christ, was in part established by William III. prince of Orange, in the year 1689; so that by the year 1717, his kingdom was sufficiently weakened to establish that period, answerable to the prophecy. 10. But as the fulness of time was not yet come to finish the scattering of the holy people, and to set up the kingdom of Christ; therefore, in another prophecy, 30 years more are added to the 1260, which brings the 1290 years, to the year 1747. CHAP. XV. 11. By this time, in the order of providence, the principles of freedom and the rights of conscience, were so far established as to weaken the powers of persecution in the kingdom of Antichrist, and make room for the present work and testimony of God; in which was expressly fulfilled that prophecy, The earth Rev. helped the woman. 16. 12. Then as the true order of the primitive Church was wholly lost, and the great apostacy established as early as the year 457; therefore the 1335 years of waiting, and coming unto the days of blessedness, commenced at that period, and expired in the year 1792, by which time the Church was established in its present order, as the antitype of the second temple, to which the Desire of all nations was to come. Hag. 7. 13. So that the expiration of the 1335 years, or year 1792, was the period for the fulfilment of that prophecy, and the commencement of all the blessedness, spoken of by all the prophets; and beyond this, no given period of prophecy extends, as thence forward unto the end, in conformity to the beginning, all things will be fulfilled, pertaining to the salvation of mankind, and all the glory and blessedness of the latter day. i 26, 31, 33 14. The work of Christ in his first appearing, is Actsi22. considered as beginning from the baptism of John, John until by his ministry, the way was prepared in the people, and one was found standing among them, whom neither John, nor the people had before known. So the second appearing of Christ is considered as beginning from the preparatory work in the people, under the ministration of James Wardley, from the year 1747, and onward, until the Mother was anointed among them, and sent forth of God, to bear a public testimony against the flesh. CHAP. 10. XV. 15. And therefore, by taking 1747 from 1792, there are 45 years of gradual increase, from the commencement of the present work of God in England, until the building and establishment of the Church in America; within this period all the transactions occurred, relating to Mother, and the work under her ministry, as they are circumstantially stated in the Introduction. 16. For although the 2300 years, for the time of cleansing the sanctuary, expired in the year 1747; yet as the work was of a gradual nature, it could not be completed at once. Therefore the real blessedness, which was to flow from it, was not dated at the period when it began, but 45 years later, when the work of cleansing and purifying was to be in such a manner completed, that the way into the Holiest of all should be made manifest. 17. And therefore it was said, Blessed is he that waiteth and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days: which evidently expired at the year 1792, when the Church was fully established in the present order of the gospel. 18. Much time has been spent in calculating the foregoing prophecies, under the dark night of apostacy, particularly in the latter ages, by the learned and wise men of this world: but as men cannot see Dan. x to read in the dark, and none of the wicked were to understand; therefore the events could not be seen, nor the manner of their fulfilment searched out, until it was revealed by the light of Christ, at his second appearing, and even then only by those who received him, and who were ready and watching at the time appointed. 9-13. 19. The most favoured prophet could not read his Dan. xii. own prophetic numbers. Go thy way, Daniel: (said the angel ;) for the words are closed up and scaled till the time of the end-thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days. Neither was it for the curious inquiries of the disciples to be answered, in reActs i. 7. gard to the times and seasons, which the Father had put in his own power. 20. The present work of God must always be seen in and by its present light; not through the telescopes of human wisdom, nor by the treasures of human XV. knowledge, which the wise and prudent of this world CHAP. have treasured up to themselves; nor according to the conceptions of the proud and lofty. 21. They may discern the face of the sky; but they will never know the signs of the times, until they come down to Christ where he is manifested, according to his own counsel: Take my yoke upon you, Matt. 2 and learn of me ; for I am meek and lowly in heart : and ye shall find rest to your souls. 29. 22. The learned scribes and Pharisees sat in the seat of Moses, in whom they trusted; but these hypocrites clearly manifested that they regarded neither Moses, nor the Messiah of whom he wrote: for they disbelieved the former, and totally rejected the latter. Had ye believed Moses, said Jesus, ye would John v. have believed me: for he wrote of me. 23. They professed great veneration for the ancient prophets, by garnishing the sepulchres of those whom their fathers had killed, and saying, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets; while they themselves, denied the holy One, and the Just, of whom they were the betrayers and murderers; and by so doing, they made a jest of the oracles of the prophets, trampled upon their prophecies, and denied both the time and manner of their fulfilment. 40. Mat.xxi 29, 30. 14. vii. 51 52. 24. It was the manner of Jesus to teach in the synagogues of the Jews, on the sabbath days. On one of those occasions, in his own country, where he had been brought up, he read the words of the prophet Isaiah The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the Luke iv. poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised; to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. 25. In that day, and at that time, was this scripture fulfilled in their ears. So testified Jesus. But who, of all those of the synagogue, believed that this scripture was fulfilled in hin? Or who of them believed that this was the acceptable year of the Lord, and that God had anointed and sent him to proclaim it? Not one. 26. They scorned to stoop so low as to acknowledge such a mean character, whom they so well 16-29. XV. CHAP. knew as the son of a carpenter, brought up among them, and with whose kindred and parentage they were so well acquainted, instead of that extraordinary personage whom they expected to come in great power and splendor as the Messiah. Whence, say they, hath this man this wisdom, and these mighty works? Is not this the carpenter's son ? And they were offended at him. Mat. xiii. 54, 55. Aets vi 61. 27. But Jesus said, "Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy own country." But he testified to them of a truth, that many widows were in Israel, in the days of Elias, when there was great famine throughout the land; but unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto a widow of Sidon: and that many lepers were in Israel, in the time of Elisha; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman, the Syrian. And the true reason why their widows were not visited, nor their lepers cleansed, was, that they were a stiff-necked and gainsaying generation, who killed the prophets, and stoned those who were sent unto them. 28. But what effect had the truth on the descendants of those unbelievers? Truly, the same effect that it had on their stiff-necked and rebellious forefathers-they always resisted the Holy Ghost: as their fathers did, so did they: For all they of the synagogue, when they heard the truth, were filled with wrath, and rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him to the brow of the hill, that they might cast him down head-long. 29. This was the manner in which the Saviour of mankind was treated in his first appearing; and there never was a time since man fell from his first rectitude to the present day, that the work of God was not objected against, and the testimony of his witnesses rejected by all hypocrites and unbelievers. 30. But the objecters and gainsayers of the present day, would flatter themselves that they are not unbelievers, and that, if they had been in the time, and enjoyed privilege of those wicked Jews who denied Christ, they would not have been partakers with them in their evil deeds; while there never were any gainsayers to the work of God, in any dispensation XV. of his grace, but what were of that perverse and CHAP gainsaying generation, who do always resist the Holy Ghost, by their objections and cavils. 31. The unbelieving Jews were always ready to charge Jesus of Nazareth with great pride and prcsumption, in applying to himself, and to the time then present, the title and dignity of the Messiah, and the fulfilment of that superior power and authority of his mission, spoken of by the prophets. They objected against him on every side-They objected, "We know this man, whence he is: but when Christ John vi 27, 52. cometh, no man knoweth whence he is-Search and look for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet." He chap. v. had not only broken the sabbath, but said also, that 18. God was his Father, making himself equal with God.Art thou greater than our father Abraham ? said they; viii. 53. whom makest thou thyself?-For a good work we X. 33. stone thee not; but for blasphemy, and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God. 32. Thus those gainsayers denied not only the person whom God had anointed, but also denied his mission, together with the time, and place, and manner of his appearing. And while they spent their time in objecting and cavilling against the propriety of Christ's testimony, aiming to prove that this was not the appearance of the Saviour, whom the prophets had pointed out, they wasted the day of their visitation, and only proved that they were yet servants to sin; and that it was their choice and intention to continue such, under the hypocritical mask of professing to believe in Abraham, and Moses, and the prophets. 2 Pet. in. 33. In the same situation, and actuated by the same gainsaying spirit, are those who, at this day, would labour to prove, that the day of the Lord is not See Hag. yet come, and that Christ has not made his second 2. appearing, but all things continue as they were; be- 3,4. cause they have not allotted for themselves, that the purpose of God should be accomplished in this their day, but in some future day; nor have they prepared their hearts to believe that the manner of God's work would be contrary to all the plans devised by their human wisdom. 34. And therefore, while they labour to prove that Ааа |