period is, in the writings of fallible men, purely hypothetical and equivocal? It demonstrates, that it is, as yet," unintelligible" to mortals in point of fact; and teaches us, that it is not on the uncertain solution of mystical numbers, but on the experimental fulfilment of distinct Prophecies, that we ought to build any System for the interpretation of Prophecy.

It was with a view to check, in some degree, the wantonness and temerity of similar excursions, that I qualified those conjectures as hypothetical and equivocal: which they really are. And I did: so, because I also strongly felt, that "nothing "could be more affronting to the Scriptures of

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truth, or more agreeable to infidels," (and to indifferent or cavilling Christians,) than thus to make the Prophecies of Daniel and St. John depend for their veracity upon conflicting hypotheses, re specting points not reducible to any fixed criterion.. Our Lord's rule for the vigilance of the last age, was not, "when ye have unravelled mystical num

"bers," or (6 when ye are agreed respecting those "numbers; but, when ye see things come to pass." It is the actual" coming to pass, of things" which claim their types in Prophecy, that can alone establish a well-founded and solid conviction in the mind, of what is next to be expected. When seven years of plenty had followed the twofold symbol in the Vision of Pharaoh, then he who had faith was confident, that seven years of famine would ensue. And when the Christian church has experienced the rise and fall of a power, corresponding minutely to the signals foreshowing the last power; if it have faith, it should then awaken to the expectation, that the conclusion of the Christian dispensation is nigh at hand.

"There are some further opinions," in which the author of "The Dissertation" thinks I have likewise "greatly erred." Of these, one of the chief is my persuasion, that the "body of the "Jewish nation are not to be restored to their own "land." Of this ancient and sacred truth I

avow myself a steady vindicator, against all the Judaizing fictions now so passionately entertained among some Christians in favour of that imagined restoration, the reasons for which persuasion I shall fully assign, on another occasion; only observing, in this place, that the present separated state of the Jewish people, far from being an object of the Divine favor, is only the effect of their own continuing rebellion and disobedience. By the Gospel, which designed to make them and all the nations one, the wall of separation that had been raised between them was thrown down, and all difference between Hebrew and Gentile was thenceforth to cease; and that would be the case now, if they were to become obedient to the Gospel. They would then lose the interest of separation, as they have already lost their tribes; and those of England and Germany, for example, would feel themselves more closely allied to their brother Christians of those countries, than to their distant nominal kindred in Africa and Asia.

But our Lord apprized his Apostles, that they would still be found in this state of separation, when He should finally appear in His glory: "Verily, "verily, I say unto you, when the Son of Man shall "sit on the throne of His glory, ye also shall sit upon

twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel." It was, assuredly, not before the issue of that judgment, that the Jews were to be again received under David their King, and Messiah their Prince; who should receive them (as one fold under one Shepherd with the nations) into that Jerusalem, and that land of promise, of which those in Canaan were but the prototypes. And the Jews themselves -are witnesses to this; for, though they cherish the belief of a restoration of the obliterated kingdom of Judea, yet they expect first the realization of " the "hope of the promise made of God unto their

fathers, viz. the resurrection of the dead;" in order that all the generations who have suffered in the several captivities, may be united to participate in the same triumph: thus showing, at the same

time, how grossly they misapprehend the figurative diction of the Prophecies. The Jews, therefore, who look for the resurrection of the dead, and the mani. festation of the Messiah, before the accomplishment of the figurative Prophecies concerning their restora tion, are so far right, and in concord with the primi tive apostolic church; but those Christians who look for a temporal restoration, in Palestine, before those two great events shall take place, are in all parti culars wrong.

The next opinion is, (according to the author of "The Dissertation") that I "confound the "period of the millennium with what is properly "called eternity; and that I thus deprive the "church of all those blessed promises, which relate "to her increase and glory, and the vast multitude "of her converts during the millennium."

What

I have to allege against the prevailing error of the millennium, I shall likewise reserve for the same fu ture opportunity; but I must here profess, that this