mated Gog and his followers, they endeavour to discover and suppress the first movements of it. So I understand thefe expreffions: "And they "shall fever out men of continual employment, "paffing through the land, to bury with the "paffengers those that remain upon the face of "the earth, to cleanse it.-And the paffengers "that pafs through the land, when any feeth a "man's bone, then fhall he fet up a fign by it, ❝till the buriers have buried it in the valley of "Hamon-gog," Ezek. xxxix. 14, 15. These expreffions cannot be taken in a literal fenfe ; because the army of Gog, if it were allowed to remain unburied for seven months, would occafion peftilential disorders: Again, if you suppose the bones mentioned, to be a few scattered over the mountains, which had escaped the notice of those who buried the main body at the end of feven months, the danger arifing from them would be over; and the burial of them does not appear of fo great importance, as to require that men should be appointed for that employment; nor could it be faid that the burying of these bones, cleanfed the land. The expreffions are certainly figurative, as the Jews unconverted are compared to dead and dry bones, Ezek. xxxvii. So the bones of Gog's army here, fignify perfons unconverted, who refift the authority of the church, and hate the restraints of religion.

That

.

That men answered to the continual employment of discovering these bones, implies, that the church appoints officers for the purpose of searching into the first movements of the spirit mentioned. When the spirit is discovered, the officers employed make it publicly known to the ordinary civil magiftrates, who, by every legal method, fupprefs it. The proper employment of the civil magiftrate is, to fupprefs all vice, immorality, and irreligion, as a burier covers out of fight a naufeous carcafe. By the lawful diligent exercise of discipline, the land is cleanfed, the Jewish church is kept pure.

However, it would appear that the Gentile churches are reprefented as declining from the purity of the Millennial ftate, and that the fame spirit of opposition to the truth, which animated Gog and his followers, shall continue to prevail and to spread till the last day.

This is implied in the representations given of the state of the world immediately before the laft trumpet founds. "As it was in the days "of Noe, fo fhall it be alfo in the days of the "Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they "married wives, they were given in marriage "until the day that Noe entered into the ark; "and the flood came and deftroyed them all. "Likewise alfo as it was in the days of Lot, "they did eat, they drank, they bought, they

fold,

હેતુ

But the

"fold, they planted they builded. "fame day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rain❝ed fire and brimftone from heaven, and de"ftroyed them all. Even thus fhall it be in "the day when the Son of man is revealed," Luke xvii. 26.-30. "Yourselves know per"fectly, that the day of the Lord fo cometh as "a thief in the night. For when they fhall fay, Peace and fafety: then fudden deftruction cometh upon them; as travail upon a "woman with child; and they fhall not ef "There fhall come "cape," I Theff. v. 2, 3. "in the last days fcoffers, walking after their "own lufts, and faying, where is the promise "of his coming?" 2 Pet. iii. 3, 4.

From these paffages, it appears, that the day of judgment comes upon the world unexpected. ly, as a thief in the night, confequently the greater number of that generation are not real Christians; for of these the Apostle fays, " But 66 ye, brethren, are not in darknefs, that that "day should overtake you as a thief,” 1. Theff. v. 4. Again, the men of that generation are compared to those of very corrupt times. In the days of Noah, "all flesh had corrupted their "way." In the days of Lot, the inhabitants of the plain were monftroufly wicked, "the

cry of Sodom and Gomorrah was great, and "their fin was very grievous." Further, it is exprefsly

exprefsly faid, that they promise themselves 6 peace and safety:" that is, in defiance of the remonftrances and threatenings of God's word. They indulge their lawless paffions, and ridicule the notion of a future judgment. In a word, what the deluge was to the old world, and the fulphureous fhower to the inhabitants of the plain, the coming of the Son of man shall be to the great body of the men of that generation, the fignal of their deftruction. All these circumstances evince a general corruption of manners, and confequently a great deviation from the purity of the Millennial state.

Corruption following after the purity and happiness of the Millennium, ferves to prove fully what had been shewn partly before, that unfanctified human nature cannot bear profperity, because it leads men to refift God's authority, to gratify their own lufts, at the expence of violating his laws, and defacing the beauty and order of his creation; that all the ordinary means of grace, that all the common and extraordinary difpenfations of divine Providence which the wisdom of God devifed, and his long fuffering patience exercised for the reformation of the human race, are ineffectual to reform the whole, and that the malignant diftemper of fin requires a more violent remedy. Accordingly, the world now ripe for deftruction, and the church

church for eternal falvation, God fets his throne for the last judgment.

SECTION III.

The Great Day of Judgment.

The fcripture account of that folemn and awful event follows.

While wicked men are eagerly intent on their worldly schemes, and the gratification of their lawless paffions, fcoffing at the notion of ever being called to account for their conduct; while Chrift's faithful followers then on earth, are ready to faint, their faith being almost staggered by the delay of the judgment, and the progrefs of increafing wickedness in the world: In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, the Judge appears, "the Lord himself fhall de"fcend from heaven with a fhout, with the "voice of the archangel, and with the trump "of God," 1 Theff. iv. 16. ". The Lord Je"fus fhall be revealed from heaven, with his "mighty angels, in flaming fire," 2 Theff. i. 7,8. He fets his throne in the air, (within the region of the clouds, 1 Theff, iv. 17. In that fituation, it is visible of course to the upper hemisphere, and most likely, by fome medium re