notwithstanding every infliction of cruelty, injustice, and oppression to which they have been subjected; but they have now arrived at a period of peculiar trial and danger. Proceeding rapidly with the tide of knowledge, excited by the high ratio to which worldly science and improvements have attained, and above all engaged in the fierce struggle of opposing principles,—their final preservation from error and guilt can only be effected by approaching seasons of trial, which shall "try them that dwell on the earth," though it will gradually and finally "sever the wicked from among the just."

We have now to contemplate the various and interesting periods to which we allude, as arranged in the Scripture quotations: and though we would not presume to fix with decision the particular divisions of time wherein these judgments will take place, they are of too specific a character to escape a marked attention. None who carefully peruse, can imagine them to be applicable to any past events, to their proper extent. Such as are placed in the first division or series of this Chapter exhibit a description more general than those under subsequent heads. The latter describe judgments distinct, and of a peculiar nature; and they appear to be so intimately connected as scarcely to admit of varied interpretation.

Numerous are the Scriptures which declare Christ's general government of his church: "In the midst of his enemies," -as, "Divide the spoil with the strong," &c., see Psalm cx., applicable, more or less, to all the ages of the Christian dispensation; but the following present us with a more determinate or precise view of that portion of time wherein God "will break them with a rod of iron," see Psalm II., -"will break in pieces the oppressor,"-will " destroy

those who destroy the earth," and "scatter the people who

delight in war."

Ezekiel xxx. 3. The day is near, even the day of the LORD is near, a cloudy day; it shall be the time of the heathen. See Psalm cx. 6.

Obadiah 15, 16. The day of the LORD is near upon all the heathen as thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee: thy reward shall return upon thine own head. For a as ye have drunk upon my holy mountain, so shall all the heathen drink continually, yea, they shall drink and swallow down, and they shall be as though they had not been.

Psalm XXXVII. 9, 10, 20. Evil doers shall be cut off. Yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be. The wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the LORD shall be 8 as the fat of lambs they shall consume; into smoke shall they consume away.

Psalm LVIII. 9-11. Before your pots can feel the thorns, he shall take them away as with a whirlwind, y both living, and in his wrath. The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked. So that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous; verily he is a God that judgeth the earth.

1 Samuel 11. 9. He will keep the feet of his saints, and the wicked shall be silent in darkness; for by strength shall no man prevail.

The quotation from the prophet Obadiah contains an epitome of God's providence towards the Gentile world, during the whole of the Christian dispensation,-which, or "continually,"-here appears to be emphatically styled, "the day of the Lord." The former portion of the prophet's denunciations are directed against Edom only; yet in the first verse he says, "An ambassador is sent among the heathen;" the destruction of the Edomites is then named, and

a Is. XLIX. 26; Ezek. xxxv. 15. Bi. e." wholly consumed.". b Deut. XXXIII. 14-16. Num. XVI. 30.

y Heb. " as living as wrath.” Heb. "fruit of the, &c."

the reasons are assigned. But as the same prophetic language often embraces various events fulfilled in different ages of the world, so many of those accomplished at comparatively early periods of history are rendered types of still more important future events, from the resemblance of their character and circumstances;-thence Edom becomes an appropriate type of that portion of the Gentile world which is opposed to the church of God, because the Edomites were ever at enmity with their brethren the Jews, under the old dispensation. Have not "the kings of the earth set themselves. . . . . . against the Lord, and against his anointed?" Have they not "crucified the Lord of glory?" and have they not caused the Jewish nation to drink the bitter cup of wrath at the destruction of Jerusalem? So they themselves, though afterwards become professedly Christian nations, have been continually dismembering or destroying each other; and they shall drink the dregs of this cup of wrath, till "they shall be as though they had not been."

Under these awful threatenings the preservation of the righteous is calculated to afford consolation to the Christian.

Isaiah LXVI. 16. By fire and by his sword will the LORD plead with all flesh and the slain of the LORD shall be many.

:

Isaiah II. 11--19. a The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day. For the day of the LORD of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low and bupon all the cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan, and upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills that are lifted up, and upon every high tower, and upon every fenced wall, and upon all the ships of b Is. x. 33, 34. c Is. XXIII. 1.

a Jer. L. 31, 32.

Tarshish, and upon all pleasant pictures. And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day. And the idols he shall utterly abolish. And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the Bearth, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.

Isaiah xxvi. 21. Behold, the LORD cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.

:

Zephaniah III. 8. Wait ye upon me, saith the LORD, until the day that I rise up to the prey for my determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them mine indignation, even all my fierce anger: for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy.

Isaiah XXXIV. 1-8 e Come near, ye nations, to hear; and hearken, ye people: let the earth hear, and all that is therein; the world, and all things that come forth of it. For the indignation of the LORD is upon all nations, and his fury upon all their armies: he hath utterly destroyed them, he hath delivered them to the slaughter. Their slain also shall be cast out, and their stink shall come up out of their carcases, and the mountains shall be melted with their blood. And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig-tree.*

The warrior boasts of his military prowess, often of the characteristic bravery of his soldiers, and of "the glorious results of their valour." We are apprised, however, that "there is no king saved by the multitude of a host: neither is a mighty man delivered by much strength. A horse is a vain thing for safety: neither shall he deliver any by his great strength." Ps. xxxIII. 16, 17.

e Heb. "dust."

Rev. 11. 7.

d Ezek. xxiv. 7, 8; Luke x1. 50; Rev. vi. 9-11. f Isaiah XIV. 12; Rev. vi. 12, 13.

* See Supplement, No. II.

Little do such men imagine, while indulging these vanities, that the principles of war, so exclusively at variance with the doctrines of the Prince of peace, can never produce happy and permanent results. Such declarations as that "the Lord hath a controversy with the nations,”—“will plead with all flesh, &c.," clearly evince the vanity and inutility, as well as cruelty and recklessness of all war; and intimate that as nations will not forbear, there must be a continuous conflict between the powers of light and darkness, until at length it terminate in "a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation, even to that same time."

Those who imagine that war is consistent with the revealed will of God, are not likely to become advocates of the doctrines which actuate the "meek and lowly ;" and yet the meek are they who shall inherit the earth. There is a confined sense, in which the generality of Christian professors admit as essential, brotherly love and forbearance, that is, in their individual capacity, and even so far as in social and public circles; but they exclude all such considerations when nationally applied, by which they, in reality, exclude " peace on earth," and the universal "good-will" of nation towards nation, of man towards man.

"When the wickedness of man was great on the earth no doubt war and bloodshed abounded; for the earth was filled with violence.' In after times men were trained up to war, and then came the sling, and the bow and arrow, the sword and the spear, to attack with; and the helmet, and