When thou passest through the and through the rivers, they shal! The floods have lifted up, O Lord,

thy name; thou art mine. waters, I will be with thee; not overflow thee. xliii. 1, 2. the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods have lifted up their waves. The Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea. Thy testimonies are very sure. Ps. xciii. 3-5. 11. The sun and the moon stood still in their habitation: at the light of thine arrows they went; at the shining of thy glittering spear.

The moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed. Isa. xxiv. 23. The heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together. Rev. vi. 14. At the brightness that was before him, his thick clouds passed away. The Lord thundered in the heavens-yea, He sent out his arrows. Ps. xviii.

12-14.

12. Thou didst march through the land in indignation, thou didst thresh the heathen in anger.

Traveling in the greatness of his strength. I will tread them in mine anger. Isa. lxiii. 1, 3. The wine-press was trodden without the city and blood came out for the space of a thousand six hundred furlongs. Rev. xiv. 20. Thou didst thresh the heathen

in anger.

Now also many nations are gathered against thee.-He shall gather them as sheaves into the

fury upon the heathen, such as 11–13; v. 15.

floor. Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion, &c. I will execute vengeance in anger and they have not heard. Mic. iv. 13. Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people, even for salvation with thine anointed.

Behold your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense; He will come and save you. Isa. xxxv. 4. The Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee,-And in that day living waters shall go out from Jerusalem.-And the Lord shall be king over all the earth. Zech. xiv. 5, 8, 9.-Now is come salvation and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ. Rev. xii. 10. Thou woundest the head out of the house of the wicked, by discovering (Heb. making bare) the foundation unto the neck.

I

He shall wound the heads over many countries. Ps. cx. 6. have wounded them that they were not able to rise.-Thou hast given me the necks of mine eneCome that ye may eat the flesh of men, &c. Rev. xix. 18.

mies. Ps. xviii. 35, 40. kings, and captains, and mighty 14. Thou didst strike through with his staves the head of his villages they came out as α whirlwind to scatter me; their rejoicing was to devour the poor secretly.

He shall lift up an ensign to the nations from far, and will hiss unto them from the end of the earth and, behold, they shall come speedily-their wheels like a whirlwind. Isa. v. 26, 28-Thou shalt ascend, and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all

N*

thy bands, and many people with thee. Thus saith the Lord God; it shall come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought; and thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates, to take a spoil and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land. Ezek. xxxviii. 9-12.

Their rejoicing was to devour the poor secretly.

He shall judge thy people with righteousness, and thy poor with judgment (justice). He shall judge the poor of the people, He shall save the children of the needy, and shall break in pieces the oppressor. Ps. lxxii. 2, 4,

&c.

Thou didst strike through with his staves the head of his villages.

And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the Lord shall be among

them; and they shall lay hold every man on the hand of his neighbor, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbor. Zech. xiv. 13.

15. Thou didst walk through the sea with thine horses, through the heaps of great waters.

Will the Lord cast off for ever? and will He be favorable no more? Is his mercy clean gone for ever? doth his promise fail for evermore ?-Thou hast with thine arm redeemed thy people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph. The waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee; they were afraid.-The lightnings lightened the world: the earth trembled and shook. Thy way is in the sea, and thy path in the great waters. Ps. lxxvii. 7, 8, 15-19. I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and He that sat on him was called Faithful and True.-And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses. Rev. xix. 11, 14.

16. When I heard, my belly trembled; my lips quivered at the voice rottenness entered into my bones, and I trembled in my self, that I might rest in the day of trouble.

Hear ye the word of the Lord, ye that tremble at his word.-He shall appear to your joy and they shall be ashamed. Isa. lxvi. 5. These are they which came out of the great tribulation. Rev. vii. 14. Thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward to thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them that destroy the earth. xi. 18.

When He cometh up unto the people (margin) He will cut them in pieces.

Out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword that with it he should smite the nations.-The rest were slain by the sword of him that sat upon the horse. xix. 15, 21.

CHAPTER XII.

SCRIPTURAL TESTIMONIES TO THE DURATION OF THE KINGDOM.

THAT the kingdom of the Father, in which the righteous shall shine forth as the sun, immediately succeeds to the harvest of the earth, at the end of this age, Christ himself is the witness. That was one of the things concerning the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, which from his own teaching his disciples understood. On the sounding of the seventh trumpet there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become (the kingdoms) of our Lord, and of his Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever. The coming of that kingdom is associated by many testimonies with the destruction of the destroyers of the earth. In like manner its duration has not to be learned or inferred from a single scripture, or from a few only and no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, such as would negative the testimony which the sacred oracles uniformly bear.

It is manifest in the light which they impart thatwherever the Spirit expressly testifies of the time or the connection which these things relatively bear-the coming of the kingdom is not dissevered from the execution of the judgment written. As has already been seen, there is here a chain of divine testimonies which can not be broken by any human "reasonings" or imaginations. Whether speculations on the duration of the kingdom, which shall immediately succeed the destruction of the destroyers of the earth, such as have not been uncommon from the days of the fathers to the present hour, might not have been spared -if heed had been given to the command of Christ to search the Scriptures, or to the sure word of prophecy, as the apostle, in speaking of the power and coming of the Lord, says that it is well to do, and if men had thus been mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, as the same apostle enjoins those whose pure minds he stirred

up by way of remembrance, in the same chapter in which he speaks of the promise of the new heavens and the new earth-words which the Holy Ghost teacheth may be sufficient to demonstrate. On this thing, as on all others, scripture has to be compared with scripture, in order that from his own words the mind of the Spirit may be known.

On the sounding of the seventh trumpet the kingdoms of this world become the kingdom of God and of his Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever, literally, for the ages of ages. Associated with the coming of his kingdom, and of his reign over this world for ever and ever, is his destruction of the destroyers of the earth, as well as his giving reward to the saints. Testimonies of Scripture may here be heard from which he that hath ears to hear may judge whether they do not preclude all controversy, raised from the private interpretation of a single expression, as to the limitation of the reign of Christ, when the heathen shall be given unto him for his inheritance, and the uttermost ends of the earth for his possession, as if it were restricted in Scripture to a thousand natural years.

Some passages may first be adduced, which testify of the duration of the kingdom, that is consequent on the day of the perdition of ungodly men, and in which these things are. united in the testimony.

Arise, O Lord; O God, lift up thine hand: forget not the humble. Wherefore doth the wicked contemn God? He hath said in his heart, Thou wilt not require it.-Break thou the arm of the wicked, and the evil: seek out his wickedness (till) thou find none. THE LORD IS KING FOR EVER AND EVER; the heathen are perished out of his land. Lord thou hast heard the desire of the humble : thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear: to judge the fatherless and the oppressed, that the men of the earth may no more oppress. The Lord liveth; and blessed be my rock; and let the God of my salvation be exalted. It is God that avengeth me.—Great deliverance giveth he to his King; and showeth mercy to his anointed, to David and to his seed for evermore.2 Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most Mighty, with thy glory and thy majesty.-Thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things. Thine arrows are sharp in the heart of the king's enemies; whereby the people fall under thee. Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the sceptre of thy kingdom a right sceptre.-I will make thy name to be remembered in ALL GENERATIONS: therefore shall the people praise thee FOR EVER AND EVER.3 Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered-let the righteous rejoice.—Why leap ye, ye high hills? This is the hill which God desireth to dwell in; yea, the Lord will dwell in it for 1 Ps. x. 12, 13, 15-18.

2 xviii.
iii. 46, 47, 50.

3 xlv. 3-6, 17; Heb. i. 8.