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which an earlier and darker age was involved, the further assurance was accordingly added, that 'knowledge should be increased, and the wise 'should understand.'231 We have besides received a particular assurance, that wisdom is evinced by the understanding, which can count the number ' of the beast. '232 We have been also given a general injunction, to take heed unto prophecy, ' as a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day-star rise in our hearts. 2233 While our investigations are pursued with a dependance on the divine guidance, and submission to the inspired word, we may, under these assurances, prosecute inquiry. Nor need we apprehend, that by merely searching into the sense of what is written, we shall incur the charge of irreverence or presumption; with which their curiosity was deservedly rebuked who sought to penetrate into God's unsearchable counsels.

There are indeed limits set to our inquiry, as to our powers, which it is not permitted us to transgress, without presumption or danger. From the strong declarations of our Lord, to his disciples, we derive the assurance, that respecting the future, as placed under the absolute disposal of the divine inscrutable Mind, by no inquiry of ours can any thing positive be determined. And from hence we may discern the weakness and presumption of the

231 Dan. xii. 4. 10. 232 Rev. xiii. 18. 233 2 Pet. i. 19.

attempt, to fix on any particular year, in which the Millennium will commence ; and the fruitlessness of the endeavour to be informed, whether, in our own times, it is likely to happen. The rest which God has prepared for his people was promised to the patriarchs, and offered to the Jews, as well on their delivery from the bondage of Egypt, as their restitution from the captivity of Babylon. It is proposed to ourselves, on the same conditions that it was offered to them; and we are required to pray that it may come, and to prepare ourselves for its arrival. But while it is placed beyond human calculation to determine how soon it may arrive: we have received an intimation, that beyond a certain period, it will not be protracted. With this qualification, I should wish my declarations to be strictly understood, as relating exclusively to the œcumenical government, which was committed to Christ, and has been invaded by Antichrist. The epoch of this usurpation I conceive to be accurately fixed in A. D. 736; and as its continuance is limited to 1260 years, I have consequently concluded, that the opening of the Millennium may be dated from A. D. 1996. Let me not be then supposed to doubt, that it is in the power of Him, to whom all things are possible, to consummate his designs, without any restriction to time or circumstance. As it is

7234

234 Jerem. xxxii. 17. Matt. xix. 26.

my duty to pray, and to be prepared, for the arrival of those blissful times; I am bound to believe, that the Almighty is as omnipotent to accomplish his secret purpose, whatever it may be, in the days of the present week, as in the great sabbatism of ages.

As far as respects the determination of the time of the Millennium, few difficulties remain, in which it can be thought to be embarassed. An objection has indeed suggested itself to some, from the declaration of the very Evangelist, who has most circumstantially described the Great Sabbath. In speaking of an antichristian spirit which had arisen in his own times, he has been thought to antedate, by several years, the time of the great apostacy. 'Little children,' he declares, it is the last time, ' and as ye have heard that Antichrist shall come, even now are there many Antichrists; wherefore we know, that it is the last time.'235 But by the last times,' it will not be disputed, we must understand the whole period of the Evangelical dispensation, as opposed to the Levitical; extending, of course, from the destruction of the Temple to the second Resurrection.236 While the Apostle's declaration proves the existence of a defection in his own times, there is consequently nothing in his words which can restrict the period of the great apostacy to those times, rather than to the epoch 236 Vid. ut supr. p. 35. n. 63.

235 1 John ii. 18.

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from which it has been dated in the preceding investigation. In his declaration, it is plainly implied, that such a personage was expected, and that he would be distinguished by his denial of the Father and the Son :'237 but it is far from insinuated, that the Antichrist, who was properly designated as such, was come, much less that he was manifested. No more is, indeed, conveyed in his words, than that an antichristian spirit, by which the last days' would be distinguished, had already begun to be apparent. This, we have observed, was particularly the case, when the kingdom of Christ was oppressed by a succession. of persecutors, to whom, as the adversaries of his sovereignty, the title was strictly applicable. But in the deplorable state to which Christianity was reduced under their domination, there is a practical refutation of the supposition, that the time of the Millennium should be referred to the

primitive ages. Until, indeed, the triumph of righteousness and peace which should distinguish that favored time can be identified, with the profane and persecuting tyranny that oppressed and wore out the Church; we need not seek further proofs, in subversion of any arguments that may be advanced, in support of so groundless a supposition.

In proceeding from the consideration of the time, to an inquiry into the nature of the Great Sabbath,

237 1 John ii. 22.

a prospect widely different from the unsightly and disgusting picture, on which the mind has hitherto dwelt with fatigue, unfolds itself to our contemplation. The glorious images, in which the Evangelist's vision was arrayed, present as strong a contrast to the appalling scenes from which we have turned, as the Church exhibits under Christ and Antichrist, in the contrary states of triumph and persecution. Or to borrow an illustration from the figures in which it is shadowed by the Evangelist in either state; the opposition is as decidedly marked, as between the harlot, intoxicated and satiating her thirst for blood, from the cup of her abominations; and the bride, descending in veiled modesty from above, arrayed and ornamented for the bridegroom.238

Of the divine machines of the Apocalyptic vision, under which the destinies of the Christian Church are represented as carried into effect, the opening ' of the seventh seal' appears to be the most striking and important. It is not less distinguished by the comprehensiveness and significance of the subject,239 than the impressive solemnity of the images under which it is represented. It is shadowed under one of the most solemn offices, in the hereditary religion of the Evangelist; the service of which was calculated to impress the mind with the imposing grandeur of a splendid ceremonial. 239 Newt. ut supr. p. 214. 286.

238 Rev. xvii. 4. 6. xxi. 2.