thereof." When the times of the Gentile Church are fulfilled, the Jews fhall be collected with the Chriftian Church into one fold, under one Shepherd," which is Chrift the Lord;" and the whole Ifrael of God fhall enter with joy and triumph into the New Jerufalem. Then fhall "all flesh see the falvation of God"-" All nations fhall do him honour"-for "the earth fhall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the fea."-And then will PROPHECY have completed its full and final work, and fhine forth in all the splendour of perfect accomplishment. It is thus that the CHRISTIAN, from his enlarged views of Scripture and of mankind, fees in their full and proper light, the fubli mity, the extent, and the importance of Prophecy and it may be with truth afferted, that the study of Religion is abfolutely necefsary to the understanding universal history. The pretenfions of the modern Philofopher to enlarged and impartial views of things muft then be confidered as falfe and abfurd.-Rejecting the fureft guides of human reafon, he wanders through the labyrinths of History as chance directs, refting only in thofe places which appear to favour his fyftem; and, like the the fly upon the beautiful Corinthian pillar, fees nothing but diforder and confufion. The Christian, on the contrary, fteadily following the clue which Religion offers, obferves the connexion of the parts, and their relation to the vaft, the wonderful Plan, which reaches from the creation of the World, to its final deftruction-from Earth to Heaven! Raised to the lofty ftation to which Revelation only can conduct him, he furveys as in a widely extended profpect, the paft and present history of the world" His eyes are opened" and his conceptions are elevated and enlarged by admiration, gratitude, and hope, while he beholds the Nations of the earth that have carried on, and are now fulfilling the great defigns of God with refpect to his chofen people and the Religion of Christ. He fees the most apparently trivial as well as the most fignal events made fubfervient to the triumph of true Religion, and the eternal welfare of mankind; and the viciffitudes of human life -the vice, the folly, and the mifery of man as tending to one glorious object under the conduct of infinite wifdom, goodness, and power. He furveys the tranfitory glory of antient and of modern ftates, the boafted monuments of art, the attainments of learning, the powers of genius, the light of science, science, and the various employments of human life, not as fubjects of useless spe culation, but with a reference to that par ticular end, which, whether they are col lectively or separately confidered, gives an unfpeakable importance to them all:-Col lectively, as they form one fublime fyftem of order in the Divine appointments-one long feries of difpenfations-of which we may obtain fufficient knowledge to enlarge our capacity, to excite our wonder and adoration, to quicken our sense of dependence upon a wife and gracious Providence, and to warm and purify our hearts with fentiments of piety, and of zeal to promote the honour of God by labouring for the real interefts of his creatures, and by "walking in all his commandments blameless ;"—And Separately, as they influence the fate of rational and accountable beings, fallen from their first eftate of innocence and immortality-restored to hope of future happiness by the marvellous work which has accomplished their Redemption; and urged to the performance of duty in this short probationary life by the affurance of Divine affiftance, and by the promise of that Eternal reward which is held out to every man for his rejection or acceptance, without any respect refpect to his rank or fituation-his great or little sphere of action;-fince the final allotment of happiness and glory is made to depend wholly (through the merits of our Redeemer) upon his performance of the part affigned to him upon the theatre of life, whether he be a "hero or a ferving man,' a Sovereign or a Slave. Let ALL, then, who bear the name of CHRISTIANS, confider the real dignity of the character, and "walk as children of the light amidst a crooked and perverse generation, looking for the glorious appearing of their Lord." Let thofe who remain unconvinced of the truth of Revelation by the evidence derived from PROPHECY, remember, that many other unanswerable proofs may be drawn from other fources. Let them examine the various arguments prefented by the INTERNAL EVIDENCE of the SCRIPTURES. Let them purfue the opening path of ORIENTAL LITERATURE, and confider with particular attention the Chaldean sphere, recording, as it were, the earlieft annals of the world first written in the HEAVENS. Then let them search the 'See Maurice's Hift. and Antiq. of India. EARTH EARTH for teftimony, for the earth itfelf See De Luc's Letters on Geology, Howard on the Concluding |