This

chosen Zion, he hath desired it for his habitation. is my rest forever, here will I dwell, for I have desired it." Ps. cxxxii. 13, 14. "The time to favor Zion, yea the set time is come, for thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and favor the dust thereof." "When the Lord shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his glory." Ps. cii. Also, Isa. xxiv. 23. "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. "Nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king," said the Saviour.

Again, Matthew, 23d chapter; addressing Jerusalem as distinguished from her children, the inhabitants, he says, "Ye shall not see me henceforth, until ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord." Then he will return to Jerusalem, and find a race of children who shall say, "BLESSED;" not the children of the old "Jerusalem, which is in bondage, with her children;" but the children of the "Jerusalem which is above and is free:" the children of promise-the glorified saints. Ezekiel, 37th chapter, where, under the symbol of the valley of dry bones, the resurrection of the just is predicted, God promises to set his sanctuary among them forevermore. "My tabernacle also shall be with them; yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people." John, in vision, witnessed the fulfilment of the scene, when he said, "BEHOLD THE TABERNACLE OF GOD IS WITH MEN, and HE WILL DWELL WITH THEM, and they shall be his people, and GOD HIMSELF shall be with them, and be their God." This TABERNACLE is the NEW JERUSALEM. There Jesus Christ will dwell in the midst of them forevermore. There "THE LORD OF HOSTS will reign in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously." Then Jerusalem shall enlarge the place of her tent, and stretch forth the curtains of her habitation. She shall break forth on every side, as foretold in Isaiah, 54th chapter. The city, according to Rev. 21st chapter, will be 12,000 furlongs, i. e., 1500 miles square.

IV. THE TIMES AND SEASONS CONSIDERED.

"It is not for you to know the times and seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power." Thus said the Saviour, when about to leave the disciples and ascend into heaven. It is a clear intimation that there were appointed times for the event, but they were then future, and not to be understood by the apostles. Those times are referred to by the Saviour, Luke xxi. 25, "Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until THE TIMES OF THE GENTILES BE FULFILLED." Until then it cannot become the capital or kingdom of Israel. Until then, also, the people of God are to be carried captive into all nations. The Psalmist also speaks of the times, in Ps. cii. 13. "The time to favor her, (Zion,) yea, the set time, is come. "This shall be written for the generation to come. "When the Lord shall build up Zion he shall appear in his glory."

The first times appointed for the Gentiles to REIGN OVER THE CHURCH for her sins, and the BREAKING OF THE PRIDE OF HER POWER, is Levit. xxvi. 18. "I will punish you seven times more for your sins." This punishment is four times repeated in the same chapter. First, They were to be afflicted in various ways, for their disobedience, as they were under the judges and early kings. If ye will not for all this be reformed, "I will punish you seven times MORE for your sins." "I will break the pride of your power." The first CAPTIVITY of the house of Judah in Babylon, was in the reign of Manasseh, king of Judah, by the king of Assyria, B. C. 677. 2 Chron. xxxiii. He repented, was reprieved and restored as a tributary to the Assyrians. But still, the Lord continues, if ye will not for all this be reformed by me, "I will bring seven times more plagues on you. "They were sent again into bondage or bereaved of children in the Babylonish captivity in the third year of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, 2 Chron. xxxvi. Jehoiakim was reprieved and restored to his throne, but the people did

not reform, and the denunciation of seven times punishment was still on them. Lev. xxvi. 24. And accordingly, in the 11th year of Zedekiah, the kingdom of Judah was finally subverted. 2 Chron. xxxvi.

The people again repented in the days of Cyrus, and were reprieved, as in Ezra i. They continued to have a national existence until the time of Christ; when they rejected Christ, and he fulfilled the threatened judgment of Lev. xxvi. 28. "I will walk contrary to you, in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins. And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat. And I will destroy your high places, and cut down your images, and cast your carcasses upon the carcasses of your idols, and my soul shall abhor you. And I will make your cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries unto desolation, and I will not smell the savor of your sweet odors. And I will bring the land into desolation, and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it. And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you, and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste. Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, and ye be in your enemies' land; even then shall the land rest, and enjoy her sabbaths. As long as it lieth desolate it shall rest, because it did not rest in your sabbaths, when ye dwelt upon it."

This great judgment came in the desolation of Jerusalem by the Romans, A. D. 70. It was then declared by the Saviour, "Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled." Not that the seven times should begin there, but the old execution issued in the days of Manasseh should be enforced from that time until the full term of punishment was filled up. They had (to use a figure) been bailed out three times on their penitence, but the fourth time they were put in bondage, and there could be no more reprieve or bail until the full term expired. That the latter punishments were inflicted on the ground of the first execution, issued in the days of Manasseh, is clear

from Jeremiah xv. 4,—“ And I will cause them to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, for that which he did in Jerusalem." This, let it be remembered, was threatened 75 years after the captivity of Manasseh, and about the time of the captivity of Jehoiakim, king of Judah. Yet the punishment was threatened to be inflicted on the old execution. So Christ declared in denouncing the final doom of Jerusalem, Luke xxi., These be the days of vengeance when all things which are written shall be fulfilled." From that time Jerusalem was to be "trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled."

This punishment was to be inflicted by the four great monarchies of the earth, as represented in Daniel's four beasts. Jer. xv. 3, "I will appoint over you four kinds." In the margin it reads FAMILIES," four families. The family of Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome.

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Half this period of punishment was to be inflicted by the kingly power, the dragon; half of it by the papal power, the beast. Rev. xii. and xiii. A time, times and half, the woman fled before the dragon. That period is reduced to days, 1260 days. The next chapter gives the history of the beast, popery, who made war on the saints for 42 months. The kingly or secular power began to oppress the church and bring it into bondage in Babylon, B. C. 677, in the captivity of Manasseh. The secular or kingly power prevailed for 1215 years, up to A. D. 538, when the saints were put under the pope, or the ecclesiastical power, for 1260 years, or 42 months, and the 42 months ended in 1798. Then 45 years remained for the church under the secular governments, which end in 1843.

The time, times and a half, being reduced to days by John, Rev. xii. 14 and 6,-1260 days,-twice that will be seven times, or 2520 days. Subtract B. C. 677, from 2520, the whole period, leaves A. D. 1843.

The objection to the understanding of a time of 360 days to be 360 years, is, that in that case Nebuchadnez

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zar was made to eat grass like oxen for 2520 years. This objection would lay against us if we always used a day for a year; but we do not. We always understand time literally, if the subject will admit of it. it will not admit of its being understood literally, without contradicting matter of fact or scripture, we are obliged to understand it symbolically.

In the case of Nebuchadnezzar, there is nothing in the nature of the event which renders it necessary to understand anything but literal time; seven times, or 2520 days. But in the case of the " seven times punishment of the church, it began in the days of Manasseh, B. C. 677, but it is not yet accomplished. Hence we must either deny matter of fact, or it is symbolical time. What does a day symbolize? I answer a year. Thus God explains it, Ezek. 4th chapter, "I have given thee each day for a year." It may be said that this was only in a single instance that God gave the rule, and in reference to a particular and specified event, and so cannot form a general rule. To this it is answered, that such a rule is given; other symbolical periods are given, also, but no other rule for understanding them. Hence, we are bound to follow the rule we have, until we find another. And following it in all the periods which have transpired, we have an exact fulfilment. This was the case of "the time, times, and dividing of a time" of Daniel vii. 25, and Rev. xiii. 6, the 42 months when the dragon gave the beast his power, his seat, and great authority, and was to continue 42 months, and then he was to be led into captivity. The Greek Emperor conquered Rome from the Ostrogoths in 538, and gave it to the pope; in 1798, just 1260 years from that point, the French took Rome, abolished the papal government, erected Rome into a republic, and carried the pope into captivity to France. The 1260 days were years in this instance; and the rule must be considered as general.

Again, it should be observed, that a time is not a A year is a revolution of the earth round the sun, and has been the same in all ages. The Jewish year

year.