From Adam to the third coming of The millenium to continue to the end of the world in Eden before his fall; it is probable it was some years, that he might experience the blessedness and felicity of his condition, and be sensible of the gratitude due to his Creator for his ineffaole bounty and goodness in creating him, and the heavens and the earth for his use. If we suppose this space to be fifty-six years, the period between his fall and Noah would be exactly one day of one thousand years, the first period of the militant and probationary state of man. I have dated the beginning of the Reformation in the eleventh century, because it would be easy to prove that it commenced much earlier than the sixteenth, which commentators delight to call the Seculum Reformatum. For although the power of the Pope was at its height, and the light of the Gospel was in midnight-darkness, in the eleventh century, yet, even in that age, there were some stars, some pious Christians, who opposed the doctrines of popery; and it seems to have been the divine will, that as the light of the sun begins to return at, and immediately after, midnight, so the light of the Gospel of Christ in the Reformation should commence immediately after its greatest depression and darkness; otherwise whence are those millions of martyrs who suffered for the word of God in the two following centuries? In this Scheme we see, 1. The great period of time, consisting of seven thousand years, or the duration of the world. 2. In the first six days of the week, the first six years of the sabbatical year; and in the first six years of each of the great sabbaths of years, we see the sixth seventh parts of time, or the six thousand years of the probationary state of man; and in the fiftieth year, the last part or time, consisting of the last thousand years of that state in which the Gospel of Christ shall be preached to mankind, before the coming of Christ to reign. 3. And in the seventh part of every week, every sabbatical year, and every year of the year of sabbaths, the seventh day of one thousand years of rest in the kingdom of the Messiah. From this scheme of the scriptural division of time, it appears that 4800 years of the time of the militant state of mankind, are already past, and that we are living in the sixth and last period, and even in "the last time" of that period, there being only two hundred years of the six thousand to come; and therefore it is reasonable to conclude, that we are now in "THE LAST TIME ALLUDED TO BY ST. JOHN IN THE TEXT, WHEN ANTICHRIST SHOULD "COME." But as the true knowledge of the time of the coming of this monstrous power, so long the dread of the Christian world, and so little known, is of no small importance; I will farther trespass on the reader's patience, and submit to his consideration another division of scriptural time, to which St. John may possibly refer. The four Gospels, and the Epistles of the Apostles, are not only doctrinal, but prophetically historical. The historical part embraces the events only which were come to pass within the last two days of two thousand years (the last great period of Mosaic time,) under the Messiah, commencing at his first coming, and ending at his second*: and this * Deut. iv. 30. Joel, ii. 28. Acts, ii. 17. Heh, i. 2 VOL. ii. P 2' they call the last days." This period they have divided into three lesser ones: "The present time*;"-" the latter days or timest;" and" the last days, or the last time." By the first they refer to the period between the first coming of Christ to establish his church, and his exaltation of it over the heathen world; the second, to that in which she should depart from the word of God, and be depressed by Papal and Mohamedan persecution and darkness; and the third, to the period of the Reformation, or "the last time," in which " the everlasting Gospels" should be preached to mankind; and it is worthy of farther remark, that St. John in the Revelation divides the time of the Christian dispensation in the same manner, to preserve and teach the same truths, viz. by seven seals, seven trumpets, and seven vials, and the millennium. Now, whether we take the Mosaic or apostolic division of time as a clue to the time pointed at by St. John in the text for the coming of Antichrist, it equally answers our purpose: for, from the first, we perceive that we are living in "the last day" of a thousand years, within the last period allotted to the militant state of man; and even in "the last time" of that period, the very time pointed out for his coming. And if we consult the apostolic division, we find that we are now in * Rom. viii. +1 Tim. iv. 1. † 1 Pet. i. 5. Jude, 18. "the last days," in "the last time" of the Christian dispensation, even far advanced in the time of reformation, during which only the *Gospel of Christ is to be preached, and his merciful design of saving a fallen world to cease. And thus both of them unite in discovering this truth, that this is the season and time appointed for antichrist to come. And here the correspondency of the prophecies in respect to the time of this great event is highly worthy of our notice. Daniel predicted that †The Little Horn should come at the latter end of the time of the fourth beast, or the Roman empire; St. Paul declared that the Man of Sin should "be "revealed" when the apostacy "should be taken "out of the way;" St. John, that the beast of the bottomless pit should "ascend" when§" the "two witnesses," or the church of Christ, should"have nearly finished their testimony in sack"cloth;" and here again he tells us, that Antichrist shall come "in the last time," or within the period of the Reformation. Now, all the events, thus referred to by the different prophets to point out the time of the coming of Antichrist, are, in a manner, before our eyes. We have seen the last remains of the Roman empire, which has continued under different forms two thousand five hundred years, perish only the other day; and that the apostacy has been "taken out of the way" by a variety of means, besides the seces *Rev. xiv. 6. Dan. vii. 8, 9, 10, 11. sion and revolt of millions of its devotees. We have seen the two witnesses, or the church of Christ, prophesying "in sackcloth," nearly the allotted period of a thousand two hundred and sixty years, lately delivered, not only from the papal depression, but from the all-devouring jaws of French atheism and blasphemy, by the powerful arm of (next to the God of heaven) the angel of the waters, and defender of her faith, and ready to put off her mourning; and we have seen the Reformation not only to come, but so well established as to open the bosom of humanity and Christian love to all who "fear God and give HIM the glory." Surely such a striking coincidence of testimony, taken from the sacred records of divine truth, must convince the most incredulous, if he is capable of serious reflection, that the present time is the period foretold, in which "Antichrist is to come." To ascertain whether this formidable enemy to Christianity is come or not, we must consider the signs by which he is described; for having pointed out the time of his coming, the apostle has given, in a brief manner (because no doubt he and others had before more particularly delineated his character), certain marks by which he should be known; and his arts, and delusions guarded against, when he should come. To put out of the question the name " Antichrist," which plainly imports a great power at perfect enmity with Christ, the marks are so decisively clear and un * Rev. xiv. 7. |