church, while treating of her faith, we find that they have tranfmitted down to us, in many of their writings, her full creed refpecting it. From them we learn, that the world fhould endure 7000 years, 2000 without the law, 2000 under the law, and 2000 under the Meffiah and his Gofpel, and 1000 under his immediate government and king, dom upon earth: meaning, by these three feveral periods, the 2000 years from the creation to the call of Abraham*, and the promife of God to him and his feed; the 2000 years from Abraham to Chrift; and the 2000 years, during which his Gofpel was to be preached; and the 1000 years of the millennium, Nor does this meaning of the divifion of time remain unfantioned by the apoftles St. Peter, when "ftirring up the minds of the church "to remember the words fpoken before by the "holy prophets and apoftles," and reminding them of what they had heard, of the creation, duration, and deftruction of the world, entreats her not to forget one thing; a thing, no doubt, of great importance to a clear understanding of the fubject of which he was treating: "For," fays he, "beloved, "be not ignorant of one thing, that one day is with "the Lord as a thousand years, and a thoufand years as one day;" evidently meaning, that with 'God, and according to his appointment and decree, refpecting the diftribution of time, fo far as related to this world, "one day is as a thousand แ years, and a thousand years as one day;" for, befides the duration and the deftruction of the world being his fubject, we cannot reasonably fuppofe that he referred to time in another life; for there is no day, year, or other diftribution of time * Gen. xii. 1, 2, 3. xvii. 1—20. there, there, but only one eternal day or duration of fpace. Nor was this divifion of time unknown to the primitive fathers of the church of Chrift, who, there can be no doubt, founded their faith in it upon the literal meaning of the Jewish rites, upon what Mofes and St. Peter had declared respecting one day" being with God only as "a thousand years," and from the ancient traditions of the Jewish church; and this continued to be the belief of the faithful part of the Chriftian church, until its decline into fchifms and abominable herefies, and at length became in a manner loft in apoftatizing darknefs. Since the Reformation it has been, among many other important truths, revived by a few pious Chriftians; and as it is among the fundamental articles of the Gofpel of Chrift, often alluded to in both Teftaments, it will in all probability gather ftrength as the Reformation fhall fpread and truth prevail, until it becomes again an article of the Creed of the true church of Chrift. However, in conformity to this great and original divifion of time, typically reprefented in the Jewish rites, the great and prominent events, in which the probationary ftate and falvation of mankind appear to be concerned, from the beginning of the world down to this day, have come to pafs. For, according to facred chronology, which is now received by the Chriftian world, there have been, *From Adam, or the fall of man, Noah, about.. From Adam to Abraham ... to 1056 Before the law. From Adam to David, and. Solomon's 2005 dedication of the temple......... 3000 From Adam to the firft coming of Chrift, and the first refurrection, recorded by St. Matthew at the crucifixion + From Adam to the Reformation ... From Adam to the fecond refurrection," or to the fecond coming of Christ to reign upon earth.. >4003 50009 Under the Under the 6000 Gospel. From Adam to the third, coming of The fix militant periods. of 1000 years. The millennium to continue to the end of the world. *I do not find in the hiftory of Adam, how long he remained in Eden before his fall; it is probable it was fome years, that he might experience the bleffedness and felicity of his condition, and be fenfible of the gratitude due to his Creator for his ineffable bounty and goodnets in creating him, and the heavens and the earth for his fe. If we fuppofe this fpace to be fifty-fix years, the period between his fall and Noah would be exactly one day of one thousand years, the first period of the militant and probationary state of man. I have dated the beginning of the Reformation in the eleventh century, because it would be eafy to prove that it commenced much earlier than the fixteenth, which commenLators delight to call the Seculum Reformatum. For although the power of the Pope was at its height, and the light of the Gospel was in midnight darkness, in the eleventh century, yet, even in that age, there were fome stars, fome pious Christians, who opposed the doctrines of popery; and it feems to have been the divine will, that as the light of the fun begins to return at, and immediately after, midnight, fo the light of the Gospel of Chrift in the Reformation fhould commence immediately after its greatest depreffion and darkness; otherwife whence are those millions of martyrs who suffered for the word of God in the two following centuries? In In this Scheme we fee, 1. The great period of time, confifting of fcven thousand years, or of the duration of the world. 2. In the first fix days of the week, the first fix years of the fabbatical year; and in the firft fix years of each of the great fabbaths of years, we fee the fixth feventh parts of time, or the fix thousand years of the probationary state of man; and in the fiftieth year, the last part or time, confifting of the laft thoufand years of that flate in which the Gospel of Chrift fhall be preached to mankind, before the coming of Chrift to reign. 3. And in the feventh part of every week, every fabbatical year, and every year of the year of fabbaths, the feventh day of one thousand years of reft in the kingdom of the Meffiah. From this scheme of the fcriptural divifion of time, it appears that 4800 years of the time of the militant state of mankind, are already past, and that we are living in the fixth and laft period, and even in the last time" of that period, there being only two hundred years of the fix thoufand to come; and therefore it is reasonable to conclude, that we are now in " THE LAST TIME ALLUDED TO BY ST. JOHN IN THE TEXT, WHEN ANTICRHIST "SHOULD COME." 66 But as the true knowledge of the time of the coming of this monftrous power, fo long the dread of the Chriftian world, and fo little known, is of no fmall importance; I will farther trefpafs on the reader's patience, and fubmit to his confideration ano ther ther divifion of fcriptural time, to which St. John may poffibly refer. The four Gofpels, and the Epiftles of the Apoftles, are not only doctrinal, but prophetically hiftorical. The hiftorical part embraces the events only which were to come to pafs within the laft two days of two thousand years (the laft great period of Mofaic time), under the Meffiah, commencing at his firft coming, and ending at his fecond and this they call " the laft days." This period they have divided into three leffer ones : "The prefent time"-" the latter days or "times"-and "the last days, or the last time §: By the first they refer to the period between the first coming of Chrift to establish his church, and his exaltation of it over the heathen world; the second, to that in which the fhould depart from the word of God, and be depreffed by Papal and Mohamedan perfecution and darknefs; and the third, to the period of the Reformation, or "the laft time," in which the everlafting Gofpel" fhould be preached to mankind; and it is worthy of farther remark, that St. John, in the Revelation, divides the time of the Chriftian difpenfation in the fame manner, to preferve and teach the fame truths, viz. by seven seals, feven trumpets, and feven vials, and the millennium. Now, whether we take the Mofaic or apoftolic divifion of time as a clue to the time pointed at by St. John in the text for the coming of Antichrift, it equally anfwers our purpose: for, from the firft, we perceive that we are living in "the laft day" of a thousand years, within the laft period allotted to the militant ftate of man; and even in "the laft |