power, and coming in the clouds of heaven" "O Jerufalem, behold your houfe is left unto you defolate; and verily I fay unto you, Ye fhall not fee me until the time when ye fhall fay, Bleffed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord "" "And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their fight. And while they looked ftedfaftly toward heaven, as he went up, behold, two men ftood by them in white apparel; which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why ftand ye gazing up into heaven? This fame Jefus, which is taken up from you into heaven, fhall fo come, in like manner as ye have feen him go into heaven" " And he was transfigured before them, and his face did shine as the fun, and his raiment was white as the light. And there appeared unto them Elias with Mofes, and they were talking with Jefus. And Peter faid, Mafter, it is Mark xiv. 61, 62. Luke xiii. 34, 35. n Acts i. 9-11. • The appearance of our Lord during the transfiguration, and the glory which fhone upon the face of Mofes, may be types of the appearance of our Lord, when he shall come to establish his kingdom in glory. good for us to be here; and let us make three tabernacles, one for thee, and one for Mofes, and one for Elias: for he wist not what to say, for they were fore afraid; and there was a cloud that overshadowed them; and a voice came out of the cloud, faying, This is my beloved Son; hear him P." The twentieth chapter of Revelations appears in my judgment to declare in exprefs terms, that there will be a firft or partial refurrection of the dead, who shall live again on this earth, as priests of God and of Chrift; that is, " Bleffed and holy men made perfect," peculiarly devoted to the fervice of God, and the extension of his religion; not fubject again to death, but probably appointed to receive fome change, which shall improve the mode of existence, when the end of all things here shall come, and they are to be "received into the manfions of glory, eternal in the heavens." It seems impoffible to understand the "loof ing Satan from his prison 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 sense, than as circumstances which are to take place during the present fyftem of things on earth, excepting only the different ftate of the Chriftian community. Nor can we, I think, avoid believing that the great day of univerfal judgment 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 found "") fhall flee away from the face of him who fitteth upon the throne-when the dead both small and great (not those who had part in the firft refurrection, and upon whom the fecond death fhall have no power, these are "the faints whom God will bring with him") shall stand before God, and the books fhall be opened, and every man judged according to their 1 Rev. xx. 7. 9. Rev. xx. II. works 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 whose foreheads have been fealed, fhall be admitted into everlasting glory in the heavens-and when, the ftupendous scheme, 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 promife of the univerfal diffufion 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 Chriftians referred the ultimate completion of this promise to the times of the Millennium. If the propagation of the Gofpel 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 Ꮓ 3 active active zeal for the general falvation of mankind, joined to the vifible marks of divine favour vouchfafed to this holy Community, will extend its bleffings over the whole world, in a manner which it is dif ficult 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, fhall finish the reign of Antichrift 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 flay the Dragon that is in the fea ""—unless we fuppose some of the plaineft paffages of epiftolary as well as prophetical writing to be nothing more than allegorical allufions to certain events, concerning which we are not able to form a diftinct idea. And I trust we have already feen enough of the literal accomplishment of the Prophecies, not to be easily led away from the plain meaning by allegorical interpretations. We know that the pure Religion of Chrift Ifaiah xxvii. 1. fhall |
