indications of approaching judgments or mercies, as may be sufficient to announce their approach, and to prepare his people for their coming. And if such seasons do occasionally occur, why may not that season, to which the present discussion refers, be one of them? Why may not the season, which precedes the time of unprecedented trouble, be one of " those times and seasons," in which the Lord mercifully favours his Church with such indications of the near fulfilment of prophecy, as show that he intends and expects his servants to notice and regard them? The season in question is one, in which such indications would, to all appearances, be peculiarly expedient. On the supposition that it is a season, such as it has been described, pregnant with the most important events, and designed to usher in, at some early, but undefined period, a time of trouble and trial to the Christian World, greater and more protracted than it has ever yet experienced; what could be more desirable to the people of God than to be awakened to a sense of its near, and perhaps sudden approach? For though they will not be the immediate objects of this visitation, yet doubtless such will be its nature and extent, that it will involve them in situations of peculiar difficulty and temptation; will call them to the exercise of peculiar duties; and will require of

them a peculiar course of previous preparation and discipline. And in this view, then, of the case, may it not be deemed highly probable, that God would grant to them such a seasonable insight into his intended operations, as would be sufficient to lead them into this necessary course of preparation and discipline? He, who gave his disciple a sign, by observing which they might flee from Jerusalem, that devoted city, and not perish with their unbelieving countrymen, would surely vouchsafe (as it may be reasonably inferred) to his people in this momentous Crisis, some clear indication of the judgments with which he was about to visit the antichristian and apostate church: especially when such an indication would be necessary for their own preservation, purity, and happiness.

This probability, however, will be greatly strengthened by another consideration. The season, or Crisis, to which our present remarks apply, is one, respecting which the Prophets themselves lead us to infer that a clearer insight into the predictions of Scripture, than past ages enjoyed, would be one of its prominent and distinguished features. Daniel (ch. xii. 7.) was assured by the angel that "the words were to be shut, and the book to be sealed even to the Time of the End:" " an assurance which intimated, that when that period should arrive, the seal

should be taken off and the book opened. The vail of prophecy should be more widely removed; and a clearer insight be vouchsafed into the mysterious but predicted counsels of the Almighty than had been previously granted to the church.

Strikingly coincident with this intimation, is that conveyed by another and almost a parallel passage in the tenth Chapter of the Revelation of St. John; who, when he was about to write what the voices of the seven thunders had uttered, heard" a voice from heaven: saying unto him, seal up those things which the seven thunders have uttered and write them not. And the Angel, whom he saw standing upon the sea and upon the earth, lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, that there should be time no longer," i. e. that no further delay should take place—that no longer space should intervene: " but in the days of the voice of the seventh Angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God shall be finished, as He hath declared by his servants the prophets.”—Now the days of the voice of the seventh Angel, comprehend the "Period of Judgement;" which, as we have already seen, is the same with "the Time of the End." But at the beginning of this period "the mystery of God will be finished": a declaration, which

seems to be equivalent with that of the Angel to Daniel, and to intimate, that from that time the purposes of God, which had been previously involved in darkness and mystery, should be progressively and distinctly unfolded; a brighter day should commence; and new and increasing light be shed on the objects of prophecy, till the whole would be accomplished. It does not indeed appear possible from the very nature of things, but that this must be the case. For the events assigned to that period are so clearly defined, are so big with importance and interest, and must have so powerful an influence on the state both of the world and of the church, that it is impossible to suppose that they could be successively and circumstantially accomplished, without reflecting such additional and increasing light on the prophecies which describe them, as must prevent them from being any longer involved in that degree of mystery and doubt which had previously obscured them.

But let it then be further remembered, that when the Crisis of which we are speaking shall have arrived, some considerable portion of the period of Judgement will have already elapsed. It will be the season immediately preceding the effusion of the 7th vial, when the events predicted to occur in the earlier part of that period will have actually taken place; when several of the

vials having been already poured out, either their contents will have been obviously expended, or their effects will be still in visible and active operation; and, consequently, when the Church of Christ will be placed in a more favourable situation than she has ever before enjoyed, for interpreting the revealed purposes of the Most High; and will be in the possession of such means, as she has never antecedently enjoyed, for ascertaining the precise and interesting Crisis in which she will then stand.

But there is yet an additional consideration to be noticed on the subject of the present chapter. The probability that as the time of trouble approximates some clearer intimations of its approach will be vouchsafed to the church, rests not merely on the presumptive arguments already produced. There is testimony of a more positive and tangible kind. There is a direct proof from Scripture, that it is not the Lord's design to leave his people altogether in ignorance, at the time of which we are speaking, of those things which are coming on the earth, nor to suffer them at that time to be taken by surprize and unawares. In that passage of the Revelation, which describes the events that will take place in the interval immediately preceding the pouring out of the vial by the seventh Angel-in this precise part of the