluding this part of my subject I am led to observe, that as the Christian dispensation is the third or Holy Ghost dispensation, to which was granted all the privileges of the two precedent, namely, of the patriarchal and the law, and upon which was laid a corresponding weight of responsibility, it having to witness to and maintain the honour of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, into which three fold name the Christian church is baptised ; the sin of its apostacy must be the greatest that men in .inful flesh can be capable of committing ; and that therefore, the judgments executed on Christendom must be terrible beyond any foLmer example. And this is phnnly set forth in the divine oracles. "Alas! who. shall live when God doeth this ! " XV. — Some Objections answered. Obi. — Miiacles have utterly ceased since the davs of the twelve Apostles. This is the form in which I have frequently heaid this objec- tion put. On the part of those having the means of knowing better, it is a gratuitous falsehood ; with others, a random asser- tion. Thosf who know any thing of the history of the church dewn to the time of Constantino, cannot be ignorant that mira- cles are recorded as of frequent occurrence. History tells us that emperor was converted by the sign of a cross which he saw in the heavens before a battle, on which appeared the words, In this overcome. It also informs us that tne apostate Julian was hindered from rebuilding Jerusalem and restoring thfe Jews with a view to falsify the word of Jesus, by repeated fiery eruptions which killed his men and destroyed their build« /\\'^ i^U \ 134 Objections ansic€'»'pd. iiig materials until they were compelled to abandon the impiouis enterprize. The fact of this cannot be denied ; but the infidels in miracle resolve it into a natural accident, which would have occurred had not the attempt been made, and which would have ceased when it did had the work continued. So these scolders argue : but so did not the Christians of that day. — They recognized no blind chance as rising in arms to vindicate U)d honor of the Son of God and confound the impious devices of his enemies, while He regarded it with indifference. The Jews are a standing miracle : that is, they are preserved in a way wholly un:iCcountable except hy Divine Power continual- ly exerted in direct opposition to the combined tendencies of hostile agencies working for their destruction. There is the same ground of belief in the miracle by which Colonel Gardi- ner was converted as in that by which St. Paul was converted. Hid conversion no one denies. His account of it is not regard- as a gratuitous lie : but it is resolved »nto a delusion or freak of a disordered imagination : and to such a thing do they attri- bute the con^?rsion of a soul into God! Ye blind guides! — who deny the Holy Ghost by attributing his sole prerogative work to the workings of a disord'^red brain ! The miracle of judgment commemorated by a Public Monument in England, as above stated, is as well attested as that executedup- on King Ilerod, and recorded in Scripture. If it is nci, there is an end of all confidence in history, and in the veracity of men, and in the meaning of their most solemn and Cod-fear- ing actions. And how many things of these kinds have occur- red, we have no means of knowing, from the infidel disposition of men io disbelieve, disregard, and forget them. The early fathers uniformly assert the continuance of miracles in the church down to tlie time of Constantine ; and the extracts I have given above declare their end ; naniely, the maintenance of Godly discipline and the comfort of tlic church in the Holy Ghost. But these skeptics do most arrogantly declare the whole of them to be either the most credulous and supersti- tious fools, or downright knaves and impostors; notwithstand- ing that, on all questions not involving their Sadducean princi- ples, none are fuller of veneration for " the Primitive Fathers of the Church." Such glaring inconsistency is only worthy of the severest reprehension, because it is grievously unfair both towards the Gospel promises and verity, and the characters of God's most faithful saints and martyrs — Below 1 give a selected Objeciions answered. 136 quotation froin much of the same kind, from the Genera! Delu- sions, page 194: " There is not one single tract, peradventure, among the an- cients, of more universal approbation than the Apology of Ter- tullian for' ihe Christian Religion : therein we find him chal- lenging all the ])o\vrrs of darkness and their boldest votaries to deny the arm of the I ord stretched out, in signs and mighiy wonders done by Chrib;tians in the name of their triumphant Jesus. " Hitherto, say.s ho, we have used words ; wc will now come to a demony ration of the very thing, that your Gen- tile Gods are no one o\ them greater than another. For a de- cision of the point, let any one that is judged to be possessed by a devil be brought into open court before your triburjals ; when that spirit shall be commanded by a Chiistian to speak, h( "--h ' as truly confess himself a devil there, as elsewhere he fa!- ..{;. wiuims to be a god ; or let one equally be produced, who is among you Gentiles judged to be inspired of God, who waits at your altars, and is esteemed a sacred person by you ; nay, tho"gh he be acted by one of your most venerated deities, be it Diana, the heavenly virgin, the promiser of rain, orEsculapius that prescribes you medicines, and who preter.ds to relieve the dying ; yet these, or any others, when they are summoned, if they dare to lie unto the Christian summoning, and if they do not confess themselves openly to be devils, then let that re- proachful Christian's blood be spilt by you on the spot. What can be moie mruiifesting proof than this ? What a more deci- sive trial to i i'';:;e upon? The simplicity of truth is open in this case to y> r exr ination : the particular Christian's own virtue aloni ■ ^t nd him in stead here: nothing of magical arts, or any othv. ' jufigling to deceive, will be practicable. If your eyes and ears are permitted to bo judges, ye are not called to believe as upon our words only." Who can surmise that so open a challenge as this should be given to the Pagan deities, if there was not power still subsisting among the Christians to make good the trial ; and indeed the author being assured o^ victory therein, from many evidences of the fact, triumphs over the enslav ; devils in the n.anner following : " If they be real- ly gods, w''.,'t| ■'■'■•'■•>9 ,y ':-X % u ■;-.'• v., w 1 36 Objections answered. pose themselves from that dignity, and give their own confes- sion that they are devils. But indeed they know that our Christ is their Judge, and that they are hy an uncontrolable authority made subject to his servants: therefore from our touch and breath they fly (afliijjhted with the view of aveng- ing flames) out of the bodies wiiere they did reside, unwilling- ly and with grief in your presence." " Tertullian, who died about A. I). 231, tells us, moreover, in his Prescriptions ajjainst Heresy, of a certain teacher g[//crf with the inspired grace of knowledge; and in his tract concerning the suul, cap. ix., lie says, — " We had right, after St. John, to expect prophesyings, and we do now acknowledge the said spiritual gifts ; for there is at this Sc- living among us a sister who is partaker of the gift of rfive. ns, which she receives wider cost ncif in the Spirit in tlie pubii. congregation; wherein she converses with Angels, sometimes also with the Lord, and s'^elli an 1 heareth Divine mysteries, and discovereth the hearts of some persons, and does minister succour to such as desire it : and whilst the Scriptures are read, or Psalms are singing, or they are pre:\ching, or prayers are offered up, subjects from thence are ministered in her visions. We had once some dis- courses touching the soul, whilst this sister mms in the Spirit: af- ter the public services were over, and most of the people gone, she acquainted us with wiiat she saw, as the custom was ; for these tilings are heedfully digested, that they may be duly proved : among other things, she then told us that a mateiial soul was set before her, and the Spirit was beheld by her, be- ing of a quality not void and empty, but of the colour of the sky, and of a thin brightness, preserving the form throughout of the human body. This was the vision, God is witness, as the Apostle (Paul), the fitting piomiser of the gifts that were to he existent in the church. But thou, Hermogenes" (the philosopher to whom the treatise is addressed) "wilt not be- lieve, unless the thing itself in all particulars do persuade thee."— Page 195. Obj, — The object of miracles being merely for the proof of the Divine Origin of Christianity, they ceased when a suffi- cient number were wrought for that purpose. This is grounded upon the assumption, and meant to express the dogma, that a fiict once seen, acknowledged, and testified to by a competent number of honest men, is suthcient evidence to the truth thereof for all other men, and at all other subse- w Objections answered. 137 or )ress [(ified lence ibse- quent times. And this I freely grant, were the unbiassed in- tellect of man alone concerned, and had not Divine Truth to contend, not with rnan^s intellect, but with " an evil heart of unbelief" which the Bible declares to be pure "enmity against God" and all that comes from him. Leslie, in his admirable Short and easy Method with Deists, has sulficiently settled this point in the application of his F"'our short Rules, and proved beyond dispute, that an original action, done in the face of day, recognized by the buddy senses and human experience, and pe- riodically commemorated by a rite instituted at the time of the original fact for the purpose of historical proof to posterity, is amply abundant on the score of testimony to all who will listen to such testimony. And this principle is distinctly recognized by God himself in Ij^xodus xix. 9, where it is said : "And the Lord said unto Moses, Lo, I come unto thee in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with thee, and believe thee forever '^ so that upon the principle contained under this objection, not another miracle was needed in hri\v\ from the giving of the law on Sinai to the coming of Messias to set aside Moses on the authority of new miraculous attestations : and by the same rule, not another miracle was needed after the Day of Pentecost, considering how many the Lord and his dis- ciples wrought before that Day, for the verification and full con- firmation of the Gospel among all nations to tlie end of time. — There were at Jerusalem competent witnesses " from every na- tion under heaven," to assure all those nations that a new re- ligion had come down from God at that cit}', and was commit- ted to certain persons : and by the principles now prevalent, all that was necessary, after that day, was simply to ascertain what persons were entrusted with t^.e teaching of this new Keligion. There is just the same propriety in acting at once and for ever after upon the principle, that there can be for acting on it at all to the exclusion of a present power of miracle and the using of miracle as "the signs of Aposlleship" instead of a piece of parchment with words written on it, for thirty, forty, fift}', or sixty years, in utter disregard of the historical method of proof, if we judge of it by the opinions of this age of reason, were a most unreasonable thing. But when we take into the ac- count this most important fact, that the heart is the organ of faith, and that " an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God^^ is the natural portion of every one, and the only thing that renders the single repetition of miracle necessary, ■ ••>*i !;jij?; Tiw^ 'e^i *': ■a 158 0}^tct%(mi answered. the whole subject assumes an entirely different aspect, and the objection itself recognizes the need of perpetual miracle in the church ; namely for the proof of the Divine Origin of Christianity. None can deny that that proof is needed with every man who denies it ; and therefore when the his- torical method Aiils, which few infidels ever take the trouble to examine, acting from their wicked passions, which set aside all rehiote evidence, or what is merely apprehended by the intel- lect, the miraculous ought to be existent in the church. But our skeptics reject the method used in the church from the cre- ation to the time of Constantino, when the church became apostate herein, and use the historical and intellectual alone : whereas God combined them together, and taught the church to use them so : the testimony of public monuments and ordin- ances being one part, and the living testimony of the Holy Ghost variously given being the other part. IJnder the law. He witnessd as the spirit of prophecy, and in healing, as in case of the leprosy, and in occasional miracles of judgment and others : and under the Gospel in all his modes of manifestation, as a livings actings speaking Person: " He shall testify of me : " He shall take of mine and shew it unto you : He shall speak what he shall hear : For the testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of prophecy." Let me not be mistaken as advocoting the doctrine, that any miracle is to be taken as unquestioned evidence to any doc- tr:> . The miracles of Jannes and Jambres advocated unbe- lief in the God of Israel, and the keeping of Israel in slavery : but the God of Israel executed judgments upon all the gods of Egypt, the same as the Lord and his followers overcame the devil and his hosts. I should lake the miracle of healing as proof of no doctrine other than that Jesus is the physician of the body, and that by faith in him as such relief had \.yhy Objections answered. 143 will they not attempt to demonstrate its absurdity from the Gos- pel, or disprove the privilege of Christians to the same thing now: ? Obj. — "We have no objections either to prophesying or speaking in tongues, provided the professing gifted persons ex- hibit the Scriptural evidences of their gifts. Miraculous pow- ers were the credentials of Scripture prophets. Let the Irving-* ite prophets heal the sick, open the eyes of the blind, &c., and we shall rejoice to acknowledge their divine commission." — Christian Guardian, 5th Jan'y 1835. " Among those that are born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist, Luke vii. 28. " But John did no miracle,''^ John x. 41 : therefore the Christian Guardian being authority, John the Baptist was not a " Scripture prophet.''^ St. Paul informs us, Rom. xii. 4 — 10, that all members have not the same office ; but to one is given ministering, to another pro- phesying, &c. In 1 Cor. xii. 4 — 11, he shews how the Spirit distributes one gift to one person, among which is, " to one prophesy; to another," some other gift. But by the Guar- dian's plan, the proj. bets ought not to have been received as sucli, but as fanatics or imposters, unless they could " heal the sick, open the eyes of the blind, &;c.," as well as prophesy. — Did Enoch, or Noah, or Abraham [Gen. xx. 7], or Jacob [Gen. xlix], or Joseph [Gen. xli], or Balaam or Jeremiah, work mira- cles that wc read of.'' Did Jonah gain a hearing of the Nine- vites, who repented at his preaching, by working miracles ? — Or which of the sixteen prophets, beginning at Isaiah, were workers of miracles } Not one that we know, except Ezekiel, in whose hand 'two sticks became one, and Daniel, who reveal- ed to the king his last dream ; and of that no man could be con-, cious but the king, and he by an act of the memory. His in- terpretation of the writing on the wall was received as true on his own naked word. Perhaps the return of the sun ten de- grees may be claimed as a miracle by Isaiah ; the thunder and rain by Samuel also. In short, from the death of Joshua I doubt if, with the exception of Elijah and Elisha, there be a prophet named in the Old Testament as a worker of miracles ; altbough the numbers of the prophets were so great that Oba- diah alone hid a hundred of them in a cave from the bloodv Jezebel. Jeremiah " did no miracle" before the Jewish court ; yet Jeremiah, the Christian Guardian being judge, was jufltly treated as a false prophet. The truth is, Protestants have bo- ■.;ji 144 Objections anstoered. .'■' ; » ,'i ■♦ ■ t come the most obstinate infidels that ever lived, in all things touching God presently revealing and manifesting, except De- ists and Atheists ; and with these herein they perfectly agree. They admit that God can do so ; and the Deist admits the same. They say he will again if he sees fit ; and the Deist says the san.e. '1 hey declare it rankfnnaticism to think God will ever do 80 in answer to the prayers of the church, should slie faithfully pray for them ; and the Deist applauds the declaration. They de- ny thatany j^ood wouM accrue to mou, by the present enjoyment of all the spiritual ^ilts; and the Deist extols their ojtliodoxy. They esteem human wit, without any vinbh aid from the source of all wisdom and power, fully coinpctont for all thintjs ; and the Deist declares them to he sound philosophers. The Gospel tells them the gilts were given to be a sign to unbeliev- ers, and to prevent heresy, schism, contention and lawlessness; to teach and interpret Scripture by the word of knowledge ; to guide and direct the church by the word of wisdom; to exhoit, edify, and comfort believers by prophesying; to discover hypo- crites and evil spirits by discornmg of spirits ; to cast out dev- ils, and to heal t!ie sick, the lamr, and the blind, for the relief of opnres-ed and suifering humanity, that men might know by all experience the love and mercy of a present Go:! ; and to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace hy all the gifts of the Spirit in exorcise. All this they holdly declare to be utterly needless now in these times of light and knowledge, and roundly assert, m the pulpit and out of it, that God intend- ed the miraculous gifts to be only of a very brief eontinuance, and for nothing but " historical evidences !! !'^ They in effect declare that heresy, schism, infidelity, radicalism, and all abom- inations abounding on the authority of human reason, do con- stitute a condition better for js, and mere to the glory of Christ, than a condition in the full enjoyment of all the gifts. They contend that we could not be benefitted by their restoration complete and full ; and therefore, consenting to the deeds of their fathers who persecuted the prophets, and grieved and quenched and silenced the Spirit that was in them, (hey revile and persecute and cast out of the church those faithful men who contend earnestly for this faith which was once delivered to the Saints ; and thus they fill up the measure of their fathers. More than a dozen, perhaps more than twenty, of the clergy of the church of England have b^en of late ejected from their sures for no cause but this ; and much do I fear that she is now • .i'W Objtetions annDtred. 145 to enacting the par*, of the Jewish church and rulers towards our Lord and his apostles. Maj God in bis mercy avert the ca- lamity ! The author of the General Delusions of Christians has well said, that at no time since the days of Constantine could a pro- phet sent of God be acknowledged any where in Christendom ;. but would be sure of being treated by the million high and low either as a heretic, a lunatic, or a scoundrel. This witness is true. Since the quenching of the true spirit in the churches, such canons of judgment have every where been set up as ren- der men incapable of knowing the voice of the Spirit should he speak, without first becoming fools to human wisdom. In the papacy, and among a few obscure sectaries, false prophets could be heard, but no true one ; because these have falsified a. truth, without denying its existence : for on the credit of the truth do they put forth the falsification of it. Among the Orthodox Protestants (and on many points they do profess a full, holy, and orthodox faith) no prophet could be heard, true or false, because they have laid an embargo strong and unrelenting up- on things prophetical and supernatural, and passed a se- ver .i-intercourse act between the visible world and that which supports it, the invisible. The Bible realm and region of dream and vision ministered to man by spiritual agents is now occupied by the region of ** phantasmagoria," ** hypocondria," " spectral illusions," or some other natural phenomena. This accounts for the worse than heathenish treatment experienced by those in Britain who of late have sought to revive the an- cient faith of the Gospel. The London Christian Observer de- clared, in the case of Miss Fancourt, the daughter of a highly respectable clergyman of the church of England, who was cured of a crooked back by faith in Christ, that any solution of the case must be allowed, rather than admit a miracle. I have sev- eral times asked persons if they could gather from Scripture that God iDould not send us prophets in these days ; and the an- swer has been uniformly No. I have then asked : Would you acknowledge any one coming in the name of a prophet ; and the answer has been the same. Hence this dilemma arises : God may send prophets at any time ; but we will reject all claiming to be prophets at all times. But if any one will come in his own name, and propound some new contrivance, to make money, or raise a party, or to mend God's deficient and ill- adapted ordinances by a Society, him they will hear, because ■i'll ■., , tor if l] 146 Objections answer'd. the world loveth its own. An awful predicament this for z peo- ple in* covenant with God under a dispensation founded on apostles and prophets ; which had apostles and prophets given for the perfecting of the saints, and for thie work of the minis- try ; in which God appointed prophecy for the edification, ex- hortation and comfort of Ch-ist's whole body, saying to all Christ's members, " Ye may all prophesy one by one, that all may learn, and all niay be comforted: earnestl}' covet to pro- phesy, and forbid not to speak with tongues !" Gi "ious God ! " I am horribly afraic' for the ungodly who forsake t. law!" As well might we deny that judges should be found in British courts of justice. "The Irvingite prophets" may be of God for ought that ap- pears against them. The truth is, their condemners are inca- pable of judging righteous judgsnent i? (')'^ ^"remises, bacause they set up cri'ions of judgment which ilaliy contradict the can- ons of God. The presumption is as much in their favour as it was ''n favour of Jeremiah, who prophesied bitter things against Jerusalem and was persecuted. *' The Irvingite prophets" havo also done the same in regard to England, and have been perse- cuted also. Jeremiah proved to be in the right ; and so may these, unhiss that En':;land is, as a once highly favoured nation, far more faithful to her God than latael was in the days of Jer- emiah. " The Tjvingito prophets" havo exhibited a prophetic 8'gn, namely, the unknown tongue ; and "tongues are for a sign, not to them that b; lieve, but io them that believe not." and surely the L^ign was never more needed ; for never before since man v.'as created on tha earth was there such prevaihng nnbi^- lief in God prG3ontly revealing and manifesting as at thi > day. — The faith even of pagans will rise up in judgment with the n:en of this generation, and condemn it ; for they believe in the con- tinual intercourse between, the world of spirits and the world of man. Who does not know that this patriarchal faith is tht; faith of all the American Indian tribes? — Paul could consistent- ly call no man a believer, who denies so material an article of Paul's faith in God the Holy Ghost as relates to God revealing. ' God's prophets had a manner of their own. When the pro- phetic Spirit was upon them, their whole manner was altered ; and this was true of the false prophet:? also, both in Israel and among the heathen. This h t'ident from the manner of Saul when he went after David, 1 Sam. xix. 20 — 24; and of the " mad fellow" who came to anoint Jehu ; and Trom the saying Objections anstcered. 147 of Elihu, Job. xxxii, 18, 19, "I am full of matter, the Spirit witliin me constraineth me. Behold, my belly is as wine which haih no vent; it is ready to buisl like new bottles;" and of those who said of the discij)le3 on the day of Pentc^cost, " These men are full of new wine." The manner of the pro- phets also among the American Indians is unusual when they pretend to hold communication with the Great Spirit. Persons under the power of (he Spirit v.ere in an ecstacy more or !f>ss, but not so as to destroy their own consciousness — " falling into a trance, but having their eyes open." Of course if God again should open any one's mouth, by the prophetic spirit, he would, follow his own ii elhoci despite the march of intellect and the conditions under which we have limited the Spirit: and ihere is no ground whatever for supposing that he v>ould aci-ommodate himself to the dcfitrines and commandments of men in these matters. Isaiah saith, xxviii. 11. " For with stajnmering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people ;" and Paul quoting it in 1 Cor. xiv. 21, add.s, " Wherefore tongues are for a sign... to them that believe not ;" alluding also to the unbe- lief of "which Isaiah was complaining. A careful and humble examination of this matter would fairly account for all he out- cry of '*• shame" and " indecency" and " lanattcism," &;c , which has been raised concerning the utterances and manifestations that have taken place among those they call "Irvingites" in England. — The way and manner of God's prophets of old has beeame so shockingly offensive to the discernment and the mo- desty of this enlightened age, that no decent person can coun- *'^nance it I ! ! Just so it is with Democracy. At first, it ?an bear no God i:\ the strte on earth ; next it can bear none in the church or in heaven above, and turns atheist throughout. The sign of a prophet under the Gospel is the t iknown tongue, or other utterance by a spirit. The test whether he speaks by the Holy Ghost is, his confession that Jesus Christ hath corns in the flesh, I. John iv. 2. Prefatory to his account of the gifts and utterances of the Spirit in 1 Cor. xii. Paul saith "No man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accurs- ed," because " He shall testify of me — He shall glorify me" — " and no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost." Jesus himself forbade the devils to confess him. — John again saith, 2 Ep. 7, " Many deceivers arc entered into tho world, who confess net that Jesus Christ is coming (erko- menon, future tense, nut eleluthota, past) in the flesh. Th\$ m \y ;i. 148 True Standing of a Chmtian State, l:^t I H ■',11 1 < A 19 a deceiver and an anti^ohrist." This relates to the second bodilj Advent, as foretold by the Angels at the Ascension. — The church must therefore lay aside her heretical notions about the prophetic Spirit and the signs of a prophet, and go back to the letter of Scripture, or she would reject and persecute all the prophets whose mouths God might open. There is also much error concerning the office of the pro- phet, which is commonly taken to be the prcdict.on of future events, or the giving of sacred Scripture. But he is properly, a 8^ akerfor God^ a deliverer of his word or messages of what- ever kind. Thus, ** He shall shew you things to come ;^' namely, give you warning of any event, as St. Cyprian receiT- ed warning of the defection of five ministers, of a terrible per- secution, and of his own martyrdom : as Brown Archbishop of Dublin gave warning of the progress, and fall of the Jesuits in an exact prophetic history of them about the time the order was founded, in a Sermon preached the Sunday after Easter, anno 1551 ; which remarkable Sermon is given entire in the N. Y. Churchman of Sep. 12, 1835. The order was founded in 1540 ; but made very little progress for several years. — Paul again tells us that prophecy is for the exhortation, edification and comfort of the church. If this therefore would be useful, its restoration is a thing highly to be desired and ardently pray- ed for, instead of being ridiculed and blasphemed. XVI. — True Standing of a Christian State, The Bible containing an account of all our duties and privil* cges of whatever kind, with their limitations and responsibili- ties, the true standing of a Christian State can be learned only in that Book : although the prevailing notion on this point is, (and it is infidel in the extreme), that the Gospel is silent upon polit'cs, and therefore has left them entirely to the will of man. If this were true, the New Testament would not tell us that the powers of government are ordained of God ; nor threaten us with damnation if in any case we resist them in rebellion or re- fuse lawful obedience ; nor command us to pray for the Holy Ghost to bless all in authority ; nor refer us back to the Old Testament for instruction and example from whatever therein can apply to & dhristian people. Uniformly in the old Testa- ment is God set forth as the sole and only Lawgiver of his peo- ple, their Sovereign King and Judge, the setter up and remover of earthly Kings, and their sole and only Master. It represents • I'f True Standing of a Christian Stats. 149 Him AS the Guide, Director, and Leader of all people in cove- naot with him, in all things that concern them. He .directed the government by written law, by vision from himself, and by messages through the prophet ; and man had no more to do in legislation or in rule, than an upper servant has in a gentleman's family. And ^' these things are written for our learning and in- struction, upon whom the ends of the world are come." That this doctrine is distinctly recognized by the Church of England as holy and true doctrine, and worthy oi all men to be re- ligiously and reverently received, is abundantly manifest on a ref- erence to the prayers for the king in the Liturgy. In the Morn- ing -and Evening Services we pray thus : ** O Lord our heaven- ly Father, high and mighty King of kings. Lord of lords, the only Ruler of princes ;. . . . Most heartily we beseech thee with thy favour to behold our most gracious sovereign Lord, King William ; and so replenish him with the grace of thy Holy Spirit, that he incline to thy will, and walk in thy way: Endue him plenteously with heavenly gifts,^^ This recognizes the doctrine that the king is merely the servant of God ; and has no will of his own to serve or dictate by ; and needs to be replenished plenteously with the grace and gifts of the Holy Ghost in order to do his duty. The largeness of this prayer is fitting to apply to David or Solomon, both prophets. In the second '"ollect for the king in the Communion Service, " we are taugi.. »v thy ho- ly Word, that the hearts of kings are in thy rule and govern- ance, and that Thou dost dispose and turn them as it seemuth best to thy godly wisdom. We humbly beseech thee so to dis- pose and govern the heart of William thy Servant, our King and Governor, that, in all his thoughts, words, and works, he may ever seek thy honour and glory." These prayers ask for a plenary Divine Inspiration and share of Spiritual Gifts for the king, as touching all things relating to his calling as a baptised man and ruler over men in covenant with God, and are in utter contradiction to all the prevailing political doctrines of this time of innovation and destruction. God, in accordance with his own ways ever since the creation of man, made the prophet a constituent member of the church of Christ, to be, as ever before, his mouth to his people. But when Constantine the Emperor was converted, and the gov- ernment of the Empire became Christian, the church had re- l)elled against the prophetic Spirit, and nearly quenched and driven him away. The prophets were reviled, persecuted, and '•< j''% ■ 150 True standing of a Christian State. . ..■!:' ■ I ■ Wm cast out of the church, as they had been before in Israel; and one of the first acts of the emperor was directed to their exter- mination. Human intellect was suostituted in place of the Ho- ly Ghost inspiring and dircctinj; ; and of course there was no oar at court (lisposed to li;^tcn to ihe vofcc of God by the pro- phet should he speak. Nij^Iit was to them, and it was dark ; and the darkiioss still broods over tlio church in gloomy dreari- ness. Constantino took the aiWuvA of the church into his own hands, and began that system which ended in the most horrible and bloody tyranny. 'J'ho pro|)lict wa^? not sought after nor re- storea at the Reformation; and t!ie civil power more or loss persecuted until .iftor the Kovolntion of 1GS8. And nil inter- ference of the civil power for tho execution of church disci- pline against olVonders muf^t necessarily partake more or less of persecution unless dictated by God himself. Religious tolera- tion is the duty of the slate (Mat. xiii 57 — 30); and this is per- fectly consistent with religious government, or church and state: for the essence of religious government is, that the king chose all his servants from among the faithful in Christ .lesus his Mas- ter; and who these are he must loam from the church. It is the duty of the state to protect the churcli from external vio- lence; and in doing so it might i)e necessary in some cases to treat heretics and scbisnjatics as rebellious subjects. But it conies to pass, tluougb the wickedness of man, and his na'ural aversion to take God for his guide and provider ih all things, that a Chrislian state, enjoying all Gospel rrivileges and immu- nities, has never been in existence. l]y these I mean, in ad- dition to "the powers of the woild to come" as an earnest and forepossession of the futiu-e iniicrilanee, as the piophctic Spir- it in his measure before that .lesus was glorified w is the earnest of the greater measure of power aflcr that event, — in addltiori to this, all and entire the !)lesslng:^ promised the Jews in their obedience, in regard to inununity iVom poverty, sickness, and external enenu'es. — How dilVerent had it been with Christen- dom, had the church only remained iaithful to the gift of the HolyGho^t! Democracy is pure Atheism. Wliere it truly rules, as in the United States, it prohibits the existence of any thing in the po- litical constitution calculated to remind men that there is a Be- ing superior to themselves. Consequently democratic govern- ment is the Alma Mater, the nourifthiiig Mother of Infidelity. — All popular legislation has this tendency, and the more univer- True Standing of a Christian State. 151 ' ^^ of the in the. the j)0- \ a Be- rovern- ;lity.— univer- sal it is the more it leads thereto, and the quicker it will ripen a people for destruction : and it is curious and instructive to ob- serve what a lifoNind-dcath-grasp the affections of men have of late years taken of popular elections and an unrestrained press ; those two cliief engines of all demoralization and disor^aniza- lion. — God is a Kins;; and that decides the wicked and blasphe- mous character of (leinocracv: for hi; essential character must render it impossible for him to aii(l»oiisc or sanction democracy, thousch ho boars with it. — The North American States have not yet tasted of the reward of their rebellion agninst royalty. A democrat hates kingly rule, because (iod is a Kinj; : for the carnal mind beinj» at enmiiy ngainst God, it never fails to dis- play it against every ])art ef his attributes and character when- ever thev 'omo in its way. The substratum of the delusions which have been rasping in Great r5ritain for several years past under iiio mask of lleform, is pure Atheism. They beijan in the repeal of the Test Act. Upon this infidel measure the London Slu.. lard remarked as follows : — *'Upon that issue, in truth, depends the question, whether this commonwealth, under which we live, is to be regarded any longer as a Christian commonwealth. It is idle to tell us, that we arc to remain a Christian nation, because, under the very law which we are about repealing, ' the higli'^st authority in the law has UM us, that the Christian religion is part and parcel of the law of the land ;' so no doubt it was ; but when we are changing the iundamental laws respecting religion, what proof docs ichat has been afford to shew wlial aliall be '1 It is not less idle to say that the prosecutions lor insulting religion prove this a Christian commonwealth. According to the late Lord Ellen- borough's large delinition of what may be punished as libel, ' whatever hurts any man's feelings,' prosecutions for insulting Judaism, or Mahometanism, mny be as effectually instituted as prosecutions against the levilers of Christianity. The most that such prosecutions amount, to is, a bare toleration, which the Christian religion will have to enjoy in common with every shape of unbelievers. It is idle again to say that the common- wealth will bo a Christian commonwealth, so long as the church shall have undisturbed possession of her estates. This is a privilege which she exercises in common with the Haberdash- er's or Waterman's Company, and 600 other corporations, sole and aggregate ; with this great disadvantage against her, that iS .^■3, ..v.^1 A.'in 152 True Standing of a ChriHinn Statt^ Ifftfl i'i.; W^ HI, -« while every other order of the comrounHy have their represen* tatives in the autocrat branch of the Legislature ; and while the property of every other corporation is treated as sacred, church- men are perpetually excluded from an assembly which never scruples to tamper with the possessions of the sacred order when convenience suggests ; and some of whose members have had the boldness to call the estates of the church public prop- erty." Such being the commencement of the Reformation, the whole process has been but a series of infidel aggressions and spolia> tion of all the true principles of a nation^o life and health, and the destruction of every thing worth of preservation. The infidels think they are reforming religion out of the world : the sectaries are sanguine that an atheistic commonwealth is but the prelude to a golden age of some sort : the papists think it will pave the highway between Rome and London ; and the high church party^ with whom alone remains any sound politi- cal principles, think to save capital enough from the ruin they see impending to commence business again when the volcano becomes quiet. Hut they are all equally under strong delu- sions, given up to believe all manner of absurdities. God hath mingled a perverse spirit in all their counsels, because the na- tion voluntarily at the demand of popery and infidelity, surren- dered the ark of her safety, into their unholy hands, and ceased to witness for the truth of God. " Filthy dreams*!" to think there can be security in such reformations ! Will God be cheated with such false pretences ? Do they not know that the Babylonish captivity was immediately preceded by a very showy reformation ; and that the Roman army found a new and roost splendid temple to level with the ground ? There is a great shew of reforming and pacifying Canada ; but no good will come of it. The wound is incurable by such means as they will employ : they only make matters worse. — Both the disease and the remedies applied are from the bitter root of " without God in the world." The case stands thus : the legislature was based upon the absence of religion, namely, infidelity ; and the material composing the most influential branch, in L. C. was popish ; in U. C, any thing. No effort was made to plant the church or raise up a nobility in the country ; and the forests were settled helter-skelter pretty much as the poor unprotected settlers pleased. Of course the natural ten- dency of every agent in operation under such a state of things JBondage of the Church, ns ifl in the direction of democracy and infidel lawleisnesfi ; which any observer may see gaining ground every day in both the Canadas. Tlie remedies applied to these evils, especially io Lower Canada, are, the sacrifice of such as would be loyal, to the threatenings of such as declare themselves for revolution, together with all principle and all authority. It is to me very evident that the Church of England ought to modify her state prayers to suit the melancholy and gloomy state of Christendom, especially of the British Empire, and to make a more distinct reference to the second coming of the Lord Jesus in his glory and kingdom* I am also fully of the belief, that if the nation would turn and repent, and retrace her infidel course, and cry mightily unto God for deliverance, he would make bare his arm for her deliverance : but alas ! I have no expectation that those in authority, or their masters the de- magogues and the press, would treat such advice otherwise than with contempt. Oh ! it is a gloomy, gloomy prospect !— My heart dies within me as I look upon it ! its horrors take hold of me like a mighty and strong mm ! But I must bear ray testimony faithfully, for a dispensation is committed unto me, and woe is me if I shrink from my solemn charge ! XVII. Bondage of the Church. The Psalmist saith: Before I was afflicted I went astray: — It is good for me that 1 was afflicted ; otherwise I had not known thy law. This is from the essential corruption of hu- man nature; and God has all along dealt with the church ac- cordingly. By her affliction in Egypt she escaped a worse calamity — the corruptions of the Canaanites, in whose land their fathers sojourned. She has invariably abused her pri- vileges and corrupted her way under the least sunshine of prosperity; and thus continually shewn herself unfit for the trust of power; and God has therefore kept power out of her hands, and will do so, till the Priest upon a Throne shall come forth with his glorified Bride, and set up the Everlast- ing Kingdom. She has all along been kept in bondage to power lodged in hands not prieslly, — in unholy hands; and when she has corrupted her way under the favouring wing of power. He has thrown her into the furnace of affliction. — This is the key to all her captivities,even to that beginning with the call of Abraham to be a stranger in a strange land. Even the Lord Jesus himself submitted to this condition, as it became hi' r 154 Counterfeits and Contradictions of Faith. It' ■i ■■•■ if I him, and was made perfect through sufferings, that of him she might learn to suffer and wait patienlly for the manifes- tion of the sons of God. But she corrupted her way so far be- fore the pagan persecuting power had become converted as to disqualify her for discharging her duty towards liic converted power, without compromising her duty to her Lord; and so she fell presently into Spiritual adultery, prostituting herself to State policy for the purposes of honor and profit. Thus iier apostacy in regard to the gifis of power atul the prophetic Spir- it, prevented the state from comirtg up in its true dignity, pri- vilege, holiness, and power in the Spirit, like as Israel was in the days of the good kings. God therefore pernjiiteU Satan to prepare the Papacy tlirough the means of her unfaithful- ness, for a long wilderness captivity, whicli she tracked downward with her bloorl. The Papacy, tlie head of which is a Priest upon a Throne; is a blasphenjous mockery, counter- feit, and forestalling of Messiah's kingdom, which makes it the exceeding wicked pcr^;ecuting thing it has ever been, claiming to do by wicked hands what none should touch but the Lord himself and those to whom, in the resun-edion, he shall please to commit it. '1 he church of the Reformation has also shown herself unfaithftil in her turn; allowing herself to be made the tool of wicked polilicians; and to consummate her wickedness she has sohl herself io the confederate ])ower3 of the papacy, liberalism, and infidelity, — who thirst for her possessions and her blood: and in this slate of peaceful expec- tation she is labouring by her own wisdom and might to strug- gle onwards, ignorant alike of her own nakedness and pover- ty, and of the nearness of that iiour when judgment must be consummated upon the house c{ God, for begun it is already, though she knows it not, and refuses to be told that it is so. XFIIf. Counterfdls and Cordradldions of Faith. There is, I believe, small risquein saying, that the great ma- jority of current falsehoods a'Tccling religion, are either the de- nials and contradictions of trul!»s which are or ought to be current, or forgeries and counterfeits of them. The truth is always before the lie in manifestation, as God, the fountain of truth, is before all tilings; and the truth must proceed from him by Word or Act before it can either be contradicted or counterfeited. This is a cunning policy of the father of lies, * by which he leads men into the infidelity of denying and re- Counterfeits and Contradictions of FaUh. 155 of him anifes- far be- d as to iverted and so rsclf to iijs her c Spir- ty, pri- vvas in I Satan uithjVil- rackcd 'hicli is ounter- Ktkes it r hecn, iicli but ion, he mat ion herself mniate )owcr3 or her expec- strug- pover- ust fje .1 ready, s so. eat ma- llie de- to be ruth is tain of id from ted or of lies, nd re- jecting the truths of revelation on the one hand; and on the other, into the apostacy of setting up a counterfeit and mock- ery of the truth, upon the credit of the truth, and using the coun- terfeit as if it were the reality. An illustration of this maybe found in the fact of counterfeit currency, whether of metal or paper.^ The true gives credit and currency to that which is a spurious and fraudulent imitation of it. In some insiances the fraud may be a forestalling; namely, when the counterfeit comes into actual circulation before the real: but in all cases the intention must first become public of bringing the true original into actual use. Thus it sometimes ha[)pens that a new coin, or the bills of a new bank are forestalled in their issues by dextrous counterfeits. In the application whereof to the truth of Religion, the denial and contradiction I shall call Infidelity, and the forgery or counterfeit, su})erstition. — This rule is of vast importance to the disciples of the Lord Jesus, in their study of his word, his promises, and his ordinances: and by God's blessing I shall proceed to give a brief sketch for the instruction of those more ignoiant than myself. The Papacy is a wicked forestalling of the kingdom of the true Melchisedec; the bringing into manifestation a blasphe- mous counterfeit and mockery thereof before the time for bringing the First -begotten into the world, and setting up his Priestly Royal Government. An illustration of this I have giv- en in ttie example of forestalling the circulation of true cur- rency by counterfeit. Satan knew of the Father's intention to install his Son, in the fulness of time, as Lord of the Uni- verse in Melchisedec dignity ; and therefore he set up his pup- pet of a Priest upon a Throne claiming sovcreitinty and exer- cising all power over the living and the dead, — tlic world visi- ble & invisible; putting down kings and setting up kings; absol- ving subjects from their allegiance; dictating at all the courts of Christendom by his nuncios and legates; depriving by his word whole countries of the privileges of the ordinances of the church; taking upon himself "to change times and laws" (Dan. vii. 25); remittingsins past, present and to come; con- signing the living to the damnation of hell, and at his pleasure releasing the dead from the region of woe, and translating them into paradise across the great gulf which our Lord de- clares to be impassible; turning darkness into light and light into darkness, good into evil and evil into good, truth into falsehood and falsehood into truth as it seemeth him good ft; ii '4 1«6 CouiUtrftUt and Contrttdiclioni of Faitii, H and convenient; making hiniBelf the tnfniliblo expounder of the Divine Word, and giving and withholding pcrmisHion to all men to the reading or hearing the written OraclcHof God.-*- Thiat is a iVlonioiis counlcrleiting nnd forestalling of the glori- oui Kingdom of the Son ofMan; a Matting up ati God in the church or tomplo of God; by which thu Pope of Homo in con- itituted the Papal Man of Sin, the Mnlchisedec of Satan'H right- hand, sot up in mockery of the Son of Man. He makcH him- iielf ^^a consuming liru^' to all who dinpute his authority, claim- ing the prerogative to root out the tares from his kingdom and burn then whenever they appear; and hence his policy to *'*' wear out the saints of the Most High," and his rage against the taithful witnesses of Jesus whenever they dare to detect his forgeries and discover his craft. The papucv is moreover a system of superstition, from the fact, that it is based upon a system of truths and realities, which it hides by the veils of deceit it costs over them, and which it retains lor the same reasons that the venders of base money would fear the insolvency of the bunks whose bills they had counterfeited ; becau'te their own means of utiIuu - ful gain was the credit of the other. When the papacy was constituted, the world was not ripe for inlidelity ; but itself by its counterfeit wares paves the way for it when the cheat- cry is detected, without the truth on which it is founded beiiip: restored to its place. This accounts for the awful burst of Atheism in France after the Infidel philosophers had exposed the corruptions of the Papacy to the scorn and derision of the multitude. The word superstition is a compound of super, upon, and sto, to stand ; a system standing upon anulhcr sys- tem; as superstructure is a structure upon a structure. Here- in it is diverse from inlidelity, which is the contradiction and denial of truth. Paganism is superstition, because its prima- ry foundation is the true revelation of God : and hence tlie mercy of God in keeping alive the principle of faith among the pagans, in that he will use that principle in converting them under the kingdom; and his justice in cutting off the baptiz- ed nations when they shall have become infidel, as they are now rapidly becoming. The desolate churches of the east denied tlic Son, and God gave them over to the Mahommedan heresy; while with the west he bore long, and brought out of it the Reformation to bear witness to the truth: but it has al- so been faithful only in part, and is now running into infidel- CounterftUa and Contradictiont of Faith, IM sr of the n to all God.— le glori- 1 in tho ii* con- *8 ri faill- es liiin- r, cluim- iloin Qiul olicy to against ► detect >om the •calitios, iMn, ntid 4 of base 3S15 hilh ' unluw- lacy waH ut itself c clieat- ud beinj; burst of exposed ►nof tbe super, icr Hys- Herc- ion ui)d } priina- nce tlie ongthc )g them bapliz- hcy are he east imedan t out of has al- infidel- ity. The papal dogma of infallibility ih based upon the pre- cious truth, tliat the Holy Ghost was given to be the inutUi- blu Expounder of the written Word, abiding in the church ev- ery where, ami loading the church catholic into all truth. — Their dogma too of Christian unity through the person of tho pope and his decisions, is based upon the truth of ** tho unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace'' by the word of wisdom, and of knowledge, and of prophecy. They witness too to tho fact that miracles, tho gift of healing, and the power to cast out devils, ought still to be in the church u« they were at lirst. The Old Testament informs us that God is so nigh unto hit people in whatever they call upon him for, that it was a very common practice on common occasions for common people as well as their superiors, to inquire of God and obtain an* swers from him. This privilege passed over into the present dispensation, and was enjoyed by the early church, as appears by the New Testament in the very frequent answers to pray- er in healing the sick, casting out devils, direction in tho church, &c., and by the quotations given under a former head from tho General Delusions, concerning St. Cyprian towards the close of the third century. All men feel a natural desire to look into futurity both concerning themselves and their kind, because God huth created man to live forever. The counter- feit of this Scripture truth and privilege is to be seen in tho practice of fortune-idling. Men go to the devil or to blind chance to inquire into the future, instead of taking God for their prophet. Others consult passing and past events and their own sagacity for tho same purpose : and here we may see what ought to bo the current truth ; although tho un- faithful church has long since quenched the prophetic Spirit, and denied and rejected the truth and the privilege together. The grant of this great privilege is. to be seen in such words as these: "When he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak : and he shall shew you things to come .... If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you .... He that believeth on me, the works that 1 do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; be- cause I go unto my Father. And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do that the father may be glorilied in tho Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it." — :i'/- ' 168 Counterfeits and Contradictions of Faith. These promises are large and boundless; but the cliurch does not believe one word of them: she puts no conlideiice in them: she makes her Lord a liar, and takes counsel, but not of him, in all " things to come."" We have come to that pass that we worship a hard unrelenting Fate instead of the God and Fa- ther of our Lord Jesus Christ, feeling through him our wants and our infirmities. Sickness, pestilence, famine, devouring tempests and carthtpiakes, and unfruitful seasons, we are come to regard as tlio irreversible condition of elemental na- ture, and against which it were cither rank fanaticism or pre- sumptuous impiety for all Christian men to pray; notwithstand- ing that " the ctfcctual fervent prayer of the righteous man availeth niucli. Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not roin: and it rained not on the earth by tlie space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forlli her fruit." Satan tempts us to look upon those ancient saints as something more tiian human, and therefore not to be imitated by us;f()rgctling that the Spirit of prayer and faith is as migiity in us who believe as he was in them. Notwithstanding all that hatli aforetime been writ- ten for our example herein, and all the large proFnises added thereto by our gracious Lord, who callctli us his friends, and admits us to his cotinscls, because the Father loveth us and maketh us sons and fi^llow heirs with the Only-begotten, still we will not believe, but keep at a strange distance, as if we were in the condition of trembling slaves to an iron-hearted and cruel master. Oh ! this grievous unbelief is worthy of all rebuke and ciiastisement from the Ministers of Christ, and of indignation and wrath from the Righteous Judge. And we apply the same wicked fatalism to the world of man and the political constitution of things, and forget that all are in the hand of God, and that he allows the wickedness to abound by cause of the church's unfaithi'ulness. We look upon po- litical wickedness and the eifeets of it in the miseries of wars and rebellions as things that Fate has determined on : and so we have given up the political world into the hands of all In- fidefisin and Dissoluteness; as if God bad made it criminal to resist the ^Devil and contend against the powers of darkness by means of the powers ordained by himself for the glory of his Son, and for the world's comfort in righteousness and peace : thus wickedly admitting Satan's right absolute in tbtt Counterfeits and Contradictions of Faith. 159 .■■:i h does I them: 3f him, hat we nd Fa- • wants ouring we are tal na- or pre- hstand- U9 man iions as : and it and six \in, and to look lan, and l>pirit of ) was in en writ- s added ds, and us and en, still IS if we l\earted irthy of Christ, e. And an and arc in abound 30 n po- of wars and so f all In- ninal to arkness lory of ess and e in tb« kingdoms of the world and all the glory of them; whereas they are only given up to him because the Church has deserted her Lord and Head, and of choice ranked herself under the i headship of the Prince of Darkness in the body politic. Again; Tiie severe and exterminating policy adopted by the Papacy towards "heretics," has its foundation, first, in the • severe and holy discipline exercised in the church by the Ho- ly Ghost, as in the case of Ananias and Sapphlra; and second- ly, as iho forestalling of a fact which I believe will be existent under tlic Millennium, which is, the instant cutting off' of eve- ery sinner by an act of Divine Vengeance : for there are certain notices in Holy Writ, that there will be sinners under the Mil- lennium ; for it will end in an apostacy and judgment, which apostacy Saiun let loose will bring into open rebellion : and since, moreover, the holy angels fell self-tempted, holy men may be permitted to do the same, for the fuller manifestation of the essential instahilily of the creature out of Christ and the up- holding oi' liis Spirit. It may be seen, by adapting this rule to the various points of departure from the word and ways of God among Protestants, and their de'Mal of so many jnecious truths, some of which the Papacy ha! tc'.on uj) and eounterfeitcd after the church pre- ceding her had cast ihem o(T, how Protestantism has been gra- dually consolidating into a p;rcat and gorgeous system of pure Atheism e\ or since the Reformation. The fundamental dogma , on which this is foundejl is this ; namely, that human judgment is recognized as the sole interpreter of the Word revealed ; by which it hath come to pass, that, no man recognizing one only interpreter, as the Holy Spiri* speaking in the primitive church was recognized, and the pope for him in the papacy, in the march of liberalism and presumption, every man hath taken up- on himself to expound all God's Word and ordinances; all rev- erence for the fixtures of olden time hath vanished, and utter lawlessness both in church and state ariseth therefrom. The instruments by which the great atheistic transformation is ef- fected are, popular legislation, infidel schemes of universal ed- ucation ; infidel political economy ; an unlicensed irresponsible press ; infidel literature, scientific, philosophic and moral, as the consequence ; the fashionable light literature of the age, which ministers in a thousand ways to the corruption of the heart and mind ; the wonderful discoveries in chemistry and the mechan- ie arts, and the consequent great facility of manufacture and in- ,\S' 1«0 CoiuUtrfiitt and CctOradittioM of Faitk. '♦t'i' hm tereourse, which hads ufi to forget God and trust in our own powers ; and lastly, the numberless Societyships and Associsr tioiis voluntary into which men have run for every purpose po- litical, social, and ecclesiastical, which have every one stepped in between parent and child, master and servant, pastor and liock, magistrate and subject ; by which the disease of law- LB99N£S6 has been insinuated and diffused through every part of the body social and politic. The perfection of such a system of mate/ialism and atheism would soon arrive did God permit ; but he withholds it for the elect's sake whom he hath chosen. When that number is completed 6ut of the Gentile Church) He that letteth, namely the Holy Ghost, will be taken out of the way ; and thf n that Infidel Man of Sin shall be reveal- ed, whom the Lord shall consume with the breath of his mouth, and destroy with the spanoasma, — the exceeding splendor of His Epiphany! His career Will be short ; his end will be sud-- den ; and complete and awful will be his destruction! There are some things which be as it were — the remnants and remembrances of things that were — the empty vessels once full. Of this kind is the rite of confirmation and the Bishop administering in the Church of England. The Bishop is a rem> nant of the Apostle, and confirmation of the laying on of hands to give the gift of the Holy Ghost. And I say, let them by all means be regarded with affection. The Bishops in the British House of Peers 1 regard as the representation of the truth, that the prophet of God should be the connecting link between the church and the state, to convey to the King or his servants the mind and counsel of the Prince of the Kings of the earth. — These I believe to have had their use, and in part to have ministered to the good of God's people what the realities should have done in full. The Quakers have received the truth, that the prophetic spirit should speak in the church by the mouths of holy men and women, as he did both under the law and du- ring the primitive ages of the church. The practice of chant- ing the Psalms is a remen^brance of the Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs mentioned by Paul as dictated and uttered under the power of the Spirit, as the songs of Hannah, Debo- orah, some of David's, Zacharias', Elizabeth's, the Virgin Ma^ ry's, Anna's and Simeon's The unknown tongue has its mon- V ent in the Papacy, under the dead language in which they hide the Scriptures and read their masses. — Brevity forbids further search. One thing more, however, I will notice, which th( Incidental ObKreations, 161 r own sociar 96 pO- epped )t and LAW— part of ysteni jrmit ; hosen. burch) out of reveal- nouth, idor of be sud- mnants Is once Bishop a rem- ' hands 1 by aU British h, that en the nts the rth.— have should |h, that nouths nd du- chant- [ymns ittered Debo- Ma- ts mon- Ih they forbids which hn Is, how Satan hath perverted the passion for the marvellousi which God gave t.) man for good, but which has been prostitu- ted to all evil, by turning away from the wonderful works of God made known in tlic Book of Revolution, to the marvellous in all manner of diabolical falsehood : bv which the tastes of so many have been completely vagabondized: for whereas the true marvellous stands in living, abiding truths, which *^ arc new ev- ery mornin<;/' the incck marvellous gratifies but fcr one or two exhibitions, and then calls for a new lie still more foolish, ex.- travagant, and wicked. XIX. — incidental Observaliom, The manner and instruments of ihe judgment of tho Grpat Day of Wrath not being stated with sufficient clearness in the fore- going pages, I deem it expedient here to be sonienliat more particular therein. — Egypt is a type of this present sinful world, of its wisdom, its resources, its sensnalitie(> and its de- ceitfulness as a ground of trust and confidence. Hence it is used as a type of apostate Christendom, as may be seen in the following from Isaiah xix. I — 4 "The burden of Fgypt. Be- hold the Lord ridetb upon a swift cloud, and shall come into Egypt : and the idols ol l^vpt shall be moved at his presence, and the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of it. And I will set tho Egyptians against the Egyptians : and they shall fight every man ajralnst his brother, and every one against his. neighbour ; city against city, and kingdom ag^iinst kingdom. — And the spirit of Egypt shall fail in the midbt thereof; and I will destroy the counsel thereof; and they shall seek to the idols, and to the eharnicrs, and to them that have familiar spir- its, and to the wizards. And the Egyptians wilt I give over in- to the hand of a cruel lord ; and a king of fierce countenance •hall rule over them, saith the Lord of hosts. Observe, 1. The cloud upon which the Lordcometh. As of old he appeared in the cloud, which was darkness to the I'^gvf)- tians and light unto Israel ; so the Son of Man will come on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory : " but none of the wicked shall understand," Dan. xii. 10. — 2. The anarch v ond mutual slaughter that will then prevail, on the downfall of the old institutions ; brother against brother, neighbour against neighbour, city against city, and kingdom against kinplom. See Isaiah ix. 4, coni])ared with Judges vii. 22; and xxviii. 21, with 2 Sam. v. 20, and Joshua x. 10—14 : Malt. xxiv. 7 : *' For r.a- K M Hneidmtol Obstnaiion^. hi' tioB «|iftU rise agaii^ nation, and kinig^oni against kingdom : and there slull be lainines, and pestilences, ioA earthquakes^ in divers places." And Zech. xiv. 13. "And it shall come te pase in tliat da,y^, that a great tumult from the Lord shali ht among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand et his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour." — 3. The strong delusion and madness that have seized on all the wise men and counsellers of Egypt, and their i^esort to their idols, — to every thing but God and his truth for upholding themselves against the tide of destruction that is^ sweeping all before it. — 4. The cruel Lord and king of fierce countenance into whose hand God will give them, appears to be the wilful king of Dan. xi. 36 to end ; and of 2 Thes. ii. 3 — 11; and the head of the infidel beast of Rev. xvii. 17-^a gigantic tyrant who sha)l arise out of the political convulsions oi Europe. Besides war, pestilence, and famine, fire from heav\=i.) will be an instrument of judgment, and I think hail also, as at Gibeon, Joshua X. ^'For^ behold the Lord will come with fiie, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fu- ry, and his rebuke with flames of fire. For by fire and by his sword will the Lord plead with all flesh : and the slain of the Lord shall be many," Isaiah Ixvj. 15, 16. When the army of Gog goes against Jerusalem after the return of the Jews, God saith of him, Ezek. xxxviii. 21, 22 : '' And I will call for a sword against him throughout all my mountains, saith the Lord : every man^s sword shall be against his brother. And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood ; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone." Again, xxxix. 6, "I will send a fire on Ma- gog, and among them th?t dwell carelessly in the isles : and they shall know that I am the Lord " And Isa. lix. 18, " Ac- cording to their deeds, accordingly he will repay, fury to his adversaries, recompense to his enemies ; to the islands he will repay recompence." The islands are here equivalsat to *' the isles of the Gentiles" in Gen. x. 5 : " By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands ; every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations." By this it ap- pears that at some point in the course of the judgments, pe r- haps nt their concluding act, a storm of fire from heaven will be visited upon the nations, which shall be very destructive of I! Jhcideniid -Obsttvdtkmh, 1«S |dom: iiakea« me it kail b« and of land of \t have d their iith for that ie^ f fierce tears to 'hes. ii. 17— a /ulsions will be Gibeon, ue, and withfu- d by bis n of the army of ft's, God ill for a \e Lord : nd I will id 1 will r people nes, fire, on Ma- and Ac to bis he will I to *' the Ithe isles ifter his s it ap- its, pe r- ren will ictive of les (( human life and othetwise ; pefrhlaps accbmpanfed with ciirth- quakes and volcatiic eruptibns. lb 6ne of the plagues of Egypit, ** the fire ran along upon the ground,^' and the hail smote man and besist at the same time. The material heavens, the sun, moon, and stars, may also be affected by the mighty power o( Ood, so as to demonstrate to all nations under the whole heay- en^ that the Almighty God himself hath thus manifested his wrath and his power throughout the universe. And thus it lis repeatedly declared, as in Ezek. xxxviii. 23, after describing the terrors of the judgment, he saith : ^' Thus will I magnify hiyself, and sanctify k.j <3elf ; and I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am the Lord." — *' And the heathen shall know that I the Lord do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore,'* Ixxxvii. 28). This is not converting the heathen by means of ^^ historical evidences" of facts 2000 years old. It appears also that a part of the infidel faction shall be cast alive into hell, suffering a translation of damnation^ as a part of the saints shad enjoy a translation of ^lory into the resurrection body without passing through the gate of death. *^ So shall it be in the end of this world : the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just, and shall cast them into the fiirnace of fire," Matt. xiii. 49. " And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a Inke of fire burning with brimstone. And the remnant were slafn with the sword," Rev. xix. 20. " And the Lord shall cause his glorious voice to be heard, and shall shew the lighting down of his arm, with the indignation of his anger, and with the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering, and tempest, and hailstones. For through the voice of the Lord shall the Assyrian (a general name for the oppressors of Israel, the head of whom was Sennacherib the king of Assyria, who presently merged into the king of Babvlon, the " head of gold) be beaten down, which smote with a rod. And in every place where the grounded staff shall pass, which the Lord shall lay upon him, it shall be with tablets and harps : and in battles of shaking will he fight with it. For Tdphet is ordained of old ; yea, for the kinfr it is prepared ; he hath made it deep and large ; the pile thereof is fire and much wood ; the breath of the Lord )ikt a 8tk-eam of brimstone, doth kihdle it." Isa. xxx. 80 — 33. 164 Incidental ObtervalioM. k I And after concluding his predictions of the judgments, and of the restoration and glory of Israel, he concludes his piophecies in these words : ^^ For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, snith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it ^hall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all llcsh come to worship before me, saith the Lord. And they shall go forth, and look upon the carcases of the men that have transgressed against me: for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched ; and they shall be an abhorring unto all tlesh." — The late of Sodom, and of Korah and his company, were types of this awful judgment upon these men. — These are the judgments upon the quick or livings "at the appearing and the kingdom of the Lord Jesus (Muist,*' 2 Tim. iv. 1 ; ** when he shall be revealed frou) heaven with his mighty angels, in ihur.ing fire, taking vengeance on them that know not Ciod, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ : who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; when he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to he admired in all them that believe, SThes. i. 7—10. The translation of the sainls who arc alive at Ibis time, or near il, is also a sul#jo(»t of deep interest and soleu n in>truclion. It is to lake place perhaps just hefore the nwliil jtcts of (Ijc judg- ment jegin ; for they come with him to the deslructinn of his and their enemies, as "his nu"ghty angols" jus! ucnlioned. See also /iOt . xiv; 5, where, at the last extremily of Israel from the confederate army of Gog, he sailh, "Tiic I.ord my Cod shall come,and all the saints with thee:" and Jude 14, 15, which quotes the prophecy of Knocb. The translation of the Saints is mentioned in Psalm xxvii. 5: "For in the. time of trouble he shall hide nie in bis pavilion : in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me ; be shall set me upon a rock :" and xxxi. 19, iJO ; " Oil how great is thy goi dness which thou hast laid up in store for them that fear Ihee ; v.lu'cb th^-: hust wrnugbt for them that trust in Ihee before the sons of men ! Thou shalt bide them in the secret of thy presence from the pride of man : tliou slialt keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues:" and in Isaiah xxvi. 19, HX ; "Thy dead shall live, my dead body they shall ari^-e. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in tlio dust : for thv dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth .''hall cast out the dead. Come, my people, enter into thy tnciderUdl Observations, 165 and of (hecies earth, ordf so nine to »abbDth lith the ^ases of in shall •iliall be 1 Korah m these ng i( at uist," 2 with hia lem that 1(1 Jesus Uiuction J power ; adiniied lime, or tniction. lliejudg- n of his h\. See from the od f^hall 5, which \c Saints 'cubic he bcriiacle xxi. 19, inid up in light for |ou shalt of man : strife of hall live, hat dwell Ihc earth linto thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee : hide thyself as it were for n little moment, until the indignation be overpast. For, behold, the Lord coincth out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity : the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain :" and in 1 Cor. XV. 51, 52 ; " Behold, I shew you a mystery ; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump (Rev. xi. 15) : for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed :" and 1 Thes. iv. 15 — 18; "For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not pre- vent (go bt'ftue) them which are asleep. For the Lord him- self shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archanj;el, and with the trump of God : and the dead in Christ shall rise first : tlien tee which are alive and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air : and so shall we ever be with the Lord. — Wherefore comfort one another with these words." And this is " when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in tlarning tire, taking vengeance on them that know not God," &c. Please turn to Matt, xxi v. 29, and read it to the end. Somewhere in the neighbourhood of these events, probably after the judgment is completed and the Jews established in ev- erlasting security, the New Jerusalem shall descend from God out of heaven. But since " tlesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God," it cannot be for men in the flesh, but for the saints who rise from the dead and are changed, and are caught up to meet the Lord in the air. It will not be suited to the condition of men in the flesh : nor am I sure that the Old Tes- tament saints will dwell in it, "God helving provided some bet- ter thing fur us ""^ {llcb. xi. 40) than the promises to these a- mounted to : and even John the Baptist is said by our Lord to be less than the least in the kingdom of heaven ; and he calls himself " ihc friend of the bridegroom," as not of that "body of Christ" wbich is the bride. When that body is full and complete, God will have no further use for this dispensation of the Holy Ghost, the end of which was, to prepare the Bride the Lainb*8 Wife. • A view of the mournful condition of man in this present sin- ful world, ought to incite every man to earnest prayer for the ?-*,.> tm Tka Saorei Mimher9» 'I speedy coining of the kiDgdom. ^^Thj kingdon com&: liijr will be done on earth as it is in heaven;'' till which gloriovs Advent the earth must continue to be ^* the habitations of cru- elty. No man of sound mind can pretend that it can so be done by a sinful race whose very essence is " enmity against God,'* in sl sin-fuH w 01 \d^ which is also full of evil spirits and under the dominion of the devil. His works must be destroy- ed, and he an.i his myrmidons cast out, before that time can ar- rive : yet our fond dreamers do imagine that they can tame the devil and his angels, release the world from its bondage under corruption, and reduce the human race to the obedience of the Gospel by their Missionary exertions and " historical eviden- ces." The diversi(iedi>and atrocious wickedness that is in the world ; the vices and crimes secret and undisguised ; the fraud, hypocrisy, deceit and violence ; the strife, contention, hatred and cruelty ; the tyranny, oppression, lawlessness and rebellion the impiety, superstition, atheism and blasphemy; the intem- perance, extravagance, drunkenness and debauchery ; the cove- tousness, avarice, extortion and overreaching; the pride and ar- rogancy, unfaithfulness and treachery ; the hardships and suffer- ings of poverty ; the ignorance and brutality so much resulting from excessive labour and vicious indulgencies ; the miseries of man from the numberless diseases entailed on him by sin; the hard conditions under which he obtains his daily food ; the te- dious and painful steps by which it is produced and prepared ; — all these and many more ought surely to convince any one how blessed and desirable an object the kingdom of the Son of Man must be, under which these " former things shall not be re- membered nor come into mind !" Oh, who would not pray most devoutly for its speedy arrival ! And Oh, what a heart wed to the ways of sin and death must that be, which will not believe ! XX. — The Sacred Mimbers. The following account of the Sacred Numbers, or numbers used in Holy Writ for various purposes, is extracted from the Dialogues on Prophecy, VoL 1. I here introduce it for the in- formation and edification of the reader ; but especially for the bearing it has on " the Chronology of Prophecy" as treated of in the fourth and sixth sections of this work. It will be seen that the runn'hg of some of the prophetic periods from a point io the Jewish history before Christ down into the chifonology The Sltdrtd JVItmbery. 1^ brioif9 )f cru- so be against its and estroy- can ar- me the ; under of the Bviden- s in the e fraud, hatred ebelUon intem- le cove- and ar- d suffer- -esuUing series of sin ; the the te- >ared ; — )ne how of Man be re- let pray a heart will not numbers rom the the in- for the eated of be seen I a point ^onology nfftr Christ, and ending, as it began, ih some t^maHcabl^ e^eht, if a satisfactory proof of the accuracy of our received Scrip- ture chronology : at Ifeast it is so to my mihd ; and I ktloW not on what ground such conclusion could be forcibly objiected to. — The paragraphs to which I have prefixed the asterisk will sheW this running, as it were one wheel into another, of time before Christ smoothly into time after Christ, and fulfilling a period in one begun under the other. The ending of so many of the larger periods in 1792, 1798, and 1847 is very remarkable, and tends strongly to confirm the important fact, that the year 1847 will see the saints already translated ; the nations judged ; the Papacy destroyed ; the Jews restored, invaded by Gog " from the north quarters," and delivered by the Lord destroying his great army as he destroyed the Canaanites at Gibeon ; and the Lord himself actually come, and all his saints with him ; and perhaps the New Jerusalem also will have come down from God. Then will begin the conversion of the pagan nations, — " the restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began," Acts iii. SJI, — ^^ the healing of the nations," Rev. xxii. 2. " It is indisputable that certain numbers are more applied than others to sacred purposes; of these numbers 3 and 7 are of the most general use ; they are found varied by different multiples ; thus, the great period common to Daniel and John is presented to us first, as consisting of seven equal parts, in the "time, times, and half a time ;" this agam is presented multiplied by 12, in the 42 months (7 y, 12=84=42=42,) and again by 30 in the 1260 days ; and the further additions made to this period (Dan. xii. 11, 12,) of 30 and 45 years are also multiples of 3. We find also the number 7, and its multiples by 10, in the Seals, Trumpets, and Vials ; the lamps before the throne are said to be " the 7 spirits of God ;" the 3| days, during which the two witncssess lie dead ; the 7000 who were slain by the earthquake, and various other periods and symbols of the Apo- calypse ; also, in the 7 days of the Creation, in the 70 elders of Israel, 70 disciples of our Lord, 70 years of Babylonish captiv- ity, and 7000 who had not bowed the knee to Baal. The num- ber 7, which in Hebrew signifies fulness or perfection, has the preference, when it is not intended that any particular number should be specified ; as when it is said, the Israelites shall fleel before their enemies 7 ways ; and when our Lord commands' his disciples to forgive their enenHes, not only until 7 times, but until 70 times 7. I«8 The Sacred Mutnbers, r,^:- ' i .:■' ^* Squares of numbers are also frequentlj used. Four, the first and most simple square number, occurs in the four beasts of Daniel ; in the 40 days during which the land of Canaan was searched ; the 40 years wandering in the wilderness ; 400 years of affliction to Abraham^s seed. The day of Pentecost occur- red at the expiration of a period expressed by the square of the number 7, or when 7 sabbaths were completed. In the same manner was the year of Jubilee appointed ; and the symbolical Israelitish nation. Rev. vii., rep esentin<; a nation, in these lat-, ter times, elected and chosen of God, as the 12 tribes were, to peculiar national privileges, as described by its square, or 144 multiplied by 1000; by which number it is .iguin represented in chap. xiv. " Cubes are also sometimes used, as in the measure of Solo- mon^s temple, and the New Jerusalem. " As geometrical progression, limited to 3 terms, produces the perfect number 7, so we find that 4, the most simple square number, when multiplied by 3, gives another sacred number, to be found in the 12 months of which the Symbolical year is composed ; the 12 tribes of ' ^•ael ; the 12 Apostles; the 12 ox- en which supported the molten sea in the temple. The num- ber 8 also, the first and most simple cube, when multiplied by 3, gives another sacred number, in the 24 elders of the Apo- calypse ; 24,00'.) Levites with their i4 courses ; and the 13 courses of 21,000 each, who ministered to the king. " It appears, then, that the number 3, geometrical progres- sion, the square, and the cube, are to be ct)nsidere(l as perfect forms of number; whence are derived, besides the number 3 itself, those of 4, 7, 8, 12, and 24, from two of which we ob- tain the larger squares, 49 and 144, and the larger cube, 1728, which most perfect number is the measure of the New Jeru- salem, as given in Rev. xxi. 16. The multipl cation of any sacred number (as a squaie or cube) by 10, is only a repetition of that number, which gives it a higher importance, without al- tering its piimitivc character. " In some few prophetic periods, there is found a lesser de- gree of perfection, as in the " 5 months;" or the 150 years of the Saracenic Woe, which appears to be formed by the divi- ding of a month, multiplied by 10, in like manner as the 'Mime, times, and a half" is formed, by the dividing of a time multiplied by 7. So in the the 45 years of Daniel, which is composed of a month and the dividing of a month : and in the 390 years of The Sacred Mimbert, IM Ezekiel, which is a year and a month. The square, the cube» or the number 3, are thus found in everj prophetic or sacred number. * " The principal subjects of Prophetic history will also be found to have certain perfect periods of years belonging to them though they are not mentioned in its text. Thus the sacred times of the four Gentile monarchies, described in the vision of the great image, commence in the year B. C. 603, when that vision was seen, and end in 1798 A. D., when the Apocalyptic vial of wrath was poured out upon Rome, the metropolis of the fourth or last, and consists exactly of a period of 49 « 49, or 2401 years. The addition of a fifth or Jubilee period of ano- ther 49 years, being made to this grand and sacred period of 49 X 49 X 49=2450, will extend it to the year 1847. * " The times of the Gentile church, cnmmenring from the great judgment upon the Jewish apostacy, in the destruction of Jerusalem A. D. 70, and consisting of a sacred period of 12 m 12 {^ 1-2=1728 (being the measure of the New Jerusalem) will also be found to have expired in the same year as the 49 H 49 of the preceeding vision, that is, in 1798, when the first judgment took place upon the chief seat of the apostacy of the Gentile Church. * "The Mahomedan period also consists, like the Papal, of a sacred number, though it is no where specified ; for from its authorised commencement of the Hegira, A. D. 622, to the year 1847, when we have otherwise found that the Sanctuary of Jerusalem is at length to be cleansed from its pollution, is a sacred period of 35 y. 35, or 1225 yeais. The root of this square is (as in the former more obvious instances) itself a sacred num- ber, being formed by the multiplication of the 3.^ times by 10, or which is equivalent to it, by the dividing of 70. It is also to be observed, that this period of 1225 years, is the dividing or half of the entire period of 2450 years of the vision of the great image. * " So also from the great reformation effected by Hezekiah, B. C. 726, to the commencement of the Papal period, A. D. 633, were the three times and a half; and from th?nce to its expiration in the year 1792, was a like period ; making in each an allowance for a fraction of half a year. * " There are other periods of a similar nature, such as the Beven times of tribulation denounced against the Jewish nation by Moses, four times, in Lev. xxvi. 7 x 360=2520, which great prophetic week of years, being dated from B. C. 728, ■M FH> A Cate tf Ctmscience. m- -t* when Samaria feH, bnnps us to A. D. 1792 ; and it is further to be observed, th^t 2520 is the doirbte of 1260. Sec Bicheno*8 " Signs of the Times." " Another simi'-tr period rnay be observed between the time that the l-sraehtes rejected . the Lord from beinj; their kiup, 1 Sam. X. 19, B. C 109G, and that of their coinir into captivitv, 2 Chron. xxxvi. 21, B. C 6C3, which is 70 Sah!>nths, or 490 years. The Sabbath seems to have been a sign of (heir being in covenant relationship with God ; for it was only by his giv- ing a miraculotis double increase on the 6lh year that they were able to keep th^ Sabbatical year. Afier their rrjoction of God, no mention is made of the Sabbatical year beina;, kept, from whence it would seem, that no double increase had been given on the sixth. This is further proved by 2 Kin<;s, xix. 20, where the promise of their being able to do so is given as a miracu- lous sign. The land therefore did not enjoy her Sab!)aths from the year 1006, B. C. till the periorl mentioned in Zechariah, B. C. 606, which is a period of 70 Sabbaths, or 490 irs. XA7 — J] Case of Conscience. The thing most hateful to the human heart is, that God is love. The reason of this is, thitt the declaration of God's love in word, and the manifestation or exhijition of it in action, do shew hini a sm-hating and u sin-condemning God, casting re- proach, and passing co denuiulion upon every thing dear to the old Adam : and sin( e all that God saith and doth in regard of man proceedelh from love alone, and doth continually declare the ingratitude, the hatcfulness, and the abominableness of sin in hissiglit; we are led to an insight into this mystery of ini- iquity and wickedness, and taught why man is continually turn- ing in disgust from all the words and ways of God, and banish- ing all remembrance of him from his heart and mind, and con- tinualU' labouring to erect an everlasting kingdom in this pres- ent sinful world, from which God shall be as etfectually exclu- ded as if he had no existence. To this height of daring impi- ety all things are now rapidly tending on the theatre of Chm- tendom, in religion ; in politics ; in literature, scientific, fashion- able, and philosophic, in arts and commerce; in amendments; in the forms and fashions and rules of social intercourse ; and in the infinitude of Societysbips, Associations, and Unions of ev- ery kind abounding. If to soy that God is love were merely eaying'that God looks upon all the wicked works of man with Acr to :heno*8 \e time kiiip, 1 ptivitv, or 490 • being lis giv- ly were )*f God, t, from n given , where miracu- hs from ;hariah, irs. God is Vs love lion, do ing re- to the gard of eclare of sin of ini- y turn- )anish- ul con- pres- exclu- 5 iinpi- Ghi4s- ashion- ments", and in of ev- mereljT n with •d> €tue of C0iMoienc$. HI indifference, and is disposed to save all men in their sins rat4iev than /rom their sins unto holiness of heart aad life; then the faet tnat God is love would never call forth the hatred and op- position of mankind ; for then he would be altogether such r a one as themselves, Psalm 1. 21. A striking illustration of this is found in the history of our Lord's healing the man with a withered hand, Luke vi. 10, at which the Pharisees "werejiW- ed with madness.^^ They would sooner the whole nation had perished with pestilence than be the spectators of that exhibi- tion of divine love, which stripped them of the disguise under which they masked their wickedness. And thi^ hatred of God's sin-condemning character is common to all men, until the pow- er of the Holy Ghost has converted them, and through the me- dium of the Gospel, fully reconciled them to God and all his trays. — And now for the case of conscience. Suppose the whole Church of Engli^nd should now foresee that their grandchildren should universally cast away the sa- craments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper, and esteem them a pernicious superstition: Should we not tliink that they would act in a most unthankful, profane, and wicked spirit? And would we not ardently desire that tliey might repent of their impiety, and recover these Holy Sacraments? Suppose we by vision of the future should see men rise up among them, and point out their departure from the true faith and ordinances of Christ, and earnestly exiiort them to pray to God, and take measures for the restoration of the ordinances, and for this should receive nothing but scotfing and reviling as fanatical innovators, striving to revive what God had abol- ished long ago as useless in the clnirch: Should we not think our children's children would behave in a most unbecoming manner, and aa those who actually hate and abhor the true ordinances and ways of God? — But we do sec the same thing before our eyes, in tlie sectaries who have cast away these very ordinances as actually pernicious and a hindrance to men's salvation (el&e why do they cast them off?) and how are we affected by it? In truth it gives us little or no concern: we care too little for the glory of Christ to be seriously af- fected by such dishonour done him: yet methinks no man can reasonably object to this manner of putting a case. But a- gain: Is it more unchristian to throw away one of Christ's gifts to the church than another? Certainly not. When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts ns A Cdst rf Consdenee. unto men; and these gifts he conjoined with certain ordinan* ces, that they might be used for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, and for the edifying of the body of Christ. An account of them may be found in the twelfth and fourteenth chapters of first Corinthians, as things which "God hath set in the church," and placed upon the same au- thority and standing with baptism and the LonKs supper. — Among these are the gift of power to heal the sick and cast out devils; the prophetic gift of the word of wisdom, of know- ledge, and prophecy, to exhort and comfort tin; Church, to interpret to her the written word, and thus enablo her to be *^perfeclly joinecf together in the same mind and in llie same judgment," to lead her into all truth, and prevent all heresies and scliisni»{ from tearing and rending her body and dividing and scattering her ciiildren like sheep without a shepherd. — Suppose again God by his Spirit had taught our faliicrs in the faith to foresee a time when their children would forsake all thes3 good ways of the Lord, thinking them n<'edless; and they should couuuit to writing by direction of the Spirit, and hand down to |)()sterity such words as these: Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby, in the laying on of hands, ye are sealed until the day of the redemption 01*1110 body from death: Quench not the Spirit: Despise not prophesying: De- sire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy: Ye may all prophesy one by one, that all may learn, and that all may be comforted: Covet to prophesy, and forbid not to speak with tongues: — I say, foreseeing a time when all these warn- ings and exhortations should be despised, and the fioud gifts denied and rejected, and those scotfod and derided and perse- cuted who should attempt to recall the mind of the church back to them as things given of God and in themselves very good; is it unnatural to suppose, that the fathers in the faith would feel much grieved at such conduct in their posterity, and think of them as we should think of our grand children for throwing away the Sacraments, and wilfully persisting in it? — And now. Christian reader, before you proceed to the application, I beg of you to examine carefully, by the analogy of faith^ rather than by your own prejudices, whether or not you can discover the least unfairness in my manner of putting this case of conscience. Search the Scriptures and see if God hath said that the sacraments are any more worthy of preservation in the church than the spiritual gifts, or that t9 Case of Cimseienee, 17$ to (he fipiritual gifts wore not given to continue as long as the sacraments. God did set in the chi^rch apostlfs, prophets,, evangelists, pastors and teachers, gifts of healing and mira- cics, discerning of spirits, divers kinds of tongues, with the gifts of their interpretation. Search and see if the Authority which gave them, and which gave the warnings I have quo- ted above concerning them, has furnished you with a warrant for denying lIuMn an> with thanksgiving and praise." (Pref. xii.) Another rash and headstrong character, who, like Mr. Bax- ter, has renounced the work, has declared, that, though he thinks it to be a work of Satan, he was i aught thereby one great truth, namely, the love of God! Can this unhappy man really be of sane mind? Love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him (1 John iv). Is it possible that any one can maintain this to be a lesson which Satan can leach r* If so, such a man provt^s conclusively that he, in so think- ing, i>. wndtT the delusive power of Satan. In like manner, when i'n 180 Cast of Robert Baxter, -u :---':m Mr. Baxter declares that he was seduced by Satan << as an an- gel of light," and maintains, further, the monstrous proposi- tion, that this disguise of the enemy ^' is an array of truth as iiieU as holiness and love, which Satan is permitted to put on td accomplish and sustain his delusions;" we assert that Mr. Baxter is befooled by Satan, or he could not broach such an absurdity. What! the father of lies teach truth! the foul fiend p;reach holiness! the enemy of God and man inculcate love! pur soul revolts from such a thought, as the acme of contra- diction and folly. Well has it been said, by one of those who liave replied to him. " This is a fearful statement; but we may rejoice, and I pray God that Mr. Baxter himself may yet re- joice and give thanks with us, that no such statement is con- tained or countenanced in the Scriptures. When an evil spirit came upon Saul, were the restlessness, and fear, and cruel envy, which raged in bis heart, any proof that the devil appears as an angel of holiness and love? Had the tempta- tion in the garden of Eden, or in the wilderness of Judea, even the semblance of holiness? Or do the sore pains of Job, or the grievous state of those of whom it is said that Jesus went about 'healing all that were oppressed of the devil' — or the cruel treachery of Judas, when Satan entered into him — or deliberate and sustained falsehood of Ananias and Sap- phira, when Satan filled their hearts to lie unto the Holy Ghost — do these things, or any other manifestation of the power of Satan recorded in the Bible, aflford us any warrant to assert that Satan puts on, or can put on, the appearance of an angel of holiness and love?" The fruits of the power wliich came on Mr. Baxter are der clared in Scripture to lie the fruits of the Spirit; these fruits still continue in multitudes to wnorn the Spirit in him impart- ed them; who were strengthened by his strength, and who stumbled not when he fell May the same Spirit put forth Ijiis Almighty power to break the snare into wh^ch he has fallen; and may he have grace given to escape for his life from the bondage of Satan into the glorious liberty of thio children of God; into the Everlasting Arms, ever ready to receive all who with hearty repentance and true faith turn unto Him ! m m * ^ Mr. Baxter was received by the spiritual church as a bro- ther, with full confidence; was admitted into their domestic privacy, saw them, without the possibility of disguise, in their Case of Robert Baxter. 181 seasons of closest communion with Qod; when some might charge them with enthusiasm, hut when it woald he absurd to charge them with hypocrisy; — and what is the testimony he bears? His whole narrative shews that Mr. Baxter saw no- thing but that holy walk and convenation which becometh the saints of God. ^^ The regard I bear them as sincere, though deluded, followers after truth the debt I owe them, as well for the affectionate kindness evinced towards myself, as also the wounds I have inflicted or exercised on them." — " The word spoken seemed to be the Gospel of €hrist, and the ef- fect upon the hearers a prostration of pride, and a devoted- ness, and apparent patient waiting upon God." (pp. 2,7.) — " Long after I gave up the work as delusion, the power so continued with me, that I was obliged to resist it continually: vihen in prayer, the power would come, and carry out my ut- terance in power, and I was obliged to stop to resist it. This was very distressing for a long time, joined as it was to the darkness and deadness of a mind so long swayed by such de- lusions; but under such circumstances, all we can do is to hold fast our confidence that God will not abandon us: hum- bling ourselves, and pleading the blood of sprinkling of the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world." No one who attaches any credit to the statements of Mr. Baxter, can doubt of the supernatural character of the work he once received, but now opposes To the question " Why persuade yourself that the work was supernatural?" he re- plies., " Glad indeed would the writer be, if he could, upon safe grounds, persuade himself otherwise. He has often en- deavoured to pursue the course of circumstances, and account for the occurrences from excitement, and the frenzied work- ings of a distempered niind; but he finds himself utterly at a loss, and, without shutting his eyes to most of the mate- rial features of the case, he could not honestly come to such a conclusion." (p. 11.) Facts and details are given, through- out the whole narrative, which fully bear out the supernatural agency here stated, and warrant the conclusion, that^^ if facts have any force in proof, the facts which have lately occurred have been brond enough to shew the active workings of a spirit; and to shew, also, that, though a supernatural power is with us, we are not therefore, of necessity, receiving it of God. The power exercised by the Spirit, in causing instan- taneous and unlooked-for convictions, was very striking and \M -.'•i'l 18^ Case of Robert Baxter. M m mysterious" (p. 9). " In the utterances of the power, which subsequently occurred, many were accompanied with the flashing of conviction to the mind like lightning rooting itself in the earth." And speaking in the next page of a time when the power came upon him while kneeling at the communion ta- ble, he says, " My tongue was rivetted as I was repeating the response, and my soul Jilled with joy and thanksgiving, and such a presence of God, as it seemed to me, as exceeded any peace and joy I had ever before tasted at that holy sacra- ment." (p. 10). On these extracts, we remark, that it has been the constant practice of those who resist the work of God to ascribe the power to Satan which they are constrained to allow IS supernatural. When the Pharisees said of our Lord, " He casteth out devils thiough Beelzebub," he exposed the absurdity of supposing Satan to be divided against him- self; and appealed also to the experience of other men: *' By whom do your children cast them out?" let them be the judg- es. We use the same argument, and make the same appeal: if Satan fills the soul with a sense of the presence of God, and in a degree exceeding any peace and joy ever before tast- ed, " how shall his kingdom stand?" And if it be said that all the fruits of holiness, love, and joy in those who believe, and which, according to Mr. Baxter's own testimony, they mani- fest, come from Satan, let them be the judges. Moreover, we wholly deny to Satan any such power as that mentioned above, of " causing instantaneous and unlocked for con- victions, ' of * flashing conviction into the mind like lightning:' these are the work of Omnipotence, (he work of the Holy Spirit alone; and we hold it little short of blasphemy to attribute such power to Satan, contrary to the analogy of Scripture, and subversive of responsibility in man. The power of Satan extends to the suggesting evil thoughts; which we are commanded, in the strength of the Holy Spirit, to re- sist. The command would be nugatory, and the resistance vain, if Satan had the power supposed; all must become his victims upon whom he put forth the power. And how, on such a monstrous supposition, can any one be sure of any one conviction? how can Mr. Baxter be sure of his convictions concerning the fundamental truths of Christianity; still less of his present convictions concerning the work in question, which he does not pretend to ascribe to any greater superna- tural power? We do not mean to underrate the power of *:') 1 Case of Robert Baxter. 183 Satan, who goeth about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour; but the Holy Spirit is the Almighty, the ever-pre- fient God, mightier in the members of Jesus than all that can be against them, giving them the confident assurance that no- thing shall separate them from the love of God in Christ Je- ■us the Lord. Mr. Irving's church consists of more than eight hundred members, all of whom have had full opportunities for examination: to these we may add numbers in thetcongre- gation who have not yet joined the church, and numbers in other churches, both in London and the country: their expe- rience we put against the single experience of Mr. Baxter: let them be the judges who know all the facts. One other gross mistake we have to correct in passing, which lies in supposing tliat God, ever has, or ever will, *' send strong delusions, that they should believe a lie," upon any of his children; upon any who are waiting upon him in order to know his will, and using their utmost endeavours to do it. The proposition is monstrous in itself, and taken in connexion with the context, is perfectly absurd. The cause of the strong delusions is there assigned: they are sent be- cause men receive not the truth in the love of it, and because they have pleasure in unrighteousness: it is the hardening process which passes upon the ungodly and the reprobate, and no part of the Fatherly chastisements of God upon his chil- dren: it is the judicial blindness upon apostacy which seems irrecoverable. Mr. Baxter has also erred in not distinguishing between the power itself and the exercise of that power; though in the exercise it is that all responsibility consists. He may, and we believe does, rightly assume that the power was the same in him and in those who continue to speak still; but we are sure that the mode of its exercise was very different in him from what it is in them. Had Mr. Baxter realized in himself that most important doctrine, " No prophecy is of any private interpretationy^^ he would have been delivered from that egotism which characterised his former proceedings, and which led to and pervades the present publication. The prophecies ut- tered by the other gifted persons do not regard themselves, but are all for the body of Christ. They feel not, they speak not, as distinct individuals, but only as members of the church universal. But Mr. Baxter almost always had himself uppermost in his thoughts, and so became the object to which 184 Case 9f Robert Baxter, he bent the interpretation of iiis utterances, whenever it was pdsgible to do so. Of this he was repeatedly and most |^a* eiouely warned by the Spirit speaking in himself, and warn* ing those around him, who listened with a rererence border* ing on idolatry. He himself must remember many of these Warnings, calling upon his friends to spare them, if they would not have him dashed in pieces: asking them sometimes, " Do you drink the cup, or the Liquor it contains? think not of me bui drink the word of the Lord." God hath resolved that only one Person in the human form shall take honour to himself, namely, Christ Jesus; every other man must act and feel as a member of the body of Jesus, and give nil the glory to Christ, the exalted Head. Mr. Baxter failed in this, and, neglecting repeated warnings, God has marred the vessel.] — That included in the brackets is from the Editor of the Morning Watch, If an objection should be raised to the employment of such a one for a prophet, let the objector read the history of Ba- laam, in which he will find that the ^'dumb ass speaking with man's mouth forbade the madness of the prophet.^' And in- deed is any one subdued by grace without manifesting more or less backsliding and perversity against the Holy Spirit? The Christian Guardian published at Toronto, Dec. lOih, 1834, speaks concerning Mr. Baxter as follows: — "Our blood chills while we contemplate the consequences of this doc- trine; though these consequences may not be seen or ac- knowledged by many of its advocates. It was the contem- plation of this doctrine and its consequences that fir$:t open- ed the eyes of Robert Baxter, Esq , an eminent fkiglish So- licitor, who had become so completely infatuated with the Irving delusion of gifts, miracles, prophecies, &c. that he for more than a year, spake in the tongues, delivered a number of prophecies, wrote elaborately in defence of the earthly kingdom and manifestations, gifts, &c.; and was declared by the Spirit in Mr. Trving's church to be a Prophet of the Most High God. We forbear at present to give an account of some of Mr. Baxter's prophecies, as well as others which were <;ommunicated to us by an Elder in Mr. Irving's church, and which we have in his own hand writing. But Mr. Baxter, being a man of deep piety as well as sound learning, was at length enabled, with less of unsuspecting credulity, to re-ex- amine the Irving doctrine respecting the character of our Di- Caae rf Robert Bastkr, I8S vine Lord; he 9a.w ihe vulf into whiofa it led; his eyes being Qpened, he examined &li the other peculiarities of Irvingitm in the same way. The result was, that he renounced M in toto, and published a most ably written book, giving an a^ count of the whole delusion, and the manner in which ifi was led away by it — how he was actuated under it, and how he was delivered from it. ^^r. Baxter^s recantation and book was a fatal blow to the spread of Irvingism in England, and caused a number of others to follow the author's example. '' In regard to the manifestations in Mr. Irving's church, the Guardian of January 7th, 1835, speaks thus: '^ It is one thing to be ^^ inwardly moved by the Holy Ghost, and ProvidentiaUy called by the church to the Ministerial or Missionary work, and it is another thing for a man to get up in the church and assert that " the Holy Ghost calleth William and George to go to Canada,^' and they pack up and embark at this order. The former is our belief; the latter is Irvingism, as we have person- al witnessed." Again, the Apostles and many others spake in tongues^ that is languages; so that all heard in their own tongues, or languages, the wonderful works of God. — Acts ii. — Now let our gifted " Author" prove that the Irving- ites when they speak in tongues (as they profess) do speak any tongue or language at all. If it be no langaage, then it proves the existence of delusion instead of Spiritual gifts; if It be a language let our author produce the same proof of it that the apostles furnished on the doy of Pentecost." — 'Our g/ted "Author",' was not Mr. Baxt but myself, who was then about topublisi the '• Doctrine « f the Iluly Spirit." Without turning to the Scriptures to shew how, in old times, they got up and said " Thus saith the Holy Ghost, separate nic such a one to the work whereunto 1 have called him ;" — with- out shewing how the Guardian places the exercise of Providence in the church rather than in God, — I shall observe that, on reading the above extracts from the Guardian, which was be- fore I had seen the volume of the Morning Wutch containing the account of Mr. Baxter, I was led to suppose that Mr. Bax- ter's book professed to be r a. fntation of the supposed facts of supernatural manifestations, end 'Jiat it went to prove that the " Ir- vingites" were either base i'-spoBters, or scZ/'-deluded fanatics. — It is manifestly in one or other of these views that the Guar- dian holds them up, as he expressly denies any thing supernat- uralf and *^ proves the existence of delusion instead of spirit- l„ *■..' v ■ J*' 9^ IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) & {./ ^ 1.0 ^K£ Ui I.I •iilii HI Itt U 1. . 110 IL25 i 1.4 2.0 I il.6 / Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WSST MAIN %*§§! 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If therefore the Edi- tor of the Guardian expresses his real sentiments concerning " Irvingism," he must consider Mr. Baxter, on whom, for the base purpose of calumniating Mr. Irving, he bestows such un- qualified praise, to be either a monster in wickedness, or a man bereft of his rational faculties. Into this dilemma the Guardian has thrust himself ; and there is no loophole out of which he can creep to avoid it : from all which it is abundantly manifest, that for the wicked purpose of calumniating the " Irvingites," and deceiving his readers in regard to the facts of the case in hand, he did purposely and by design put forth false and decep- tive statements ; — and this too under the name and character of a minister of the Gospel ! ! ! As to what this sensitive person regards as so horrid that " Our blood chills while we contemplate the consequences of this doctrine," — the doctrine is expressed in these words : — *' Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same^^ (Heb. ii, 14). That is, that our Lord, bfeing " made of a woman, made under the law," — that as he was of the flesh of Israel, (Rom. ix. 5) — that as he took not on him the nature of angels, but the seed of Abraham ; wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren (Heb. ii. 16, 17), his body, or flesh and blood, was taken out of the common lump of human- ity, and was therefore as fallen as the general mass out of which it was taken : for, taking human flesh from a fallen mo- ther, he necessarily took f:\llen flesh and no other, for there was no other to take : he took it in its condition brought upon it by sin, in order to redeem the whole lump. This is the doc- trine 60 horrifying to the Editor of the Guardian, the identical doctrine taught by Mr. Irving in common with the English and Scotch Reformers. And if any one is oflended at the idea that the Son came into sinful flesh in order to redeem and save it, he ought also to be oflended at the idea of the Holy Ghost taking his dwelling in it to sanctify and uphold it : he ought, to be con- sistent, to reject the whole work of Redemption and salvation as degrading to the Holy Trinity : for in every part of it the divine nature comes in contact with nothing but pollution until the plague is healed* Case of Robert Baxier. 18T i It will appear by the following extracts from the Guardian; that a Correspondent, together with the Editor, endeavour to fasten upon Mr Irving the denial of the Incarnation of the Eternal Son of God. His Correspondent in the Guardian of Dec. 3rd, 1834, gives ^' an extract from a sermon preached bj Mr. Irving, in the National Scotch Church, Regent Square, London, on the 26th of October, 1831," as fbllows : — ' '^But Jesus, besides his generation of the Spirit, received a baptism of the Holy Ghost. On the day of his baptism, the Holy Ghost descended upon him in the form of a dove, and then it was he went forth and healed them that were sick, and were oppressed of the devil. *^fier the baptism which John preached, then it was that he put forth this mighty power be- yond man's bound — then it was that he was more than man, and manifested to be more than man. Up to that time he was man^ holy in flesh and in soul; but from that Hme forth he became man, with God in him. The Father then came into him, and from that time forth he did works proper, not to man, but pro- per unto God." — -I might continue the quotation, but forbear.' In the next number, the Guardian has this remark : " If the union of the human with the Divine nature, in the person of Jesus Christ, was only his being " man with God in him," after the " Holy Ghost descended upon him at his baptism," it fol- lows, thirdly, that every believer may become God as much as the Redeemer of mankind was ; for to every believer God hath said, * I will walk in him, and dwell in him.' " So I say too; and if this was what Mr. Irving meant to teach, I should call him an execrable heretic. Rut he never taught it; and I cannot persuade myself that either the Guardian or his correspondent believed that Mr. Irving cither so believed or so intended to teach; and further I believe that they both were heaping upon him gratuitous calumny. Mr. Irving begins the same sermon in these words : *' Jesus, the Word, made flesh, came into the world in order to redeem men from their sins ; and, taking our nature upon him, he did," &c. In the second paragraph he saith : ^^ Ye cannot so please the God of heaven, ye cannot so . delight him, as to leceive this Jesus whom he hath sent out of his own bosom, as the messenger of his love." Had Mr. Ir- ving meant to teach that Jesus was merely a man with the Fa^ ther dwelling in' him, he could not also have taught that Jesus was the Word made flesh, the second Person of the Holy Trinity who had come out of the bosom of the Father into the ■ 4 ■ i'ii ''M 1 ''<^1 I H'A t«8 Cmt tf Rchtft BagAtT, wo^ld. As to kis being a man anointed with the Holj Gthoet, and liaYing the Father dwelling in him, Mr. Irving, in the same Mttnon, quotes the following scriptures: ^*The Spirit of the Losd 18 :upon me, liecaiise he hath anointed roe to preach glad tidings to the meek."-<«-^* The wokds that I speaft: unto you, I speak not of myself; -but the Fath^ that dweUeth in me, he doeth the works.*' Neither of these texts mskes the most dts« tant ailusion to the Incarnation of the Word ; neither do Acts ii. -22t and x. 36-^*' Jesus of Nazareth, a man approned of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you" — " how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power." These four texts taken together as strictly declare Jesus to be a mere man with the Father dwelling in him as do the words of Mr. Irving ; and if we confine ourselves to a choice of such texts to the ex- clusion of others, every word of Mr. Irving which has been quoted against him can be made to appear as a declaration of the lohole truth concerning the person oi our Lord. Mr. Irving was speaking of the baptism of the Holy Ghost, which the Father bestowed upon the Person of Christ at bis baptism in Jordan, and which Jesus shed down upon the church on the day of Pentecost, as a thing distinct from, above and in measure of power beyond what aforetime was ever given. It was with a view to this fact, and to the fact that the church is now responsible for the gift of power in its various distribution, as it appeared at Pentecost, and afterwards, that Mr. Irving was speaking ; and hence a ground of temptation to the Guar- dian and his Correspondent to calumniate him as a sort of jus- tification for their own unbelief in the true doctrine of the Ho- ly Ghost. He was also speaking of the Word made flesh; — emptied of his glory, brought into creature limitation, humbled and reduced into the form of a servant, made of no reputation, ** a worm and no man ;" and in this state as a poor mortal man anointed with the Holy Ghost, and with power so as to put forth " the finger of God" and do his mighty works ; the Word Incarnate being veiled and hidden in mortal flesh. This is what Mr. Irving had in view, and not that abominable heresy they would maliciously fasten upon him. The Editor of the Guardian, having been some time in London, and having some personal acquaintance with Mr. Irving, could hardly have been ignorant of his great work on the Incarnation of the Word, in which he sets it forth as the foundation of all things. Profusion comptatd wUk Pradice 189 If I were 80 minded, I could make a rerjr pliausible shew of disproving the Incarnation by the very words whitth declare it. ** The Word was madejledi ;" that is, transubstantiated into the substance of flesh, and no longer the Word but real flesh ; not the Word come into flesh and there forever abiding so as of God and Man to make One Christ.-^Mr. Irving was a firm be- liever in the Athanasian Creed, as every consistent Trinitarian must be. There was another ground of temptation to the Guardian to hold up Mr. Irving to public execration. He was ever a man- ful supporter of the orthodox doctrine of church and state, of christian government, of nobility and aristocracy, of all anti- democratic principles and institutions, and of the doctrine of non^-resistance to the powers that be: whereas the Guardian bad long been a furious political demagogue, a violent opposeit of aristocratic principles, and a beroical supporter of political atheism^ t^hich equalizes the Devil with the Holy Ghost on the arena of politics. He had aatually called^ on one occasion, up^ on the people of Canada to resist^ by phyticdl /oroe, the appro* priation of the clergy reserves to the use of the church of England. See Christian Guardian of May 7, 1831, of which take the following sample out of five or six columns : *' People of Upper Canada! see ye to it. You cannot be despoiled of your liberties, and robbed of your rights, without your own consent. Political, as well as physical, power resides in j/ott," &c. Which is both teaohing-that the people are the source of all power and authority instead of God, and that rebellion is their inalienable right whenever they become dissatisfied with their rulers. How can a teacher of such damnable doctrines love those who declare the truth ? XXHL — Profession compared with Practice. " Out of tkiu own mouth will I judge thoe, thou wieked itrfuit." While the Holy Spirit was heard in the churches, they had no creed but the Bible, and no ordinance but of divine appoint- ment: hit since his expulsion, human contrivances without number are set up in addition, through which men have access to the Gospel and to their God ; and instead of churches all in unity, we have a host of sects and factions biting and devouring each other in perpetual warfare. The profession of a modern church is to be gathered, not from the Bible, but from its books of authority and credit set .1 I 'M m i 190 Profession compared with Practice, up in place of the Holy Ghost as Interpreter of Scripture and Guide and Teacher in the churches. By these it is fair to judge the practice and opinions of any individuals or genera- tion of a modern church. Its books of credit may come to rank nearly as those having formal authority. Such, in the church of England, is The Whole Duty of Man^ so long in general use, and now a standard book with the Society for pro- moting Christian Knowledge, and that for propagating the Gos- pel in Foreign Paits. The church of England, and her daughter in the United States, have ever been greatly boastful of their consistent ad- herence to the doctrines of the Bible as set forth by the Eng- lish Reformers, and handed down in their books of authority ; though the daughter has apostatized most shamefully in regard to *^ the powers ordained of. God ;'^ setting jp, in place of the (rue doctrine held by the Reformers, a system of political athe- ism, in which the De\nl is exalted to an equality with God the Father, Son, and Holy i Ghost, and the kingly authority and character of our Lord are trampled under the feet of the mob. In fact, they have made the Devil the head of all their political contrivances by opening the door of office alike to .Tews^ Turks, Iiifidels, and Heretics ; in which course of Atheism and blas- phemy England has now folio wed. -^I have noticed, particularly in America, considerable contention for verbal exactness in the performance of all the wrilten services. There is, however one great doctrine taken by the English Reformers from the Bi' ble into the Book of Common Prayer, into the Ordination Servi- ces, and the Homilies, which the present race of the church, in its zeal for human traditions, has forgotten. I shall state it, 1. From the English Prayer Book. 3. From thc; Ordination Services. ')., From the Homilies. 4. From the Whole Duty of Man. And 6. From the Gospel in confirmation thereof. 1. From the Common Prayer Book. — The Collect for St. Barnabas' Day is in these words : " O Lord God Almighty, who didst endue thy holy Apostle Barnabas with singular gifts of the Holy Ghost ; Leave us not, we beseech thee, destitute of thy^ manifold gifts, nor yet of grace to use them alway to thine honour and glory.'' This implies a confession of destitution of (he ** singular'" and " manifold gifts ;" an acknowledgement of (heir necessity in the Church ; and a prayer for their full res- toration aiid godly use. It is not a prayer for continuance in we of the " singular gifts" with which Barnabas was endued, Profession ccMpared with Practice, 191 nor of the '^ manifoW^ gifts first givfen to the church ; for when> the Prajer Book was compiled there was no manifestation of supernatural gifts. But should a question arise as to what the. *•' mam/b2(2" gifts are, the Prayer Book tells us in the epistle for the second Sunday after Epiphany, from Rom. xii.; and in that for the tenth Sunday after Trinity, from 1 Cor. xii. The first addresses the congregation, though with manifest inconsistency, as if in a( tual possession of the gifts, in these words : ^* Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to U9, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of f^ith ; or ministry, let us wait on our ministering; or he that (eacheth, on teaching; or he that exhorteth, on exhortation,'' &c. And these are all stated as of the same class, namely su- pernatural works of the Holy Ghost in and by the members of Jesus, who both gives and uses the gift by him to whom' it is given : for " all these worketh that one and the self-same Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he wilK" This is also de- termined by the article of prophecy, which stands at the head of the list; for no one, that I am aware, pretends that the exer- cise of the prophetic gift is not a supernatural operation ;: and no reason from the premises can be shewn why the others^ should not be so too : and if it be claimed that prophecy was not intended to continue in the church as long as ministering, teaching and exhortation ; I answer — bring Scripture to prove it.' The apostle is speaking of the church as the body of Christ, and exhorting the members, to whom the Holy Ghost distri- butes gifts for common benefit, arid works in ♦hem to tlieir use, to attend faithfully upon therri all: and this affixes indefinite' time, that is, all tifne, the perpetual present, to them all alike; and the limitation of one is the limitation of all. — The Epistle for the tenth Sunday after Trinity commences in the same per- sonal and practical way, and with the same inconsistency as to our actual standing, thus : '^ Concerning spiritual gifts, bretherm, I would not have you ignorant;" and then proceeds to enumerate a long list of supernatural gifts given to the church as that body in the world of which Christ is the' Head, and we the members, and the Holy Ghost the informing Spirit and Will, the working Power, and declaring that" the mani^ festation of the Spirit is gitfen to every "man to profit withal." It may be objected that the *' manifold gifts" are divided into ordinary and extraordinary; as common report saith, and fhat the collect prays for the ordinary to the exclusion of ths ■III 4 f i m Pfi^Mon ctfmp«t«i{ with Fradm, ■ , • . * •xUntbpdin&ff^l angtvef, That olasiification it a fidtidn of Man, a; lie ; and if it were not, the word ^* iwaiiifold" inclitides alf, drdinavy and extraordinary; and therefore contemplatei a* oiBDy as God evter gave the church. The prayer i& for God'v tMM[/SiM gifts^ and not for a' selection out of them, and also fbr gmce dlway to use them aright, that is, as we read they weve used by the New Testament Churches. Besides, the first part of the Collect calls our attention to the ** nngulair gifts «e of Uie Epistles for the Ordering of Deacons is from Ads vik^jln ■"i'B :^l ..'"ifj fri i 1 i. %m PfSffossion eempaiwd vUK Fnut%oe, whifch it 19 related that the ApostlMi fretted the selectioa of seven meii of hooesA report, full of the Holy Ghost and of wisr dom; which was done. The Epistte for the Oidering of PrieBts is from Eph. iv. as follows : *^ Unto everj one of us it given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. — Whierefore he saith, when he ascended up on high, he led cap- tivity captive, and gave gifts unto men... .And he gave some Af^ostles, and some Prophets, and some hlvangelists, and some Pastors and Teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for (he edifying of the body of Christ." A portion of Matt ix. then follows, in which it is said : ^^ Pray jre therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He will send forth labourers." Hereon I remark, 1. The acknowledgement, in the Ordina- tion Otfice, that God did inspire the Apostles to choose Dea- cons, — if it be not an acknowledgement of the need of the same aid now, I know not what it should be. 2. The rehear- sal of the history of choosing men for the ministry full of the Holy Ghost, and the appeal to the people to declare if they know " any impediment," fairly clears the way for them to urge th3 objection to which the candidates are liable, if they are not known to be men "* full of the Holy Ghost and of wis- dom," according to the doctrine and example just applied from Scripture to the case in hand. 3. As to their being tilled or not with ihe Holy Ghost, it is simply a fact to be decided by the evidances of the thing as recorded in scripture. 4. These various references and appeals to Scripture facts and doctrines^ with their application to the work in hand, and taken in con- nexion with our modern opinions and customs, do exhibit the Ordination Services in the light of pure burlesque upon the apostolic church and practices. In the Oifice for the consecration of Bishops, Acts xx. 17, &c. is read, in which reference fs made to the facts of the Holy Ghost witnessing!; by prophets to Paul in every city concerning his afiBUctions, and his makin" the Ephcsian Elders pastors over the flock. A portion from John's Gospel is appointed, in which is written : As my Father hath sent me, even so sand i you. And he breathed on them and said, receive ye the Holy Ghost. An exhortation to the congregation follows, in which it is said, " we trust the Holy Ghost hath called him," namely to the of- fice of a Bishop. The candidate is aloo asked, " Are you per- suaded, that you are truly called to this ministration, according ti thy 1 1. Profession t&mpatid with Practice 195 per- rdtng to the ivill of our Lt)fd JesuB Ghrlst ?" H« cnawors, " I am so yntrenad^d.*' But what is the groand of this persuasion? — » Whj tho notorious fact that one of the King's chief ministers, (it nidy be a Socinian) has selected the person to be consecra- ted, "(probably to serve some political by-end), and imposed him upon the consecrating Bishops an their choice : so thut in orddr to come (o this persuasion, he must believe that the Holy Ghost called him by the mouth of the king's minister. But should the candidate actually profess to have been called as the ser- vice professes to believe they of old were called, there is not a soul present but would set him down for a liar or a lunatic. — An.d so of that part of the Service in which the Ordaincrsaith; ** Receive the Holy Ghost." But should he exhibit the Gospel sign of the gift, he would be instaiitly cried down on the same ground as above stated. Throughout these Services, reference is constantly made to the practice of the Apostles, as if for the warranty and confir- mation of things present. The *' manijold gifts of the Hoh* Ghost" arc spoken of, in the present tense, as if in actual manifestation and use, an instance of which is a!)(>ve given in (he Epistle for the Ordering of Priests. The church too is all along spoken of as the same thin<; it was in St. Paul's day, and bavins; the same endowment. It is said that the Lord "sent abroad into the world his Apostles, Propliels, Evangel- ists, Doctors, and Pastors," just as if they all were needed now. The Hymn, "'Come, Holy Ghost, creator, coir.e," is used, from which take the following : "Thou the anointing Spirit art, who dost thy seven-fold gifts iinpart Thou in thy gifts art manifold, by them Christ's Church doth j^tanti. . .« According to thy promise Lord, thou givest speech uilh iirnce." Mark, this is all said in the present tense. It refers to all the gifts the Lord ever gave the church, his sevenfold or manifold gifts, — apostles, prophets, cvangeli-ts, pastors and teachers, miracles, healings, "speech with grace," i. e. the word of wis- dom, the wcrd of knowledge, and prophecy for exhortation, ed- ification, and comfort, (I Cor. xii. xiv), with ton^jjucs, &c. — And mark again, that it saith, "by these Christ's church doth stand ; Hot did once stand, but dolh now stand. — As to the unc- tion and anointing, with the effects resulting, let us turn to ho- ly writ. "Ye have an unction from the Holy One," f.om Christ the Baptizer with the Holy Ghost,' "and ye know all tbing&" as the consequence. "But the anointing which ye I 1 i 196 Profession compared with Practice, have received of him abideth in 3'ou, and ye need not that anjr man teach you : but as the same anointing teacheth you of aU things, and is truth, and ia no he, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him," 1 John ii. " And when Paul bad laid his hands on them, the Holy Uhost came upon them ; and (hey spake with tongues, and prophesied," Acts xix. ^* Now he which hath stablished us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God ;,who also haih scaled us, and given us the earnest of the Spiiit in our hearts," 3 Cor. i. " In whom also, after that ye believed, ye were sealed with thot Holy Spirit of promise," as Cornelius and his company were, *' which is the earner* of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchas- ed possession," Eph. i. Now as Jes-us is He that baptizeth with ihe Holy Ghost, this anointins; from Him, is just the giving of the Holy Ghost, as we lead of it, and nothing else. It is the baptism into a poition of 'Mhe powrrs of the world to come," continually to be in the bund of the church as the ear- nest and first fiuits, — as the constant foreshevvin of that which shall heieafter be giv^n in full of the promise, in the resurrec- tion of glory. And this is witnessed in the Office for conse- crating Bishops, wiiich saith from Mat. xxviii. 18, "Jesus came snd spake unto them, saying, All povtcr is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye theret"ore," &c., in conse- quence of that gift to me, and in the power given ; as it is in Mark, *' these signs shall follow them that believe," ^c. " Lo, I am with you alw.iy, even unto the end of the world," to ena- ble you to use that power, that earnest and foreshewing of " the powers of the world to come," as the constant certification and standing demonstration that I have overcome the world, and al- ready broken the devil's power through sin, and the assurance of Aulh that the victory will ere long be as complete in fulfil- ment as it is now in purpose. — In conclusion, these Ordination Services do constitute the severest judgment against the pres- ent opinions and practices of the Church of England that could possibly bo drawn up ; and they shew sonie items of as gross fraud and hypocrisy as any to be found in the papacy. The universal unbelief and denial of the manifold gifts," to which constant reference is made throughout the services as if to sanction our preser standing; converts the whole into a pro- fane burlesque upon things the most sacred. What can be a more presumptuous lie than for a man to declare, that he is per- suaded he is truly called according to the will of our Lord Jc- g>f".S, Profnshn compared with Practice, 197 gross a pro- be a 8U8 Christ, when, as is sometimes the case, his call originated in political intrigue, and came i'rom a time serving Minister of State? 3. The Homilies— The Homily for Whitsunday saith: "The Holy Ghost doth al\vay.s declare himself by his fruitful & gracious gifts, namely, by the word of wisdom, by the word of knowledge, which is (he understanding of the Scriptures by faith, in doing of miracles, in healint; them that are diseased, by prophecy, which is the declaration of God's my.steries, by discerning of spirits,diver- sities of tongues, interpretation of tongues, and so forth, 1 Cor. xti. All which gifts, as they proceed from one Spiiit, and are severally given to man according to the measurable distribution of the Holy Ghost; even so i\o they bring men, and not with> Owt good cause, into a wonderful admiration of God's divine power." This is all spoken in the present tense, just as if the gifts ought all to be in constant use ; and as a practical comment upon the doctrine, the Homily goes on to tell a stoiy of an id- eot who, in the power of the Holy Ghost, overcame a proud and talented infidel philosopher, whereby " the bishops and other learned men standing by were marvellously abashed at the matter, thinking (hat by his doings (the ideot's) they should all be confounded and put to open shame." And the Homily adds, " VVas not this a miraculous work, that one silly soul, of no learning, should do that which many bishops of groat know> ledge and understandins; were never able to bring to pass ? So true is the saying of Bede: Whore the Holy Ghost doth in- struct and teach, there is no delav at all of learnins; " It fur- ther saith : '* The proper office of the Holy Ghost, is not to in- stitute and bring in neu- ordinances, contrary to his doctrine before tatight; but to expound and declare those things which he had before taught, so that they might be well and truly un- ' derstood. When the Holy Ghost, saith he, shall come, he shall lead vou into all truth. John xvi. What truth doth he w mean? Any other than he himself had before expressed in his word ? No. For he saith. He shall take of mine and shew it un- to you. Again, he shall bring you in remembrance oi all things that I have told you." Now, by the Holy Ghost, he gave the church the ordinances of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers, beside the gifts they exercised: but did the Holy Ghost " institute -^nd bring in the new ordinances, contrary to his doctrine before taught," of archbishops, archdeacons, can* 0*13, sub-canons, prebendaries, deans, vicars, rectors, pluralities. I, M yi m 198 Professioii eomptn'cd wilh praclic9> chaplers, con^e d'eljips, &c.? Di4 be direct th^t bi^hofis $hoM|jii he chosen by th« King qi* iiis imnisters ?--^l say no^ these thinly for reviling, but for reproof, and do exhort that all men rep^fiU of their evil deeds, and pi ay to God to restore us to a better state ere he conieih to jud^;?ment. I love the church, but I de- test and iiborninate her wicked piactices and her shocking UU** faithfulness lo her Lord and Husband. 1 reverence the ordi- nance uf a ciirisMan slate; but i am bound to denounce the hatei'ul adullery the cl.iircli and the stute are both guilty of in the vile prostitution of thiny;9 and offices njost sacred to the foul ambition of worldly politicians, who use tlic church as the base tool of their ungodliness. 4. The Wliole L'uty of Man. — This book, so long and so de- servedly hold in universal e^l^om, contains a prayer for the Peace of the church, from which the following is an extract : " When thou didst mount up to heaven triunjphantly, thou threwest out from above thy piecious things, thou j;avest gifts among m^ n, thou dealte.st sundry rewards of thy Spirit. Re- new jigjiin from above thy old bountifulness, give that thing to thy church now fainting and growing downwards, that thou gavest unto her shooting up at her first beginning. . . . Give to the Bishops the gift ol prophecy, that they may declare and in- terpret Holy Scripture, not of their own brain, but of thine in- spiring." This has been sanctioned by the whole body of the churcli. 6. The Scriptures. — Under this head I can say but little in proportion to the magnitude of the subject ; and shall therefore confine myself to a few texts. But in connection with the subject I shall heie introduce a Hymn for Whitsunday which appears in a small voluUiC of P.^alms and Hymns lately publish- ed for congregational use in the Diocese of Quebec: 8|»irit of Truth ! on lliis »hy duy to thee for help we cry, 'i'o Koiilc U.S throustti the dreary way «f ditrk niorti*hty ! VV«! »»U M'>t, Lord! thy chtven tlanu'. or tori;;m',s of various tone; Ihit h)n» thy |>riii»>i>N to proclnim wilh fervour in our own. Wf niduru not that pronhetic fkill is found on earth no more! I'lnriuuh for uh to trace ihy will in Scripture's sucrcd lore. Wu neither hiive nor seek the power ill demons to control. ])ut thou in durk ttniptutinii's hour shall chuse theui from (he soul. The two first li.ies contain a sound and orthodox prayer. " We ask not, Lord! thy cloven flame," is unobjecticnaViie, because, aa I believe, the cloven tongues of fire were never repeated in any subsequent baptism wilh the Holy Ghost. Hut the *' tongues o,f vutious tone" is a denial of one of the gifts which Profession cmnpared wUh Practice^ im ** Goi) hath set in the church,'* 1 Cor. xii. 28 ; and its in dh'ect tiorrtradietioii to the'prajrer for the '^nmmfold gifts*' in the cbl- Itct for St. Barnabas' Day, and in the Veni Creator. It kisO: contradicts the petition, " Come with unction and witli power" in Hymn \i. of the same collection: fdr if he should so come^ upon us, should there be no external sign of it ? We learn in Scripture that when he came upon any with unction and power, it was indicated by speaking with tongues, or prophesying, or praising and glorifying God. But should this prayer be An- ewered in any one of our congregations, the answer would be treated with contempt and scorn.- -"We mourn not that pro- phetic skill is found on earth no more !" This is horrible ! And it occurs in a Hymn commemorative of the manifold gifts of God to the church on the day of Pentecost ! " Wc see not our signs : there is no more any prophet : neither is there among us any that knoweth how long. O God, how long shall the ad- versary reproach"* Shall the enemy blaspheme thy name for- ever? [Psalm Ixxiv. 9]. We are become poor and miserable and wretched and blind and naked ; and we boast unto God of our riches, and tell the Holy Ghost the loss of his gifts are no cause of sorrow! Oh ! what miserable infatuation is this! And how doth " the adversary*'' rejoice over us ! The Holy Ghost saith to us, " Quench not the Spirit. Despise not prophesy- ing." "To one is given the word of wisdom ; to another the word of knowledge ; to another propuecy . . .God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets. . .Built upon the foundation of apostles and prophets. ... He gave some, apostles, and Gome prophets. . . for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the, body of Christ. . . . Desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophe- sy ... He that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort... He that prophesieth edifieth the church. . . . For ye all may prophesy one by one, that all may learn, and all may be comforted. . . . Wherefore, brethren, cov- et to prophesy, and forbid not to speak with tongues " This is Wuat the Holy Ghost saith unto us ; and yet we have the har- dihood to tell Him that *' we mourn not that prophetic skill is found on earth no more!" And as if that were not suflTicient indignity to offer him, we proceed to inform Hiir that it is "enough for us to trace thy will in Scripture's sacred lore." — In other words, that the intellect of man is in itself sufficient to interpret (jlod's Word, notwithstanding the Hymn opens with ill vail f'i JOO Profession compared wUfi ,Fractice. • prayer for divine guidance, repeated in Hymn li. in this form : ** Fence U4 in on every side...Kuard and teach, 8up(>ort and V^|oide.^' — And so oi' the words, ** we neither have nor seek the power ill demons to control." God gave the church that pow- i^tf and she is still accountable for it. To him who objects that these things were not given for continuance in the church, I say, Prove it from Scripture.—- You pretend to prove therefrom that the Christian n.inistry is l^petual; yet you deny the very authority, when brought to lear upon these, which asserts the perpetuity of the ministry. Ills, *^6od haili set some in the church, first apostles, sec- ondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then jril'ls of hoalinu^^, helps, governments, diversities of tongues." In thij* you make God a liar; you set yourself above the writ- itn word, and tear and mangle it whenever it squares not with your wishes and prejudices with the irreverence of an unbeliever. Ihe very words which assert the continuance of one assert the continuance of all as in God's design in giving thcui. Nay, the words which assert the continuance of Jhe church as a body, also declare the necessity for the con- tinuance of all its members and gifts and its whole endow* ment. The Hymns above quoted, notwithstanding the first tells the Holy Ghost that we mourn not the loss of his prophetic ijpft, and seek not the power over evil spirits, do yet pray that He will "Come with unction and with power" unto us, 'and " guard and teach, support and guide" u^; yea, " fence usr in on every side." What the unction and power of the il^My Ghost do mean, we are taught in such scriptures as this: '''^•God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and "^ith power: who went about doing good, and healing all that t>«rc oppressed of the devil," Acts x. 38; which same anoint- ing and same power Jesus himself bestowed upon the church, ** which is his body," and by which power it was enabled to h|d greater works even than he had done. As to His guard- ing, teaching, supporting, and guiding the church, — the man- ner thereof 1 shall state from John^s Gospel in the Lord's own words; and I beg the reader to observe that the manner i> personal and by intelligible speech — that is, as one Person epeak&to, instructs and directs other Persons; the Person di- Tccting and teaching being known as a Person, and as one ;:farticular Person, from all other persons and from all things. Prtfmimidmfmtd with Fraeliee. (or the Holy GhoM being a Person, if as a Person he is r^: fenown^ he is wholly unknown. He may be known hiamicaU thing in a man undistinguishable from the man himself or some of his natural faculties. Jesus, a Person, whom af such his disciples knew, about to leave them, promises ano- ther Person, the Holy Comforter, to come (o them and 8up*> ply the place of his personal presence, and work among them; by whom, as he said, " they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." And how can these be known but by the Person of the Holy Ghost? I admit that men have ever been controled and guided of. God in utter unconsciousness of it; nay, even believing they were following the dictates of their own wil!, as in case of the Assyrian, the rod of his anger, (fsa. x.), and many others> But these *' know^ not the Lord; an.t if his word came to them, they would say, with Pharaoh, ** Who is the Lord that 1 should obey his voice,'' at the same time that they were actJnj; under, his special guidance and fulfilling His Will. But this is not the guidance of a people in covenant with God; it was no- thing like tiiis that the Lord promised his church in the Per* son of the Holy Ghost the Comforter, to guide, teach, instruct and show her, as a person, in all things. Keeping these re- marks in view, let us rehearse from John's Gospel, our Lord's words conveying the assurance to the church, not only ot the gift, but much of the manner of it: — " I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever; even the Spir- it of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: hut ye know him, for he dwell- eth with you, and shall be in you. ...The Comforter which is the Holy Ghost (a Person) whom the Father (a Person), will send in my name (the name of a Person), he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance) whatsoever I have said unto you (Persons). . . . He shall testi'^ fy of me: and ye also shall bear witness (personally).... I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come^ he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of him- self; but whatsoever he shall h^w^ thdi shall he speak: and i i f P I Hi HXI^ Profoukm 4!imptttBd\mkk FtmiIm. htt wHl fAiew you tilings to eomt. R» ^M g^rliy mot fiMr be^oA) receive of initie, and witt sl^ew st «in)« you. AH thiwgstfiat thtti Fnther 4wie sdid i, tl^t b# sfatt)!' take of m4«i.e, and sheU eltew it un4o you.^ i^tl thi#' Bpeflkfi of p^rsonul intercoiirsSy as ite r«fid of it aft(£rwa on wnrdsiy under tliiB form; *arate me Barndbas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called I hem." As to his shewing them the things of Christ in consequence of all the Father's things being his, it meaneth Christ's willingness to open*' all truth" to the church as I'riend to friend: as he saith: ** Henceforth I call you not servants:; for the servant knowefh not what his lord doetli: but I have called tou friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you:" and, *' the glory which thou gavest me, I have given them." These words of Paul to the Corinthians, " I thank my God ....that in every tiling ye arc enriched by him, in all utter- ance, and in all knowledge," are to be referred back to these promises, and regarded as in part their fulfilment; as also the word of wisdom and the v/ord of knowledge, and the gifts of prophecy, and discerning of spirits. These things havingen- tered into the constitution of the first churchet), they are es- sential to the right constitution of all churches. This is thus witnessed by the *' General Delusions," quoted at page 124 of this tract: '* And because any prophesying or preaching by the Spirit is thought now inconsistent with the essential constituents denominating a church, i cannot but remind the reader of the quite contrary definition thereof in the primi- tive ages; namely. Where the Spirit extraordinary was there icas a churchy and no where else properly under an apostolical constitution." A part of the functions of the Comforter can only be per- formed by vocal speech addressed to the ear of man. ** He shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak " Hence by reasonable speech he gave the word of wisdom, the word of knowledge, and " all utterance" for his manifold direction, instruction, and guidance, by which the unity of the church was to be preserved, and in the ab- sence of which we are become » Babel of heresy and schism tund all manner of division. He also said, *•*■ I have many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now:" and then he promised the comforter to say them for Him. But he 'S- Ptojhmtm eompMred tritk Pradki. fi^ and his spirit are one; thefcfcve tl>e Spirit us^g^-^^mtn*^ moftflk* to uit^r Christ^ft woird» is only Chriftt t^ing the mouth of oM> of hit own members. And under this is to be ranked his saying (John x,)-*^*^ To him the porter openeth, and tho fih<0^|»<' hear hie voice:. and he calleth his ovrn 6heep by name, wtA leadeth them out. And when he putieth forth his own sheep^ he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers. ..• My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me." It is by these things in manifestation that the church ought to set fortli her pretensions, and not by the verbal teaching of a moral science, and the observance of formal rites, whose divine origin is to he sought historically or taken on trust, in opposition to any present experience of the man- ifestation of that power in and hy and from which Christiani- ty at first originated. The church should now also address the world, " in the demonstration of the Spirit and of power," that our faith might stand, not in tiie forms of man^s wisdom, but in the power of God, 1 Cor. ii. This is evident from these words of our Lord, John xvii. " TJIiat they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the xtorld may believe that Ihou hast sent me.— And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one. I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and habt hwed them as thou hast loved me." And how can those without know any thing of the oneness of the Father and the Son, and the church or body of the son in the Holy Ghost without any external sign or demonstroHon supernatural? Our historical, and logical, and scholastic methods, — our treating the Gospel as a moral science, — these can never exhibit any other outward de- monstration thon other sciences, historical, natural, and po- litical are competent to exhibit, namely, the human intellect busied with certain speculations, and the body with certain actions. Fully believing that God would re-constitute the church as at first, upon her sufficient repentance and seeking it, I con- clude this head in the words of Mr. Irving: ^^ My idea of the church is derived from its name, * The body of Christ;* and of its endowment from the words following, ^> The fulness of In .1 S04 Pt^ihere is one body and one SpirirV(Eph. iv. 4); and mthe body witliout the Spirit is not the convplete work of God, so neithei is the spirit without the body. When Christ went unto the Father, he entered into the promise of the Holy Ghost, and, being seated on the Father^s throne be- gan to act the Fathcr^s part, of governing the world. Since that time he hath been known as the Spirit and not as the visible Christ. But a spirit is not that which God appointed this world to be governed by. He made man to be his image and his king, and man is an embodied spirit. And when man became enslaved to Satan, God, keeping in his own hand the sovereignty, which had reverted to himself through the diso- bedience of his vicegerent, did hold it, not in his character of a pure spirit, but did assume to himself, in the Word, the parts, affections, propertif's, and attributes of a man, because as a man he was (o redeem all, and to govern all. And, naw that as a man he hath redeemed all, and is governing all, it were inconsistent with the great idea of the man — and not the spirit-governor, that Christ should now rule from his in- visible throne in the spirit without a body. This body is the church, of which he, Christ, is not only the Spirit, but like- wise the Head. And the church is united to him, not only by having him inspiring her, but likewise by being united with Him who is on the throne of God, being his instruments, his members, for demonstrating before the world as mucli of that power and authority which he hath attained to, as is proper for this present state and condition of the world." This being the true idea of the church, God-ward considered, it must needs be that from the beginning of its being it should put forth the germ of its own perfection; like all the inferior works of God, that this, his chief work, should reveal. its constant law, and begin to be in growth. Novv the church began to be from the time that Christ was glorified and became the quickening Spirit. As the human race began to be from the time Adam was endowed with the power of generation and received command to multiply; so the church began to be from the time that the Second Adam was perfect- ed, and, by receiving from the Father the Holy Gho:it, had power by regeneration to beget sons of God — that is, from the day of Pentecost — and therefore from this time it should begin to shew ^orih the information and inworking of God within Proftttion crnnpartdtoUh Praetiee. ftOb it." — ^And certain it is, that whatever talents the church had received, of theHe He said to her: *^That which ye have,al- ready holdfast till I coh£. . .Behold, I come quickly: hold thai fast which thou hast^ that no man take thy crown,^ Rev* ii. 25; iii. 11. How the church can use the prayer for St. Barnabas' Day, and the Ordination services, and the Homily for Whitsunday, and the prayer in the Whole Duty of Man, and yet use this new Hymn for Whitsunday, and both speak find preach a- gainst the manifold gifts, without guilt of the ipost abomina- ble hypocrisy, I certainly know not; nor yet do I kivow in what estimation (lie clergy hold their ordination vows. To use prayers for the restoration of the gifts, and at the same time deny their necessity and cry out upon these who speak for them, is just neither more nor less than vvilful lying to the Holy Ghost, and then speaking against the things prayed fpr in hypocrisy. NoTB. Ill (lie examination of the offices of the church, I overlooked a few tliin^H of irnpurlaiice in the office* of Bapti8m anil Confimnation. In (hoite for B ipiisui, the people are exhorted lo pray tli.a( the persons to be hapiizfd " may he t>aptized with water andthe Holy Ghost." In ttiat for a«lulis, (lie oxtiorlation quotes as a|rplical>le to llie current occa* •ion the words of PiMer — " Repent and be baptized every one of you for the relMi^sio^ of siiiH, and ye shall receive the gift of the lluly (aliost. For the promise is to yon and your children, and lo all that are afar off, even as many ns (iio Lord our God shall call:" and iheii adds that we should not doubt that God will bestow upon liiem the Hidy Ghost.— This istellins us tli.it all that are baptised with water ought loseek al- so aod expect that same baptism with the Holy Ghost of whipli Peter spake to the innlliin;avo utterance in tongues, prophesying ai^d glorifying God. And' so also I say of the appeal made in the collect in the Coittirmatioii Office to the example of the Apostles as illustrative and confirmatory of our modern practice, thus : *' We make our humble supplications unto thee for ihcKe thy nervants, upon whom (after the example of thy holy uipostles) wo have now laid our hands.'* But how is it possible that an aftpeal to the apostolic example can turn otherwise than to our condemnation bereiul How can that example and practice confirm and authorize nur di>parture therefrom, and warrant one spurious imita- tion thereof! As well might we appeal to the ten commandroenls as authorising our sins of ominsion and commission.— In short, this having tht forms of gudliiiess while denying the power thereof is exactly par- lii ii !i' «€6 ^mtikmim^ 5U«I with that tj(8tein of hyfUKvisy which; tb» Scrijbra «{^d Pharittcf la erected in our Lord'n day| aod fur Whiph he defiouDced.affalntf ttiem the severest woes : and powhere is it so piflpable as in theCliurd^ iif£i>glaitd, whose very ritual iind otiices are'tfi^ swiftest vritnesses aifsinst her: for truly she hath the forms of godliness almost in Scr^pi^ ture purity in many things, while the substance and power sh^deniep and sets at naught, and smites upon the mnuth those faithful sons who reprove her in luve and honesty. XXI V^, — Concltawn; • In concluding this little summary, I desire to call upon all who read it, to cry mightily unto God, that he may turn away from the fiercenss of his anger, and stretch forth to us the hand of mercy and deliverance. The world is going to ruin about us, and a spirit of strong delusion is poured upon all who have the management of public affairs, while, rejecting the counsel of God, they trust in their own inventions, and with a view to quell the rising storm, do homage to the Devil in that they have exalted him to an equality with the Holy Ghost on the arena of the political world, acknowleging the children of Satan as fitting to rule over men as the children of God: and they do sacrifice to the demons of mischief who now rule in the darkness of this pr'jsent world, by means of wicked principles and spiritual wickedness in all tlie high places of the earth. This is more then evident by the homage tlie pow- ers that be are basely paying to those declared rebels the de- magogues and agitators, both at home and in the colonics. — • The consequence will be, the oppression and rebellion of that class which adheres to the order of the tilings: but in their troubles none of them se^k after God: tfiey all depend upon themselves; and so He will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians. To those who have any fear of God left, there is but one course, which is, to pray earnestly to the Lord to re- veal himself among us by his spirit, to raise up in the dying church apostles, prophets, and evangelists, and to restore the church speedily as she was at the beginning, in the full en- dowment of all the spiritual ordinances and gifts, that a rem- nant maybe saved from the approaching desolations. I have no hopes that those in place and power will treat these things otherwise than with contempt, as Israel did in the day of Jer- emiah and of our Lord and his apostles: yet it is our duty to pray and intercede for them daily, if peradventure God may .jffive them repentance to the acknowledgment of the truth. ' I have a word more to say upon the time of the end of the^ •ied in his own personal ministry: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,-' by the sacrifice of himself. By counting back 70 weeks, or 490 years fron: A. D. 37, we find the year 453 before Christ's birth to be tlie year of the going forth of the commandment (Dan. ix. 25), in which the 70 weeks began. And this is the basis for determining the beginning of the 2300 days, of which the seventy weeks were a part. The vision in which the 2300 days was revealed, was several years before that which revealed the 70 weeks, even from the third year of Belshazzar to the first year of Darius. — Of the first the angel said to Daniel (viii. 19), ^^BehoUl I will make thee know what shall bs in the last end of the indigna- tion, for at the time appointed, the end shall be." Daniel ap- pears (ix. 2, 9, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17,) to have thought the end of the captivity in Babylon to be that appointed time, and the end of all Israel's afflictions, and the introduction to the happy reign of the son of man, the visions of whom Daniel saw (vii.) in the first year of Belshazzar. Daniel says, (viii. 27,) ^^I was astonished at the vision (i. c. of the 2300 days), but none tm- ierstoodit; not even himself, as appears by the words below put in italics. While he was prr^ying (ix.) "for the holy moun- tain of his God"- — "the man Gahriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the 6cgmmng," (in viii. 16, when he gave the period of the 2300 days.) *^said O I>aniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and undersianding. At the beginning of the sup- plication the commandment came forth, and I am come to shew thee; for thou art greatly beloved; therefore understand the matter, and consider the viVion," namely, "/^c vision at the 6c- ginning," which concerned "the last end of ihe indignation" against Israel, which Daniel hoped, by consulting the prophe- cies of Jeremiah (ix. 2); had then come, on which account he made his supplication. Gabriel then proceeded, m expluining the former vision, to number off seventy weeks or 490 years of it for the coming of Messiah in humiliation, his cutting off, and the treading down of Jerusalem by the- Roman power or fourth beast, and the desolations of Israel for the- remainder of the great period, whose commencement he gives in giving Conclusion. 209 the commencement of tlie seventy weeks. These ended, as we have seen, A. D. 37; which .deduct from 490, the amount of (he seventy weeks, and the remainder is 453 before Christ's birth. And 453 before Chritit to 1847 after Christ, and they make up the great period of 3300, at the end of which all these will have been fulfilled, and the kingdom of the Son of Mail begun. *^He that testifieth these things saith, surely I come quickly; Amen. Even so, come. Lord Jesus." And now., reader, pray accept my parting advice: it is short, but salutary. Pray take in good part what I offer for your warning and instruction. 1 do it in love to truth, its Author, and the souls of men. Search the Scriptures to see whether these things are so, and beware of admitting any thing as ev- idence which is not found in the , book of God, or clearly proveablc therefrom. Our natural wishes are not to be .set m contradiction to any thing revealed. Go not about to set up any new sect,, society, or ordinance, or any human inven- tions; but stand iiijour place and witness to the truth as it stands in the sacred page, and pray daily for God to reveal himself by the Spirit as of old, and lepair the ruins of the body of Christ. And above all, prepare for the coming of your Lord, tost he come upon you as a thief, and find you un- prepared. Oh! remember that now is the accepted time, KoW is the day of salvation. *^Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless betore the Presence of His Globv with exceeding joy, To the only wise Gop our Saviour, be glory and majesty, t'oiiiijilon and power, both now and ever. Amen." Jude 24,25. " He laiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of Glorv: for the pillars of the earth are the Lord^s, and he hath set the world upon them. He will keep the feet of his saints, and the wicked shall he si- lent'in darkness: for by strength shall no man prevail. The adversaries of the Lorp shall be broken to pieces; out of hea- ven shall he thunder upon them : the Lord shall judge the ends of the earth; and he .shall give strength unto His King, and exalt the horn of His Anointep." 1 Sam. ii. 8, 9, 10. For the time U at hand of which He hath said: *''• ! shall ilt CboRY IN T^E LAND OF THE LIVING.'* Ezck. XXVi. S{0, .' BjrtOJivri, U. Canada, December 5, 1835. m i ^^J' POSTSCRIPT. Certain information received from EngUnd since the fore* going Hhectrt went to presx, renders it expedient to add a Post* script for the end of laying it before the leader. But it is al»o expedient, from the hardness and unhelicfof man^s heart and the fearful Sadduccan principles of the times, to pavj the way then^to by some prefatory matter over and above wliat is given in the preceding work. I therefore ask the reader, Are you willing in your heart, — have you a parti- cle of desire for it — that the church of Clirist should ever be in all thing:; rentori'd as it was in the days of St. Paul, oay, a thousan 1 years hence, or at any time after you are dead and gone? Vij thus looking aliead, you set the question beyond the reach of any consideration or prejudice personal with yourself; — you bring not ihe principles containud under it in- to condict with any thing to which you are personally com- mitted longer than your term of nitural life; and therefore I feel confi lent that yon ct^ii feel no objection to the fact, that the church, a thousand years he:ice, should be restored to the condition it stood in at the death of St. Paul Do you feel any disliice to such supposed fact yet so far future? — But let us co.u J nearer home, — into the rejfion of your own selfish- ness and prejudices, your likes and dislikes; for men do not manifest their dislike to God's ways until they interfere with their own inventions, and speak out their own condemnation, Are jou willing that the church should be immediately refitored to its primitive condition in all things?— I have several times put this question to '•'•professors^'* who said they were not wil- ling, thit they had no desire for it; and hence 1 take it for granted that a goodly number who may read this will return the same answer. You have no objection that the church should be so restored a thousand years hence ; but you have a strong oSjecHon to its being so restored now. Pray what is the ground of this objection? Why are you not willing the church should be so restored immediately? Is it that you think the present condition of Christendom, which is a Baby- lon of confusion and wickedness, a better one — more to the glory of G > 1, and better calculated *'for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the bo- dy of Clirist" than the condition God placed the church in at first in one body under the guidance and instruction of one Spirit in one faith, and having "no schism in the body*'? Or iwn st^ct a better model of a perfect' u ch ch is ch all cu ch ant do you youi PostscripL 211 church, nnd more after the mind and will of God than the church wan as God himself constituted it? Do you think it is the will of God that you should walk in ordinances of his choice and appointment or your own? Is God the author of all the sects and churches you see, and of your own in parti- cular? Do you verily believe thot God hath cast out of his church the things he set in it at first, — that he hath cut off and thrown away the members of Chrisl^s body, of which Paul saith, *^But now hath God set members every one of them in the body, as it h&tli pleased him,^' (1 Cor. xii. 18), and hath authorised man to fit it up witii his own inventions after his own pleasure? I say. On what ground do yoii prefer your own sect or church as it is, and desire to see it swallow up all others and till the whole world, instead of desiring to see the primi- tive condition of the church fully restored in all places? You can have but one ground of preference ; and that is, that your sect is a better and more perfect thing, in God^s estimation, than the churcii God at first constituted. This must be your firm conviction, or you set dp rebellion against God /or the sake of rebellion against God. This last I am unwilling to charge a- gainst you, and therefore I am left to deal with your convic- tion that your sect is a better thing every way than the church of Gods institution. But what is the ground and authority of this your conviction? Is it derived from any revelation from God? If it is, shew me chapter and verse for it. I ask for authority in ihe premises as high as the Great Head himself, and will listen to no other for one instant. When Christ as- cended he gave gifts unto men, the gift of persons for a min- istry, and the gift of gifts to them to be exercised in the church in the power of the Holy Ghost ; and I ask, hath God ever thrust away any of those as deficient and unfit for the work he set them to perform, in order to make room for the better things which have come into their places? Remember that you are bound here to shew God's own authority for your sect or party, the same as a servant of the king 's bound to have the king's commission, or pass for a usurper and a rebel,OT you proclaim yourself a hater of God's ordinances, and a setter up of counterfeits and false imitations of them. — There is no evading this; and no honest man would ever think of evading it. Again : Do you as a Christian esteem it lawful or unlawful to pray to God for the restoration of any one thing to the church 6peedily,or of all the things he formerly gave it, but in which it is now lacking, God in the mean time having never forbidden you, nor declared that such things ought not now to I' :!i ii '1 tit ;. Postscript. be in the church? Tliere is a prayer used by the church of England, and by llie Protestant Episcopal church in the United States, for the full and complete restoration of all the gifts; I mean the collect for St. Barnabas' Day. Do you esteem this prayer to be acceptable or offVns". . to God? You can net deem it ofll'ensive to IJim williout believing that he is better pleased nith your sect than he would be were it in the condi- tion in which he placed the primitive church , the Holy Ghost distributing to each as he would, and himself working all in all, and speaking in the words of wisdom and of knowledge, &c., in the attentive ear of .he chinch, and adpiinistering pure and iioly discipline : and ifyou deem this prayer accep- table to God, you must ineviiahly do so at the expense of your sect and to your own condemnaiion ; for no man can honestly use that prayer and yet hold to the j.Mesent condition of things. But are you willing to pray tiial prayer, — to renounce your sect in favour of its being granted, — to deny yourself the plea- sure of following your own will and thrusting upon God's ac- ceptance your own inventions? The prayer cannot to you be answered, unless you are willing that Christ's own ordinances should be built up again in place of man's Arc you, in short, willing that the Lord should at once restore the church in all the pleniiude of her original endowment? Are you willing to give up the human ordinances of your^choice for the true ^^ ac- tual ordinances of Christ — that the voice of the Good Shepherd should again be heard in the manifold utteiances of the Holy Ghost — that all things should be again speedily restored as at the beginning? The answer to these plain questions will at once determine whether you arc the fiiend or the enemy of Christ ; for if you are not thus willii^g, it is impossible tuat you can be loving and honouring Him as your Lord and Mas- ter. And you cannot escape from this dilemma unless you can prove satisfactorily that God is better pleased with the pol- ity and ordinances and success of vour sect than he would be witti the church as he at first constituted it. But wiiere is your proof of this? Is it the pretensions, success, and numbeis of your sect ; or is it the declared approbation of God himself? Again : Do you believe that God is the answerer of prayer — that the faithful may have whatever they ask for (John xv. 7, 16) — that when backsliders return to him he will return to them? Do you believe he would restore a backslidden but repentant church on its earnest entreaty? Hear what he sailh to the church at Ephesuii. Rev. ii. 4, 5 : '^I have Romswhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember there- fore from whence thou art lallen, and repent, and do the iirst Postscript. 213 works." If you are a minister or member of the church of England, wliat mean you by using the collect fur St. Barnabas' Day? Do you mean to insult God with the prayer of hypoc- risy and unbelief as to the things prayed for? If you are of any other church or sect, do you believe there is such a thing as God's restoring a people or a church to a full standing un- der his own ordinances from which they had fallen? Or do you estjem the making of new sects by man's device to be equivalent to such a restoration by God himself? I ask again, Is it beyond the bounds of probabiiily that God, on the hearty repentance of any sect or church, and its earnest cry to be restored by his manifest power and giiid : ice to the primitive standing, would in such case manifest his power and do the thing prayed for? Again. Should God so manifest his power, what would na- turally be the first sign of it — in wliat thing would it first ap- pear as a supernatural work? Would it not be by voice and speech, in the prophetic gift, or the gift of tongues? I an- swer, Yhs; the subs'ance of it would be the prophetic gift, be- cause word in commandment always goes before work in o- bedience. This has ever heen God's method heretofore, and we know not on what grotinth it siiould be departed from. It is written — He gave ji,ifts unto men — unto all the baptis- ed, to and for their use to profit withal. He gave, first, Per- sons; secondly,' gil'fs to the persons, the Spirit actuating ail. He gave apostles, pophets, &c. and to them again an outfit of spiritual a;ifts. Thu^ ii is written in th3 Magna Charta cf the Cliurch Catholic; and it has never been blotted out by the pen of the Giver. Not a clause or a word has ever been erased from that blessed hook by the Donor: he hath never said, I have annulled this or that; and my church — my body my spouse m;iy no longer enjoy it. — Now suppose some most important grants in the Magna Cnarta of Great Britain were now discovered to have heen ult(M'ly forgotten for three or four hundred years, and which, if acted upon, would at once lead to great national prosperity and glory; would not the whole '.dition leap for joy at the discovery, and hasten with all eagerness to reap the benefit? Of this there can be no doubt. Then why not give equal glory to God, and be as rea- dy to take hold of his promises an;l ^Il'ts as they stand given to us in the last Will and Testament of the Lord Jesus Christ? — There is but one answer, whicli I shall rehearse in the words of inspiration: "Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they BI4 Postscript, said, We will not walk therein. Also I set watclimpn over you, saying. Hearken to the sound of the trumpet. Butthjey said, We will not hearken,'^ Jer. vi. 16, 17. We will not walk therein — and the \ov^ and preference men ^ive to iliis present evil world and to their own inventions, explain why the ^^old ways^^ are despised and untrodden. Again: Would it. Reader, be loo great a tax upon your cred- ulity if I tell you that God has restored the gifts hv gave unto men, in Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pa$tors,and Teachers.^ If I tell you it i^ so, could you iind it in your heart to wish it were true? If you can, you are prepared to believe it, should I make the statement on sutlicient authority. The real desire of the heart after these good things is the chief thing want- ing ; and if that is there, and you know any thing of the good- ness and faithfulness of God, you are as ready to believe the statement as you can be, on equal evidence, to believe the re- port of a change in the king^s Cabinet. Now the fact of the re- storation of the prophetic gift before the death of Mr. Irving is already sulliciently established in this treatise to convince any man not living in the elements of infidelity. The man who believes that the prophetic voice has been reslored, ought to be expecting the restoration of all the other gifts. lie must be wishing and praying for their speedy restoration; and hence prepared to believe the fact wlien l;o!ieslIy reported. Now, 1 have for many months past known, that before Mr. Irving's death, the Lord by the Spirit speaking in the pro|)hets had pro- mised to restore the apostiesliip: but he had said thalMr. Ir- vingshouldnotbeof it, because he was of a church which, as to the ministry, witnessed to the prophetic olIicf';but that he would take the persons for the apostleship out of tiie church of England, because, by her Bishops, she witnesses to the apostolic office: thus declaring his respect for even the frag- ments of his own ordinances without respect of persons. — '' God hath set in the church, first, apostles." This accounts for his taking apostles out of that church which kept alive the remembrances of the A^vstle in the Bishop and the rite of Confirmation or laying on of hands. Accordant with this expectation, I have had the great plea- sure of learning that it has been fulfilled ; and this information has come from various individuals in England, of undoubted respectability, by letters, with the perusal of which I have been favoured by a friend in the Lord, and from one of which I have been permitted to make the following extract. It was dated al Birmingham, 26th October, 1835: Pofhcripf, \ S15 ' **I donot know tiial it lias rearli«*d }0u that the nuniher of *the twelve Apostles had hcen cniiipletfd in the ordination of Mr. Dalton.* Mr. (.'ardale is the head of the nuniher. This is declared to he the hirlh of the Man-Child, u'hieh in being nurtured and fed at Alhury in that highly gifted churchy pre- viously to their being st nt into all the earth endued with pow» erto build up chiiirhes, and ordain ministers, and connrm ,*their mission by the gifjs of the Spirit. I never witnessed any thing so solemnly impressive as Mr. Cardale at the con- iiecration of the cliureh here, over which Mr. Berkeley was brdaiued angel (or minister). IJe powei fully taught how the Lord, at his departure, had left an apostolic church, in which his holy will & doctrine were loliave liee:i |:erpetuated & taught till his coming. The twelve the Jews ieiecled,and in Paul there was the offer of an apostolic (Church in the G»Mililes, whi( h was likewise (pienched,aii(i man^s institutions suhstituted,to which the Lord had neverlheless given much hles^ing and honour. — But being humnri,t'hey had degenerated both iti practice & doc- trine, till the Lord had taken it in his own hand! and had re6- lored, through the mouths of th* prophets, the order of the ministry as at the beginning, which is Apostlev, angels or Ministers, Elders, and l*.vaiigeli>ls, making the \\ uifohl min- istry, no longer to be confini'd in tne wmw, called a clergyman or minister, but to be used in the following cider: The an- gel at the morning sacrifice, rrery mornirig at 6« trimming the lamps as it were, ministering ah.ne one hour; firsi in ccinfes- sion of sin; then piaisc and pia^er; and then tl.Cs.^ ning of one point of doctrine or «luly fiom the Holy Scriptures: w hich are at the tvening sacrifice, 5 in the evening, to Ic further carried out arit in regard to the canon of Scripture, and we may reasonably hope that the result will be an agreement of the same kind. — The reader cannot fail to perceive that tliese suggestions of the Bishop are of a general and preliminary nature. He does not say, nor in any way intimate, what he believes to have been the particular form of union whicluiur Savior instituted; but merely attempts to settle the principles upon which such an inquiry might be fairly and philosophically^' [philo- sophically!!!] "conducted, professing his entire willingness to abide 1: the result, whatever it may be.'' Postscript. Mil Would to God he ttere willing! But are any of the .parties willing to refer the quarrel to God himself? No they are not. They have no such desire: yet they ought to see with the tenth part of an eye, that there is no peacemaker among men other than the Frince of Peace himself, and his glory he will not give to another. They none of them believe that he cares enough for the concerns of the Christian World to interfere manifestly and make peace or set up the standard of peace and unity. They have no desire for his ordinances, govern- ment, and guidance, or they could not thus be beating their brains with the absurd notion that the sects and parties can possibly be brought together by any but the Holy Ghost himself manifestly working "in signs and wonders and mighty deeds," — "in the demonstration of (he Spirit and of power," as he did at the beginning. This is the only "adequate remedy:" but what or where is the proof that "adequate remedy would be extensively accepted?" A sense, sore and galling, of present evil is no proof whatever of the least disposition to accept of the only "adequate remedy." Nay, it generally exists, in conjunction with a deadly hostility towards that very remedy; and of this mournful fact every soul thai finds perdition will be an everlasting monument. It has ever been the policy of men to take counsel of themselves oi* of the Devil in their worst difficulties, and to reject the council of God to their own hurt, as every page of holy writ doth constantly testify. All human devices for restoring the Union talketl^of must ine- vitably, as they ought, end in confusion worse confounded: tor God gave tlie Holy G!»o^t an J all the gifts, not only to begin the church in the Unity of the Spirit and the bond ot peace, but to continue her in that cot^'Miion until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled; and therefore it i:^ impossible that he can permit (were men capable) his creatures to do a work which is his sole prerogative, or attain to the lost unity while under the condition of rebellion against and departure from, his own necessary method. What. is it that ripens the har- vest? Is it not that same sun whose genial warmth first made the grain to grow? The necessary bond of "union in doctrine and aflfection" is the Holy Gliost teaching and leading into all truth in known distinction froiTi man, and filling man's heart with love, that he may walk in love, and walk in God, and God in him. — "The particular form of union which our Saviour instituted" — why did not Bishop Smith "intimate" somethintr concern- ing it? What politic fear caused him to observe "total absti- nance" tipon a point of such >Mtal importance f He "merely li tl8 Postscript, Attempts to settle the pnncip!es upon wliich such an inqiiiry might be fairly and philosophically rondiicled.^' But why this tifsophicalltf beatings round the bush as if afrnid to speak the truth? The truth is, his statement of it would h»ve aroused the ire of every sect in America. Doctor Cooke, of Lcxing*^ ton, has made as good a statement of the facts Hishop Smith has in view as can well be made: and how much has that ef- fected towards the object in view? Nothing at all. But I will make the statement, and place it full in the reader^ vfew. as tirst in point of fact in the constitution of the Church by our Saviour: for ** when he ascended up on high, and led captivity captive, he gave gifts unto men.... and he gave some, apostles; and some prophets: and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers." These were the persons: and their endowment is recorded in 1 Cor. xii. But for what end gave he those official persons unto nieti? Why, '* for the perfecting of the samis, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of Hie body of Christ." And I beseech 'I he Church- man to note particularly what follows, and ask himself wheth- er or not God's own method might not answer the end much belter than any man's philosophy, and remedy the evils all complain of. He gave these for that work — "till vv«* ail come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of of God, unto a f)erfecl man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: that we henceforth be no more children tossed to andfro^ and carried about with eveiy wind of doctrine^ by the sleight of men, and cvAinini^ craftiness^ whereby they lie in wait to deceive; but spenkinff the truth in love^ may grow np into him in all things which is the Heady even Christ: from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the etfectual working in the Uteasure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love." This is from "a period of Christian an- tiquity, anterior, by universal consent," not only *'■ to great ' corruptions," hut to all corruptions. Why not tlieri ^* go back" to that? Because they all, with one eonsrnt, prefer he traditions and commandments of men to God'^s u;ifts and ordinances. Tlierc is not a sect or a party in all Babylon k\ \t wishes the church restored according to *•• the particular form of union which our Saviour instituted;" and the proof of this is, that they will listen to no man who proposes their return to God, asking of him to restore and build up tihe church again in his own way. They can hear any thing with greater patience than they can bear to bo told that they ought tQ pcas^ froirt \\\9\\' own inventiuns, anil qas( themselves uu* Postscript. ^19 ^enerTedly upon the liands of God. The church of Scotland cast out Mr. Irving and others for their faithful tefttimony to the Lord^s own ways; and the church of England did the same ;by such of its clergy as followed Mr. Irving in calling the at- tention of their people to the long forgotten and now despised gifts which the Lord gave unto men. The same wickedness has been perpetrated in Upper Canada by the Wesleyan Me- thodists, an they call themselves, upon Mr. Patrick and Mr. Vaux, two local preachers, who as I am informed and verily beliet'e, were cast out by the other preachers because they presumed lo preach the doctrine that the clurt.h now should be in all things what it was in St PauPs day: and 1 should have shared the same treatment if some of my brethern could have had their wdl; and I have great cause to thank God that my Bishopdid not deem me a heretic for teaching that hated doctrine. This truth is therefore evident, that the churches and sects existent have no desire whatever to he united under " the par icular form of Union which our Saviour instituted:'* but the premises furnish proof posiiive that they are all ready to put down if they are able any work of God manifesting, and espeeinily that one they are talking about, namely, the Christian Union which our Saviour instituted:'' and so they " fairly and philosophically," do set up their own idols, and ciy out, *'Tlie temple of the Lord ! tlie temple of the Lord ! the temple of the Lord are these !" If Chri^tinn Union be attainuble in the wav these fond dream- ers do imajiino, then let us cut the article relating to the Holy Ghost out of our creed, and cease to pray to be led by him into all truth: foi if we, by our own devices, can come again into the ver- ily of Christian Union, what need we the Holy Ghost at all, ex- cept for the siiiule aiticle of ^anctilieatio^ ? Huuum intellect and philosopin/ are competent, together with " historical eviden- ces," lor all heside ; and our new Hymn for VVJiitsuMday, which so complaecntiv telU the Holv Ghost that *'\ve mourn not that prophetic j-kill is four.d on earth no moie; enovgli fjr us to trace thy will in SeripUne's sacred lore ; iis entiiely in the right. The Chiirehman will see this: I pray him not to treat it with si- lent conteiitpt, but remember that *^ cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heait de- parteth from the Loid." The Churchman has lent itself to pro- inulgate calumny and falsehood a^ain«t Mr. Irving and those who, with him, receive the whole Gospi I: Will it be so just as to unsay the evil, and do ju>tice to one of the most demoted, able, and valiant soldiers of Jesus that evercnsaged in his cause.' I am afraid nut. Should the work of the Lord begin in the ^'' f&b Postscript. '' United Slates, as I have no doubt ere long it will, f have too -much reason to fear that all the religious periodicals, those popes of modern constitution, would be the first to oppose it and ; stiive to put it down. It was so in England. The riligious periodicals shewed ten times more enmity and violence against ^ it than the others. They seemed to huve an instinccivc feeling ' that if the voice of the Spirit were again permitteil in the chutch, their craft would be spoiled, and their lordihg it over ^^ the re- ligious world" be put an end to. It was for pcr'uitting the voice of the spirit in the church of which he was pnslor in Lon- don, that the London Presbytery to which he belonged, con- spired against Mr. Irving, and expelled him from among Ihem, and locked the house against him in which his church worship- ped. Thf>y instituted a mock trial ; and when he attempted to appeal to God's word they denied him tbc privilege, deciding that he must abide by what ci'rtain standards hid said, and bo silent where they had not spoken They selected witnesses from the respectable of his flock, men who had spoken as the spirit gave them utterance. These men on o»th deposed, that they never had spoken in the congregition of their own mero mind, but as they knew they weie moved thereto by a super- natural power, which power they verily believed to be the Di- vine Spirit, both from the acjordatuvj of the things spoken with the written Word, and from the "love, jov, peaje'* the moving power wrought in their souls This was the only eviilence giv- en : but the court trampled it under their feer, and acted upon their predeterminalion to expel Mr. frving. Thfy treated the fact of speaking by the Spirit a-? a thing not to ho tolerated at all, as a thing in itsell too incredible to be believed, and the. witnessses either as lunatics or perjured wrctfhe.-? — as men not to be believed on their most solemn oath : and a more glaring mockery of all tho forms of ju-^tice — ii inoro gross insult to the common sense of hon-r^st men was never j erpnrraicd Mr. Ir- ving was chased out of their soc ety as If he ha I been a mons- ter: but his church, consisting of about eight hundred communi- cants, followed their tried and faithful pa->tor. This was just before a communion. His flock met as usual; but the doors were locked against them. They sought temporary refuge in various other house) of worship; but none would open to them. Mr. Irving at length found shelter in the Ilohmda,, b\i Ihe kind- ness of an Infilel; and the next house m which his flock found shelter w is the identical room in which Rsnjamin West painted _ and exhibited his great painting of Christ rejected by the ('hief Priests & Elders. — The same enmity to the truth displayed itself have too Is, those se it and riligious Q against 15 feeling » church, " the rc- ling the r in Lon- ged, con- ng Ihem, vvorship- mpted to (lecidfng , and bo v'ltnesses Ml as the $ed, that \n rnero a super- 5 the Di- ken with ; moving ence giv- tod upon sited tho crated at and tho men not ?: glaring dt 10 the Mr. Ir- a mon:*- omniuni- ivas just le doors •efuge in to them, I he kind- i;k found t painted he ('hief 'cd itself Postscript, 221? in (his Province the moment it began to be entertained and wit- nessed to. The Christian Guardian, the Methodist oracle in Canada, set to the work of reviling and calumniating Mr. Irving and the doctrines he taught, and of holding up to ridicule oth- er per5ons who had embraced and acted upon those long for- gotten tiuths of the Gospel ; and two local preachers were ex- pelled the Methodist Connexion for the same crime of teaching that the church should now be as she was at first. I was at- tacked publicly by the Guardian, and threatened privately from another quarter by letter : but none of these things moved me, or in the least hindered my bearing witness to the truth. The Lord has hitheito ufiheld me, and I trust will to the end. The Churches in England are ensicting towards this work of the Lord a siitu'lar tragedy with what the Jewish Church enact- ed against it in their day. They rejected their Lord and sought to kill him; first by assisting Herod, and afterwaids when he began his ministry. He would have made the Lord^s priests his friends, his confidants, his apostles and ministers and pro- phets ; but tliey would not, and so he took the poor fishermen of Galilee, and broke to pieces his own priesthood because of their re!)ellion against their LonI and Head. They might have continued his still, by a simple act of translation from under the law to under the Gospel, from ministering under Moses the car- nal ordinances to ministering under C hrist as apostles and pro- phets; and their temple might have stood till this day, and their state and nation have remained ur.disturbed in transit from one dispensation to another : but they would not; wherefore their house ii left unto them desolate until the Lord^s second coming. The churches in Britain had a similar offer when the prophetic Spirit was restored ; but the Bishops and Presbyteries and As- semblies set themselves at once to oppose the work, and to cast out as vile heretics those who acknowledged it. It was not the Lord's will to break them wiih his rod of iron; but rather to take them up and uee them to his glory, because they stood in his ordinances as the heads of his people. He wished rather to strengthen the things that remained, that were ready to die (Rev. iii. 2), and perfect them according to his own perfect model ; but they would not, and therefore must their house al- so be left unto the in desolate — and desolate forever! He would have taken the whole nati»in (aye, the whole of Christendom) lovingly in his hand, and led it forward smoothly into the com- ing kingdom, and given it his own perfect ordinances in the world to come : but the nation has in a body rejected his coun- sel of love and peace, and therefore he must dash it (o pieces in f ion. 8' tm PoUseript. , ■I' his wrath; — ** On whomsoever this Stone shall fall, it shaU* grind theni to powder." — *^Alas! who shall live when God do- eththis!" I feel called upon to add here another word nftedtimnny agnirint that moiit pey^ vicious doctrine, which I liave lieard assarted with f^reut poHitiveii(>RH hy those ' whose office is fur inHtruction, that prophecy is n«tt to be interpreted till uf\er it is folfiUed: whch I hope lo shew to be of thu very eHsence of infiiiplity. Now all prophecy contains in its mibstiince both promise and tlireiiteniii^;, uddretMed to the reason, conscience, and iinderstundintfof all men. concerning thiii^n pres- ent and future, — a scheme of things going forward in fulfilment, some part of which concerneth every age of the church and the world, yea every year and hour, until the consununaliou of the whole. Both promiMe and tbrualemng are of the nuture of prophecy, because they c; ncern the future touchiut; both persons and things. Hut how shall the church act in regurd to Gi>.fs promises nnd threateiiings .is yet unfultilled, without some definite and cleur knowledge of things yet future? I say not a perfect knowledge of all thmd's authority thai sjme particular tilings described shall hcrexifter come into manifestation and the region of trperience, which tilings now exist only in tlie purpose anil will of God. Such are the things specified to David as above, which David as clearly understood, and I «s clearly understand, by faith in God, to be certain definite realities, as we can hereafter understand tliem by experience. And the same is true of all the prom- ises yet unfulfilled. Revelation is no revelation— no «/icovertnv to us, unless we can attach a definite meaning to the things foretold by it, and liave faith in spe- cific realities; because faith is iJie substance of things hoped for the kvidkncc or THiNGt NOT sken; not the belief that certain words are nothing but words without ueanini; to us, until after our experience of things done and consummated shall kaTS attached a meaning to them. And this infidel canon, taking away faitb,- takes hope also away with it, Dy taking away the substance of things hoped for, Postseripl', fm$ I a verj ' all wo- i.res the 'iiiablj elicits' n defi- Israei which •nd the only evidence we can poiiibly have of thingi •iMceompliihed. And to* kibg away faith and hope, it robii us of salTatkin; **fur we are saved by hope . . . .^]bt|t if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it," Roriil viii. 34. 25, We are bIro 8aved by faith, and by faith justified, as Abi!»' ham was by believing God touching promisns made, and yet to be fulfilled in the literal land of Canuun. And here too I must bear further testimony against the opposite of this per* nicious canon : i mean thai false propiiesying and deceiTing the people as t* what is comiiit; to pass, which so much abounds. A mournful inntance of this delusion I witiiPRRed lately at a Miiiaion,ary Meeting, which indeed was a sort of theatrical entertainment, apparently got up to make the audience merry in order to get their money. The speakers all prophesied bravely, but in direct contra- diction to all the LonrK prophets. The sum of their prophecies was this : that their Missionary Societies ureon the eve of the most jrlorious achievements ever witnessed under the sun ; that the time is near when they will reduce the whole habitable jrlobe to the uliedience of the Gospel; that this present time is the most peaceful and proniisitip; of any since the fall, —the fullest of hope, — the most abun- dant in godlj* enterprise, and I he sure precursor of an indefinite era of unpreceden- ted peace nnd blessedness: a condition of things, as to the present, amazingly dif- ferent from that hinted ut in the extract above from the Churchman, concerning some new invention fur re-evan;relizing Christendom. Now for the benefit of all such false prophets and deceivers, — ** deceiving and being deceived," — and of those led astray by them, I call them all to the contemplation of the fearful doom which awaits this present evil world before that leign of righteousnesa and peace can begin, and which is arrived at, not by their Missionary conquests, but through judgment and fiery indignation upon Christendom, and then by a new heaven and a new earth in which that work is to be wrought by Almighty power, More than half of the prophetic Scriptures are devoted to treating of the Gentile apostacy and its fearful judgments following, and all interwoven with the restoration of Israel to their own land at the time of the feaiful consum- mation. Of this even Balaam sounds the prophetic note in Num. xxiv. 19 : " Out of Jacob shall come he that shall have dominion, and shall destroy him that remaineth qfthe city. What meaneth this? What is tlie city but " that great city Babylon," of whose cup of abominations the nations have drunk till they are mad, and which wtlh them is to be overthrown with such a mighty destruction when the Lord descends for vengeance in flaming fire with his mighty angelsl— And are they dreaming that their Missionaries are just about to convert that drunken, bloody, abandoned harlot, whom the Lord hath sentenced to a fearful execution, together with all her wicked paramours, for their abominations, adul- teries, murders, and sorceries? Their cry is Money, money ; " we want money" Give us money enough, and we will conve t the world : but if they are nut on the wutch, their money and Societies will perish together: because they think that money is the muitispring of the warfare against the powers of darkness.— Let them beware of l>eing destroyed with " him that remaineth of the city." — But in what condition is now that portion of the earth once evangelized? Look at Babylon " the city;" the Greek church in the plenitude of corruption; Pro- testant Germany overrun with infidelity; the countries south of the Mediterra- nean; with Egypt, Abyssinia, Palestine, Syria, Armenia, Asia Minor, and Tur- key in Europe. Look also at Britain and Ireland, and North and South Ameri- ca. What is now the condition of these countries? " Their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah: their grapes are grapes of gall, and their clusters are bitter: their wine is the poison of dragons,and the cruel venom of Asps, ts not this laid up in store with me, and sealed up among my trea- sures? To me belongeth vengeance, and recompense: thdr foot shall sUdt tndna ^mt: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste," Deut. xxxii. Christendom is actually in afar worse condition than the pagan world, and vastly more needs evangelizing: and if past experience is of any value, how long would it be before the heathens evangelised would be in the same condition, especially if " all the different denominations" should do the work afler their own Babylonish atylel And if Christendom 224 Pontt^ripL eould'be re-convrrted. how long before the work woiilil be to be done over •gain? And if naeh bitter thin(rii are written sf ainet fAe etfy. to what refers the treading of the winepreaa of wrath ^* vaiAout the dty" (Rev. xir. 16: Isa. liiii. 1—6). The bonk of Revelation ia a mere detail, almoat, of the crimes and jadg* ments of Christendom till the Lord conies, and forever annihilates those beastW Eowers whirh have so lonf; lorded it over that portion of the world, in which is church litis been existent, and his martyrs and saints have been slain: and he eoinea at their cry for vengeance to revenge their blood upon t^em that dwell in the earth (Rev. vi. 10 to the end); " for the day of vengeance is in his heart, •nd the year of his redeemed is come" (Isx. Ixiii. 4); when the adversaries of the Lord shall he broken to pieces; out of heaven shall he thunder upon them: the Lord shall judge the ends of the earth; and he shall giveslrenglh unto his king, and exalt the horn of his anointed," 1 Sam. ii. lU. And this is merely what Daniel tells us of, when lie shews the great image smitten by the Stone and ground to powder, and the fourth or Roman beast ''destroyed, and his body given to the burning tlame." But th(>re are other considerations not mentioned in the preceding sheets.— It u through ninch inbulation we must enter the kingdom when it comes, and not on the gulden wings of their Societies, whose God is money. Scripture uni- formly forbids us to look for the wonderful prosperity ofwhich they prophesy &■ to come by their idols, until after this present evil world is ended, and its place supplied by new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Du* ring the continuance nf this world, wi'^e is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth unto death, and many there be that go in thereat; while strait is the 5 ate, and iiairow is the way that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. 'hough many are called, yet few are chosen. Out of four classes of hearers, only one bears the fruits of holiness. And moreover, it is but a " little flock" in romparition of the general mass that shall receive the kingdom. And there is hot one word in all Sciipture to lead us to believe that it will be otherwise, till after the fearful judgments of which all Scripture warns us continually are past, and the world shall be reconstituted,— not under the powers of darkness, but those of light. Moreover, we are told that there is no peace for the wi-^ked— that they are constantly casting up mire and dirt like the restlefss agitated sea. This is as true of this whole world, which lieth in wickedness, or in the Wicked One, as it is of one wicked person. We see it, and hear it, and feel it in all our experience of all things; in the world of man. and of beast, and of the elements; in the world moral, political, and physical; and no less in the nominal church •nd household of faith. We must therefore sec a new constitution of all things, —of man first, and then of his patrimony, the world and its brute inhabitants, before we can see that reign of peace and glory which all desire, but concerning the means of v/hose advent the immense multitude are ni« blind as the Jews were to what they rejected. And the misfortune is, they harden their hearts against all the warnings God hath given them concerning; it.. It is therefore from u heart full of kindness to those false lying prophets am! their ignorant dupes that I do thus reprove them, and lay the truth before them; and though I make them uU my enemies, yet in love will I rebuke them, and pray that God may open their eyes to the fearful sin of prophesying smooth things and deceits, and cry- ing Peace, peace, when the Judge standeth at the door, and when sudden des- truction is ready to fall upon them, as travail upon a woman with child. Know therefore, O ye people, that it is not till after all those fearfuljudgments are exe- cuted opon iheapoHlate nations of Christendom, which end in i he restoration and permanent establishment of Israel in his own land, that the Lord saith in regard to the nations that escape: " And the heathen sliall know that I the Lord do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them forevermore," Ezek. xxxviii. 28. " Thus will I magnify myself, and sanctify mvself; and I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall knov; that 1 am the Lord," Ezck. xxxix. 23. *' To whom shall I speak, and give warning, that they may hear? behold their ••r is uncircameised. and they cannot hearken: behold the word of the Lord ia unto theni a reproach; they have no delight in it. Therefore I am fall of the fu> Errata, '\ ffV of the I^ord; I am weary of holding in: I will pour it out upon th« children abroad, and upon the assembly of young men together: for even the husband with the wife shall be taken, the aged with him that is full of days," Jeremiah vi. 10, 11. " For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came and took them all away even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed — when he is reveal- ed from Leaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of oar Lord Jesus Christ." Reader, Adieu ! May God in mercy keep you from that fearful hour, and give you confidence before him at his appearing! — I have borne my testimony, and wait for my reward. Bytown, March 2, 1836. It Page ERRATA: iMany of which may be corrected with the pen. 4; line 8 from top, tit paint read point. 7, — 18 do. for dispersion read dissension. 14, bottom line, for generations read generation, 23, line 14 from top, for a comparison read the comparison. — 17 do. for apostaticals read apostolicals. — 17 do. a t\i\l point (.) alter the word jpertods. — 18 do. blot out the word is. — 14 Irom bottom, blot out the words nor the voice of weep- ing shall be no more heard in her. — 5 from bottom, for this read tts. — 25 from top, for he whose read him whose. — 11 — bottom, for /JoZifc read oo'/7jc. — 19 — top, for expectation of read expectation in which. — 16 — bottom, for class read chaos. — 15 — top, for rejecting read neglecting. — 11 — bottom, fur ever prepare read even prepare. — 9 — do for as eligibilUy read as to eligtbility. — 7 — top, for of manifested read oj a manyested. — 2 — do. for wills read wiles. — 16 — hoHom,i'oreitherimmediatelyrcaii\ either mediately. — 10 — do. place a (:) after the word miraci«. two bottom lines, tor formed read found. middle line, for and officer read an officer. — 13 from bottom, for lust dream read lost dream. — IS — top, (or king chose resid king choose. — 18 — bottom, for dreams read dreamers. and onwards, for Faith in the heading, read Truth. for KPANGASMA read kpaugasma. line 5 from bottom, for amendmertts read amusements. — do. do for bellowing rcAd following . 176, bottom line, for give them, Satan, read give then Satat^. 192, line 10 from bottom, for tohich read whUe. 37, 40, 42, 69, 72, 76, 82. 98, 103, 104, 107, 111, 113, 116, 119, 137, 138, 140. 14.3, 150, 152, 154, 160, 170. 174.