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THE TESTIMONY OF

CHRIST'S SECOND APPEARING.

PART VII.

THE SECOND APPEARING OF CHRIST;
THE FINISHING WORK OF THE
NEW CREATION.

CHAPTER I.

General Remarks on the Spirit of Prophecy.

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CCORDING to the predictions of the prophets, CHAP. many have been long looking for the commencement of what is called the MILLENNIUM, or latter day of glory, when the kingdom of Christ shall be set up and established on earth; in which all tyrannical and oppressive governments shall be overthrown and destroyed, and mankind enjoy just and equal rights in all matters, civil and religious; when all wars shall cease, and universal peace be enjoyed by the nations of the earth.

2. That such a day has long been foretold, and must necessarily take place, is clear from the whole tenor of scripture prophecy; but the time, and circumstances of that day, have been matter of reasoning and debate for many ages; while it was, in reality, out of sight of the most penetrating part of mankind, and was intended to remain so, until the work of the day should declare it.

3. God, who made the world and all things there- Acts. in, had determined the times before appointed, and 24. fixed the bounds of man's habitation, changed the heavens and the earth as he pleased, cast down, or exalted the nations according to his own wisdom, and Dan. iv. permitted the basest of men to rule over them, until

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CHAP. the times determined were accomplished, which he 1. had reserved in his own power.

4. It was, therefore, impossible in the nature of things, for the most upright men living, in their natural state, to comprehend, in its real and true nature, that which belonged to a future state of things. This belonged to God alone, and therefore could only be revealed to man, by such sensible signs, figures and similitudes, as were adapted to his natural capacity, to excite his rational belief in what was yet to appear.

5. To say nothing here, particularly, on the different parts which compose the scriptures; it is certain that, if any history of past events is to be credited, the historical part of the sacred writings claims the first and highest authority.

6. And it is equally certain, that many future events were revealed to those who were chosen of God for that purpose, under many and various similitudes, figures, and shadows, while the substances themselves were concealed from the penetration even of those unto whom the shadows were given.

7. But as many future events have been revealed by the Holy Ghost, under mysterious figures or natural appearances, the natural man must naturally form some ideas in his mind concerning them. The question then is, whether his ideas are true or false?

8. This matter may be at once decided; for if his ideas are fixed upon natural objects, because the similitudes are familiar to his natural senses, his ideas must be false; and it is evident, that until the substances themselves are actually manifested, he can have nothing to contemplate them by, but natural similitudes.

9. And although the spirit of revelation is true, yet the natural man's ideas concerning the real substances of the things, can be no other than false; and whether the similitudes are to be literally, or spiritu ally fulfilled, it is not for him to know or determine, sceing that God has reserved to himself alone, the times and seasons, and of course, the manner of their accomplishment.

10. The whole Jewish state, was, as it were, converted into natural similitudes and shadows of good

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things to come, which were confirmed to the heirs CHAP. of promise from time to time, by the most evincing evidences; yet, how long has that nation persevered in the fatal delusion, that they are the only people of God, and truc seed of promise; while bondage, captivity, death, and the curse of being scattered anong the nations, are their most distinguishing evidences!

11. And how many hundreds of years has the name Christian, bound whole nations under the same strange delusion, and furnished them with a pretext for filling the earth with the most horrid crimes!

12. Thousands, no better by nature or practice than others, by virtue of this distinguishing name, have assumed the character of God's children, laid claim to the earth as their lawful inheritance, taken up arms against every other name and character, as usurpers, and by such acts of cruelty and outrage, as are shocking to nature itself, have given their fellow creatures the greatest occasion to blaspheme the God of heaven for sending into the world such a person as Jesus Christ.

13. These fatal mistakes among mankind evidently arose from their taking the shadow for the substance; claiming a right to revelation, the spirit of which they possessed not; proposing the manner of God's work, and limiting or extending the times and seasons, which divine wisdom had reserved in his own power; and fixing their own natural and carnal ideas to the language of the Holy Ghost, by virtue of stolen words; to the true sense of which, consequently, they could never agree.

14. Hence came confusion, contentions, and debates without number; an incontestable evidence that the Holy Ghost never gave them this authority to construe her language: therefore it can be no reasonable objection against the spirit of prophecy, that the substances of what it revealed, was incomprehensible, and could not be known or understood in their true nature, until they were brought forth and exhibited in their season; seeing it was impossible in the nature of things that it should be otherwise.

15. The error or deception, therefore, is not in the mysterious language of inspiration, nor in those

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CHAP. who were simply moved to foretel, under sublime figures, what God would bring to pass in future days; but in the minds of natural and carnal men, who take upon themselves to limit or extend those times and seasons, which, in the mind of wisdom, were determined to be out of their reach until the times appointed.

16. Nor could those sublime figures in prophetic language, ever be really and truly understood, or explained, until the very times of their fulfilment ; and even then, by those only, who come into the very spirit of the work, at the day in which it is wrought.

17. Whatever may be said in opposition to divine revelation, or the spirit of prophecy, certain it is, that fallen man never could have had any sense of his future existence, or the prospects of immortality, but through this medium, whether he received it by tradition or otherwise.

18. And it is equally certain, that nothing else has ever kept the world in awe, or given any lasting energy to the impulse of human laws: and nothing but that religion, which contemplates the objects and scenes of the present life, as the prolonged shadows of a never ending eternity, could ever have prolonged those shadows to so great an extent.

19. It must, therefore, be ascribed to the wisdom of God, in revealing a future state, successive to the present, that men has been excited to that degree of natural virtue, through which his natural state, has continued to such a length of time, as to overtake that new creation, which the divine counsel had determined. For if the lawless passions of CAIN and the Canaanites, had universally prevailed, no flesh could have been saved; this world would long ago, Iai. i. 9. have been like Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities round about.

20. Much was said by the Witnesses of Truth, particularly in later ages, concerning that day in which the Mystery of God was to be finished in relation to man; but after all those prophecies, and all the reasonings of natural men, concerning their accomplishment, the words of Christ comprehend the whole : Mat. xxiv But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.

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21. Previous to the commencement of that day, CHAP. there were three things respecting it, which mankind could not possibly know. First, the time; Second, the place; and Third, the mann er in which it

was to commence.

22. FIRST. The time could not possibly be ascertained, although it was fixed in definite numbers, by various prophets. As nothing inferior to man can 1 Cor. ii. know the things of man, save the spirit of man that 11. is in him; so no man can know the things of God, but the spirit of God, by which the prophecies were given.

23. Man, as a rational creature, has fixed the times and seasons, according to the changes of this globe, in relation to the sun and moon, and has thereby established the day, the month, and the year; but inferior beings are not confined to those calculations of man; much less beings of a superior rank.

24. Again, man has been accustomed to calculate times by a variety of objects in nature, and to distinguish those calculations by various names, as generations, ages, years, months, weeks, days, hours, and seasons; but what can he certainly know beyond the limits of his own age? Nothing at all. Yet the Spirit spake of ages of ages; he may call this eternity, or what he pleases, it alters it not; he is certainly lost in the thought, because it exceeds his narrow limits.

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25. Again, in the language of the Spirit, A thou- 2 Pet.. sand years are with the Lord as one day.—I have ap- v.6. Jer. pointed thee each day for a year. And these nations xxv. 11. shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.

26. Therefore, the natural man may calculate the times to suit his own pleasure; he may comprise the greatest numbers in a few hours of the natural day, and prove the time of the promise to have been past thousands of years ago. Or if he chuses to continue in his sins during life, he may put far away the evil day, even to a future period of twenty-five millions of common years; by either of which he will also prove himself to be totally ignorant of the matter, and altogether in nature's darkness.

27. Again, an angel set the time for cleansing the

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