: despised, ridiculed and rejected by a majority of the nations, so they shall finally come to be had in universal honour, and their precepts to be the Alpha and Omega of all the nations of the earth during a thousand years, even on the earth where they have been despised. This glory which shall be bestowed upon them, their enemies shall see; but in that same hour, when thus exalted, there shall be a great earthquake; terrible commotions among men; the wicked falling by the supernatural power which shall then destroy them. And the seventh angel sounded; (for six had preceded him) and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever. And as if to confirm the faith of the saints, that the vision shall end, and the saints take the kingdom at the termination of 1260 years, from the precise time the Christian sanctuary was absolutely and totally polluted by the papists, and the abomination set up, (i. e. the Popes, as idols) which maketh desolate, of whom Antiochus Epiphanes, and his pollutions of the Jewish sanctuary, was a lively type. It is asked, How long shall it be to the end of these wonders? See Dan. chap. 12, 6. The reply was, that it shall be for a time, times, and a half time; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished. Thus I understand it: the time allowed to this desolating monster, this abominable idol, which has made desolate the saints, is 1260 years, in which time he shall have fully accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, the children of God in his dominions, who receive not the mark of this beast in their foreheads, or their hands. The end, or last years of the next century, shall finish the visions of Daniel and St. John, in reference to the kingdom of the stone, and close the grand drama of sufferings with the saints; and shall usher in, like the breaking forth of the waters of Paradise in the first Eden, the undescribed glories of the Millennial state, and kingdom of the mountain, which is Christ in his second coming, filling the whole earth. REFLECTIONS. And are we, indeed, so near the time which has been the subject of hope and prophecy in all ages, of both the Jewish and Christian churches; so near that period, when the depravity of the heart shall be no more, when the effects of sin shall cease, and its injuries be repaired by the spirit of the Lord of Host in all the earth, both of natural and moral evil? Are we indeed, so near that time, when the holy dead shall rise at the sound of the voice of the archangel in all the earth? So near that time, when the sweet fellowship that existed in Eden between man and the angels of God, shall be renewed; the lost image of perfect holiness be restored? Yes, O my soul! the time is near. Blessed be God, who so loved the world as to give his only Son for a ransom, upon whom, as a foundation, is built, not only the expectation of the joys of the Millennial state, but when that shall end, the more triumphant bliss of an eternal weight of glory in the heavens. With these views let us be comforted, and possess our souls in patience, for behold it hasteneth. Soon the rush of years will unfold to the astonished sight the joys that have been bought with a Saviour's blood. The lives of three persons in succession, from the present year, 1827, of sixty years of age, are more than sufficient to reach the promised land; the third, if holy, will plunge in that sea of joy, will be one of those who shall feel the mighty change from mortal to immortality, such as the sinless pair possessed before their fall, and shall become a recipient of the immunities of the Millennial state. Having passed through the various periods which relate to the cleansing of the sanctuary on the earth, though commencing at different eras, but all manifestly ending at one and the same time, viz. at the end of the next century, or in the year of our Lord 2000, I will just observe that Daniel the prophet has spoken of an additional number of years, which seem to reach beyond the completion of the time, times and a half time, or the 1260 years allotted for the cleansing of the sanctuary. See Dan. 12, 11, 12. This addition consists of seventy-five years, and evidently extends into the Millennial state, and relates to some events involved in the blessedness of that time, which it seems was not God's good pleasure so clearly to reveal to Daniel. But it is added, verse 12, Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days. But here conjecture is lost, for I consider the signification covered in obscurity, because those seventy-five days reach beyond the period of cleansing the sanctuary, which will be effected by the binding of Satan, by the destruction of all sinners, by the removal of all natural and moral evil, by the exaltation of the two witnesses, the Old and New Testament, up to the heaven of universal acceptance in all the earth; by the junction of Ezekiel's river of life with the ocean, the Millennium; by the resurrection of all the righteous dead, and by the restoration of every privilege man would have had if he had not sinned, when he was tempted in Eden's paradise. EIGHTH DIVISION. An account of the first resurrection, and the subsequent happiness of all people; with which is connected arguments to prove, that all natural and moral evil shall cease a thousend years; and that it was the intention of the Creator to have clothed Adam and Eve, and their posterity, whether they should stand or fall. Then shall all sacred dust, whose souls had faith, THIS great and glorious event is intimately connected with the Millennium, inasmuch as it is the very beginning of that day; for it is written by St. John, that the rest of the dead live not again until the thousand years are finished. This is the first resurrection. Rev. 20, 5. From this it is evident, that there shall absolutely be one thousand years between the first re |