afts have grafted upon it; nor does it contain any thing contrary to the analogy of faith, but rather affords a folid ground of confolation, for those who are interested in the fuccefs and prof perity of the church of Christ. For the prefent, as in times paft, men of wit may employ their talents to ridicule,-men of power, their influence to oppose,-corrupt churchmen may pervert, and profligate Chriftians disgrace the religion of Jefus Chrift. But the time is fast approaching, when God himself fhall fet all to rights. Religion fhall be had in honour. Truth and righteousness shall prevail, in defiance of the oppofition of earth and hell. Such as are faithful witnefles to the truth, however unsuccessful in their day and generation, have the confolation to think, that when they fhall be reaping the reward of their fidelity, in the higher House, the doctrines they taught, and the prayers they offered, fhall have their full effect on generations yet unborn.

As this view of the Millennium, unfolds the feveral representations of fcripture concerning it'; fo there is nothing in it improbable, or beyond what we may reasonably expect from the demonstrations of divine power, already man fested in the difpenfations of grace, and the conduct of providence. If we confider the powerful effect produced by means seemingly inadequate

quate, in the firft ages of Christianty; if we reflect that a few illiterate fishermen, teaching naked truths, without eloquence to perfuade, or power to oblige men to receive them, triumphed over the prejudices of the Jews, and the enmity of the Gentiles; broke down the bulwarks of fu perftition and prieftcraft; refifted the utmoft force of a warlike empire exerted to fupprefs them, and induced multitudes to receive the truth in the remoteft corners of the earth; it cannot appear improbable, that by a greater exertion of the fame divine power, at the period which God hath appointed, the truth shall spread more extenfively, and operate more effectually on those who receive it. Again, if we reflect, that the greatest empires have had their fall; particularly, that the laft and most powerful, which fondly vaunted itself to be eternal, has been diffolved by his command, "who hiffeth "from afar, and the nations of the earth obey “him.” Is there any thing unreasonable in faying, that the mightiest empires now on earth, whether Pagan, Mahometan, or Popish, are feeble barriers against the power of that ftone cut out without hands, which shall reduce them to duft, and become a mountain to fill the whole earth.

СНАР.

CHAPTER VIII.

Of the Events which shall take place, from the clofe of the Millennium, to the great Day of Judgment.

SECTION I.

The Invafion of the Church by Gog.

THE happiness of the church, after the union of Jews and Gentiles into one body, continues a thousand years uninterrupted. There is notwithstanding reafon to fuppofe, that certain countries, or at any rate, individuals remain all along ftrangers, to the vital influence of the truth. These are, "the miry places not healed by the "river that iffued from the fanctuary," Ezek. lxvii. 11. It may happen too, that the long continued prosperity of that period, fhall, towards the close, multiply worldly minded perfons, within the pale of the church; for it is certain, that of fuch the army of Gog confifts, as we fhall presently fee" and when the thousand years "are expired, Satan fhall be loofed out of his

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prifon, and fhall go out to deceive the na"tions which are in the four quarters of the "earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them toge"ther to battle; the number of whom is as the

"fand

"fand of the fea. And they went up on the "breadth of the earth, and compaffed the camp "of the faints about, and the beloved city: and "fire came down from God out of heaven, and "devoured them," Rev. xx. 7.-9. This account is fhort, because the fame enemy of the church, had been already largely described by the Old-Teftament prophets. This ferves chiefly to note the time of his appearance in the world.

The prophet Ezekiel gives a minute account of the enemy by the fame name, chap. xxxviii. and xxxix. throughout. No doubt some of the moft eminent commentators on the Apocalypfe, as Mede and Newton, apply the description of the prophet to a different period, and to quite another person than this mentioned by the Apoftle: However, a minute examination and comparison of both paffages, must convince the unprejudiced that they refer to the fame perfon.

1. The prophet repeatedly enforcés on Judea, that a long period of time fhould intervene betwixt the prediction and the accomplishment of it. "After many days thou fhalt be vifited: in "the latter years thou shalt come into the land," (Ezek. xxxviii. 8.) "It fhall be in the latter

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days," ver. 16. " Art thou he of whom I have

spoken in old time by my fervants,—which prophefied in thofe days many years, that I "would bring thee against them ?" ver. 17. Gog and his army are "to come up against the peo

" ple

"ple of Ifrael, as a cloud to cover the land" of Judea, ver. 16. And this circumftance not only refutes the application of the prophecy to times and events already paft, but likewife directs our attention to the laft event predicted, that which immediately precedes the general refurrection, and last judgment, with which the apoftle has explicitly connected it.

2. The prophet carefully notes another circumftance relative to the time of Gog's appearance, that the Jews should then be in poffeffion of their own land, after a long difperfion. "Thou shalt come into the land that is brought "back from the fword, and is gathered out of

many people, against the mountains of Ifrael, "which have been always wafte: but it is "brought forth out of the nations," Ezek. xxxviii. 8. "to turn thine hand upon the defo"late places that are now inhabited, and upon "the people that are gathered out of the na❝tions," ver. 12. This circumftance, in conjunction with that mentioned in the preceding paragraph, clearly demonftrates, that the prophet has an eye to the re-fettlement of the Jews in their own land, after their prefent difperfion. Now, from the time the Jews go up to take poffeffion of their native land, until the day of judgment, the Apocalypfe fhews, that no memorable battle is fought betwixt the members of the church and her enemies, excepting two, the bat

tle