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"But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me."

So their being called by his name did not hinder their rejecting his personal administration of the government; nor will it again hinder him from calling them his enemies, and treating them as such, in the judgment day.

Therefore, look for his kingdom, not in this world, as the old Jews did, and still do; but look for it, to be manifested in the end of this world, at the judgment day: and whether Jew or Gentile, beware, my brother, how, for any reason whatever, you give any the least support, or countenance, to the message, which our city openly sends after her Nobleman, saying: "He will never reign on the earth" for his parable is plain to show, that all such will be of light esteem in his judgment, when he returns in his kingdom, to reign forever over the new heavens and new earth.

THE PROPHET DANIEL.

"Waft, waft ye winds, his story,
"And you, ye waters, roll;
"Till like a sea of glory,

"It spreads from pole to pole;
"Till o'er our ransomed nature,
"The Lamb for sinners slain,
"Redeemer, King, Creator,

"In bliss RETURNS TO REIGN."

Feeble support has been found in the New Testament, to the common error of the kingdom of heaven come, already in the church, or gospel dispensation. No doubt, believers in the error can suggest some others, which have escaped my notice. Indeed, I would myself have further sought for them, and would have carefully found them out, had there been more strength in these, which are first and always

brought up by opposers to my view. But having found the common and apparent gospel supports of the error yield at once, on a better examination of their relations, the firmness of their strength rather to the great doctrine, that the kingdom of Messiah is come nigh unto us, the necessity of pursuing the subject further in the New Testament at present, is not urgent. You perceive that the doctrine of the kingdom come, never sprang out of the four gospels; but having pushed up through other ground, it has sought to sustain itself by clinging on any word of the Lord, however little calculated to uphold it in truth, if only a show is made of strengthening it with divine support.

However much in the Old Testament may be calculated indirectly to countenance this universal opinion, or error, only the prophet Daniel is commonly relied upon, for its di rect support. And, as I wish to bring out truth alone, and to remove the rust of error from its brilliant page, I begin the examination in the Old Testament, with the writings of that prophet on all hands most relied on for the plain chart of the times of the Gentiles, and of the kingdom of heaven.

I am aware that many of the ancient prophecies, which belong to the world to come, and to the eternal state, are commonly appropriated to the times of the church, and of this transitory state. Tares of error of this kind are growing among the wheat, that neither time nor patience will eradicate ever. But they will be made apparent, and may be cropped down from their present growth, when it is made manifest, that the church is not the kingdom of heaven; but only the messenger of that kingdom, the witness of the coming king in his kingdom; for we shall find that the prophet Daniel forbids, and has no idea, that the gospel dispensation is a kingdom at all, and much less that glorious kingdom, which our Lord preached, and which is to succeed the last of the kingdoms of this world, and is itself eternal. The prophecies of Daniel plainly show, both in the form of the

metallic image, and of the four beasts, that the kingdom of heaven comes from heaven with its king, in a moment, with overwhelming destruction of this world's kingdoms, and thrones; and it rules over all the earth for ever and ever ; and is yet to come, as the sequel will plainly reveal and unfold to the believing mind.

And who will not believe the word of God? Who will not believe the prophet Daniel? Are you a statesman? So was he. Are you a nobleman? So was he the son of a king. Are you a wise man? So was he, the chief of the wise men of Babylon in its glory. Are you an honest man? Mark the testimony to Daniel, recorded in the time of Daniel, and confirmed by the scrutiny of time: "Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, (the land) they should deliver but their own souls, by their righteousness, saith the Lord God." (Ez. 14: 14. Repeated in the 20th verse.) Though Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, as I live, saith the Lord God, they shall deliver neither son nor daughter; they shall deliver but their own souls, by their righteousness."

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Daniel was an eminently honest man: you may believe him.

So plainly were his predictions fulfilled, concerning the kingdoms, and concerning the time of Messiah's coming and death, that the opposers of Christianity were early put to the hard necessity of declaring the book to have been written, after the events of which it discourses had occurred: and the Jews especially are constrained lightly to esteem the name of Daniel, in whom before the destruction of Jerusalem, that nation gloried.

But it is hard to deny the antiquity of the book of Daniel, for it was translated into Greek, before the Christian era; and before the time of the events respecting Messiah, which are marked in his prophetic page with the accuracy of history, that they should be fulfilled.

And you, who love the Lord, take thought. It was not only the time when Messiah should be cut off, that Daniel foretold to the very year; but he also speaks of other times, which appear to be at hand. He particularly notices a period of twenty-three hundred days, which plainly must expire not long hence.

"Days, do you say?"

Ay, days.-If you are a man of sense, you have some calling, or profession, whether to handle a needle, or a quill, or a hammer, or a plough or a tiller, or the type, no matter; and in your calling or profession, there are common words applied to a peculiar and technical use, which all the craft and profession understand instantly; but an apprentice, or a novice, has to learn them.

The calling of a prophet is not so mean a profession, that it may not be allowed common privileges. Surely the prophets may be supposed to have some common words in peculiar use among themselves; which are known instantly to the masters, in their peculiar sense, but which a novice has to learn: and "days" is one of those words in the prophets to be understood by years among common men, as certainly as pi among printers, is to be understood by indigestible confusion among common men.

King for kingdom, is another technical word among the prophets, which the reader will do well to remember.

I cannot stop to reason on this point; but I take for granted that the prophe's mean years by the word days, and Daniel's term of twenty three hundred is near its close. For the seventy weeks, (or seventy times seven days, equal to four hundred ninety,) to the death of Messiah, added to eighteen hundred ten, since that memorable event, make twenty-three hundred exactly. And, according to Bible chronology, Jesus was born four years before the common date, and so was crucified in the year 29, but at the age of thirty-three: and

eighteen hundred thirty-nine will be precisely eighteen hun. dred ten years, since his crucifixion.

1 shall not attempt to fix the beginning of the era of Daniel's twenty-three hundred days. If the four hundred ninetieth year of it, were the year of our Lord's crucifixion, the next will be the last year of it. And the wise will at least strive to understand.

It does not take any thing from the overwhelming interest of this subject, that the twelve hundred and sixty years of Revelation, if subtracted from eighteen hundred forty, leaves five hundred eighty: and the manifestation of the Babylonian harlot, may be considered as made certain within one hundred fifty or eighty years from that time.

It would seem, therefore, that the period of 2300 years in Daniel, is very near its end: (but he speaks of other short periods;) and the end of the period of 1260 years in the Apocalypse, cannot be above two hundred removed from us, while it may be much nearer: and all things whatsoever are written in the prophets will shortly be fulfilled, in the end of the world, and the coming and everlasting kingdom of the Son of God. This is a solemn thought: but time does not present one more interesting and important, than, whether our portion is in that kingdom, or without; in this transitory world, or in the eternal world to come.

And if my humble pages have the effect, to put the reader to thinking, and to inquiring of the Lord in his word, and to seeking after the kingdom of heaven: then God grant to the mutual prayers of both author and reader, that we may be delivered in "the time of trouble;" and saved "with every one that shall be found written in the book:" having it graven upon our hearts now, that the time is near come, in which they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars for ever and ever." (Dan. 12: 3.)

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