heavens and a new earth, wherein righteousness shall dwell. And this is also declared in the most express terms, in Rev. xxi. 1, 4, 5. In To But it is not only in the Scriptures just adduced, that these awful things are revealed; many others will be found equally explicit-the Book of Psalms, especially, in passages almost without number. chap. xiii. of Isaiah, the kingdoms of the nations are said to be gathered together—a destruction shall come from the Almighty. He will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity. describe the extent of the destruction, it explains, that he will make a weak, infirm man in the flesh, W more precious than the fine gold, even a man of the earth more precious than the golden wedge of Ophir; and I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place. Again, in Isaiah xxiv. "Fear and the pit and the snare are upon thee, 0 inhabitant of the earth-for the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake the earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved." And in Isaiah xxxiv. "All the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and they shall be rolled together as a scroll;" and xli. 6. The heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein : T t shall die in like manner,"-which passages are explained by the Apostle Paul in Heb.i. with reference to Messiah coming in the latter day to change the heavens and the earth. It seems hardly possible to describe a more complete destruction than that which is here spoken of; nevertheless, it is written, that in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, that is, in the place where the Lord's presence is manifested, there shall be deliverance, and that whoso calleth upon his name shall be delivered; and again, "Ye shall be gathered one by one, ye children of Israel," Isaiah xxvii. 12. The context from which this last passage is taken, shews that it relates to the deliverance of the last days, when the great trumpet is blown and they shall come, who were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and were outcasts in the land of Egypt-alluding, doubtless, to the Lord's remnant in the flesh, whom he will collect together in the appointed place of safety in that day. This is again confirmed by Zeph. ii. 3. where the nation not desirous, (see margin)-the nation which did not desire, but rejected Messiah, is thus called upon to gather itself together, before the day of the Lord's fierce anger come upon them"Seek ye the Lord-It may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord's fierce anger." The context makes it evident that Messiah's coming is the day referred to. The preceding references shew that the renewing of the heavens and the earth, is spoken of continually in those parts of the Sacred Volume which treat of their destruction in the latter day. This renewing is the restitution of all things, the refreshing from the presence of the Lord, which Peter in Acts ii. declares shall take place at the second coming of Jesus Christ. The Lord saith of it in Isaiah lxvi. 22. “The new heavens and the new earth which I will make, shall remain before me;" and these are the peaceable habitations, the sure dwellings, and the quiet resting places, which are promised to the Lord's people. The faculties of man are wholly unequal to comprehend the blessings and the glories of that rest; for "Since the beginning of the world, (saith the prophet) men have not heard nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he (Messiah) hath prepared for him that waiteth for him." One great change, ordained to take place in the long wished for season of refreshing, is the entire removal of the curse. In order that this object may be effected, it seems necessary that the enemy who beguiled the woman, and thus brought in the curse, should be bound, lest the Church of Christ should again be afflicted through his machinations. The twentieth chapter of Revelations represents this binding of the evil one, who is cast into the bottomless pit, and the Lord's seal is set upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, until the Millennial dispensation is ended, after which he must be loosed a little season. The angel who inflicts the sentence, is the same who saith of himself in Rev. i. 18. "I am he that liveth, and was dead, and behold I am alive for evermore, Amen, and have the keys of death and hell." If it shall indeed be found, that the Lord Jesus cometh with power and great glory, at the close of the 1290 years, whenever that period may be, it may be collected from the twelfth chapter of Daniel, as already remarked, that the 45 years will be occupied in fulfilling the several events which have been treated of, and which, according to Scripture, must take place before the Church sits down finally in her rest: viz. the resurrection of the departed saints, the gathering of the Lord's remnant in the flesh from out of the tents of the ungodly, the judgment of the wicked by Messiah, the binding of Satan, the removal of the curse, and the changing of the present heavens and earth, so that they may again be such as they were when it was said of them, that God saw that they were good. Between the law and the gospel, there was a sort of intermediate dispensation, during which the one passed away, and merged into the other. This era commenced with the ministry of John the Baptist in the wilderness, and continued until the Lord's resurrection. The period of 45 years will probably be found in like manner something intermediate between the gospel and Millennium, extending from the first manifestation of the Son of Man, or of his forerunner, the latter-day Elijah, until the complete establishment of the Millennial Church. this remains to be developed, but it seems clearly intimated in the type of David and Solomon remaining upon the throne together for some time, after Solomon was anointed king in Gihon, that some new dispensation of a mixed kind will take place in the first instance, and that the one will sink into the other. All The Lord's risen saints live and reign with him a thousand years, even for the hidden ages; and the revelation which is given concerning the nature and circumstances of those times must form the subject of another chapter. But it is revealed to us that the rest of the dead, who have not their part in the first resurrection, shall not live again till the thousand years are finished. When that era is expired, whatever may prove to be the duration of it, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and he shall go out to deceive the nations, which are in the four quarters of |