passed by, and yet the sanctuary is not cleansed-the watchmen do not yet see eye to eye, foul members yet stain its lovely whiteness.

I have now before me the opinion of Edward Irving, that the prophetic time, times and a half time, making 1260 years, as foretold by Daniel, should be considered as having ended at the era of the French revolution in 1793. But such cannot be the fact, because the sanctuary is not cleansed. There are three notable Scriptural modes of calculation, which must have their fulfilling at the same period, namely, when the river, which Ezekiel saw, commenced with Abraham, flows into the great sea, which is the Millenniumwhen the 1260 years of Daniel shall witness the cleansing of the sanctuary-when the 2300 days or years of the same prophet, though commencing at an earlier era, shall also have their ending at the cleansing of the sanctuary. See Ezekiel, 47th chap. from the 1st verse to the eighth inclusive; Daniel, 7th chap. 25; do. 8, 14. When, therefore, these three are accomplished, the Millennium will commence.

It appears to me to be the heighth of folly to fix upon any partial revolution, which has been effected in favour of religion since the resurrection of Christ, as of sufficient universality to justify the opinion, that the sanctuary has been cleansed. Perhaps we cannot fix upon any era when the church has not been infested, more or less, with wicked members, and will unquestionably continue to be thus afflicted, till the time of its universal cleansing shall come. This, then, we look for, with unvarying confidence, to be accomplished

when this river of celestial light, and those two peririods spoken of by the prophet Daniel, shall be completed at one and the same time. Till that time, it cannot be said the sanctuary is cleansed-till that time, the church cannot be called the HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH.

The following extract from Mr. Carrington's remarks, under the head of Holy Catholic Church in the apostolic creed at evening prayer, corroborates the above opinion, I am indebted for the extract to a work entitled" Second Advent," by an American layman, who states that he extracted it from a Mr. Warner, who, it appears, wrote upon the subject of the common prayers of the Church of England, who introduced the following remarks from Mr. Carrington, upon the idea of what constitutes a Holy Catholie Church.

"Considering the general state of the Christian church, from the first hour of its foundation almost to the present, there doth not appear to have been an interval, when the two affections of Holy and Catholic. have been fairly compatible; and all attempts to reconcile those jarring qualities of sanctity and universality, have only occasioned a constrained and unwarrantable interpretation of the terms. It is too evident that the church in general (much less the holy churchy hath, as yet, been far from being universal. From hence, expositors have been obliged to recur to partial and figurative constructions; to distant and even sometimes to forced interpretations; in order to support their unnatural solutions with arguments the most

specious, many of which tend, at best, to prove how the church may, with some show of probability, rather than how it necessarily must be termed at once, both holy and catholic. But as in Scripture we ought not to recede from the letter, without apparent necessity, so why may not the same rule obtain here? Why should we quit the full and genuine sense of a word for one partial and emblematical, when it may with safety and consistency be adhered to? Suppose, then, we can find a state or tine, when the whole of this article, in the plain and literal meaning of the words shall be found to be strictly true; when this complicated affection shall belong to the church of Christ by a just and unquestionable right; when both the holy church shall become catholic, and the catholic church hall become holy? Ought we not rather to direct our attention to that than to any other period wherein we meet with the least difficulty or obstruction. In a word, the great mistake seems to lie in referring that to either past or present which belongs solely and entirely to futurity. For if there be any force in words; if there is any dependence to be had on the sacred writers, either under the old or new dispensation; we are certainly to expect, even on this side Heaven, a state, an age, a period in which the church of Christ shall appear in a form, in all respects greatly transcending any it has hitherto enjoyed, when the holy few shall no longer be hid and obscured amidst a sea of iniquity; no longer seem an undistinguished handful in the midst of a wicked and idolatrous world; no longer be contracted within so narrow a compass, as that even their existence

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shall seem precarious and uncertain, when, in short. the church of Christ shall become at once so absolutely catholic, that all shall know Him, from the least even to the greatest; and so universally holy, that every one who is left in Zion, and who remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called HOLY, even every one who is written among the living. Here then we must seek that church, which is at once the object of our wishes and of our faith; and that communion of saints, we long so ardently to be joined to. But it will be well worth our while to take a more comprehensive view of this glorious and remarkable period.

To trace the declaration of it, indeed, through all its stages, were to go very far back in the Holy Scriptures, since it is certain that it was not absolutely unknown in the first ages. There are evident footsteps of this opinion here and there dispersed in the Chaldee paraphrase, and in the Talmud; and with some few particularities, it is held by the Jews at this day-And indeed, as the learned Mede observes, the second and universal resurrection, with the state of the saints after it, now so clearly revealed in Christianity, seems to have been less known to the ancient church of the Jews than the first resurrection. There are many passages in the royal Psalmist, which have an evident tendency this way; and some obscure allusions, some distant hints may be met with, even in the books of Moses; but the prophets were principally employed in this great discovery, and it engrosses so large a share in their writings, as it were almost endless to transcribe. In short, we can scarcely turn our eye upon any part of

them, but it is struck with something which leads us to the expectation of a state of glory and peace, of righteousness and salvation. In a word, a state truly and entirely corresponding to the venerable and expressive title of an Holy Catholic Church.

In what light these several passages of the prophets are to be considered—not to mention the almost unanimous interpretation of the primitive fathers-The Holy Ghost seems himself to have instructed us; for wp, saith the Apostle, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. From whence it is evident, that those prophecies received not their full completion, in the first promulgation of the Gospel, and calling in of the Gentiles; for both these circumstances were actually past, and the Gospel dispensation had taken place when the Apostle wrote. Where then are we to trace this promise, but in the above recited remarkable passages? And what are we to conceive by an earth inhabited by righteousness, but a church purged from its present gross and numerous abominations, universally clear, pious, holy. And in a word, composed of a pure and entire communion of faith?

That such a period as this is yet due to the church of Christ, seems too plain to be denied-But when or where to take place, is a matter of some dispute even among those, who are nevertheless agreed, with regard to the thing in general. But that it certainly will, at some time or other, is quite sufficient for our purpose; and when it does, the church of Christ will be strictly and truly, in the full and genuine sense of the words,