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We have now followed the angel, and the prophet who saw this river measured, from the fountain to the sea, and believe it applies with great beauty and fitness to the four dispensations; namely, from Abraham to the finishing of the first temple by Solomon; from thence to the birth of Christ; from Christ to the beginning of the dark ages; and from that period to the end of the next century, when the Millennium will commence; which will exactly accomplish the four dispensations from Abraham till that time, so distinctly shown to the prophet, as comprehending four thousand cubits, or years.

Having now presented the reader with the prophet's views, which I presume to call his expectations of the universal glory and knowledge of the Messiah's kingdom, I shall next proceed to adduce other evidence, that the Jews expected such a day, found in the writings of their Rabbins, whose expectations of it seem very clear.

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But before I proceed with these, I shall notice the eleventh verse of the same Chapter, where the prophet Ezekiel has given his account of the above noticed rivThe verse is as follows: "But the miry places. thereof, and the marshes thereof, shall not be healed, they shall be given to salt." From which it is evident that Ezekiel saw, in his vision, that there would be some places whither this great river should not flow, called marshes and miry places. This, at first sight, would seem an objection to the doctrine intended to be promulged in this work, namely, that the water of the river of gospel life shall flow over the whole earth. This difficulty we proceed to remove.

The promise is, that whithersoever the waters of this river shall come, every thing that liveth shall be healed: but where they do not flow, they will not heal. It is a well known fact, that Papal Rome is now, and has ever been, more impervious to the rays of true gospel light, than even the veriest heathen who have yet been visited. It is not contained in the promise of the healing effects of this river, that it shall at all flow over the miry and marshy places, but it shall heal only where it shall come, and is received and believed in; for faith is the only condition of salvation which is ever accompanied with works corresponding.

It is no argument that Papal Rome has at all received the Gospel, because they are numbered among Christian nations, and the reason why is, because they have perverted its truths, and turned the grace of God into lasciviousness, by the numerous idle and abomina ble inventions of that deluded people.

Papal Rome, then, and its vile sanctuaries, are the miry and marshy places which shall not be healed, because they do now steadfastly resist the light, by preventing the Scriptures having a free circulation among them; except in their own mutilated manner, and those in Latin.

Heathen countries are found by the Scriptures, poor, blind, naked, and ignorant; therefore, they are eligible to its teachings.

But the Roman Catholics it finds already wise in their own conceits; therefore, they remain blind and unhealed, because they say they see, and are in no need of additional light, nor of a physician.

But if this river of life is to envelope the whole earth, and to extend its influence to all the people, why then shall not these marshy places be healed? how can this thing be, if all the people are to be righteous?

The mystery of these marshy places being given to salt, is to be explained as follows:

In all ages, or rather in ancient times, it was a custom with conquerors, when they had razed a city to the ground, to sow it with salt, as a token of total and everlasting ruin. This custom is undoubtedly alluded to by the prophet, in this place, when he saw, in vision, these miry places given to salt. Papal Rome, must therefore be destroyed by the direct power of God, before the time of the Millennium shall come, which he shall cause to be effected by the agency of fire. Papal Rome, which has ever been a sink of sin and a place of mire to all such as put their trust in her creeds and counsels, a place of stagnant marshes, diseased doctrines, and traditions of men.

The celebrated Calmet, a Roman Catholic commentator on the Scriptures, makes this same verse to point out the Protestant cause, as the miry places foreseen of Ezekiel. But this all Protestants know is false, be cause by the fruit the tree is known.

It is perfectly natural, therefore, to apply them to. Papal Rome, because they suit the symbol, which is mire and marshy places, in a striking manner.

But they shall be given to salt, and never be healed, but destroyed.

What else can be the meaning of the following Seriptures, which by all protestant theologians are made to

apply to Papal Rome. See Rev. xviii. 5, 6, 7, 8, and

9. "For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double accor ding to her works: in the cup which she hath filled, fill to her double. How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her. Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her. And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning."

From which we may plainly understand, that the overthrow of the country where the Roman beast has his seat and throne, shall be burned with fire, after the manner of Sodom and Gomorrah.

And as Abraham stood afar off and beheld the smoke of the whole country ascend up, so shall many at that day, stand afar off and lament the overthrow of that great city and country.

This is also the sentiment of that truly great and good man, the Rev. David Simson, M. A. See his plea for religion, the new edition, printed 1812, page 160, as follows:-"It is remarkable, that all the country about the city of Rome, is a kind of bitumen, or pitchy substance. And in the year of our Lord 80, a fire burst out from beneath the ground, in the middle of the city, and burnt four of the principal temples, with the sacred buildings of the capitol. Italy is in

deed a store-house of fire. And when the 1260 years spoken of by St. John (see Rev. xi. 2d* and 3d.) shall be accomplished, Rome itself, with all its magnificence, will be absorbed into a lake of fire, and sink into the sea, to rise no more for ever." Here, then, instead of healing those marshy places, which for ages have poisoned, with their noxious vapours, the atmosphere of common sense, and the more glorious atmosphere of a revelation from heaven, they are to be destroyed by fire at an earlier stage of time than the general judg ment. But my reader may here inquire, if such shall be the fact, how then are these miry and marshy places to be given to salt in token of their everlasting ruin. Thus I answer, a city among men, is generally a depot and repository of arms, and is called a strong hold on that account. Therefore, when the besiegers had overcome any such place, they anciently did, at some particular times, sow the place of its foundation with salt. See Judges ix. 45.-" And Abimelech fought against, the city all that day, and he took the city, and slew the people that were therein, and beat down the city and sowed it with salt."

From this custom, the prophet has borrowed the idea of those marshy and miry places being given to salt, but of a vastly different kind of salt from that used by men on any such occasion, which shall consist of litera. fire.

Now, as those marshy places are supposed to be embraced in the dark arcanum of the papal machinations

*The Jews reckoned invariably, 30 days to a month; the 42 months, therm fore, multiplied by 30, will produce 1260 days or years.

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