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THE MIGHTY AND THE HOLY PEOPLE

OF THE ANCIENT WORLD,

AND, ALTHOUGH NOW "A NATION SCATTERED AND PEELED,

METED OUT, AND TRODDEN DOWN,"

THE DESTINED ARISTOCRACY OF THE EARTH

IN THE LATTER DAYS

THE PEOPLE,

TO WHOSE PROSPECTS AND EXPECTATIONS,

IN SOME IMPORTANT PARTICULARS,

THIS BOOK OF INSPIRED PROPHECY,

MORE THAN ANY OTHER PORTION OF HOLY WRIT,

GIVES A CLEAR AND DEFINITE CHARACTER

THIS WORK

IS VERY RESPECTFULLY & VERY AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED,

BY THEIR SINCERE WELL-WISHER,

THE AUTHOR.

"Blessed is he that blesseth thee, and cursed is he that curseth thee."

Numbers xxiv, 9.

PREFACE.

THE mind is capable of being sometimes recreated by various study, as much as it is at other times by a diversion from study. And I have hence, often thought it well for Christian pastors, to devote a portion of their leisure to the instruction, by their writings, of the Church at large, as well as of their own flocks; and of succeeding generations, as well as of the existing one. Their labors are so, rendered at once extensive and enduring. They range beyond the sphere of ordinary ministerial action. They outstep even the limits of life; and enable future generations to say of them, when departed, one after another, to their eternal reward, what Holy Scripture says of righteous Abel-He, being dead, yet speaketh.

Then it is the undoubted duty of the minister of Christ to aim at becoming so "instructed unto the kingdom of heaven," as to be "like unto a man that is an householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old." Matt. xiii, 52. In order to this, he will, in the prosecution of his Biblical studies, gradually proceed from the more simple to the more recondite truths from "the first principles of the Oracles of God," to those announcements, which are less easy to be apprehended, and, in comparison with the former, are as strong meat" brought into contrast with "milk.” Heb. v. 12-14. Making thus a continual advance in religious knowledge, he will be more and more enabled to discharge the duty of a faithful and wise steward" in the household of God; at whose hands every one may hope to receive "his portion of meat in due

season."

66

It was a sense of duty, in this particular respect-the duty of becoming as far as possible, wise up to what is written-which led

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