And to Isaac, Jacob was given, to whom God also conversed in vision. See Gen. xxviii. 12, 13, 14. "And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven; and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. And, behold, the Lord stood above it, and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed. And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth; and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed."

And to Jacob was given the twelve patriarchs who went down into Egypt where Moses was born, and from thence the whole nation of the Jews, consisting of about three millions of souls, journeyed towards the country of the Canaanites.

During this journey, the whole nation were carried as it were upon the wings of a great eagle; for God divided the Red Sea and let them pass over safe to the other shore.

At this place also, the angel of the covenant stood between the two hosts in the form of a pillar of cloud. That side which looked towards the Egyptians, had the appearance of blackness or darkness, which involved their whole army in the shades of night. But that side which looked toward his people, the Jews, shone with the brilliancy of a lambent flame, and gave them light till the morning rose, when it again assumed its cloudy aspect.

From this sea, in the process of years they came to Mount Horeb, at which place the angel of the cove

nant, who is Christ, came down on that Mount in great glory and with terrible thunderings, and gave his people a law of righteousness.

A lapse of not many years after the giving of the law, Moses stood on the top of Mount Pisgah, and from thence he saw the promised land, the land of his forefathers. At this place he died, and was hid in a valley of the mountain.

To him succeeded the government of Joshua, who led the armies of Israel from conquering to conquest, till all Canaan was subjected to his arms.

To Joshua succeeded the government of the elders, who had known him, and to them that of the judges, till the time of Samuel, the prophet, who anointed Saul, a Benjamite, to be king over Israel.

And next to Saul came David, the king, to whose throne Solomon was exalted: who built the first temple, which Ezekiel in his vision saw spiritualized, when the angel measured the temple, and showed him the waters of salvation, which come out from under its eastern gate.

Thus far has this descriptive and supernatural river of revelation flowed, whose waters are found at the temple as deep as to the ancles.

If the disciples of Christ, who, after being a long time with Him, who spake as never man spake, and had seen that he was raised from the dead after his crucifixion, and had heard the Saviour say, "My kingdom is not of this world," yet could say after all this, to their risen Lord, "Wilt thou not at this time restore the kingdom?" Which question evinced extreme

ignorance of the nature of the Messiah's kingdom., I say, if such ignorance was manifest, even among the Saviour's disciples, at that time, it may, therefore, with great propriety be said, that a knowledge of this river of life was only as deep as to the ancles, in the days of Solomon.

Here, then, at Jerusalem, by the means of Solomon, did God build a house of prayer for his saints, and in the midst of opposing nations, establish the worship of himself; and here is finished the first measurement of the first thousand cubits or years.

From this house and downward, these waters became more profluent; for, from the mouths of prophets and kings, flowed abundance of these healing waters of revelation, who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

Thus by the angel is measured a second thousand cubits, or years, which, from the finishing of the temple, brings this river to the advent of Christ, in the year of the world 4000, at which place, according to the prophet, the waters were only as deep as to the knees of a man.

But some have supposed, that at this place, it should be considered, that this river of healing acquired its greatest magnitude and width.

But not so; because its effects, as relates to the whole world, were then but partially commenced, nor were the days of miracles yet ceased, but continued three hundred years after, till the time that the Roman emperor, Constantine, became converted from heathenism to the Gospel.

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The history of the Church from Christ till Constantine, furnishes many wonderful accounts of miracles being granted to confirm the character of Christianity in the view of a heathen world. On these accounts therefore, this river cannot be contemplated at the birth of Christ, such as Ezekiel saw it, in his vision, which was, at the time of the fourth measurement of the cubits, a great river, which could not be passed over, so wide it had spread its waters, in his view, through the nations of fallen men.

But from the birth of Christ, at Bethlehem of Judea, these waters became more redundant; for, the ministry of the Messiah, the calling of his disciples, his death, and resurrection from the dead, and ascension to glory, the gift of the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost, and the subsequent preaching and success of the Gospel, by the Apostles, greatly enlarged the glory of this river of life.

But its waters are now more frequently stained with the blood of martyrs; the Jews persecuted Christ, in his disciples, till God, in his holy wrath, cut them off by the Romans, and destroyed them, as a government, from among the nations.

But from a knowledge obtained, that, in the siege of Jerusalem, by Titus, not one Christian lost his life on this account, the Gospel became more popular and less persecuted, for a while, by which means it was preached in many countries with power and great success, and thus became a river as deep as to the loins of a man, and poured itself over many parts of the Gentile nations. Asia Minor and Greece, the

continent and Isles of Europe, became its recipients, till the times of the dark ages, when the Roman Catholic superstitions covered and obscured the face of this river, as with Egytian darkness, for the space of a little more than four hundred years. In the days of Constantine the great, Emperor of Rome, and his immediate successors, the Pagan religion of the Romish empire was abolished, and Christianity took its place. From those times, and downward, the system of Christianity was more and more corrupted by the fooleries of a papal domination, till the year one thousand, at which time a total darkness, a universal eclipse of Gospel knowledge pervaded all countries. However, there were undoubtedly many who feared God in humble life, such as the Moravians, and all along these ages, though but little known.

From the time Constantine, the Roman Emperor, became a Christian, which was in the year A. D. 306, or a little before, we number a succession from Pope Marcellus till Pope Sylvester II. in the year A. D. 1000, of one hundred and six Popes; among whom, in the year A. D. 851 was the famous female Pope, Joan, who filled the papal chair two years. Here, then, is a most frightful chasm in this rope of sand, which the spiders of the Roman Catholic Church have spun, called a legal succession, which they are very fond of climbing: and holding fast to this, they dangle about in the light of the strange fire of their own kindling.

Also, from the year 1000, till 1460, there are numbered down to Pope Pious II. seventy-two. And from