devour and break in pieces, and stamp the residue with the feet of it (Dan. vii. 7).

We will not now dwell upon the woes which shall be brought upon the earth at that time; the time of the greatest of all tribulations; when Satan shall come down, having great wrath, because he knoweth he hath but a short time. But let all true believers prepare themselves for such a conflict, and for becoming witnesses for God under this severest of all trials, by seeking far closer union with Jesus than that which generally contents our indolence and self-complacency, and a far mightier operation of the Holy Spirit within them than is usually thought sufficient, or they will fail in the hour of trial which is coming; instead of resisting the beast unto the death, they will worship him or his image, or receive his mark in their forehead or their right hand.

The witness for God has always been kept up, in a lower sense, in the written word of the Old and New Testaments; but the witness which God seeks for, and delights to have, is in a willing people; in living men telling out the warm emotions of a swelling heart. The mark of the beast on the forehead secures the head-work, and the mark on the hand secures the hand-work, of his followers; their talent, their strength, will he require; and they will turn it against the people of God in the brow of scorn and the right hand of persecution. To meet this, the witnesses shall have the seal of the living God on their foreheads, God giving them that holiness which was signified by the plate of gold on the forehead of Aaron, inscribed HOLINESS TO THE LORD. This every one should now seek, in the baptism of the Holy Ghost: seek for holiness first; that will bring power. The power we shall not all need; God will not put all in situations to need it; but we all need holiness: without holiness no man shall see the Lord: holiness must be attained to enter heaven at all: and having holiness, we have the presence of God, which is power, ready for all occasions.

The empowering of the witnesses, and the scene and time of their witness, being revealed (Rev. xi.); and the standing of the church declared (xii.); and the adversaries of the people of God shewn (xiii.), in order to forewarn the church; the triumph of the church is next revealed (xiv.), and the consequent judgment of the world. In the mind of God, the standing and responsibility of the church have been the same in all ages: the same hopes were set before her at all times, and the same endowments offered. If the church has fallen from these hopes, or lost these endowments, the faithlessness and poverty is her own fault, for the gifts and callings of God are without repentance. At the day of Pentecost, Christ, from the Father's throne, sent down the promised gift of the Holy Ghost in all his fulness on

the church. The church then became the body of Christ; in the several members of which he would thenceforth manifest both Himself and the Father by the Holy Ghost: as in the days of his flesh the whole Godhead was manifested in that body, of the same nature with ours, which he took into union with his Divine nature. The Holy Spirit had from the beginning of the world sanctified by his gracious influences all the faithful; and holy men of old spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost; but his personal indwelling in the bodies of men, making them temples of the Holy Ghost, could not take place till Christ took our nature into personal union with himself, and presented it spotless unto the Father. The difference must be felt to be understood, but it is as great as between drinking of the rock in the wilderness, and of the living fountain of Gospel times: both were Christ; but one was Christ in type and prophesy alone; the other, Christ realized in spirit and life. The difference may be imagined by comparison of the two similar cases of Achan and Ananias, both brought to light by the Spirit of the Lord. Covetousness was the sin of both, tempting them to secrete and keep back a part of that which was devoted to the Lord. Joshua, the chosen captain, and Eleazar, the high-priest, were men on whom the Spirit of the Lord rested; and the Apostles were men full of the Holy Ghost. Achan's deceit remained undetected, till defeat, and the mourning of the congregation, and drawing of lots, and Achan's confession, revealed it; and he died by the whole congregation stoning him with stones. Ananias's deceit was instantly detected and punished, by the Holy Ghost in the Apostles: His personal presence in them required neither sign, nor witness, nor confession, but at once struck down the culprit, with the majesty of a present God.

But the hopes ever presented to the church, and the endowments ever ready to be given in answer to her faithful prayers, shall be possessed and realized by those who prepare themselves to meet their returning Lord; who, like the virgins, not only go forth to meet the Bridegroom; but, like the wise virgins, take oil in their vessels with their lamps-lay in a store of Revelation, which feeds the light, like the two candlesticks fed by the two olive-trees which stand before the God of the whole earth (xi. 4).

That portion of the church thus prepared like wise virgins, is represented standing on mount Zion with the Lamb (xiv. 1); and they had been previously sealed against the judgments of the great day of the wrath of the Lamb (vii.); they are delivered from the wrath, and taken up to be for ever with the Lord. These sealed ones do not represent the whole church, but only that portion of it which shall be living at the time of the Second Advent; and shall also be, like wise virgins, thoroughly furnished to meet the Bridegroom; their lamps burning bright, and oil in

their vessels. Another portion of the nominal church is repre sented in the foolish virgins; who go out in the same band with the wise, and are not distinguished till the actual coming of their Lord; when they find their deficiency, and hasten to supply it, but, returning, find that they have lost the critical moment by their folly, for the door is shut. They had no supply of light for that one point of time when the Bridegroom cometh, and the loss to them is as great as if they had no light at all: their folly lost them all that which they went forth to attain. They knew not the fact concerning Christ which it was most important to know, and neglected to provide for it: whatever else, therefore, they knew, profited them nothing; Christ declares to them, I know you not.

Some of these foolish virgins of the church, perhaps, and certainly a great multitude of the various nations, are converted by the judgments, and enter the kingdom of heaven, and sing praises around the throne of God, but attain not the dignity of the bride; and these are represented in the countless multitude of palm-bearers (Rev. vii. 9), distinguished from the sealed tribes. And the whole bride, consisting of the apostolic and all succeeding generations of the true church, as well as the sealed tribes; all that have slept in Jesus being raised, and all the wise that are alive being changed; are represented on the sea of glass (xv. 2), singing the song of Moses and of the Lamb, and glorifying the name of the Lord, because his judgments are made manifest.

The judgments take place during the day of wrath; and du ring their infliction the sealed ones are removed. A preparation previously takes place-a preparation for removal, in the sealed ones; a preparatory hardening in the rest; for in all God's dis-pensations the will of the parties concurs-his people are made willing in the day of his power, and his adversaries have chosen their own ways, and delighted in their abominations. Man, as a responsible being, must consent to God's offers of mercy, and do those things which God has commanded. God commanded the people of Israel to sprinkle their door-posts with blood at the Passover; not to inform the destroying angel, but to be a token of their belief in God, and of their acceptance of the covenant: and against the day of wrath, the protecting seal of the living God is given to those who sigh and cry for the abominations done in the land, and who are willing to receive the instruction of God, and to obey his commandments. The instructions are given in the Scriptures; which those who read the signs of the times may see fulfilling under our eye, and telling the wise to be prepared for the immediate coming of the Lord. In the events since the conclusion of the Papal period, 1793, the day of wrath has been mystically acted in the mystical pouring out

of the vials of wrath by observing which, the wise portion of the church has learned what shall be the literal accomplishment of them on the literal kingdom of the last infidel beast during the day of wrath: to them the judgments of God are already manifest, by the wisdom given them to read in the providence of God an interpretation of his word; but they shall be manifest to all men in the day of wrath, when those who have refused to read them, and so to escape them, shall be in the midst, and learn the judgments by experiencing them.

The judgments, both preparatory and actual, are given, for the instruction of the church, in the order of the seasons of the year (Rev. xiv.). The preparation goes on up to the time of reaping (ver. 16), when the whole body of the Son of Man is gathered to the clouds, consisting of Christ and all his members: He coming from the throne of his Father to receive his people to himself, and they gathered to him from all places-the dead, from the place of separate spirits, and from the tomb, are raised to immortal life; the living, changed from mortal to immortal, from corruptible to incorruptible-and all for ever with the Lord, saved from the judgments of the day of wrath, and to come with him, at the conclusion, to reign with him in the heavenly Jerusalem for ever and ever. The judgments are written so largely in the following chapters (xvi. xvii. xviii. xix.), that we need not particularize them further than to say, that the destruction of Babylon precedes that of Gog and Magog, which last is given as the concluding judgment (xix. 17); and that it takes place in the mountains of Israel, near Jerusalem; while the destruction of Babylon, of course, is Christendom.

In this day of wrath, and by these judgments, the earth undergoes that purification of fire which fits it for being the abode of Christ and his saints. The locality of the new Jerusalem will be Christendom; and it will undergo the severest purification, to prepare it for becoming the scene of the church's triumph, as it has hitherto been the scene of her oppression; an eternal monument of the glory of membership with Jesus, and of the shame and woe of those who have rejected Christ: for the sins of Babylon have reached to heaven, and God shall remember the crying of his people, and say, "Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works in the cup which she hath filled, fill to her double" (Rev. xviii. 6). And the heavenly host shall answer, saying, "We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned. And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small

and great; and shouldest destroy them that destroy the earth" (xi. 17).

In the destruction of the apostates, and the burning of the body of the fourth beast, as declared at large in Scripture (see Isai. xiii. xxxiv.; Jer. xlvii. to li.; Dan. vii. 11; Mal. iv.; 2 Pet. iii. 10; Rev. xviii.), the rest of the earth receives a purification, and is not annihilated, nor are its inhabitants destroyed. The Jewish people most certainly subsist through the time of trouble, and their land retains its present boundaries, to fulfil the prophecies of Ezekiel; and the temple shall be built on mount Zion, to fulfil Isaiah and Micah and the Psalms: the neighbouring countries, and consequently the whole earth, must therefore retain their present relative situations, their condition only being improved. The whole earth shall have the curse of sin removed. Judea shall become like the garden of the Lord; none shall hurt nor destroy in the holy mountain; and the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.

The source from whence these blessings shall flow to the earth, shall be Christ and his glorified church, then revealed on the earth in the heavenly Jerusalem; and the ministers for conveying instruction from them to the other nations will be the Jewish people, then humbled; their stony heart being taken away, and their stubborn neck broken: qualified to be chief of the nations by willingness to be servants of all.

And during a thousand years Satan shall be bound, and instruction shall have free course, and the knowledge of the Lord shall increase and abound: but all this will be far beneath the privileges now offered to the believer in Jesus; as far inferior as the Tirshatha from Babylon (Neh. x.) was inferior to king Solomon in his glory. And we press it again and again upon the church, that every professing Christian may strive to be a real Christian; may know the height of his calling-to become sons of God" and if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ Jesus." "If we suffer, we shall also reign with him."

The eternal blessedness of the members of Christ begins at the Second Advent, which now draws very near, and is even at the doors. The loosing of Satan at the end of the Millennium has no effect upon those who are with Christ in the heavenly Jerusalem: it applies only to the nations at the corners or ends of the earth and it will be but a momentary invasion of their peace; for, when Satan and his followers come near the beloved city, fire shall come forth and consume them; and the whole creation, having its evil principle cast out into the lake of fire, shall stand for ever glorious under Christ and his church; all things reflecting some part of the image of God: the Creator rejoicing over the works of his hands; the creature exulting with