JUDGE them. And with the addition of the next following passages it will plainly be seen that the time of Christ's reign, (which is now.) is the day of Judgment. Isaiah Xi, 2, 3, 4, "And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him: the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel, and might; and he shall not Judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears; but with righteousness shall he JUDGE the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth." CHAP. XEII, 1, 3, 4, "I have put my Spirit upon him, and he shall bring forth JUDGMENT unto the gentiles. A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench he shall send forth Judgment unto truth. He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set Judgment in the earth, and the Isles shall wait for his law."

The next class of Scripture passages will show that God promised, and swore by himself, that in this day of Judgment, this reign of Christ, all the children of men should turn to the Lord and be saved. PSALM XXII, 27, 28, "All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord. And all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before him. For the kingdom the Lord's; and he the governor among the nations." ISAIAH XL, 4, 5, "Every valley shall be exalted and every mountain and hill shall be made low. The crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see together; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken." CHAP. EII, 10, "The Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God. Chap, Xlv, 22, 23, 24, "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I God and none else. I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth righteousness, and shall not return,

That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear. Surely shall say, in the Lord have I righteousness and strength."

I would remark here that St. Paul quotes this passage as applied to the reign of Christ: PHIL IPPIANS, II, 9, 10, 11, "Wherefore God hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of in Heaven, and in earth, and under the earth; and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ Lord to the glory of God the Father." He saith also in I. Cor. XII, 3, "No man can say that Jesus is Lord, but by the Holy Ghost." Therefore the amount of the foregoing prophecy is, that all in Heaven, in earth and under the earth, shall confess that Jesus is Lord by the Holy Ghost. I now proceed, Isaiah Lvii, 16, on to 19, "For I will not contend forever, neither will I be always wroth for the Spirit should fail before me, and the souls I have made," &c. Lam. III, 31, 32, 33, "For the Lord will not cast off forever: but though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies. For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men."

The design of God in punishing the world of mankind for their iniquities, and the happy reformation of all men, as the consequence is extensively set forth by the following prophecy: ZEPHANIAH III, 8, 9, " Therefore wait ye upon me, saith the Lord, until the day that I rise up to the prey: for my determination to gather the nations, that I may assemble the Kingdoms, to pour upon them mine indignation, all my fierce anger: for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy. For then will I turn to the people a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of the Lord, to serve him with one consent." Now this prophecy, as well as a number of others which I mean to quote, allude to the time when

Christ began his spiritual reign, (which was at the end of the Jewish Theocracy,) and also the consequence of his spiritual reign, which is to be the reformation, and salvation of all men. For, let it be observed that in Christ's first advent, he had not come to reign, nor to Judge the world, as he said, St. JOHN XII, 47, "I came not to Judge the world, but to save the world." Whereas he had then come to work the redemption, and salvation of the world by suffering. But the day of JUDGMENT wherein he was to Judge the world in righteousness was to begin at the time his reign, or Kingdom should begin; which was after he had died, rose again, and ascended. He therefore prophesied that he should come in the clouds of Heaven with power and great glory and that it should come to pass before that generation passed away, Matth. Xxiv, 80, 34. And that he would then reward every man according to his works when his Kingdom should come, and that there were some then standing there who should not taste of death till they should see him come in his Kingdom, Matth. Xvi, 27, 28. And that then he should sit on the throne of his glory, and all nations should be gathered before him, and then shews how he should Judge, and reward them, Matth. Xxv, 31, and on.

And whereas, in his first advent, he had not come to judge the world, as I have said, therefore it is obvious that those Scriptures which I have quoted, which prophesied of his Judging in uprightness, bringing forth Judgment to the gentiles, setting Judgment in the earth, &c. related to the day of Judgment, which began when his spiritual reign began, and continues now, and will continue until all men are reformed.

And whereas, at the very commencement of this reign of Christ, God did "shake terribly the earth." That is, he stretched out his arm with his iron rod of severe correction over all nations

of men, both Jews and gentiles, to punish them for their sins, (which at that time were very great,) and to break in pieces thrones, and kingdoms, and nations of men which were wicked and unjust, to make room to establish the Kingdom of Christ over all nations of men; which Kingdom made its appearance, and was established over all the world in or soon after the seventieth year after the birth of Christ in the manger at Bethlehem. But as this Kingdom of Christ, together with his second coming was altogether spiritual, therefore none knew his coming, or his Kingdom, but those who were spiritual. And the Apostles who wrote their epistles to the Christian Churches before the coming of Christ in his Kingdom, often mention "The day of Judgment." "The coming of the Lord." The day of the Lord." "The appearing of Jesus Christ in his Kingdom," &c. as being then future, and that which they were looking for. And they exhorted the Christians to wait with patience for it, and to "gird up the loins of their minds," for that "the coming of the Lord was drawing near." And they comforted one another in hope of it, as a time in which they should have greater consolation of soul than ever had been known before. And all this agreeable to what Jesus had promised his disciples before* St. John Xvi, 19, on to 22, "A little while and ye shall not see me. And again a little while and ye shall see me. Verily, verily, I say unto you, that ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice, and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. And ye now therefore have sorrow; but I will see you again, and your hearts shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you." This was the coming and Kingdom of Christ, which the Apostles were looking for when they wrote their epistles, and which made its appearance before that generation passed away,

But as I said before, a little previous to that glorious event, there was a mighty destruction of many of the human family, by wars, by famines, by pestilences, and by the uncommon wickedness of the world, which kept all the other instruments of destruction in motion; "great tribulation (said Christ) such as was not since there was a nation upon the earth, no, nor never shall be," Matth. Xxiv, 21.

And whereas, this shaking of the nations was to overthrow both the political and religious establishments of many nations, and particularly those of the Jews. Therefore the overthrow of those establishments were predicted figuratively, by the shaking of the Heavens, and of the earth, and the darkening of the sun and of the stars, and turning the moon to blood, &c. as I will now show by several quotations from the testimonies of the ancient Prophets. Jesus Christ, and his Apostles, which (you will see) all agree one with another, and with my quotation from ZEPH. 111, 8, 9; Isaiah Xxiv, 19, on to 23, "The earth is moved exceedingly. The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it. And it shall come to pass in that day, the Lord shall punish the host of the high one on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth. And they shall be gathered together prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited. Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the Lord of hosts shall reign in Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously. JOEL III, 11, on to 16, "Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together round about. For there will I sit to Judge all the heathen round about. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision; for the day of the Lord near in the valley of decision," (what can the valley of decis