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the extenfion of his religion; not fubject again to death, but probably appointed to receive fome change, which fhall improve the mode of existence, when the end of all things here fhall come, and they are to be "received into the mansions of glory, eternal in the heavens, It seems impoffible to understand the "loofing Satan from his prifon at the expiration of the thousand years, and fuffering him to go out to deceive the nations in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them to the battle, and to compass the camp of the faints and the beloved city," in any other fenfe, than as circumstances which are to take place during the present system of things on earth, excepting only the different state of the Chriftian community. Nor can we, I think, avoid ́ believing that the great day of universal judg, ment will be after that period. “Christ must reign," and furely we are authorized to fuppofe, on earth, till he hath put all his enemies under his feet," and "then cometh the end"-the great day of final judgment, when the heavens and the earth referved unto fire fhall be diffolved, and the elements fhall melt with fervent heat-when the earth and the heaven (" for which no place is afterwards

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• Rev. xx. 7, 9.

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found") fhall flee away from the face of him who fitteth upon the throne-when the deadboth small and great (not those who had

part in the first refurrection, and upon whom the fecond death fhall have no power, these are "the faints whom God will bring with him") fhall ftand before God, and the books shall be opened, and every man judged according to their works-when all, not found written in the book of life, fhall be caft into the lake of fire, referved for the Devil and his angels; but those whofe foreheads have been fealed, shall be admitted into everlasting glory in the heavens and when, the ftupendous fcheme, for which the Son of God took upon him the nature of man, being completed, the Meffiah "fhall deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father, that God may be all in all.”

It is material to obferve, that the promise of the univerfal diffusion of the Gospel is not confined to any particular age or period, but is to be confidered as a growing work, that demonstrates the gradual fulfilment of Prophecy from the first appearance of our Lord to the end of the world and the primitive Christians referred the ultimate completion of this promise

* Rev. xx. 11.

to the times of the Millennium. If the propagation of the Gospel be even now confidered as a duty in every Christian state, what will be the ardor, and the effects of that ardor, when pure and primitive Christianity is established in peace and fecurity! The perfect unanimity and obedience of Chriftians to their holy law, and the fincere and active zeal for the general falvation of mankind, joined to the vifible marks of divine favour vouchsafed to this holy Community, will extend its bleffings over the whole world, in a manner which it is difficult for us, in the present state of things, to conceive. But we are taught by Scripture to believe that there will be fome fupernatural means of making it the univerfal Religion, when the great Event, revealed by Daniel and St. John, shall finish the reign of Antichrist in all its various forms—“ in that day when the Lord with his fore and strong sword shall punish Leviathan the piercing ferpent, even Leviathan that crooked ferpent, and shall slay the Dragon that is in the fea ""unless we fuppofe fome of the plaineft paffages of epistolary as well as prophetical writing to be nothing more than allegorical allufions to certain events, concerning which we are not able to

• Ifaiah xxvii. I.

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form a diftinct idea. And I truft we have already feen enough of the literal accomplishment of the Prophecies, not to be cafily led from the plain meaning by allegorical interpretations. We know that the pure Religion of Chrift fhall at length prevail over the blindness of Judaism, the schisms of Herefy, the fuperftitions of Idolatry, the fables of Mahometanifm, the corruptions of Popery, and the blafphemous philosophism of Infidelity; for our Lord fhall fubdue them with the fpirit of his mouth. The remnant left after the decifive battle will be converted by these "figns from Heaven;" and thus the fcene of his humiliation fhall be alfo the fcene of his glory.

"In the beginning God faw every thing that he had made, and it was very good ;" but "the earth became corrupt before the Lord," for "fin had entered in, and death by fin." And in the end, he who created all things perfect he who redeemed us from the power of Satan, and conquered fin and death, fhall "make all things new." "The present things fhall pass away, and a new heaven and new earth," or a new fcene of things fanctified by the Lord our Righteousness, shall receive "the tabernacle of God, when he cometh to dwell

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dwell with men '."

The new Jerufalem fhall be feparated from the world as the garden of Eden, but the gates of entrance fhall ftand open. The Church of Chrift, reprefented, both in its state of fuffering and of triumph, by the fymbol of a City, will then confist of converted Jews, and Gentile Chriftians, and the glorious affembly of the faints, "the firftborn children of the refurrection," refined and purified from earth and fin, and form one body under Chrift their head; then will commence the glorious Millennium, fo anxiously looked for by the primitive Chriftians-so defired as the fabbatical rest of the people of God-and

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apt a type and anticipation of the happiness of heaven. The glory which rested upon the ark within the vail of the Jewish Temple, was but a type of that fuperior glory of the Lord, which fhall be displayed in the midst of the new Jerufalem. "In this city there fhall be no temple, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. God fhall wipe away all tears from the eyes of its inha

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When Christianity triumphed over Paganism, and became the established Religion of the world under Conftantine, on the opening of the fixth feal, it is faid, " And the heaven departed as a fcroll when it is rolled together:" Rev. vi. 14. to describe the change which then took place in the fyftem of the world,

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