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Vision there is a parenthetical admonition addressed by Christ himself to his church, and inserted, as may be justly conceived, for the most important purposes. ("Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame." Rev. xvi. 15.) Without at present adverting to the particular and seasonable instruction communicated in this admonition, it is the circumstance of its being communicated that is to be noticed as bearing on the present subject. When our Lord, in so remarkable a manner, introduces the preceding admonition, at such a singular Crisis, and calls upon his people to act with a particular reference to the circumstances in which at this Crisis they will be placed; is it not a very convincing proof that they will not be ignorant of the Crisis itself, or of the circumstances which distinguish it? On the supposition that they would be ignorant of these things, how is it possible that they should understand the admonition as paricularly addressed to them at that time, or should profit by the instruction so seasonably conveyed by it? Of what advantage would it be to them, when suddenly overwhelmed in its calamities, to discover that there had indeed been suitable instruction given, by which they might have been prepared for its

approach; but that no sufficient indications had been vouchsafed to warn them of its coming, or to awaken them to a sense of their situation in reference to it?

Supported by these arguments the writer ventures to affirm, that the question proposed for consideration at the commencement of the present chapter, has been satisfactorily answered. There are strong and sufficient reasons for indulging the expectation, that as the time of unprecedented trouble shall be drawing near, God will vouchsafe such clear intimations of its approach, as shall enable his people, in obediently interpreting these " signs of the times," to discover his will, and to learn their duty in a way peculiar to themselves; for "the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him." To suppose that this Crisis, whenever it may arrive, will not be distinctly discernible by such as shall humbly and diligently attend to these intimations, is to entertain a supposition, opposed by many strong probabilities, deduced from the word of God; and militating against almost all the objects and purposes for which this most seasonable admonition was vouchsafed to his Church, "Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments; lest he walk naked, and they see his shame."

CHAP. IV.

THE FRESENT CRISIS THE INTERVAL WHICH PRECEDES THE TIME OF TROUBLE.

THE writer having established, as he conceives, in the preceding chapters, two preliminary positions: first, that there is a time of unprecedented trouble predicted to commence at the effusion of the seventh vial; and, secondly, that the season which immediately precedes this event is a Crisis, which, whenever it may arrive, the Church will be competent to discern, and expected, practically, to improve; he now proceeds to the consideration of a third position, which it is one principal object of the present work to discuss and confirm. The position is this: that the Crisis of which we have been speaking is now actually arrived: that the present season is that interval which precedes the commencement of those kitherto unexampled judgments, with which the Almighty will visit and, in the end, overthrow every anti-christian power; and, during the progress and through the operation of which, He will convert and restore the Jews, and will protect and purify his Church.

As there, confessedly, can be no Crisis more momentous and interesting to the Church of Christ than the one here supposed; so there is no subject, it is presumed, which can be entitled to a more serious and candid consideration than that which it is now intended to discuss. In conducting this discussion it is proposed to confirm and establish the position assumed, by the three following arguments:

First, To prove, that the present Crisis is the interval which immediately precedes the time of unprecedented trouble, from the chronological series of events compared with the predictions of Scripture.

Secondly, To show that the state of the world and the signs of the times at the present season strikingly accord with the intimations of prophecy in reference to that interval.

Thirdly, To strengthen the preceding testimonies by a direct and independent proof from the word of God.

In entering on the discussion of these points, the writer ventures to request, that he may not be hastily and prematurely accused of having fallen into the error, which, it must be confessed, that modern interpreters have not always avoided, of having suffered their judgment, in some instances, to be unduly biassed by the influence of passing events, and consequently of having

given to such events, in the exposition of prophecy, a pre-eminence, to which it has afterwards appeared, that they have had no well-founded pretensions. He is fully aware of the evils which result from such inconsiderate attempts to interpret the predictions of Scripture; and of the discredit which their subsequent failures have brought on the general study of prophecy. At the same time he must so far refer in vindication of the present attempt to his statements in a former chapter, as to observe, that since there are certain "times and seasons," in which the endeavour to interpret the prophecies by an application even to passing events, is not only lawful, but expedient: so the present Crisis, if he should be correct in his view of it, is one, in which such an application is peculiarly necessary; and may prove, through the Divine blessing, eminently useful. If this be indeed the Crisis, which he apprehends it to be, he cannot render a more essential service to the people of God, than distinctly to place before them the proofs on which this apprehension is founded; and thus to rouse them to a due consideration of the dangers and duties to which, at such a season, they are specifically called.

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