here used. All this corresponds with the idea of a cloud or clouds, which is almost ever suggested in the prophetic descriptions of the appearing of our Lord.

This will be the very presence of his glory, and every eye in all the earth shall see him as really and as properly as Paul saw him after he had entered into his glory; and as Stephen, when he looked into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God.

At mount Sinai, the ancients of Israel went up unto the Lord." And they saw the God of Israel: and there was under his feet, as it were a paved work of a sapphire-stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness-they saw God, and did eat and drink." This was his proper presence and this most glorious vision is referred to in a prophecy of the millennium, to give an idea of the blissful vision of the King of glory, that will then open to his people. Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the Lord of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients, gloriously."

66

To conclude; if the things we have noted be not the sign of the Son of Man that shall appear and give the warning to his people of his coming; what is? The sign of the Son of Man, and the midnight cry, spoken of by Matthew, are doubtless one. When these things come to pass, "the wise shall understand," and lift up their heads, and rejoice. Therefore is the time come to look for the final destruction of Antichrist-for the conversion of the Jews-for the battle of that great day of God Almighty, and for the natural signs and omens of his second advent? Yea, do

these things begin to come to pass? Then, open the ear of wisdom, and hear the cry at midnight, "Behold, the Bridegroom cometh!"

"Come then, and, added to thy many crowns,
Receive yet one, the crown of all the earth,
Thou who alone art worthy! it was thine
By ancient covenant, ere nature's birth,
And thou hast made it thine by purchase since,
And overpaid its value with thy blood.

Thy saints proclaim thee King; and in their hearts
Thy title is engraven with a pen

Dipt in the fountain of eternal love.

Thy saints proclaim thee King; and thy delay
Gives courage to their foes, who, could they see
The dawn of thy last advent long desired,
Would creep into the bowels of the hills,
And flee for safety to the falling rocks.
The very spirit of the world is tired
Of its old taunting question, asked so long,
Where is the promise of your Lord's approach?
The infidel has shot his bolts away,
Till, his exhausted quiver yielding none,

He gleans the blunted shafts that have recoiled,
And aims them at the shield of truth again.
The veil is rent, rent too by priestly hands,
That hides divinity from mortal eyes;
And all the mysteries to faith proposed,
Insulted and traduced, are cast aside,
As useless, to the moles, and to the bats.
They now are deemed the faithful, and are praised,
Who, constant only in rejecting thee,

Deny thy Godhead with a martyr's zeal.
And quit their office for their errors' sake,
Blind, and in love with darkness! yet even those,
Worthy, compared with sycophants, who kneel,
Thy name adoring, and then preach thee man.
So fares thy church. But how thy church may fare,
The world takes little thought; who will may preach
And what they will. All pastors are alike
To wandering sheep, resolved to follow none.
Two gods divide them all, pleasure and gain:

For these they live, they sacrifice to these,
And in their service wage perpetual war
With conscience, and with thee. Lust in their hearts
And mischief in their hands, they roam the earth
To prey upon each other; stubborn, fierce.
High-minded, foaming out their own disgrace:
Thy prophets speak of such; and noting down
The features of the last degenerate times,
Exhibit every lineament of these.

Come then, and, added to thy many crowns,
Receive yet one, as radiant as the rest,
Due to thy last, and most effectual work,
Thy word fulfilled, the conquest of a world."

CowPER.

LECTURE II.

THE LAST TRUMPET.

But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God shall be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.-REV. x. 7.

THE Sounding of trumpets " was a statute for Israel, and a law of the God of Jacob."

By the ordinance of the Lord, the chosen tribes assembled, marched, celebrated their holy feasts, and joined battle with their enemies, by the sound of trumpets.

By divine appointment also, trumpets were used for the dividing of times: the ending and beginning of every month was noted by the voice of the trumpet, particularly the seventh; on which account the first day of the seventh month was called "a day of blowing the trumpets""a sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trum pets."

The seventh month was thus distinguished, because in it were the great day of atonement, and the great feast of tabernacles.

But the last and most remarkable division of Jewish time was the great jubilee; which also was proclaimed by blowing the trumpet. This is called, Leviticus xxv. 9, the trumpet loud of sound; and Isaiah xxvii. 13, the great trumpet: and this also was blown on the seventh month, and in the order of institution, as well as of the division of time, was the last trumpet. To which seventh division of time, and this last great jubilee, and the trumpets which ushered them in, continual reference is had in those passages of Scripture which note the opening of the last dispensation of the mediatorial kingdom.

According to such a pattern from the mount, one of the visions of St. John is divided by trumpets, the seventh and last of which is the most remarkable, and answereth to the Jewish seventh month, or last division of time, the great jubilee.

Our present inquiry, concerning the great truths of revelation, will be, what is to take place at the sounding of the seventh trumpet?

The seventh trumpet will commence the glori ous kingdom of Christ.

"And the seventh angel sounded, and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever. And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God, saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned." Rev. xi. 15-17.