tiful God defires, that all fhould watch and be prepared for the great day of Judgment, which may be fuppofed not to be far diftant at that time. For the fame reason Christ, after the battle of the great day of the Almighty God, Apoc. xvi.*14. immediately proclaims: Behold I come as a thief. Bleed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, left he walk naked, and they fee his frame. Bleffed is the man, that keepeth folicitoufly his garments of virtue and good works, left at Chrift's coming he be found naked and exposed to shame and condemnation.

If we turn our eyes on another fide, we fee a beautiful picture, exhibited to us by the Prophets of the temporal profperity, which will be enjoyed at this period of time by the Jews, that is, the Jews changed into Chriftians, under whofe name may be comprehended the whole body of the Chriftian people. Among the many paffages relating to this fubject, we fhall recite a few.

Joel after defcribing the great flaughter in the vale of Jofaphat, thus continues,

Chap. iii. v. 17. And you shall know that I am the Lord your God, dwelling in Sion, my holy mountain: and Jerufalem fhall be holy, and strangers fhall pass through it no more.

V. 18. And it fall come to pass in that day, that the mountains fall drop down fweetness, and the hills fhall flow with milk: and waters fhall flow through all the rivers of Juda: and a fountain fhall come forth of the houfe of the Lord, and fhall water the torrent of thorns.

V. 19. Egypt fhall be a defolation, and Edom a wilderness deftroyed: because they have done unjustly against the Children of Juda, and have shed innocent blood in their land.

V. 20. And Judæa fhall be inhabited for ever, and Jerufalem to generation and generation.

Ezechiel speaks in the following manner :

Chap.

Chap. xxxvii. v. 21. And thou shalt fay to them: thus faith the Lord God: behold, I will take the Children of Ifrael from the midst of the nations whither they are gone and I will gather them on every fide, and will bring them to their own land.

V. 24. And my fervant David * fhall be king over them, and they shall have one shepherd, they shall walk in my judgments, and fhall keep my commandments, and fhall do them.

V. 25. And they shall dwell in the land which I gave to my fervant Jacob, wherein your fathers dwelt, and they shall dwell in it, they and their children, and their childrens children, for ever: and David my fervant shall be their prince for ever.

V. 26. And I will make a covenant of peace with them, it shall be an everlafting covenant with them: and I will eftablish them, and will multiply them, and will fet my fanctuary in the midst of them for

ever, &c.

The fame Prophet, after relating the deftruction of Gog, pursues thus, or rather the Almighty by his mouth.

Chap. xxxix. v. 22. And the house of Ifrael shall know that I am their Lord their God from that day and forward..

V. 26. And they shall hear their confufion, and all the tranfgreffions wherewith they have tranfgreffed against me, when they shall dwell in their land fecurely fearing no man..

V. 28. And they shall know that I am the Lord their God, because I caufed them to be carried away among the nations and I have gathered them together unto their own land, and have not left any of them there.

V. 29. And I will hide my face no more from them, for I have poured out my spirit upon all the house of Ifrael, faith the Lord God.

The Prophet Amos gives us alfo a pleafing defcription of the fame profperity.

* Chrift, the Meffiah.

Chap.

Chap. ix. v. 13. Behold the days come, faith the Lord, when the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of the grapes of him that foweth feed: and the mountains shall drop fweetness, and every hill shall be tilled.

V. 14. And I will bring back the captivity of my people Ifrael: and they shall build the abandoned cities, and inhabit them: and they shall plant vineyards, and shall drink the wine of them; and shall make gardens, and eat the fruits of them. And I will plant them upon their own land: and I will no more pluck them out of their land, which I have given them, faith the Lord thy God. Such is this remarkable æra of peace, profperity, and fpiritual bleffings.

One may naturally suppose that the Chriftians, at their emerging from the fevere trials they had been subjected to, were uncommonly full of zeal and religious fervour and fo it feems to be intimated by the above-cited paffages out of the Prophets. But the human mind from its native inconftancy foon forgets the greateft troubles, when they are paffed. Profperity alfo is a charm generally productive of inattention and neglect, and contributes much to revive in man his natural propensity to licentioufnefs. Such will be the cafe of this laft period of time, in which mankind will gradually relax in their fervour, and degenerate in their morals. Our Saviour has told us to beware of the laft day, to watch, and be ready to appear before him at the bar of Judgment: Watch ye, says he, because ye know not what hour your Lord will come.... Be ready, because at what hour ye know not, the Son of man will come, Matt. xxiv. 42, 44. And again he fpeaks in the Apocalypfe :-Behold I come as a thief, xvi. 15. St. Peter alfo gives us the fame warning: The day of the Lord will come as a thief, 2 Pet. iii. 10. But these admonitions will by degrees lofe their influence and be forgotten, the human paffions will

you

recover

recover their power, and the pleasures of the world will become again the common purfuit of men; as we learn from our Saviour's own words: As in days of Noe, fays he, fo shall alfo the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, even till that day in which Noe entered into the ark. And they knew not till the flood came, and took them all away: fo alfo shall the coming of the Son of man be. Matt. xxiv. 37, 38, 39. Thus then the generality of mankind having degenerated into a ftate of forgetfulness of God, employed now in indulging themselves in fenfual gratifications, unmindful of all the ominous alarming figns that had preceded, and the repeated admonitions given them, Behold! The feventh Seal is opened.

CHA P. XIII.

The Hiftory of the feventh Age of the Chriftian Church. The feventh Seal is opened.

APOC. Chap. VIII. v. 1. And when he, the Lamb, had opened the feventh Seal, there was filence in Heaven, as it were for half an hour. The Lamb having opened the feventh Seal, there follows a filence in Heaven for a while, in appearance about half an hour. During this time the Almighty thinks fit to difclofe to the whole heavenly court of Angels and Saints, his eternal and infcrutable decrees refpecting mankind and the exiftence of this world. The Heavenly Auditory attend in filence and with profound respect, while he graciofly unfolds to them the whole fyftem of economy, by which he has governed the world ever fince its creation, and the whole courfe of his great and 3 F merciful

This he does, not in words, but by fecret interior communication, fuch as is fuitable to the nature of spirits.

merciful difpenfations to man. The Almighty is willing to difplay before them the immenfe and fuperabundant ftore of bleffings, that have flowed from the inexhauftible fource of his paternal affection upon mankind, ever fince the first moment of their exiftence. He fhews, that his tenderness and bounty towards mankind have been without meafure, and that if a great number of them perish, their perdition is owing to themfelves. He then makes known his intention of putting an immediate ftop to the whole human race, and bringing them to judgment: he fignifies, that the time he had fixed for the existence of the world, is now expired, and he is now going to put an end to it *. Upon which

The feventh Trumpet Sounds.

Chap. xi. v. 15. And the feventh Angel founded the Trumpet: and there were great voices in heaven, faying: the kingdom of this world is become our Lord's and his Christ's, and he shall reign for ever and ever. Amen.

V. 16. And the four and twenty Ancients, who fit on their feats in the fight of God, fell on their faces, and adored God,

V. 17. Saying: We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, who art, and who wast, and who art to come: because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and thou haft reigned,

V. 18. And the Nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged,

* That fuch are, in part, the Divine intimations on this occafion, may be collected from the applaufes of the heavenly Choirs expreffed in the following Trumpet-As upon the opening of the feventh Seal the period of the world finishes, it is juft that at that time the wife and bountiful oeconomy of Chrift through the whole government of his Church fhould be acknowledged. For that reafon Benedi&ion or praise was folemnly offered to the Lamb, Apoc. v. 12.-See page 20.