various opinions concerning it-if they tend to difplay the HARMONY and REGULARITY which pervade the WHOLE OF THE PROPHETIC SCHEME-if they excite attention to paffing objects, and to their ultimate direction, they will anfwer most important purposes. Should the course of fome extraordinary circumftances, now hanging in fufpenfe, but of which there was not the fighteft profpect in the political world when thefe conjectures were formed, confirm their claim to probability, they will more clearly prove the legibility of the Prophetic characters refpecting "the figns of the latter days," and gradually awaken a more general fenfe of our true interefts as a Nation, and as Individual candidates for the favour of our Lord. Should they contradict this train of ideas, events now unforeseen will farther prove, that in the hands of God there are many ways of accomplishing the fame Defign; and I fhall only add one other to the number. who have failed in a matter of acknowledged uncertainty. For it is not poffible, that the erroneoufnefs of fuch conjectures can in the fmallest degree affect the certainty of Prophecy itself, or render its mighty Plan lefs clear to the mind of any rational being. But, whether thefe

con

conjectures shall stand the light of future knowledge, or vanifh as the mists of the morning, the many great Events which remain to be accomplished will certainly take place in their appointed order. I prefume not to guefs at "times and feafons," which "no man knoweth❞ precifely; for though we are conducted along the chain of Prophecies by the correfponding chain of Circumftances fo regularly, that we unavoidably form fome general ideas concerning them, there appears to me a defigned obfcurity refpecting dates, which ought to check the too general defire of fixing particular years, or numbers of years, for the commencement or duration of prophetical eras, except in those cases where Scripture language is exprefs, and clearly underftood. If, therefore, it be asked, "When will these things be?" the answer must be, We know not. Yet when we confider the aftonishing rapidity with which fo vaft a change has been made in the political and religious state of the European part of the world, during the last fifty, or even twenty, years when we obferve how every thing even now seems to confpire towards the defigned purpose of general purification, punifhment, and falvation-when we reflect

---

upon the intimations in Scripture, that things fhould be haftened towards the end

-that the times of distress should be shortened for the fake of the elect, and that the Son of Man will come fuddenly to establish his glorious kingdom, it cannot appear impoffible, perhaps not improbable, that in the almoft fimilar courfe of things “the mystery fhall be finished," according to the received tradition concerning the duration of the world h

The prospect to us and to our children is indeed truly awful. But, by the bleffing of God, it depends upon ourfelves, whether, by a timely attention to the warning voice which the judgments of God" fo loudly direct to the inhabitants of the earth, we shake off the fetters of Vice and Diffipation, and, armed with the panoply of Heaven,

The very antient tradition among the Jews, and among many of the antient Gentile nations, that this world would continue in a state of confufion and mifery fix thousand years, and enjoy a ftate of peace and reft in the seven thousandth, or fabbatical year, has been found to exift in the Oriental writings recently difcovered. It is there affirmed, that when the great circle of fix thousand years fhall be finished, the globe fhall be renewed, and all things fhall be made new again.

i Ephef. vi. 13, &c.

repel

repel the darts of our Adverfary; or whe ther, after having withdrawn ourfelves from the dominion of the FIRST BEAST, and after having been fo long diftinguished by the protection of the Almighty, we yield to the infidious arts of the SECOND, receive the mark of his image, and forfeit the only hope of fafety-OUR STEDFAST ADHERENCE TO THE RELIGION OF CHRIST. We yet, bleffed be God, have abundant cause to hope we may escape the torrent of deftruction. We have not felt the general panic which has unnerved the nations of the Weft; but our courage has risen with our danger. We have but flightly drank of that intoxicating cup which prepared those nations for their fate, and already feem to be recovering from its infatuating effects. Surely we must acknowledge thefe to be fignals of favour, as well as means of prefervation ! for, let us remember, it is to the pure eftablishment of the Gofpel in these lands, that we owe both our wisdom and our ftrength. We have been 'holpen with the promised help," while fome of our Proteftant Brethren have fallen the victims of Delufion. They may have

* See Daniel xi. 34, &c. and the Introductory Chapter.

us,

"fallen to try them, and to make them
white" and they may rife again; while
we, if we "neglect thofe means of falva-
tion" which God has vouchfafed to grant
shall inevitably
heap to ourfelves
wrath against the Day' of wrath." We
have every thing to hope from the word of
God: we have nothing to fear but from
ourselves. We know that "the gates of
hell shall not prevail against the Church
of Chrift;" but it depends upon ourselves
whether we be thought worthy to retain fo
great a bleffing. We know that " in every
temptation God maketh a way to escape,"
and that" He that is for us, is greater than
he that is against us." But if we mean
to preferve our Nation, we must "trim
the lights yet burning" in our Citadel, and
patiently endure, or vigorously act, accord-
ing to the varied duties of our fituation.

confider

I call upon my COUNTRY, to these things" with the attention due to

their importance.

I call upon EACH of

my Readers, to reflect

upon the folemn de-
Whofoever shall be

claration of our Lord,
afbamed of me and of my words in this adul-
terous and finful generation, of him also shall
the Son of Man be ashamed, when he cometh

7