commencement of the millennium period of spiritual blessedness. This very important matter Bp. Horsley deduces from the remarkable prophecy contained in the eighteenth chapter of Isaiah. After calling upon some great maritime nation of the last ages to assist in converting and restoring the Jews, the inspired seer represents Jehovah as declaring: that, subsequent to a long cessation of the visible interpositions of Providence, he will. prune with useful severity the too luxuriant vine of the Church, and even leave it for a season exposed to the rude assaults of the mystic birds and beasts of prey; but that, when matters shall seem to have been brought to an extremity, he will then wonderfully interpose by effecting the restoration of his ancient people and by destroying his irreclaimable enemies. "For thus saith Jehovah unto me: I will sit still (but I will keep my eye upon my prepared habitation), as the parching heat just before lightning, as the dewy cloud in the heat of harvest. For "afore the harvest, when the bud is coming to per"fection and the blossom is become a juicy berry; he will cut off the useless shoots with pruning "hooks, and the bill shall take away the luxuriant "branches. They shall be left together to the bird ic of prey of the mountains, and to the beasts of the "earth. And upon it shall the bird of prey sum 1 mer, and all beasts of the earth upon it shall "winter. At that season, a present shall be led to "Jehovah of hosts, a people dragged away and plucked; "plucked; even of a people wonderful from their beginning hitherto; a nation, expecting expecting, " and trampled under foot, whose land rivers have spoiled; unto the place of the name of Jehovah of "hosts, mount Sion *." On the pruning of the Church, here predicted, Bp. Horsley makes the following remarks. "These words express, not simply sprigs and "branches; but useless shoots and luxuriant "branches, which bear no fruit and weaken the "plant, and properly such shoots and branches of a vine. A vine, in the prophetic language, is an image of the Church of God: the branches of the "vine are the members of the Church: the useless "shoots and unfruitful luxuriant branches are the "insincere nominal members of the Church: and "the pruning of such shoots and branches of the "vine is the excision of such false hypocritical pro fessors, at least the separation of them from the "Church, by God's judgments. This verse there 66 fore, and the following, clearly predict a judgment to fall upon the Church for its purification and "the utter destruction of hypocritical professors of "the truth. This season is fixed in the beginning "of the verse: for afore the harvest. This pruning "will immediately precede the harvest and the ingathering. The season of the harvest and of the " in-gathering of the fruit is the prophetic image of "that period, when our Lord will send forth his "angels to gather his elect from the four winds of "heaven; of that period, when a renewed preach ing of the gospel shall take place in all parts of the world, of which the conversion of the Jews will "perhaps, be the first effect. The purification of "the Christian Church, by the awful visitations pre"dicted in this passage, seems to be the proper pre"" parative for this renewal of the call, to them that are near, the Jews; and to them that are yet afar off, the Gentile tribes not yet converted. This "then is the sum of this prophecy, and the sub"stance of the message sent to the people dragged "about and plucked. That, in the latter ages, after a long suspension of the visible interpositions of "Providence, God, who all the while regards that "dwelling-place which he never will abandon, and "who is at all times directing the events of the "world to the accomplishment of his own purposes "of wisdom and mercy; immediately before the "final gathering of his elect from the four winds of heaven, will purify his Church by such signal "judgments, as shall rouse the attention of the "whole world, and in the end strike all nations with religious awe. At this period, the apostate faction "will occupy the holy land. This faction will cer"tainly be an instrument of those judgments, by "which the Church will be purified. That purifi"cation therefore is not at all inconsistent with the seeming prosperity of the affairs of the atheistical confederacy. But, after such duration as God "shall see fit to allow to the plenitude of its power, "the "the Jews, converted to the faith of Christ, will be unexpectedly restored to their ancient posses❝sions *." The purgation thus announced, whatever may be its precise nature and extent, plainly coincides with the unexampled time of trouble foretold by Daniel and with the latter part of those dreadful convulsions which our Lord describes as succeeding the tribulation of the Jews t. How far we of the protestant Church of England are preparing ourselves to meet it, by internal harmony and brotherly love, by an abhorrence of schismatical party-spirit, by a freedom. from secularity, by an abundance of spiritual mindedness, by the ornament of a meek and humble temper, by a zeal to promote the circulation of the Scriptures, and by an ardent wish to convey the treasures of the gospel both to the Jew and to the Gentile; it may be prudent for each individual member, whether clerical or laic, seriously to consider. Letter on Isaiah xviii. p. 84-89. DISSER DISSERTATION III. Respecting Christ's prophecy delivered from the mount of Olives, as immediately connected with the period of the 1260 days. SHORTLY before the passion of our blessed Lord, when he was leaving the temple after having addressed a most energetic discourse to the assembled multitude, his disciples, with the not uncommon feelings (as it should seem) of national pride, detained him, that they might point out to his attention the various buildings of that august oratory. Their exultation however was soon cut short by a declaration, which his preceding sermon, had they given due heed to it, might well have rendered superfluous. He had just foretold, that all the righteous blood of the martyred prophets should come in vengeance upon that present generation; and that, in consequence of it, their house or temple should be left unto them desolate *. While he was uttering this • Matt. xxiii. 34-38. denun |