whose forbearance and long suffering were not to be exhausted by renewed provocation.

But to obtain a perception, however feeble, of the brightness of that countenance, which, with a subdued and placid glory, beams upon his works, that are every where impressed with the evidence of his goodness and mercy; we must raise the eye of faith to that "better and heavenly country," which he has prepared for those that love him, which with a light, surpassing that of the sun and moon, we are taught to believe, he will illumine with the brightness of his presence.*. We must look, beyond the low and gloomy vale of our present sojourn, to that joyful state, which in its designation as a sabbatism, includes the notion of rest and holiness; in their delineations of which, the inspired seers to whom it was revealed, have exhausted the powers of language, and imagery of description. In the visions unfolded to their enraptured sense, paradise appears renewed, in its original peace and loveliness. Within its sacred bounds, from which corruption and violence are excluded, "there shall in no wise enter any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination." As the savage races shall change their instincts, and forget their antipathies, "the wolf

* Is. lx. 20. Rev. xxi. 23.

+ Rev. xxi. 27.

shall dwell with the lamb and the leopard lie

down with the kid."

beset the path, the

Where peril has hitherto innocent shall sport un

harmed, and lay down its head in unsuspecting security for "the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den."*

The possibility, that this state of tranquil happiness may be renewed upon earth, the nature of that "new and better Covenant," into which it is our privilege to be admitted, forbids us to call in question. Were the precepts which it inculcates reduced to practice, no doubt could be felt, that the fiercer passions would be disarmed, and the corrupt desires be utterly extinguished. And were they once laid at rest, as little could arise, that the horrors of war, and the tumults of riotous excess, would be for ever extinct. As the charity which it inculcates, was prompt to administer comfort and consolation, distress would be rarely if at all known: while the sanctity which it breathes, infused a purity not only into the words and works, but the intentions and inclinations. In the spot, upon which the Spirit, thus pure and peaceful, should rest, the highest idea would be realised, that we can conceive of heaven.

* Is. lx. 18.

To the inheritance which the carnal Israelites forfeited, we have been chosen; as regenerated, by a new and spiritual birth, to coheirship with him, to whom, as Abraham's seed, the promises were properly given. "Let us therefore fear, lest a promise being left us, of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. . . . For we which have believed do enter into rest... Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief... Let us labour to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief."*

* Heb. iv. 1, 3, 6, 11.

107

LECTURE V.

DAN. VIII. 13, 14.

"Then I heard one saint speaking, and another saint said unto that certain saint, How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, and the transgression of desolation to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot? And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed."

In considering the system of prophecy, as a connected series, in which the purposes of God, în reference to the final destination of man, are progressively revealed; our views have been hitherto confined to the destinies of the peculiar race, to whom the divine promises were given, and to whose care the inspired oracles were committed. In the chronological predictions, which have, in such a light, engaged our attention, we have beheld a revelation, not only of the great revolutions sustained by the race so distinguished, but of the circumstances and the date of their occurrence. But from the time of their return to their native

land, after their captivity in Babylon the glory may be said to have departed from Sion.

From the time of the accomplishment of the last prophecy which passed under our review, and which predicted the period of the return to Jerusalem, the Jews continued tributaries to the dominant nation, which maintained a supremacy in Asia. Under the Persians, through whom they recovered their freedom, they obtained a considerable share of immunity and privilege; although the disposition of the court to favour their inveterate rivals, the Samaritans, raised considerable obstacles to the re-establishment of the national religion, and the erection of the temple: which was the main object of the restoration of the captive nation. When the empire of the East passed from the Persians to the Macedonians, and the conquests of Alexander were distributed among his successors; the Jews became subject to the Ptolemean dynasty, which succeeded to the kingdom of Egypt. But under Ptolemy Epiphanes, they transferred their allegiance from the Egyptians to the Syrians; Antiochus the Great having annexed Judea to his dominions, and transmitted it to his sons, Seleucus and Antiochus Epiphanes. Under the last of these princes, they sustained those reverses, of the remote causes of which the prophecies of Daniel contain so explicit an account; and of which the text predicts one of the most signal