Jacob believed in the literal fulfilment of the promise, . The promise not yet fulfilled, Abraham, &c., must be raised from the grave to inherit the Land, THE DURATION OF MESSIAH'S KINGDOM. The duration of the earth eternal, Peter does not teach the annihilation of the earth, The earth the subject of great changes, The earth perfectly purified, The restitution of all things, The increase of the race in the eternal kingdom, To this state of increase all things are tending, Th increase of the race worthy of God, The time of giving the kingdom pointed out by Daniel, pointed out by Paul, indicated by Paul in Romans, When the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled, CHAPTER I. DAVID AND MESSIAH'S THRONE. “The Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: and he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever: and of his kingdom there shall be no end.”—LUKE i. 32, 33. THE angel Gabriel was a distinguished and highly renowned servant of Jehovah. He was repeatedly employed by God to reveal his wonderful purposes of mercy, involving the salvation of a world dead in sin : and "the exceeding and eternal weight of glory" in sure reserve for believers in Christ Jesus. Among these revelations the future and glorious kingdom of Messiah, destined ultimately to destroy and supersede all other great and hoary kingdoms, and endure unrivalled and unshaken for ever, in which redeemed men shall be absolutely holy and supremely blessed; the kingdom of which all the prophets in their turn have spoken, and sung in rapturous strains, and described in glowing language and imagery-to which patriarchs and holy men in every age have, by the eye of faith, looked forward, with longing, burning desire, and fer vently wished to see--for the speedy coming of which the faithful upon earth have ever prayed, and are even now, with the same heaven-enkindled desire, praying and sending up one loud and earnest burst of supplication, for which the whole creation now subject to vanity, bondage, the curse for man's disobedience, are groaning and travailing in pain together, and are in throes of dreadful agony-for which the souls under the altar, crying for the Lord to avenge their blood, are anxiously waiting-and to which the spirits gathered out of all nations round about the throne are looking forward as their peculiar possession, as their incorruptible inheritance-holds a conspicuous place, and rises up by his divine revelations in matchless beauty and glory to our view. He exhibits that kingdom as the burden, the consummation, the most glorious thing, which by God he was commissioned to reveal. Other truths which he makes known may be like stars in the midnight sky; but this he ushers in and makes it shine like the bright, the morning star; like the rising sun upon a long, dark, dreary night. All the glory of the other truths, like so many streams rolling to the ocean, concentrates here, and shines in united, unclouded blaze. It forms the new, the glorious creation "of the restitution of all things." Gabriel's eye seems to rest peculiarly upon Messiah's glorious kingdom, and his knowledge of it appears great and extensive, and his views clear and impressive. To him intervening kingdoms have seemingly |