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I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery (lest ye should be wise in your own conceits), that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in; and so all Israel shall be saved, as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob," Rom. xi. 25-26. Notice, not till the Master comes will Israel be saved. To this agrees Matt. xxiii. 39, "For I say unto you, ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord."

Again: "Thine eyes shall see the king in his beauty; they shall behold the land that is very far off," Isa. xxxiii. 17. "Look upon Zion, the city of our solemnities; thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down; not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed, neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken," ver. 20. "For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king; he will save us," ver. 22. "And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away," Isa. xXXV.

10.

"And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your grave, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves, and shall put my spirit within you, and ye shall live; and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the Lord have spoken it, and performed it, saith the Lord. And say unto them, thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land; and I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel, and one King

shall be king to them all; and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all; and they shall dwell in the land which I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children's children for ever; and my servant David (that is Jesus) shall be their prince for ever. Moreover, I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them; and I will place them and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for ever more," Ez. xxxvii. 13-14. "My tabernacle also shall be with them; yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people," ver. 27. We have brought but a little of the testimony that might be adduced on this subject; but we think the evidence brought is sufficient to sustain our position; which is, the Jews will return to Canaan when the Lord comes and turns away ungodliness from Jacob. J. F.

REMARKS BY THE EDITOR.

It is a fact the truth of which cannot be

denied, that the Apostles of Jesus were the best interpreters of divine prophecies. The Lord, during his ministry, frequently explained to them all things written in the Law of Moses, in the Prophets, and in the Psalms concerning himself; and after his ascension he gave the Holy Spirit, to bring all things to their remembrance whatsoever he had said, as well as to show them things to come. This teaching rendered them infallible. Misrepresentation, or misapplication of the word of God, therefore, could form no part of their instructions. From all error, in this respect, they were entirely free. They were correct students of the sure prophetic word: they thought much, and said but little. It cannot with propriety be similarly said of the teachers of Christianity in the present day. There is much both said and written on unfulfilled prophecy, which is irrelevant, and would be better altogether omitted-especially the remarks made by some of our more ardent second advent brethren.

The Old Testament abounds with predictions and threatenings against different

cities, empires, and nations, among which may be mentioned Jerusalem, Samaria, Babylon, Nineveh, Tyre, Damascus, &c. the nations and empires of Egypt, Chaldea, Assyria, Greece, Rome, Judea, the ten kingdoms of Europe, and finally the whole world. Each of these has some prediction relating to it, which cannot be properly applied to any other purpose than the one for which it was originally made. Thus, those prophecies referring to Judea, Jerusalem, or Samaria, cannot be applied to Babylon, Nineveh, Egypt, or Damascus -or to the second coming of the Lord :a discrimination not often made by those who write on the second advent.

There are many opinions advanced in the articles of Brother J. F. on Prophecy, the truth of which no believer in the inspired volume will call into question: still some of the passages he quotes have long ago been fulfilled. To apply these to the second advent of our Lord, especially to prove that he will personally and literally reign one thousand years upon the earth during the millennium, appears to us perfectly absurd. As instances of misapplication, we may quote Zeph. i. 12-18, and Isaiah xxiv. 3. Let the reader turn

to these passages, and we think he will agree with us, that they cannot, with any degree of propriety, be applied to any other parts of the world than to Jerusalem and

Palestine.

be accursed: there is to be no more an in

earth, the honor and glory of the nations,
the unclean, the abominable, and those
who love falsehood-with the healing of
the nations-are all spoken of in that state.
On the whole we are disposed to conclude
that the new heavens and new earth three
times predicted in the bible, are not iden-
tical-they are each successive stages in
the attainment of that elevation which is
destined for the church of God. A para-
dise of peace and union may be restored to
the Lord's people on earth, hitherto un-
known among the children of men. The
antediluvians had the starlight age-
the Jews the better moonlight age-the
disciples the age of sunlight-and the
whole redeemed family will have the best
of all, the eternal age. But the character
of those higher schools, provided for the
Lord's people when there are no more na-
tions to heal and save, is not for us to de-
termine.
J. W.

FLEMING ON PROPHECY. DURING the past month we have attentively perused a prophetic discourse delivered in London, in the year 1701, nearly a century and a half ago, by Robert Fleming. A new edition of this discourse has just been issued from the press, and is now being That there will be a new heavens and read by thousands in the British emnew earth, in which shall dwell righteous-pire. Mr. Fleming, having decided ness, is certain; but that the new heavens upon the year 606 as the heading-up spoken of by Isaiah, and those referred to of Popery, predicted the French by Peter and John, are identical, is very questionable. In the new heavens and new Revolution in 1793-4, and, by a very earth spoken of by Isaiah, the child (of ingenious, though common-sense proGod) is to die a hundred years old, while cess of reasoning, the downfall of the sinner being a hundred years old is to Popery in the year 1848-a prediction, the accuracy of which seems to have startled multitudes in the present day, who appear to be generally ignorant of the writings of this puritan divine. We shall present our readers, in this and a subsequent number, with a brief insight into Mr. Fleming's mode of reasoning, and final conclusions, regarding the entire destruction of this great anti-christian and tyrannical power. We learn from the introductory remarks, that Mr. Fleming entered upon his ministerial labours in the metropolis, on June 19, 1698; and that, in the year 1700 his church and congregation built him a commodious meetinghouse, in which he delivered a series

fant of days, children shall not die in infancy; still death shall take both saint and sinner. It must be obvious, that prior to the year 95 or 96, neither the Apostles nor any members of the church knew, or at least professed to know, anything regarding the personal reign of Christ for a thousand years. This was not the one hope of the gospel for at least sixty years after the

ascension of our Lord; and even now, re

move a single passage from the twentieth chapter of a highly figurative book, and the thousand years personal reign will have already terminated. The new heavens

and new earth seen by John in vision will

certainly be realized by all the children of God, either before or after the resurrection of the dead, but in which of these states we shall not stop to inquire. The view presented to us in xxi. and xxii. of Reve

lations is splendid and exhilarating in the highest degree. Still, the kings of the

of discourses, afterwards printed by request of his admirers and friends. In the discourse before us, the author, having referred to the strife and division then prevalent, which he deeply lamented and which must have augmented a thousand fold in our dayfurnishes statistics of those who suffered death in every conceivable form, rather than submit their consciences to the monstrous and cruel power of Popery. He observes :—

which generally all are agreed in, and in which Mr. Mede, Dr. More, Mr. Durham, 1. That the revelation contains (Rev. iv. 1, and Dr. Cressener, have irrefragably proved. x. 5, 6, 7) the series of all the remarkable events and changes of the state of the Chris(Rev. xvii. 1, 5, 18) mystical Babylon, or tian church to the end of the world. 2. That the great whore described there, doth signify Rome in an anti-christian church state. 3. That therefore this cannot be Rome pagan (Rev. xvii. 10, 11) seven heads of the beast, properly, but Rome papal. 4. That the or the seven kings, are the seven forms of government which obtained successively among the Romans: and seeing the (Rev. xvii. 10, 11) sixth of these was that which was only in being in John's time, the former five having fallen before; that, therefore, consequently the seventh head, which under another consideration is called the eighth, (the intervenient kingdom of the Ostro-Goths being the seventh in number, though not properly Roman, and therefore, in that sense none of the heads of the Roman government) is the last species of government, and that which is called most peculiarly, and by a speciality the Beast, or Antichrist.

"These postulata being supposed as certain (which I would reckon no difficult thing to prove, were it needful) I must in the next place, premise two preliminary considerations, before I come directly to answer the question itself. The first is this: that the three grand apocalyptical numbers of 1260 days, forty-two months, and time, times and a half, are not only synchronical, but must be interpreted prophetically, so as years must be understood by days.

"Can we have forgotten what barbarities that inhuman party have committed in the world? For, if we may believe historians, says a learned man (Dr. More, in his Divine Dialogues) Pope Julius, in seven years, was the occasion of the slaughter of 200,000 Christians. The massacre in France cut off 100,000 in three months. P. Peronius avers, that in the persecution of the Albigenses and Waldenses, 1,000,000 lost their lives. From the beginning of the Jesuits, till 1580, that is thirty or forty years, 900,000 perished, saith Balduinus. The Duke of Alva, by the hangman, put 36,000 to death. Vergerius affirms that the Inquisition in thirty years destroyed 150,000. To all this I may add the Irish Rebellion, in which 300,000 were destroyed, as the Lord Ossery reports in a paper printed in the reign of Charles II. And how many have been destroyed in the late persecutions in France and Piedmont, in the Palatinate and in Hungary, none, believe, can fully reckon up, besides those that have been in the gallies, and that have fled from Popery. This is that idolatrous harlot, glutted with the blood of the saints." He says, preliminarily―" I shall in-siderer, that will be at pains to compare dustriously avoid the fatal rock of positiveness, which so many apocalyptical men have suffered themselves to split upon;" and "content myself in giving you a few hints towards the resolution and improvement of that grand apocalyptical question, when the reign of Antichristianism, or the Papacy, began

I

"1. I must fulfil my promise in giving you a new resolution of the grand apocalyptical question concerning the rise of the great Antichrist, or Papal Rome. For when we have done this, and fixed this era or epocha, we may by an easy consequence see the time of the final fall and destruction of this dreadful enemy.

"Now in order to answer this distinctly, (which hath exercised and wearied out all apocalyptical writers hitherto) there are some things I would premise as so many postulata

"That these three numbers are synchronical, will appear plain to any impartial con

of the Revelation, viz. the 1260 days, chap. xi. 3, and chap. xii. 6; the forty-two months, chap. xi. 2, and chap. xiii. 5; and the time, times, and a half, chap. xii. 14. For it is clear, that the Gentiles treading down the holy city forty-two months, chap. xi. 2, is the cause of the witnesses prophesying for 1260 days in sackcloth, ver. 3. And is the woman or church's being in the wilderness for the same term of days, chap. xii. 6, any other than a new representation of the witnesses' prophecying in sackcloth? Seeing this must be while the Beast is worshipped and served by the whole Roman world, during men's lunacy of forty-two months' continuance, chap. xiii. 5. And therefore, seeing the woman is said to be in the wilderness state of desolation and persecution for a time, and times, and half a time, in order thus to be preserved from the Beast and Serpent, as we see chap. xii. 14. It is likewise plain that this number of three years and a half must be the very same with the

them, as we have set them down in this book

two former numbers. Only it is to be observed by the way, that this period of time, when it is mentioned in relation to the church, is spoken of with respect to the sun, either as to his diurnal or annual rotation; whereas when it is described in relation to the Beast's unstable kingdom of night and darkness, it is made mention of with respect to the inconstant luminary, which changes its face continually, while it makes our months; and hence it is that the church is represented, chap. xii. 1, under the emblem of a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet.

"Now, as these numbers are synchronical, and the same, so it is easy to prove that they must be understood prophetically for years. I shall not insist here upon the conjecture of a learned man (Whiston's Theory of the Earth) that there was no diurnal rotation of the earth before the fall, and consequently no days of twenty-four hours, but only an annual rotation of this our planetary world which he gives us as the original reason of the Scripture's putting days for years frequently. For whatsoever be in this, it is plain that the Scripture speaks thus in several places; by putting a lesser number figuratively for a greater, as well as a definite one for an indefinite. Witness the appointment of the week of years, Exod. xxxiii. 10, 11, which is spoken of as if it were a week of days, verse 12, the seventh year of which is therefore called Sabbatical, with respect to the seventh day, Sabbath. In the same way of speaking, Ezekiel was commanded to lie 390 days on his left side, and forty on his right, each day for a year, as God himself says, chap. iv. 5-6. So likewise God punished the murmuring Israelites with forty years' abode in the wilderness, with relation to the forty days that were spent in searching of the land of Canaan, (Num. xiv. 34.) The seven years of Nebuchadnezzar's lycanthropy, is thus called indefinitely, days or times (Dan iv. 32-4) Nay our Saviour himself speaks in this dialect, when he calls the years of his ministry days, saying, "I do cures to-day and to-morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected," (Luke xii. 32.) But the most remarkable place to our purpose is the famous prophecy of Daniel's seventy weeks, or 490 days, chap. ix. 24, reaching down from the edict of Artaxerxes Longimanus, in his twentieth year, (Neh. ii. 1-10) to our Saviours's suffering at Jerusalem; which was exactly 490 prophetical years, not Julian ones: the not distinguishing of which has hitherto confounded all interpreters, as I might show at But large were this a proper place for it. what the difference between these is we shall quickly see.

"In the mean time, I am now to prove that the 1260 days are to be understood in a prophetical sense, for years; for, if I can

prove this, it will necessarily follow that the other numbers must be so interpreted also, since they are the same with this. Now that the 1260 days cannot be taken literally, but prophetically, will appear from hence: That it is impossible to conceive how so many great and wonderful actions, which are prophesied to fall out in that short time, could happen during the space of three solar years and a half; such as the obtaining power over all kindreds, tongues, and nations-the world's wondering at, and submitting unto the beast's reign-and the settingup an image to the imperial head, and causing it to be worshipped instead of the living emperor's, &c. And besides these things, seeing, the 1260 days are the whole time of the papal authority, which is not to be destroyed until the great and remarkable appearance of Christ, upon the pouring out of the seventh vial; and that therefore Christ will have the honour of destroying him finally himself (though this iniquity began to work even in the apostolical times); therefore we may certainly conclude that it must take some centuries of years to carry on this abomination that maketh desolate. For though the Lord will gradually consume or waste this great adversary by the spirit of his mouth, yet he will not sooner abolish him than by the appearing of his own presence (2 Thes. ii. 8.) As I choose both to render and understand the words.

* The learned Dr. Whitby, in his late Paraphrase and Commentary upon the Epistles, dues indeed advance a new notion on this verse and chapter-viz. that the Jewish sanhedrim, government and nation, is primarily and chiefly understood,here by the Apostle, as the Man of Sin and Antichrist, both upon the account of their opposing themselves to Christ and persecuting his followers, and upon the account also of their rebelling against the Romans. And he has said so much for the proof of this, that it may be thought to contain a refutation of my interpretaall the Doctor says for his opinion should be true, tion of the place. But even upon the supposition that yet it will be found no way to invalidate what I advance here. For all that are acquainted with the Jewish and Apostolical writings, know, that besides second and remoter one more tacitly insinuated frea first sense to be observed in prophecies, there is a quently as the principal design of the Spirit of God. cially in the ancient prophecies that relate to David, I might show this in innumerable instances, espeor some other person in the first sense, or typical one, but in the Messiah ultimately and completely. But I shall not insist upon anything of this kind now, seeing so many have done it already; and there himself grant all I desire, when he says in the preis no need to do it here, seeing Dr. Whitby doth face to this Epistle, page 383, "But that I may not wholly differ from my brethren in this matter, I grant these words may, in a secondary sense (in which expression I only differ from the Doctor seeing I look upon it to be the principal sense, because it is the second) be attributed to the Papal Antichrist, or Man of Sin, and may be signally fulfilled in him, in the de-truction of him by the Spirit of Christ's mouth, he being the successor to the apostate Jewish church, to whom these characters agree, as well as to her, and therefore in the Annotations I have still given a place to this interpretation also."

(To be continued.)

ITEMS OF NEWS.

DOMESTIC.

Nottingham, May 15.-On the 6th we left home on a visit to the few brethren in Louth, Lincolnshire, where we spent the following day, speaking three times on the kingdom of heaven, its privileges and prospects. The congregations were small on each occasion, about one hundred and fifty being present, out of a population of ten thousand, to hear what we might advance on these all important and interesting topics. The eleven brethren and sisters residing in this place are happy and firm in the truth. Many unpropitious circumstances have prevented their progress, but nothing more so than difference of opinion on church order, community of goods, who is to preside, &c. Because of these things some six or seven who have been immersed into Jesus now stand aloof from his institutions, thereby setting at naught his authority as the head and king of his church. Brothers Scott and Clarke, of Lincoln, were to follow these labours on the 14th, and Brother Buck on the 21st. To say the least regarding the result, the brethren will be encouraged to hold fast the faithful word of life, till the Lord shall call them hence to dwell in his presence for ever.

Dornock, May 15.-Since I last wrote one has been introduced into the kingdom of the Lord Jesus, by immersion into the awful name of the divinity, and that, too, for the remission of all past sins, Acts ii. 38, xxii. 16. Now in order to obtain the everlasting kingdom, we must renounce ourselves, our previous religion, and this world as our portion, being steadfast and unmovable in copying the example of our Lord, as revealed in his holy book. It is there alone that we read of his doctrine, his miracles, his sufferings, his death, burial, resurrection, and glory. How important, then, that we meditate on these holy precepts day and night, until we can say with David, "How sweet are thy words unto my taste, yea, sweeter than honey dropping from the comb. Through thy precepts I get understanding, and therefore hate every false way." In conclusion I wish to give a word of advice to all small churches like ourselves, to raise a trifling fund to pay for three Harbingers per month, each member having a number of readers. By this plan the knowledge of original Christianity will be greatly extended, and many may be led to shine as the firmament, and as the stars for ever and ever. J. F.

Wigan, April 21.-To-day being Good Friday, and our brethren at liberty, we had a tea-party, upwards of one hundred being present. We had Brother Haigh, from

Huddersfield, besides several other brethren; and after tea a very interesting meeting, the best of all being that God was with us during the day, four persons making the good confession and were baptized. Three of them were from Leigh, the other being the wife of one of our brethren.-May 9th: this afternoon another brother's wife was immersed into Jesus

Christ, for the remission of all her past sins, and she did, indeed, rejoice in God her Saviour.-May 16th: We have taken another room for our meetings on the Lord's day; the same room that you and Brother Frost spoke in when at Wigan. Should any of our brethren from a distance be passing through this town, we should be very glad to see them at our meetings, and give us a word of encouragement or exhortation, or to preach Christ crucified unto the world. Yours in the one hope, T. Coop.

Newcastle-on-Tyne, May 8.-I am sorry that for so long time you have not heard of me respecting the state of things in this part of the Lord's vineyard; I trust, however, that some of my brethren have supplied the deficiency. The truth is, the Lord is opening to us doors of usefulness which lite rally occupy all the time we can possibly take from other engagements, and we exceedingly rejoice that the Lord of the Harvest does not permit us to labor in vain; to

us his word has not returned void. Blessed

be his name! The temperance hall was opened in February, through the influence of ber of our hearers has been increasing, and our Brother Ramshaw; since then the numthe interest excited by the proclamations and discourses have been very encouragingly manifest. Many even of those we denominate sects have frankly and kindly acknowof the gospel; and some who have, as they ledged their obligation to us for clearer views tell us, sat for many years under the ministry of the place, declare that they have never seen the power and grace of our crucified and and as to baptism for the remission of sins, risen Redeemer to save so distinctly set forth, "it is useless to deny it." But, better still, on Lord's day, April 30th, I had the pleasure of introducing three believing men into the kingdom of God, one from the Independents, and two from the world, the first persons baptized in Howden, as the inhabitants testify. On the day following (from certain apday evening) I felt impelled to visit some six pearances during the discourse of the Lord's families, whom I found favourably disposed towards us. On the Thursday, May 4th, I proclaimed in the hall, after which another man confessed the Christ before the audience, many of whom echoed through the room the sympathising " praise the Lord;" others thought and felt this way of pressing people to be saved now to be very solemn and aw

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